Christmas Tree Lights

Koa, laying in the middle of the lights as we stretched them across the floor before putting them on the tree.

Thanksgiving with My Family

A perfectly dreary Thursday for Thanksgiving. I forced home-made green bean casserole and corn-syrupless pecan pie on my family this year. Brian protested because he loves canned green beans?
I also made and ruined the gravy, but got off the hook because my Dad turned our turkey into a zombie (hilarious, actually).

Because of the turkey fiasco, my family had another Thanksgiving Sunday where my Dad could give deep frying a turkey one more go (it was really good the second time). So that's 4 Thanksgivings in all for me. Awe-some. I need to start running again...

I put more photos from Thanksgiving and other stuff up on my flickr.

Thanksgivings One and Two in Portrait

The First Thanksgiving
The only photo that really came out, unfortunately.
Somehow nine people and one seven-foot German fit around a small table. Because everyone's food was so delicious, I let them go see Harry Potter without me afterward. I didn't even ruin it or complain that I couldn't go because I was too tired.
I think this is growing up?


The Second Thanksgiving
I carried a 21 pound turkey slung over my back and spent the rest of the day basting until she turned golden.
It's honestly amazing how many people can fit into one tiny room and how a lot of good food and wine and music can turn a word like cramped into something more like cozy.



One day Victoria is going to make her fortune in mini pies.
No, seriously.


The father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
And the Turkey.

After looking through all my photos from both nights (a total of 9-sorry, i'm awful at taking pictures without a lot of light and after I've had more than one glass of wine. But the people there were looking sharp and if I had taken more pictures of them, they would have at least looked like they were having fun) I noticed all were taken in portrait. This really bothered me because I definitely prefer looking at photos in landscape.

And a quick word to all those already celebrating Christmas.
Just stop, please. It's not that I don't love Christmas, but you're despecialing it. And well, I think Thanksgiving is pretty great.
I'm looking at you Georgetown.

Halloween

amazing

Paul the Octopus, Republican Jesus, Madeline, House and Cuddy, still not sure exactly what Michael was, Penny Lane, Joan Jett.

A fun group after we rallied from the rally, really.

celebrating national coffee day

happy national coffee day

peregrine macchiato.

in honor of national coffee day, starbucks is going to try their best to make their coffee not taste like shit. perhaps that sounds a bit hypocritical coming from someone who documented her first starbucks pumpkin spiced latte of the season on her iphone.

i still love a lot of starbucks drinks, but anything i will actually order is more likely to induce a sugar coma than get me started for an invigorating day of calendars and all-around time wastement. there are a lot of independent coffee shops in dc, and at the risk of sounding insufferable, i would choose any one of them over starbucks - if not for the hand crafted coffee, then for the abundance of foamed milk leafs, dogs and hippies.

my favorite drinks lately have been espressos. they remind me of france where everyone sipped from tiny little cups and you could find dispensers everywhere that charged only a euro. i was never able to taste any different flavors in coffee, but in espressos i can. it makes the experience more like drinking wine. ugh, french people and their refined palates and hand-rolled cigarettes. i hate envy adore you.

today i am celebrating national coffee day by letting the rain and melancholy get the best of me and generally acting like i need a big cup of coffee. happy day.

these united states.

should be celebrated

with mini grills and a bucket full of beer in parking lots.

with flea market beer pong tables and mash-ups on the ipod.

with nathan's hot dogs, hamburgers, potato rolls, a small keg of raspberry beer, mint-watermelon salad, pasta salad, potato salad, guacamole, pineapple salsa, vegetable skewers and grilled fruit in solo cups.

with fireworks at the waterfront and hiccups and dancing at garretts.

i'm pretty sure i didn't even take half of these photos, the last few can almost certainly be credited to the classy young man in the cut-off USA tee.

fact: when i was 13 i ate 11 hot dogs in under 30 minutes at the summer pool party and then went swimming.

master chef and dancer

good lord.

the last few photos of this night on my camera were completely black. when i lightened them up each one was a surprise, almost like shaking a polaroid 2 days later.

Accio Twenty Ten

A New Years Eve Tree at Radegast Beer Hall in Brooklyn. Okay, maybe it was a Christmas Tree.

Today I created new correspondence templates for 2010. As I was creating a folder for July, I became extremely excited just knowing that the month will come, sometime, and it will be warm. This has provided me with more excitement for the New Year than any recap or resolution.

That being said,

2010 New Years Goals:

French Language generally, my accent specifically.

Volt.

Minibar.

Zaytinya.

2 Amys.

Ray's Hellburger.

The Gibson.

Run a half marathon.

Visit Monica in LA.

Take more pictures.