Busy, Busy, Busy

Saturday, June 21st

OK, so I've been lax lately with updating of the blog. A quick catch-up:

Ken went on vacation. I covered the PSM's chair in Minneapolis and Oklahoma City.

Minneapolis was a blast. I ate at Hell's Kitchen a lot - it's just as wonderful as I remembered it being (I drove over from Saint Paul when we were there - nearly a year ago). In fact, I even bought a Hell's Kitchen t-shirt. Roy and I took a walk along the Mississippi and lucked into a tour of the Upper Saint Anthony Falls lock. It's the tallest lock on the Mississippi at 93 feet and it's also the farthest upstream. Roy and I also wandered around the Guthrie Theatre's new home which sits on the river's bank and contains two theatres, their education arm as well as many of the theatre's technical facilities. I also took a tour of the Federal Reserve's Minneapolis Branch with David. The Minneapolis facility is responsible for sorting, counting and warehousing the 9th district's cash reserves (on average, the Minneapolis branch finds 5 counterfeit bills per day in their incoming cash) as well as processing checks for its member banks. We saw the robots that handle the enormous acrylic boxes of cash as well as the machines where people count the incoming deposits. The machines also scan the bills for wear and tear and destroy worn out money, replacing it with fresh bills.

JV atop the lock at Saint Anthony Falls

Roy and Arthur Miller outside the Guthrie

Minneapolis went by much too quickly and I was on the first of what turned out to be several 6 AM flights through Dallas Fort Worth. I arrived in Oklahoma City with time to check-in to my hotel (the Extended Stay in OKC was ASS - they tried to pass of a "freshly cleaned" smoking room as a non-smoking room; no matter how much carpet deodorizer one sprinkles, a smoking room still smells like a smoking room) before heading to load-in. The load-in got off to a late start due to the long distance between Minneapolis and OKC. Despite starting out behind and a less than stellar load-in crew, the load-in gained ground all day. Tuesday's load-in got us caught back up and the show crew turned out to be pretty good. On Thursday, I got some bad news: our dog, Andy, had been sick for some time - our vet diagnosed him with some kind of growing mass inside his head. By the middle of the week in OKC it was clear that he would have to be put down. Friday morning I was back at Will Rogers World Airport for a 6 AM flight to DFW and then on to New York. I was glad to be home and have a chance to see the Andy Man before he had to be put down and I am forever grateful to Sheila Marie, Shey and our team of dog support people for taking such good care of him. I am also grateful that everyone on team Spamalot was so understanding about my absence and covered for me. Saturday I was back at the airport returning to OKC in time for the evening show. I saw very little of OKC, but did squeeze in a trip to another roadfood restaurant: Classen Grill. Classen Grill was recommended for their outstanding breakfast and they did not disappoint. I had a plate of biscuits and sausage gravy smothered in cheese - I didn't need to eat again until well after showtime.

The first, of what turned out to be many, sunrises over airports - this one is MSP (en route to OKC)

Shey sent me this photo of Andy near the end of May.

This is litterally the only photo I took in OKC: TVFMHRW

Monday morning I was, once again, at Will Rogers World Airport for my last 6 AM flight to DFW. This one ended up in Detroit in the arms of my beautiful wife. We were visiting Michigan to attend my brother's wedding as well as to visit some friends and family. Sheila Marie flew ahead to MI on Saturday and spent the weekend with her family in Edwardsburg before collecting me in Detroit. We spent Monday night with Katja, Jeff & Ella Thomakos in Hazel Park. Katja took us out for some amazing Polish food and we spent the rest of the evening catching up.

JV and Ella

Katja and Jeff - the Thomaki

Tuesday was spent with some more college friends: Paul, Jenny, Stephanie and Andy. They took us to some of their favorite Southwestern Michigan haunts for food and drink. We made a quick stop at the Henry Ford Museum and even hit Greektown before retiring for a night cap at Steph and Andy's home.

Steph, Andy, Jenny, Paul and JV at Icescapes

Steph and Paul enjoy our Saganaki - "Opa!"

Sheila Marie and I headed north on Wednesday. We attended the ceremonial laying of our personalized brick in MSU's anniversary garden - the brick is placed just about where I stood for our wedding! We also ran some errands in preparation for Casey and Sarah's wedding before we met up with Angela and Dave on the roof at El Azteco for some dinner and pitchers of margaritas.

SME, our brick & JV

SME, Angela & Dave atop El Azteco

The next several days were devoted to the Bublitz and Shuck nuptuals. The rehearsal (and attendant dinner) were on Thursday with the wedding on Friday. Saturday, Mom and Dad hosted a brunch for the newly minted couple. The wedding was lovely. The weather turned rainy in the hours before the ceremony, so we all moved inside for the wedding, but the photographer was still able to get some great outdoor photos with Round Lake in the background. The reception was a lot of fun and a great chance to see so many people I rarely get catch up with.

SME and Sarah at the rehearsal dinner

You may kiss the bride - Casey and Sarah

My whole family: SME, JV, Sarah, Casey, Carol & Monte

By Sunday, we were all exhausted and happy to spend a quiet Fathers' Day at home. Of course, Sheila had to be on her way back to Edwardsburg in the afternoon to prepare for her return trip to New York. A whole week with my wife was wonderful, but it only left me wanting more. I'm glad that we have another week together coming up so quickly in Vancouver. Dad took me to the airport late Monday morning and I was, once again, bound for DFW and then back to Spamaland in San Antonio.

There you have it, the cliff notes edition of the last month...

JV