A little church block party

The weekend before the fourth of July was the 28th annual Old St. Pat's "World's Largest Block Party".  As always, a fun opportunity to volunteer and enjoy the festivities:  serving the church while serving the masses delicious encased meats and burgers. 

The headlining bands always prove to be a significant investment of resources, but we need more than last year's green skin tight suit-wearing men from Clear Wireless to bring people in.  Some 16,000 people showed up Friday and Saturday night as we closed off two full city blocks for 2 stages, countless food vendors, and plenty of beverage providers.  The exciting and [sometimes] well known music of Ben Folds Five (yes, five) and Lifehouse provided the masses with a great show.  

It was a very busy, exhausting weekend.  Sundays seem to be exempt from this busy-ness however because we had a birthday to celebrate.  We got to celebrate with Megan and 30 of her closest friends at the Aberdeen Grill in the River West neighborhood.  What an amazing group; we are all so blessed to have such wonderful friends and Megan is especially important to us.  After being absent two years in a row, it was great to be with her for the birthday festivities. 

 

In other interesting news, ever wondered what the inside of a 50mm f/1.8 lens looks like?  I dropped this into a flower bed and it broke.  So I learned to not buy cheap lenses.  These pictures were taken with my newly acquired 28mm f/1.8.  I'm currently "auditioning" the lens and am pretty pleased with it.  More pictures to follow.  It's definitely not as sharp as it could be at 1.8 but 2.8 and even 2.0 is respectable. 

Many Happy Returns!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful wife and caring friend; loving companion, warm-spirited, smart, hard working and very often selfless:  I couldn’t imagine my life with anyone else and had a wonderful time celebrating her birthday this weekend.  As the Indian girls I work with say:  Many Happy Returns of the Day!!

On Friday night, I made a taco fiesta dinner at our place for us and Sara, Adam, and Kristen.  Shredded fajita chicken and tasty steak filled our tacos, accompanied by homemade guacamole and strawberry daiquiris to fill our tummies.  

I did some shopping at Bed, Bath, and Beyond this year but also at Ballyea Jewelry Designs (for fine Irish inspired rings, pendants, etc).  It’s run by Bernadette Moore from OSP and is nestled in on the 6th floor in Jewelers Row in the loop. I got Aimee a Trinity Knot pendant (see above) and a toaster oven (see below).  Yet another appliance added to our kitchen means a need for increased counter space so I got and installed a knife rack as well!

On Saturday night we made plans to celebrate Aimee’s birthday again and to re-visit a new great Italian Restaurant:  Salatino’s on Racine near Taylor.  Katie very graciously drove in to be with Aimee and me for dinner (which meant a lot… thank you!).  We had an unexpected bottle of wine delivered to our table courtesy of the Castillo’s quite needless generosity.  Of course, we walked back over to their house afterwards for more wine!  We are blessed with such great friends here who we are happy to call family.

Sunday was a very full day too.  I did my weekly accessibility mass with Laura and then rushed home to have brunch with MB and BB at Meli on Grand. 

Quick review:  great space and much larger than the one in Greektown so easier to get in.  The service was extremely inattentive but, other than consistently empty coffee cups, accurate.  My Count Chocula French Toast was delicious but two more mainstay breakfast items at our table (benedicts) contained dreadfully poached eggs which is tough to get past.

Then before mass, I stood awkwardly and humbly before a group who had gathered in the church hall to sing through my mass setting.  I am so grateful to have that chance to hear the music in person.  It has already spurred some new thinking which I’ll continue to work through. 

After mass we celebrated the birthdays of Aimee and Elena, and the great camaraderie of our 5 o’clock music group with a potluck in the rectory.

   

So it’s Halloween here in Austin and it is about what you’d expect on Halloween: a random mix of people collectively realizing that they need to step up their normal efforts to stand out.  It’s been fun to see all the different costumes though!  Looking forward to this weekend already:  an evening with Jenny, Keara and Michael’s wedding reception, running (and maybe even finishing) the Hot Chocolate 15k, and I’m sure more to come!

Austin for Work, Birthday, and Wedding

Aimee and I traveled to Austin for most of last week and the weekend for a fortuitously planned wedding, with proximity to my birthday (not planned) and my client location (sort of planned).  Our picasa album for Rich and Alex’s wedding has the complete set of photos.  All in all it was a great trip!

Our trip began as all extended travel does these days:  with baggage fees.  After making her contribution to Delta, Aimee joined me in Austin for a couple days.  We visited some of my favorite food spots downtown including 219 West, Walton’s, and How Do You Roll; as well as the Lakefront trail and Capitol building.  Aimee is pictured below after our make-your-own-sushi experience:
 

Birthday
Wednesday the 27th was the birth day.  Thirty years old.  It’s hard to believe (though really I’m just trying to keep up with all my close friends).  I was immensely fortunate to have my parents, aunt and uncle, and cousins join us downtown for dinner at La Traviata. 

Wedding

Rich and Alex celebrated the commencement of their marriage to each other on April 30th at Villa Antonia, a Tuscan-style home in the Texas hill country.  We were well-rehearsed thanks to the run through and dinner near Lake Travis at the Paterson home.  Aimee did a little rehearsing of her own as she was asked to sing Con Te Partiro a cappella during the ceremony – which was outside.  A photo of this appearance has not surfaced yet but I will post when it does.

Below are a few pictures from that day:  my niece and nephew Megan and Justin, Aimee and me, and my parents with Jami.

 

Lastly (there’s always a ‘lastly’), new iMacs were introduced on Tuesday!  Might one, shiny 27” Sandy Bridge i7 be in our future?  Probably not soon.

Happy 30th Birthday to Aimee

"Time and tide wait for no man, but time always stands still for a woman of thirty."

- Robert Frost

Wise words indeed. This "fortune" was occupying a giant fortune cookie that arrived in the mail from Kristen N. We had a lovely time celebrating Aimee's 3-0 this year. Of course it started with our trip to Chicago and dinners/brunches with friends. The next indication that a birthday was among us was a visit to the Atlanta Cupcake Factory on Highland. I wanted to find a bakery that would make a banana cake and, striking out at Alon's, I decided to try the cupcake route. I found this place which specializes in red velvet with almond frosting and also, that's right, banana with brown sugar frosting.

Birthday Morning began with breakfast tacos featuring egg and potato with a hint of cumin and chili, topped pepperjack cheese in a corn tortilla. And some candle wax. Along with some thoughtful cards, a delivery of flowers from Aimee's parents arrived, adding a floral scent and more life to our home.

We'd been saving it for a special occasion and this was it: birthday dinner was at The Iberian Pig in Decatur. Wow -- what a great experience! We started out at the bar with a glass of red for Aimee and glass of white for me (both designated "Damn Good" by the menu)

and a portion of their drunken goat cheese which was possibly one of the best cheeses we'd ever had. The cheese was a semi-soft, made of goat's milk, aged 75 days and soaked in red wine for 72 hours. Shortly thereafter we were greeted in a surprise visit by Dr. Newman and Dr. Biousse, Aimee's fellowship directors. They introduced us to the chef and offered to pre-buy dessert for us. Once seated, we ordered the Arugula salad, Pork Cheek tacos, Esparragos con Moscatel, and then split the Spanish Lamb Ribs. The dessert selection were the house made churros with cinnamon-chili infused chocolate sauce.

The Iberian Pig facade in downtown Decatur

Flowers from Aimee's parents. She loved the colors!

The fortune cookie met its match.

New birthday outfit from my mom