...please don't try to smuggle our bowling balls home with you.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Benner turns 27
Yes dear readers, it's true: last Monday, May 24, I turned 27-years-old. And what an eventful birthday (and week) it has been. I went surfing on the west coast for my first and second time, there was cake and cards (and a nice bottle of pinot noir from my boss) at work, I got all kinds of awesome gifts from my wife (the surfing days included!)... it was just a special time.
And things were made all the more special by Rhianwen, who is usually not the best at keeping surprises. But this time she surprised me good. You see, there's this little place called Alcove that has a chocolate peanut butter chip cake I would eat every day for the rest of my life if I could. (For financial and geographic reasons, I don't. Oh, health reasons too, yeah.) So anyway, Rhianwen suggested the day before my birthday, "Let's go to Alcove tomorrow night and get that cake you love." I suspected something, but she played it down, not even balking when I changed my mind about going at the last minute. But the allure of the chocolate peanut butter chip cake won out, and I decided that yes, I must go to Alcove. It's my birthday, after all. So we went, and this is what was waiting for me there:
Yes, Rhianwen had eight dear friends waiting there for us. I was truly, truly surprised. And touched. Thank you, honey. And thanks Robins, Jongs, Maxwells, Chapman and John for coming out.
Also, a couple funny pictures came out of that night. Here they are:
This is already a long post, and I feel kind of self absorbed at this point because it's all about me, but there's more! Later that week, my mom sent me two packages, stuffed to the brim with Vermont foodstuffs. (She's not from Vermont, she just happens to travel there regularly.)
Look at all that! That's way too much stuff. Particularly excited about the beers (Vermonster was good) and the maple mustard sauce. And then I got a package from my dad, in honor of both my birthday and the Flyers heading to the Stanley Cup Finals, who sent me some Flyers swag.
Thanks dad! Go Flyers! Happy birthday, me!
UPDATE: Oh, I almost forgot, one of my bosses was actually on vacation during my birthday, but he did upload this YouTube video in my honor:
And things were made all the more special by Rhianwen, who is usually not the best at keeping surprises. But this time she surprised me good. You see, there's this little place called Alcove that has a chocolate peanut butter chip cake I would eat every day for the rest of my life if I could. (For financial and geographic reasons, I don't. Oh, health reasons too, yeah.) So anyway, Rhianwen suggested the day before my birthday, "Let's go to Alcove tomorrow night and get that cake you love." I suspected something, but she played it down, not even balking when I changed my mind about going at the last minute. But the allure of the chocolate peanut butter chip cake won out, and I decided that yes, I must go to Alcove. It's my birthday, after all. So we went, and this is what was waiting for me there:
Yes, Rhianwen had eight dear friends waiting there for us. I was truly, truly surprised. And touched. Thank you, honey. And thanks Robins, Jongs, Maxwells, Chapman and John for coming out.
Also, a couple funny pictures came out of that night. Here they are:
This is already a long post, and I feel kind of self absorbed at this point because it's all about me, but there's more! Later that week, my mom sent me two packages, stuffed to the brim with Vermont foodstuffs. (She's not from Vermont, she just happens to travel there regularly.)
Look at all that! That's way too much stuff. Particularly excited about the beers (Vermonster was good) and the maple mustard sauce. And then I got a package from my dad, in honor of both my birthday and the Flyers heading to the Stanley Cup Finals, who sent me some Flyers swag.
Thanks dad! Go Flyers! Happy birthday, me!
UPDATE: Oh, I almost forgot, one of my bosses was actually on vacation during my birthday, but he did upload this YouTube video in my honor:
Sarah and Steve visit for Mother's Day!
Sarah and Steve visited us here in LA for Mother's Day. "But why?" you readers are surely asking right now. "None of you are mothers. This makes no sense!" Calm down readers, there's a simple explanation for all this: Sarah is pregnant! Yes, she is! Yay!
OK, a lot of you probably already knew that. We just like to celebrate that fact whenever we can. And Sarah celebrated, too, by coming down for the taping of the Mother's Day episode of Ellen, where she got hooked up with a TON of great baby gear. Here's a slideshow of pictures, with some notes to follow:
- Rhianwen gave Sarah and Steve a nice little tour of the Warner Brothers lot before Sarah went to the taping. They saw lots of cool stuff, naturally, but one very special thing was that Rhianwen somehow was able to smooth talk her way past an official tour guide and onto the Central Perk set of Friends. (That's the coffee shop where they all hung out. How did they always get the sweet couch?) That's Sarah behind the counter.
- We introduced Sarah and Steve to our good friends Dani and Greg, and had brunch at Aroma Cafe. Apparently Steve didn't make it into any of those photos, but he was there, I promise. And he had fun too!
- We went up to a place called Castaic Lake, which is a very quiet, very peaceful, very beautiful (but very man-made) lake about 30 miles north of us. It was fun to just get away from Los Angeles for a short time and see some ducks doing flying landings on water. Seriously, that's one of nature's coolest details, those ducks landing on the water. Quack.
- We went to this awesome French place in Los Feliz called Figaro Cafe for dinner. It was very nice-yet-laidback, with delicious food and a warm, comfortable atmosphere. Rhianwen had her first escargot, and she thought it was pretty, pretty, pretty good. I had the canard a l'orange (duck), which was really good but kind of weird because I felt like I had bonded emotionally with the ducks earlier that day at Castaic Lake. Oh well!
Well, that about covers the trip! Come back sometime soon Sarah and Steve! This time with a baby!
OK, a lot of you probably already knew that. We just like to celebrate that fact whenever we can. And Sarah celebrated, too, by coming down for the taping of the Mother's Day episode of Ellen, where she got hooked up with a TON of great baby gear. Here's a slideshow of pictures, with some notes to follow:
- Rhianwen gave Sarah and Steve a nice little tour of the Warner Brothers lot before Sarah went to the taping. They saw lots of cool stuff, naturally, but one very special thing was that Rhianwen somehow was able to smooth talk her way past an official tour guide and onto the Central Perk set of Friends. (That's the coffee shop where they all hung out. How did they always get the sweet couch?) That's Sarah behind the counter.
- We introduced Sarah and Steve to our good friends Dani and Greg, and had brunch at Aroma Cafe. Apparently Steve didn't make it into any of those photos, but he was there, I promise. And he had fun too!
- We went up to a place called Castaic Lake, which is a very quiet, very peaceful, very beautiful (but very man-made) lake about 30 miles north of us. It was fun to just get away from Los Angeles for a short time and see some ducks doing flying landings on water. Seriously, that's one of nature's coolest details, those ducks landing on the water. Quack.
- We went to this awesome French place in Los Feliz called Figaro Cafe for dinner. It was very nice-yet-laidback, with delicious food and a warm, comfortable atmosphere. Rhianwen had her first escargot, and she thought it was pretty, pretty, pretty good. I had the canard a l'orange (duck), which was really good but kind of weird because I felt like I had bonded emotionally with the ducks earlier that day at Castaic Lake. Oh well!
Well, that about covers the trip! Come back sometime soon Sarah and Steve! This time with a baby!
Hiking with the Maxwells
I don't believe we've yet introduced you all to our friends the Maxwells. Katie and Matt are a couple of dear friends that joined our church home group late last summer. They're from Texas, have a goofy dog named Barkley and love BBQ. Here is a video that Matt (a cameraman) shot during a recent hike we took.
(Thanks Greg and Dani for making a cameo appearance.)
The Maxwells keep a blog here, and will now be added to our blogroll over on the right side.
(Thanks Greg and Dani for making a cameo appearance.)
The Maxwells keep a blog here, and will now be added to our blogroll over on the right side.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Happy 40th birthday, Jenny!
Rhianwen's dear friend who is like a friend/mom/sister rolled into one - Jenny Chandler turned 40 recently. (And even kept a blog about it to.) The Chandlers live in Florida, so we couldn't be at the party to celebrate, but we were there in spirit.
And also, we were there through Skype. There's Jenny blowing out her candles, via webcam. Isn't technology wonderful? We tuned in just in time to hear everyone in Jenny's family honor her, and Rhianwen got a chance to tell Jenny what she meant to her.
And also, we were there through Skype. There's Jenny blowing out her candles, via webcam. Isn't technology wonderful? We tuned in just in time to hear everyone in Jenny's family honor her, and Rhianwen got a chance to tell Jenny what she meant to her.
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