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December 29, 2008

G-G-Gastroenteritis

As a late Christmas present this year, I got gastroenteritis, also known as the stomach flu. Feeling very much in the giving spirit, I decided to share it with my family as well! Aren't they so lucky to have me?

Anyway, I haven't left my bedroom since Friday night and so far, things aren't looking so great for tomorrow either. This is actually the sickest I've ever been in my entire life. As of a couple nights ago, when I was delirious with a high fever and napping head first in the toilet bowl, I thought to myself - So... this is how I'm going to die. - and meant it!

I'm feeling a little bit better now but still can't eat much of anything. I think my body is playing evil tricks on me, though, because all I can think about is spicy food! I would do anything to order Chinese take-out, buffalo chicken, anything with a little flavor! Am I crazy?

Anyway, before you move on to some other blog that isn't talking about the stomach flu, check out this great Anderson Cooper video, brought to you by the letter "G":

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 02:07 AM | Comments (4)

December 25, 2008

Christmas Pictures

First of all, Merry Christmas to everyone! I've had a fantastic one and I hope Santa was good to all of you too.

Since I'm way behind and a lot of my pictures are Christmas related, I thought it would be a good idea to do one entry with all my recent pictures from the few weeks.

First, here's a picture I took with my iPhone of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, pre-lighting:

I took that picture while I was in NYC with my friends going to see "White Christmas" on Broadway, a gift to all of us from Kristina:

Times Square:

Another picture of the tree:

Angels and Saks:

Ok, so this is going to sound a little ridiculous, but it actually did happen. As we were standing by Saks, the snowflake lights started blinking along to the song "Carol of the Bells" which was blasting on some speakers, and then the man at the hot dog stand started banging his metal hot dog plate to the music, and then one of the biker rickshaw drivers pulled up to the corner started ringing his bicycle bell to the music and I thought for a brief moment that I was going insane.

All right, moving on to what would have been the next entry....

Here's the family loving cup that was given to my great grandfather by his employees many, many years ago (and is now filled with fruit and nuts as a decoration in the dining room):

And the squirrel that fell down the chimney and lived in our fireplace for three days before chasing my dog and me into my parents' bedroom, getting stuck in the shower, and then being re-released to the outside world:

Into the city again (I love NYC at Christmastime) to see the Christmas tree lighting with Nicole, Sarah, and Hayley.... Grand Central Station:

Daytime:

Nighttime:

Times Square had a big red staircase in the middle for some reason:

As we walked to the tree, we were all in need of a snack so we stopped at world famous Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes, yum!

A word of advice - never get just one:

And then... then it was time to wait. And wait... and wait....

Nicole, Sarah, Hayley, and Me - pretty good for a self-taken four person shot!

Once the performers came out, we discovered that we couldn't see them from where we were... so I took pictures of the giant TV screen outside. Could we have stayed home and seen the same thing? Yes. Would I have wanted to? Absolutely not.

The Rockettes:

This is the stage where all the performers were... but we couldn't see anyone:

This is definitely the way to do it... stay late at the office and watch from the window:

Faith Hill:

Kristin Chenoweth:

I forgot who this is....

The Jonas Brothers were a big hit among the million teeny boppers who actually know who they are:

I hear this is the cute one:

Some guy... also forgot who he is:

This lady standing behind us was all alone and a little crazy....

Al Roker and the lady from "30 Rock" (sorry I'm so bad at this):

Britney Spears tricked us into thinking she was there when she actually was not!

Jamie Foxx:

Stephen Colbert:

Apparently this is Hannah Montana:

Miss Piggy and Kermit!

Harry Connick Jr.:

Jimmy Fallon:

Another Jonas:

Beyonce:

And finally, the moment we had all been waiting for... the tree lighting! The tree was even more spectacular than I had imagined, and no photo or video could possibly do it justice:

Actually, we almost missed the Christmas tree lighting because some ugly tall woman with her ugly daughter cut in front of everyone and stood right in front of us. Many people (including myself) asked her politely to move, and when she didn't, the man standing next to us almost fought her (I wish he had). Here's her daughter's stupid Mickey Mouse ears haircut as they shoved their way closer and closer:

After seeing the tree, we headed to a Belgian café called BXL, where we had wine and french fries for dinner (is there any better combination?):

After dinner, we headed back to Grand Central, passing the brain depository on the way:

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 06:49 PM | Comments (7)

December 20, 2008

Is it Thanksgiving Already?

Yes, I'm behind, as always. I decided I should probably try to get my Thanksgiving entry done before Christmas, though! Sorry for the major back-up of entries lately, but I've been simultaneously searching for a job and an apartment, so I've had a lot to think about.

Anyway, we had a fantastic Thanksgiving this year with everyone home for the holidays. Jocelyn brought her fiance Dalton for us all to meet (and we love him!) and Geoff and Kari brought their two adorable kids Brady and Madison.

Here's my mom with Madison who already knows to look at the camera for my paparazzi shots:

Geoff and Brady playing Mario Kart on Wii:

Jocelyn and Dalton (also playing Wii):

Jocelyn opening birthday presents:

Lingerie from Mom:

After celebrating Jocelyn's birthday at our house for a while, we went over to Grandma and Poppy's for Thanksgiving dinner. Here's their beautiful table:

The turkey (just ignore John and Cindy in the background):

Ham:

Jocelyn's birthday cheesecake:

Kari, Madison, and Me:

Geoff, Grandma, and Poppy:

Brady is such a ladies' man:

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll have pictures of the Rockafeller Center Christmas tree lighting coming up next! Yes, that means I saw Hannah Montana in concert....

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 11:08 AM | Comments (5)

December 17, 2008

Elf Yourself

Cathy just sent me THIS, it's a really hilarious video of a bunch of our friends dancing as elves. Definitely worth watching.

Posted by lauren at 04:57 PM | Comments (1)

December 14, 2008

First Signs of Winter

I know it's not officially winter yet, but it really should be. A little while ago, I went to the beach with some friends to take a walk. As much as I love lying out on the beach in the summer, I actually prefer it in the winter when all the leaves are off the trees and the beaches are empty... except for the seagulls:

New York City across the water:

Zoomed in:

One more from a different spot on the walking path:

I love our beach:

Reflection in Nicole's sunglasses:

Bright blue berries:

Another path along the water:

My two favorite pictures of the day:

Beach grass:

Another beach find:

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 03:29 PM | Comments (4)

December 11, 2008

Batter Blaster, etc.

Ok, so I'm finally not sick and my New Year's Resolution this year is going to be to never get sick again. If you're wondering how I occupied my time, it was with two seasons of Nip/Tuck on DVD and Lost season 4. TV on DVD is one of the greatest things in the world.

Anyway, at this point... why bother categorizing blog entries into relevant posts? Instead, I'm just going to post a lot of my remaining pictures until I'm up to date.

A while ago, my friends and I went out to South Norwalk (SoNo to the locals) to mix things up a bit. We went to a bar where we saw a band play that had a lead singer wearing Amish clothes:

Erin bought enormous shots for herself, Cathy, and me (when a shot fills more than half of a regular sized glass, are you still supposed to drink it in one gulp?):

At some point after that night, I took this picture of my adorable kitty, Frisky:

And last but not least, the batter blaster. If Bisquick takes too much effort for you, now you can buy pancake batter in a whipped cream can:

It actually came out ok:

That's all, lots more to come!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 08:44 PM | Comments (1)

December 07, 2008

New York City

If you've been wondering where I've been, once again I'm sick. It might seem impossible that a person could get the flu twice, followed by a bad cold all over the course of a month and a half. Anyway, I've spent the weekend sitting in front of the TV watching Nip / Tuck on DVD. I don't know why it has taken me this long to finally admit this, but Nip / Tuck is a pretty weird show.

Anyway, I'm still feeling pretty awful, but I'm going to try to get a couple blog entries done.

A little while ago, I went into NYC with Hayley and Nicole to go see the Rachel Ray show. Nicole had gotten us all tickets and we had a great time. Katie Lee Joel was the special guest that day, which was a little weird considering that she's only five years older than I am and married to Billy Joel, who is about my dad's age.

After the show, we wandered around the city a little to make our train tickets worth the money. This upside-down tree chandelier thing is from inside the Grand Central Marketplace:

We didn't have anywhere specific in mind for where to go, so we walked around until we found a restaurant we liked. Here's Park Ave. at night:

Welcome to goodburger, home of the goodburger, can I take your order?

We ended up finding our way to a Thai food restaurant called Yum Yum where we got drinks and dinner:

More to come soon!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 02:35 PM | Comments (3)

December 04, 2008

Cookies

Every now and then I get the crazy idea in my head that I know how to cook. Worse yet, that I know how to be a professional pastry chef (if you need proof, check out my miniature brownie wedding cakes I made one night at 4am - while watching a wedding cake special on TV, of course).

Well, the urge to prove my pastry prowess got the better of me once more this fall when I decided to bake cookies for Brent in the shape of each of our pets - Winston, George, and Shadow.

Here's what I came up with:

Not too bad, right? I mean, they could have been worse.... Of course I had to hand-deliver them to Brent, who mercilessly ate all of them.

Here's Shadow (the inspiration for the black cat cookie) after annexing Brent's dog Beamer's bed as part of her territory, which now includes the whole of the state of Connecticut:

On the way home the next day, we saw a deer in Brent's front yard that was surprisingly not the least bit afraid of people:

Sorry for the somewhat pointless entry. I have so much to catch up on....

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 06:52 PM | Comments (0)

December 03, 2008

Last Stop - Smitten Kitchen

The last stop on our road trip was in New York City to visit Deb from Smitten Kitchen where we were actually in the Smitten Kitchen for an interview. Deb's interview is definitely going to stand out because she cooked for us while we interviewed her! She made us the most delicious walnut tartlets and answered all our super interesting questions. Again, I'm not going to spoil the show, but click on the picture below to check out Deb's awesome website:

Wow, am I really done blogging about the trip for PBS? Oh no wait... we're still in Metropolis, Illinois according to our WNW site.

Anyway, tomorrow we're shooting a scene about life after the road, so I'll be off thinking insightful thoughts.

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 12:51 AM | Comments (3)

December 01, 2008

National Geographic

Finally, I'm up to the last day of our 8-day whirlwind of a trip (of course I'm a month late posting this - sorry PBS!). For our interview that day, Sarah, Nicole, and I headed to Washington DC to interview Chris Johns, Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic. How did we get this interview? We just asked (and got very, very lucky).

When we first arrived at National Geographic, we were all completely blown away. Every wall was covered in enormous, beautiful photographs from around the world. As an aspiring photographer myself, I was in heaven. We first met with Beth, the director of communications, and she gave us a tour of the National Geographic Society buildings (it's not just a magazine, it's a society). It hardly even felt like an office building where people have jobs, it was much more like a museum or an art gallery. We filmed a lot of what we saw inside, so for all of you photo-junkies out there, make sure you watch our show this winter.

Finally, after completing our tour, Beth took us up to the Executive Floor where Chris Johns' office is. When we walked in, none of us could believe that we were standing in someone's personal office. It's on the corner with two big walls of windows overlooking Washington DC and two more walls covered in art and artifacts from Chris' many travels (I'm not sure if we're officially on a first-name basis or not, but I'm going for it anyway). We all sat down on the couches and got some "off the record" information about upcoming magazine articles. I'm not allowed to reveal any specifics, but Chris has a map on his wall that opens up as two secret doors, revealing every single story for every single issue of National Geographic all the way up until the end of 2010. Don't you wish you had a wall-sized map of the world that was actually a set of secret doors? Maybe I should put that in my resume as a requirement for all future positions I might interview for - Must have secret doors and/or compartments in office.

After chatting in his office for a while, Chris took us down to the layout room where every page of the upcoming issue of National Geographic is tacked up on the wall because he thought this would make a good background for our interview. Chris had a really interesting story to tell about how he came to be where he is today. He started out as a field photographer for National Geographic and worked his way up to Editor-in-Chief. I don't want to spoil the interview, which hasn't aired yet, so I won't say any more, but I'm definitely excited for everyone to see it once the show is ready.

After our interview, we got another mini-tour to meet some other employees from the magazine. As we walked around the office, I snapped a couple photos, none of which are any good... but I'll post them anyway:

On this tour, we got to meet one of the people in charge of making all the maps you see in the magazine, and another person who draws all the diagrams and illustrations. It really made me stop and think about how much work goes into every single issue. Maybe that's why nobody throws National Geographic away!

Finally, before I go, I wanted to post my two Washington DC pictures. Yes, I want to be a photographer and I managed to take only two blurry, dark photos in one of the most architecturally interesting cities in the United States:

I think we were all a little tired, because we were really entertained by the G-Unit street sign:

Anyway, we actually had one more interview in NYC with Deb from Smitten Kitchen and I'll be posting about that soon!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 02:11 PM | Comments (1)