Dharma's wedding shower

A big event - but leading up to a bigger event in just a little over two months - a wedding shower was held for Dharma on 9 September.  Me not invited but I heard from my sources that a good time was had by all.  In the preceding weeks I was overhearing lots of planning conversations by those in charge, and much more work went into it than I heard about. 

Held at Dana's place. 

A highlight:  Dharma's sister and grandmothers provided a video greeting!

Here are a few photos . . .

 

Dharma's parents (always happy to find an excuse to use this lovely photo)

a picture I like

Taken 19 August 2017 in San Diego, California (courtesy Shane)

Luxembourg festival

OK this happened nearly 2,000 miles from here in Phoenix, but I like the picture, and I like that these fine Luxembourg-connected folks traveled from St. Joe (IA), Glenview (IL), St. Paul (MN), Eau Claire (WI) and Nome (AK) to attend the 2017 version of the annual Luxembourg Festival held in Belgium, Wisconsin (weekend of August 11-13).

Our group is posed in the Luxembourg American Cultural Center, standing beneath a stylized "tree" hanging with photos of Luxembourg immigrants.  (As I understand it, a small fee entitles you to hang a photo, plus select immigrant families are honored yearly.  My mom of course also loved this kind of thing, and the Gales and Bormann families were featured a few years back.)

L-R Ernest M. Gales, Romie & Joy Gales, Therese Gales, Alison & Barb Haag, Carol Gales

At left is the original photo from which the above version was cropped (received via text message) - shows quite a bit more of the "tree".

Of course I checked out the original photo quite closely, as explained per zoom/caption below.

In a way, a fourth generation was overseeing the three generations in attendance . . . nice.

Didn't take long to find - at top left portion of the photo - wedding portraits of
my estimable grandparents - (L-R) Veronica Dockendorf and Ernest J. Gales, and
Philomena Kohlhaas and Mike Bormann.

Birthdays etc. (July-August)

2017 is a year filled with celebrations, observances, etc.  Here are four that took place in July-August (sorry to say we missed Kerry's and Luis's birthdays, which were observed back in VA; we shall remember this when we visit them in October):

1.  POC's 40th birthday was celebrated with a weekend in Portland (not involving PJ 'n me).  But we also had a fine gathering for POC at our house on July 9.  Chicago style pizza, Portillo's, fun crowd; NOC had coordinated video clips from family and friends unable to attend in person - with an editing assist from NRG, this was a highlight of the evening.

Observing POC's 40th birthday in fine style . . .

2.  Patrick's 31st birthday coincided with a visit to Phoenix by he and Shane.  Lots of events scattered across several days, fun throughout.  Shane got the VIP tour of all sorts of Valley spots, including a few of our favored restaurants.  Lots of work was done organizing various games for Patrick's b'day party, was a great evening.  The time went too fast, glad we will visit SF relatively soon.

EPG and Shane (clockwise from upper R) - Chris & Dharma prep'd dinner; Parlor;
a rather amazing post-Parlor bowling picture; Richardson's.

Games at 31st b'day event. (Mike B. carried our team.)

The crew observing Patrick's 31st birthday.

3.  A group of us attended the Stone brewers' reception event - fourth year running - remains a nice late-summer break.  CPG, PJr, PJ and I drove over with Lon and Emily (Friday 18 August), returning on Sunday.  Nicole was already in CA on business so drove down with Patrick and Shane.  A major surprise:  Kerry made the trip - though work stuff prevented her from arriving until after the brewers event.  Wasn't expecting to have all five children there, that was a nice surprise.  We made up for lost time into Friday evening, then Saturday-Sunday as well.  As we were belatedly marking PJr's 30th birthday, Michael C. made sure we had bus transportation up to San Marcos, etc., all worked really well.

San Marcos, CA

Now with Kerry!!

Saturday in San Diego.

All seven in one spot - nice.

4.  The Phoenix crew gathered at the Rokerij on August 26 - a more focused observance of PJr's 30th birthday, v. nice.  PJ and I drove down with Mina and Saeed; the evening started with a visit to Chris & Dharma (wedding planning in full swing, initial unveiling of items purchased on Dharma's recent India trip!)

Lovely evening, fine planning by NRG, lots of nice comments for the birthday boy . . . 

Minnesota, Mason City, St. Joe (15 - 20 July)

Another fine Midwest pilgrimage.  Here's what happened (per usual, click on photos to enlarge) -

Saturday in the Twin Cities.

Twin Cities - things started here after an easy flight on Saturday, July 15.  Lunch with Mark/Therese; then drove up to New Brighton (where we were staying overnight); then traveled with Cecilia and Steve onto Bad Weather Brewing where met up with Mark & Therese plus Nick & Maeve (and Beau & Jude!)  We discussed many things and learned that BWB is as good as recommended; then said goodbyes to Nick & Maeve & fam; then onto Surly mega-brewery.  Where the six of us had dinner and discussed many other things.  Lots of activities on a Saturday evening in this part of the TC, so Steve took us home via a scenic route.  That included Betty Danger's Country Club - quite a spot (even if we didn't try the Ferris wheel, a surprising amenity).  A fine evening indeed (other than my scheduling blunders which got in the way of a Haag family appearance, aarrgh).

Sunday morning in New Brighton.

Hiking at Lime Creek (Sunday)

Mason City - Angie visits House house in the morning of Sunday, July 16; with Liam, Josh, Tilly and doggy.  Lots of action, fun (and coffee).  PJ and I hit the road for Mason City - easy travels - we settle in briefly at Steve & Liz home, then go for a fine walk/hike in the "Lime Creek Nature Center" - lovely, accessible, we hadn't previously visited.  After which we have visions of visiting an in-town brewery (too bad, closed on a Sunday afternoon, not surprisingly), so instead we take a driving tour of Mason City.  PJ and I rather surprised/embarrassed about how little we've seen - after all these years - of quite a lovely town.  Hadn't realized how the Frank Lloyd Wright homes were right around the corner from S&L place.  Also did a drive-by on the new house S&L are purchasing near an in-town lake - looks like a clear winner.  Also a winner - Sunday eve weather - pretty delightful to hang around on the patio and chat about many things.  Then onto dinner at the Thai restaurant, another success there.  We chatter into the evening, a fine day; we need to spend more time in MC (if not up at Lake Superior).


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St. Joe -  breakfast/goodbyes on the morning of Monday, July 17; we much enjoyed the MC stopover.  Onto St. Joe!  Where EMG seems to continue doing just fine.  Stuff we did:

I like this photo of EMG and PJ, with church and hill farm in background . . . 

 1.  Government set-aside acres on the hill farm have been planted in some sort of seed mix that includes lots of wildflowers.  We were just a bit past the prime, but there was plenty of amazing color there.  Plus it's a lovely setting, with backdrops of the village and church, or the river, or the hill farm itself.  Visited there on Tuesday, July 18.



2.  On that same day, EMG drives us over to the Ray Gales bottomlands.  Similar plantings of wildflowers in the set-aside acres; quite beautiful.  We also drove down very near to the river, and spent some time walking beside it.  I have never been there in summertime without a mosquito plague, but this year's dry weather allowed us to wander down there at our leisure.  Which was very beautiful, we much enjoyed.

With my dad in the Ray Gales bottomlands on a lovely July afternoon.

3.  On that same evening, PJ and I walked over to the cemetery; to see Grandma; to see Mary; to see other relatives; just to see the place - such a compelling setting as we look down from the cemetery toward the church, or out toward the corn fields, or across to the hill farm purchased by Nick Gales, where Ernest J and Veronica raised their family and where we spent so much time in the 1960s and 70s.  An utterly mosquito-free summer evening - highly unusual, highly enjoyable.

Church with cemetery hill behind.  The late 19th-century immigrant builders picked
a good site and erected a beautiful church.  It was hard to hear that - for the first
time since this church was built in 1894 - Sunday Mass will no longer be held here.

Glad for the chance to visit.

Lovely evening to linger.

4.  We head up to Algona on Wednesday, July 19 to visit Caroline.  We had lunch at her place, then back to her room for talk/talk/talking plus looked over some of her photo books (including recent reunions out at the farm).  EMG was gracious enough to be our fourth for a game of 500 - first time we had played the game since our last visit when Clarence was there - this is thoroughly enjoyable even if Caroline and PJ win all three games.  (Including one epic comeback from very deep in the hole.)  The card-playing of course required sampling the Bormann bourbon along with various fine nibbles.  Somehow we spent a good seven hours there!

Well, at least EMG and I made them work - it took 1,530 points for them to beat
us in the final game.  Yes, this was fun.

Morning Mass was held on Tuesday and Wednesday, always nice to see the church and attendees.  Twins baseball as background in the evening (they were hosting the Yankees and Mighty Aaron Judge).  PJ put together some meatloaf and taters plus a few other things, which carried us through rather nicely.  Saw EMG's new pickup!  Visited Tom & Joyce on Thursday morning and were given coffee mugs decorated with adult-coloring-book-inspired designs (a new concept by us).

Can't beat this kind of afternoon!  Chatting, card-playing, snacking . . . with
two folks who have always been there.

Something very enjoyable during those days:  the chance to talk about all kinds of stuff with EMG.

Easy return drive to the airport; we meet Steve House to exchange stuffed-animal-for-Josh's-backpack; easy flight back to Arizona.

Will look forward to the next trip.


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Midwest trip (video overview)

PJ and I visited siblings and Dad in mid-July - delightful as always - will post some photos shortly.  In the meantime:  a video auto-generated via whatever program resides on my phone.  It did a decent job of capturing the goings-on!

bird with snack

Rare sighting of a roadrunner - this was on back patio of Phx Law Group office in north Scottsdale.  There is a quite large roadrunner nest in upper part of an office window, tucked beneath overhang.

Picture quality not so good here - it's a cell phone photo taken through the office blinds (even then the bird was super-wary), and cropped-a-lot.  And these birds look much larger when the tail is "down" - didn't get that right either.

But I like it nonetheless.

Happy Father's Day to my dad

As I get older, I develop a little better appreciation for what my parents had taken on in raising nine of us.  Somehow they found a way to keep everything going and get all nine through private Catholic colleges - wow.  Thinking a bit on this Father's Day about the $$ side of it - an EMG area of responsibility in their division of labor - it couldn't have been easy!

April or May 1956 - a youngish (age 27) father of three.  Steve and Cecilia
are "real" kids at this point.  Me a punk, but at least I had a sweet
outfit.  How about that lovely wallpaper (dining room of farm house)?

EMG's core financial strategies seem to be:
--never spend money on oneself
--make do with what's at hand (or as Pete Kirsch might have put it, "wear out the old stuff first")
--relentless generosity with charities (primarily St. Joe Parish, Garrigan) and we kids
[--in later decades, consult with SEG!]

[As to EMG's financial strategy #1:  I was happy to hear that EMG recently treated himself to a new pickup!  Then I learned that "new" perhaps wasn't the right term - it's a 1989 Dodge pickup (and priced accordingly).  Hardly frivolous spending but at least  it was something . . . and the "new" pickup at least is a couple decades newer than the often-functional pickup he's been using for so long.]

Still a youngish (age 36) dad when this was taken on his birthday in 1965.  But
there had been some (well, at least five) developments since the above 1956 photo.  Note the
German chocolate cake (with coconut frosting) - a fine though only
occasional alternative to Mom's usual delightful angel's food birthday cakes.  
Only about six years left for EMG to build up those college tuition funds!

Farming - especially corn shelling and hauling but also field work to a lesser extent - allowed me to work side-by-side with EMG during every summer from mid-grade school through the end of college.  So I spent many-many hours as a co-worker with EMG (or, more accurately and appropriately, a flunky) - in addition to the normal "being around your dad" stuff that takes place in the home.  That was a lot of EMG-exposure for me, it flavored me, and taught me - a lot - and I'm quite happy about that.

EMG here 52 years later with almost the entire crew from the 1965 photo above
 - though with Therese and not Mary - in this photo from March 2017.

And EMG's crew is expanding - something I trust and hope EMG enjoys thinking about every
now and then.  Here are some (but certainly not all) of next gens (also from March 2017).

move-in day

Kitchen organizers

On Monday (5 June), PJ and I helped with moving Dharma into the house where Chris and Dharma will live.  (Actually they hired movers to do most of the lifting, and PJ and Dharma did most of the work in getting the kitchen organized.)

Ready to enter.

The house is quite nice; we like the neighborhood; the move-in/set-up process went well (though some tasks remain).

Toward evening:  additional guests arrived and a blessing ceremony was held for the new home.  Followed by a very fine dinner.  Excellent first gathering at the house.

Moving into a new place is invariably exciting; we were recalling this move-in, now four years back.  Always enjoy the chance to be a part of it.

This ceremony really was quite lovely.

Awaiting the milk boil-over - prosperity harbinger
(microwave technology in lieu of not-yet-turned-on-natural-gas).
Nice photo work by NOC.

Taking folks on house tour after the ceremony (here, the east wing).

Tour, #2 

some April - May - June wanderings

PJ and I had some fine wanderings recently.

To Flagstaff in late April for a Gregory Alan Isakov concert.  Stopped in Sedona on the way up to try out a new trail (a loop on the "Hogs" trails) - lovely as always in Sedona though this particular route won't go top of our list.  PJ and I had a great dinner at Brix in Flagstaff.  CPG, PJr and Pat Herrera joined for concert - fun day - including some phone time as CPG and Dharma wheel and deal on house purchase.  Dark Sky Brewery impresses.  But Isakov has lost his way, at least in our view.  Hiked on Mt. Elden as well.

McMillan's (Flagstaff)

Not much photography, here's a Sedona trail look:


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Dark Sky Brewery was a success; better-than-expected dinner at some new Italian place (Flagstaff).

Cooperative weather allowed us another trip up to Spur Cross on May 7 - and this time we did the full Elephant Mountain loop.  A favorite place.  Cloudy/cool conditions.  Epic brunch follows at Richardson's - green chili pork eggs benedict, yes!  Pairs well with Sculpin-on-tap.

Elephant Mountain - Spur Cross Nature Conservancy

We get out to the Superstitions on May 16 and hike the Peralta Trail for the first time in several years.  Supremely cooperative weather.  We agreed that this trail is even nicer than we recalled it.  Mid-week hiking kept the crowds down and simplified parking.  Amazing place.  Followed by lunch at another amazing place - Arizona Wilderness brewery.  My little designated driver was quite helpful (not to mention a fine hiking companion).  Here's Weaver's Needle:


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Superstitions + AZ Wilderness = strong combination.

Unusually fine atmospheric conditions in the Superstitions.  We need to get out there more regularly.

Celebrated wedding anniversary #37 with a road trip to our favorite Laguna Beach hotel - three nights, great weather, we walk the town relentlessly but offsetting calorie intake not a problem for me.  Meals at our usual favorite spots.  Shopping trip at the outlet malls on the way home.  Another delightful trip.


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So many meals at Nick's . . . 

A short staycation at FoundRe hotel in downtown Phoenix over 10 June weekend.  The usual:  wandering, eating; weather warm but manageable.  Much enjoyed our walk (and visit) to the Phoenix Art Museum, then light rail to Arrogant Butcher for a surprisingly good lunch.  Our favorite dinner was at Breadfruit.  Had a tour of the Cafiso's construction site - pretty fine location (and basically next door to our hotel).  Fun getaway.

Top - Match restaurant (in the hotel).  Bottom - life on the rails.