Congratulations to workmate Kelly who got married to Kim last Saturday afternoon.  Another successful internet match!

Halloween Greetings from Bronson Hoglund!  Looks like he and Michael have been pretty busy!!!

A great way to experience the opera is to take the opera bus.  Today we met at 8:00 a.m. and after a couple of stops to pick up passengers, arrived at the St. Paul Hotel for brunch where a table had been reserved for us.  Afterwards, we strolled over to the Ordway where there was a lecture introducing us to the main themes and melodies of the opera at 1:00 and then the performance at 2:00 p.m.  We were back on the road home by 5:30 p.m. and only made one stop at a rest stop.  We pack a picnic lunch for the drive home along with books and knitting and usually have a very productive and entertaining ride both ways.

We always meet very interesting people and today I was able to visit with the Professor who inspired me to stretch my musical wings back in the 80s.  Professor Anna Anderson still teaches at UMD; I took her Introduction to Music class.  She had a very structured point system and if you did your assignments and attended class (you got points for both), it was pretty hard not to get an A.  One of the assignments was to attend three live performances during the quarter, preferably genres that you have never experienced.  At that point in my life I was strictly a rock/pop music fan so I attended a symphony, a jazz concert and my first opera which was Carmen.

Over the years, I enjoyed seeing Professor Anderson perform at the Symphony.  She is a violinist and used to be the Concert Master for the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra.  Today I had an opportunity to tell her that she was responsible for the expansion of my musical horizons and she was delighted to know that her efforts had not been in vain.

Today we saw a very wonderful and visually splendid performance of Tales of Hoffman.  Here is a very recognizable piece from that opera.Barcarolle (Tales Of Hoffmann).mp3 (2534 KB) from the CD Beyond Imagination by the Opera Babes (2003)

Professor Anna Anderson

Deb and Elaine on the Opera Bus.

Sue and Glen were in town today visiting Emily and celebrating her birthday a week early; Glen will be a little tied up next weekend deer hunting.  They called me and invited me to join them for a bite to eat before they left for home.

My nephew Bret is a Marine serving at the American Embassy in Saudi Arabia.  He recently was the acting Deck Commander for a 2–day VIP visit by Condie.  Brett is on the far left.

The iPod turned 5 yesterday.  I got my first one in 2002, the first made to work with Windows.  Who would ever think that you would run out of room with 10 gigs of space for music?

Needless to say, about a year ago I got a black 5G and regret that I didn’t spend the extra cash for a 60 GB device…  can you believe that my 30 gig device commonly only has about 2 GBs free?  Mainly because I now load audio books and “read” while doing other things.

I don’t think that I have owned another “toy” that I have used as much as I do this one.  It has provided many hours of entertainment; when I was driving to the Cities weekly over the last year I got hooked on audio books. It helped me finally make it through “War and Peace”, a life goal, and continues to provides me with background music in my office where radio reception is non-existent. 

Happy Birthday to one of the best gadgets ever invented!

Dan, Bonnie, and Emily posed as we were waiting for our dinner on Saturday evening.  It was Parent’s Weekend at UMD and Dan and Bonnie came up to visit with Emily.  Bonnie, Emily, Sara and I went to the UMD presentation of “Crazy For You” on Saturday night.  It was a fun musical to see.  Below are Sara and me.

Drew DeArmond is 9 months old now…  and getting cuter every day!  He looks a lot like Dad Jim.

I met Tom, Lisa, Sara and Emily at Sneakers last night for a bite before the Bulldog Hockey game against U-Mass Lowell.  Tom and Lisa were early for once so we had lots of good visiting time before they left for the game.  After a tie game on Friday night, the Dogs beat Lowell 7–3.