Happy Fourth!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Fourth of July. It's been raining here in New York City so we pretty much just stayed in our neighborhood besides a jaunt out shopping on Saturday. Good news...I splurged and bought a new camera!

I've noticed that with graduate school, getting married, moving a bunch, and all those fun things have tended to distract me from some of my past hobbies. Photography is one such hobby. My old SLR is not digital and I have a point and shoot. So I decided to upgrade and here's my new toy:

I'm excited to get back into my passion of taking pictures and capturing moments.

What are your hobbies?

First Anniversary Weekend

Since my husband and I are still saving up to go on our belated honeymoon this fall, we decided to do something fun but very relaxing for our first anniversary. The actual day fell on a Thursday and we had tickets to a Toadies concert at the Bowery Ballroom which was an insanely good show.

Friday we took off for a two day stay at this cute little place we rented near the Catskills in New York. The lady was super nice and the place was so cozy and relaxing.

When we walked in there was a dozen roses from my husband waiting (he never never buys flowers) which just made my day:

Isn't the place beautiful and cozy! Tons of greenery, original artwork everywhere, and at night there were fireflies blinking in the windows...sigh:
The best thing is we got to bring the puppies (here's "little" Charles):
AND there was a grill which made my husband happy...here's the beer bellied chicken he cooked up:
We watched movies, played card and board games, took lots of naps, and did just about nothing which was exactly what we wanted to do. Finally on Sunday after we packed up and left we headed out to Minnewaska State Park Preserve and did a couple small hikes. It was gorgeous, we all got some exercise, and we beat the rain....and I got some good photos.

Here's a view of our hike around Lake Awosting:



Anna was dying to jump into the lake:
And the flowers were gorgeous!!
Here's a great view during the hike:
In between hikes we crashed at the truck and let the puppies rest. I had fun taking photos of Charles sprawled underneath the truck...he's a bit lazy...:
And my husband swore he saw a two foot beaver here...I believe him :)
Our next hike was super short to a water fall. Here's the views from up top where it was sort of scary climbing around on the rocks:
Here's a tree...just because...
And the gorgeous view of the falls from the bottom:

Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Book Update - The Birth of Venus

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant is one of those "bestselling" books I've been seeing around for the last few years and kept meaning to read it. Finally I found a copy of it at the Mid-Manhattan Book Sale for less than a dollar. It also fits nicely into my historical fiction reading challenge.

The story takes place in 15th century Florence when Italy's decadent ways are starting to become a little too flamboyant for the church. Alessandra Cecchi is the 14-year old daughter of a wealthy cloth merchant who is starting to make that transition from childhood to adulthood. To make things more difficult, she also has a passion for drawing and painting during a time when women weren't particularly allowed to become artists. Into the Cecchi household comes a young painter from the North who's hired to do the frescoes for the household's chapel. Of course Alessandra is fascinated by the new painter. Alessandra is soon faced with the role of womanhood which in that day and age is either marriage or the convent.

I thought this was a good read but it wasn't anything amazing. Maybe because 15th century Italy has been done in so many different ways in many different stories. I do like the interspersion of the Medici family and the fanatical monk Savonarola who tries to clean up the city a little too fervently. I did like Alessandra and loved her spunk. Sometimes some of the characters and their language were, I thought, unnecessarily crude. However, the beginning of the book drew you into the story and while the ending wasn't an impossible happily-ever-after...it did leave you somewhat satisfied.

By the way...I love that Alessandra was an artist because I love love art history. So just for fun, here's the painting The Birth of Venus by Botticelli:





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First Anniversary!!!

One year ago today my husband and I were married. We were living in Las Vegas at the time and had gathered some of our closest family and friends and had a small wedding ceremony. Seriously small...only fifteen people...I really don't like being center stage :) And no we didn't get married by Elvis. The Artisan Hotel has a beautiful little chapel which made for a gorgeous wedding. And I love art and the whole hotel is decked out in art.

The ceremony was simple, small, beautiful, and perfect. Here's just a couple photos:
One of our first dates was over pints of Guinness so my brother got us two and, of course, we had to ham it up for the photo:
And here is us the night before getting a celebratory Guinness after getting our marriage license. We didn't mean to wait until the last minute :)

We've had a pretty crazy life together up until now. I think things are just starting to calm down a bit. We met in late 2003 and have been dating since 2004. Since then we've lived in Colorado, Alaska, Nevada, and New York. I wouldn't want to make the trip through life with anyone else. Here's to the next 49 (at least!) years together :)

BBQin' in the City

Back at the beginning of this month my husband and I went to the annual Big Apple BBQ. We had a great time, even though the temperature was into triple digits. The BBQ was held in Madison Square Park which kind of made it a bit odd chowing down on barbecued ribs, listening to country bands, and sipping on a beer in the middle of the city. Needless to say we had a great time.

Here's a Madison Square Park fountain...I just like fountains:
And a picture of the beautiful green park:
One of the many talented bands that played:
I loved seeing people wear little pig ears:
The oddity of a BBQ in the city:
They even had a band playing under these arches with a temporary packed bar of people drinking and dancing:
And here's the man cooking up the ribs. We felt sorry for him because it must have been unbearably hot for him next to the grill:
Mmmmm.....
More mmmmm...
And finally the happy (full-bellied) couple:
We'll see you there next year!

P.S. The best BBQ was from Texas and Mississippi. I won't tell you what we thought of the stuff from Connecticut :P

Check it out!

One of the cool book blogs I've been reading is The Book Club Girl. It's a great site for picking books to read, finding out about new books, book club tips, and even has some author interviews. It also has contests and I won one! The Book Club Girl is graciously sending me a copy of The Last Summer (Of You and Me) by Ann Brashares. She's the author of the The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants but this is her first adult novel. The prize also comes with a beach towel making this the perfect summer beach read. I'll let you know how I like it and maybe even find a New York beach to read it at...sigh :)

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Here's where I'll post my list while completing the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

1) The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins (Finished June 10, 2008)

2) The Madonnas of Leningrad - Debra Dean (Finished June 20, 2008)

3) The Colour - Rose Tremain (Finished June 21, 2008)

4) The Birth of Venus - Sarah Dunant (Finished June 29, 2008)

5) The Blood of Flowers - Anita Amirrezvani (Finished July 11, 2008)

6) Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks (Finished July 09, 2008)