Friday, June 08, 2007

What do a baby, a Slinky, and a typewriter have in common?

Believe it or not, these are all things that captured the interest and attention of my sister's three kids for almost an entire week. Now, that's not to say that they didn't get bored from time-to-time while visiting my parents - but the truth is that they really were fascinated by all three... but mostly their new cousin! I have to say that it was so refreshing - I mean, honestly, that a Slinky can still entertain kids with all of the other things out there for them to play with, that's pretty cool. It was so sweet to see them do all kinds of wacky things to try and make their new cousin Pierce smile and laugh. And it wasn't just a passing thing... they kept at it for hours, trying to get a reaction out of that baby. Luckily Pierce delivered in adorable baby fashion and encouraged Ty, Jake and Alli to keep going night after night! And the typewriter? My nephew Ty discovered that over Christmas... and searched it out again this trip so that they could write stories and just play with the keys. It's amazing how entertaining my Mother's typewriter from college can be - who knew?!






The kids happily watch the Slinky make its way down the stairs...

Friday, June 01, 2007

Logging time on the East Coast

I don't think I've ever blogged about work stuff (typically it's even more boring than my personal life, if you can even imagine) but today I'm finishing up a week in NYC and somehow just couldn't resist. A lot of people have no idea what I actually do for a living so I thought I'd give just a tiny peek into that world.


First, I thought I'd share the coolest part of my trip - arriving a few days early and getting to meet my new cousin Alex. She's the cutest little thing - with long and thin fingers and toes (she definitely has big feet which apparently run on all sides of the family tree!). And her parents seem so normal about the whole thing, it was almost encouraging (oh, except for the dreadful and incredibly painful sounding details about the pre-birth, birth, post-birth, and breastfeeding). For all the gory - I mean beautiful - details of the birth checkout my cousin Michael's blog. Here are a few pictures of my own...












So why am I writing about work... well, I'm still not entirely sure but I do know that I work with some pretty amazing people and that we just finished up a really exciting week. We took over the Ritz-Carlton in Battery Park and hosted a bunch of press and analysts for the week sharing news and information about the company. The team I work on did lots of amazing things from developing "the story" we shared at the show to logistically pulling off what is an incredibly intense week of keynotes, breakout sessions, 1:1 meetings, and evening activities (which somehow always migrated up to the 14th floor bar, where you could overhear on a regular basis... "(insert favorite curse word) - wait, it's 1 a.m.? I have to be downstairs at 7 a.m.!"). During one of the offsite events, I even learned how to cook some yummy Italian food (well, I may have possibly done more wine-tasting than cooking, but I did pick up a knife a few times - a dangerous combination now that I think about it!). I didn't have a lot of time to take pictures, but here are a few that turned out good enough to post (still figuring out that new lens that Holly gave me for xmas!). These are from the "war room" which sadly no longer resembled anything that might have been a plush Ritz Carlton anything by the time we left it today! And yes, since that room is gone, I am in my very comfy Ritz bed right now making this post. Yay for wireless!


This is my friend Sherri (aka Bossy) telling Jennifer what to do while Leah talks on the phone managing crisis number 1,112 of the day.










This is my friend Jennifer telling Sherri that in fact, no, she doesn't agree with her assesment of the situation. Just kidding girls, you know I love you! (Jennifer - stop rolling your eyes at me - and wait, was that a sigh i just heard all the way from West Chester?!)






This is a cute but almost scary pic of Katie (with Rob keeping his distance, smart guy)... I think she's up to no good but who knows. She's probably just bitter she had to work 20 hour days, slacker ;-)