The end of summer

Last day of August for me is the last day of summer. I know--summer actually continues on a bit more. But for me this is it.

Wendy took the picture above while we on summer vacation. She woke up early and logged into the computer. She turned around and decided to capture the moment of both boys, still asleep in the hotel room. I did a bit of digital processing to turn the picture into this image.

Goodbye to the summer that was--time to move on to Autumn.

WAKE UP ALREADY!!! (Or how to use Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth as a psychological weapon.)

“…Don’t you think that was your ego speaking?”

“…My, your pain-body must be really active today.”

“…I understand. You’re just not in the moment right now.”

I've been reading A New Earth (Awakening to Your Life's Purpose) and for the most part really enjoying it. But I do have a tendency to find parody in the things I love most. That applies both to books and my spouse. So reading the book has given me a number of passive/aggressive questions and statements that I can use as demonstrated above (which Wendy has pointed out to me).

I think I might have hit the snooze button again, but I’ll wake up in 5 minutes…. really….

Rainy day

After a few days of sunny Spring weather, we're getting the April Showers. Took a day off just to do a few things around the house. (Mainly, get the molding around the upstairs bedroom off the walls so we can get the last of the ugly wallpaper off.) And tonight, a new episode of LOST. We've also been watching DVDs of Freaks and Geeks. We have one last episode of that to watch. That show was so cool, pity it didn't even last a season.

As I'm typing this I got a recorded message from Minneapolis Public Schools about an event at school. I'm really starting to hate these reminders. I much rather get an email about these than have to sit through a recorded phone message. Are they worried I won't read the email? Then they should know that I've been hanging up on the recorded message after the first 2 seconds. I much rather have a place to choose my preference (phone or email)--but I know of no such option on the Minneapolis system.

Oh, well. Back to my mental preparations for LOST. Ommmmm!

Martini, the Greek

People who know me know that I am not much of a drinking man. However, tonight I had a Greek Martini at Longfellow Grill. It was great--though I have to admit it is somewhat like drinking a salad. Then it was time for another long walk along the Mississippi West River Road.

Long walks

Tonight Wendy and I had some child care tonight, so we went out for dinner. Nothing fancy--just Davani's Pizza. Afterwards we drove up to the 35W Bridge site, parked the car, and walked across the 10th Ave. Bridge that's next to the site. It is amazing watching the new bridge go up. I think I'm going to try to get back there this weekend with my camera and take some pictures. We then walked through the U campus and ended up crossing the river across a pedestrian/bike bridge that use to carry the railroad across the river. From that bridge you could see where all the pieces of the old 35W bridge have been placed in a U parking lot for inspection.

Back in 1992 when I was interviewing for a job at Cray Research here in MN, I was also interviewing for a job with Cray Corporation in Colorado Springs, CO. It was finally a long walk around Lake Harriet that helped us decided that where we belonged was here in the Twin Cities.

Yes you can...

At the end of Rutter's The Reluctant Dragon, St. George tells the villagers that he can't kill the dragon. In the front row was a little boy who said "Yes, you can."

Sunday Night, time to blog

A lot happened this weekend, but for the most part it was low stress. The big news is that our house now has a copy of Super Smash Brothers Brawl! It was released at midnight Saturday, but we told Tony that we would get it Sunday morning. Both boys were excited about getting it (Tony used his money) and Wendy made a "Happy Brawl Day" cake to celebrate.

I had fun singing this weekend with Chorus Polaris. We did a children's concert and sang "The Reluctant Dragon" by John Rutter. It was a very fun piece to sing. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Rutter. I like many of his pieces, but as a choir member I can really hate the way they are edited (with page turns at the worst possible moments). And every time I hear his Requiem I think the text for the main theme should be "Buy your film from Kodak, take a pretty picture..." (Sacrilege, I know, but the music is very "pop" to the point of sounding like background music for a commercial.)

The boys have FINALLY quieted down. After behaving well all day they decided to make bedtime interesting. Wendy is doing her NYTimes crossword and I'm starting to think about the coming week and what needs to get done.

Salut in Edina

Wendy and I were on our way to the Edina Grill when we passed by Salut Bar American (which is next door). Wendy had a hamburger and I had the walleye special. Both were great.

Muisc for a faux Summer January Night

The temperature got above 30 today and I'm thinking of summer:

Summertime - Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong from YouTube.

A good vacation

Well, tomorrow it is back to work. It is so crazy--I've been resisting the urge to check my work email all day. I think it is just that as a working geek you deal with information all day long. Being on top of that info helps to keep you ahead. BUT... there are times when you really need to just breathe, relax. Those emails will be there tomorrow and another day of resting my mind will help me keep it all in balance.

So.... Ommmmmmm... I will resist the emails.... Ommmmmmm....

A haiku from Thomas

Endless Possibilities, a haiku:


Possibilities
Good or bad they are endless
Use them all your life

(c) 2007, Thomas N. Gennaula, all rights reserved

Connecting across the world-wide-web

Today is just one of those days you step back and go "this is cool". I've downloaded a mp3 of a group in NYC that conducted by grad school classmate that conducted my final piece for my masters. I did an IM with another friend I went to college with who lives in Ann Arbor, MI. And then I connected with someone I knew from my hometown when he joined facebook.

People talk about how the Internet can create distance. I think that is too simplistic a statement. In my case it's helping me reconnect.

The Feast of Saint Bruce and the Liturgy of the Gin and Tonic

Bruce would laugh if he knew I referred to him as "Saint Bruce". Bruce was a friend of mine who died of cancer on September 12th, 2001.

He had a great sense of humor and he had married another good friend of mine. I had made so many jokes about them as a couple (he was like 10 years older than her) that I had to promise (at their wedding) that I would "support this marriage".

Bruce died very early on 9/12. He and many of his friends had all worked at the same company (including my manager). We all hopped in cars and drove over to his house to be with his wife. Bruce's favorite drink was gin and tonic. Sometime in the afternoon we made a big pitcher of G&T's and all had one last toast to Bruce.

And that is what I'm intending to do today. I'm filing this under "Life is good" because I am very thankful that I knew Bruce.

And the french word for today is "avis"

And today's word is "avis" (ah-vee), meaning "opinion."

A while back I found the website A French Word a Day. Back in 1994 Wendy and I visited France. Rather than finding the French rude we found them quite helpful if you made the attempt to speak the language. (Having said this I should point out that Wendy is from New York state and I lived there for 8 years.)

Although language was always my weakest subject in school, I had such fun trying to learn a bit of French while we were there. Someday perhaps I'll take a class in it here in town.

So this is "mon avis" for the day. (Hopefully that wasn't a major "faux pas")

A scene from "The House of Gennaula"

(At rise: Father enters dining room. Mother and son, Tommy, is seated at the dining room table. Tommy is playing his Gameboy DS and apparently not listening to the conversation. General small talk between Father and Mother until...)

Mother: ... and Tommy has been a very good boy.

Tommy: (Without looking up from his Gameboy DS) That's what SHE thinks.

(end of scene)

Happy Sunday

We're having our week-before-labor-day Sunday steaks today. The weather is so great we're not even taking a chance that it will rain next weekend. Time to put those nice T-bones on the grill. Baked potatoes too. I'm marinating tomatoes right now as well to serve.

There is something so simple and elemental about a good steak dinner. We have no plans really for today.

Dolce vita!

Tonight we don't Fringe

Well the plan was to Fringe tonight--but both Wendy and I are dead beat! OY!!!

We've seen some really great theater. We also saw one show that was pretty bad. But in the interest of not creating "bad karma" I've decided that if I really don't like a show this year, I'm just going to not blog about it.

Wendy has about 4 reviews that she wants to get done tonight. I still have shows I want to write about. If les enfants cooperate, we might be able to do that.

What you get

The other morning Wendy and I awoke to the sound of our wonderful sons screaming at each other... at the top of their lungs.

And my lovely wife turns to me and says: "I'm thinking about What do you get when you fall in love?... it isn't pretty."

The Light Rail to the MOA (Mall of America)

I had an adventure with Tony yesterday. Tommy and Wendy had plans to go see a show at the Children’s Theatre and then have dinner. I asked Tony what he wanted to do with me. We got on the Light Rail at 50th street. It was nice to get in the train since it was so hot outside.

Neither of us had been all the way southward to the MOA before. We went past Fort Snelling and the cemetery. When we got to the mall Tony wanted to play at the arcade right away. Afterwards we checked out Barnes and Noble, had dinner in the food court, and then stopped at Game Stop.

Tony convinced me that it would be OK if he used his money to buy Super Smash Brothers Melee even though it is a Teen game and he is only 12. You see, in Europe it is a 12 and up game, so it would be OK. They learn fast.

Wendy and Tommy had a great time and stopped at Chris and Rob’s Chicago style restaurant on the way home. They have NASCAR posters all around the place which Tommy thought was very cool.

Today we were just going to try to stay cool. Major thunderstorms just rolled through our area now, so hopefully the temperature will come down.

Rainy Sunday

It's a rainy Sunday here in Minnesota. We have 2 friends of the boys over today for a play date. They are all upstairs celebrating "Neurodiversity". I really haven't written much about the fact that both boys have autism.

All fours boys in our house today are part of the autism program at their school. Today is one of those days where I'm really thankful that we live in Minneapolis. Minneapolis Public Schools has a well developed autism program. All four of the boys started in the program before they were in Kindergarten. It's really great for the boys and parents to know other people and families for whom autism is a part of their lives.