Bergonomics 101

 

 

Sue and I went to the Orpheum on Saturday afternoon for The Phantom of the Opera. This traveling production is the new version of the show which features new sets but the same music as far as I can tell. This is the first time we’ve seen Phantom live and it does live up to the hype.  There’s a reason it’s the longest running show on Broadway at 25 years.

I read about the Puccini family estate suing Andrew Lloyd Webber claiming he stole one of the tunes from a Puccini opera. There was another person who claimed Webber took his tune and then Webber counter sued him saying he stole from an earlier Webber musical. No one ever wins these cases.

I popped into the Mall of the Americas yesterday during a nasty snow storm that made the roads slippery and slow.  Sue and Christoph drove back from Wisconsin last night on the slippery roads after the Deinhammer Christmas party.

After Phantom, Sue and I headed out to Wisconsin for some Berg Family Fun Time. Here Lauren poses for the camera.

Maddy practiced her paper throwing as her mum coaches her.

I don’t remember what this one is about.

a blurry action shot of Grandpaw and the girls (Grandpaw is Texan for Grandpa)

Bella, Susan, and Maddy practiced some poses for the family photo shoot. Judy had a local photographer/friend come over Sunday morning to take some photos.

This gem was taken by yours truly.

Here is blogumentary proof that Steve wears ties!

The nurses in the family. Liz put a picture on [facebook] of the temp reading of –1.

Sue and Bella were lined up for this photo when Maddy walked up to be included. The twins will be three next month.

Liz introduces Lauren to Uncle Boomer (Pete)

The Berg side of the family is a large group of people. This may be the first time they celebrated Christmas together on a day that was not December 24th. Sharron sported the Clay Matthews jersey but wore her hair considerably shorter than Clay’s.

Mom and a Daughter

And here is the proof that Christoph, the prodigal host-son has returned from the United Arab emirates via Abu Dhabi, Paris, and Chicago. We had a nice deli-style lunch from Byerly’s including sushi, curry chicken salad, fruit salad, and sourdough bread. The amount of Christoph’s jetlag is not insignificant. . .

. . . so I put him to work sweeping the powdery snow off the front steps and sidewalk.

He reported the temperature was very cold.

And finally to end this lengthy post, Sue tore down the climbing post / Christmas tree. The cats will miss it.

Natural Habitat

 

I think the cats were drawn to their natural habitat this afternoon. 

Dark Cat on Dark Tree Skirt (which was pulled across the living room to this place)

Orange cat in orange-ish chair

Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve from the Berg-Williams!

The cats enjoyed the sights and smells of Christmas Eve dinner preparation.

For the first time in my life, I thought “I wish I had a meat hammer” when I was making the stuffed pork loin.  (Yes I used a regular hammer).  We’ll have Dorene’s crepes for breakfast tomorrow morning but I cheated and bought the crepes at the store.  Mom & Dad Berg will come for Christmas lunch tomorrow. We're going British with Prime Rib and Yorkshire Pudding.


We had a relaxing afternoon of Scrabble.  The cats did not destroy the Christmas tree so that’s new.

We’re going to watch a movie tonight before we go to the late, late church at 10:30pm.   


Merry Christmas!

Wrapped and Ready

Like that beer commercial says, it's only weird if it doesn't work. The Packers kept scoring as long as I kept wrapping and adding ribbons.  It's too bad I ran out of packages just a little bit early.

The cats can't leave the fake tree alone but they haven't touched a single ribbon on a present all season.

Today’s Plan

 

Destroy Tree.

Bathe.

Sleep.

Repeat.

Wolfram

 

 

Yes, I finally traded in my old 2003 Mazda Protégé for this 2013 new Volkswagon Jetta.  I had narrowed down my choices first to the Chevy Cruise and then to the Mazda 3.  VW is the winner.

We bought it in Burnsville where they still had a few 2013s.

I described the color to Sue as “sexy gray”.  We’ve named this car after Johanna 2’s father Wolfram.  We promised we’d pick Christoph up at the airport in a new car—he may or may not be surprised to be picked up in a People’s Car, a Volks Wagon.

Christophmas

 

Ravel has turned into a true cuddly cat when he’s not climbing the Christmas tree, biting toes or otherwise taking hostages.

 

We celebrated Christmas a little early since Christoph left for Abu Dhabi this morning.  For dinner we introduced Christoph to the best food in the world: Japanese food.  he enjoyed the sushi and the tempura but had a tough time with the chopsticks.  Look at Sue’s snazzy new sweater in tones of earth.  She bought it when we were at Macy’s Christmas shopping.

We opened some presents.  Here Christoph can be seen taking delight in a pair of Vikings slippers.  He countered by giving Sue a Packers trivia calendar.  Everything the Packers do is trivial.  Booya!

Christoph did not forget the cats.  He gave them their very own first Christmas ornaments.

 

This morning after the first church service, Sue drove Christoph to the airport to catch his flight to the United Arab Emirates via Paris via Chicago.  That’s a great trip for a 15 year old flying solo.

 

And, more of these type of photos.  We finally took all the ornaments/cat toys off of the living room tree to try to cut down on the climbing cats.

 

He’s still pretty cute even when he’s misbehaving.

Yes.

 

Sue couldn’t find a “C” stocking so Christoph was forced to go anonymous.

 

Yup.

I took photos of these guys decorating the tree.

Here’s the Puccini memorial ornament.  She used to hunt this down and remove it from the tree every night.  Nigel and Ravel have stolen a variety of ornaments.

War on Christmas

The inevitable has happened... probably around 7am Saturday morning.  

Daily Disaster

Another day, another destruction.  At what point to we declare the cats winners in this Battle Royale?  

It's impossible to be upset at this adorable face! 

Bad As They Want To Be: Orange Reaches For Orange

 

The tree skirt has not been seen in place under the tree since the moment Sue placed it there. These energetic cats enjoy using it to uncoil their spring to leap away or to dart behind the couch or worse to spring up into the middle recesses of the tree. Here, Nigel has paused for a brief moment, just enough time for the fake needles to settle.

 

Bad as I want be or rather look. This Officer Dangle (of Reno 911!) Mustache was a stop-over point on the way to clean shaven-ness. I tried to get my picture with both this mustache and Sue but she wouldn’t go for it.

 

Mr. Ravel takes a brief moment of rest.

 

Probably 50% of the ornaments are off of the tree. On the real tree in the basement we haven’t yet put up the ornaments. Wish us luck. We will celebrate an early Christmas this Saturday with Christoph before he leaves on his trip to Abu Dhabi for the chess tournament. We can’t decide if we should cook a special meal that will seem a lot like the meals we cook every night or if we should go out for German food at Glockenspiel or Japanese food at Sakura. 

Does this answer your questions about where Abu Dhabi is located? Google it readers, Google it.

This is fun!

 

Orange reaches for an orange.

 

Sue has been reattaching branches and rehanging ornaments a few times a day. I’ve been putting the downed ornaments in the box in the closet.

 

Is this a black cheetah in the tree?

 

Ravel is thinking, “when are they going to put some shiny things on this tree for me to bat around?”

 

Nigel was using this lone ornament as a punching bag.

 

Of course they are entranced by the mini disco ball!