January 31

This is my friend Gillian~  we did a ski day at Bristol Mountain, just us girls. She's a cruiser, like me, so it was a very nice day. Especially since we stopped in the bar for a litle rum and cocoa! Yumm!

January 30

Any excuse to have cake at the office is a good one, and I'm only too happy to oblidge... 

yay birthdays!

January 29

Owning a hot tub is probably one of the best things EVER. Chris is totally addicted, and often wants to get in when he gets off work. Keep in mind that it's 20-ish degrees out...I usually wear a ski cap on my head in the tub. Dorky, but true. I have to admit that its fun when it snows- the steam melts it before it hits your head. :)

January 28

We just got dumped on with snow, so the back yard is a winter wonderland for Stump- he loves to go jump around in it. He's managed to cut trails for himself to go pee in the back yard... it's like watching a mouse in a maze.

January 27

Our quarterly Leadership Meeting was today- I snapped this picture just as it was beginning. There were about 650 attendees, comprised mostly of store managers and corporate people- we also found out that we were #5 on Fortune 500's best companies to work for. Yay us!

January 25

We were supposed to be back home by 9:45pm- but didn't take into account a snow storm hitting Cincinati. We didn't get home until 11:30pm. Uck.

January 24

Day 2 of my birthday exravaganza! Any day is a good day when you can spend it  wearing a tiara... after all- it's all about me :) 

Not bad for 40, right?

January 23

The day I was born... 40 years ago. My husband and sister planned a spectacular weekend for me in Charleston, which is where I call home. Some people want glitz and glam on their birthday, but for me, just being surrounded by all of the people I love most in the world is my idea of a perfect day.

This is my dad. He is the best dad on the planet. Period. He's always been my rock, and has always accepted me for who I am, and for that I am eternally grateful. If you look up "daddy's girl" in the dictionary, you will see a picture of me and my sister.

This picture was taken on the back porch of a ROCKIN house we stayed in for the weekend- 11 bedrooms, right on the beach, and all of my peeps. LOVE IT!!!

January 22

The only thing I was told about my birthday was what to wear, and where I was going. Everything else was an unknown to me. Sooooo- I had no idea what to pack. This is 10pm the night before we fly out (on a 7am flight, no less). The black blob by the lamp is Jack, who was deeply pissed off that my packing was infringing on his personal nap space.

January 21

I'm an event planner. I work for Wegmans, which is a grocery store chain, but oh-so-much-more. Think of the best grocery store you've ever been in, and put it on steroids. My department, "Event Services", is responsible for planning and executing meetings, trade shows and charity events within the corporate arena of the company. Today is Cheese Show day- one of my favorite departments and shows of the year. It's a day of nothing but tasting product. The best part of this show is that I get to taste all of the cheeses too. This is a vendor cutting samples for one of the tastings for the day.

January 20

As I've said before, I am a big fan of graffiti. I think it's a great art form, because it doesn't cater to anyone, it's free form, and its just plain cool. I've been eyeing this particular piece on Monroe Ave- it interests me, though I can't really put my finger on it. I don't know what the artist had in mind, but it speaks to me.

January 19

The things we do to look cute! I can honestly say I haven't seen my real hair color since 1987- at first dying my hair was just a way to get a rise out of my parents (after all, it was the 80's, right?) then it became necessity once I got my first grey hair. I don't plan on seeing my real hair again until I'm 80 or so.

So here I am, at the salon, head wrapped in saran wrap. Enjoy.

This leads me to a story- a few years ago, I was sitting in the chair, wrapped in tin foil (depending on the salon, they use either for coloring), when I realized the bank was about to close, and I desperately needed to get a deposit in. I had 30 minutes before I could be rinsed out, and the bank was just down the street, so I got in my car and drove over there, foil and all. Needless to say, the bank teller laughed her ass off- but at least I got my money in.

January 18

I am officially on the countdown to my birthday- and today was "outfit shopping" day. My husband, darling man that he is, is very supportive of me, but would rather have teeth pulled than go shopping. Sooooo- I enlisted the help of some girlfriends, and Chris went to the bar.

Needless to say, he was a little sleepy when we got home, and crashed on the couch- he seemed so peaceful (or is that passed out?), I just had to take a picture.

January 17

I love comfort food in the winter time- and thanks to my mother-in-law's penchant for crock pot cooking, I have discovered a whole new realm of it. I'm German by descent- actually, dad came over on the big boat, so I'm first generation American- and I lived in Munich for a couple of years, so my go-to food is usually of the German variety.

Today's menu consisted of sausages and kraut- stuck 'em in the crock pot, covered them in beer (of course) and ate them with a pretzel roll and good mustard. YUM!

January 16

This is my favorite picture of Stump. We have a small sitting room in our house (we call it the "chill" room, but really it's Stump's room) and Stump loves to hang out in there and take naps. On this particular day he was sleeping on the floor, and the sun was hitting his face- he looked very peaceful, and I just had to get in his face and snap a picture. I literally have THOUSANDS of pictures of this dog, and luckily for me, he just deals with the camera being in his face at every moment. 

January 15

Living in upstate New York has it's advantages: the finger lakes, wine country, easy access to Canada, and a definite change of seasons. Spring and fall are a wonderful explosion of colors, summers are temperate, but not over-bearing, and winter is... well, it just is. I was coming home from happy hour the other night, and happened to glance down at my temperature gauge in the car. Needless to say...I can definitely appreciate seat warmers and heated steering wheels!

January 14

Icicles are abundant in the winter time. You can see them hanging off of everything, and they are sharp as daggers. When the weather starts to thaw, you have to watch out for these suckers, otherwise you might get stabbed in the head. This one is hanging off the side of our house- pretty, but dangerous.

January 13

The one thing I hate about living up here is driving in the snow and horrible weather. Today was particularly horrible- I decided to take the back streets home because the highways were so bad. The days are also very short here, so driving home around 5:00pm can be somewhat dark. It's days like today that I yearn for a little sun on my face. 

By the way- it was 5 degrees here, and 40 degrees in Alaska. Anyone else see something wrong with this picture?

January 12

Jack has recently discovered the fireplace as a source of warmth on these cold winter nights- unlike Stump, Jack has not quite acclimated to the cold. Instead, he's put on 5 pounds and relegates himself to the house most of the time. Chris put him on our pillow, and Jack was loving it. He was passed out in deep kitty coma until I so rudely snapped the picture- thus the stink-eye. 

January 11

I love Sundays- it's the only day Chris and I have off together. This Sunday we went skiing at Bristol Mountain- a resort that's about 30 minutes from our house. It was a beautiful day- and after we left the slopes, we went to a favorite watering hole (the Brewery) in Honeoye Falls (it's pronounced honey-oy) for a little "apres-ski" cocktail. The falls behind us were awesome, and frozen, making for a cool photo.

One thing you will probaly see a lot of in this pictorial diary of mine are what I like to call "squoosh face" pictures- this is one of them.

January 10

This is Dog Town. Rochester is not what you call a "culinary mecca", but it does have several significant and tasty contributions to world cuisine. Among them is the hot dog. Known affectionately as red hots (beef) or white hots (pork), these bundles of goodness are always a delight. Dog Town is a little place just around the corner from our house, and has about 30 versions of "hots", all named after dogs. My particular favorite is the German Shepard- a white hot with mustard and kraut... dee-lish!

January 9

My cat Jackass hates the cold, and in the winter time spends as little time out doors as possible. However- I think he had a little cabin fever, because when I let Stump out, he bolted out the door like his butt was on fire. He was in the house 10 minutes later though- snuggled up to the fireplace.

January 8

I really like to take lanscape pictures... particularly simple shots, and lines in nature. I was at work, and it was really snowing. This was a drift that was developing up aginst our building. I liked the lines- it reminded me of sand dunes, and for a moment I forgot about the cold.

January 7

Today's photo was taken by a guest photographer- my cousin.

As I've said before, my Dad is German- he and his family came over here in the 1950's, courtesy of the Woodruff family (who owns Coca-Cola). Old Mr. Woodruff had a chicken farm in Columbus, Georgia, and sponsored our family to come over and work for him. My grandad (Opa) managed his chicken farm.

This is a picture of the house they lived in during that time. 

January 6

One of the promises I made to myself for this year was to be in better shape at 40 then I was at 30. Four years of marriage (plus 30 pounds of nesting weight) and this task is proving to be a lot harder than expected. I took this after my first "Biggest Loser Boot Camp" at my gym- my ass was thoroughly kicked that night- and I.was.feeling.it.

January 5

I got a Wii Fit for Christmas, and the Shaun White snowboarding game to go with it... so this is what I came home to from work on Monday night. 

Shread it, dude!

January 4

Sunday is our only day off together- and that usually means we're in a bar somewhere. Our weakness is Belgian beer-  and we're lucky enough to have a few bars in the ROC that have a nice selection of them. On this particular night, we went to the Tap and Mallet to meet some friends for a post-Happy-New-Year cocktail... so cheers! Or as the Belgians would say...Op uw gezondheid!

January 3

I would like to introduce you to my cat- Jackass. We met on Johns Island in 2004. I was sitting in the parking lot of a local seafood restaurant trying to figure out what to do about lunch with my mother (the restaurant was closed that day), when this little black cat jumped in the car and wrapped itself around my mother's head purring and begging to be taken home. I took it to the vet (who said this cat was a perfect specimen and ok to keep) and then home. When we walked in the door, the cat walked right up to Stump (who wanted to play-they are about the same size) and bitch slapped him and walked away, earning the name Jackass.

This cat rules the roost, and tortures me on a daily basis, but I love him anyway.

January 2

Ahhh... home sweet home. We love it here. For Christmas, we covered it in lights and red ribbon (as we do every year).

January 1, 2009

This is my dog Stump. Those that know me know that this creature (other than my husband) is the love of my life. Stump and I met in Atlanta- I picked him up from the ASPCA- so you could say that he's a southern dog. 

HOWEVER. I have never seen a dog as happy in snow and cold as this one. 

We took Stump to the park on New Year's Day to get out of the house. The weather was beautiful. One of those impossibly blue skies, and the sun made the snow sparkle. It was a great day to be in the north. I wanted to snap some pictures of the water towers in Cobbs Hill Park... they have some pretty cool graffiti all over them. We brought Stump, and let him loose while I was shooting.  He didn't stop running for an hour- and this is his happy face.

BTW- when we got back to the truck, Chris had to lift him in. He passed out for hours. :)

January...

I have always liked taking pictures... it seems like I've got thousands of them. My family and friends have always complained that I hoard them and never let anyone see them. I would agree. 

So... when friends at work decided to do this project, I thought it was a grand idea.

The project: to take a picture every day, and publish it somehow... facebook, blog, shutterfly, whatever. So here I am.

I have to say that the timing of this project rings of serendipity- this is also the year I turn 40.

It's not that I'm scared of turning 40... if this were the beginning of the last century, I might feel otherwise, considering the average life expectancy was 47 or so... it's just that I feel that time is moving more quickly than I would like. I mean...how many of you out there can remember being a kid, and maybe seeing your parents turning 40. Didn't you think, as I did, that that was the oldest age ever, and that it would take a MILLION years to get there yourself? And yet here I am... two weeks before my 40th birthday. I can safely say it's really no big deal.

So- back to the project. The pictures and descriptions you will see are random. Just images from my everyday life. I don't want to force the images- posing things here and there- just taking a picture of whatever I see whenever it strikes my fancy. And there might be more than one for the day, depending on whether or not I can make up my mind :) 

My promise to myself, and to you, is that I will be vigilant, and be as honest as I can. I will try to write what I was thinking when I took the photograph, and keep them as organic (meaning without the aid of photoshop) as I can, unless it's absolutely necessary to do otherwise.

So here we go... a 365 degree view of me.