South Bound Plane

We're off to Georgia for Christmas today! We'll be there seeing my extended family and it will be the first time we've been together for Christmas. AND Georgia is promising temperatures in the 70s, so we're are psyched for that. We won't be back until the beginning of next week, so no more blogging 'til we're back (it's a small town ya'll, no Internet at the house). But it's not like I would have blogged before then anyway.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you! And I'm sorry that I will probably never get it together to send Christmas cards. Doesn't mean we're not sending you Christmas cheer and lots of love!

xoxo
The Bokas

We are live, people!

'Member how we did our first paying photography gig for Matt & Carrie McCulloch, who needed photos for the redesign of their website? Well, their site is now live, and our photos are there for all the world to see. AND they look pretty dang good, if we say so ourselves. They look....real. Like, a real photographer took them.

Each sub-page on their site has a different photo, but all the photos cycle through on the home page too. Check them out here. WooHoo!

Three times

Last night was my office Christmas party. Not a company wide office party, but just our little casting office, sipping champagne, exchanging gifts, and listening to Christmas music before Jim takes us out to a really nice dinner at Cafe Luxemborg. And throughout the course of the evening, I cried three times. In a good way.

The first time was a bit of a surprise to everyone, including myself. My boss, Jim (the world's best, and most generous gift giver) gave us all a few books as our "small gift", and one of mine was a biography of Eli Wallach. I don't know if it's because I love old hollywood biographies or because I love little old men (he's 93), or because he participated in this documentary that I worked on called Showing Up (really cool site by the way, check it out if you have the chance - and his quote on there is amazing), but for whatever reason, it made me cry a little bit.

The second time was when Jim gave me my "big gift", which was a new camera. The one that Geoff and I were saving up for and not getting each other Christmas gifts in order to buy. And so I cried. He and Geoff had been in cahoots about it for a week or so and I was completely thrilled. Thrilled to tears in fact. Especially since I had wanted to have the camera in time for my college girlfriends reunion in January so that I could take pregnancy pictures of my friend Michelle, and get LOTS of baby pictures of the FOUR babies that will be in attendance. Get excited Barn Girls! Now, most professional photographers would have a fancier camera than this (it's a Nikon D90), but this is a great starter camera for our little side photography business. And we used it for our pilates photo shoot and all our pictures from Thanksgiving (we were using it on a 2 week trial basis) and I think those shots were pretty good. Heads and shoulders above any other camera we've ever had. I'm beside myself!

The third time was when my co-worker Carrie gave me these amazing coasters that she MADE. She always does a Christmas Craft project for us as gifts each year (mouse pads with personalized/funny pictures, t-shirts she made etc). Well everyone's coasters were different themes. Stephen's were logos of chain food restuarants, cause he loves them. Jim's theme was classic old film stars (bette davis, judy garland, vivian leigh...) and mine...was our wedding. And they are AMAZING. And made me cry. Because we've not done anything about wedding pictures yet, so we dont' have ANY up in our apartment. And something about seeing our wedding images in a tangible form, not just online, well...it made me cry.

How amazing are they?


I love them. You're crying too, a little bit, aren't you?

So all in all, it was a great office Christmas party. And not because people gave me great presents. But because as much as my job drives me crazy sometimes and I dream of moving to the country, the thing that keeps me there is really the people. I mean, I love the work too, but it's really my co-workers that make the difference. And I think they all feel the same. Even if they don't cry about it as much as I do.

Christmas in Queens

Well, it seems Christmas has indeed come to Sunnyside. Or at least to the front of our apartment building. Our landlord is quite fond of getting "festive" for every holiday there is. There was a huge inflatable pumkin for Halloween. There was an Easter bunny extravaganza. And if memory serves, some sort of big valentines display as well. He seems to generally be a fan of large bright inflatable decorations. I'm more of a fan of gentle white lights on the tree and and maybe a lovely classy wreath on the door. Not Frank.

Lets push in for a close up shall we?

This is a Queens Christmas Carousel. It spins about. Very slowly. Much slower than Santa and his actual reindeer go in real life.


This is Christmas Ferris Wheel. I'm sensing a Coney Island Theme. I'm actually a bit concerned for the brown Christmas creature in the front there (can't tell from the picture if it's a reindeer or a bear) who looks like he may be about to fall out of his seat.


And here it is in all its twinkly, magical night time glory.


And just for the record, I did notice on my way out this morning that there are some of those white wire reindeer drinking from the mini fountain in the back courtyard, so we are covered on all sides of the building. Thank goodness.

A Great Love Affair/Thanksgiving Part 2

The "retreived from my brain as close as I can to what I wrote yesterday before the internet destroyed it entirely" Thanksgiving Part II blog:


It has to be said. One of the greatest loves of my life is our little tiny place at Cape Cod. Its a tiny cottage, especially compared to the HUGE palatial houses that go up on the Cape each year. My great great grandfather, Levi LeForest Smith built it in 1922, the year my grandmother (Barbara Smith Burkhardt - my mom's mom) was born. At that time, when you looked down the river, there was not another house in sight. Now, we are less than 20 yards from neighbors on either side, and across the river, the houses are spaced much the same. Despite this, we've managed to retain a decent amount of privacy and what has got to be the best view on all of Oyster River. Mom always says she feels bad for the folks in the big houses across the river, because we can see the whole river and the way it winds out to sea and all they have to look at is us.

I remember growing up here on summer visits. Kick-the-Can in the back yard with the other kids who were summer neighbors. My grandparents having gin and tonics as soon as it turned cocktail hour. Their friends Marge and Bob Newell, who came up every summer from Florida to spend the whole summer and were like seconds grandparents to me (Marge and Gram were high school friends). Taking Daddy Bob's (that's what we called my grandfather) boat down the river to the cut out to the ocean for picnics. Doing Marge's nails on the deck, convinced that I was going to mess up the polish. Going for a swim in the river. Road races for kids in the neighborhood. The hydrangea bushes in the side yard. Lunch at Friendly's. The sign that said "Chipmunk Crossing" in my grandmother's little flower garden (its still there). Mini golf with my Gram at two places - one gave you a rootbeer float if you got a hole in one on the first hole and the other had a sunken pirate ship in the pond out front. Cranberry bread for breakfast. Daddy Bob grilling swordfish on the grill. It was the only fish I ever liked as a child. The trampoline place - where you paid to jump for 15 minutes...now that I'm older I realize it must have been a parent's dream....to wear us right out.

So needless to say, I love going there. And it's a great meeting point for my family (Mom and Dad in Maine, Clay in Boston and Geoff and I in the NYC). We got in late Thanksgiving evening from CT. We have started to do our Schwabe family Thanksgiving on Fridays since Geoff and I are in CT on Thursday. It was great to see the fam, as always. And we had a great weekend. Friday Clay got called back to Boston for work for the day and wouldn't be back until about 5pm. The rest of us had a slow morning and Geoff and I borrowed mom and dad's bikes and headed out on a bike ride. We headed down to Hardings Beach and rode through all the great neighborhoods there, WISHING we'd brought our camera because it was truly stunning. We timed it just right and were heading back just as the rain started. Clay got back and we all had some wine while mom finished up the last bit of cooking (somehow I didn't seem to help her with that as much as I have in years past and I'm not quite sure how that happened. Sorry Mom!). The five of us ran through a bottle of pino grigio faster than I expected, so Geoff and I ran out to get another bottle. We took the camera and Haley with us this time and popped over to the beach for some pictures.


Haley and I on the beach. Gorgeous. And cold. But gorgeous.


At the liquor store we got chatting with the manager, who admired our camera. He told us that he'd wanted to fix up the sign out front of the mini shopping center there - paint it, light it up, put a spotlight on it, restore it or generally fix it up in some way, as it's been there for ages and is (as Clay likes to say) "hurtin' for certain". Apparently the town of Chatham won't let him touch it. It must be approaching historical landmark status or something. It truly has been there for as long as I've been around to remember it. It was a landmark for Clay and I on the long summer drives to the Cape. We'd always play "how many corners?" as we got closer and closer to Grammy and Daddy Bob's house. Meaning how many turns do we have to make before we get there. Three from the house with the yellow door, two from the "Shop Ahoy" sign ("two" was also sometimes marked by the Mint Chocolate Chip House right across the street. It was painted brown and mint green - in case you hadn't figured that out)... And I have to say, the Mint Chocolate Chip house is in even worse shape than the Shop Ahoy sign these days. Thanks to some magic hour light, the ole thing never looked so good...


We came back and enjoyed a wonderful dinner. Geoff loved my mom's biscuits. As I always have too. I mean look at them.


We had some pie, watched My Cousin Vinny and played some heated rounds of BananaGram (a speed version of scrabble without the board). The Schwabes dominated the Bokas. The Bokas will be practicing at home so as to be better prepared for inevitable Christmas rematches.


Saturday dawned and with the remants of last night's scrabble debacle basking in the sun, Clay headed out to bring his boat in. In the process, the chain that attaches to the buoy slipped from his fingers and wound up at the bottom of the river. So, the Schwabe men headed to the garage to construct the world's tallest rake, all McGuyver style, in hopes of retrieving the chain.


And then Clay headed out, all gondolier style, to try and rescue the chain. At high tide. Which proved a bit challenging, as it turned out.


Geoff and I left them to it and headed out for another bike ride. Brought the camera this time. We went down to Hardings again and then rode all the way into town. We were out for hours. Stopped for lunch, popped into a wine and cheese tasting at a cheese shop. Made some purchases. (I could possibly live on cheese. I don't. But I do dream of it. I think that's what heaven will be like. All the cheese I want and none of the consequences.) We had an AWESOME time. I love bike riding.


Loved these guys. Wish we had more of a zoom lens with us to really figure out what they were talking about...


The last big hill turned my legs to jello. But I loved it!


We came home to wine and cheese and football games, which was lovely. After all the football was done with, Clay introduced Geoff and I to the Wii video game Rock Band. I was fairly horrible at it. Particularly the guitar. Would have been ok at the singing, but I only knew about three of the songs. Geoff did quite well on the singing though and I was least horrible on the drums, suprisingly enough.


Sunday morning brought pancake breakfast and more Wii. Sports this time. I was best at tennis and not horrible at bowling. I sort of like that there's a world where I'm better at sports than at music.

Here I am, very pleased with my skillz.


Mom was also excellent at Tennis. And she and Clay had QUITE the golf game.


And what trip to see the family would be complete without tons of pictures of the dogs?

Pretty girl...


I love this one of Toby (aka "The Tobe"). He is soaking up the sun and so unconcerned with all of us, as regal as a dog can be.


Haley checking out the "fairies" that the sunlight makes on the wall.


Haley is quite the snuggler. And she seems to really like Geoff. She spent most of Saturday evening like this....


We had a lovely time. I inevitably do actually get sad to leave. Sad often to the point of tears. Now, I'm a big crier, so that's not too big of a deal. And this year there were a few extra tears on Sunday because we got news that Bob Newell had passed away the day before. He'd been in poor health for a while, and we'd heard that it could happen any day, but it is still sad to me. I have such fond memories of him. He and Marge were actually the first of my "family" to meet Geoff. Before my folks did even. Geoff and I took a weekend trip to the Cape just a month or so afer we started dating. And Marge and Bob were at their little house. I remember Marge reporting back to my mom that Geoff was very tall and handsome and had a great smile but the only thing she couldn't tell about was his hair (he must have been wearing a baseball cap for most of that weekend). I'm sad that Bob isn't with us anymore, but am so grateful for the part he's played in my life. He really was so special to me, in a quiet way that I can't really verbalize. And thinking of him will always make me smile.

Miffed

So, I have to tell you that I was working on this LONG Thanksgiving Part 2 post. with pictures, stories, clever musings. And just as I was getting to the end (having "saved" the whole way through), all of a sudden 3/4 of it vanished into thin air and I was just back to a couple paragraphs.

Miffed is putting it mildly, but my mother reads this, so that's about the worst I can say.

And I'm done with blogging for today. Can't take another 2 hours to do it over. So until Blogger behaves itself, I will have to postpone another day or so. As punishment. To....the internet.

Bah.

For Michelle

OK so we all know I'm not a cat person, but after meeting Luigi in Italy and seeing this little guy, it's growing on me. Michelle, I thought you'd really enjoy this. I attempted to embed the video here, but... it did not actually work, as I am far from technologically advanced enough. So try the link above...


More Thanksgiving posts on the way...

Two Thanksgivings - Part 1

Thanksgiving means double meals for us. We've spent the last four years splitting Thanksgiving between Geoff's family in CT and my family, who all meet up at Cape Cod. We spend Wednesday evening and Thursday for most of the day with Geoff's family, including a wonderful dinner with extended family there.And after dinner, around 4pm or so, we get on the road and drive 3 some hours to Cape Cod to spend the weekend with my family.

Here's some pics of Part 1.

When we arrived on Wednesday night, after some dinner and a little convesation, we gathered to watch Sense & Sensibility. Since Khal, Maya & Kayla were in the process of being put to bed, we started the movie in their room. They made it about 15 minutes before they were out like a light.

How cute is this...? Khal and Kayla - knocked out.


And then on Thursday, the food began. Started with a very tasty butternut squash soup. Y-U-M.


Followed by a pumpkin ravioli in a sage butter sauce that would make Stephen and Alison proud... (can't claim to have made it myself, but did thoroughly enjoy it).


And of course the turkey...


We prayed over the food and as per our hostess's family tradition, there was discussion of "old business" and "new business". The old business being that Kayla had been born in the last year and that Geoff and I had gotten married. The new business was announced as Lizzie's brother and his wife are expecting their third child in May. Then she asked if there was any other new business, and somehow all eyes turned to me! This was right after my response of "I got nothin'!"


And how cute are our nieces and nephew?

Kayla with Liz


Maya with Duke- She is a long time lover of all animals (as is evidenced by the 12 or so stuffed animals she carries with her whenever she leaves the house).


Khal and his new love - football (yes he is five years old and understands the game better than I do. And I even understand it!).


Then we hit the road and were off to the Cape for part two. Will be the first time I've seen my folks since the wedding. Can't wait!!

The Real Deal

We might just be official. And here's how it happened.

Our friends Matt & Carrie McCulloch own a pilates studio on 19th Street and after apparently being pleased with the photos we took at their wedding (just as guests) a few years ago, they asked a while ago if we'd take some headshots for their instructors for the website. So Geoff popped over for a couple of hours and took some shots. Well, after that, Carrie started calling us "Katie & Geoff for Hire" and they said we should really start hiring ourselves out for photography. A few weeks later, they were our first paying clients. They were looking for some photos of their studio and just some general photos that would suggest pilates (not cheesy people in classes but something that would almost look like stock footage) to be the picture on top of each of their website pages. These are just some of the images we came up with (there are actually more that I like better but we've not uploaded them yet).


I love shallow depth of field in a shot. Its my favorite kind to do I think....when the background is blurry like this. Maybe you can tell, cause all the shots are like this. It's kind of the look they were going for.


I like this one. And how cool is her hair? She'd been wearing it down earlier in the day and it is awesome.



Love the ponytail...



Even took a few headshots of them. We need some practice on portraits but.....not too bad, considering it was our first try out of the gate.


She's so pretty!


Love this one of Matt - Feel like it really captures him.


I'll let you know once the edited pics are really up on their redesigned site. They'll look a little different (and cooler, i think) because they'll just be slivers of shots across the top of their page. So that means what...? Instead of a 4x6, more like a 2x6? I am bad at math though, so that could be way off. But in the meantime....if anyone is looking for a great pilates studio in NYC, they are awesome. Really fun and SO knowledgeable. Kinected Center would be my top recommendation.

Thursday - 5:46pm

Sometimes, when my co-worker Stephen (also known as "Button", you may remember) gets real antsy and ready to be done with work, he sometimes will put post-ists all over my desk. Or paint with white-out on my file folders. Or throw highlighters and paperclips at the back of my head. Or fix my hair. His creations are truly inspired. This was his what he created today (again, forgive the iPhone picture):


And from the side...

My Friend

I passed this guy on the street after brunch with Alison a few Saturdays ago at Nook, (which was amazing, by the way. Don't listen to any bad reviews on citysearch. Best brunch I've had in a long time. It's one of those cool BYOB places for dinner). He was waiting outside the bakery so patiently for his owner to come back. Either that or he was really hungry for some Amy's Bread. Either way, I couldn't love him more.


Do I need a dog or what?

All About Eve

Have any of you seen this movie? I'd never seen it until we were working on a benefit reading of it at work. Its pretty great. Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Thelma Ritter, Celeste Holm and Marilyn Monroe in a tiny two scene part. Its about a young ingenue who insinuates herself in to the company of an established but aging stage actress and her circle of theater friends. And the drama that ensues. Some pretty great one liners too.

Well, this past Monday The Actors Fund put on a one-night only benefit reading of the screenplay, and my boss and I cast it. And even though it was a long, drawn out. stressful process, actually sitting in the theatre and watching it on Monday night was pretty awesome, I have to say. We cast Annette Bening in the Bette Davis part and Keri Russell as the young ingenue who appears sweet and wonderful at first but eventually causes all kinds of trouble. Angela Lansbury, Cynthia Nixon, John Slattery (Mad Men), Peter Gallagher, Joel Grey and Brian Bedford rounded out the rest of the cast. And Jennifer Tilly played the Marilyn Monroe part. Quite geniusly, I must say. Even though "geniusly" isn't a word.

And sitting there, as they took their places on stage, was one of those moments where I thought…ok…I do actually love my job. It drives me nuts most of the time, but to be in that theatre on this one night when these incredibly talented stage actors (because even though half of them are famous from TV or film, they all got their start on the stage) come together just this once to create this story…at the risk of sounding cheesy, it felt pretty magical to me. And maybe it's because the movie is ABOUT the world I live in…Broadway…producers, directors, playwrights, actors…all the dramatic (and at least slightly, if not entirely crazy) people that I work with on a daily basis. There is something incredibly romantic and historic and…just magical about working in the theatre. There would have to be considering the crazy hours and horrible pay. But on Monday night, all the bad parts were forgotten and I just enjoyed the amazing experience of having been a part of something so special.

Sorry it's a bit of a blurry picture, but here are Annette Bening and Keri Russell at the curtain call.

Just cruel

You know what's not fair? Everyone knows I love puppies more than almost life. And a friend sent me this link to Puppies - Streaming Live and my work computer won't even play it.

Can you see it? They are so stinkin' cute. And I only know because it will play on everyone else's computer except mine.

No fair.

Answers

OK, firstly, besides the glasses, it's been ages since I've blogged, and yes, I am ashamed of myself. I had actually been working on a few posts earlier today (so there will be a few little things soon) when I saw this on Alison's blog. And how fun I had been "tagged". I'd actually seen something on Carla's blog that I wanted to do that had a similar idea of tagging other people, but I'll save that for later.

Alison found this on one of her favorite craft blogs, the challenge being to respond the questions with one-word answers - Which I think can prove challenging indeed, but also, creative. And I will inevitably feel pressure to be witty and interesting. And will also fail at one-word answers. But my rule will be that if the extra words are clarifyers, they are allowed.

Here we go...

Where is your mobile phone? Purse
Where is your significant other? Gym
Your hair colour? Brown
Your mother? Wonderful
Your father? Wise
Your favourite thing? Puppies
Your dream last night? Confusing
Your dream goal? Contentment
The room you're in? Disaster (my office)
Your hobby? Photography
Your fear? Dissappointment (Alison, I had to copy yours, as we are the same person)
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Motherhood
Where were you last night? Home (yay! first night this week)
What you're not? Political
One of your wish-list items? Camera
Where you grew up? Everywhere
The last thing you did? Blogged
What are you wearing? Pink
Your TV? Huge
Your pets? Imaginary
Your computer? Slow
Your mood? Friday-ish
Missing someone? Many
Your car? Parked (assuming we're counting Geoff's car as mine too)
Something you're not wearing? Glasses
Favourite shop? Crate&Barrel
Your summer? Fast
Love someone? Imperfectly
Your favourite colour? Blue
When is the last time you laughed? Lunch
When is the last time you cried? Monday

I tag Michelle, Courtney, and Ali and Christy. And Tracy, my own internet stalker and now blog friend. :-)

Fat Girl Glasses

When Geoff first saw me in my glasses, which I rarely wear, because they look so lousy on me, he called them my Fat Girl Glasses. Now before all you girls get up in arms and angry at him for making comments about my weight, understand that he was saying that they didn't look like me at all. That they looked like what the fat girl in middle school would wear. Which naturally wouldn't really "match" me, as I am clearly thin and beautiful. And fabulous. Clearly.

Well, last weekend, we ordered me some non-Fat Girl Glasses. Some, dare we say, Chic Girl Glasses. And it’s a good thing too, since apparently I have an astigmatism and had no idea.

I will post a "before" picture when I can get home and actually take one. But since its been embarrassingly long since I've blogged about ANYTHING (shame on me) it seemed a bit urgent to get this up...

What do you think? Even without the "before" picture... Worlds better, right? (forgive the small, slightly sideways picture from my iPhone...)

How you like me now?

Here is our completed bathroom. I completely love it.

Shelves on one wall.... (and the picture is of the steps leading down to the water at my family's house on the Cape)


Pictures on another...


Here is a closeup on those pictures (which we took ourselves). I'm actually going to replace the one on the far left, as I feel the yellow doesn't really go with the white/teal/cream thing we have going on.


But, from left to right they are:
(L) Yellow flowers growing by the side of the road in Bass Harbor Maine, which we took while waiting for the ferry to my parent's house on Swans Island.
(C) Mussels and shells on my parent's beach on Swan's Island, same trip.
(R) Our row boat and the sailboat we used to have at the Cape, The Rebecca May (named after my grandmother).

Now that everyone is sufficiently bored with my bathroom, I will attempt to post something next that has nothing to do with my apartment. God, you'd think I don't do anything else. (Ok, so I don't, and the living room is almost picture-ready, so prepare yourself).