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.

With new medication

This is how I feel today with my new allergy medicine. Yea!

Musings on Allergies Part I

Thursday I went to my allergist as this has been a pretty bad allergy season so far up here in Minnesota. He gave me some new meds and also mild steroids to give the medicine a big ol' boost it needs to work faster. I'm now taking Zyrtec-D and Flonase.
That's how I was before the wonder drugs.

Soon to miss - ALIAS

I've been lamenting the loss of a great TV show. Or soon to be loss, as it is going bye bye soon. That would be "Alias." Although this final season has had its interruptions, and of course, rather confusing twist and turns of a plotline, it's still a fun show to watch. And what did they do in last week's 2-hour episode? Through Vaughn back into the loop. Of course we knew he probably wasn't actually "dead" but now we still ask "Who is Vaughn?" Hopefully the last few episodes will explain a lot and leave us asking questions. That's all I have to say on that issue.