Thanksgiving Weekend

The Benj-man doesn't eat turkey yet so his first Thanksgiving involved a lot of turkey bibs, cute outfits, and attention from his grandparents, aunts, and various others. It also included his first Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) ride into NYC to see his (and Dan's) first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We didn't see a lot of the parade, but SpongeBob SquarePants was a big hit ;)

Thanksgiving 2009

ROAD TRIP!!

So Saturday marked the start of Benji's first road trip -- with visits to all his many grandparents planned along the way. He's been excited for his vacation for quite some time now, because, as he's told us repeatedly, it's very tiring being such a cute little boy. The trip began with Benji's first traffic jam on the Jersey Turnpike. It was bound to happen sooner or later. But 9 hours after leaving DC, we made it to Jamesport, NY -- on the western side of Long Island's North Fork. Benji was a superstar for the whole ride up.

But on Monday, Benji got to go to the beach for the very first time -- he had a whole lot of fun. See pictures below. More to follow as we continue our trip over the next few weeks.

Benji's First Beach Day

Oliver & Alanna Got Hitched!

So we spent last weekend in not-so-sunny or warm northern California. The wedding was in Santa Cruz on Sunday. We then spent Monday day/night in San Francisco, having fabulous dim sum for dinner and finally seeing the movie, Frost/Nixon - the combination of the two made for a great date night. We highly recommend the movie and the dim sum.

But I digress... we were there for Oliver and Alanna's wedding, which was a lot of fun. Most importantly, they had a blast. They also made it into the NYT's wedding announcements. See some pics below.

(2009) Oliver & Alanna's wedding weekend

Back to life, back to reality this weekend where we have made real progress on getting the babe's room in order. We have sold our futon and are zeroing in on paint colors and the like. Stay tuned for an update soon.

Early Voting - Vegas Style

How cool is this? If only we could all vote early.



I borrowed this picture from the NY Times. It was taken by Isaac Brekken (for The New York Times).

If you can't see the picture well enough, it's a bank of slot machines, voting machines, and routine groceries in a store in Henderson.


See the accompanying article.

The Julianos Take D.C.

Last week, the Julianos made the trek to D.C. to drop Chrissie's sister, Marissa, off at GW! Wednesday night we had a bbq with Jim, Rhonda, Ali, and special guest Ezra Zibel (who we were watching while his parents shopped at Ikea). Thursday night, we took in a Washington Nationals game! See pics below.


Ali, with Chrissie and Ezra



Ezra just waking up from a nap on Uncle Dan




Once Ezra was awake, we let him watch Bill Clinton's speech with her (tv isn't all bad, is it?), he wasn't nearly as bored as he looks in this pic.


Thursday night at the game


(Rhonda, if you haven't figured it out yet, took all the pictures)

Beach Weekend Part II

This past weekend (and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday), we were in New York for Carol's (Chrissie's mom) 60th birthday. We had fabulous weather for all but one day out in Southold, which as you can see from the map is on the north fork of Long Island (the tab on the map is where we stayed).


D

To celebrate the big 60, we had an excellent meal at the North Fork Table and Inn. The food was out of this world, as was the dessert. Below are the pictures we took before and at dinner.







We also toured some Long Island wineries (which are not as bad as you may think) and did a nice little kayak in the marshes of Orient Beach State Park. Sorry to report we did not take any pictures in the kayak (we were in a double so it would have been hard).

That's all we got for now. Dan is off to lovely Fayetteville, NC for work next week, but I doubt he'll take any pictures!

Granite? Who Needs Granite!

Many months ago, while just in the planning stages for the kitchen, we picked out the world's most expensive granite (we didn't know it at the time). As we were trying to reduce the price tag on the kitchen, we opted to go with silestone, a quartz composite that is more environmentally friendly and allegedly better than granite (even though it does not have the chi-chi value that granite does). It was also the original counter material we wanted (before falling in love with the previously mentioned granite).

NOW, we look wise beyond our years! Yesterday's New York Times article about radon seems to have started a firestorm of granite warnings (maybe it wasn't the NYT article that started, but that's what started it for me!). If you haven't heard about the granite-cancer connection, check out the Times story and this Washington Post blog.

While I am totally using this to make us look smart, this will probably get filed in the same category as "saccharin and Nutrasweet might give you cancer," but we all drink it anyway. In the meantime, however, lots of soccer moms are going to be very stressed!