Ready for the party!

As the steak was in the smoker & the daffodils were opening up, Sable was ready for a wonderful BBQ experience. Much to her chagrin, about 25 other people showed up to rain on her parade, but we sure had a good time...

Hmmm.... what shall we play next?

As with all good BBQs, after the most-excellent food was devoured (thanks Tom!) the evening was graced with lots of good music. Tammy, Jeff, Jeff, Tom, Steve & Jim were all fantastic. Even the cat joined in (I'm not kidding -- during "Wild, Wild Horses" she was howling up a storm), but fortunately the cops were left out of the event.

We all love Simmona

But maybe Henry really does love her the most??!!

Tequila makes the world all shiny....

This is a pretty good representation of how I was feeling: all warm & blurry... but I discovered that given enough margaritas, I can very consistently hit #18 on the dartboard (and only #18)....

Croquet King

I guess there really is such a thing as home-field advantage. Watch out if Tom offers to play a game of croquet....

2 Jeffs are better than 1

We had a wonderful BBQ this weekend -- and for the first time I actually saw Jeff Farias & Jeff Owens together. They are both talented musicians (wonderful bass players) and after years of them "just missing each other" I was convinced that they must be the same person... but the myth was dispelled on Saturday. I captured photographic evidence here with our friends Eric & Sarah (& Tom, of course).

Our latest vacation

We just spent 1 week in Crawford, West Virginia. This is where Tom's father grew up. In fact, Tom's family has lived in Crawford (or the surrounding areas, as best I can tell) for 7 generations!
This picture was taken from the area where the Post Family Chapel used to be. The chapel burned down many years ago, but the cemetery remains. It is up the hill from Tom's family's house, which can be seen as the front-most structure (somewhat left of center). This picture really shows the entire town of Crawford (there are no stop signs, much less stop-lights; there still exists a church and a fire station, but the school was shut down long ago). The town used to be a stop on the railroad, but now the remaining "industry" is the saw mill (although it seems that no one from Crawford actually works in the saw mill -- all of the employees are from elsewhere, I'm told).
We enjoy going to Crawford to get away from it all (literally). We take lots of walks, and drink lots of tea while sitting on the porch. That's about it.

Tom's family's house

This picture was actually taken a couple of years ago, but I wanted to show the house from the front. I think what everyone loves best is the beautiful wrap-around porches on both the ground floor and also the 2nd story. There are 14 rooms in the house: plenty of room for family & friends! Over the last year Tom's parents have had a lot of work done on the house, including repairing lots of the walls & cielings, and also adding a lot of insulation both in the attic and under the house. This was key when it dropped below freezing on this trip....

Country Roads

I've decided that I would like to decorate a house (or at least one room) in these colors...

our favorite WV activity

This is a good representation of how we spend our time when we visit W. Virginia. (Tom with his mother)

Aunt Pearl's

This was Tom's great-aunt Pearl's house. She lived in this house her entire life (she lived to be nearly 100!) despite the fact that it never had running water (there is a well in back of the house) and there was no electricity until the 1950's. This house is about a mile up the road from the Post's house, on the way to Uncle Merrell's.

Aunt Ernestine's House

Aunt Ernestine (who is 90) still lives across the street from Tom's family's house. It is really impressive how everyone in the community (there are probably about 50 people living in Crawford) pitches in to help out whenever someone in the town needs help... I'm quite certain that Ernestine would never want to live anywhere but in her home, and it is really only possible because of all of the help that everyone provides.

we took lots of long walks....

Each day we walked at least 2-3 miles (often longer) and enjoyed the beautiful fall folliage. Several days it rained, but even those days opened up for a few hours and provided us with good walking weather. It wasn't until our last couple of days that the weather really turned crisp... for most of our walks it was nearly 70 degrees!

Uncle Merrell's Oak

This tree is in front of Tom's great-uncle Merrell's house (who lived just up the road). We were extremely fortunate in our timing: we enjoyed many walks in our first few days, and then repeated the walks later in the week to find that all of these glorious leaves had been blown to the ground during our trip.

the Post home

I learned a lot this vacation about Tom's family's house. It was built in the mid-to-late 1800's by Tom's great-great-grandfather, Watson Bunten, who later sold the house to Tom's great-grandfather, George L. Post, in the late 1800's. G.L. Post then added on to the house, and made it one of the largest homes in the county. I know this is very confusing (I've spent hours sorting it through) -- because how many times does it happen that real estate is sold, and ends up (by a later marriage) staying in the same family??? At any rate, from there the house stayed in the Post family -- but through the years most of their land was sold off.

Tom's cooking exploits continue...

Apples are in season... good, tart, Granny Smith apples. Even the crust is from scratch. I am so spoiled, and my jeans barely fit any more!

Self Portraits

So, can you tell who carved which pumpkin?

That's the sound of the wheels coming off....

Later that evening the partying really began....

Everybody loves Lederhosen!

I wasn't the only one to enjoy the festivities.... Anu & Vijay (a.k.a. Gerta & Dieter) looked absolutely smashing (or was that absolutely smashed?????)

Oktoberfest

Who says a great costume can't be created for $10 or less at a thrift store, 1 hour before the party starts???? And yes, my apron is actually a pillow case (only $0.99, I might add).

Tom's cooking adventures

One of Tom's most recent successes was spicy BBQ shrimp with a black bean & corn relish. MMMmmmm.... shrimp.

BBQ season has begun

The weather has finally gotten absolutely perfect... and BBQ season has begun. Vijay, Henry & Tom can all whip up some good grillin's....

Tom backs up Tammy...

At the Katrina benefit Tom also backed up friend (and fabulous vocalist) Tammy Patrick. He was a busy boy that night!

Katrina Benefit

This is Tom's jazz band -- the Post Modern Trio. They played at a Katrina benefit which raised nearly $1500 for victims who had been displaced to the Phoenix area. The coffee house where the benefit was held, Mama Java's, was so impressed that they asked the PMT to star in their next TV commercial!