Hilary, Chris, Andrew, Deborah

Hilary, Chris, Andrew, Deborah
Originally uploaded by Papa, aka Don.

The dinner party in Washington included Hilary and Deborah.

Chris, Maryanne, Andrew

Chris, Maryanne, Andrew
Originally uploaded by Papa, aka Don.

Mother and sons snapped during an after-dinner stroll in the capital city.

What's On Your Reading List?

Here's a cute Internet tool:

The Book Recommender

You enter the title of a book you love and recommendations are provided, based on patterns in the reading lists of others. Like the Amazon "Customers who bought your book, also bought books by these authors..." with less of a marketing motive, I guess.

I entered Paula Fox's A Servant's Tale, which I'm currently enthusiastic about, and got the message "No readers are currenly recommending anything related to your book."

Westward We Go

Jean and I are leaving Friday for a week on the other coast. Yes, some people take their vacations after the August lull in the construction industry, just when people are actually bothering to stay through the afternoon on Fridays again. Very well done on our part!

Itinerary: First we're flying to Seattle, where we'll immediately leave for three days in the Cascades, a couple of hours-drive east of the city. My college friend, Blair, who lives in Seattle, will be with us. Here are some pictures of the hike we're planning to Enchantments Crossing.





Looks sumptuous, doesn't it? Returning to Seattle on Monday night. For the next couple of days we'll visit around in the city, and on Thursday we're going to San Francisco, where we'll spend five days in the care of Ann Cleaveland. Take a look at the artist line up at the Hardly Strictly bluegrass concert we'll be attending on Saturday and Sunday:



What with Dolly Parton, Gillian Welch, and Emmylou Harris, it's bound to be great. The concert is the raison d'etre for the San Francisco trip but Ann has promised lots of great food, wine, and bicycle-riding for the other days. She also snared us a fabulous-sounding apartment loan in Telegraph Hill, so I'm pretty sure we're lucky indeed!

Meuble

For the curious, here's the new coffee table, which we mistakenly identified as a genuine 1950's vintage tv table in the showroom. Once home we found the www manufacturer address on the underside...

The "nedmargaret" weekend

The collective photo-records from last weekend's happy event are now on Flickr and you can view them as a slideshow here (click on the picture):



Leave yourself plenty of time because there are about 200 pictures so far. And there's no logic to the order, in case you were wondering. That's why the slides begin with a strange-looking dude in a shark headset...

IMG_0111

IMG_0111
Originally uploaded by Papa, aka Don.

Ned and Margaret pose with their relationship facilitator before departing for the church.

IMG_0119

IMG_0119
Originally uploaded by Papa, aka Don.

Here's one of the best shots from the wedding of the year: Ned and Margaret, emerging from the church in Pittsburgh, September 4.

Like Granddad, like Granddaughter

From the Prospect Park farmers' market last weekend:



Just so you know, these tomatoes really tasted like tomatoes. And here's one of the four ears of snow-white corn we ate, for Grandma's viewing pleasure:



Besides these goodies, I also bought two peaches to give to my friends Ankita & Christoph, each of which weighed more than a pound. And this is supposed to be no-doping produce market!