Farewells and Celebrations

The end of the month is a little sad because many of the great people that we shared the house with are leaving. On the other hand, I guess it’s a good excuse to throw some parties.

Nick cooked up a dinner feast on Tuesday as part of a farewell celebration for Bob. Sitting around laughing and talking and eating good food just can’t be beat.
Going around the table from the left: Kenji, Yuji, Bob, Kosuke, Me, Nick and Suzy. (Apologies to Suzy for the unflattering picture – Bob is planning to send me some of his pics, so maybe I’ll be able to put a better one up).

Two days later we celebrated Kenji’s 37th birthday, which is actually on May 29, and Tom’s 40th, which isn’t until June 7. It also turned out to be a celebration for Nick and Yuji, who shattered the speed record on Lurking Fear that day, and a bit of a farewell. Tom left the next morning to teach a class in MI for two weeks, and Yuji, Kenji, and Kosuke are leaving for Japan early Sunday morning. In celebration, we had the birthday boys cook us a marvelous dinner. Kenji made a vegetarian curry, and Tom made a baked pasta (both delicious). And what would a birthday celebration be without cake and icecream? Tom and I managed to combine this event with a chance to invite our friends Doug, Mike (from WI), John and Sue (from CO) up for dinner too, and Raphael showed up to celebrate and share pictures and video of the exciting speed ascent.