My New Friends

As soon as I knew that I was going to be able to attend Ed and Amity's wedding I wanted to try to extend the trip to the DC area a bit so that I could catch up with some of my very best friends that I had not been able to see for a while... and to meet a few new little friends for the first time.

While in DC I stayed with Andrew and Puffin, and it was great to see their home and to meet my new buddy Cecelia - who went to the golf shop with us, played at Reg & Joe's house, and allowed me to share the back seat of mommy's (or daddy's) new car next to her car seat.

Reg & Joe were kind enough to include me in their Thanksgiving dinner - and it was great to see them, their kids, and Peter - as well as their brand new puppy who may or may not still be named Ramses:
Andrew and I got in one round of golf - and then I headed south to Richmond and the Hammitts...

the aspiring photographer

It was great to see Craig and Rebekah - and to meet their little guy Will... We were all able to spend a good amount of time catching up with their both being kind enough to take a bit of time away from work, and they also hosted a great dinner which was so much fun to catch up with other great friends from college - Sarah, Grady and Mary.... it had been way too many years since I had seen them - and it was so great to be able to spend some time with them and their families... hopefully it will not be as much time between visits in the future.

Will, Jack, and Anna

Before heading back to Dulles I had to make a pilgrimage back to my favorite sandwich place - Bernie's, which is just a few doors away from Bubba's Barber Shop - where I had my hair cut for four years...

Bernie's has not changed.. at all... and that is the way it should be. I even placed my order with the same woman! Fantastic.

Curry Wedding November 3 2007 - DC & Bethesda

My first return steps on US soil since the end of January were on November 2nd - when I went back for the wedding of our friends Ed Curry and Amity Wall.


I first met Ed when Mike Wilson asked me to try to convince him to move to San Francisco from New York when we both worked for Red Herring - and we became fast friends there - as well as in the post Herring days.

I had last seen Ed and Amity 2 nights before we left SF - when Rachel invited some of our friends out for my birthday at Kokkari - which was a very fun evening.

Their service was on a picturesque autumn day at Annunciation in Washington DC...


from there we set off on a tour of DC in a 'trolley bus' - which was actually quite fun as it had been quite a few years since I had been in DC, and over all the years/time spent there I had never really done an official tour.

The reception was at Kenwood Country Club - and was a great venue for a wedding event - and my enduring memory of the wedding may well be from later in the evening downstairs at Kenwood's 'duck-pin' lanes..

Home

(The previous owner of our house, 220 Gates St. in San Francisco, painted a replica of this painting. Because it was such a large painting, his daughter asked if we wanted to keep it hanging after they left. I stumbled upon it in NY at MOMA - and couldn't wait to tell TJ about it.)

Happy Happy Thanksgiving.

As I get ready to fly out tomorrow for my favorite holiday - I am blessed to think of all of the things I am thankful for this year:

-TJ and our new life here - he'll be spending thanksgiving here working while I am with my family. But this adventure of London is just an example of what fun things our life will bring us. Every day he makes me laugh - that is a tremendous blessing.

-My family- this year has given us all time to count our blessings as Dad's countless procedures and operations have been heavy on us. But from discovering kidney cancer just days after Christmas last year to planning a trip for them to visit us in December - we are so lucky with all that this year has brought us and where he is now.

We are gathering all together tomorrow - and one of the huge reasons that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday is that it is traditionally spent with my cousins and extended Franke family. Usually about 20-25 people gather together, and due to living in San Francisco it's been a few years since I've been able to attend. I get to arrive this year, after being picked up by Rob, Karen and August...and I get to share the backseat with August for about an hour. We will have lots to catch up on!

-My newest family - This picture of Kerry and Kevin was taken at their new apartment in New York - and we will see them right before Christmas and for our annual New Year's eve celebration. This year brought tremendous fun changes for the entire family- from Conneticut to Florida, Philadelphia to Manhattan, and we cannot wait to celebrate it all together in Ponte Vedra Beach.

-My friends - I had weekends with friends from home, and friends from college this year - how lucky am I?

-My life - I cannot wait for what this next year will bring. In January I'll be meeting Jen and Kerry from San Francisco in Switzerland for a ski trip. TJ and I planning a big trip to either New Zealand or South Africa, Lauri and I are going to India, and together with my mom, aunt, cousin and friend we will be in Paris in April.

I love that we get to spent time tomorrow - either with family, or in a quiet moment during a commute in London - to say thanks. I am blessed by the wonderful people in my life and will definitely be smiling all day!

Amsterdam - Final Pictures

Here is a link to my pictures from the weekend.

Rowing

After our "almost move to Boston" visit with long runs along the Charles, 10 years spent by the bay in San Francisco and now time here along the Thames.....

I kept seeing people rowing and thought, "I'd love to do that". The beauty of being out on the water during the early morning - the peace of it - and the fun of doing such a sport really intrigued me.

Since October, when I am in town on weekends, I've started a beginners rowing class with Sons of the Thames.

To quote their website: Sons of the Thames Rowing Club was formed in Hammersmith over 100 years ago with the aim, still enshrined in its constitution, of furthering the sport of rowing in the Borough. Its name derives from the days when its members were the watermen and tradesmen of the Tideway, and it may even be one of the really early rowing clubs.
The course finishes in mid-December, and if you are 'good enough', the club will ask you to join. They train together about 5 days a week with outings on the weekends. The club building itself reminds me a bit of my sorority house - with a cook, creaky old victorian building with tons of charm - and they even have a little bar! So it's kind of a combination of sports and social club. They even wear letters of sort - as all members wear these jackets with SONS on the back.



I have just been out for my second 'outing' and although it was a bit rocky there were moments when the whole 8 of us in the boat were almost in rythmn, and at a time there were geese flying along the river, at our level, and we could hear them talking to each other.

I am learning all these new terms and new sports tasks such as: what is bow side, or a cox, and how to get into a boat wearing and then gracefully removing wellies, and how to help with carring a huge boat out of the water up a ramp.

I had a huge smile on my face all day!!!

Amsterdam (Rachel's Marathon)

I was in Amsterdam with Rachel as encouragement and eye candy - but packed miserably for the trip because I was also packing for the following 5 days in Israel, where it was still on the 30's (80's).

Consequently when we landed I quickly realised (when we stepped off the tram in front of our hotel into breeze driven mist) that it was colder than London in Amsterdam, and all I had was a suit jacket.

hotel:

This was the first plan of post-breakfast action for Saturday morning - and now I have a cool new scarf and wool sweater (I will never, ever say 'woolly jumper' no matter how long we are here) from Amsterdam.

I really enjoy this city - it is beautiful with all of its canals and European meets Eastern European architecture - the museums are fantastic - and the people are all very friendly and accommodating to those that cannot even begin to butcher their language.

When we first arrived we had a fantastic meal at a restaurant just a few blocks from our hotel, which was away from the main touristy areas - but convenient enough to reach said areas and the metro on foot. Arriving late-ish (and getting a few evil eyes from the kitchen) - they put together a table quickly for us and whipped up the best carbonara that Rachel said she had ever tasted... I agree as well. The whole meal was great - and it was a fantastic first evening there.

On the Saturday (after I was sweater and scarf clad) we explored a bit, did a bit of shopping, and also grabbed a quick bite at one of the near ubiquitous fast food vending machine stores called Febo (great little burger):

we then had coffee and a more nutritious snack on the water here:

- and then went to the race expo for Rachel to pick up her number for the next day's event.

that evening we walked over to check out the red light district at night where we watched some of the Rugby World Cup semifinals:


About the race:

Rachel was fantastic -- I was so proud of the preparation work that she did... almost entirely by herself, in London, as the seasons were changing and daylight became scarce... and it paid off on race day - as is evident in this immediately post-race shot (pay attention to the condition of those on either side of her when you click on it for the larger format version):

the official 'receiving of the finisher's medal'

what the finish line scene looked like at Amsterdam's Olympic Stadium:

and this is what we returned to...

apologies for the lack of posts during our respective travels!! the pumpkins were angry (a bit off color and fuzzy) too --

photos have been downloaded and will be here this week / weekend!

Halloween

Happy Happy Day-After Halloween.

For full pictures of our carving skills, click here.