At last!

At last, our computer is fixed! It took only 30 minutes but it was 30 minutes with the right person. That last part was key. Now I don't have to rush off to school to write all of my papers or send emails. I can go back to lounging around in my pjs and playing with the pets all day! (I wish.)

So on to the photos and stories!

Right before Halloween, I was able to carve a pumpkin with my neighbor who is in third grade and has never carved a pumpkin before. Can you believe that!?! Obviously the Philadelphia school system is failing our youth!

Each week we have been sharing a meal with our neighbors, Dottie, H, their young son Owen and their pup Sampson. Since they couldn't come to Joshua's birthday party, they had us over the day before for an awesome dinner and fun presents. They are great and we are so blessed to have them as neighbors.
Simon has begun having play dates with Sampson. They are such good dogs and both are part lab-pit bull. Sampson is older and just wants to play fetch. Simon acts like the younger sibling, wanting to get in the way and show Sampson all of his toys. Here they are playing with an invincible ball. They once played tug-a-war for four hours straight!

Patrick and his fiance Carrie threw a fun child-game inspired 30th birthday party to celebrate his entry into adulthood. Among many others, we played SPUD, freeze tag, red-light-green-light and with a parachut. Hooray for Patrick and Carrie's creativity! And hooray for Patrick always being older than me!

Joshua's best friend Scott came to Philadelphia to visit. Scott seems to always be chocked full of "interesting" -- he just moved back to Chicago from Australia, outbid Tim Meadows on an awesome condo and, when we saw him, he was on his way to NYC to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Rockettes and his family. It was really fun to hang out with him. We cannot wait to see him in Chicago and crash in his beautiful home.

We went to Carlisle to my folk's house for Thanksgiving. This was the grandbaby's first Thanksgiving. Mr. Grandbaby was as wonderful as always. He is so snugly and sweet. Joshua and I are continuing to falling more and more in love with him. Brian and Bridgette are such good parents; it is really fun to watch them with him.

It was also Simon's first Thanksgiving. Generally he was a good pup. He proved himself as a great hiking dog; we were able to take him off-leash on a few hikes. He also demonstrated his speed by stealing some meatloaf, turkey and even some Poviticia from us.

[It is nice to have the computer back and share all of these photos! I have to admit that I missed it. Blogging may be passe these days, but I like sharing photos with friends and family.]

More/our photos from the last month of excitement

Patrick and Carrie got engaged! Hooray! Patrick asked me to part of the wedding party, which is totally awesome. That is going to be such a rockin' good wedding because they are so totally in love and excited about everything.

Here they are opening their first official engagement gift when they came for Joshua's birthday party.


Joshua's birthday party was super fun. The house was a wreck from a crazy week and the dog was nutso (as usual) but we have wonderful and tolerant friends and family who helped us to celebrate Joshua's first 30 years.

Joshua really wanted to make his own birthday cake. In the tradition of funny birthday cakes, he made a beer bottle cake. Very impressive, right?! And super tasty thanks to Hershey's chocolate!



I know that we already reviewed this on the blog, but we have to touch on it again: the Phillies won the World Series! It not like other towns that win big games. This is Philly and their 25+ year streak of not winning ANYTHING major. And South Philly is where all the fanatical fans seem to be located. It has been great to be here for all of the excitement.

The night of the second half of the final game, everyone in the bar went crazy with every little thing that happened. Once the game was done, everyone went outside to celebrate. Tons of high-fiving and hugging as people seemed overwhelmed with emotion for their team and fellow Philadelphians. Even little kids were standing outside of their homes in their PJs and jumping up and down. It really was a cool thing to witness.

This Halloween proved to us how blessed we are to live on our street. Our neighbors came out in costumes with tons of candy and alcohol. One of the most beloved ladies on our street, Marie, who is over 80 years old, dressed up as a Native American so that she could go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Evidently her costumes are well-known and very anticipated each year. Our best friends on the block, Dottie and H, dressed their little boy up as a penguin, which was overwhelmingly cute. Randy and H put on wrestler masks and sipped wine through straws. Overall a very fun night although we cannot believe that we did not get dressed up this year. Next year ... next year ...



This past weekend, David and Jess got married! It was a beautiful ceremony followed by a kickin' party with (what felt like and might have been) 300+ of their closest family and friends. It is always so much fun to see the Whelihan side of the family and hang out with all of my cousins.

Even more good things happen!

1. Obamarama = Hooray!

2. Kate, Neal and Matt visit with Rio, the puppy! Simon taught Rio all the important stuff, like how to clean the dishes after brunch. Yum!

(Please note that after all of these years, Kate and I are still able to avoid doing the dishes by claiming to practice playing the piano! Success!)

This upcoming weekend: David and Jess' much-anticipated wedding! I have a feeling that it is going to be overwhelmingly fun.

Giving Thanks 2007 Spectacular

We always have lots of lovely people over for dinner, but we often forget to take pictures of the entire crowd. This is probably a good thing because who really posts blog entries about what they do all the time ... except for everyone who lives in Seattle and us, I guess.

Anyway, even though we have no photographic evidence of it, the weekend before Thanksgiving we had a lovely dinner with some of my Whelihan cousins -- David, Michael and Alexis -- and also Brian, Bridgette and TBD. Mike and Alexis were able to visit with us for the weekend. What a great couple, easy guests and a fun time!

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This year’s day-of-eating-too-much was wonderful. Brian, Bridgette, TBD (the non-born baby), Charlie (the teen-angst dog), Joshua and I spent the long weekend with my parents in Carlisle among the fall colors.

We were able to enjoy a wonderful (and traditional!) meal together with one of the student from Dickinson College, John Paul.




Celebrate Mom’s 35th birthday!




Watch Flicker (TBD) push on Bridgette’s belly.

Eat mass quantities of the povitisa Joshua made last weekend.

And play with the dog in the backyard.

All in all a great weekend!

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EDIT: I cannot believe that I forgot some of the other exciting activities!
* BOWLING
* Hershey Bear's Hockey
* and 9-ball in the basement ... although when Joshua beat Dad and I two games in a row, while still calling the balls by the color instead of the number, I'm not sure what that should be called.