I'm over here now!  http://www.beholdthewonder.com/

Yippee! Time with this pretty lady this weekend.

This picture is from the Washington Duke Inn, sipping drinks in the plush leather chairs of the Study and feeling like characters from Mad Men. Which is coming back on April 7 (!!), not that I'm counting down the days or anything...

Visiting the revamped Virginia Museum of Fine Arts on Christmas Eve. I originally wanted to see the Chihuly glass exhibit, but skipped it due to the $20 entrance fee - not my best decision.

Like father, like son.

Martha threw a fantastic surprise party for Mary's birthday, with delicious Indian food, lots of friends and two yummy cakes. Mary is easy to celebrate though - kind to all, lighthearted, thoughtful. It also gave Erin, Rachel and me an excuse for a craft night, which reminded me of when we gathered to make invitations for Erin's baby shower. I'm grateful to have this group of women to mark life with, in the making of signs, cards and mementos, in the showering of love upon one another.

From dust you come, from dust you shall return. A somber beginning to Lent, but one that gives me hope. Hope that in knowing my beginning and my end, I'll learn how to live out the middle.

Mission Dolores, the oldest building in San Francisco. Peaceful and completely quiet when Melissa and I visited, the mission and attached cemetery take you back in time. With the chill biting at our fingers, we wandered outside through the cemetery, filled with the largest succulents I've ever seen. The painted ceiling reminded me of the mission Tommy and I visited in Carmel during our honeymoon.

Traveling with an old friend is a special treat. I see Melissa and no time has past. We're fourteen and sneaking out of the house to run around the neighborhood, giggling about boys and complaining about our history teacher. Or we're in college, making idealistic plans for our lives and sending postcards back and forth from Spain. Or fresh graduates, traipsing the streets of north east London, shoveling cupcakes in our mouths and staying out into the wee hours of the morning. But besides that, and what means more, is the shared language of people, places, things, that seamlessly weave the past with the present. The body language and facial expressions that, indecipherable to most, communicate so clearly that words are secondary.

Griff and Elizabeth married on a brisk January morning. They went around to all the tables during lunch and greeted each one of us with a hug, which made the reception feel like the first of many meals they'll host as a married couple.

This week has been long and full. My stuffy-nose-cold is pushing three weeks and work projects are overlapping. I'm thankful it's Friday and I get to go home to this handsome guy, who can magically peel oranges in one piece.