One of the nice things about visiting Vienna as Advent nears is that the Christkindlmarkts start to open up. One of the more colorful is this one at the Wiener Rathaus, but there are many variations on this theme around the city. I like to grab a langos (a kind of garlic elephant ear) and Nathaniel enjoys the hot dogs and schaumbecher (a chocolate-covered marshmellow cone).

I love the walk down Kahlenberg, so near my grandmother’s home in Grinzing, so far above the hustle of the city. Just follow the path down from the overlook, as long as you keep going down you won’t go wrong. Generally follow Kahlenberger Strasse until you hit Beethovengang. Its a walk you can easily imagine Beethoven enjoying.

We visited the Haus der Musik in Vienna today. What a really pleasant surprise it was! I usually can’t pay attention to more than an hour or two in a museum, but I felt like I could spend a whole day here. It has a lot in common with science museums in that the exhibits are highly interactive, but the whole focus is on sounds and music. I found the computer based modules very engaging and absorbing. I wanted to try every one, but Mary and Alex and Nathaniel kept dragging me forward through the place. The whole environment was soothing and felt welcoming, unrushed, isolated from real time and the real world. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Vienna.

I’m in Vienna with my family visiting Oma, my grandmother. All I can say is flying is nothing like it once was. What a mess. Plus all the carbon guilt. Sigh. But I love Vienna and I love love love the new positive sense of the US that is evident in Europe.

Here are our pumpkins this year. We like our Obama pumpkin.

I’ve been curious about CafePress for a while. Now I’ve created my first item there. Take a look! It’s a license plate frame based on the Italian peace (pace) flag.

I had a wonderful Fathers’ Day weekend with Alex and Nathaniel. Yesterday we took a great seven mile walk around the neighborhood, reminding me of the afternoon walks we took in Vienna.

Today we started the day with the pancakes my father taught me to make and ended the day with the schnitzel my grandmother taught me to make. Favorite foods. Since Mary is out of town, Nathaniel is sleeping upstairs with me. How nice is that for Father’s Day!

I am ending this Fathers’ Day listening to a wonderful sermon by Barack Obama about the need for fathers in our childrens’ lives.

We are blessed many times over with our gifts. Give thanks, get up, go forth!

I was feeling a bit tired this evening. Maybe we really didn’t have to go down to the Xcel center. We could watch on tv. But I asked Nathaniel when he got home and he was excited. He’d told his friends he was going to the Obama rally. Alex was even still positive about it. OK, deep breath, here we go, time to join the masses.

I’d been downtown near lunchtime and drove past Xcel just to see what was up. Even then a line was forming, but it was only a block long. The evening news said the line was many blocks long by 5:30. We were aiming for six. By the time Mary dropped us off at about 6:10 I was certain we were getting out of the car near the end of the line. Not. We were only about 1/3 of the way there. By the time we found the real end of the line some estimates put the length at 1.2 miles. Given how far back the line kept forming, I’d say by the end we were no further than 2/3 of the way back. This was one long line.

Luckily we had a cool gray evening without rain to hang out in. The crowd was friendly and we came prepared with Subway sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies. It was another hour before the line started moving in earnest. Then it crept. It was another hour before we could really say we were getting anywhere. Then we were walking, at one point jogging, we dared to imagine we might actually get into the Xcel Center.

It was about 8:50 when we got through security, 9:00 when we found our seats, and by 9:15 Obama was on stage.

I’ve seen these rallies on YouTube, being at one was a bit surreal. 18,000 people is a lot of people. It was a gift, in fact, to see the crowd stretched out through the city streets of Saint Paul, weaving its way back and forth, circling blocks, encouraging each other along the way. That really helped make the crowd of people inside less of a mass and more of a gathering of real folks. It was really really fun.

One thing that helps it be fun for me is the graphics. That’s one of the oddities about me: I really notice design details and am bothered (oh so bothered) if they are off. The Obama campaign is like a soothing bath for me, a chance to appreciate, to luxuriate in a cascade of well thought out images, typography, color. I’ve never seen anything like it, and it transformed the cold interior of the Xcel Center into a warm embrace of us all. The thoughtful choices demonstrated again, for me, the respect this campaign has for everyone involved. We all deserve and get the best there is.

This picture demonstrates one strong impression from the evening. When framed in the media’s glass box, Obama is front and center, he is the focus, he is the only whole person we see. But that is not reality at all, that is just a frame, a construct. The reality is that Obama is one of thousands of people seeking change. He is, in fact, hard to distinguish from the rest of us. He is a voice we can hear, but he can accomplish nothing without all of us. The media construct is helpful at times, inspiring and instructive. But the reality cannot be forgotten, he is nothing without all of us. This is our time and we are all responsible for waking up, taking part, changing the direction of our country and the world.

Obama’s oratory was, I am sure, fantastic. I say “I am sure” because, to tell the truth, I was there more for the moment than for the content. I spent my time looking around. I spent my time appreciating the people who turned out. Two things, though, did strike me about the speech. One was how generous Obama was toward Clinton. He went well beyond the required niceties. He really celebrated her in a way that even began to thaw the ice growing around my own former appreciation of her. By the time he wrapped up his remarks about Clinton I could (just barely) imagine them as running mates without a shiver. The other impression was about the call to action. As always, Obama made this a call to all of us to take part in the renewal of America. The last few moments of this speech were brilliant:

America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past. Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love.

The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment — this was the time — when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals.

I was so glad that Alex and Nathaniel were able to share this evening with me. Indeed, that their enthusiasm woke me up and got me out the door. It is a far later night than usual for all of us, but well worth the time we gave it.

For a few years I and my family had the privilege of living in a wonderful house in Ohio. Mary and I lived in the carriage house and were married while we were there. A memory of this garden covered in snow brings back the morning we decided to take the leap. The sample chapter from a new book about the house brings back many memories. But one that is missing is shooting hoops with Steve Jobs in the driveway.

We were lucky today. A storm barreled through Minnesota and narrowly missed St. Paul. About 15 miles to the north a two-year-old was killed in Hugo, the pictures are devastating. Reports of softball-sized hail, high winds, yet all we got was one large gust. We were lucky today, but others were not so lucky. Our hearts and prayers go out to them.