Gary Hesse Personal Web Site

When the weather is nice, I try to spend 30 minutes during my lunch hour to walk a few blocks down to the river, where there is a beautiful path. And the weather has been tremendous!

The city has placed sculptures along the path, along with a multitude of gardens. It’s just what a deskbound person like me needs to restore body and spirit.

Margy and I were in Tacoma on Saturday at the wedding of the daughter of long-time friends of ours, the Isaacsons. I had the privilege of joining the pastor/dad of Joanie in officiating at the wedding.

Joanie has had some serious health challenges over the past year, struggling with  Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Her fiancé (now husband) Josh Fulmore has walked with her through those challenges, and has demonstrated that his commitment to her is a deep and lasting one.

Congratulations to you both; God bless your future together.

The Washington Redskins are looking more and more like an East Coast version of Your Seattle Seahawks - with the exception, of course, that they’ve actually won more games  than their West Coast counterparts may win all season.

The transformation began when the Redskins hired Jim Zorn away from the Seahawks to serve as head coach, followed by assistants Stump Mitchell, Seattle’s running back coach, and Sherman Smith.

The Redskins already had DB Shawn Springs, DE Philip Daniels and G Pete Kendall. Today, they added not one, not two, but three more players with Seattle histories.

Top of the list is Shawn Alexander, finally signed to an NFL roster after being dropped by the Seahawks last spring. Also added was Ryan Plackemeier, the regular Seattle punter until a pair of 22-yard punts early in the season made him expendable. Rounding out the trio is safety Mike Green.

For the sake of completeness, we should point out that Redskins cheerleader Anna was a SeaGal for three years.

When the two teams meet on the field November 23, it may play like a gridiron version of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, where Kirk battles the shape-shifter that has taken on his appearance. This time around, though, barring an unforeseen turnaround, the shape-shifting Washington Redskins may be the decisive victor.

Margy and I got our first look at Gavin’s new townhouse in Edmonds. Nice! Moving day is in 3 weeks.

We had breakfast at Shari’s so Gavin could enjoy watching us read from the “honored” menu.

After a short visit with Margy’s stepfather Pete, we spent the rest of the day shopping for the new place. We essentially outfitted the entire place with new appliances, furniture, etc. We left many smiling store clerks today.

During the summer of ‘09, the modern major general will be singin’ in the rain.

A month earlier than anticipated, Leavenworth Summer Theater made its 2009 season public. In addition to the perennial Sound of Music, two shows will make their first appearance on the Leavenworth stage: Singin’ in the Rain and The Pirates of Penzance.

First thoughts?

I’ll have to view each show again, but at first take I don’t see any role in either new show that is a natural fit for me. Then again, I had the same impression last season, and Osgood Fielding turned out to be a plum role.

It also strikes me that these shows are an ambitious choice. Singin’ in the Rain is going to require at least six professional-grade dancers, and the rain special effects will be a real challenge for the Hatchery Park stage. Add to that the limited rehearsal time on the set itself, and it’s going to be a real challenge for director, choreographer and cast.

Limited rehearsal time will be a factor for LST’s first foray into Gilbert and Sullivan as well; there will be far more music to learn, with greater precision, than an average LST show requires.

Auditions are in March. Check back then for what unfolds.

Birthday today. Now having arrived at 55, it’s becoming harder and harder to pretend to be 17.

With Margy in Iowa doing WASL rangefinding for the week, it meant my first birthday alone. Spent the day at home… ran a few errands. Bought a slice of chocolate cake at Safeway to observe the day.

Got to talk on the phone with most all my special people, even though everyone is scattered all across the country these days.

Since most of my birthday cards had memory loss as their theme, I think I should take advantage of that from this point as a ready-made excuse for just about everything.

Another amazing development in what has been an unusual Presidential race: the candidates sit down for two hours for interviews with an evangelical pastor.

Link to ABC News: Sharing Stage, Obama and McCain Split on Abortion

From what it appears in the ABC News story on the event, the candidates answered straight questions directly and frankly about a variety of issues.

So, thank you, Rick Warren. You may have stumbled upon the future of Presidential debates for those of us trying to weigh our options outside of the incessant hype and spin that passes for politics these days.

The Seattle Mariners announced yesterday that they have declared some sections of Safeco Field nut-free zones.
This development, taken ostensibly to protect those with allergies to the common legumes, should have the welcome side benefit of limiting access to Boston Red Sox fans and members of the Seattle City Council.

A week on Maui; can’t beat it.

Lots of sitting on the beach, bodysurfing some GREAT waves, reading books. Went to the obligatory lu’au, which actually was pretty entertaining (the photo of the four of us, above, was taken there).

Colin and I added a little bit of adventure for the week: parasailing in Lahaina and taking a helicopter tour of West Maui and Molokai.

I’m home from the 2008  SAXOTECH Users Conference in Tampa, Florida. (SAXOTECH provides the platform we use for both print and online at The Wenatchee World.)

Picked up a few tips for optimizing our sites for Google. Saw a few different vendors for building community/social networking sites that purport to integrate with SAXO. Got to be in on the ground floor of the new user group, which may be the most valuable thing that comes out of this week in Tampa.

And, got really, really sore after competing in their “team-building” exercise: dragon boat races.

Dragon boats are essentially flat-bottom boats seating 20, all wielding oars in sync with one another. We were on the water for about 3 hours, and my arms have been ready to drop off for about 3 days now.

Tampa is a beautiful city; here’s the view from the site of the conference.