Birthdays and baby galore!

As many of you already know from the deluge of email from Katie over the past few months, she threw me a surprise 30th birthday party last month. And let me tell you, it was a huge surprise. I had no idea, not even an inkling, that this was happening. It was fantastic. Notice the surprise on my face in the above picture! People came from all over: Washington state, New Orleans, Indiana, Buffalo, Texas, and all over the tri-state area. Over the course of the afternoon probably about 40-50 people ate, drank, and merrily made their way through the apartment. Katie got two 6-foot hero sandwiches from the local Subway sandwich place, and made (or had people bring) devilled eggs, peanut butter cookies, brownies, olive trays, and all other sorts of yummy food. Wine, beer and soda pop flowed like water. I got some great gifts.

One of the best parts about the party was that several out-of-town friends (and one out-of-town sister) stuck around for a few days. So the party atmosphere persisted for a while. I got together with people during my lunch breaks and after work to eat or play Frisbee in the parks. A bunch of us went to Carmine’s one night (which, for those of you who haven’t visited us and eaten there, is a family-style Italian restaurant with huge, delicious portions of good good good food), and had a great time.

Of course, the next week Katie also turned 30. It was a (much) lower key affair, but still nice. I made her brownies, which is probably her favorite food, EVER. So now we’re both old. Just kidding! We feel great and are enjoying the beginning of the summer, which, apart from a blistering heat wave last week, has been temperate and pleasant. I’m forging ahead with my dissertation and she is working at her current rotation, which is conveniently just across the street (talk about a great commute!). We’re going to take advantage of some of the free summer activities the city has to offer, starting tomorrow with an opera highlights concert by the Metropolitan Opera in Prospect Park .

And for those who are wondering, Katie is feeling fine, and we’re both having fun feeling the baby kicking and punching around in there—she (the baby) is usually really active right before bedtime and she (the Katie) makes sure I am there to experience it, too.

I’ll post some pictures to our flickr account.