Things to celebrate

The past few things have been full of things to celebrate-Paul and Erika's wedding, the kitchen completion, my birthday, Maggie's birthday, and the Jewish new year.

Paul and Erika's wedding was in New Hampshire, right on the coast, and was absolutely lovely. Al knew both Paul and Erika at GW, but from completely different circles--so it was a super fun wedding for him, knowing people on both sides of the wedding party. We did our best to mix the two sides, and make sure we got to hang out with everyone. Since we flew into Boston, and Alex was kind enough to pick us up, Al and I were car-less, but it made the weekend so much fun. We basically we're reduced to becoming car-sluts, and bummed rides with different people for every ride that we needed that weekend: Alex, Ryan, Christine & Wayne, Shali and Scott, Kristin and Jeff, and John and Louise (who is an exact doppleganger for our friend Jess in Italy).

The wedding was great, and tied in a lot of Paul and Erika's Africa experience into the evening. Both Erika and Paul looked absolutely wonderful, and chose an AMAZING setting-we were right on the ocean under a huge tent for the reception-totally beautiful.

After we got home, we had a few more days of kitchen work ahead of us, and the bulk of it is now done. Our whole house was in disarray--but we're back to normal, and I feel a lot better now. In fact, I just made use of our kitchen and baked two apple pies, how industrious. The last part that we have left is choosing a backsplash and paint colors, but Al and I have a bit of kitchen planning fatigue, so I think we'll hold off for a little while.

The exciting part of getting the kitchen done was that we were able to to have my birthday party at the house. Al went all out and made a fantastic spread of food (boy, we missed cooking!!!)--including the highlight--chocolate fondue-yumm. It was so nice to have another weekend of great food and friends, and have so many fantastic people over to our house--it had been far too long! That night, Christine crashed at our place, and the next day we made brunch and had Erika, Paul, and Tumbo come over and join us. It was another huge spread--but what can I say, we missed cooking!

After we cleaned up, I crashed, and slept for about 2 1/2 hours, and after that, went over to Ron's for taco night and to say goodbye before he left for San Diego. I hate losing such cool neighbors, and new friends, but that's all part of the cycle I guess.

That's about it here--the next thing on the list to celebrate---2 year anniversary!


Our whole house was in disarray--but now, we're back to normal, and I feel a lot better now. In fact, I just made use of our kitchen and baked two apple pies, how industrious.