Today, during my cycling class, our instructor reminded us that time is a gift. He encouraged us to think about how we use our time and to use it wisely, with purpose and intent. No matter how you look at time, from minute to minute or over the course of a life, time – particularly […]
Marriage
Five years and a facelift
What a difference five years can make in a life. On 1-9-05 I was a single girl. I’d been single a long time. On this cold and unusually snowy Seattle Sunday, my first date with Big Papa was on the calendar. We’d arranged for me to pick him up and drive to the Bainbridge Island […]
Shepherd’s Pie
“Breeep, breeep, BREEEP!” The sharp piercing staccato of our fire alarm fills the airspace. Big Papa and I are making Shepherd’s Pie from scratch and setting off the fire alarm is part of our annual tradition. For each of the five Christmas seasons we’ve been a couple, Shepherd’s Pie has been on the menu. I […]
Mouse kings and sugar plum fairies
Girls dressed in pink tulle, tutus and sparkly ballet shoes flit and twirl across their pretend stage. Spritely young jousters parry and thrust invisible swords to ward off imagined foes. The lobby of the Seattle Opera house is abuzz with Lilliputian ballerina wanna-be’s. Big Papa and I wait until it’s time to head to our […]
The king and the castle
“If you want to beat the pants off your friends, here’s what you do,” Big Papa told my 11-year old niece, April, on our recent trip back east to visit family. “When you control the center of the board and keep your king safe, that’s how you’ll win the game,” he continued to her rapt […]
The trifecta
A 30-something year old friend of mine was married this past weekend. It was a good-sized affair, with nearly 200 in attendance. The ceremony was outdoors at the Columbia Winery. After they tied the knot, we milled around the tasting room before we were ushered into the dining area with roughly twenty round tables, each […]
To have and to hold
Part V of V The words in our ceremony rang true. Debbi hardly missed a beat. As it turns out, she also knew several of our guests. Later, I learned she had been married a long time herself. To this day, I couldn’t be prouder that it was Debbi who married us. Just as the […]
I do
Part IV of V The biggest snafu hit on July 28, our wedding day. Historically, this date is one of four weekends with the least chance of rain. In the morning, when I awoke, gray clouds filled the sky. Big Papa and I had spent the night before our wedding apart. I was in Seattle, […]
Wedding bell blues
Part III of V The first sign of trouble began six months later, when I received the e-mail from the owner of the B&B where the ceremony would be held. The city council on Bainbridge Island had decided to uphold a little known (and rarely enforced) ordinance that prohibited B&Bs from hosting “events” on their […]
Goin’ to the chapel
Part II of V Big Papa proposed a year after we met. We had just finished having dinner at Central Cinema, a little movie theater and café around the corner from the Urban Cabin. My immediate response was, “Are you serious?!” From the look on his face I could see he was indeed serious, so […]