April concerts (35 years apart)

Choral Union was part of a performance of Ein deutsches Requiem on Friday, April 20 at Gammage Auditorium.

It is a truly delightful work; we had a great turnout; we had a nice after-event on Mill Avenue; PJr took a break from finals prep and has photos and video; I'll post more on this event once I have access to those materials.

On a tangentially-related note:  Dave Kollar and I performed in a different sort of concert 35 years ago during our junior year at Notre Dame - a piano recital.  I'm trying to write up more of these events from the "old days;" I also am slowly figuring out how to retrieve, and then post, old audio clips (which is more complicated than working with video clips).  (Generally, these "old days" discussions will be found by clicking "PMG look-back" in the box to the right that's headed "My other websites.")

Click anywhere in this sentence to access the details for the 1977 concert.  It was a fine event in its own right.

looking promising

PJ's young pomegranate tree - still looks more like a bush - might actually set some fruit this year!

I'm a bit obsessed with this tree - but who wouldn't be, pomegranates have a glorious history going back to classical (and biblical) times (Persephone, etc.) 

Native to Persia (I see that Herodotus tells us that the warriors adorned their spears with these); our new in-laws have been supplying us for years already.  But this tree is something new for us.

Worried about birds, however.

Spur Cross 2012

PJ and I like hiking the Elephant Mountain trail at Spur Cross Conservation Area up in Cave Creek (as noted here and here).

Our 2012 hike was back in early March - perfect day, beautiful conditions.  After:  a surprisingly good meal at some restaurant south of Cave Creek (don't recall name).

I much like our little point-and-shoot Canon, photos are much better than prior years (click to enlarge).

quote-source

Partly because I use his quotes atop both of my principal blogs, I found this article (riffing on a Daily Beast writer (an odd reference for me)) to be interesting:  Montaigne: The Father of Us All.   ("Sullivan is right to hail Montaigne as the literary father of the blog and the world of blogging continues to move along the lines Montaigne first laid out.")

OK, what I'm doing here isn't along those lines at all, but still.  Montaigne = unusually interesting.

Dbacks' Opening Day; PJ Birthday

PJ has often regaled us with tales of opening day for Chicago Cubs falling on her birthday.  This year, opening day for our local heroes occurred on 4/6.  POC came through with four tickets.  PJ, PJr, CPG and me attended.  And appreciated the quite excellent seats.

Plus the game was enjoyable - Dbacks roughed up Tim Lincecum, as they are wont to do of late.  Perfect weather - roof open, upper 70s.  And CPG got me a Fretzy's. 

Tim Lincecum pitching to Aaron Hill.  Opening Day 2012.

After:  bite to eat at Hanny's downtown - fun.  Steve & Laura Buck were there with a contingent.

Paul & Nedda's wedding

Not sure how to approach writing up my thoughts on Paul and Nedda's wedding.  Too much of what took place will fade away for me if I don't put down some details.  But writing about an event in too much detail can also be bad - tends to displace what does remain in memory.  And I definitely don't want that to happen - the memory set for this event is entirely too wonderful.  So I'll try to walk the line here, so to speak.

(Unfortunately it's already April 6-7 when I'm writing most of this (in my usual late-night mode), so recall already is weakened.  At least this is better timing than last year's wedding - my work pace blew up during and after the wedding weekend and it was five or six weeks before I could reflect back at all.  Ugh to that.)

Overview:  after two recent first-hand experiences - I'm getting a better perspective on how many elements go into a wedding - and they all came together marvelously for this one.  In order of importance:  First: it starts with the couple getting married:  Paul and Nedda are two unusually fine folks; everyone "knew" this wedding was coming (for years now), everyone was happy it was coming, everyone was more than ready to celebrate.  Second:  the families - we have been close friends with the Reghabis for years now and their extended family - some of whom we were meeting for the first time - were just as gracious and fun as could be.  Then there was just a great turn-out from my siblings and their families - they travel extremely well! and were great fun to have around.  My mom and dad made the big trip; Babanazi (phonetic sp) traveled all the way from Iran; etc.  The siblings of the bride and groom - these folks were the best - drove so much of the activity, looked out for everyone to be included and have a good time, nice.  Third:  the friends of the families - OK, we didn't have a ton of room for friends on the guest list for the wedding itself - but those that were able to be included at the wedding (or showed up at the Wednesday, Saturday or other events) - added immensely, great support in so many ways.  Fourth:  the logistics - what could be planned, was planned extremely thoughtfully and effectively.  Just a few examples.  Picking MB to run the ceremony = inspired choice, she set the right tone and did a great job.  Marriott at McDowell Mountain - lovely venue.  Persian Room for catering - such a treat.  Table decorations, flowers, ceremony set-up, all the stuff I don't even know about - all worked.  Fifth:  what couldn't be planned or forced also worked - fantastic weather every step of the way - this matters.  Also:  the way the guests from all corners of the guest list made it their business - in an entirely unbusinesslike manner - to get to know and interact with one other throughout the various events - this accounts for much of the intensely warm feeling about the events that folks seem to be left with as they departed.

Chronological summary:

Weekend of March 16-18 - the wedding party did some bachelor/bachelorette event stuff around town.  Sounds like folks had fun but thankfully it wasn't the kind of partying that movies are made of (with one possible exception).

Wednesday March 21 - most of the out-of-towners arrived from the Midwest or wherever else they live.  CPG, PJr and I went to Costco in afternoon and loaded up on party food and drink.  Put the house together, set things up, then hosted a mix of visitors and locals at our house for dinner.  Beautiful evening, a chance to light the fire-table, pleasant as can be.  Also a good opportunity for the two families to become better acquainted.

Thursday March 22 - checked into the Marriott in mid-afternoon.  Somehow we managed to be 100% busy right up to the time of leaving for the hotel - pulling together prep items, clothes, rehearsal dinner final details, on and on.  Rehearsal at 5p - all shaping up beautifully.  Those of us in the "procession" focused on getting down the staircase without tripping.  Decided to delay the next day's start-time a few minutes to avoid sun-blinding and to benefit from more of the sunset lighting during the ceremony (very successful decision).  Got to hear Babanazi work on his speech.  All good.

Slideshow 1:  rehearsal, rehearsal dinner (view any slideshow full-screen by clicking on it and following the prompts):


Then to La Hacienda at Fairmont Scottsdale Princess for the rehearsal dinner.  Last-minute shuffle of many table seating assignments (mostly to tighten things up) (thanks N&K for help with this).  PJ and I felt the planning and location choice paid off.  Beautiful hotel grounds to walk through; nice luminaria setup leading to the private patio for cocktails; gorgeous evening and fine conversation on the patio.  Moved into dining room - we were happy to have made the last-minute add of the guacamole/salsa/chips; food delightful, service great, wines turned out well, the room was warm and inviting - and very private from the rest of the restaurant.  Served 45 or so.  A great evening for the families to get to know each other even better.  But my favorite part of the evening was the opportunity for folks to wish Paul and Nedda all the best in an intimate setting.  We had wonderful participation in this, and wonderfully thoughtful remarks.

Here's how I know I was having a great evening:  completely lost track of time.  When the valet brought up our car and the clock showed 11p, I was near-shocked.  It felt like 9p.  Certainly hadn't thought to check a watch all evening.

Then folks were nice enough to sit around at the hotel bar later into the evening for some fine chit-chat.

Friday March 23  - this was the big day.  Got off to a fine start with a walk to breakfast at Over Easy (east on Bell Road about a mile or so).  Spent time around the pool, then started shifting into ceremony-prep mode. Nice moments getting ready with the guys in the wedding party.  Lots of photos.  Folks started showing up for the ceremony, buzz builds.

Slideshow two:  wedding day

 

Ceremony started around 5:45p - 5:50p.  The bride was beautiful!  All the wedding party attire shopping (at Men's Wearhouse for the guys, surprisingly effective place) worked great.  MB running her first wedding - did a great job, seemed like a pro.  The little guitarist did a very nice job.  Beautiful setting, beautiful ceremony.  The words to the vows portion of the ceremony remains 100% compelling.  More photos after, fun.

Cocktail reception with hors d'oeuvres from Persian Room - interesting, delightful stuff.  Fun chatting it up with everyone.  Dinner followed - the ballroom looked great.  Dancing - mix of Persian and more typical dance music - this worked.  Saeed's toast - very welcoming and effective.  Nadia and EPG also do a fine job with their toasts.  The Persian Room food was wonderful.  I sat by Babanazi at table - a most gracious dinner companion (in addition to a fine dancer) - I enjoyed a couple cups of tea with him along with some of the desserts.  The evening flew by and of a sudden, the dance music ended at midnight.

Onto the lobby bar, a group of us then went up to Saeed's suite on a foiled Johnny Walker hunt, then went up to one of the guest rooms with the "kids," then declared it to have been a wonderful evening and PJ and I back to the room around 2a.

Saturday March 24 - a more relaxing day - nice breakfast at the bagel shop by my office, where we recapped the doings of the two preceding days.  Much milling around by the pool in the early part of the day (including a form of baseball game).  We did some picnic prep stuff (mostly PJ, Cecilia, Therese, me) including a run to our house for supplies; then over to Cactus Park.  Set up for a picnic there that started around 3p.  A nice, relaxed, event, with great turnout from wedding guests, friends, family; perfect weather; we lingered until maybe 8p?

Slideshow three:  various Scottsdale/hotel . . . 

 

Various groupings of folks played bags or volleyball, or simply sat around eating, drinking, chattering.  I had a chance to pitch horseshoes with my dad - something I didn't really expect to ever do again - Paul Jr. joined in (instructional league).  Back to hotel where we sipped some beverages around the pool, some used the hot-tub, mostly we chattered, recapped, enjoyed; ate some pizza courtesy of EPG; then security busted it up (gently) so we relocated to the lobby quite awhile.  Said goodbyes to those leaving Sunday morning.

Sunday March 25 - breakfast at Wildflower; slow process of checking out of the Marriott and hauling lots of wedding goods back to our house; then PJ and I got busy cleaning up the house as those still in town were coming over.  Other than the need to say good-byes to folks who were leaving (felt "way too early" for this), it was a most enjoyable day.  We toasted Nicole and POC on their first anniversary.  We ran through the wedding video that Charlie had taken (Mina, Nedda, Naseem were able to come over for this).  We looked at some pictures.  We munched on some leftovers.  Carol and I took a little walk from 40th street trailhead.

Around 5p we were visited by Saeed, Mina, Naseem, Nedda, Paul Jr.  At this point pretty much everyone was gone on their return trips except Nicole (who was able to postpone her flight a day), EPG (who was delaying his car trip return to LA), Carol & Jim.  MB came by.  Saeed brought over the once-lost bottle of Johnny Walker Blue.  So we started working on that with some cheeses and crackers etc.  All helped on the bottle, some (Saeed, CPG, Jim, me) more than others - this was a very fine treat.  And the Reghabis brought some most-excellent Persian Room "leftovers" from the wedding reception.  What a perfect way to end the wedding weekend, we only wished more folks could have stayed through.  Eventually played a game of hearts.  I won easily, though found card-shuffling a bit of a challenge for some reason.

Patrick drove back to LA starting at 11p.  Jim and Carol left the house at 3a Monday for their Alaska return flight (no witnesses to their departure).  Nicole left mid-day Monday.  We all started going back to work.  Paul and Nedda moved into their apartment Sunday night (and may have gone to class on Monday).

A fine weekend was over.

Slideshow four:  miscellaneous "prior to" the wedding weekend . . . 

Menu

PJr and Nedda got married!

The entire wedding experience was delightful.

I'm going to post some more thoughts (and photos) on this shortly. 

In the meantime, a photo.  The constituent shots were taken by Charlie on Sunday morning in the Marriott lobby as we were getting ready to check out of the hotel.  The right half of this was one of my very favorite photos of the entire weekend.  (The left half . . . sort of . . . complements the right half . . . sort of.)

Organ Pipe follow-on

The below item caught my eye today (mandatory armed escorts?) . . . mostly because I was just musing on my birthday that it was hard to believe we felt safe, not all that long ago, taking young kids to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (though that post was more of an excuse to post one of my favorite birthday photos).

Verdi's Requiem (February 26, 2011)

Sanctus.  PJr = second from right in top row.  Me = third from right in top row.

(per usual, click to enlarge photos  . . .)  

Another tremendously gratifying concert performance experience.  One of the best over the seven years we've been doing these things.  I've tried to write a bit about why these events run so deep in a few prior concert posts (acknowledging it inherently cannot be put into words).  I won't repeat that effort here.

Things I particularly liked about this performance:

1.  Second time around with MusicFest - so more comfortable with the process.  Last year's performance (Beethoven's 9th) also was wondrous.  

Rehearsal of January 28, 2012 (church at 7th Ave and Glendale)

2.   Second time around with Verdi's Requiem - so more comfortable with the music.  Last performance (described here) was also a delight. 

3.  MusicFest has a UCLA connection that turned out to add quite a bit to the performance - Bob Moody's mentor (or whatever is the right characterization) teaches there; one of his other ment-ees (UCLA faculty member Rebecca Lord) took over the rehearsals for the MusicFest chorus; her UCLA choir joined in our performance.  So we had the numbers to match the orchestra, and to really make a statement in the somewhat-small venue in which we perform.

4.  Extra nice to do this with Paul Jr., who likely will have a less-accommodating schedule for a few years now.

The famous Dies Irae.  And what a terrifyingly great quote on the wall in superscript . . . illustrative for Verdi.

5.  Extra nice that PJ shows up both for the Saturday dress rehearsal and the Sunday performance (also that Nedda showed up each time), and then throws a fine dinner back at the house after - this is an irreplaceable way to experience and share the event.  Ray and Linda, Mary Beth and CPG also attended on Sunday (concert and dinner).  It's important to me to be able to review and discuss in the immediate aftermath.

6.  In the end:  the music.  Verdi's Requiem is a wonderful choral work.  There are too many high points to list.  (I personally feel that one could walk out of the performance after the Kyrie and already have gotten one's money's worth.)  The requiem texts - in Latin - are beyond compelling.  To state the obvious:  good music has incredible power.

These are fine moments, in a life that seems so full of them.

Milling around prior to first rehearsal with the orchestra and soloists. (February 25, 2012)

My parents' 60th wedding anniversary (post 2 of 2)

(click on any photo to enlarge all (per usual) . . . )

Our visits home to Iowa are always fine.  But this one seemed finer.  I think because it revolved around a 60th wedding anniversary for my parents - a number which is pretty astonishing, really.  A number that, even

The honorees, Saturday eve.  Therese found an excellent - and very chocolate - cake.  Nice corsage (thanks, Liz).

if we don't like to entertain the concept, makes us all wonder now and again just how many more of these five-year anniversary increments we will be celebrating.  I really don't know what else to say about that.  Other than that I am planning on attending #65 in February 2017.  And that I declare that plan knowing it can all change for any of us in an instant, which circumstance certainly gives these excellent occasions a tinge of the bittersweet . . .

First time we had seen the foundation of the burned-down house, up close.

As to this trip - something nice was that we were able to visit with different groupings of folks over the six days we were on the road.

50+ degrees in February.  Fine day for a stroll.

Get to work please.

Grandchildren who were able to attend.

Day 1 (Thurs 2/16) - arrived in Minneapolis, killed some time, picked up Nicole at the airport, went to New Brighton - the typical fine hospitality at the House house.  We had just been there in November.  Dinner at Barley John's with Nick, Therese, Mark, Steve & Cecilia, Nicole, Patricia and me.  Back to New Brighton - for five minutes.  Then back to downtown Minneapolis where a friend of a friend of Steve & Cecilia was performing at some bar - this lady had some real talent, we thought.  Back home - this time for the evening.  POC showed up later, though he had to let himself in (and verify location on his own).  V. nice that Nicole and POC were able to make this trip.

Children who were able to attend.

Day 2 (Fri 2/17) - coffee and yakking with the Houses; PJ shopped groceries, we drove to Iowa and had late "dinner" with G&G (also Nicole and POC, who came via separate vehicle).  Grandma wanted to make "ham balls" for supper and we weren't excited - it's not a very attractive name for a dish.  But they turned out

Sunday Mass - with nice remembrances of the 60th.  Happened to be on the exact anniversary date.

to be very tasty - good news.  We should have had more confidence. This was a nice day, pretty quiet, we all caught up on things.  And interrogated Grandpa and Grandma about their courtship, the wedding day, etc.

Nice photo.  Color-coordinated couple.  60-year-old suit and tie have held up well.  Nice outfit, Grandma!

Day 3 (Sat 2/18) - Grandma felt like she might be getting strep, so she and I went to the ER and found out that she wasn't.  All sorts of fine folks were arriving throughout the day:  Cecilia and Therese; Dolores and Art; Steve, Liz and Julia; Barb, Emily and Allison.  Beautiful weather, we all took a walk up to the hill farm, then up and around the cemetery.  Watched the video from the 50th anniversary - which is quite a fine piece.  Patricia made stuffed shells for supper (in addition to her usual focus on cleanup) - fine stuff indeed.  Very pleasant catching up with everyone.  Took some photos of those in attendance.  Therese brought a fine chocolate cake that was attacked.  The Storm Lake and Mason City folks returned home at night, sorry to see them go.

(Back) Mary Lou, Kathy, Irene, Clarence; (front) Mom, Dad, Caroline

Day 4 (Sun 2/19) - the actual 60th.  We all went to 8am Mass - celebrant acknowledged the anniversary, Grandpa wore his wedding suit and tie (and made a few Kirsch-inspired remarks during the Mass about some of the family connections), we spoke with various folks after Mass, all very nice.  Clarence and Caroline, Irene, Kathy Baker, Mary Lou came over for brunch, photos, conversation, all nice as can be.  Watched the 50th anniversary video with this audience as well - I enjoy watching the video, and watching the watchers; some of this must really resonate with folks reliving events from 50+ years ago.  Nicole and POC had to go to the airport.  Played cards, had dinner. 

Much enjoyed revisiting the awesome 50th anniversary video. . . Barb as prime mover on that 2002 project, nice work!

Day 5 (Mon 2/20) - the day flew by.  Cecilia and Therese left for MN.  Nice to spend time with them.  Nice to have the Haag family folks around all day.  PJ and I had a fun visit over to Clarence & Caroline's place in the afternoon.  Clarence's typical fine beverage service; good 500 games (Caroline and Patricia won three games to our two, though this came down to the very last hand (in which Caroline blessed the blind being picked up by Patricia - it had four trumps and  an ace)); lots of conversation; reminiscing about the very early days of their being together; gracious, fine, a tinge of bittersweet (there's that word again).  Played huckledebuck back in St. Joe, had dinner together, chatting, a bit of work on Grandpa's spiffy new computer (among other things, got his photos better organized and Picasa and Google Earth working)); a bit of work on an email to the relatives about Claude's history.

Electronic diversions, enjoyed by two pals.

Day 6 (Tues 2/22) - early start, good-byes, return to Phoenix in time for Choral Union rehearsal.

Not possible to measure how fortunate I am to have these kinds of experiences.

Not possible to measure the benefit to me of having parents like I do.

PJ = good traveling companion.

Seven-up game.  To be followed by huckledebuck.

Some information about the 55th celebration - yes, hard to believe it was five years ago - can be found here, here and here.

Nicole FB post of POC photo (60th anniv, post 1 of 2)

Will post more about our MN-IA trip shortly.

In the meantime, I liked this (self-explanatory) item that Nicole posted to Facebook.

34 "likes" (and counting) at time of screen-grab.  Click photo to enlarge.

Arizona MusicFest coming up Feb 26 - Messa de Requiem (Giuseppe Verdi, 1874)

I joined the Arizona MusicFest chorus again this year - much enjoyed doing Beethoven's 9th symphony last year with this group (per discussion here), and didn't want to miss an opportunity to participate in a high-level performance of Verdi's Requiem.  PJr is also in the chorus this year.

Performance is February 26.  Already sold out (similar to last year); now they are rapidly selling tickets to the February 25 dress rehearsal (also similar to last year).

These are remarkably fine performance opportunities, I'm grateful for them.

Bob Moody's typically interesting promo video immediately below:



We (PJr, CPG, Nedda, me) also sang this requiem in 2008 (described here).  That was great fun; this go-round should be every bit as good.  At least.

Christmas loot

This turned out well!  My siblings have organized an annual Christmas gift exchange, going on for some years now.  PJ and I had the good fortune to be on the receiving end from Carol (and Jim) for Christmas 2011.

Well, so what if the stuff arrived at the end of January - it was worth the wait.  Photo (click to enlarge, per usual) shows most of the goods - Nome-roasted coffee and vanilla-oatmeal soap(!) from some MN operation, for starters.

And then the handmade stuff:  a Christmas ornament (featuring some sort of Nome beach-rock hanging from the bottom; a crocheted (I think) something-or-other type of wash cloth; and, finally, the pièce de résistance :  "I knew this place" - a hand-made book featuring a series of photos from EJ Gales's St. Joe hill-farm.  Most of the photos were taken in recent years by Carol or Jim; others photos date back to my childhood, or all the way back to EM Gales's childhood - yes, this is effective.  A vibrant farmhouse to a deteriorated relic (and now burnt down) over the course of, say, 100 years?  Many, many memories for me - "place" mattered.  This book required a lot of work - what a fine gift.

My only concern with the book relates to the cover - it is a fabric intended to evoke the farmer's favorite outfit, the "overall" - great idea perfectly suited to the theme - but if I handle the book too much (a genuine risk), will fingerprints start to show?

One more gift box still to come, we understand.

Definitely a great sibling-gift; I've received a number of fine ones; actually had started a post over at this soon-to-be-revived website on some old-school games etc. received at Christmas from CCG a year or two back.

40th street trailhead

Yesterday was an incredibly beautiful day here in Phoenix.  Certainly fine for hiking, per late afternoon photo below (looking N-NW, click to enlarge).

'bout 175,000 folks, give or take a few, took advantage of the fine day out at the Phoenix Open yesterday; record-breaking crowd; included POC.

how great is this . . .

The big day is not far off.  Though it seems like this big event just happened.

We received the invitation recently - looks quite excellent; key elements are posted below.  Plus I happen to know that the invite was both home-designed and home-printed.  So that's neat.  I particularly liked the jewels on the stylized N/P on the envelope (bottom photo) (even if they don't look very jewelly in the photo).

The wedding shower was today.  By all reports, it will be difficult for the wedding to be a nicer occasion than the shower.  But I have confidence in Saeed and Mina to arrange it just so (probably with some input from Nedda) . . . we are all looking forward to this.

unusual

Nandina does well in the desert - even if it's from east Asia and thrives in places like the Pacific northwest.  But I don't recall ever seeing our nandina plants with berries like this.  Plant is on west side of house.  I read that you shouldn't eat these berries, unless you're a bird.

PJ likes including these in our landscaping, for good reason.

SEG b'day, etc.

In the "we're all getting older better" category, I note that my brother Steve had a birthday today.  (Not a milestone birthday, but closing in on one.)

This reminded me of a minor incident from last November's trip up to Minneapolis.  Cecilia was hosting us all for dinner in New Brighton (in her usual effortless manner), and we were chatting about whatever getting-older siblings and their spouses talk about.  There some some passing usage of the word "decimate"; perhaps in a one-out-of-ten situation but I don't really recall the specifics.  Anyway, SEG - always well-read and so good with words - made some quiet allusion to the origins of the word "decimate."  Maybe I was wrong, but I'm pretty sure I observed that Nick and Julia both immediately reacted to their papa's little remark; I wasn't sure if they were chuckling or groaning; I am pretty sure they've endured (and probably profited from) this kind of word play quite often over the years.

And going through this book very shortly after that trip, I saw that Crassus indeed had punished some cowardly Roman soldiers routed during the slave uprising led by Spartacus - via decimation:  "five hundred that were the beginners of the flight he divided into fifty tens, and one of each was to die by lot, thus reviving the ancient Roman punishment of decimation."

Anyway, I hope there was a fine birthday celebration in Mason City, and trust that it involved more than messing around with words (even though that activity is pretty enjoyable).

This morning's harvest

I always like it when the orange comes off the tree with some (but not too many) leaves.  This morning's harvest was near-perfect. 

(The only disquieting note is that the low-hanging fruit has indeed been taken, and it's getting to be a challenge to find reachable oranges.)

More 11419 trivia

I spend a lot (and I mean a lot) of time sitting at the desk in my quite-fine home office.  And have been reading a lot about the virtues of stand-up desks for all-day sit-downers.  I had a stand-up desk in my Briggs and Morgan office in St. Paul in 1984, but not since.  Below is a photo of my fine test-version of a stand-up-desk.  Functionality and cost are compelling, maybe I'll keep it.  I do think that m.o. would make EMG proud.

And I added a new (well, February 1938 vintage per Mike & Minnie Bormann) sitting chair to my office (per below).  It will stay up here pending redeployment of The Depot (hopefully later this year). 

I've also been seeing a lot about treadmill desks (info here about a version created by some Mayo nerd), but will stick with the stand-up version.  For now.

The Depot

We store lots of stuff around here.  Below is a view of what I call the "depot" - f/k/a our living room and dining room.  This area of the house has looked like this, more or less, since mid-2008.

Photo above was taken shortly before we sent off lots of this stuff.  So now we have more room for storing other stuff.