Too much happening right now. I'm having to play catch up. My sister had a little 8lb 5oz girl named Miriam Rebecca. I still have to upload those pictures before I can post them. She's a beautiful baby - holding her and listening to her quiet cries and coos was indescribably wonderful.
Here's the picture commentary:
1) This is a picture of my awesome friend (who I'll call Clea) with SpSp and B (who did not wear the hat in the wedding).
2) Here's B's wife (known here as Ksa) with Clea. Ksa and I did art together and Clea and I did theater together (back in the day).
3) SpSp and Mrs. SpSp danced to Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald before dancing to Mrs. Elva Miller's haunting (and not in a good way) rendition of "The Girl From Ipanema." Also note Dr. Evil (a.k.a. B Head) in the foreground.
4-5) More pictures of the happy couple dancing together.
6-7) The awesome gifts SpSp bestowed on his groomsmen: monogrammed hip flasks. This was a dry reception, folks. So in addition to the bubbly we bought for the head table, we had some Knob Creek that was sneakily and liberally added to our cider and coffee. The photographer has a good pic of the groomsmen boozing behind the groom - can't wait to see that one. Since I have all this space to catch up to the picture I'm actually commenting on, I'll provide a little sidenote here:
Sidenote: If you've never stood along side B and BloodyP (a.k.a.Lucky Pierre) as a groomsman, I highly recommend it. When you are standing for a long time in uncomfortable (yet very stylish) rented tux shoes, there's nothing funnier than a) BloodyP's whispered commentary at various points before, during, and after the ceremony, and b) B's eyes rolling at whatever BloodyP is talking about. You guys are awesome - I couldn't have stood up for SpSp with two better people.
Okay, so there's still some space before the next picture, so I'll just go on for a bit. Hmm... I think one of the best things was watching both SpSp and Mrs. SpSp's expressions - Mrs. SpSp looked peaceful and contemplative, and SpSp looked ecstatic to the point of being giddy.
8) Every time I look at this pic, I think, "I wasn't wearing a blue suit!" Then I remember that I look like my brother and that that is BrewGuru in the pic and not me.
9) BloodyP's lovely wife (who I'll call Jane cuz when I first met her she was in the military (i.e. GI Jane) - That and Mrs. BloodyP doesn't sound very nice). She's super cool and a great karaoke singer - Well done, Jane - you rocked the Palace.
10) The last picture is from the N.E. Palace which was exactly as BloodyP described it on his blog - a very mixed bag. SpSp's arch nemesis was there still failing in his weekly attempt to get "Blue Christmas" right. Next time, I'm gonna show him how to do it properly. Bloody and I started off with our signature Sinatra tunes. I ended with "Come On Baby Light My Fire" and actually got some applause this time - and not just from my table of pals. My next post will be some pictures of last weekend's Sculpture Garden/Uptown frolic - Loads of fun - followed by baby pics.
Happy first week of Advent.
Here's a picture in the restaurant of the happy couple amid the wine and water glasses. I quite like this one:
The meal was the best I've eaten since I have been in Japan. Everything was perfect. The wine:
The starter (trout, I think):
The (squash) soup:
The salad:
The BEST durned steak I've ever eaten in my life (I'm serious):
Dessert was amazing as well:
All these things were lovingly cooked by about a zillion chefs occupying a very small kitchen. Here are a few of them:
After dinner, I went back to the falls with Yoshiko, Anne, and Michel to snap some photos. Here I am with the happy couple (my body looks weird in this picture and I think it's because my camera case is underneath my jacket and it makes it stick out funny - at least that's the reason I'm sticking with):
When we got back, we found Stacy and Motoki sitting and reading (and magically they appeared in sepia):
We decided, despite the filling meal, to go to a mountain farm that sells homemade soft serve ice cream (and stands with roasted salamanders as well, by the way). Along the way, we stopped at a couple of places to take in the view:
We got our ice cream - which was also amazing - like everything else today - and stood around talking and enjoying the day. Here's Yoshiko's grandmother enjoying her ice cream cone.
