Right after I see this with a few of my girlfriends...




...I am SO going to see this. And I don't even LIKE Brad Pitt!

Labels: friends, funny stuff, movies

So I went to a Three Dog Night concert over the weekend (shut up).

I did it as a favor to my "second mom" Marcie and her aunt.

Odds were good that I was the youngest person in the venue. But they still put on a pretty good show.

I made Marcie crack up while we were waiting in the theatre's vestibule for the doors to open. An older woman a few people ahead of us bent over to tie her shoe, and a small plastic baggie fell out of her open purse.

"Hey, you dropped your weed!" I called out, just loudly enough for Marcie to hear.

Marcie started laughing.

"Actually," I corrected myself, "you dropped your Geritol."

Then Marcie completely lost it.

Bah-dum-dum!

Labels: concerts, friends, funny stuff, music, pictures

Here's a slideshow of my pictures from the wedding of our friends Matt and Jill. They were married Friday evening on the beach on Marco Island, Florida. It was such a beautiful, intimate ceremony.

Congratulations to you both, and thank you for letting us share your special day with you!

PS - I'm a little disappointed by the quality of these pictures as they appear in the video, but the original JPEGs came out crystal-clear. I don't know why the pictures don't show up that well here, though. Sorry!

Labels: friends, marriage, music, pictures, technology, travel

The Huz and I met up with Cayman and her parents at Delaware Park this afternoon for opening day.

I'm into horseracing and do occasionally like to place some bets on the ponies, but today I brought my camera and didn't wager a penny.

I tried a new technique with the camera today that I've been reading about on various photography websites called "panning." This technique is basically exactly what it sounds like. You set your camera to continuous shooting mode and focus on one particular moving object (in this case, a racehorse and/or jockey), and shoot frame after frame of that object while they move across your line of vision.

The desired outcome of this technique, at least while shooting horseraces, is a sharp image of the jockey, combined with a lovely blur of the horse's legs to suggest motion. Out of all the pictures I took today (nearly 200), I'm only really satisfied with one. Don't get me wrong, I took some other nice, colorful pictures, but only one of them met my goal while panning. Here it is, followed by some other ones that I thought looked good.

Labels: animals, friends, pictures, sports

Things were dicey in the last two minutes of the game.



But then, with thirty-five seconds to go...TOUCHDOWN!!!!



The response of one of the two Patriot fans in the house with two seconds remaining.

Labels: friends, pictures, sports

Farewell, 2007. It was quite the tumultuous period for me, both personally and professionally...but I have no regrets, just lessons learned.

In 2008, I plan to take some photography and cooking classes just for fun.

I plan to get reacquainted with the gym...there's something about the holiday rush from Thanksgiving until now that makes it so hard for me to work out!

I would be delighted to start a family this year. The Huz and I are definitely ready for it. We're in a good place emotionally and financially and we've done just about all of the "selfish" things we've wanted to do. Let the babymaking begin!

May 2008 be your best year ever! I wish you all good health, good friends, and good things in the coming year.

Thank you so much for reading my little blog and for all your comments.

See you in 2008!

Labels: fitness, friends, goals, hobbies, holidays, marriage

Edited to add: My legal consultant has advised me to remove the name of the firm that is being discussed in the below post. Thanks. -Lori

The one topic of conversation that didn't get much play at our party last night was the large, locally-based financial services company where several of my family members and many of my friends work. Most of them were in attendance at our party last night, and this company usually winds up being a major discussion piece at our get-togethers.

I'm especially surprised no one was talking about the big issue--that is, the fact that this company is allegedly discontinuing their annual bonus. That's been a huge conversation-starter around here for the past six months or so.

I can't imagine what the fallout will be if this really does happen. This is most definitely a big deal; the company's bonus every June is the sole reason so many disgruntled employees work there. And EVERYONE I know who works there (and I know a lot of them!) is disgruntled, especially since their CEO came into power in the late 90s.

For some of the more tenured employees, the bonus equates to 30% of their salaries! It has always been touted by this company's PR machine as one of the primary benefits of working there. Sure, the company's base salaries are quite low compared to other firms in the industry, but the employees benefit from the "total compensation package" that includes the annual bonus, blahblahblah fishcakes.

Many people assume that there will be a mass exodus of employees from the company after the (alleged!!) announcement is made about the discontinuance of the bonus. But my question is this: where exactly will all of these people find other jobs if this does happen? This company is the largest employer in Chester County. I can't imagine what will happen if there is a huge glut of ex-employees from this company floating around the Philadelphia job market looking for new positions.

Based on the stat counters I use to track my visitors to this blog, I know that I have a bunch of readers from this company. What do you guys think? Remember, this blog does give you the option of posting anonymously if you don't want to leave your name!

Ideas? Thoughts?

Labels: family, friends, gossip, local news, money, opinions, work

Whew! It's all over.

The party was definitely a success!

My family got here around 4 p.m., hung out, ate, and did the whole gift-exchange thing. Children ran amok, the grown-ups circulated, chatting and laughing, and everyone was forced to watch the slideshow DVD I made of our Vegas and dude ranch photos. Hee.

The next wave of guests started streaming in the door at about 7 p.m. as planned. Did I mention that I sent two sets of invites, staggering the start times of the party? This worked well, I think. It may have created a little more work for me, making sure that the food supplies were refilled and hot or cold as necessary, but it also ensured that I got to actually spend time with everyone, and not be stuck behind the buffet line or at the oven. I actually had fun at my own party! What a rarity.

The majority of my family left around 8 p.m., just as all of our friends and neighbors arrived, so for about an hour things were absolute CHAOS...just the way I like it! Kids screeching, random spurts of uproarious laughter emanating from various groups of guests around the house, ambient holiday music playing from two different stereos, and the general hum of conversation. People mingling everywhere, in the family room, the living room, the basement, the kitchen...the smokers out on the deck (we also had great weather...on the warm side for late December and no rain!).

We got so many nice gifts from people, all kinds of wines and champagnes, flavored coffee, gift cards, candles, books...such generosity. Of course, as trite as it sounds, we really just enjoyed everyone's company. We are soooo lucky to have such great family and friends.

The last of our guests left around midnight. The Huz and I cleaned up for about an hour, and then spent some quiet time snuggling on the couch, rehashing some of the evening's events. We finally headed to bed at 1:30, but I was still so keyed up that I didn't fall asleep until almost 3 a.m.

Some pics:

Yes, I had to take a picture of our powder room with all the candles going. Atmosphere, people!

The second tree that we put up in the living room.

Dave and Steph.
Another quiet moment...most of the fam was opening gifts then.
Uncle, aunt, paternal unit, cousin...
The Huz and our neighbors
Cousin, dad, uncle, aunt
Christina, Colleen, PJ, Steph, Andrea
Shawn, The Huz, Joe
PJ holding up the tree, Colleen looking on...

Steph doing her Rihanna imitation!

Cousins

Dad, uncle, cousin
Cousin, aunts and uncle
Cousins!
More cousins, uncle, Mom
Jan and Mark
Deb and Chuck, our next-door neighbors

Labels: family, food, friends, holidays, pictures, sheer insanity

Our party is tomorrow.

We invited sixty one people; fifty five are coming. This is the biggest group I've ever entertained in one shot. I'm a little nervous, but I figure people will eat and drink whatever I've provided, so I can't get too worried about it. However, that didn't prevent me from having an awful nightmare last night that the party was about to start and I'd somehow forgotten about it, and all these people were coming into my house and I had no food for them! Ugh. I woke up this morning in a total panic.

I took the day off from work and cooked and baked basically all day. I roasted twelve pounds of red bliss potatoes and made four pounds of baked ziti. I baked four dozen snickerdoodles, five dozen chocolate chip cookies, a large pan of brownies, and four dozen cupcakes.

The Huz really pitched in and helped today, thankfully. He cleaned almost the entire house, even down to the baseboards.

Other stuff on the menu:

Chips, pretzels and dip
Vegetable crudite
Bocconcini, black olives, mini sweet gherkins
Hummus and pita chips
Pigs in a blanket
Shrimp cocktail
Deviled eggs
Hot roast beef
Green beans amandine
And the ever-popular Chick-Fil-A nuggets
Coffee, beer, wine, soda, and several different kinds of liquor
Pumpkin roll

I am exhausted and going to bed now. I'll be taking plenty of pics tomorrow with the new Nikon.

Labels: family, food, friends, holidays