Sacramento

Prone to floods and fires in the olden days, it parlayed its gold rush wealth long enough to get good steady industry jobs in railroad car manufacturing and servicing. It wanted to be the Central Valley's port of choice in the last century (even built a big channel), but Stockton beat it to the punch. It lost in the race to citrus dominance to Los Angeles (thank you William Mulholland). It got some good rocket work in WWII and thereafter, which helped. And then, of course, it's the capital. I like it for the trees, the rivers and great family and friends up there. It's a long way to introduce these pictures of Daphne. But, it's appropriate because this is the special edition, 1 Year Birthday posting for our daughter. And what is history but a bunch of anniversaries? And what are birthdays but family history?

Birthday Party in Sac

We had a nice birthday party in Sacramento to coincide with my parents' arrival to NorCal from New England (specially, the capital, Boston).



The highlight by far of the day was Daphne's enjoying her rocking horse. This horse was put together from "an old Popular Mechanics kit" by Papa, Cortney's grandfather, who is seated in the background of this picture. This was a very touching gift to the NorCalAllens and we're happy that Daphne took a fast shining to it. We'll enjoy it for a very long time as it was built to last.

Daphne showing off a volleyball in her grandmother's arms. That's my Dad in the background. He was raised in a river town in Western Mass. called Holyoke. Did you know that this was the place that volleyball was invented? It was called Mintonette back then and was designed for old people. History's funny like that. Funnier even than TV.

Saint Patrick's Day in Berkeley

Saint Patrick's Day isn't quite the same in Berkeley. Where I grew up (Boston, aka New Dublin, the heart of New England) St. Paddy's Day is serious business. Schools are out. People get the day off. Everyone spends the day drinking beer, talking about spring training. We New Englanders have more than just a great converter to celebrate on March 17th. You see, on that date in 1776 Boston was once and for all liberated. We Bostonians celebrate this day as Evacuation Day. As in "I have an idea, imperialistic British military and downpressors. Why don't you get the hell out of our harbor and town?! Take your ships and soldiers and never come back to this town. And you loyalists...enjoy Halifax. Have fun with that."

231 years later, you'll see some pictures below of the NorCalAllens enjoying the holiday, which this year fell on a Saturday.

Daphne had green on under her cardigan. No pinches needed.

We're very thankful to all of our neighbors who tend their gardens so well. Here are some beautiful flowers on our street. This time of year it smells very nice in our neighborhood.

Daphne's Birthday Party! Number 2

Because we love our daughter, we decided to have two (count 'em, two) birthday parties for her. This one was at our place in Berkeley and it was designed to have Sacramento and Cal people show up. Here's a picture of Anne, whom you've seen before in various posts. Notice the propaganda in the background. That print hung in front of our bed in New York for the four years that we lived there.

Some of Daphne's friends who came over for the party. Notice Niko, on the right. He's pretty stoked to have three nice looking ladies to hang out with at this party. He was so fired up that he pooped in his pants shortly after this shot.

Daphne wore some crazy party pants, which you can see in this shot. She was lounging on her chair opening presents and this is a still shot from that time.

Children do funny things.

Bostonians in NorCal

Here in Berkeley for a Friday, my Dad and Stepmom joined the NorCalAllens for music class.

Near the end, Daphne decided to go hang out with her grandfather.

We had a nice family dinner on this Friday. Petenice, of the SoCalAllens, was up for some IBM business and we invited our cousins too. That's Julie and Dillon on the right, relatives from Ohio, the Heart of America (be nice to them, they'll decide your next president). Susan and I worked together in the kitchen to great effect. We made creamy, garlic smashed potatoes, roasted carrots with shallots, golden tofu and a beautiful mushroom sauce with homemade fresh herb/mushroom broth and tomato paste base. You can see the parsley that we used to add color and a fresh amoma. There were many empty plates after all was said and done.

Another food treat, Zachary's pizza. We had the mushroom and spinach deep dish pie. There's no reason to get anything else (PS--the secret to their tomato sauce is adding nice nutmeg to the sauce).