2004 Wrap Up

Well, that's it I think. I think I have now posted our lives (as they began to be recorded in digital format) until 2004. If you read this far, wow, bravo, you really hung in there! Now only two more years to fill in...

New Year's Eve

The last day of 2004 and the weather was so mild that we could wear light fleeces and no gloves. We went out to the playground in Prospect Park because I love to swing on the swings.

Xmas Hats

The big hit of this year: Christmas hats that my sister's boyfriend K brought from Scotland. You get a hat and you get a firecracker like thing that pops open and gives you a little treat. It was a lot of fun! Scroll down for more silly photos of people in their Christmas hats.

Christmas 2004 Extravaganza!

So, here's a picture of what Christmas in my house used to look like. This is a Christmas for 6 grown adults. I say "used to" because my sister and I have begun a long and arduous campaign of driving to get my mom to take a chill pill on the present buying. She goes just a tad overboard (we love you Mom, we do, and you rock, and we love Christmas, don't get me wrong)! When I post the pics from 2005, 2006, 2007, and eventually 2008, we will do a side by side comparison to see if she has actually slacked off any now that we're "older".

Me and J

I couldn't decide which of these I liked best - the serious or the silly grin - so you get to see them both. Scroll down for two photos.

My Fam

Here's me and the Fam doing the posey-fam-photo on Christmas eve.

J and the "Insert Crappy Company Name Here" Band

This was the fall/winter of J and the "XXX" Band. He made a band, AT WORK. Seriously, he acquired all the instruments (including the drum kit) and brought them into work and recruited his friends and taught them to play. He made a violinist into a basist and a Serbian guy into the drummer. They rehearsed in the office late at night and eventually put on a very amusing show at the company Christmas party. Sadly, he hasn't been in a band since. J writes a little about it here.

And, MAN, was I ever a bad photographer...

Julia

A recently discovered "deep cut" photo from Julia's photo shoot. This is so awesome! Kids are the happiest people.

J and Julia

It took J quite a while to come around to the idea of Julia (as in Julia "the baby thing" not Julia as a real person). He swears he only knows how to deal with kids who are old enough to wrestle and play monster and climb on him. But, it was super cute when Julia saw juggling for the first time ever. She was completely mesmerized!

The Family

The Mannings asked me to take a family portrait of them and OH DEAR GOD ISN'T THIS HORRIBLE!!!!! I am embarrassed to say that I even shot this...it's part of my personal growth to put this up on the blog and show it to you guys. I love the Mannings, but I had NO IDEA what the hell I was doing. Posed Family portraits are still not my specialty though.

Julia Baby Pics, Round 2

This was my second attempt at baby pictures. Man, haven't I come a LONG, LONG way???? I hadn't yet learned much about white balance at this point so you'll have to forgive the major crapiness. You should see the other ones, she's totally BLUE.

The Farm

Another trip to the Manning Farm. This would be our second annual Xmas-NewYear-ish trip. The first annual was recorded on FILM (for chissakes) and Julia was a teeny tiny newborn baby.

The Farm

Calf

I wonder what cow #591 looks like now?

Nascar in NY

For those of you who don't know, I am a HUGE Nascar fan! At the end of every season, Nascar brings all the cars to their NY headquarters. They parade through the streets of Manhattan and stop right down the street from my workplace on Park Ave. I snuck out of work to go down and see my favorite car, #48 baby!

Night Squiggles

If I had been doing the photo-a-day thing back in 2004, this would definitely have been one of the photos.

Mush

It can be hard to work with an 18 pound cat on your arm.

The Ikea Couch Incident

Many of you have heard our hilarious NY story about "The Ikea Couch Incident". Here is the before picture...sadly, there is no after picture! I would only have to wait two and a half more years to have a real couch of my very own!

Camels in Rockefeller Center

One day I was walking to work through Rock Center and I saw an unusual site - camels in NY! It's one of those moments you go "Thank god I have a camera in my bag" (before I carried one with me every where all the time). These camels are part of the Rockette's Christmas Show and they have to go out for walks.

T

You are looking less good here... :P I have never seen someone crash so hard before - but, you deserved to after running that wicked fast marathon.

T's Turn at the Marathon

Just a few short weeks later, we were back in New York to watch T run his second NY Marathon. Last year, when I saw him run NY for the first time, I was so inspired and proud and emotional. If it weren't for T, I would never have thought of doing a marathon myself. You rock, T! I know it was a hot, tough, race but you are looking good here!

Fall in Manassas

Fall in Manassas, at my parents' house. This is one of the views of my front yard.

Mr. Loungy

We went to visit the famous stinky sea lions and J and I nicknamed this guy Mr. Loungy. J refers to him in his blog in this post.

T

We were able to slowly tour around San Fran a bit after the race.

M and the team

Me and my support team just after the race. The boys were so helpful and the best spectators anyone could hope for. This is one of my favorite photos ever. Somewhere, there's a gerat photo of me back at the hotel after the race. I am sprawled out on the bed with a gallon of water and a bag of pretzels. The best thing was - the Red Sox were playing the Yankees in that big "upset" ALCS that led them to the World Series so we spent the next night or two chilling and watching baseball games.

Finish

We finished the race together, and it was one of the best moments of my life. I had never felt so happy.

Mile 21

Somewhere around mile 20, I made friends with this woman named Jen who I had never met before. She was looking rough so we started talking. We ran the rest of the entire marathon together and it was SO extremely helpful! I remember as we passed by J and T at this checkpoint, the last before the finish, I yelled out "This is my new best friend Jen!"

Mile 19

This is somewhere around mile 19. I was still smiling and waving, which is pretty good!

Mile 17

Here I am at Mile 17. This was the third time during the course that I could see J and T. I had just come through a very difficult section from 14-15 in the Presidio in San Fran.