My friends Punam and Colin have produced a son:

This photo is from his namakarana, which is a Hindu naming ceremony. He was a pretty good sport throughout the event, which is probably due in part to the fact that he has a great name. Here’s what his dad has to say about it:

We gave him the name Dante Quinn — Dante after the poet and medieval prototype of the Renaissance man, and Quinn after the mighty Eskimo.

Click here for the Flickr set of ceremony pictures.

Last month I spent a lovely birthday in Binghamton, New York, the town in which I spent a fair percentage of my childhood. Click here for more photos, complete with fun descriptions!

Berkeley Rose Garden: for the Flickr set, click here.

Options, when one has no temp gig for the day:

• Feel sorry for oneself for being tenuously employed
• Go to the beach and feel sorry for everyone stuck at work

Click on the photo for the Flickr set:

Life is good when you see fireworks from your window on a random Wednesday:

I have no idea why. Maybe San Francisco just loves us.

It isn’t often that I bake things requiring a variety of ingredients:

That’s how my sister described us in this photo. It was taken in summer 1996, when I was 18 and Blue was 19:

Here’s a poem of Blue’s from that era:

today i woke up like a slam in the face
not adjusted yet to the dream i had just had
i was on the wrong side of the road
heading straight for a big white van
we collide and slam! i’m awake
about to hit what’s heading towards me full on
but now ive decided
i will choose what slams into me
i know where i’m headed
my dreams
direct me.

Eleven years later, she’s at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. More importantly, she’ll be in San Francisco next week visiting me. Yay!