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...)