Happy Anniversary Red Peonies

Friday was Red Peonies 3rd Anniversary. It was a year of dramatic events, both joyful and heartbreaking. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the year (at least one for every month); I would love to see of those of everyone else.

Pictures from Elizabeth and Erik's Wedding

A good time was had by all at Elizabeth and Erik's wedding this weekend. Of course Anders was in high demand, and he and I had great fun playing horse at the reception. (Which involved running across the lawn then pretending to eat oats). I enjoyed the pre-wedding hike, though I was sole Brennan representative. (How do you tell it is a Brennan wedding and not Culkin one--at a Culkin wedding people would have been shamed into showing up for the hike, no matter how much they drank the night before.) And Sarah, Anders and I were all thrilled to find peppermint ice cream in the village sandwich shop.

New paint on 98th Ave.

This is for the benefit of all who do not live in the Mile High City. We had our house painted in July. Wow, what a few buckets of paint will do.

Hey, what about water polo?

I just laugh when I see it. Who designed their head gear? Eshter Williams?

ITPer detained in Beijing.

James Powderly has been detained in Beijing for planning a protest involving miniature laser beams. Read about it in the Times and Boing-Boing.

James was a student at ITP when I was a fellow- he has gone on to do many interesting projects. Let's hope he is ok and will be home soon.

Hey Denver Voters

According to the NY Times, the fate of the election--and thus the country--is in your hands.

I really enjoyed . . .

seeing Hair at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Well worth the line (which, pathetically I suppose, was much longer than it was for Hamlet earlier this summer) and missing a night of the Olympics (although of course I TIVOed it). There is singing, there is dancing, at the end audience members even dance on the stage. I couldn't help smiling and singing along throughout the whole thing.

Beach Volleyball- Will It Ever End?

Why does beach volleyball get more coverage than any other sport in the Olympics? (why am I asking?) And why does it go on and on- will it ever end? The massive number of swimming events are over, and yet there are still more beach volleyball games.

Heidi MacDonald, Calvin's co-editor of PW Comics Week, posted on her blog The Beat about the rise of beach volleyball and sad demise of women's softball in the Olympics.

Jon Stewart: Most Trusted Man in TV News?

The Times has a long profile of trusted news source Jon Stewart.

Firechief Birthday

Anders will turn 3 this week. Given that his birthday is in the middle of the week and we are leaving for New Hampshire on Wednesday, we decided to have a small party for him this weekend. Festivities started Thursday night at Dak and Trish's house. Anders had his first ever short ribs, some potatoes, tomatoes, and black olives (one of his favorites). He then opened some presents including a zoo feeding station, a fire chief car, some puzzles, and a new firefighter monkey named Sparky which Eliza chose for him.

I wasn't up for a huge party this year, so last night we had his neighborhood friends to the house. We were supposed to meet at the pool but had an unbelievable downpour most of the day. The party got moved inside to our house but the kids didn't seem to care. They got to run around and play, and the parents got to hang around and drink beer (except me of course). We had a a picnic type dinner (I think our neighbors were a little astounded by how much beef I cooked but most was eaten by the end of the night). We lost a neighbor or two to early bedtimes before cake but Dak's presence made up for that. After all the guests left, Dak, Andy, and Anders went to the backyard to play T-Ball in the dark with Anders new T-Ball set. Here are some photos.

Chocolate cake with bavarian cream filling and buttercream icing. From Child's Pastry Shop (where all of Kate and my B-day cakes were made).

End of the night, even the Olympic Coverage could not keep him awake.

Otis turns one

Neilson's nephew Otis turned one on Tuesday and had a party in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. There were many children and one nervous dog in attendance. There was some disgruntlement among the children that his maternal grandmother choose carrot cake as the birthday dessert, but pizza and chocolate chip cookies helped make up for that. (I love carrot cake now, but I remember being a little horrified that Flooey had it has wedding cake. Of course, it turned out I had scarlet fever at the time, so no food sounded good. If it had been Betsy's carrot cake, I'm sure even scarlet fever would not have kept me from liking it.) A good time was had by all, although, as usual, Otis was happiest when being held by his dad. I believe the first of Ander's birthday parties if tonight, and I can't wait to see pictures.(Photos by Neilson).