Christmas 2010

It's not Christmas until you've made the trek to the most famous of all Christmas Trees - the tree at Rockefeller Center. This massive Norway Spruce looms over the plaza and makes a terrific backdrop for photo opps!
The Rockette's Christmas Spectacular is a wonderful Christmas treat! This is a photo of the tin soldier section of the show - stinking cool!
Here we are in the lobby of Radio City Music Hall.
I was daring and got Corinne a pair of shoes for Christmas. The choice was based on a careful analysis of her current shoe selection and projected needs!
Corinne surprised me with an amazing LL Bean leather and canvas work bag to replace my beat up old black bag. The bag is well-designed and it was clear that Corinne did some seriously researching to choose this bag! Thanks babe!


Merry Christmas 2010!

Life's a changin' !

Ok, ok, so it's been 9 months since our last post...but we've got excuses!!! We moved out of our old apartment, and into another apartment in Norwalk in June. That apartment was a royal waste of time, and after 2 nights there (and the neighbor telling us that the raccoon in the attic was really scary, that the Italian man in the basement was 'real' nice even though he drank a lot, and that the landlord had promised to fix their water heater 4 weeks prior) we realized that it was not going to be anything remotely close to comfortable. So, still packed up, we high-tailed it out of there and Corinne found a cool two bed apartment in downtown Darien. Our new apartment is awesome! But, honestly from May through August, we were in some stage of packing or unpacking. The great news is that in May we found out we're expecting our first, and in June we learned it's a baby girl! Due date is in January, so below are photos of our latest adventures!

We painted the room (well, truthfully, I hired someone to paint the room) a very light gray. We paired that with a soft pink color, and found the above Glider on craigslist. Man, these things new are almost $800. So, $200 was a steal!
We found this crazy lamp/table at the goodwill and revitalized it with a new shade, a new color (pink) and a little elbow grease. And Corinne picked up the decal on sale! Way to go!
Here's Momma-to-be. Looking chic next to our beautiful new crib! Both Corinne's parents and my parents have contributed to our nursery. Thanks to both!

So, the next post will probably be of our little one. Cheers!

Seussical and the Greenwich Beach

This is Corinne and Cassidy after the show.
Yesterday the party continued! We went to My Favorite Place (that is really the name) in Cos Cob for lunch and had the best lunch. I always get this sandwich that is sourdough bread, tomatoes, melted cheese, and bacon. Mmmmmm....

After lunch we went to Tod's Point beach in Greenwich. It was over 70 degrees...in March!!!!! We have to squeeze in our visits to Greenwich beaches because come Memorial Day they only let in residents of Greenwich, and we're stuck at our beach in Stamford (which isn't so bad). During January and February every transplant in Connecticut starts thinking "Why in the world did I move to this awful place?" and we all start scheming plans in our heads to move to Arizona or California or Florida... and then the sun comes out, and you realize just how beautiful it is here. And so you start forgetting the horrible winter...

Although I think this warm spell is just a tease... forecast is for a high of 46 tomorrow....

6 months since the last post, really?!

Life just seems to pick up speed sometimes, and the last 6 months have been a bit crazy! We started looking for our first house shortly after the last post, and then were interrupted by a bad car accident the 2nd week of December. Allan got rear-ended in his Subaru by some dingbat in a CRV -- it totaled the Subie, and gave Allan whiplash! Uggh, what a pain in the neck.

So, after an awesome Christmas with the Curtis' in Boston, and a short visit from Sarah right after New Year's, we spent 6 weeks looking for a new car! We finally found a great used 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe, and we've been really happy with it. Feels kind of nice to drive a nearly-new car.

We're back to the house hunting, and although we've bid (and lost) on two homes, we're still ambitiously looking. Hopefully the right place is just around the corner.

Allan's birthday was Friday, and Corinne made it a very memorable one (this is Allan writing). She brought Angel food cake and brownies to the office for all to share (she doesn't mind how awkward it is to gather up the office folk to stop working for a minute and talk to each other...) and we had a nice time! They loved the food (which was all homemade of course) and the chance to stop and chat.

After work, we went to the Middlesex Middle School musical, Seussical. Corinne has been working with one of her young women from church as a vocal coach. She coached Cassidy for 3 weeks before the audition and helped get her get the role of Getrude McFuzz (I think that's the name). She coached her through all her music and acting to get ready to perform. And let me tell you -- I honestly felt like I saw Seussical on Broadway. It was AMAZING. The band was a professional 5-piece, the kids were superb, and Cassidy rocked the house! Way to go Corinne and Cassidy!

After the show we went to our favorite place for dinner... Remo's. A nice Margherita pie and our favorite country salad. What a birthday! Thanks Corinne!

5 year Anniversary in London and Paris

So, as many of you know, we celebrated our five year anniversary by taking an incredible 10 day trip to London and Paris. This was the trip of a lifetime and we took some 2000+ photos and 10+ hours of footage. Some pretty amazing pictures and even more amazing memories...so needless to say, it's a little overwhelming to try and blog! Today I am conquering the overwhelming feeling of trying to upload picture by picture... but I might only get a few blogged.

This is part 1 of several blogs that we'll post to share a little of our trip! Enjoy!

Flying coach and flying Business Elite Class are two very, very, very different things. In fact, flying in the front cabin with "those" people is more like going to a high-end resort at 30,000 feet. Before we could even think, we were being offered drinks and newspapers; the movies were all FREE; the food was better than Morton's; and our "seats" became beds - completely flat with pillows and a comforter. WOW. Thanks Aunt Kathy for the buddy passses!

A little nap on the plane! They supplied the little eye cover thingies (which we kept as a souvenier of course). Although the beds were great, we only slept for 2 hours; the rest of the time we were being fed!

Arriving in London! We bought tickets to the Red bus tour on our first day there so that we could get an overview of the city without walking our feet off. We are converts to the "hop-on-hop-off" bus tours. They rock.

The weather was near perfect the entire trip. Here we are in front of Tower of London.

A picture of the big London Eye; the aquarium behind. Is it even possible for London to be 72 degrees and clear in August?!?!

More to come!!

Smashmouth in Stamford

Stamford has great outdoor concerts in the summer. Corinne and I found a place perched on top of a nearby parking garage to get a bird's eye view, out of the way of the crowds.
Happy looking down on everyone!
That's what we didn't want to be walking around in!
Using the super zoom on our camera, we located the trailer where Smashmouth was chilling...and then took this picture of the lead singer!
Here they are on stage performing. We could here them really well, but could only really see through our camera's zoom.  But it only took us 5 minutes to get home!

CAMELOT!

After just two and a half weeks of rehearsal at the conservatory, the cast and crew moved to Waveny Park to do final rehearsals and tech work on the outdoor stage under the giant white tent. The adult performers have this lovely trailer for getting ready and changing (and hanging out in the A/C when it is hot out!). 
Here is Corinne in front of her spot in the trailer (her name is spelled wrong of course). The smile means that tech week (commonly referred to as "hell week" by performers) hasn't yet begun.
Here I am rehearsing "Fie on Goodness" on the stage. So, tech week for us meant nearly 40 hours of rehearsing, and 3 full shows for real audiences!!!
In our medieval garb (the jazz sneakers are a special touch).
This is our Merlin. He's very talented and looks the part, don't you think?

We opened the show on Saturday night to a crowded audience. The show went very well and we had a blast. The weather was spectacular -- 75 degrees with a slight breeze.  The show is a tad long (2 hours 40 minutes !!) but overall it's pretty entertaining. Corinne and I went to Remos in Stamford after to celebrate. We had our favorite pizza and chocolate mousse cake. Yum!