More Summing Up: Two Wedding Albums - I'm not sure how many parts this is going to take, but another highlight of this summer has been: Four Weddings. Yup, eight friends got married, and I've attended four weddings. First, Ann and DW, a wedding in lovely outdoor Ojai:



Ann and I spent several years having "sewing night every Friday" which really meant "hang out most Fridays or Saturdays, do no sewing at all, and joke that we really sit around poking the dogs with sticks." She would often make me a big ol' breakfast the next morning, after I crashed on her couch the night before. She's one of the few friends who never reads journals online, and would prefer a nice old fashioned visit, where I can catch her up on all the adventure stories in my life. She also taught me that some people prefer "the punchline first, and then the story." I can tell her the most detailed and elaborate story I want, as long as I tell her the point of the story, the punchline, or the twist first. Then she'll excitedly listen to whatever rambling I want to tell: Just always give her the punchline first.

Her wedding was really beautiful, and the hand-made silk ribbon flowers in her hair (and some of wedding party) were exquisite. (If anyone wants an artisan's contact information for hand-made silk ribbon flowers, I'd be happy to get that for you.) DW looked so amazing, and the two of them together were just radiant. I had the good fortune to spend some time hanging out with the Purkiss family too, as well as see an old roomie Tina (and her beau Brian and their son Bran), plus dearest Lynn and Bill.

The very next day, it was off to south Orange County for Matt and Tamara's wedding:



This was another big household wedding, and so I got to spend time with Raz and Maggie (it's so hard for me to call them Randy and Ginger), Gary and Mariam and Chiara, Jeff and Adrienne and Benji, Sandra and Gabe and Nathanial, Theresa and Alan, Eric, Nathan, and of course Matt and Tamara. I've met a few of their friends before, namely Josh and his wife and some of the folks who have gone to Pageant of the Masters or to Sukkot at Josh's home, which was nice to see them all again, too.

It was foggy on the cliffs for their Sunday morning wedding. And Raz noticed pelicans and pelican babies in the nests in trees in the distance. Sadly, I don't own a good enough camera to have really caught a good image of them, but it was fun to listen to their crazy noise. Then we headed off to a separate reception site and enjoyed lunch and a good couple of hours dancing. It thoroughly amused me to capture a few videos at the reception dance (links are in the photo album: images 86, 131, and 136)... especially Josh's attempt to get a kick-line going for "New York, New York." (Oh, the people with very little rhythm!! *giggle*)

I still have several more stories and photo albums for you, but please enjoy these for now.

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Ann and DW, Matt and Tamara. May you have many long years of happiness together.