Drum Roll Please..........

I just received a letter that begins, "Welcome to Namibia." Yep, I have been accepted to the delegation heading for Namibia this June for 2 weeks. Now all I have to do is get Jay to think it is a great idea for me to go. The majority of this relies on me selling a lot of uppercase living expressions (Care to write on your walls?) But I am going forth in faith that somehow I will find a way to finance the trip, who needs to eat anyway?

And if you are looking to learn a little more about Namibia just watch Anthony Bourdain's episode showing today about his visit there. I will say that Jay's eyes lighted up just a bit as he watched the kinds of things Anthony was eating there. I think he would be totally on board if he could be guaranteed that they would be serving the same kinds of things to me... any seconds on the warthog anus, Dorothy? OR how about some ostrich egg omelet cooked in the hot African dirt? I think I will be bringing some power bars.

Christmas Party

Well Last night Jay and I threw our first Christmas party in many years. I am not quite sure why we didn't have parties but somehow they just didn't seem to happen. So a few weeks ago we were talking and decided we needed to throw a party. It always sounds good a few weeks in advance. But somehow, as the day approaches, the thought of, "what the heck was I thinking" comes in but by then it is too late.

Invites went out by way of Evite- one of the best creations ever. I had someone do an evite for her uppercase living party and I was hooked. I became an evite stalker. I could go on at any time of day and see who was coming and what they were thinking about coming. Its even better when they are your friends and its your party. And no annoying phone calls at 10:30 at night, just after I have fallen asleep.

Jay began cleaning out the garage 2 days in advance... If I ever want work done around the house all I ever need to do is invite Jay's friends over... Let me tell you, you could eat off the floor of his garage, or off of his car, or off of his motorcycle by the time he was done.

By Thursday night, Jay and Shelby went out to get the Christmas Tree... Our house was not looking very Christmasy at the time. While I partied the afternoon away at my office's Holiday dinner party, Shelby got the nativity set up and you could almost realize we were Christian and not Jewish.

Friday Kyle came home with 2 friends and they got roped into decorating the tree while I made some food for them (Dinners by Design came to the rescue with a Phillie cheese steak roll.) A few more decorations were put out and Fa La La La La we were looking festive. 

Saturday evening came and so did our guests. Here is my question of the hour, Why is it that no matter how big a house is, how many rooms there are, people will all pack into the kitchen? For the first 2 hours of the party, everyone jammed into the kitchen, all the other rooms were empty. From time to time Jay would get some of the guys out to ohhh and ahhh over the garage and the wall of fame (this wall deserves a whole blog spot on its own at a later date) but for the most part sardines was what we were.

Menu for those interested? Shrimp cocktail, Barbecued meatballs, Mexican cheese dip, Artichoke dip, Hot crab dip, olives, cheese and breads (as I type this now I realize I had a ton of other things to pop into the oven that I forgot about.) There were a bunch of wines, beer from various breweries, soda and the hot of the party was the Belinnis! Babs gave me her recipe (Prosecco, Peach nectar and the Juice of a lime) and it was fabulous. I found a special peach sugar to use on the rims of the glasses and when all was said and done I wished I liked alcohol cause the drinks looked so good.  Desserts were a pumpkin cheesecake, caramel apple crisp, chocolates and cream puffs. There were just a few leftovers so I would say the food was a success.

But more than that we all had such a great time. I loved having the house filled with people laughing and talking. I loved seeing Jay so happy surrounded by friends. And I really loved catering to friends who cater to me through out the year, letting them all know just how special they are to me. 

Now that the dishes are washed and things are mostly put away I am already thinking about the next time we can have people over.

Playing with my MAC

My new MacBook has some fun things to play with. I love the photo booth application. Shelby and I played around with it last night so here is cartoony Shelby

And I look like something out of the 60s with the thermal shots

Women's Bible study group

A number of years ago we decided to start a women's Bible study group to meet during the week. We have gone through so much together as we have learned more about our faith. A couple of years ago joined us and now we are sad that she be leaving us. This next month Maria will be moving to West Virginia and we will miss her. We went out for a lunch, gift exchange and to get our portrait taken. The photography place was all booked up and I had my camera with me so we grabbed a passerby to take a shot of us. 

Homebuilders

For the past 15 or so years Jay and I have been a part of a couples' Bible Study. It is the offshoot of a Christian Marriage Weekend Seminar that a few of us went to. These people are some of my favorite people in the whole world. 

Every Christmas we have a gift exchange where the gifts are more funny than real. We look forward to this all year. This year the top gifts were a hideous Christmas tree with terrible ornaments on it and a pair of bathroom plaques with and old man and woman on them using the toilet. Thankfully Jay and I only ended up with the Christmas tree.

I am glad I thought to bring my camera to our get together this year. It is rare to get a shot of us all, even Maggie and Rick's dog Maddie

Can it get any better than this? I love my ugly tree but have you ever heard about the flamingo lawn ornaments? One morning you wake up and head out of your house and find flamingos. Well, I think it is time to give a Christmas tree a little bit of the glory. This next week, one of my unsuspecting friends will wake up and head out to find something new in their front yard. Stay posted to see the pictures of the fun.

Peter was the lucky winner of the toilet plaques. He lives in fear that Sesle will actually hang them in their bathroom. I hope I will be visiting the day she does it.

The saddest thing is that now I have to wait for a whole year for another gift exchange!

Let it snow

Today is a true snow day. A half day at work, and afternoon of baking cookies, reading a book, drinking tea and watching a lot of TV WHoo HOoo I just love snow days... until I have to go out and shovel.

What visit to the city at this time of year would be complete without a visit to see "The Tree."

When Jay and I arrived at the NY Public Library I wanted to go in, In all these years I had not been in there. As we walked up the steps I saw this woman sitting off to the side, feeding the pigeons. I loved her face and wanted to take her photograph, but I am very shy about taking people's pictures, so I just headed into the museum. The biggest surprise at the Library for me was that I didn't see any books. Maybe in some of the rooms upstairs you can find books but to me all it seemed like was that I was in a museum. I check out the great exhibit about Jack Kirouac. They have his scroll there and is worth a visit if you are a fan of his. Even if I couldn't find books the library was a great photo op- what beautiful architecture and lighting. Upon leaving I walked and saw my lady was still out there and I mentioned to Jay that I wanted to photograph her. He said, "Go ahead, take her picture." I can't just do that, I went up to her and asked if she would mind me photographing her. She graciously said, "Yes, but I don't smile." She had some real problems with her teeth. So she looked up a little and I took a few shots. I just loved her energy, she seemed so kind and peaceful. I am glad I got bold and asked her,

The doors of the library are beautiful although I am not sure why they have snakes curling around the handle.

The famous lions guard the museum's entrance and for the holidays they are adorned with a big red bow

A Weekend with my hubby

This weekend was a Jay and Dorothy weekend. Shelby was away at the Model UN program at Harvard (Yes, my daughter was enrolled at Harvard, even if it was just for the weekend,) and Kyle was at school so we were free and easy. 

Friday night was spent with a quick dinner at the diner and then a visit to Palisades mall to do a little Christmas shopping- funny thing is, I realized that very little of my gifts do I need to get from a store in the mall and we ended up just walking around playing more than anything else.

Saturday morning Jay took me to the Muddy Brook Cafe for breakfast- a great little cafe run by an Irish family. I just love a place that serves you brewed tea- I hate getting a cup of hot water with a tea bag on the side, just a peeve of mine. I loved this place and can't wait to get back there.

After breakfast we headed out to the city. We spent the day walking around, taking pictures and just having fun together. We went to see the tree of course, and then walked down 5Th Avenue. After hitting some stores we went to Virgil's for some down home barbecue. 

We just had so much fun walking around without any schedule, It was a great day

Things they are a changing..

Many years ago... in the dinosaur days of the computer... Jay and I had an Macintosh computer, a SE model with a 10K hard drive. I loved that Apple computer. Then at some point we decided to go with a PC, programs were just too limited for Apples. I was relatively happy with my PC and then I got my first laptop... an IBM Thinkpad. I really loved that computer. That thing was a tank and would hold up to any abuse, well almost any abuse. It seems that a cup of tea, dropped onto the keypad was just a little more than that computer could take. So, off I went to the computer store and got myself a HP Pavillion and threw myself into laptop hell. First off, I went big... really big for a laptop. The better for working with photographs I felt. I never considered how cumbersome carrying that laptop around would it. Then there was this weird thing with letters being dropped as you typed, and all of a sudden everything would become capitalized, even though I never hit the Caps lock key. I just figured it was all going back to my inadequacies with typing. But it was making me crazy. Then I found out my sister, who has the same computer, was having the same issues. OK, it wasn't just me, there are whole long lists of people online who are complaining about this. The final straw for me (or really for Jay who was tired of listening to me complain about it all) was when my computer just decided it wouldn't acknowledge my internet signal. Just didn't feel like going online with me. "That's it!" Jay said, "We'll just get you the Macbook... happy birthday and merry Christmas, and Happy Valentine's Day, oh yeah, and Happy Anniversary!" And so that is my long way of introducing my very first blog post with my new little, cute and very friendly MacBook." What's old is new and I am back on a MAC!!

Out of control

Earlier this week my friend emailed me something her brother sent her. He had "Elfed" her and her family on www.officemax.com I laughed so hard and had to go on and try it myself. I have made many of them but this one has got to be my favorite, so click on the link and enjoy my elfen husband and his biker friends
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9582892627

Photo Walk at the Steinhardt Private estate and Gardens

November 1st I had the most amazing opportunity. As I posted earlier, I signed up to do a Photo Walk at the Steinhardt Private Estate and Gardens. This is a beautiful 50+ acre estate in Westchester County, NY and home to some beautiful gardens. A wonderful couple have been overseeing the work on these gardens which inspired the book, The Landscape Diaries: Garden of Obsession by Gayatri Carole Rocherolle. After spending the day there I can see why obsession is an appropriate word. I know I could spend a lifetime wandering this property trying to see all that it has to offer. What also made the day so special was being able to share it with people I love to be with, My friend Anat, her husband Marc and another friend , Alyse. What a gift to spend a day walking around with them with the sole task of photographing to our hearts content.



We were all much more awake by the time I took the group photo...below I caught Marc and Alyse getting prepped as dawn's light was breaking.

Fall Flowers

One does not immediately think..Ah, November, what a great time to photograph flowers and yet there were some beautiful shots to be had.

The hold out. in a sea of dead flowers and leaves this one, lone flower hangs on to it's color

Pathways

whimsical creations

Someone at the gardens has a great sense of whimsy. No ordinary scarecrow for the people at this garden, I just loved this fashionable stickcrow.



At the top of a hill, overlooking a beautiful pond was this house with a mother and daughter enjoying the view.

There was even a potted plant by the window inside the house

G Rated Zebra Pictures

When I went on safari in 2001 I got my share of pictures of zebras. On occasion I would capture one that showed the zebra was all male. (I believe my friend Barbara DeJ will remember this along with my photo of a self pleasing chimp) As we went to take photos here once again I was facing a very well endowed zebra, what's a modest women to do? Get head shots LOL

Camel love

The camels were very friendly. I was a little anxious about getting too close to them, remembering my camel Max at the pyramids of Egypt- He was a spitter. But these camels had no expectoration issues.

I even let them get close

Alyse had fun getting some close ups

Garden Gates

In one area of the gardens there were a few beautiful iron gates.


This gate led to an aviary

I loved this peacock gate. It also led towards the aviary from another direction.