A day with two little boys

Gpappy/Larry/Dad and I spent the day on Oliver Avenue with Mr. Ethan and Mr. Owen, two adorable 16-month-olds we all know and love. CP and APP needed a back-up for the boys in case Owen's brief illness wasn't over yet. Grandma Dar had fun with O and E on Tuesday, and we took the job on Wednesday. Happily for all, Owen was feeling much better and Ethan showed no signs of the virus, so playing was the order of the day. There was lots going on, including...

sending texts to Mommy...

making phone calls to Daddy...

lots and lots of reading...

tickling Grandpappy's toes...

taking advantage of G'pappy's head massage service...

getting tips about riding a police motorcycle...

and being cute!

On another topic,

While with Ethan and Owen today, I got a call from Gpa CReps. It was an unintentional call--he had pushed the speed dial for my cell phone number and hadn't realized it. The call terminated before he knew I was on the other end, so I called him back to find out if he was trying to reach me. In true Gpa style, he said, "Nope." But, he was amenable to talking, so we did.

A few days ago he told me that Wayne Fenske, the high school football coach in Spring Valley, was planning to bring all 50 Kingsland football players to the Care Center at 7:00 on Tuesday morning so Gpa CReps could give them a pep talk. I asked him what he thought about that, and he said he was okay with it. He's pretty much unflappable. This morning when I returned his call, I asked how it went. He said each player shook his hand, introduced himself and said what position he played, and afterward Wayne presented him with a new football signed by all the players. I don't know if there was a photo op, but if so, I'll post a picture at a later date. Pretty sweet thing to do, and obviously Gpa CReps enjoyed it.

 ---------------------------

I asked Mark, Mike, and Mary Jo if they'd heard anything from Gpa Charlie about this, and here is my brother Mike's version:

I talked to Dad last night right before the Twins game and the first thing I happened to ask him was if anyone stopped by.
"Yeah, but I don't remember who."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah.... oh that's right, 50 football players from SVHS came by for a pep rally."
I figured this was it. Dad finally slipped off the deep end. I didn't understand what he said, so he repeated it again to me.
"There were NOT 50 football players there to see you," I said to him.
"Oh yes there were."
"I suppose there were cheerleaders, too?" I asked sarcastically.
"Nope. No cheerleaders."
"Why not?"
"Because they don't have cheerleaders any more at SV."
"You're serious about the 50 football players?"
"Yep." He went on to tell me Wayne Fenske brought the team by the Care Center. He met them out in the common area, they all introduced themselves and gave him a signed football. He said it was really something. He thought Wayne was pretty nice to do that for him.
Then a classic Dad reaction.
"Just what I need. A football." I told him to hang on to it, one day one of those signatures might be worth something. He agreed. It sounded like he had a great day!
 
--Mike

Boston, Part One: Award festivities and fine dining

We are back home after eight days in Boston. While a travelogue may seem appropriate after traveling, a question/answer format might be less painful to read!

Why did we go to Boston?

We went for a convention, and stayed for a few extra days of vacation. The American Chemical Society meeting, which drew something like 20,000 academic, environmental, industrial, and other types of chemists to Boston drew us, also. Dad/Larry/Paco/Gpappy gave a talk as the 2010 recipient of the J. Calvin Giddings Award for Excellence in Teaching--a wonderful and much-deserved honor, I might add. Four Gusties were in the audience, including a Gustavus Board of Trustees member (and former student), two more-recent former students, and a department colleague.

Boston Convention Center atrium

Schedule outside symposium room

Larry and Gustie friends

Award plaque...

Dinner at the Harvard Faculty Club was the icing on the award cake, so to speak. It has as intense an old-time academic feel as a place can have, and serves dang good food and wine, too. Tom Annseley (GAC grad and current Board member) accompanied us. Tom was one of Larry/Dad/Paco/Gpappy's students at the start of L/D/P/G's teaching career at Gustavus, so it was particularly fitting that he was a part of the day's events.

Harvard Faculty Club dining room 

(picture from Google; not sure if professors are fake, but I think so)

Where did we eat in Boston?

Thanks to six generous kids and their little ones, who provided gift cards and "no bill" arrangements as an anniversary treat, we had a great taste of Boston!

Dunkin' Donuts: Breakfasts of donuts and coffee....self explanatory!

Finagle's Bagels: Breakfasts of bagels and coffee....ditto...although I have to give a shout out for Finagle's French toast bagels. Oh my!

Legal Sea Foods: We chose the venue at Long Wharf. Great setting, a personable waiter who looked and sounded like Tim O'Brien, and delicious sea food... L/D/P/G had haddock and I had a combo of the best scallops I've ever eaten, broiled shrimp, and a luscious crab cake.

Mamma Maria's: This is the best food in Boston, I'm quite sure. Take a look at the menu, but ignore the price, since they don't bring a bill. Ha ha! The site of E & E's wedding reception, it was a delight to eat there again. We even sat in the same location in the second floor dining room as we'd had for the wedding dinner. Coincidence? I wonder...

Dad offers a toast to the providers of our fine dinner!

Menu, as if you can't figure it out...

Rustic bread, pesto, and olives...molto delizioso! At this point Dad made me stop taking photos, so imagine the best dinner you've ever had, and you'll know what it looked like!

Note to kids: Be assured that we were pinnacles of decorum and did not spill wine on anyone wearing a white shirt, nor did we howl at the moon on our way back to the hotel.

This is all I can manage for now. Note that the title of this entry indicates that it is part one; I'll give thought to additional installments. A blog reader can only take so much before moving on to check Face Book.

Happy Birthday to Evan!

Let's all give a shout out (or whatever the current terminology preference is) for Evan's 37th birthday...

 

Happy Birthday, Evan!

Aside to the birthday boy:

Please note that I could have chosen any number of jaunty photos of you to display in honor of your birthday, but decided I'd keep it mature, tasteful, and artistic.

It's a Craftsman!

The new mower was delivered today, much to Grandpappy's delight. Turn the sound up to hear the engine roar and GJill's irritating laugh.

(Miles, this looks a bit like the one you got to sit on tonight at the fair!)

Uncle Don was here

I won't go into the ridiculous details surrounding how Mike Potts took possession of the Toro riding mower that used to belong to Grandpappy's pappy at the risk of raising a ruckus (Teresa knows the story in detail, so contact her if you must.). Rather, here is photographic evidence that three guys can load a riding mower onto a pickup truck without the aid of a ramp. A neighbor had offered  his ramp but he was out of town today when the pickup came for the pick-up. That was Plan A. Plan B involved temporarily pilfering a different neighbor's jungle gym slide to use as a pseudo-ramp (this neighbor was also out of town). Thankfully, Plan B was discarded when the thought of two little girls coming home to a dented, cracked, and unusable slide attacked the conscience of one of the potential perpetrators.

In the midst of transferring ownership of the mower to our nephew, who seemed appreciative to have a convenient and relatively speedy conveyance to groom his lawn, I managed a semi-surreptitious pass off of a couple of items to Uncle Don that have been stored in a box in our garage for nearly a decade, since the summer of 2001. The box made the trip from Buffalo, NY, when Larry and Don cleaned out the family home after their dad moved to MN. Larry will undoubtedly miss these valuable items now that they aren't in a box in the garage, especially if Don and Janet take them to the Antiques Road Show and make thousands of dollars. 


Why do people always lean in when a picture is taken? Back pain?

A fine morning at the fair

The Nicollet County Fair is underway, and Grandpappy has whined for the last couple of years that he has had no one to take to see the "amnals" on the Saturday morning when pigs are judged for their beauty and mystique no less than 50 yards from the Pork Producers' pork sandwich stand. It's always been one of those ironies of life that he's appreciated.  Well, Miles is too young for irony, but not too young to appreciate pigs, chickens, cows, horses, and bunnies. We look forward to the mid-August Saturday morning of the future when Hannah, Ethan, and Owen can walk around together inside the little livestock buildings and enjoy the animals and then sit on tractors and other implements at the Nicollet County Fair. In the meantime, here's a pictorial of what they'll see and do.

Miles' new friend Daisy is returned to her stable area 

after a cool shower with a power washer outside in the sun. 

Nice chickens when they're confined to a pen, 

but Miles did not take a liking to a 4-H-er 

who walked around the poultry barn with 

a hen riding on his shoulder, parrot style.

This little calf was a favorite. So soft!

These baby alpacas were silky and pretty. They were somewhat

standoffish, but Miles was fascinated by them.

 

 The petting area had lots of sweet baby animals. 

 Grandpappy and Miles loved them all.

Miles pets a sleepy baby goat.

 Here is Miles with various tractors and other farm equipment.

Grandpappy with "Big Wheel" Miles!

Happy #5, Annie & Tanner!

We're glad you two found each other!  Happy Anniversary!