New Ulm

Great day in New Ulm with my father-in-law, Steve.

My old stomping ground, Veigel's Kaiserhoff. I waitressed here for many, many, many years. Today, I ate the best of the place: ribs, German Potato Salad, sauerkraut, and Ray's Salad. Yum!

Nate and my brother-in-law Tony with kids at the Glockenspiel, which incidentally, was one of my oldest daughter, Isabella's, first words, as I used to take her and Mitchell to it all the time to listen to the bells and watch the dancing figures spin.

Flags flying for Fasching, German Mardi Gras, last celebration before the lean, restrained weeks of Lent.

This kid stayed home with his wrecked arm.

But we brought him leftovers from the K.

Bad Mother

Ended the day at this amazing concert by the extremely talented duo of Ann Fee and Yumiko Oshimo-Ryan. The title of which was "Bad Mother." The music and stories were funny, sad, serious, and ironic. Ann's lyrics to "A Maiden's Prayer" by Badarzewska-Baranowska (a mother of five who composed while the little ones slept and who died in 1861 at the ripe old age of 27) read "And when you wake/I'll be long gone/You'll cry I know/But Daddy's home/And mommy's through/With all of you," which she sings as straight-faced as a saint. Funny stuff.

Here's the also extremely talented, unexplainably single vixen/bartendress/writer/harpist/singer/feline immolator, Amy Kortuem, pushing alcohol

 This is the funny and talented pianist Yumiko warming up the crowd as Ann Fee listens in.

This lady cracked me up about 37 times.

Ann's pious ways.

Here is a fiber work by Ann Widness, who you can see in the background.

I just love these plump little goddesses, dancing happily.

Concert over. Message from Mitch. Inspired by the Bad Mother concert, I respond "Hell yeah!"

And then drink wine and eat cupcakes in a dark corner, Bad Mother style.

Honestly, this concert was great. It needs to hit the road. Should it come your way, Go, Go, Go. God, it was nice to laugh.

Saturday Morning

Red Velvet Archie

Mankato Night

Some reasons to love Mankato...

Brian Frink's art at Bethany Lutheran College.

The Good Thunder Reading Series, featuring Kristin Naca and Samuel Ligon

The Ylvisaker Fine Arts Center Gallery is open to the public Sun through Turs 1 -9 pm and Fri and Sat from 1 - 8.

The Good Thunder Reading Series is held in the Centennial Student Union building monthly. Access the schedule here: http://english2.mnsu.edu/gt/PDF/SCHEDULEndb.pdf

Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World . American Experience . WGBH | PBS

Say you're really tired. Say your kids have been wild, maybe fighting a lot. Say you've gotten to a part in Moby Dick where the pacing slows wayyyy down. Say you need a little break, but you're still interested in American whaling and Moby Dick and are maybe even interested in the true story that inspired Melville to write Moby Dick. Well, if you are, then you may want to watch this documentary. It's really great, and it is narrated by one of my absolute favorite contemporary writers, Nathaniel Philbrick. It's a free viewing if you click the link.

I'm mixing myself a drink and putting my feet up.

Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World . American Experience . WGBH | PBS

Neck-Deep

Though this is my Moby update day,
I am regretfully unable to chat about the great book until tomorrow.
I'm neck-deep in essay-grading, class-developing,
lesson-preparing, and star-gazing until Thursday.