I'm An Honorary Auntie Again!

My fake-sister (friend who is like my sister) just gave birth to a beautiful big (8lbs, 14oz) baby boy. I'm told he has a gorgeous full red pucker of a mouth, a high forehead like his daddy and huge feet.

Welcome to the world, kid! Seeing as you are 2 full weeks late, its about time and let's not make a habit of it.

I can't wait to hold him and give the new mom and dad a big kiss. I can already tell you that he'll be getting The Lion and The Mouse as a gift from me at some point, because every kid should own it.

DC Trip

My amazing college friend, Beth, invited me to join her for a weekend in DC and a staged reading of the Tempest with Derek Jacobi at The Strathmore. As if seeing Derek Jacobi live weren't enough, she told me the Folger Consort was set to perform Matthew Locke's baroque score for the play and counter-tenor David Daniels would sing. My sweetie thinks counter-tenors are super creepy, but I was in like flynn!

Seeing Beth was the best part of the trip, of course, but the reading was wonderful and there were a few very funny moment, such as..

Random teen zombies massing across from the Mall:

This huge tourism poster (and its variants) spotted throughout the metro. Yes, the tag line reads, "Where is your West Virginia." Gosh, I hope it is still right there between PA, OH, KY, and VA! I would think a US state going walk about would make the news but not if it is West Virginia, I guess.


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Tweeting with Frank Delaney

(Frank Delaney channeling Mark Twain)

I don't make a lot of recommendations on this blog, I'm picky and I just don't think that many things are worthwhile, but... I'm addicted to Irish author, Frank Delaney's podcasts on James Joyce's Ulysses. He's podcasting 5 minute commentary going through the novel line-by-line and sometimes word-by-word. I told him he's insane, but he just smiled and did it any way. Frank's insight is astute and humorous and his voice is just wonderful.

Earlier in the summer I attended a tweet-fest Frank hosted at a bar in NYC. Ever the gracious host, Frank made the hanging out with him, his marvelous wife, Diane Meier, and some of his Twitter followers a blast. (Oh, if you want to follow Frank on Twitter, his handle is FDbytheword.)

(Bennett, Frank, and a lovely Twitterista)

Frank let me tweet for him! Don't worry, he wrote the tweets, I just typed them.

(Leah and me)

Basement Powder Room - Before

We finally redid the basement powder room - YAY! Soon after we moved in, we cleaned and painted it blue then, earlier this year, we put in a new floor. By "we" I mean that my sweetie pulled up the old floor and put in the new oak plywood one. All I had to do was stain it black and add gloss poly.

This is the "before", except that you can see the new black floor and I've already painted the ceiling gloss white. Sorry the pictures aren't better, but the room is soooo tiny, I can barely get a shot of it.

Isn't our Japanese apartment sink (back of the toilet) awesome!?! Clean water for hand washing when you don't have the space for a free-standing sink.

Memorial Day in P-Town

We spent Memorial Day in Provincetown, MA with some good friends. It was a little chilly but completely beautiful. The first night we drove up and stayed at the Lands End Inn.
That's me, overlooking the Atlantic ocean. The Inn is at the far end of Cape Cod and has an amazing view.

I suppose you'd actually like to see the view...
and...

They serve a generous breakfast on the terrace (you see I can't pass up my NY Times).
Then we moved on to our rental house (this is the garden).

There were a lot of parties, dancing and yummy food.

Martinis on the Porch

We did a lot of work on the house, and when you work hard, you've got to play hard.

Too pretty to pass up

My college has a lovely tradition called "illumination night." On the Saturday night before graduation, the entire campus is lit with Japanese lanterns, bands play, singing groups sing and the entire campus is overrun with happy people enjoying a beautiful night.

That's the new campus center in the background. Its terrace featured a jazz band this year and couples danced to Standards in the moonlight.

15th College Reunion

I attended my 15 year (cough, hack, choke) college reunion in May. I stayed in one of the houses (our word for dorms), saw old friends I've not seen since graduation and even had dinner with and got my butt kicked at billiards by my college boyfriend.

I stayed here:

Wore these very sensible shoes to march in the ivy day parade and stand on turf for hours:

And watched the the class of 2010 graduate in teh quad outside my old house (in the background):

R.I.P. Riley

We had some good moments this summer and one horrible one. Our beloved dog, Riley, was struck and killed by a car late in the summer. She had a terrible and untreatable phobia of thunder/lightning. We tried our best to watch the weather and arrange to be with her over the years. But a freak storm, complete with tornado, blew through our area while we were at a concert one night and she chewed through a door, forcibly removed an a/c unit, jumped out a 2nd story window and was killed several blocks from our house. She was a wonderful dog and we'll miss her greatly. I have to admit that I'm breaking down even writing this.

Summer's Over

I woke up this morning and realized I've not posted all summer. My apologies. A lot has happened and I'll try to catch you up with the highlights (and low points) and post some photos from the summer.