Special K

It has occurred to me that K. hasn't been getting that much coverage in this blog, largely owing to the fact that K. prefers to disseminate her news via email rather than fling it onto the world wide web for all to see. Still, this purports to be a family blog and she's part of the family, so I don't see why she should be spared. Besides, just look at that freckled face.
We took this photo in mid-April when we went down to the coast for me to attend a judicial conference. I think they got a good rate on hotel rooms, because a lot of the seasonal stuff was still closed and the water was cold enough to turn your toes blue. No kidding. K. did more than her fair share of watching the kids wade in the icy surf, so it's not for nothing that she's wearing her hood in this shot.

Lee and Melissa Kennedy were nice enough to put us up when we visited C-Ville in May. Melissa and K. were very glad to see each other and resumed getting along famously (the best kind of way to get along).The picture of K. and Melissa didn't turn out so well, but here's another one of K. and her friend Marta, taken near our old law school apartment.

K. and I watched the movie Wordplay a while back (basically a sports film for nerds) and decided to test the hypothesis that crosswords stave off mental atrophy. K., it turns out, is much quicker at it than her English major husband, but left-brainers tend to fare better, or so the documentary says. (In a side note: Will Shortz, the NY Times crossword editor who is one of the film's main subjects, is a graduate of UVA Law. Who knew?)
Here's my beautiful mind puzzling it out in the Brandywine Springs park, close to Ian's school.

A couple days after that picture we went back to Brandywine Springs for K.'s surprise 30th birthday party. A lot of friends conspired to make the day extra-special (you know who you are).If you look closely you can see that the 3 in "30" is spelled backwards. Obviously, the crosswords aren't helping me that much.

K. and five other roommates achieved a Zion-esque level of apartment unity while they were all at BYU, and here it is ten years later and they all still keep in pretty close contact.Here's K. with ex-roomates Natasha and Clarissa, hanging around Elsewhere's Battery Park so that a ship can come along and fire at them.

And you thought I was kidding. I never joke about the navy.K. is good friends with the wife of the gunner (he's actually one of the ship's carpenters and climbers, but got to fire part of the two-gun salute on the ship's voyage back from Norfolk).

During one of my frequent bouts of Virginia withdrawal, I asked K. what her favorite place on Earth was. Luckily for her, it's a short drive away--Longwood Gardens near Kennett Square, PA.Heaven bless the DuPonts: it's amazing what a fine botanical collection you can amass when all you have is patience, a vision, and bottomless coffers of money.

K. and I are both working on our macro photography. Here's a particularly nice one she took.Tulips are my favorite flower anyway, but I really like how she captured the feathery edges, in and out of shadow.

Just the other week K. and the kids looked out the window and what did they see? A ginormous red-tailed hawk eating a squirrel on our front lawn.The hawk was unperturbed when they went outside to get a closer look, being fairly engrossed in eating Skippy.

I'll end with another photo from Longwood, this one taken in early April when our friends Dave and Mindy came to visit from Seattle (Dave was in the area to wow the State Department with his mad public management skills). Longwood has a world class conservatory (big ol' greenhouse) that is both incredibly large (4 indoor acres) and incredibly varied in the types of climates represented (dry deserts, humid jungles, and an overpoweringly scented room stacked to the ceiling with orchids). We've put in a bid on the property but I think it might go to someone else. At least we have each other.