Meet Rachel Mae Fisher!

Today was a big day in our family! My sister Debbie and husband Jeremy had their baby! A beautiful 7 lbs, 9 oz girl named Rachel Mae. She is just beautiful and has the most hair I've seen on a baby. Mother and daughter are doing very well. She was born at (seriously) 12:31pm on 12-31! She must have a great sense of timing! :) Here is one picture of her, more to come later as we go back to the hospital to visit. Yay!! It's so exciting!!

Funny video/cast of "White Christmas"

Check out this "music video" on youtube. The performers are in our production of "Irving Berlin's White Christmas" and they made this video on one of their days off. Taken from the Saturday Night Live skit with Chris Parnell and Andy Samburg, this is hysterical. Click here.

Me a Survivor fan

In addition to my love of Project Runway, I've also been a big fan of "Survivor" for most of its 13 seasons. Last night was the big ol' finale of Survivor: Cook Islands and I was soooo happy that Yul won! Woo! He played the game so well, and was incredibly nice and sincere to boot. Yay, Yul! One million bucks, man!

Photos from Dec. 9 Party

Took awhile for me to get to these, but here are some photos from our Housewarming/Birthday party last Saturday night. We also did an interfaith house blessing, and one of the photos of my and Joe's backsides (ah well..) are us putting a mezzuzah on the front door. My brother in law Jeremy read a Hebrew blessing for us, it was very nice.

Beginning to look like Christmas!

It's been awhile since I've written anything, sorry about that. It's been crazy busy at work, we currently have a six week run of "Irving Berlin's White Christmas" and it's nuts at the Ordway. People are crazy to get good tickets, which are limited at this point. So, been working longer hours, and come home rather tired. Joe and I put up lights outside of the house for the holidays, in the photo what you can't see is some cool lights near the street, outside of the fence. I'll try to get a photo of that, too and post it, it's very pretty. We got these "flood lights" and put red bulbs in them, which looks awesome against our house at night. Now all we need is some snow!

Max is stylin'

Isn't Max just too cute in his winter sweater? He doesn' t wear it indoors, we're not that weird. Just outside.

This is what "I'm Sorry!" looks like

My future Niece or Nephew!

My sister Debbie is expecting a baby in early January, the first one in our immediate family! She sent me this awesome sonogram of the little boy or girl, isn't it incredible? Look at the hair on top of the head, and I think the nose is a Hahn nose! :) Debbie and Jeremy don't want to know the sex of the baby, which is great, so it will be a beautiful surprise!

Way behind!

Boy, so it's been awhile since I've written anything, oy! Not sure where the time has gone. But nothing too new to report, actually. I was sick a few days last week, caught a nasty ol' cold that pretty much had me slammed for two and a half days, so spent the time at home resting, reading, resting, drinking tea and juices, resting, drinking more tea and juices. Today feeling about 90% better than I did Thursday for sure. And it happens to be a very lovely day in Minneapolis/St Paul, temperature close to 60, sunny skies, lovely. During the sick time, I started a new book (it seems I write a lot about books in my blog, don't I?) that I'm also just loving. It's called "The Devil in the White City" and it's an historical book about the building of the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893, revolving around two main real life persons, Daniel Burnham the architect behind the design of this World's Fair, and H.H. Holmes, probably America's first serial killer, who was doing his bad deeds in southern Chicago at the time leading up to and during the Exposition of 1893. Very fascinating story, and a true one. The book reads like a great novel, but the fact that it's all true is even more compelling. I promise to keep up on my writing better than I have! That's all for now.

What I'm Reading

Or actually, what I've just completed reading. This incredible story called "The Thirteenth Tale." It's a great story for people who love books, who love to read, and who love a "ghost story" of sorts. Not a scary ghost story, but think beyond the idea of a ghost and what that might mean outside of the supernatural, and that's what this story is. I LOVED this book, I pretty much devoured it in a week. It's about a woman who works in her father's antique book store and she gets the opportunity to write the biography of "the most beloved and famous author" in England. This author is an elderly woman who has been known to "tell lies" when asked about herself and her past. Now she feels she is ready to tell the whole truth. She gets the biographer's attention by saying..."Let me tell you a ghost story..." no interest from Margaret, the biographer, then "Let me tell you a story about twins..." and that hooks Margaret. Read this great book and see why....

We have a Raccoon!

Last night I was looking out of our sunroom window into the dark front yard, and noticed an animal sitting by the tree that was too big to be one of the many squirrels that hangs around, eating bird seed from the bird feeder, when suddenly some light came from the street and I was like "Wow, we have a badger or what are they called... in our yard, Joe come look!" And sure enough, there was this large sort of fat raccoon just digging away in the dirt eating bird seed and whatever else he was finding, and just staring at us. Joe took his camera outside and of course, the 'coon went up into the tree, hence this great photo. Joe has named him "Old Deuteronomy" from the T.S. Eliot book of poems of Cats. We think maybe he was the cause of some scratchin' we were hearing one late night that sounded like it was from the roof.

Reality TV addiction?

So, somehow I got completely sucked into "Project Runway" this season. Practically can't get enough of it. And the waiting for a new episode on a weekly basis just makes the time inbetween episodes go ever more slowly. I just have to find out "who will be auf'd" each week! In all honesty, this is a really good show as reality TV goes. I am a fan of "Survivor" "the Amazing Race" and things like "Who Will Be the Next Food Network Star?" or "Who Will be the Next HGTV Design Star?" (and by the way, I'm super happy that David won this one!!) But Project Runway just won't let me go. The designers are all fascinating characters, they create "interesting" to "intriguing" to "bizzare" designs, and it's just too fun. And when they fight amongst themselves, it's awesome. :) If you haven't checked it out, you should sometime and you'll see what I mean. -- "Make it work!"

House Interiors

I've finally taken a few shots of the interior of our new house for those of you whom haven't been able to see it yet. So, here's a shot of the master bedroom (actually just a corner of it, it's a very large airy room), a shot of the living room and our lovely sunroom. We are really enjoying the home, and Max is now more at home, too. I'll write more later.

What I'm Reading Lately

So, I've been in sort of a reading funk lately, probably because I've been concentrating a lot on the move into the new house, and being sort of busy at work. But, here's what I have on my nightstand recently. The new book by the author of "A Simple Plan" entitled "The Ruins." A really good, rather spooky, story set in Mexico about four friends who go off to look for an excavation party, but run into some rather harrowing things along the way. Including creepy vines. It's a good well-written story that keeps me on the edge of my seat. I'm also reading Julia Cameron's book about writing "The Right to Write." It's a great book about getting the creative writing juices flowing, with nice tasks to get back to writing. So I've gotten a new "school notebook" to do these exercises and it's been pretty fun. Just getting some creative juices going again is a good thing.

Max and the yard

Here's a cute picture that Joe took on his phone, of Max sitting in our new yard enjoying the sun. On a tether of course, sadly since we're on a busy street and there are gaps in the fence, he could get out if he set his mind to it, so we keep him on a tether which is fine.

All Moved in!

Friday was "big move day" with guys from Two Men and a Truck. Everything is pretty much moved in, unpacked, and settled in our new home! It's very exciting. We've been very busy this weekend getting our stuff situated, and building two wardrobes and two nightstands from Ikea. The place is looking sooo nice, it's a great feeling. Rather worn out from it all, but in a good way. Max is starting to get more comfortable I think, he's been feeling weird, he gets confused and agitated with a move like this. I will take some interior photos soon and post them as well. Looking forward to having friends and family over! More later. :)

Brunch with family

Joe and I had a lovely brunch this morning with my sister Debbie, husband Jeremy, and Jeremy's parents Morris and Natalie, in town for the weekend from Chicago. We went to the Modern Cafe, a fantastic cafe in NE Minneapolis. I had scrambled eggs with tomato, brie and spinach, delicious.... It was great to catch up with everyone, it's always fun to hang out with Morris and Natalie, and of course fabulous to hang out with my sister and Jeremy. Debbie is starting to show, she's due to give birth in January!! Yea! I'm going to be an uncle! :)
They all went by our new house and are very happy we're buying it. It'll be fun to entertain people in the new house. Closing tomorrow morning!! Woo! I hope I can sleep tonight, I'm very anxious!

Then I had to come to work the last two performances of "Rent." So, a full day to be sure. More later after we close on the house!

I Love the Minneapolis Skyline!

Especially during a storm, isn't this a cool photo?

Closing Date Set!

So we have a closing date for the bungalow! Monday August 14th! We won't move in immediately, want to do some initial cleaning and minor fixing up of some things, and be able to take our time getting settled. We will most likely completely move in the following week sometime, we'll keep you posted. Huzzah! A new venture in our lives. Joe found an interesting organization in the Twin Cities of bungalow home owners, which we shall sometime join. See their site here.

NOT a Monster House

Joe and I are in the process of purchasing this fantastic home only a half mile from where we currently reside. Wooo! We are so excited! This happened pretty quickly, we just decided what the heck, let's take a look at it and just loved it. It's a 1918 Craftsman (Arts and Crafts) style home and is in really good condition. Only a few rather minor repairs are needed. Last night we met with a building inspector (who was fantastic, so if you ever need one, let us know) and after agreeing that the building was sound, the SOLD sign went up on the post. We will set a closing date soon, and will keep everyone posted. Most likely we'll close within three weeks. Here are just three photos - Sunroom, Living Room and Exterior. Yay!!!

Monster House

I am looking forward to this animated film, "Monster House." Why? Well, who didn't as a child know of a "haunted" house in their hometown, and firmly believe there were witches, ghosts or zombies living in it? In Clear Lake, there were three such houses that "all the kids" thought had some sort of spookiness to it. There was a house in my neighborhood that had a small "forest" in the backyard and I swear the people who lived there would stand around in the forest watching us kids, but not hardly move a muscle. So we dubbed this the Zombie House. Then there was a house on the south shore of the lake, that was all stone and cobblestone, and the woman who lived there had scary big grey hair, wore BLACK (which was unheard of in the '70s) and sometimes when driving past her house your car would stall! Scary...so this was the Witch's House. Then lastly, just down the road from the Witch's House was the Doll House. And this was for real. This house was owned by a couple who had two life sized dolls that they would set around the living room (and all could see them as the house had a big picture window). They would set them at the piano, in two rocking chairs, etc. No one knew really why this did this, it was thought maybe they had lost two children. Anyway, I'm looking forward to this film, lots of little kids running around the theater or not.

"Wicked"-ly awesome show

Joe and I had the great opportunity to see "Wicked" on Thursday of this week. It was truly one of the most incredible stage productions I've seen, and I've/we've both seen a lot. It doesn't really stick too true to the fantastic novel by Gregory Maguire, but the gist of his story was there. The musical added a lot of really good humour, especially out of the mouth of Galinda, who becomes Glinda the Good as the show progresses. I could completely see how this role must have been written with Kristen Chenoweth in mind, who originated the role on Broadway. Anyway, it was a big production full of lots of great stage magic, costumes, lighting and music. A sold out house, too, which is always more fun. If you get the chance to see it somewhere - do see it. You won't regret it, or the sort of high cost. :)

Fourth of July

We spent five lovely, warm days in Clear Lake for the Fourth this year. Along with my sister Debbie, her husband Jeremy, and my sister Julie (Dia) and her husband, Tim. And of course two dogs, Max and Daisy. Lots of good grilling, seeing the aunts and uncles and some cousins as well. The fireworks over the lake were awesome this year, as they had three barges on the lake from which they shot the fireworks, so it was really incredible. The 4th of July parade was about the same as always, lots of local advertising mainly, with some state politics thrown in. Here is a link to a video of some safe, legal fireworks we had, that Debbie got for us, and we set off on the 3rd. Notice a certain dog barking in the background?
Click here.

Max senses a spirit? Or just sniffin'.....

Over the 4th of July, which I will write more about soon, I took this quick little video of Max on the deck in Clear Lake, he seems to smell or sense something...it's cute, check it out. Click here.

More summer reading

For those of you out there who are following my summer reading, here's a short update. I have given up on "Ulysses" for now. Just a bit too much for a summer read. Oh well. I shall, though, attempt it maybe as a winter effort.
My very good friend Lynn loaned me two books, one of which I have finished, one I haven't started yet. The one I finished is called "Q & A" and is about a "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" type quiz show in India. It was an awesome story. I highly recommend it to anyone else looking for good characterizations and fun storyline.
I am now reverting back to my love of a good mystery by reading a PD James mystery, "A Taste for Death." So far, so good. Has all the things one expects in a murder mystery. Death, an inspector, the usual. And it's British as opposed to the Swedish mysteries I've been reading lately.

I have photos from the Fourth of July that I will work on this weekend, so stay tuned for Fourth of July update, albeit a bit after the fact. :)

Christmas in June? What the...?

At my job yesterday at the ol' Ordway Center, it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas. We had a huge event for the on-sale of "Irving Berlin's White Christmas." And yes, people came in throngs to get their tickets for this holiday show. The lobby was all adorned in holiday ornaments, a scary sight for late June, with carolers strolling around the lobby, holiday cookies, a very expensive 18 foot tree, and yes, Santa. There was an attempt to force us to wear Santa hats, but there was a coup and only a couple of people did. Hats don't do well on me.

Ulysses!

My attempt at reading "Ulysses" is going rather, um, slowly shall we say...it's a pretty difficult book, I didn't realize. I do feel like I'm back in school in some ways. I may have to get some Cliff Notes for this one! So far, in the first 12 pages, it's rather "stream of consciousness-like." I barely have an idea of what is happening, so this should be interesting. Just thought I'd keep everyone up to date on my progress. Or lack thereof. :( Doesn't mean I'm giving up, though!

The new Guthrie Theater!

-Tennesse Williams
On Sunday, Father's Day, Joe and I went to the Stone Arch Festival of the Arts, which is always a fun time. Lots of cool artists and their wares, and some yummy albeit "not so healthy" food to chow on as well. Didn't buy any art this year, rather unusual for me. I'm a huge supporter of the independent artist, and generally can always find even more photography to purchase. Too much sometimes, so maybe it's a good thing I didn't find anything that completley "struck me." Then we went across the river to look at the new Guthrie Theater. It is simply incredible. The entire outside is like one big reflection of the outlying buildings, and they have huge metallic "photos" of various playwrights, from Tennesse Williams to August Wilson. Their first production in the new space is a play version of probably one of my favorite books, "The Great Gatsby." So, we'll be getting tickets for that very soon.

A Summer attempt at the Modernist Classic

This summer, I've decided to tackle what is considered the 20th century's modernist classic in literature, James Joyce's "Ulysses." Pray for me. :) When I was in college, and off during the summer, I would always choose light, sometimes on the verge of fluffy, books to read. Now that I'm all growed up, I thought this summer would be a good time to tackle a tough one. I'll keep you up to date on my progress. Wish me luck!

Ken Doll

So back in the early '80s, I lived in Des Moines, working at Younkers Dept. Store for some time. Somehow it happened that I became good friends with people who were in bands, of course now I can't remember any of the bands' names, it's been too long. But there was this one band that had this lead singer, a guy named David I believe, who for some reason once told me "Ken, you're like a Ken doll. But a Ken doll from Hell." I of course wasn't sure how he meant that, but I took it as a compliment because I think I had a crush on him. Then in college, some of my friends also started calling me Ken doll. One friend in particular, who spoke French as I do, took to calling me Ken Doll d'enfer - Ken doll from Hell. Hmmm.... what does this mean? She in no way knew these friends in Des Moines, and would have had no idea of this moniker. Nonetheless, it so happens I was born the same year that the Ken doll was "born." I don't think the doll influenced my parents' decision to name me thusly. And I still have at least one very good friend who calls me Ken doll occasionally, or at least just "Doll." You know who you are. :)

More Photos from Memorial Day '06

Aunt Marge and Joe enjoying the sun on the deck, after filling up with delicious burgers and grilled chicken, yum. Also a photo of the two sides of the Hahn family, my Mom's sister and her husband, as well as my Dad's youngest brother. They live in Clear Lake so it's always very nice to see them when we go down to the lake.

What I've Finished Reading Lately...

I've been reading a lot of modern mysteries lately. I've always been a big fan of the mystery genre, but mostly "classic" stories like those of Agatha Christie, PD James, etc. My friend Lynn told me about a good one called "Turning Angel" which was very good and sort of had a "Twin Peaks" feel about it. That may be partially why she knew I'd enjoy it, as I'm also a fan of "Twin Peaks." Then my sister Debbie's mother in law, Natalie, gave her a book to give to me since she knew I liked mysteries. It's called "Firewall" by a Swedish writer named Henning Mankell. I couldn't put it down! It has a good mix of "CSI" type forensics and sort of bizzare twists that completely kept my nose in the book. So I finished that one, and well, picked up a couple of other Henning Mankell books, one of which I just finished in Clear Lake, "One Step Behind." This was written prior to "Firewall" so it's kind of fun to be reading these stories in reverse. They have the same main character, so it's fun to see what happened to characters before the last book. Try them out, trust me if you like good crime fiction, these all are well worth it. Soon I will start posting about "what's on my nightstand" - waiting to be read.

Memorial Day Weekend '06

We went to Clear Lake over the longer Memorial Day weekend. The weather was great, if a bit on the warm side for this time of year. Spent a lot of time on the deck, eating, reading and doing watercolours. On Sunday we had some of our relatives over for a picnic/barbecue. I will put some of those photos up here soon, too. My sister Debbie was with us for the weekend, too, so that was very nice. Her husband Jeremy had soccer tournaments back in Minneapolis and couldn't make it. Max dog loves going to Clear Lake as well. Lots of new scents, lots of squirrels to bark at and lots of sun. He loves sitting on the deck in the sun, but it also makes him very sleepy, as in the photo above. Maybe we need to get him some good sunglasses, too!

Da Vinci Code

Considering the opening weekend of "The Da Vinci Code" brought in a cool $77 million, it's good to know that movie goers aren't paying attention to the crazy critics. We saw the film on opening night and thought it was just excellent. I don't see how it could have been done any other way, this isn't exactly a "blow up cars" action film, it's a thinking person's action film. Sure, there may have been some slower moments, but how else could all the "figuring out the codes" be done? In my opinion, the chemistry between the two main characters was just right, they weren't suppose to have that much chemistry anyway, not according to the book. So, go out and see this fine film. Or at least read the book, it is very good and brings up a lot of interesting ideas.

Musings on a Disaster film

How excited am I that there is a good remake of a classic 1970s disaster film? I'm talking about the new "Poseidon." I LOVED the original one from the '70s with Gene Hackman and Shelley Winters. It's sort of campy and of course has "There's Got to be a Morning After" theme song by the spectacular Maureen McGovern. So yes, I was very excited and yet skeptical about a remake. But the reviews are looking good, it has a great cast including Richard Dreyfuss and Kurt Russell and the lovely Emmy Rossum. My first "disaster" film I ever saw was "Airport." I was pretty young and I remember sitting in the very front row and being blown away by it. That was the start of my love of the disaster film. "The Poseidon Adventure" soon followed which set off a wave of (some good, some not so) other disaster films like "The Towering Inferno," "Earthquake," "Midway" just to name a few. I don't really know what it is about them that I've enjoyed so much, it's not that I like to see others suffer, maybe it was especially just the special effects. So Joe and I are going to see "Poseidon" this Sunday afternoon and I for one am very excited. I'll give my review next week. :)

Off to the Lake!

Not a lot has been happening recently, hence no new updates. Last Sunday we went with our friends Lynn and Gene to a very interesting lecture by a man named Matthew Fox. (not the dude from "Lost" mind you...) he's a theologian and he talked about creativity and spirituality. It was very interesting and insightful. Tomorrow taking the day off and loadin' up the VW and heading to Clear Lake for three restful days. Hoping the weather will be nice, we really want to do some yard work and gardening in the front of the house. There's an area in front that is so shaded and sort of worn, that there isn't much grass there so figured we would do a lot of plants that thrive in shade. Should be nice.

Max really enjoys the trip as well, which is fun. A change of scenery for him. He's a good little traveler, as well, pretty much just sleeps in his "Outward Hound" car seat.

The photo is an old photo from the 1960s when we had an "aqua car" in Clear Lake. My dad loved interesting vehicles and this was one that was completely fun.

All About Max the Dog

How could I have this space and not talk about our dog, Max? Max is our little 9 lb short-hair dachshund. He is almost nine years old, so getting a little grey in the nose area. He's a very loyal and loving dog and really enjoys his time with his humans. How did we come to get Max? About seven years ago, Joe was walking in our old neighborhood and spotted a woman walking two dachshunds. Joe commented on what a cute pair they were and she said" thanks, want one?" About a month later we decided we wanted to have a dog, so Joe went to this lady's house to see if she was serious about giving up Max. Indeed she was, and she said "he'll be at your door in half an hour." Now, she wasn't being mean, and it wasn't anything about Max, she and her husband had taken him in for a friend who was very sick, and they already a dachshund and some cats, and it was just too much for them. So, Max came to our house, bounded up the stairs in and into laps and has been happy as a clam ever since.