i've died and gone to...

...culinary heaven.  

Introducing the bacon waffle.

Thank you to magpie for bringing this amazing idea home. 

because sometimes you leave work...

...and feel like making fresh sauce, crumbling sausage, grilling mushrooms and rolling dough to make some pizza. 

she and her friends got talent

we could have sung happy birthday to you and been over with it, but there are so many other great hits and lets face it, we all just wanna be stars...

here are a few hits that come to mind...

happy birthday pretty, little lady.

a postcard, some snow and a few manatees

Postcards are one of those wonderful surprises that still find their way into a mailbox, not inbox, on occasion.  It seems like they could be the only hand written messages delivered by the USPS to survive the digital age.  E-cards, in my opinion, just don't hold a special place in my heart like postcards do.  

I returned back to my apartment after the post-christmas blizzard to find this treasure of a postcard.    The photos are fitting as they reminded me of the icebox I live in....as if the boots, scarf, hat, and mounds of snow were not a daily reminder.  On the other side, it gave me hope for warmer weather, travel to warm places, sand between my toes and the thought of being tan.  

I flipped it over to find nothing but a bunch of manatees playing a cruel joke on me as they pinched a nerve calling me "swan" after my cinematic scare in the theater watching Black Swan.  

Regardless, I loved this little postcard in my mailbox...I cannot wait to send the manatees one soon.  

glowing japanese maple

My dad wanted it to look like "the trees in front of the nice buildings in the city during the holidays."  

Well done Nick, I loved looking at this japanese maple in the snow at night on Parent Road.

holidays at home with a blizzard

the kids.

 thank god for snowblowers.

 what we make when there's left over manicotti stuffing.

 love those smurfs

‎"i am younger each year at the first snow. when i see it, suddenly, in the air, all little and white and moving; then i am in love again and very young and i believe in everything" - a. sexton to w.d. snodgras

 baby jesus.

the progression of the blizzard.

 nut cracker.

cleaning the legacy.

more holiday photos

miracle on 35th street

miracle on parent rd.

Not too bad...especially with last year's christmas tree stylist on holiday.

Don't worry, I didn't put any ornaments on the bottom row of branches. I learn.

i just wanted you to know...i didn't forget

...about this day.

 where we danced like fools; 

 and were so excited, we jumped up and down; 

 then we played some games; 

and in between all the family photos;

and ringing of the bell;

this lovely couple joined hands and stuck their tongues at each other.

aerobi-trailer.

coming soon......stay tuned.  

xoxo

the empire party

New York City has always been a little bit faster paced and over the top compared to those other cities.  It goes above and beyond.  I don't know why, but it just does.  The City.  The Big Apple. The City that Never Sleeps.  Call it what you will, but I think its the people...not the buildings and the lights that make it what it is....

We are dreamers; 

and we are dancers.

We are friends;

and we are lovers.

We like to eat...

and maybe even drink a little too much;

...and sometimes we get crazy;

and even a little silly.

But we are family.

And yes, it's easy to turn your back on this concrete jungle, but for some reason when you're in this great city, on the roof top, celebrating with Danielle, Paul and the best of them...it just seems like your own little empire.  Even if the next day your memory of it all is a little blurry.

Thanks Danielle and Paul for making your wedding one of the best.  You have a beautiful family and amazing friends.  And somehow you brought them together flawlessly.  If it wasn't for your love affair we would never have had Cabo.  There would never be an empire night quite like this one.  These memories will surely last a lifetime...

jack's o'lantern

Where does one draw the line between art, a mild form of child abuse and just purely amazing? 

artist: goldie

subject: jack g.

photographer: ribods

location: 715

purpose: pumpkin-butt halloween cards

a beautiful place

What makes a place beautiful?

Is it the buildings?

Or the mountains?

Maybe the language?

Could it be the drinks?

Perhaps it's the people we meet.

Or the laughs that we laughed.

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 It's hard to say that this place chosen to exchange vows, somewhere in the mountains, on a lake, somewhere in neutral territory in a far away land is anything but...beautiful.

For this and more, come to Spiez

i'm coming home

When I was a student at Somers High School, there was something always magical about homecoming.  Maybe it was the entire week of spirit days leading up to the football game or perhaps feeling a sense of not only having Tusker pride, but class pride as well.  On that fall weekend each year in the late-90's, the air always got a little cooler, there were parties, car pools, ridiculous clothing, and face paint all throughout Somers.  

 We were serious about our spirit.

And now...the year is 2010 and I return to that same field for the first time since I graduated.  The field is now covered in turf and the school has been redesigned.  I almost cannot even recognize it, but I notice the sea of red, black, white and silver.  There is still face paint and Tusker pride is greater than I have seen it in a long time.  

I found myself sitting with a few former classmates on this beautiful evening.  We caught up.  We reminisced.  We laughed.  We cheered.  We were Tuskers. 

Even the love birds came out.

 And I experienced the new, up and coming generation of Tuskers.
(all of these kiddies were produced by one tusker)

  Not too different from the older generation of Tuskers.

There were no class floats going around the track.  No t-shirts made with the Superman "S." There was no bon-fire. The band was half the size as I remember it.  The cheerleaders just weren't as loud without Ashley, Laura, Tara, Angela, Dana, Jacky, and Jenn screaming, "BOOM Dynamite....BOOM BOOM Dynamite."

It's okay...because I was home.