War and Peace

It has taken me almost two years, but tonight I actually finished War and Peace. It really was an amazing book - although I think I only absorbed about 1/10th of the book itself...someday I hope to read the new Volkonsky and Pelvear translation, which is suppposed to be much better than Garnett's - but for now I will settle for having read it once. I love Tolstoy, especially because he writes about family better than any one else.
I got to finish the book because Ariel is back from his film festival orgy - last night he stayed up for All Freakin' Night to watch ten hours of B-Horror flims. It is the capstone of the film fest and is always sold out. Ar said it started out a lot more fun at midnight. While Ariel tried to recover today, I took the three oldest kids to Seattle for my niece's bowling birthday party and for dinner with friends.
The bowling party went much better than I thought it would - I don't tend to get along that great with my sister and I often find kid's birthday parties very overwhelming and stressful. The kids all had a really good time and Shkuri even bowled one strike.
After the party we swung by the neighborhood I grew up in, Columbia City, to pick up some Ethiopian Food. When I lived there in the 1980s the area was quite ghetto, but now it is gentrified enough to have lots of charm and amenities, but is still incredibly diverse and maintains an exciting vibe. To bad my parents sold their house there for $40,000 ( probably worth ten times that now). Dinner at our friend Eric and Laura's was also really great - I just don't think there is much better in life than good company and yummy food compounded by happily playing children. I think Tolstoy would probably agree.