Around this time, years ago

20 September 2008: Prehistoric Nettles! Guion performs for one of the first times in Chapel Hill, in the basement of the Student Union.

20 September 2009: A rare moment of quiet in the kitchen at McCauley Street, the house I lived in during my senior year at UNC. I don’t think this kitchen ever looked this clean again.

18 September 2010: Hiking Crabtree Falls with our new friends, Sam, Sean, and Julie. Sam’s apple rolled down a rock face right before this photo was taken, but he decided to eat it anyway.

24 September 2011: Jonathan and I visit Catherine and Ava in Virginia Beach. Here we are looking out from Balboa Towers.

17 September 2012: Pyrrha, lazing around the house. Kind of feeling like I might do a third 365 Project (first done in 2008, second done from 2009-2010), maybe starting in January 2013? I miss being able to look back through the years and remember every single day. I am reminded that I have the most boring, well-documented life. But it makes me happy and I think my memory gets an artificial jolt from all of those photos.

Boy time

Pre-dinner calm.

We went to Davidson this weekend, for Chris and Lauren’s wedding. It was one of those rare weekends back home in which most of the time was spent with BOYS. (With Kelsey and Grace gone, there is little incentive to fill up the harem.)

Boys, boys, boys:

Sam, all grown up.

Jak and Pyrrha.

Husband.

Caleb.

Da-Dan and his youngest daughter.

Gotta love boys. Patrick also showed up, but he is not featured here, as I was in the throes of post-wedding food poisoning when he arrived. So happy to get to see him, too.

Food poisoning aside, we had a lovely, calm weekend. Pyrrha acted like she owned the place. She’s become very comfortable with Davidson living and I daresay she was rather disappointed to come back to our shack after three days at the family estate. Dublin has become her constant companion and has been showing her the Ways of the Normal Dog.

You may have noticed an improvement in photo quality (although not necessarily photo skill). This is because I picked up my new camera, Louis, which I bought from Grace. I feel very honored to have him in my care. I am sure I won’t use him half as well as his first owner, but I am going to do my best to learn everything I can. There is so much to learn! It is a formidable piece of equipment.

How nice to be away, how nice to be home.

The Midwest and our second anniversary

We spent the Memorial Day weekend trekking to the great Midwest for my grandfather’s memorial service. While the circumstances were sad, we had a wonderful time with Dad’s side of the family, remembering Papa John.

Rest in peace, Papa John.

On our last day in Indianapolis, we stood around his new headstone and talked about what we remembered. Remember that time he landed a helicopter in a tiny patch of grass in front of a Hilton, or in Aunt Shelly and Uncle Sean’s backyard, to the amazement of all the neighbors? Remember how he used to evaluate a car, running his hands along the sides, as if it were a racehorse? Remember how calm he was, how he never yelled at us?

Guion, excluded.

The weekend was blazing hot, but we managed to distract ourselves with multiple games of deck tennis and lots of unhealthy food.

Wrangling the family.

We don’t get to see this side of the family very much, so this was a cherished weekend. How nice it was to be reminded of where you came from, the qualities and predispositions that you bear, silently and mysteriously inherited.

The Farson siblings with their mother.

We came home the morning before our second anniversary. To celebrate, we went to Ten for dinner. I’ve been waiting for two years now to go to Ten, and it did not disappoint (even though it made me miss Japan and my host mom’s cooking more than ever). We sat across from each other and smiled, marveling at how quickly time has passed. Wasn’t it just yesterday that we were dragging luggage into a hotel, still decked out in our wedding garb?

This sushi is not messing around. Anniversary dinner at Ten.

And now we are happy to be back to our new home, reunited with Pyrrha and our sprawling garden and out-of-control lawn. I am looking forward to doing nothing in particular all summer.

Moving and things

Our new, lush backyard.

This won’t count as an official update, but we are in the thick of moving craziness right now. We are realizing, however, how totally blessed we are to have found this little house, our mini-homestead. Meanwhile, everything continues to happen at a dizzying, thrilling pace: Chris and Sallie got engaged last night; my little brother graduates from high school this weekend; Mike and Windy are coming in on Friday to help us with the final moving things; and our home visit with Southeast German Shepherd Rescue is tonight! All of these moments that I have been waiting for, happening all at once…

A party on the lake, moving, our future dog??

Whew, what a week! But a good one.

To start the week off, we attended Maddy’s surprise party on a lake. Photo sampling below:

Maddy’s surprise party on the lake.

The party planner and the birthday girl.

It was really marvelous and such a peaceful, happy gathering. More photos on Flickr.

We are in the thick of packing and moving right now, and my brain is too distracted for many eloquent words (I haven’t read a book in a few days, which feels very strange), so this will be brief. We also may have met our future dog on Friday night. But more on that later!

Blue House Family Easter

We had a beautiful Easter in town and celebrated with a cookout at the Blue House. It was a perfect afternoon.

More photos on Flickr.

That is all.

Love,
A.

A weekend with the family

Betsey! Soon to be India bound! So good to see her after so long.

First, I had a sleepover with Betsey. It was wonderful. She is so much fun and so wise.

Family game of knock out. I am stupendously bad at basketball.

Kate and Sam, feigning friendship.

Kate takes on the brownie batter.

Then, on Friday, I took a half-day at work and drove home for an early celebration of Dad’s and Kate’s birthdays and to surprise the siblings. (They were surprised, but a little disappointed that it was me, because Dad had led them to believe that he was bringing home a puppy.)

It was so nice to be back there, to wander around Fisher Farm with the dogs, to eat dinner with the whole family, to drape ourselves over furniture and be totally unhelpful to mother, to sleep in the harem again. I have missed them all.

Tuesday recap

Here’s some stuff I did over our Christmas break. Now I need to catch up on work… clean the house… nap…

All holiday photos on Flickr. Maybe later I’ll talk to you seriously. And then debut my top 10 (fiction) books of 2011!

Monday Snax

My family + our surrogate dog, Dublin.

Girls of Thanksgiving. L to R: me, Dana, Grace, Emily, Kelsey, and Nicole.

Pratt siblings on our best behavior. Win is so stoic.

Ah, Thanksgiving. It was so ideal. The weather was divine; the food, miraculous; the company, perfect. As always, it is difficult to get back into the weekly routine, but I feel sufficiently rested and hopeful. I left ineffably thankful for our families. And I got to spend plenty of time with dogs, which was naturally another thing to be grateful for. Photos from the holiday weekend on my Flickr.

Snax with leftover turkey and cranberry sauce:

The Extraordinary Syllabi of David Foster Wallace. Kind of thankful I’m not taking a lit class with DFW. Although I think it is totally wonderful that he assigned The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. (Slate)

Women Who Write Like Men and Men Who Write Like Women. A somewhat interesting corollary to my thoughts on this matter? So, it turns out that men and women do actually use pronouns differently, and so we can overgeneralize and say that there are some “men who write like women” and some “women who write like men.” Haven’t processed the implications of this, but it’s still interesting. (Full Stop)

Joan Didion on Stage. More Didion (because I’m reading The Year of Magical Thinking right now, probably). And because she is snarky and cool. (The New Yorker’s Book Bench)

Living with (Millions) of Books. Houses without books look soulless. (English Muse)

Jonathan Lethem’s Alphabetical Absolutism: How Writers Keep Their Books. Photographs of contemporary writers’ bookshelves. I liked Junot Diaz’s thoughts on the matter of buying more books than one can read in a year. (The New Yorker’s Book Bench)

Peter Jellitsch Draws the Wind. Now that’s a crazy endeavor. But how cool is this? Very. (Fox Is Black)

Bicycle Portraits, Part III. This looks like a beautiful book. Would make a gorgeous gift for the avid cyclist in one’s life. (Miss Moss)

30 Tech Gifts Under $100. It seems all people want these days are gadgets, so this is a small but helpful gift guide for design-friendly digital-age presents. [Side note: Can I talk about how much I hate the asterisk in the Design*Sponge title? I always want to leave it out, even though copy editor rules tell me you're supposed to punctuate a title the way a firm punctuates it. Still. I think it is stupid, Bonney. Even though your gift guides and your general website are great.] (Design*Sponge)

Constellation Calendar. Ooh, love. Even though I can’t identify a constellation to save my life (except probably Orion’s belt). (Unruly Things)

The Class Comforter. The sweetest. I would like to have that job/get someone else in my office to have that job. (Sweet Fine Day)

Ready to give thanks

Sam and Emma at Thanksgiving, many years ago. Maybe 2003?

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I am beside myself with excitement: Win, Guion, and I are trekking down to the Old North State in about an hour. Cannot WAIT. There shall be much food, laughter, and loving of dogs.

Wishing you all peace and merriment. See you Monday!

(Tell me that’s not the cutest picture you’ve seen all day.)