On Sunday, after the annual neighborhood bike ride, a bunch of riders and friends came over for a barbecue. The last time we hosted this event, two years ago, I was just over eight months pregnant with Tau. He was born a week later.

Though we decided to dodge a formal birthday party this year, I did make carrot-cake cupcakes, frosted in different colors and arranged as a bunch of balloons. And we sang Happy Birthday, which Tau was prepared for because he’s been singing it to himself for over a month!

Because our place is small, it’s always hectic having so many people over, and this time it felt even smaller with toys littering the living room carpet. That said, I think everyone had a good time — I know we did!

My friend Declan had just bought a new camera lens, and so he brought his camera over to try out the lens on the birthday boy. A set of some of my favorites is here on Flickr.

Mighty Girl Maggie Mason served up an elegant sliver of etiquette on her blog today. She quoted fashion designer Valentino, who insists on dividing his attention at dinner parties equally, talking to the guest on his right for the duration of the first course and to the guest on his left for the second.

Comments on Mighty Girl’s post pointed out the obvious flaw in this approach; if all the guests at the table followed Valentino’s rule to a tee, they’d spend the whole night staring at the back of another person’s head. I knew there was a reason I didn’t wear designer clothes. Valentino pants are likely stitched so that one leg doubles back into the other.

But I digress. Maggie’s point was that we’ve lost the charm of the intimate dinner party, the kind where you lay out the good china and guests are hand picked to complement and keep each other fascinated all night long with witty anecdotes and scintillating repartee.

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Yesterday afternoon we met our friend Joslin and her dog Doug at Kate Sessions Park for a picnic dinner. We hadn’t met Doug and she hadn’t seen Tau in a while.

Kate Sessions Park is probably one of San Diego’s best kept secrets. Take a look at this view (random shot found on Flickr) of downtown and the bay.

More of our pics of the play date are in our Flickr stream.

I recently nominated nacken.com for a couple of Blogger’s Choice Awards.

Peter and Ritsu blog from Italy about raising their sweet boy Julius. We discovered nacken.com when we were searching YouTube for clips of cute babies to show Tau when he was really little. This one has remained a favorite but as Tau has grown we’ve moved on to videos of Julius riding his bike and brushing his teeth (the power of peer pressure works wonders).

Part parenting, photo, food and travel blog, there is a little something for everyone. Pictures and video clips of the family’s travels and Julius’s antics are definitely a cut above average. Very entertaining and well worth a visit. Peter really does a great job!

Take a look and cast your votes.

So it seems picking away at my air guitar over here in my little corner of the Internet is paying off, because while I was out taking a bloggy vacation last week, Aimee over at the stunningly redesigned Greeblemonkey bestowed on me the Rockin’ Girl Blogger award.

Ahem! (In my best California-Peace-Rocker Chick-ese)

“I’d like to thank my agent … and my mom and dad … and the fans … worldwide … and my wonderful support crew over at WordPress Studios. And of course my baby-child and my husband-and-partner-in-this-glorious-journey-called-life Dave, who gives me the daily strength to go on — LOVE YOU HONEY! Sniff! Excuse me — I don’t often break down like this. And who else? Oh! I should thank the critics, like The Bullog, who after a rocky start seems to be putting his blog to good journalistic use addressing pertinent topics instead of giving bloggers a hard time. This one’s for you, Mr. Bullard, and all the other newbies who stumble, fumbling and strumming their newly found Stratocasters into this fabulous arena. Consider yourself awarded with a Rockin’ Girl …”

Yes, I get to pass on this lovely award to others and since the bloggers I read are either way up there in the rarefied reaches of the blogosphere and therefore a bit above the grassrootsiness of this award or already recipients of a Rockin’ Girl, I’m going to tag some other folks you might not know.

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Well, dear readers, this is blog post number 101 over here at nobaddays. Can you believe it?

Those who know and love me will tell you what a Luddite I am. I carry the cheapest pay-as-you-go brick of a phone, have a cassette player (you know, with the stretchy tapes that melt in the sun?) in my car, and still haven’t found a good enough reason to sign up for cable.

So, as with many things in my life, I came to blogging late. The first blogs I ever saw were those of my technologically astute friends Erika and Declan. And I remember thinking, “Why mess with all this complicated on-the-fly stuff when you can make a simple HTML page and update it by hand?” Embarrassing, I know.

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Easter Brunch Table

Quick Links: Our trip to South Africa | Dave’s 40th in Naramata | Tau 12-18 months | Thanksgiving on the Central Coast | Video Clips at You Tube |The Days of Christmas

I see skies of blue and clouds of white, The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night, And I think to myself, what a wonderful world. - Louis Armstrong

Dear friends and family,

Hello, and how are you? Twelve months ago today we were preparing to visit South Africa with three-month old Tau! A year later, we have no idea where the time has gone.

We spent the month of January with Sue’s family in Pretoria and Durban (see pics). During our time there we visited two game reserves, enjoyed some good restaurants and did quite a bit of shopping, but with a nursing baby found that we couldn’t get in as much as we had in previous trips. Still, we were glad to have the opportunity to introduce Tau to his grandparents and it found it hard to come home. And strangely, the trip made it poignant this year to watch Tau grow, knowing that our families don’t get to see him change every day as we do.

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Mark and I at the start of Tour de Julian 2006

Sue has asked me to write a couple entries of our latest meanderings around the sunshine state.  The first was trip was to the “mountains” near San Diego for some cycling, and the second was a trip to the Californian Central Coast for some R&R.

So my workmate, Mark, roped me into a weekend of road and mountain biking on Nov 11/12 in the small town of Julian (http://www.julianactive.com/tour%20de%20julian.htm & http://www.julianca.com), which is a scenic hour drive inland from San Diego.  Off we went, wives and kids in tow.  Unfortunately Sue & Tau had come down with a case of the winter cold/flu, yet were willing to go along with the flow - mostly for my sake. 

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These should have been posted ages ago! But we got busy getting back to work, and the little man into daycare, and it just never happened.

The album is now available from the main page. Lots of family pics, but a few of the game parks we visited.

Enjoy!

Friends hosted a party this weekend to welcome Tau … sort of a non-showery baby shower. We had great weather and a group of good friends. The party was held at Michelle Lewis and Chris Farmer’s complex clubhouse, the food provided by Mary, Evi, Gerhard, Marion and all those attending.

We had a great time introducing Tau to all of our friends. See the pics in the “Tau’s Party” album.