Today was the wren's first birthday! We had a smallish party -- we only invited 12 people (one of them a one-year old), and of those, 10 people attended (autumnbottom, tatterdamelion, aawhitewood, Nikki & Ryan, Tom & Mandy, and lesserseattle & family. scifisy and juniperjournal were busy; one working and the other hiking).

Yes, of those 12 people -- 11, if you don't count the one-year old -- 6 have LiveJournals. Wow. This is how my generation keeps in touch.

I went a bit overboard with the food, although not as much as I secretly wanted to. Pictures --

A busy weekend, filled with food, friends, and fun!

Friday night was Andrew's "Harmonium" game, which was seriously short on players -- still, the three people who showed up kicked some major butt in a big battle, and no one died (well, no good guys died, anyway).

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First, McSweeney's takes apart Guns 'n' Roses' "Sweet Child of Mine," line by line. I have thought these same thoughts while listening to this song.

(BTW, don't ever get me started on what's wrong with "Every Little Thing You Do Is Magic" by The Police...)

And, from The Onion, Underfunded Schools Forced To Cut Past Tense From Language Programs.

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The party last night was a great success. 17 people attended (plus Rachel, plus Andrew and me and the girls) -- tying Andrew's "Cat People" LARP of 2003 for number of guests. No one canceled because of the snow or the fear of crazy drivers out on the Seattle streets, even the people who had to come all the way up from Federal Way! We had the right amount of (yummy) food. Someone brought eggnog, and HOO boy, it was STRONG eggnog (too much nog?), so everyone was in a great mood by about an hour in.



And if you followed all that, and it even sounded like fun to you, then we'll be happy to invite you to the next one of these that gets thrown. Me, I'm just happy that (1) it went well, (2) it's over, (3) I met some fun new people, and (4) now I can spell "Vestenmannavnjar" without blinking twice. ;-)

Rachel is here preparing for a long-scheduled Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) tonight.

She's put a lot of effort and expense into this, from character creation to making little packets for each person to buying WAY TOO MUCH FOOD and painstakingly preparing and assembling it.

We have plans for a fire, hot apple cider, and fizzy punch in the punch bowl. Massive platters of fruits, vegetables, cold cuts, and cheese have been prepared. Swedish meatballs will soon be piping hot in their crockpot. And authentic flatbrød (or however you spell it) has been mixed and fried on my electric griddle and piled into baskets.

And then -- the end times struck.

http://leukothea.smugmug.com/gallery/3771268#227531160-L-LB

Seattle freaks out over snow like you would not believe. "Snowpacalypse" is not overstating the level of terror and mayhem that this much snow is going to cause.

Will the party continue? I guess we'll find out. And may God have mercy on our souls.

First, there was MEAT

After putting Vivian down for her afternoon nap today, polytrypos and I finally saw "300," a movie which everyone we know saw in the theaters (except other parents of small children). Since it came out I had heard so much about it and seen so many spoofs, notably the "United 300" spoof I posted awhile ago, that the original was almost anticlimactic.

I'm afraid I spent pretty much the whole movie picking apart the historical inaccuracies, or else saying "That's an actual line from Herodotus" whenever they got something right.

It did, however, have all the "man candy" one could possibly hope for. Much meat was showcased in service of a glorious death in the name of freedom. Or something like that.

And then, there was MORE MEAT

Our friends John (lesserseattle) and Lupa threw a barbecue this afternoon -- a "Meat and Margaritas" party, complete with a bratwurst taste test.

(Verdict, by a 7 - 2 margin with three abstentions: The brats boiled in El Cheap-o Budweiser were better than the brats boiled in the fancier microbrew.)

The girls and I came home , leaving polytrypos there to enjoy tatterdamelion's regular every-other-Saturday-night game. We used to host this game, and I have to admit that it's sooooo nice to just come home and relax (as much as I can relax while looking after these two) instead of hosting. Lazy in my old age, I guess.

John and Lupa have really done an amazing job of landscaping, all pretty much with their own four hands. The back yard is for relaxing while the side yard holds all kinds of vegetables, fruits, and herbs -- zucchini, Swiss chard, beds for lettuce, Brussels sprouts, chives, basil, two kinds of oregano, strawberries, blueberries, cucumbers -- and there was probably more, but I was so amazed my eyes were full. :-)

I told John that I'll need his advice when it comes time to start gardening. This year has been taken up with the Baby Project, but maybe next summer I can at least plant lettuce...

Tomorrow is my baby shower. I don't know where it will be, who will attend, or what "theme" they have planned for me. I don't know if there will be food. I don't know if there will be a planned activity like miniature golf or rock-climbing (I hope no rock-climbing!). All I know is that someone will appear at my door at 11:30 and drive me to an undisclosed location.

Not knowing is kind of stressing me out, but I will try not to be stressed out by the prospect of people giving me things!