Must have had same penmanship teacher

Christmas card envelopes for 2010.

Top version is from my mother.

Bottom version is from my godmother.

The 1930s penmanship instruction apparently has stayed with them; perhaps somehow augmented by genes or environment (notice how family members sometimes have similar handwriting?)

As always, click to enlarge.

Christmas 2010

There were lots of nice moments in Christmas 2010 . . .

1. PJ did lots of prep, including baking: cranberry bread, chocolate cake, etc.

2. Kerry and Luis arrive evening December 16 (Thursday). Among other fine activities: lots of euchre games. Luis (my partner) = quick learner, deliberate player, undaunted by simulated snores from the competition. We won more than our share.

3. Ray and Linda Christmas party on December 18 (Saturday) - food was better than ever, enjoyed the conversation, even did a bit of Christmas caroling. So that was nice. Fancy dinner at home Sunday evening following NFL red-zone and associated fun throughout the day.

4. Postino's lunch on December 20 (Monday). Including Kerry, Luis (host), PMG, PJ, CPG. Always nice to have a small pitcher at Monday lunch, even if it was Hoegaarden.

5. Nicole and POC arrive late evening December 21 (Tuesday).

6. Constant running around for several days by Nicole, POC, Kerry and PJ dealing with various wedding prep matters - I hear they made a lot of progress.

7. Bridal shower hosted by Linda on December 22 (Wednesday). I hear they all had a very fine time. Ray and I joined would-be bowlers (CPG, EPG, PJr, POC, Luis, Alex, Richard) during their $4 pitcher warm-up at Uncle Sam's; then the two of us had dinner (and Bosteel's Tripel Karmeleit) at Delux. Came back home to video game hell as the bowling idea had been thwarted by "league night." Then bridal shower folks showed up for a recap.

8. Dinner at Mary Beth's place on December 23 (Thursday) - nice per usual - pork roast, creme brulee (chocolate), card playing, fun. And Herman was there. PJ and I came home after, and the rest of the folks went down to Tempe.

9. Christmas Eve (Friday) - perfect weather. Had nice basketball games down at the park, followed by conversation in the house (with Steve Buck in attendance for awhile). Did a preliminary demo of iMemories family videos, played even more euchre, went to dinner at Rokerij.

10. Poor PJ had to work on Christmas Day. But this left the field open for others to cook - and they did so with great success. Including KHG with cheesecake (photo), POC and NMG with appetizers (including some POC-family specialties), CPG with most everything else (including a wondrous prime rib (sponsored by POC)). I spent lots of time trying to figure out my new coffee maker (photo). Had dinner after PJ gets back from work. Opened some nice beers (PJ gifts to me) before dinner (award winners were the Charles V and Bosteel). Started watching another round of the iMemories family videos (featuring extended interview with EPG prior to his first day of kindergarten). Then switched to photos (using the throw-box hooked to TV and associated with my laptop). PJ and EPG (the workers) eventually had to peel off. Photos continue for the rest of us, with extended running commentary from the usual non-stop talkers. Finished; 2:15a; we must have spent four-five hours looking at this stuff. I had absolutely no idea it was so late (but then again a two-hour nap aids endurance). Fun night/morning.

11. December 26 (Sunday) = travel day; by late afternoon we had lost all our visitors. PJ and I go to the Village Tavern for dinner. Tired; with many excellent memories. We need to do a better job with photos.

2010 holiday concert notes (ASU Choral Union) (December 3, 4 and 5, 2010)

A few more notes about the holiday concert we (ASU Choral Union) performed with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra . . .

1. It definitely was a pops concert. Lots of variety: traditional, solemn, and playful carols; a sing-along; soprano soloist; dancers; youth choir; a humorous duet performed by the conductor and the soprano soloist.

2. The conductor was very effective at communicating with the audience, keeping the pace moving along, etc. All of this resulted in a very engaged audience, which was nice.

3. Some local dance company had put together dance performance items for several of the songs. Including a Nativity scene during one of the Enigma variations, plus some basic leg kicks etc. during a more upbeat portion. This worked (some trepidation at the rehearsal).

4. It was nice to have the opportunity to do a program more than once. Needless to say, the performance can improve with repetition.

5. Performances were Friday evening; Saturday afternoon; Saturday evening; Sunday afternoon. This gave us the opportunity to explore some downtown places. Went to Majerle's after the Saturday afternoon performance (Winterhook = good); also had dinner at Pasta Bar before the evening performance. Went to Hanny's for dinner on Sunday - but since it didn't open until 5, we ended up filling the time by having a drink at some other place down the street. This all was quite fun.

6. We appreciated that Laurel and Virgil (visiting AZ from IA per their typical winter pattern) made the trip downtown for the Sunday afternoon concert. We had a nice chat outside Symphony Hall (per photo).

7. Though all of this is incredibly nice, in the end it's about the music. For me in recent years, it feels like the Christmas season doesn't launch until the holiday concert rehearsal with the orchestra. Then I'm ready to go.

Hill farm photos

I've been meaning to post a slideshow of some pictures taken on the hill farm (just west of St. Joe) during our (PJ and my) November visit to Iowa.



This was on the evening of November 8, 2010. Here's why I wanted to try some pictures:

1. EMG had done an impressive clean-up on the farm - none of the underbrush that typically cluttered up the area.

2. It was November - no weeds, no leaves on trees - rather stark.

3. It was an interesting sunset/late afternoon. Partly because the sun is setting pretty far toward the south this time of year.

4. The farm has a fine setting up on a hill overlooking the village of St. Joe, west fork of the Des Moines river, etc.

5. It is a setting filled with memories going back decades now.

Snapshot (ASU Choral Union, Christmas 2010)

I will post a bit more about this year's Christmas performance - which was a very fine experience - in the near future. Something new (for CPG and me, but not for Choral Union): we performed with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra. (As much as we like working with the ASU orchestra and look forward to doing it in the future - yes, there is a difference with professionals.) (Plus we hit four different downtown restaurants or bars in the space of 25 hours between, before or after (but never during) performances, so that also was fun.)

There were lots of great moments throughout. For tonight I'm wondering: how much of the particular snapshot described below can I retain in memory? (And for how long?)

The first half of the concert included the enduring "Alleluia" from Mozart's "Exultate, jubilate" (there are tons of versions on Youtube, here's a link to a Joan Sutherland version). Everybody knows the song, perhaps to the point of treating it (most incorrectly) as a cliche; the piece is included on a gazillion Christmas albums.

The setting:

• Far enough into the concert so that the audience is fully engaged, looking forward to next item
• Conductor briefly introduces the song and the soloist, turns to the symphony
• Applause as soloist enters
• Soprano soloist = young, talented, beautiful
• Lights are dimming
• The opening bars as played by PSO - so familiar, yet so very different when heard live via professional orchestra
  
• While the applause continues and then starts to fade as the audience settles in
  

Here I am well into my sixth decade; with enough (but, realistically, only just enough) musical ability to be in a choir like this; yet privileged at this moment to sit up on stage and in an instant, absorb the presence of the PSO, the conductor, the soloist, Mozart's 18th century work, a 21st century Christmas concert setting, recollections of Christmas concert performances with the NDGC 30+ years ago, recollections of Christmas caroling on the EJ Gales hill farm or with Clara Bormann's little troupe 40+ years ago, the presence of wife/son/friends/IA visitors in the audience, with one son to my immediate left, lights dimming, applause fading and . . . then the Mozart wondrous-ness just takes off . . .

Not entirely sure why that particular snapshot struck me - our chorus wasn't even involved in this particular piece. But wow.

Perhaps this kind of thing becomes old hat for persons who are in high-level performances all the time; I doubt it, but don't know. I'm certainly not worried that the thrill will ever wear out for me.

Thanksgiving images (random)

Much enjoyed our Thanksgiving. Typical awesome food primarily courtesy of PJ with big assist from Chris; Rick & Laura & David stopped by for the evening ('twas fun); long weekend of leftovers, football games, visiting; etc.

Top photo: PJ is pretty much an expert at making the "buns" per recipe handed down I suppose from Grandma Bormann (and beyond) to Helen Stella.

Middle photo: package from Rita Zintak: she figured out long ago that AZ desert region lacks traditional fall color (though there are some changes, per here) , and always sends a package of leaves. These end up as part of Thanksgiving centerpiece. Nice! (She takes liberties with our address - Easter missives are addressed to the "Gales Hutch", for example - but this "Turkey Farm" concept was a new one.)

Bottom photo: Friday morning treat (after PJ was long gone to work): apple dumpling, coffee, newspaper (well, the AZ Republic). (Looking at the photo, it strikes me that it's both comfortable and slightly disconcerting to think that that I've been eating off the same stoneware with the same utensils for 30+ years now.)

Photo of St. Joe . . .

Click to enlarge - photo of village of St. Joe taken shortly after sundown on Monday, November 8, 2010 (during our travels summarized in the post immediately below). I was walking back to the house in St. Joe after taking some photos up on the hill farm, and this definitely caught my eye. The scratching 'round the edges of the McGuire field almost gives the photo a fisheye-lens look.

MN - IA travels (Nov 6 - 11, 2010)

PJ and I traveled to the upper Midwest Nov. 6 - 11; seems like a November trip up there is becoming an annual event. Started in the Twin Cities on Saturday 11/6 - Cecilia & Steve hosted a fine dinner with Therese & Mark, Nick & Mayb (sp?), Margaret; nice time chatting (including a Skype-ish encounter with Angie and Liam down under), v. good food, then a chance to sit around and even watch a bit of late evening football (featuring ASU and UA losing, as it turned out).

Ate breakfast next morning at a place called "Bad Waitress" with Steve & Cecilia and their friends Jodi and Curt (nice folks indeed; interesting restaurant concept, we write up our own orders). The four of them then headed to Mason City for a Bill Bryson lecture at NIACC; PJ and I headed over to Therese & Mark's place for chit-chat, watched Vikings lose to Cardinals (oh wait, after we left the Cardinals blew it, mostly due to Camarillo I think), had a very nice lunch, took a walk along Grand Avenue, etc. Then we headed to Mason City - easy trip down - very enjoyable dinner at Steve & Liz house. Our four breakfast pals were there, along with Julia.

Then to St. Joe. It was a different kind of a visit in the sense that I was feeling lousy from a long-running cold or flu or whatever, so we stuck close to the house. Had planned on visiting Storm Lake and Clarence & Caroline, at least, but didn't. Instead we settled into a delightful, low-key routine from Sunday night until hitting the road on Thursday at noon.

Items:

1. Finally made it to the POW camp museum in Algona (brochure below, interesting website here) and, as a bonus, saw the Nativity scene that the German POWs had assembled (two photos included). This was quite interesting. Just had been reading in this book about how badly the German prisoners were treated in the Soviet Union (not to mention Russian prisoners) - I can bet the Algona internment looked reasonably attractive.

2. Grandma had been wanting to do some editing on captions to photos that hang in the school, so we worked on this. A minor project that was fun to do together (EMG handling the frames).

3. EMG had banged up his knee, so spent some time in the hospital waiting room. But he seemed to be recovering fine. While in Algona, we went with Grandma to some interesting shops, including a chocolate store and a locavore coop.

4. On Monday night toward sunset, spent some time up on the hill farm. Perfect conditions: mild weather, no bugs, no leaves, plus EMG has cleaned up a bunch of the brush. So took a bunch of photos (with my seven-year-old digital camera), included some in a separate post.

5. EMG and his accomplice (Ray Gales) had been moving around equipment on the farm a week or so ago. With rain looming, EMG and I spent some time on Wednesday (Nov. 10) at the farm getting things into the shed. This was a bit of a throw-back experience: aging vehicles, balky ignition systems, etc. I don't recall the last time I was in the driver's seat of a tractor. But we got the job done, including dragging a combine into place with tractor and log chain.

6. Grandma outdid herself with baked goods - pumpkin bread, cinnamon rolls, pseudo-apple-dumplings, peanut blossom cookies.

7. Late-night chats with EMG, including his ruminations about the "free cell" game and some old-days stuff about corn shelling (very enjoyable). I hadn't thought about those wire drag covers in many years.

Great weather throughout - snow arrived pretty shortly after we left.

We didn't do a good job of taking photos. But I did take a photo from a book Grandma had taken out of the library about Hitler's Henchmen . . . prominently featuring our "he's-definitely-not-a-relative", Martin Bormann (in foreground of photo below, sauntering along with Adolf himself (and von Ribbentrop, an interesting character in his own right)).

We found the visit particularly enjoyable despite (or perhaps partly because of) being a bit constrained from moving around.

I'm saving the date

This looks like it could be fun. I saw copies of this on our recent Midwest trip, plus on our kitchen table when we returned to AZ.

Website link is here.

Short road trip

PJ has been putting in a bunch o' time at Mayo in connection with a transition of elements of its paper record keeping system to electronic. But now that phase is over. So we went to Sedona for a short, fine trip. Drove up on Sunday October 17. Stayed two nights at the "Orchards" lodge - we've been there a couple times previously, we like the views, and we like the access to the L'Auberge facilities (which are creekside right down the hill). L'Auberge has done a tremendous amount of renovation and expansion since our last visit, and we thought the changes look pretty good.

As sometimes happens on our travels, we find a restaurant we like and pretty much stick with it. This time around, it was the L'Auberge restaurants. Had dinner there Sunday night in the main dining area - PJ had a delightful filet, I had the finest duck dish we've ever run into. Most enjoyable. After a Monday mid-late-morning hike, we ate lunch creekside at the same restaurant - simply a lovely setting; a beautiful, sunny afternoon. When it came to Monday evening, we went to the new bar/lounge area of the restaurant - sat outside on the porch - under a bunch of trees, close enough to hear the creek, with rainfall sounds all around - quite nice.

Our Monday hike was a new one for us - Brins Mesa Trail. Just what we were looking for - easy access, reasonable workout (including a scramble at the end which isn't really part of the trail, it's 4.5 mi roundtrip, 1000' or so elevation change); nice scenes along the way; spectacular payoff view at the end. Especially if one takes the "scramble" portion.

All that being said, in the end we're not huge Sedona fans. Having sampled the parts of Sedona we like, we lit out Tuesday morning after coffee and spent the rest of our day in our old favorite, Jerome. Walked the shops a bit; ate lunch at Grape; then headed back to Phoenix.

Gift

Here's a photo of the label from one of my Father's Day (2010) gifts from PJ. A very unusual Scotch (at least by my experience), much enjoyed.

The Wikipedia article about the distillery provides a bit of background. It indicates that the whiskey tastes "peaty" - which I think might be a bit of an understatement. I typically am unable to describe the flavors that others can so boldly attribute to wines (and even beers these days), but this stuff absolutely had a smoky cast to it.

I found it interesting that the wikipedia article mentions that this whiskey is used quite often in Johnny Walker blends.

I liked the Caol Ila straight, not even a splash, with some parmigiana reggiano and a few plain crackers - a wonderful way to get ready for dinner.

Below is the map showing distillery location - I think this might be a fun tour someday.




View Larger Map

I can has cheezburger?

In the category of internet memes, the cat that requested a cheeseburger certainly has had staying power, at this site. Typically it involves odd pictures of cats with captions in mangled English; quite often it's funny. I was a very regular visitor for quite awhile; unfortunately the site has become much more cluttered, and I seldom stop by.

But I did have occasion to think about the site last week in connection with a video posted there (cat swiping at toy helicopter).

That reminded me of a photo posted at the site some time back that struck me as funny, even if doesn't involve cats.

It doesn't seem that a DNA test is necessary.

An alternate caption was: “I’m sorry you had to find out like this… I feel like such an ass."

So far so good

I noticed that today marks five years working in a small law firm setting.

It has worked extremely well, both professionally and for lifestyle purposes.

Cezanne (Phoenix Art Museum)

This was interesting and fun - the Phoenix Art Museum had a show with a number of works by Cezanne, exhibited alongside works by a group of North American artists who admired Cezanne and used elements of his style in their own work.

So PJ and I went.

Art history is pretty confusing to me. This may have helped a bit. We learned that Cezanne did exhibit some works with the Impressionists in his early days. But he was moving in a different direction - as the exhibit put it, his work is sometimes labeled "post-Impressionism", or even "Modernism" (certainly a gateway to Modernism, even I can see how his stuff might lead to Cubism). He lived in the countryside (mostly Provence), avoided Paris, gained some favorable attention, but was dead before being widely recognized.

Still life works (preferring fruit over flowers because the fruit lasted longer); landscapes (especially Monte Sainte-Victoire), portraits (impassive subjects), water colors. It was interesting to stick your face right up to the still life items in particular to see the layering.

The items from the North American influencees were also interesting, in part because so many of them were southwest (read: Santa Fe) based.

This was followed by a delightful early dinner at Postino's in Arcadia. I even liked the Dogfish Punkin Ale.

Photos top-to-bottom: 1) Cezanne late-in-life self-portrait; 2) "Five Apples;" 3) Willard Nash landscape - Santa Fe area - emulating Cezanne landscape touches, we're told.

I thought it was a new problem

I really enjoy Montaigne's Essays. And Montaigne really enjoyed Plutarch's Lives.

We were talking the other day about the manner in which folks tend to respond to cell phone calls, text messages, etc. on the spot, without much regard to what I would still consider to be good manners. This struck me as a very modern problem.

Then I read Montaigne (writing around 1580) describing something he read in Plutarch (maybe written around 100 AD). It sounded all too familiar:

"I was just now on that passage where Plutarch tells us on his own that Rusticus, while attending one of his lectures at Rome, received a packet from the Emperor, and delayed opening it until the lecture was all over, for which, says Plutarch, all the audience highly praised his composure. In truth, since Plutarch was on the subject of curiosity - and specifically that greedy and gluttonous passion for news that makes us so indiscreetly and impatiently abandon everything to talk with a newcomer, or tear open immediately the letters that are brought to us, no matter where we are and without regard to respect and decorum - he was right to praise the composure of Rusticus . . ."

Something I like about Phoenix . . .

. . . is the in-town hiking. The out-of-town hikes are reasonably accessible and some are nationally or world famous. But how great is it to be able to drive just two-three miles to the 40th street trailhead as an alternative to the gym?

Got to the summit the other evening just as the setting sun broke through and illuminated Camelback Mountain, per photo.

Bumper sticker

Saw this bumper sticker in the parking lot at the gym yesterday, and liked it:

Wag more. Bark less.

This approach applies quite nicely to we humans of course; though one adept practitioner of this philosophy is shown in photo below.

Visitors . . .

This was quite fun - Kerry and Luis visited 8/14-8/22, and Nicole and POC visited 8/18-8/22. Lots of nice conversation, meals, etc. And some progress on wedding planning for March 2011 in Arizona - including a "VIP Tasting" at Fuego Bistro (caterer) that made for quite a delightful evening. And had a chance to play a bit of basketball in late afternoon/relatively high temperature conditions.

Patricia and I took a road trip with Kerry and Luis during the visit - Grand Canyon, Sedona, Jerome - so we actually made quite an extensive tour of northern AZ. Even hiked down to the 1 1/2 mile house on the Bright Angel Trail - which I always enjoy muchly. Some shopping at the old high school in Jerome (per photo). We also have a few cellphone photos from the hike (but otherwise didn't do much with photos, oh well).

Rita Z. (end of 2010 birthday cycle)

Here we are having reached August 11, which means we have just completed this year's cycle of birthdays. This year's finale included birthday dinners for Patrick on 8/8 (belated due to PJ's recent Chicago trip) and Paul Jr. on 8/10.



There are a number of folks that consistently contribute to making the birthdays big events, but I need to call out Rita Zintak and Jan Zintak. These two NEVER miss a birthday for any of the seven of us - going on 30 years now. I call that impressive, and it is much appreciated. Literally hundreds of birthday cards over the years.

In 2010, a very unusual occurrence on Patricia's birthday: Aunt Rita was a day late. It happened that Patricia was at work on the day that Rita called to wish her a happy birthday. Rita's excellent solution: just sing into the answering machine. We refuse to delete the message, and get a kick out of it every time we go through our messages.

Play the video to understand why this is so great (but turn up the volume, the audio track is unfortunately very low.) At some point we need to find out if Rita can explain for us the source of the, let's call it "unusual," version of the "happy birthday" song that the O'Donnell clan passed along.

Photo was taken in June 1994, during Rita and Jan's visit to Arizona. (Back when you could meet or see off folks at the airport gate.)

Anyway: I felt I needed to record this before it was lost due to phone failure, or whatever.

Hummingbird, stuck

Hummingbirds seem to love the desert. And the hummingbird count in our backyard has definitely gone up since we replaced the pool with trees and plants.

This photo was taken earlier this year - in the morning - I was sitting at the desk in my upstairs office when the hummingbird's beak was caught in the screen. That's where the camera on my phone came in handy (if very low quality).

A slight tap on the window and my friend was sufficiently inspired (or terrorized) to escape.