swank

this weekend dr. katetacular, beckie (aka "snugglebunny") and i went on an odessey of a road trip to alexandria, virginia to attend the wedding celebration of our good friends anne and spencer (aka "the hamsters"). it was a long, giddy car ride, fuelled by candy and caffeine and made to the melodies of johnny cash, ABBA, low, and the soundtrack from the big chill. following our arrival at our luxury hotel, we collected our psyches and our party shoes and headed to a farm on the outskirts of alexandria that once belonged to none other than george washington. in a restored colonial farm house, surrounded by 18th-century gardens and manicured lawns that stretched down to the banks of the potomac, the three of us in our finest finery ate delicious delicacies from china plates and drank nectar from crystal glasses. kate and beckie played a vigorous game of croquet; as the resident expert in 19th-century sport, i refereed. waiters in dinner jackets weaved in and out of the crowd carrying plates of finger sandwiches, canapés and fruit and cream; it was a little surreal and i found it difficult not to feel as though i had somehow stumbled into the pages of an edith wharton novel. soon, we three, tired of flirting coyly using the chinese paper fans and parasols provided for the guests, wrecked a little good, old-fashioned, maple-infused canadian havoc. enjoy the pictures!*

kate, cheating at croquet

halfway through the festivities, the three of us kidnapped anne and held her hostage in the women's loo and forced her to imbibe. in the kate/beckie dialect: "she was playing too hard on 'team appropriate'"

anne realizes her fate; beckie smiles devilishly

post-beverage, we were all giddy -- some of us more giddy than others!

dr.katetacular, me, spencer and beckie, or spencer and his canadian harem

me and beckie, the snugglebunnies

one very coy kate -- she's working on the "raising one eyebrow" trick; either that, or she's signalling a waiter for more cake

beckie took this photo of me after our aborted attempt at skinny-dipping in the potomac; we got as far as testing the water before disrobing by sticking our feet in. seeing the debris and the deflated basketball floating in the water not far from shore, we changed our minds. i think in the photo i'm still giggling. i giggled a lot the whole weekend.

*beckie, the intrepid photographer, has many more photos, including shots of our whirlwind tour of washington, dc. i promise i'll have them up as soon as i can!