happy twenty-third anniversary to my parents, and twenty-third birthday to rebekah — a day late! i haven’t been paying attention to dates lately and was quite shocked and disgruntled to find that today’s the seventeenth and i’d missed both occasions.

the highlight of the entire week was the annual pirate party at liz rishel’s house in the south hills (a neighborhood, incidentally, which contains my dream house — a garden of ivy, evergreens, lush grass, and ornamental statues that must come alive at night, and a cobblestone drive winding up to a great stone and wood house that looks as if it knows things.) pirate wench amelia and i went in full regalia and cavorted with other pirates until late in the evening. we were even joined by peter pan, who dueled several of the pirates and eventually made peace. we pummeled a skull-and-crossbones pinata, drank grog (although i fear it wasn’t very authentic) and had plans to watch a pirated copy of pirates of the caribbean 2, but that fell through so we just watched the first one. imagine a whole backyard filled with college students and graduates dressed to the nines in silks, boots, belts, and cutlasses! i’ll post pictures once i have them.

nick is two hours into his flight to germany, where he’ll spend the next two weeks with students and faculty from the organ department playing famous organs and having a rip-roaring time. i’m jealous, and excited for him, and i’ll miss him. to shore ourselves up for being apart, we spent yesterday making music (he played an incredible chromatic fantasy by sweelinck and i got to turn pages and pull out the organ stops!), eating spicy thai food, and browsing through barnes and noble. we indulged ourselves in one new book apiece (his: the “latest authority on bach” and i suppose he would know; mine: the user’s guide to the brain, about perception, sensation, function, anatomy, personality, and other cool stuff). and then we read them all afternoon. and mom, i created a bathroom cleaning caddy at his house!! didn’t you used to stick the paper towel roll in the plastic cup, to keep it from getting wet? anyway, the whole house got scrubbed. i definitely like cleaning other people’s houses better than my own, because i don’t have to see them get messy again right away.

and now i must be off to scrub the kitchen floor before the neighbor boys come over for our falafel and tabouleh feast. we’re hoping they bring their new hedgehog. and amyboots is returning from a grand trip to north carolina and new york in under four hours and the pirate wenches shall all be gathered again under the same roof!