Walk in the Glow of Each Other's Majestic Presence

Because a couple of people have made comments about our wedding ceremony, I thought I'd go ahead and post the link: http://apocalypse.org/pub/u/hunter/ceremony.htm.

Jason and I wrote the whole thing together, drawing from a wide variety of sources to create something that we could both be completely comfortable with, word for word.

On Saturday I spent the afternoon hanging out with Ren & Joe, the couple whose wedding I coordinated in July. It was really great to see them and they serve a mean nosh. Their wedding photos are now online, for all of you who've asked.

Some of you have probably noticed that I've been unusually quiet lately.
Others of you have seen me recently and know some of what we've been doing.
We've spent the last three weeks in the States, attending weddings and
visiting friends and family all over the Northeast. We did too much for me
to chronicle it moment-by-moment, but I thought I'd mention some of the
highlights of our trip.

We were based in Boston, enjoying the hospitality of John Romkey & Mike Berg
in between our various excursions. We got to see a number of wonderful
people and to enjoy a wide variety of spring weather, from cold drizzle to
hot sun.

On our very first evening, after a pilgrimage to Carlo's with Tom & steve
for gnocchi spezzatino and chicken valdostano, we stopped by Passim in
Harvard Square to catch up with Jason's brother, Eric. He and his
girlfriend, Kristen, were participating in an old-time music night and we
were so glad to have a chance to hear him play and to meet her, if only
briefly. She's a very talented woman--plays guitar and fiddle, sings and
dances beautifully. They performed a brand new song of hers about the moon
that still sticks in my head. Kristen had been up for the weekend from
Maryland to celebrate Eric's birthday--Happy Birthday, Eric!--and was
leaving the next morning, so that was our only chance to see her, but we did
get to spend more time with Eric later in our trip.

Our first big expedition was to Harrisburg, PA, for the wedding of Steve
Anderson and Rhonda Newton, my lifelong friend and bridesmaid. We drove
Beckie & Neil in our rental car over to my parents' place and then swapped
them for my mom, while they drove with my dad the rest of the way. Rhonda
graciously included Beckie and me in her day-before-the-wedding manicure and
girls' lunch and our whole family in the rehearsal dinner at a local Italian
place where we got to meet Steve's family. She had tapped me as the
"on-site coordinator" for her wedding day, so I ran around trying to make
sure that everything that was supposed to happen came together. Everything
went remarkably smoothly and we were so glad to be able to share in their
big day. After brunch at one of her friend's homes on Sunday morning, we
saw Mom & Dad off on their way north and headed east with Beckie & Neil. We
made it back to Boston--with an obligatory stop at Rein's Deli in
Connecticut--in good time and good weather.

One of the fun aspects of the trip was getting to see several friends' new
homes. We were blown away by Luann & Dave Abrahams' gorgeous Queen Anne up
on Prospect Hill in Somerville. It's exactly the kind of house and
neighborhood that Jason and I would love to find--as we left, Jason said
"I'm experiencing *major* house envy!" Dave Policar has just bought a new
home up in Woburn with lots of space and lovely wetlands out back that
provide a very pleasant view. I also got to spend an afternoon with Russ
Klein and Rachel Zerner and see the newly renovated and beautified house
that used to be The Ranch. It is looking stunningly gorgeous--as are they
;)--and it was great to see them and the kids.

Our second major expedition took us up to Maine to visit Elana & Brendan
Kehoe. They've recently bought a house on an island, down the road from her
mom, and it's in the final stages of renovation and reconstruction and
promises to be a gorgeous place. It was great to see them and we're
thrilled that they'll be in Maine at least part of the year, so we won't
always have to make the trek to Dublin to see them. The Dark Harbor House
Inn is the only restaurant on the island and boy, is it a doozy. They
treated us to an excellent meal there and we had a chance to meet her mom
and stepdad and coo over six-month old Patrick.

From Maine we headed across the mountains to New Hampshire, where we visited
John & Mike in their home there and got to see the exciting construction
project that used to be the barn and main-house kitchen. They had a bunch
of friends up for the Memorial Day weekend, so it was a chance to spend more
time with those folks and chill out together. We also got to see Bill &
Jen's new place, which is very lovely--I'm still drooling over the
wide-board floors--and enjoy their views of the surrounding wooded hills.
Fourteen--or was it sixteen?--of us went to dinner together at the Norwich
Inn, where I feasted on chicken sausage, veal with mushrooms and ginger-pear
tart. Jason can't remember what he had--and he was off at the other end of
the table--except for the curried scallops, which he describes as "awesome".

Continuing west, we drove across Vermont on Memorial Day--only held up by
one parade--to my parents' home in Clifton Park, New York. Sadly, we
couldn't plan our trip to include my father's 80th birthday, but we had
several good days together. We spent one afternoon together driving down to
Hudson to visit Jason's great-uncle, Jack, and his wife, Alice. They are
always a treat to see and we spent several hours of pleasant conversation
together as they served us a tasty lunch in their lovely home overlooking
the river. We also got to see Tricia, one of my best friends from school,
when she came up to spend an evening with us.

After a great week away, we headed back to Boston for the wedding of Ben
Levy & Ann Muir Thomas. The person they had tapped to coordinate the
ceremony had to bail on them a couple of weeks earlier and they'd asked me
to take on the job, which I was happy to do. The whole thing was very much
a community affair, including a potluck reception after the ceremony, and
expressed the couple very well. Despite dramatic weather--a thunderstorm,
complete with hail, just as we were about to start the ceremony outdoors--it
all came together and they were married amid much jubilation.

Culinary highlights of our trip included many old favorites--gnocchi
spezzatino and chicken valdostano at Carlo's, roast beef sandwiches and
fried shrimps from Kelly's enjoyed while feeding fries to the gulls on
Revere Beach, gyros from the Tremont House of Pizza, rare roast beef
sandwiches at Au Bon Pain, hamachi kama at Sakura Bana and niku no tataki at
Roka, and my mom's fried chicken and veal parmigiana. I got two doses of my
favorite tapas. On one of our first nights in town I got to go to Tapeo as
a "girl's night out" with Linda Marie, Rachel Zerner, Cheryl Elkins--whom I
hadn't seen in at least a decade--Kelly Fabijanic and the guest of honor,
Leslie Bondaryk, who is about to give birth to her second child. On one of
our last nights Jason and I went to Dali with Adam and Mags. So there were
two opportunities to have their fabulous garlic soup and solomillo en
tostada, along with some of this month's wonderful specials featuring
asparagus.

We got to go back to Chez Henri with Beckie & Neil for a wonderful meal that
included a torchon of fois gras, seared tuna with chorizo and peas on
saffron rice, and Tahitian vanilla creme brulee for me; clams casino and
grilled lobster for Jason, with chocolate-espresso flan and orange creme for
dessert; seafood sausage, pork loin and strawberry-rhubarb cobbler for B.;
and Cuban ceviche, grilled mahi-mahi with black bean sauce and sweet potato
puree, and chocolate-hazelnut torte for Neil.

We also got to hit Outback while we in Pennsylvania, something we've missed
over here. We enjoyed their steaks, as usual, but best of all were their
house salads!

I got to go shopping with my sister, Anne, and with my mother, both of which
were fun and successful in getting Jason and I things we'd had trouble
finding in England. I went with Anne for one last visit to the woman who's
been our chiropractor for years; it was her last day before retirement and
we were all sad. But friends pointed me to a new massage therapist who
combines a number of disciplines to provide excellent care--after she spent
an hour straightening out Jason's spine, we'd both swear he was taller.

He had some adventures on his own, meeting up with Glen for lunch and with
Eric for Salvadorean food and a chance to see his new digs. He also went
out to RedHat's new Boston-area office in Westford, out on 495, and got to
touch base with the guy who's been managing him for the last few months.

Tom & steve were kind enough to make their home available to me in order to
host a dinner party on the one night that our "in & out of Boston" and
Leah's actually coincided. I made my sauteed chicken breasts in lemon wine
sauce with sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts (no mushrooms in honor of
Tom and Kelly) over pasta and steve made up a batch of chicken sausage with
bacon, pine nuts and garlic that went with it really well. It was great to
see Leah and hear tales of her life in Bangkok and recent adventures down
home in Alabama, and wonderful to see everyone else there.

We also had the opportunity to try some places that are new since we'd last
visited, or at least new to us. We went to Eat in Union Square with Luann &
Dave Abrahams and enjoyed their food very much, especially my golden clams
in garlic broth and the manchego tart Jason shared with Luann. With Anne &
George we tried Cuchi Cuchi, on Main Street in Cambridge. Their entire menu
is made up of small plates, so we had Cambodian lobster bisque, Greek
avgolemono soup, deep-fried zucchini stuffed with mozzarella and prosciutto,
grilled asparagus, deep-gried Mexican-style tomatoes, risotto with
mushrooms, Indian style grilled lamb, Portuguese chufana (lamb stew),
Asian-style duck breast, and chicken Kiev.

We were treated to a wonderful dinner at Tea Tray's new restaurant in
Arlington with John, Glen, and Sarah Schectman. The chef there, Michael
Scelfo, serves very creative combinations of food, like the "three shakes of
a lamb's tail" I had (rack of lapsang-souchong marinated lamb, lamb shank
shredded into bitter greens and a lamb reduction, served with a mound of
gruyere grits on a half of a small squash) or the salmon Jason chose that
was served with apples and bacon. Everything there was good, but I'll admit
my favorite thing was my seared fois gras starter. There was a table of
media folk for whom Michael was making a tasting menu and across the aisle
from them an elderly man started choking and Michael performed the Heimlich
manuever successfully. Just another low-stress evening.

The day before we left, Jason's mother flew in from Seattle. Anne was eager
to put her up and George made a delicious dinner of roast chicken to welcome
her. Eric was able to join us and it was fun to be with both our families
at once. Jason spent the next day with her, while I packed up and got ready
for us to leave. It was so nice that she was able to join us before we left
and I hope her first trip to Boston was lots of fun!

We had a delightful time. We're so glad that we got to see as many of you
as we did, although--as always--there were folks we missed and people we
wish we could have seen more. A special apology goes out to Jeff &
Kelly--we failed to follow through on our tentative plan to see them and
their daughter because we got caught up in wedding preparations. We both
look forward to being back in Boston all the time and seeing everyone early
and often.

After three weeks of making Boston our home again--an easy task, even for
Jason--it seemed strange to call getting on a plane to leave "going home."
But we had an easy trip back to London and are consoling ourselves with
plans for our next trip--to Germany--and looking forward to getting back to
the States in the fall.