A quiet weekend.

Spring is beginning to return to our barren winter land.  Cortney got outside for a walk with friends Leah and Kristin last week and had such a good time that we went out together both days this weekend - even the dogs got in on the action, going out for their first walk of the new year.  But before the warmth of the weekend, we ventured into the chill of Friday night with friends Andrew and Erin for a stab at Thai food, which is somewhat new to us, and we had a great time.  Who knew curry came in three colors?  We've only ever had yellow curry, but on Friday Cortney tried red curry, and green is also an option.  What they didn't have was burnt umber...oh well.  The rest of our weekend was quiet, filled with cat sitting, lunch with Cortney's mom, potluck dinner at church, lunch with our confirmands, and a quiet Sunday night at home.  One would think we were getting chores done, but we gave those up for Lent.

Yes, year-old cake can be good

Happy anniversary to Kristin and Matt!

They have been married for a year now and, in celebratioin, we shared dinner, champagne, sparkling grape juice (for Cortney and Raspberry), and... year old cake.  It is a tradition, possibly a more recent one, to freeze the top layer of one's wedding cake for the celebration of the first anniversary, so that is what they had done and they were kind enough to invite us to share in the moment with them.  Perhaps the real reason they invited us was because they were afraid to try said piece of newly thawed cake themselves (okay, the real reason is because even just the top layer of a wedding cake is a lot of cake and a lot of frosting for just two people - even for four).  But all jesting aside, the cake was very good, and we want to thank them for sharing their time (and their TiVo) with us.  So, again, happy anniversary to Kristin and Matt!

Coincidence? We think... probably!

What are the odds that two friends who grew up together would end up getting pregnant and being due only one day a part without ever discussing the matter?  Normally one would assume the answer here to be "slim to none," but since we are asking the question, you know there's a trick in there somewhere.  We went out to dinner last night with Nathan and Diane and, low and behold, not only are they pregnant, but they are due on June 20, one day after Raspberry is slated to join us in the world (for whatever a due date is actually worth).  Nathan and Jon grew up together, and were in each other's weddings, and this was just wonderfully exciting news all around.  So, congrats to Nathan and Diane!  We are sorry that you weren't just a few months earlier or later so that we could have passed clothing back and forth, but, actually, not all that sorry.

In other news... Cortney was ordained as a Deacon this morning at our church (we are both excited about that, as it will be a job we both partake in).  And tonight we had dinner with another of our long lost friends, Andrew (another pre-college friend of Jon's).  We had a great time catching up and will have to do it again some time soon, as we get in our final months of social freedom!

Yes, it really is almost 4am...

Why are we up and alert at four in the morning?  We blame it on Steve (and we mean that in the nicest way possible).  We were all prepared to pick Steve up at the airport at 11:30 on Friday (today, yesterday, whatever...), and were very excited to see him, but then he called Cortney at work this afternoon to let her know that his plane has been inexplicably delayed by over an hour.  So poor Steve was stuck in his layover in the Denver airport while we were stuck trying to figure out what woud keep us up and running until we could pick him up at 12:45 am.  So we went out for dinner with Kristin and Matt, as had been originally planned, and then had them over so that Matt could beat us all at Mario Party 7.  Curtis joined the party at 11:30, which was when Cortney checked the flight information online, only to find out that the flight had been delayed again for mechanical difficulties and would arrive at 1:58am.  So at 1:40 off we went to the airport but, after getting Steve and waiting for luggage, we were all on our second (or third?) winds and we were all hungry (Cortney is eating for two...), so we hit an all-night Koney Island and then a Denny's, both of which were too full and too smokey.  Instead we hit the local Kroger and stocked up on eggs, bacon, cheese, hashbrowns and OJ and made our own breakfast at home (Jon is a fantastic cook).  So yes, it really is almost four in the morning and, yes, we are all still awake, but we are, finally, on our way to bed, including the safely arrived Steve.

Countertenors are real

We are being social in the cold snowy nights. We began Saturday evening with a wonderful holiday dinner with Jon's business group in a reserved room at a nice country club. We shared cocktails and conversation and a really nice meal. Long before the dinner was planned, however, we had tickets to the annual UMS performance of Handel's Messiah at Hill Auditorium so we had to leave the dinner party early to race over to Hill. We made it just as the orchestra was tuning up. We met up with the Lilly Resident Ministers from church, with whom we had bought group tickets (they're a really fun group of seminary grads our age). The performance was beautiful, as expected, but the real standout was the moment that the countertenor stood up and sang. Not only was he the most animated and excited performer, but he had a falsetto as rich as any female opera star. After the show, we all went out for coffee and took bets over whether the countertenor's speaking voice was as high as his singing one. Then we bid each other goodnight until we would meet again at church a mere seven hours later.