Birthday times two

We helped Denise and Mike celebrate their birthdays last night at the lovely home of Carrie Rengers and Joe Stumpe. Carrie and Joe made dinner for 17 people.

Mike and Denise have lots of friends, which meant lots of gifts. I think Denise is holding some special kind of whisk she received. Based on her expression, she must have something special in mind for it.

Our dinner party. Joe and Carrie had to bring in their patio table to accommodate the large group.


Before dinner we had cocktails and appetizers and conversation in the living room. Enjoying that are Denise, our hostess Carrie and Bonnie Bing. David Kamerer and Deanna Harms brought the homemade hummus shown here, as well as flaming cheese. Both were fantastic.


Dale and David.


Dale acting about 12 with Molly and Mike.


Bonnie, Amy, Jaime and our host, Joe, in the kitchen.


Bonnie, Molly and Dale



Tess Knadler with Dale and Deanna Harms.


Group shot.


Denise cuddling with some warm, soft socks. Dick Honeyman is to her left.



Bonnie and Dale getting close

Me and Bob Lutz, who graced us with his presence and kept us laughing when we weren't cringing. Just kidding Bob!

My kind of church

Saturday night was spent at my friend Tess Knadler's fund-raiser for her church's after-school program for kids. This was no prim and pious event, however. There was so much booze you'd have thought you were at the Knights of Columbus, not an Episcopalian shin-dig.

Here's part of our gang. We were the last group to leave. Some of us felt obligated to finish all those bottles of wine that had been opened.


Two of the more urbane gentlemen attending: Randy Bradbury and David Knadler.


Denise and Robin are dishing about something while they sip their Kir Royales.


David Kamerer always takes a great photo. I have an even better one of him but I'm doing him a favor and not posting it publicly. David and his jazz group performed for the event, and they were fantastic.


So fantastic that Robin and Carrie couldn't resist the dance floor. They were the only ones, however.


Tess and David Knadler.


Carrie, Deanna and Nancy.


Me and the evening's hostess, who knows how to throw a party and raise a few thousand dollars while she's at it.

OK, I'll bite

At the invitation of my friend Denise, I'll play along with the blog tag game making the rounds.

Here are the rules:

• Link to the person who tagged you.
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Write 6 random things about yourself.
• Tag 6-ish people at the end of your post.
• Let each person know he/she has been tagged.
• Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six random things about me:

1. I eloped with my husband in 1985 and took his 15-year-old son with us on our honeymoon.

2. I covered the biggest news story of my entire career when I was 23, just six months into my first job. I was the first reporter for United Press International on the scene of the Hyatt Regency skywalk collapse in 1981 in Kansas City, in which more than 100 people died. I was the only UPI reporter on the scene from about 6:30 in the evening until about 10:30, when reinforcements arrived. My feet were so bloodied and bruised from running to pay phones in my Dr. Scholl sandals ( pre-cell phone era) that when I arrived back in the UPI newsroom about 3:30 a.m. to write, my boss took off my shoes, soaked towels in warm water in the bathroom, and wrapped my feet in them while I was writing.

3. I love gourmet food, but one of my favorite foods is from my childhood: mashed potatoes topped with kielbasa sausage and sauerkraut. True German peasant food.

4. President Ronald Reagan once told me he liked my shoes. They were pink. I was in the press pool at former Kansas Gov. Alf Landon's home near Topeka to cover a meeting between Reagan and Landon in honor of the latter's birthday. Specifically, he said, "I like your shoes." We were waiting for a news conference to begin and I guess he was just passing time. I held onto those shoes long after they went out of style, throwing them away just a few years ago.

5. I flunked driver's ed when I was in 9th grade, then also flunked my next two driver's tests with a state motor vehicle inspector.

6. I believe in love at first sight because it happened to me. I was 21, an intern in the newsroom at the Salina Journal, when Dale Goter walked in wearing a softball uniform. He was 31. I didn't even know who he was (he was the paper's City Hall reporter) but I knew I was in love. (It took a few months to convince him, however.)

I tag:

Tess

Ashley

Chris

Jill

Amy

David

Fashion is fun

For the third year in a row, some of us attended Bonnie Bing's Holiday Highlights Fashion Show to check out the clothes that most of us can neither afford nor fit into. But the wine and cheese made up for it.

Here's our lovely hostess and emcee, Bonnie Bing. About 300 people attended the show.

I tried to take fashion photos, but most were just blurs. Here's a few that sort of worked...


Bonnie says that purple is big for the holidays.


So is winter white.

And metallics...


This is Bonnie with her three grand-daughters, who were all models in the show.

I went to the event with Molly and Carrie. Travis Heying was on hand to do a video. It'll be posted at kansas.com soon.