Sunny Sunday

The trees have just started turning colors.  It seems a little later than usual but we deserve a warm fall after having such a long winter.  We keep telling Christoph how unusual this year has been.  

The “Great Migration” of Bergs has begun and we are collecting cars at the Berg-Williams Park’N’Fly. 

The long shadows of fall make it look like Batman is here.  Ravel and Nigel are keeping an eye out for the Guest Cat but he isn’t very happy when he’s been “found” by these wild boys. 

After a busy week, it was a somewhat lazy, but well-deserved weekend around here. 

Breaking Worse

 Sue said I was dressed with a conflicted, studied casualness: flannel shirt, Twins hoodie, Twins cap, German polo shirt, sunglasses, shabby beard.  What do you think?

*****

Tomorrow night Christoph will go to the Twins game with a group of students from St. Paul Prep.  [cookie] The seats are $5 so we can predict how high up in the grandstands and how far out in left field they will be.  The hot dogs are $1 - Christoph asked if they were good.  Let me answer in Japanese, "Hoto doggu wa chotto . . . "

 

 The team plays again on Thursday in Brooklyn Park.  [me likes cookies] The B-W house will be sending three fans to the game since Mike and Judy will be in town.  I have to stay home to host my first pastor intern meeting for which I was hoping that Judy might supply a batch of home made cookies.  Might she respond to these subliminal [cookie] messages?

 I think Sue enjoyed some coffee out of the cup that displays the flag of Christoph's Motherland. [cookie]

We're working on breaking [cookie monster] the cats of some of their worst habits.

Diehard (the one where Bruce Willis goes to a soccer game)

The SPP Falcons beat a charter school whose name involves these concepts: “peace, community, love, higher, and possibly ground”.  I think the score was 3 –1 but you have to pay really close attention in soccer.


We talked to a few host parents and parents of our team members.  We met the Afghanistan boy’s father and Jose from Mexico and Albert from France.  The other team tossed about a plethora of colorful language, for which they were reprimanded by the ref.  There were even a few red cards handed out.  I hope their coach lectured them about being good sportsmen.


The weather was chilly but we are diehard fans.


Christoph said the field turf was exactly like the stuff he’s played on in Germany.  I guess the grass is not always greener on the other side of the ocean.  (Could someone please give me a “ba-dum-bump”?)


In the second half, the opposing team had the ball near our goalie only once.


Here is Nigel blending in with his surroundings.  In the wild, orange cats like to hang out in the bamboo flooring forests and in the lanes of bowling alleys.  I just sat down on my black office chair that was inhabited by Ravel doing his best impersonation of a black office chair. (Photo not available)


Here we were on our way to church at 820 am Sunday.


This is becoming a noon on Sunday ritual.  Guess what sport Christoph is watching on TV?


The Minnesota Vikings!  He has become a fan of football even with the Vikings starting the season with three straight losses.  I’ve been encouraging him to refer to the Vikings as “we” and the Packers as “they” as in “they are going to lose again, aren’t they?”  This is smack talk.


At halftime, Christoph was sent out on “stick detail” to clear the lawn for a mowing that Sue did later in the afternoon.


I made some more cuts in our on-going wood work project.  Even more importantly, I made some measurements on some pieces for some custom cuts that Duke has promised to do when I bring the wood to Eleva.

Live from St. Paul

Live from St Paul

All of the Mamericas

 

Here’s a previously posted photo of St. Paul as seen from Harriet Island (which is still not an island).  This morning we’ll go to the Swooping Falcons of St. Paul Prep’s soccer game at McMurray Field in St. Paul.  Sue tells us they have the field turf there but I’ve never been there.

 

And these are some photos from last Monday’s band concert at Southview Acres nursing home.  This concert was postponed the previous week for high temperatures and humidity but at the first downbeat (kickoff) the temperature was less than 60.  Fall is upon us.

 

We played in the courtyard to a nice sized audience.

 

Last night we went to the Mall of the Americas for Sue to take advantage of the great sales at Loft and Das Banana Republik.  Christoph went there on the bus after school with a couple of boys named Jose an a girl from Columbia.  Christoph told us there at least six kids in his school named “Jose”.

 

Christoph wore blue pants but that’s OK since one of the saxophone players who has been in the band for at least a decade wore gray pants.  This afternoon, Sue and I will drive to River Falls (The City On The Kinni) for one of her classmate’s art show.  We heard that the husband of Sue’s classmate will be spinning vinyl LPs for entertainment.  That should be entertaining.

Pandas, Pastors, Parks

 

Friday night before my dinner hour rehearsal with the trombone quartet we stopped in at The Panda Express for some pretty fast yet tasty Chinese food.  Christoph approved but thought it was a huge meal.  It was.

Saturday morning we went to the boy’s rest-o’-the-world (non-American (soccer)) football game in Bayport.  They played a small private school’s varsity team that had 7th-12th graders.  They were not the best team but they beat SPP’s under-practiced (under-rehearsed) team.  SPP had to recruit a goalie from one of the students that came to watch the game because nine SPP players were absent.  In their defense, they heard about Saturday’s game on Wednesday.  Host families make plans for the weekend and sometimes before the Wednesday prior to the weekend.  There’s Christoph wearing the number 5.

The score was something like 6 to 1.

Their coach (in the blue hoodie) is a SPP teacher whose name I have not yet learned.  Erik the athletic director was at the game too.

Sunday afternoon we attended Ingrid’s ordination ceremony/church service.  Janet from the bell choir/church/the band carpooled with us to the church in south Minneapolis.  Sue stayed for the soup meal after the service.  Everyone loves Ingrid.

There were many many pastor-like people there including Mark, Augustana’s senior pastor.

The pastor reading is the bishop of the Minneapolis Synod.  We received communion from her.

And then after the 90 minute service, Christoph and I had to hustle over to Edina for the band concert at the indoor park/amphitheater known as Edinborough.  Christoph did well playing 10 out of 11 of the pieces for the first time with no rehearsal!

We came home at 830pm and had a frozen pizza dinner.  What a chaotic weekend!

Would you like to open a Target credit card?

What happens when you wear a red polo shirt and Khaki pants to Target?  The woman at the photo department asked me if I was there to pick up my check.  A woman near the coffee makers said, "I'm sure you can help me. . . " but I quickly said that I probably could not since I was not officially a Target employee.  Actually, I probably could have helped her but I didn't want to interfere in the Target employee's job security.  And then at the checkout, the checker person said she thought I was a worker coming through her line.  We laughed and I asked her to take my picture. Voila!  Next, I'll wear my blue polo shirt to Walmart.

CG Phone Home

 

Christoph and his mother arranged for her to call precisely at 1pm (central standard daylight savings time) today.  They were going to try to Skype but chose to communicate in the 20th century manner.  Even though we knew she was going to call, I picked up the phone at 1:00 and had no idea whose number was on the display (a 763- number which is the west metro) nor who was identifying herself on the other line.  Elisabeth, I’m sorry I didn’t immediately recognize your voice!  By the way, Christoph was watching American football--the Vikings play da Bears when you called.

 

It is a cool and cloudy early fall afternoon.  This is a good day for the orange cat to take a nap.  I’ll post some photos from Christoph’s first soccer game soon.

In a little while we’re all going to former intern Ingrid’s pastor ordination at her new church in Minneapolis.  After that Christoph and I will play a band concert at that odd indoor park in Edina.  Tschuss!

Nigel Danger

 We went to the St. Paul Prep family picnic last evening on Harriett Island which is nowhere near Lake Harriett nor is it an island. Most of the students walked to Harriett from school which is probably about a mile or so--a good walk for a bunch of teenagers.

 A spontaneous soccer game appeared in the wide open spaces of this river side park. For lovers of earthen mounds (Pete in Milwaukee), you can see the flood wall/mound in this photo which is designed to keep the Mississippi River reasonably controlled during the occasional high waters. There was a mark on the wall inside the pavilion showing the high water marks from various years. I remembered the 1993 and the 2001 floods.

It was a huge potluck--we brought 4 lbs of Sloppy Broseph, aka Manwich, aka BBQ Beef and buns. With 230 students, host families, and teachers, there was a nice variety of foods to sample.

Frau Red Pants

  From this angle, you can't even see the lower town Galtier Towers of St. Paul Prep.

Here is the new "Bad Boy" activity: leaping up and down from the cabinet above the stove. Very Dangerous, Nigel! Cats don't listen to reason.

Off to school. I said, "Christoph, let me take a picture for your mother." I haven't seen him pull out any sort of camera yet. He's pretty excited about playing soccer tomorrow alongside his Spanish and Brazilian teammates. After the game we'll stop in at former neighbor Sarah and Tom's housewarming party in Sommerset, Wisconsin.

Happy Birthday K-gru

Christoph's older sister Katharina had a birthday earlier this week. I believe she is now 19. This photo is from our fridge where it still hangs above the photo of our three cats Mahler, Puccini, and Milhaud, and next to a French cat wearing a beret. Note the fridge magnets.

Looking to the Western Sky

Here is the sunset over Minneapolis as seen from the door I exit my hospital from after work. I guess this is East River Road.

Truck Driving

Here is the type of rig my brother Mike drives through the great state of Ohio. I think he said this triple trailer was 30 meters long!

Custard Eating

In Milwaukee we stopped at Culver's for the their daily special: the $1 root beer float. Root beer mixed with vanilla custard.  Yummy, but don't ask me what custard is. . .

Trumpet Playing

Here is a trumpet playing action shot from band rehearsal on Monday night.  Christoph will be doubling the 2nd trumpet part but his stand partner was not there for rehearsal! C-gru sight read the music very well.

My transcript arrived. The master's degree is official!

Earlier/Later and Blacker/Whiter

 Guten Morgen. This morning I am on-call for awhile--I expect to be called in around noon but it could be much or a little bit earlier or later. I will try to get some classwork done and read ahead. Also, I am helping Sue with her arrangement of the tune the kids taught us in Tanzania Under One Sky. Her 8th grade band will perform this arrangement sometime this school year.

 Yes, these are old photos, we are not feeding Christoph MikeDonald's daily!

 Christoph came with me to band rehearsal last night and seemed to have a good time playing a lot of music in 90 minutes. The concert was postponed until next week due to the 94 degree temperatures. We sight-read Superman! from the 1970s movie by the same name.

 Susan The Thinker

Yes, more boating photos.

Christoph's first soccer practice is Wednesday and his first game is already this Saturday morning in Stillwater (Stilleswasser Stadt)! Swoop Falcons!

Kevin and Cathy at the Alehouse

Nigel in his house

. . . Greased Lightning . . .

 White Out / Black Cat

Sue's school is having a "white out" day to support one of their teams in some sort of sporting event. All the teachers and students will wear white or something.

Nigel is one of the cuter cats around

Here's Christoph walking by my office early in the morning after being up late doing homework last night.