Family Goings-on

We skipped our usual fireworks on the mall in 2011 to attend the annual Friedrich family gathering at Molly and Mark's house, and then continued on to Acadia National Park in Maine, where we had our summer trip with Judy and Eldridge (though not a camping trip this time).

In July of 2010 we continued our tradition of trips to the western US to go camping with Geneva's parents. This one was to Yellowstone, and included a swing out to Orcas Island to stay with Carl and Helen.

Earlier in 2008, we donated a vegan feast to the school charity auctions at both MSNV and Key School. The

We have continued to donate vegan feasts each year, and the results from 2009, 2010, and 2011 are available for the culinarily curious. first took place on May 17, after a great deal of advance preparation, including a rather sizeable monetary outlay to purchase many new dishes and wine glasses. Take a quick peek at the menu before looking at the results.

On the first weekend of December, 2006, Papa, Liesel and Sheila all somehow made it to Arlington (despite cancelled planes galore) so that we could have a romantic weekend alone. By ourselves. With no children. This was the first time that we had together spent even a single night away from our kids since Corwin was born. We spent the first night at the Ashby Inn in Paris Virginia. Then we traveled to the Inn at Little Washington, where we had the most extravagant room in the inn.

In October, 2006, Corwin and I were waiting to go to Strathmore and hear the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. I got a call from Ryun Schienbein, their director of operations. My initial reaction when he identified himself was that they were going to invite me to some sort of reception (my erstwhile teacher David Jolley is a longtime member of the group, though he did not accompany them on this tour). But it turned out one of their horn players had had an accident and they were looking for an emergency replacement.

In the summer of 2006, we took our now-annual camping trip, this time to the west coast. We spent time on Orcas Island, in Seattle and Portland, and at Takhlakh Lake in the Gifford Pinchot national forest.

After many years, a chance arose for us to see Peter's cousin Leonie, who was traveling to Philadelphia with her husband Rhodri. She was on the continent helping to promote her grandfather's book "A Little History of the World" (which is quite a delight), and Rhodri was researching and giving talks. So we seized the carp, and drove up for the day. The ensuing festivities included some of the kitschy americana sightseeing, as well as a crepe lunch out in the courtyard at Penn on a beautiful day. No doubt the kids will most remember the broken button in front of the library, and the found cricket ball.

Judy and Eldridge came for a week in August, and we set out on another camping trip, this time locally. We went to a great state park in the Shenendoah valley called Sherando Lake Recreation Area. With the exception of a downpour which added a frisson of panic to the act of setting up the tent, the weather was splendid, the mosquitos were non-existent, and we had a grand time, complete with a visit by Smokey Bear on his birthday. We also went on a day trip to Charlottesville and saw Monticello, as well as granting the kids some time at the kids' museum.

Just before, Jasper and Peter had been in Madison for a celebration of Madison West High School's 75th anniversary. Peter played in a concert commemorating the event, including a piece for Trumpet and Horn called "PS Suite" (I. Fanfare II. Elegy III. Scherzo) which he composed for the occasion. Liesel was also there, and later in the weekend Papa, Tom and Noah also arrived, and Elisabeth brought along her daughter Sonja who was visiting, and we had a mini family reunion.

Another big project which Peter undertook in the summer of 2005 was building a 'treehouse' (really a play house on stilts over the sandbox) for the kids. He designed it himself, with tips from our carpenter friend Bob Odmark. In the process he learned a great deal about framing, roofing, and other handy arts which should come in, well, you know. Here is a small flavor of the process (though not as exhaustively documented as other house projects).

In May 2005, several of Jasper's classmates and their families got together for a class camping trip. Peter was not able to go, but Geneva impressed everyone by taking care of three kids, cooking meals, face painting. Along the way she also managed to take a few pictures.

We finally got our hearth retiled (the one that had a hard edge sticking up just high enough to trip little feet, hence covered with a foam "bumper" that kids love to peel off), and we decided to redo the fireplace surround as the brick was badly smoke-stained. As is our custom with home improvement projects, we documented the process as well as the result.

From Thanksgiving through Christmas 2004 we were blessed with a passel of visitors, including Nana and Aunt Liesel for Thanksgiving, Papa and Grandma Helen for Christmas, and Grandma and Grandpa just after. (They had meant to come for Christmas as well, but events conspired to make them postpone their trip a few weeks). Here are some of the photographic highlights (sorry we couldn't share the gastronomic ones with you).

In mid-December 2004, the kids second cousin Anna Friedrich (daughter of Tony Friedrich, Peter's first cousin) got married in Bethesda, and we went, seeing many relatives in the process. Paul and Pete Friedrich (Peter's uncle and cousin) spent the night, and several other Friedrich cousins were at the wedding. In the midst of all the activities we did manage a few pictures (though not, sadly, Corwin's dancing).

In October 2004, we took a lengthy road trip up north to celebrate our new car, a Ford Freestyle (holds 7, isn't quite a minivan). Or wait, maybe we bought the new car to take the lengthy road trip... We stopped for dinner with our friends Matt and Mari in New Jersey, stayed at a very expensive hotel outside of Albany (it still sounds like a contradiction in terms to me), then spend a pair of days with Jeff, Karyn, Syd and Zoe in Burlington VT. We managed a swing by Liesel and saw her new condo in Hatfield MA on the way home.

Having an interest in the results of national elections, I was referred to a site which daily plots (based on state polling data) the winner of the presidential race in the electoral college. The creator of the site put in a great deal of work, and he deserves recognition. So please take a look.

Our big vacation of the summer, 2004, was a swing up the west coast, from Davis up to Orcas Island, with an exclamation point of a visit to New York. Geneva also took the time to document how nicely the yard is turning out, for those who have an interest in such things. Next I'll have to write to the house and garden magazines.

The whole family took a trip to Davis, CA, in mid-April for Brian and Debbie's wedding.

In late November 2003, we managed, Tom Sawyeresquely, to get a huge amount of help making our annual christmas cookies, by inviting practically everyone we know locally to a "cookie-decorating party". We'll have to try the same ploy next year, as it worked spectacularly well.

In October 2003, our mason finally found time in his schedule to work on the patio and the front walk. The first step was to tear out the old concrete slab in the back yard. At this point, he has been done for a while, and I still have to take some pictures of the finished work. (I guess first I have to get the cicadas off of it).

Hurricane Isabel swept through in September 2003, bringing down lots of trees. Some of them landed on the power lines, causing most of the neighborhood to lose power, in our case for about 6 days. An extension cord across the street from out kind and fortunate neighbors enabled us to keep our fridge and a few lights running, but it wasn't enough to keep the sump pumps running during the 2-inch rainfall that happened a few days later. So Geneva's office has now moved to a different part of the basement (and the guest room is upstairs) while I rip out the carpeting, and install a wood floating floor (and look into battery backups for the sumps).

Geneva took a trip out to California in June 2003 to attend a retirement party for her father. It was only fair since Peter got to go to Germany for his father. Malva went along for the ride.

Although her birthday actually falls in January, Peter's sister Liesel (Lisa to some) threw (or had thrown for her) a 40th birthday party in the middle of July 2003. Taking place at the wonderful house of cousins Mark and Molly, it was a terrific party (including a script reading of Liesel's new comedy) which everyone in our family enjoyed (though Malva didn't care for the driving to New York). Here are a few highlights, though we were both too busy with the three kids to take as many pictures as we would have liked.

Corwin and Peter set off for Germany on May 27, 2003 to attend a mathematical conference in honor of Peter's father, Carl.

Right around the first of May 2003, work began on our complete kitchen renovation, which is now finished (as of the end of August)! Follow the link to see how the work progressed.

On February 16-17 2003, we were hit with over a foot and a half of snow, causing a whole week of missed school. The week was truly capped off by the birth of Malva.

We went to Davis for Christmas 2002 and saw several friends from the bay area, as well as spending some nice time with Judy and Eldridge. Then in early February 2003 we went back to Davis to surprise Judy on her 60th birthday. All of her children, children-in-law and grandchildren showed up (as well as sisters, nieces, etc.), and she was speechless. Most of the pictures of these events are on Corwin's and Jasper's pages.

We celebrated Thanksgiving 2002 with our good friends Cynthia and Pete Chin. Here were some of the goings on. Their daughter Sophie was born the day after Malva

We had to take out a ninety-year-old oak tree this week (9/20/02), and Geneva has the idea of turning some of it into useful wood to make some special piece of furniture for the house. If you are willing to turn your head, you can see the useful wood hit the ground. Now it is sitting in 9-foot-long chunks in the back yard. You can also follow the story of what happened next.
 
  We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary at a famous local restaurant, the Inn at Little Washington, in Wasington Virginia. We were handed menus which congratulated us on our anniversary, and we proceeded to have a very fine meal.

Here is where you can see lots of pictures from my tour to Japan (summer 2002). It even has some sound clips to give you the 2-sense experience (the helpful people who make open standards still haven't come up with any standards for olfactory reproduction).

Go to this link to see a photo album of our trip to Australia in April 2000.