Keyboard competition is one of my excuses

Having [tried to] maintain a diary pretty continuously from January 1, 1966 into the late 1970s, I learned pretty early on that "falling behind" is a fatal error.  I'm writing this on July 18, 2015 (though dating it as of the time of the "situation," i.e. February).  Embarrassingly, it is my first blog post for 2015.

Early this year I fell into a very pleasant habit of working at the piano keyboard.  But this came at the expense of time spent at the computer keyboard - which is my only avenue to posting things here.  (And yes, I was using our newish electronic piano - the Steinway is disabled pending major reno.  But it was still very pleasant, trust me.)

I'm encouraged, or delusional, or something, about continuing this piano-keyboard effort.  But it got me behind in terms of this online diary.

So I'll now start catching up, after a fashion.

Beer tasting

Just about ready to get started.

A holiday beer-tasting event was held at our place on December 27.  Lots of work by all involved in the planning and execution, with N taking the arranging-lead and PJ taking the hostessing-cooking lead.  And K coming through with some spiffy tasting glassware (complete with a few professional-looking taster “paddles”).

K-supplied tasting hardware.  ("Duck with boots" just eluded the photographer at far right.)

Results - click to enlarge.  Left column lists participants in order of finish.  CPG and me were the most
generous graders.  EPG was the toughest grader, becoming noticeably more discriminating as he went along.  

It all really turned out well.

Remarkably good logistics handled by three supposedly impartial non-beer-drinkers – this involved handling two beers per person for a dozen tasters, maintaining scoring, keeping things moving, preserving beer-secrecy, etc.  Not a simple process, though they made it feel that way.  Participants were tasked with bringing two beers and an appetizer – yes, this worked very well.  Folks clearly were diligent about their beer shopping, and also were thoughtful about app choices.

Instagram #1 (borrowed from N).  Medal stand honorees
in bottom right photo (gold-silver-bronze top to bottom).

Each participant ranked the beers, and the beer-submitter with highest aggregate score was declared the victor.  Our administrators reported on lots of interesting and occasionally on-target commentary as the participants worked through the list.

Pretty sure we’ll do this again in the future.  I’d be happy if we use pretty much the same approach again, though we likely will do some sort of beer-by-category ranking at least for scoring purposes – we noticed that lighter/cleaner tasting beers suffered in the comparisons, as did the porter/stout submissions.

N Instagram #2.

The path to victory in this first tasting:  focus your two beer submissions in the realm of fine-tasting IPAs or the like (this strategy worked for #1 winner: PJr, #2 runner-up: Mike Barbeau; #3: me (yes, on the medal stand, if barely!)).

N Instagram #3.

Christmas concert . . .

We started off the holidays right – a most enjoyable concert attended by PJ, just-arrived EPG, and me.  This was the Phoenix Chorale’s Christmas concert – at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Phoenix on Saturday evening, December 20.

Some reasons for attending:

• We've been big fans of the Phoenix Chorale for quite a while (see for example, this discussion of perhaps my most favorite concert).
• We know or have sung with several current and former members; also, director Charles Bruffy conducted portions of this Chanticleer event.
• The concert featured Christmas music arrangements by Ola Gjeilo – we like his stuff, he is a regular arranger-composer for the Phoenix Chorale, plus he married our former Choral Union conductor.
• EPG had identified Gjeilo’s music earlier this year via youtube or however (per his own instincts, no recommendation from us, a neat more-than-coincidence in terms of overlapping taste).
• This group is really good.  There's a reason they've already won two Grammy awards.  Entirely a cappella performance, constant completely exposed lines with nowhere to hide unless the singers are just nailing the notes.  Which they do.

Yakking with Ola, post-concert.

Gjeilo did a Q&A before the concert – quite interesting to hear him discuss the challenges of coming up with fresh arrangements for songs that have been arranged literally thousands of times.  (Occasionally we could remember snippets of his thought process as we listened to the concert.  But mostly we just listened.)

There’s something about sitting there with your wife and son – in a darkened church – every seat taken, everyone entirely focused on the performance – listening to Christmas music – especially the familiar-warm carols! – the music moves and floats above and around and through the church – in addition to appreciating the present one cannot help recalling other times and places and singers with these same lovely, reverent songs across the decades.

Who knew Christina Rosetti (of pre-Raphaelite eminence) wrote the lyrics for the so-lovely "In the Bleak Midwinter?"

The effect is pretty powerful, and builds as we go along.

By the time we get to the closing/climax of the concert – four Gjeilo arrangements of familiar Christmas carols – it's of course difficult to use words to describe this portion but EPG was kind enough to find the audio tracks for these songs  that very night (very nice online versions, very similar to what we heard at the concert).  So I’m going to post two of the songs here (I added a photo or two to support posting the audio tracks via youtube; this is a common method but new for me, and I should re-post later with more photos, or not).

First song:  “Away in a Manger” – all in all a pretty simple arrangement (if anything like this can be considered so).  But Gjeilo enhances the melody line immeasurably by adding some gorgeous/wistfulness-inducing movement beneath it (via beautiful mostly hummed chord progressions).  I think it’s just fantastic:



Next was my clear-cut favorite of the evening - The First Nowell.  Very similar technique via the use of the underlying chord progressions.  But the soprano soloist’s descant line (if I'm using that term correctly) at the very beginning foreshadows much to come.  Listen for it against the male soloist as he starts into the second phrase of verse two.  Verse three might be (OK it definitely is) my favorite – Gjeilo alters  the melody (sung by the sopranos) ever so slightly – the men hum below (a basso continuo effect I think), the alto line moves so-warmly against the soprano-melody, then the solo soprano descant lifts and floats as the verse proceeds. . . after the “chorus” section of this verse three I was actually pretty worried that the song might be ending - doesn't it sound like it might?  But to our relief Gjeilo gives us verse four - entrusting the melody to the soprano soloist (with plenty else going on in the other voice parts)!  Hard to describe the effect in the church that eve as all these song-elements float around and enchant us, the oft-ethereal female voices evoke the 1st Christmas angel-singers about which the carol is written after all, the concert is winding down, memories flicker, and at that point the audience, certainly me, was let’s say emotionally ready, or vulnerable, or something, for just this kind of Christmas-song-moment – well, see what you think:



[And note that the arrangement returns full circle to the solo soprano descant at the very end.]

Chorale Christmas concerts always end with a crowd sing-along of Silent Night - my little wife's favorite - everybody sings and this was very lovely and I think of many things including David Clark Isele's beautiful ND Glee Club arrangement and Veronica Dockendorf Gales earnestly singing this with her grandchildren on the St. Joe hill farm 50+ years ago (including original German Stille Nacht verses once Sister Doris had taught these to we then grade-schoolers).

After chatting a while with singers and composer, we three moved onto a fine and quite late dinner, with thorough concert-rehash, at the St. Francis on Camelback Road.  And EPG (our chauffeur for the evening) played these very tunes for us in the car, all the way home.  Which was important and good because the replay for this sort of thing is best commenced in the exact moment.

Twas yet another fine+ event.

Iowa trip (December 11-15, 2014)

I like this view up the lane at the farmsite where we grew up.  Various grasses - now undisturbed by the
former parade of vehicles - nearly blanket the formerly 100% gravel surface.  Fog was rolling in, pretty much
obscuring the grove across the road on the old Merkle place.  (Taken Saturday, December 13)

Enjoyed a really-fine trip to Iowa (via MSP). Very fortunate that my parents remain in such great shape as they push along in their mid-80s.  Something unusual about this trip:  PJ unable to accompany me due to work schedule - so my first time visiting Iowa on my own since 2000.

It was a fine time for lunch at Day Block Brewing!  (Yes, you can tell who still has to go back to work.)

December weather was great - mid-20s with some flurries upon arrival at the airport, but steadily rising into the low 50s by the end of my visit.  (Though I didn't see the sun at any point on the trip (let alone any patches of sky).)

Mom and Dad standing in the passageway between parlor and dining room.  

This time, they are standing in the parlor.  The old green wallpaper is working its way
to the surface, slowly and steadily.

Thursday:  Therese and Cecilia & Steve were able to meet me for lunch - so that was very fun.  Went to Day Block Brewing - pulled pork and their own brews - would happily return.  That went all too quickly and I hit the road for Iowa.  Swung by Steve/Liz house in Mason City - they were dealing with repair folks but Liz was kind enough to take over supervision of that process and Steve and I went out for a couple stops:  (1) a bar place where a group of his buddies meet to sip and do football predictions etc.; (2) dinner at Quarry restaurant.  Yup, they know some very nice folks in Mason City - much enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time.  Then drove on to St. Joe.  We milled around a while; had a nice chat with Carol & Jim up in Nome; finally went to bed around 1a.

Howard Barton's kitchen cabinets actually still look pretty good.

Friday:  Visited Caroline in Algona in mid-morning.  She seems to be doing really great, was fun to visit.  Timing overlapped with arrival of Brian, Corrine and Marita - so nice to catch up with them a bit.  Then what was intended to be a short visit at the Capesius seed corn shed . . . but we lingered for three-four hours as various folks kept wandering in and the conversations continued.  Sitting around and talking with these folks is hard to beat, and Bill-Bob-Chris are great hosts.  But we did get a little hungry so were ready for a snack upon return to St. Joe not much before 5p.  Chatted, sat around, worked a bit on Grandma's Christmas letter, late supper, nice day.

I always liked this light fixture in the parlor.

Saturday:  Finalized edits and formatting of Christmas letter in the morning - there wasn't that much to do, but it was nice to wrap up.  In the afternoon we went over to the farm house and checked things out.  Wow:  that place is really starting to fall apart in various areas.  Might not be that long before it fails to be entirely safe.  But we enjoyed going from room to room and discussing whatever came to mind.  While inside, fog started building outside.  So felt just a little weird when we first stepped outside:  time machine effect inside the house, change of weather to foggy-mystery outside.  Back to St. Joe for a pretty quiet evening.  Nice to have supper with my Mom & Dad (three times).

Reviewing the loot from the prior weekend's "Cookie Bake" hosted per usual by the Haag family
in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  Yes, I took home samples to Arizona.

Watching a Lawrence Welk rerun with my Mom - took the picture because the performers here happen
to include "Ralna" - who later lived across the street from us in AZ.

Sunday:  10a Mass in St. Joe - very large crowd, nice.  Talked to some folks after but then headed over to Livermore for the Legion breakfast.  Sat with Alvin Bormann but talked to others including John Gales.  We were in a bit of a hurry because we were planning to head over to Storm Lake and wanted to be back before nightfall given foggy forecast.  Had a very nice visit over there - just had a chance to say hi for a few minutes with Joe before he went to work; chatted with Dolores, Art, Clare; much enjoyed.  Intense fog along the lake, otherwise weather was a non-issue.  Back in St. Joe we went through maybe 200 audio cassette tapes that have accumulated going back to 1971.  We tested a few - generally seemed to remain in very good shape.  And it was quite interesting to hear voices such as Rev. Leo C. Schumacher, John Kohlhaas, among others. We organized all tapes by category; a useful start but much additional checking remains.  This - and dinner - pretty much took up our fine evening together.

EMG theorizes at Sunday pancake breakfast, American Legion hall in Livermore.

Dad and Mom are listening to one of the old audio cassettes we had pulled out of deep storage.  
  For the two of them - who have spent 80+ years building nothing but the finest
memories - it must be quite a pleasure to revisit them every now and again.

Monday:  Mass in St. Joe; drove 'round the cemetery; breakfast; miscellaneous wrap-up; packed some Christmas cookies in my luggage along with a ham sandwich and cinnamon roll for the road; said goodbyes, and that was it for a really fine visit.  Consistently busy with interesting things - but not too busy, the pace was really quite excellent.

Easy trip back to AZ, where PJ got to hear all about it over a late supper.

Yup, I'm lucky.

A few more photos:

Dad and Mom in the southeast bedroom, upstairs.  I recall when this was their bedroom - before
mounting numbers resulted in turning it into the "girls' room".

The three of us, in the "boys room" - southwest bedroom, upstairs.
The green paint job certainly held up well (though ceiling-fail is underway).

I was standing in the "yellow room" (aka "box room") when
I noticed Mom checking through the boys room closet.

Fog rolling in as we prepare to head back to St. Joe.

This gentleman no longer mixes his beer with orange juice.  Now it's prune juice.  (While I don't
foresee adopting the habit, I'll admit that it tasted surprisingly good.)

Milling around at back of church after Monday morning Mass.

We haven't moved in 20 years

Wrapping up that last load.  November 28, 1994.  West side of PV home.
CPG, NOC, Kelly (right foreground).

On this day 20 years ago we moved out of our Paradise Valley home, and moved into our current place.  It's been a most successful move.  We had lived in PV for five+ years; primary driver for leaving was the lack of what we considered good public high school options in the area.  Nicole was then in the midst of her 8th grade year at St. Thomas the Apostle; it seemed like a promising idea to move into the Chaparral HS district; that turned out to be correct.

My eager assistants in N&K's emptied bedroom (NE corner of house).  Not sure what's up with
the kneepads, but CPG's Shaq/jorts combination is certainly fine.  (11/28/94)

I do recall that things were hectic at the time of the move in November 1994 - so much so that we didn't even get around to taking photos or video of all of the excitement of moving.  I'm including here two photos of my late evening grunt team (apparently all the photos we have from this episode); also including below four photos pulled from the November 1994 appraisal report obtained in connection with getting the original mortgage on this place (each coupled with a corresponding November 2014 view).  Part of our November 1994 distracted-ness:  for reasons no longer remembered we had scheduled a Notre Dame trip before we knew the closing date on the house sale; that trip took place just about a week before moving day (I'll say it was a fine adventure involving me 'n my three sons).

November 18, 1994.  Locker room access courtesy Seetch & Connelly.
Not possible to travel with these three and not have a great time.

PJ and I had built a nomadic track record by 1994 that didn't augur settling down for 20 years.  Pre-11419 details:

• Summer 1980:  honeymoon apartment in Hickory Hills, IL (1L clerkship in downtown Chicago)
• [Brief hiatus to Stanford (that (mis)adventure is summarized here)]
• 2L academic year ('80-'81):  Carroll Street, South Bend, IN
• 2L summer clerkship ('81):  Country Club Plaza, Kansas City, MO
• 3L academic year ('81-'82):  University Village, Notre Dame, IN
• June '82 - Dec '83:  Rugen Road townhouse, Glenview, IL 
• Dec '83 - August '86:  Cohansey Street, Roseville, MN
• August '86 - October '86:  townhouse rental, Thunderbird Road, Phoenix, AZ
• October '86 - August '89:  Paradise Lane, Phoenix, AZ
• August '89 - November '94:  Claremont Street, Paradise Valley, AZ
• [November '94 - ?:  43rd Street, Phoenix, AZ]

So prior to our current home that was nine residences (including three purchased homes) in eight cities in five states in 14 years, plus or minus.

But never mind, this time we're here to stay!

Tricky to re-create the 1994 view given the very healthy palo verde recently planted in that spot.

1994 version of the backyard was great if you like a lot of kool-decking, glare, and pool maintenance.  
(Though I must admit the pool did serve its purpose with a house full of kids.)

Front of house is thoroughly recognizable, though there isn't a plant or surface 
that hasn't been swapped out at least once (other than the roof, surprisingly enough).

Mimicking the appraiser's rather prosaic "street scene" - looking north up 43rd Stteet.

DODV 2014 (November 7, 2014)

Another quite fine charity event.  The previous event we recently attended was put on by a group to which Chris belongs; this event was put on by an anti-domestic violence group that Nicole helps out.  She became involved via her and POC's friendship with Laura and Mark Teahen; he had played a while with the White Sox and they now are lead sponsors for this charity event.  They apparently maintain good relationships with a bunch of current and former professional athletes, because the event certainly drew a large turnout of those folks.

We had a sparkling turnout ourselves, with some of we locals augmented by Patrick and Kerry - both in AZ for fine (and somewhat overlapping) visits, and POC's brother Mike and GF Lisa - also in AZ for a visit, timed in part for the next day's ASU-ND game in Tempe.

We wandered around the concourse at Salt River Fields all evening and much enjoyed.  Perfect weather.  Met a number of the folks POC (and Nicole) know from Diamondbacks.  Fun.

Unexpected from Street View

[click to enlarge photos per usual]

I long assumed that Google's Street View was focused almost exclusively on urban areas.  And perhaps that was correct in its initial roll-out.  In any case, I've learned that the product long since has reached into rural areas as well.

Street View also is not about the art of composing photos.  Yet it often yields marvelous views.

July 2009:  looking south on U.S. Highway 169 in the heart of St. Joe, Iowa.  I really like how
the clouds look; also the light on the church.  The Street View car passed through
fairly early in the morning judging by the shadows on the highway etc.

A couple months ago I was poking around in Google Maps - checking out the (yes, rather dear) places in northern Iowa where I grew up - and was pleased to see that Street View is offering what turn out to be some thoroughly enjoyable perspectives on these decidedly rural places.

August 2009:  Highway 169 heading south on left side of picture; county blacktop heading west
on the right.  So this vantage point is a few hundred yards north of the picture above.  Three things of note:
(1) EMG mowing grass on the vacant lot just north of his house - where his uncle Billy Devine ran
a country store when I was a kid; (2) my parents' house on mid-left side of picture; (3) not very visible, but
the farm where my dad grew up is the first clump of trees on the right side of the road on right side of picture.

The purpose of this post is to keep track of screenshots of three Street Views from 2009 that I find unexpectedly effective.  They are posted here in the chronological order taken (oldest on top).

Note on the middle photo:  my dad tipped us off to this Street View gem - which includes him, a few months after his 80th birthday, mowing grass just north of their St. Joe residence.  Nice!

September 2009:  here's the farm on which I grew up.  I really like this photo.  
Partly because of the fall colors here - corn has turned color quite a bit, the trees in the grove just starting.  
The county blacktop - "P56" - heads straight north.

Suns Charities "Slam Dunk"

Ah , what rings.

A quick note about a fun little event in downtown Phoenix on Saturday, October 11 (though actually the main reason I'm posting about this is to have an excuse to display the above photo with our fancy rings).

Getting ready to sit down for dinner on Central Ave.

Anyway:  CPG has been involved with the Phoenix Suns charity organization; they have a neat event starting with drinks and appetizers on the Suns basketball court, followed by dinner on Central Ave, followed by dessert and dancing (also on Central Ave but a couple blocks south of the dinner location).  So it's a pretty solid concept.  CPG, PJ, NOC, POC and I had a fine evening.

As the evening wears on.

Purple and orange attire preferred.

Wupatki, Lockett Meadow, Flagstaff

Wupatki main building (taken from behind the "ball court")

PJ and I took a little trip over the weekend of October 3-5.  Five years having somehow passed since this hiking trip, it was now the 25th anniversary of our first visit to Lockett Meadow (initial visit with five kids in tow ranging from two to eight years old).  Hiked on Saturday (after carb-loading, or whatever you call it, at Martanne's); the hike is just as delightful as ever (though we were a bit surprised that a decent percentage of the aspens still were fairly green).  The hike via the revised route is about 5.5 miles, we climb about 1200 feet to the 9800 foot level.  Gorgeous, again.

PJ tours Wupatki ball court.

On Friday we had stopped at Wupatki National Monument for the first time since July 1990.  We would happily return, and in less than 24 years.  There are six places to stop-and-wander; we selected the right three.  Started with the visitors center at eponymous pueblo remains - this was our only stop in 1990.  The buildings, ball court, etc. - dating back to 1100 AD or so (or is it CE now) - are remarkably well-maintained.  Made obligatory visit to the blow-hole:  the earth was sucking in air (opposite of our 1990 experience).  Then we visited the Doney Mountain overlook - yes, these were fine views (360 degrees).  Final stop was at the Lomaki ruins - probably the most interesting of all.

NOC, CPG, EPG loving Wupatki (July 22, 1990).  (NOC holding one of our pre-internet
travel reference books - AZ Highways published something about the "back roads" of Arizona)

We find this kind of landscape entirely compelling.  Though we wonder why these old-timey farmers - and that's what they were - selected such an un-promising area for settlement.

Blowhole:  it's science.

Other than that:  the usual relentless wandering around and fine eating and refreshments in downtown Flagstaff.  Typically we have pretty good luck with weather up there, but it was absolutely ideal for this trip - rain a couple days earlier had really cleared out the atmosphere.

 Delightful weekend . . .

PJ heading back down the Doney Mountain path; glorious views all around; 
here we are looking NE toward the Painted Desert.  These "mountains" are volcano-remnants,
which makes for an unusual, interesting hiking surface.

Lomaki ruins; built along arroyo; San Francisco Peaks in background.  Great setting.
One can (sort of) imagine old things looking at this kind of place . . .

On the Inner Basin Trail ascending from Lockett Meadow.

Entering the "Inner Basin" - amidst highest of St. Francisco Peaks.

Me, musing at ~10,000 feet.  Mt. Humphreys in background, I think.

Lockett Meadow (as we start to drive back to Flagstaff).

Somebody needed a cat shirt.