in a perfect world of yancies: November 2011

27 November 2011

Black Oak Holiday

Happy Thanksgiving
Great Thanksgiving with the Hughes family!

(And some Iwanski's; and some Campbells too, of course...)

Evan was in fine form:
Evan (2)

Dave and Fran tried out a great technique with the turkey: just popped all the meat off of the carcass and carved it afterward:
Carved and Ready to Serve
Sensible and delicious!

(Nice job cutting sage for the serving platter, Amelia!)

Good food, good wine; even some good sparkling grape juice for Emily and the kids:
Sparkling Grape Juice for Mimi

Hard to get everyone in one photo, but Fran got a good shot of most of us:
Happy Thanksgiving

We enjoyed the nice weather as we walked the property:
Seasonal Colors
I think Braxton has just about enough orange on to be visible to any hunters :)

Had some fun around a bonfire in the back yard:
Fire

This photo's a little dark, but I just love this shot of Dave, Fran, Evan, Magen, and Emily:
Family by the Fire

One last look around the area before we head home:
Scanning the Skies
Taken at the Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area, where they hold the hilariously named Marsh Madness.

Oh, and there are a few more photos in a set on Flickr if you're interested...

Hope you had a great holiday, reader!

16 November 2011

Moving Pictures

Saw a great movie last week. I'd definitely recommend it:

WE WERE HERE (trailer) from David Weissman on Vimeo.

Stephen Holden of the New York Times really liked it too.

And I really can't get enough of this picture of Emily:
26 Weeks

Anyway, I'd better run. Hopefully I'll have time for more blog posts once EJ actually gets here ;)

08 November 2011

25 Weeks!

Looking good!
25 weeks
Heard his heartbeat at the doctor's again yesterday—good strong 140 beats per minute. Amazing stuff.

04 November 2011

Where We Are With Beauty

Been a great (but busy!) quarter, especially with my Freshman Seminar classes. We're again examining different accounts of the relationship between beauty and knowledge.

Spent a nice afternoon at the Seattle Japanese Garden last week.
IMG_1059

And last night we saw a very, very odd shadow puppet and silhouette-based modern-day adaptation of Homer's Odyssey. The show (Shadow Odyssey) was pretty raunchy and definitely a loose translation of Homer, but how could anyone resist this description from their website:

Picture this: you walk into a dimly lit tent. You sit back in a chair or get comfortable on a pile of pillows. Then, the show begins: on all four walls surrounding you (plus the roof above) live actors in silhouette, shadow puppets and hand drawn projections interact to bring to life Shadow Odyssey.

I don't see the students until next week, but I can't wait to find out what they thought!

Finally, have you seen this video clip?

It's a version of Aristophanes' speech in Plato's Symposium, from the 2001 movie Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and I absolutely love it. Showed it in my classes just yesterday.