Best Birthday Ever!!!

Bear with me, I have a lot to catch up on... I'm coming off my recent birthday extravaganza high - an enormously fun 5 day event. And it was so worth it because my last birthday was pretty craptastic. ;) This is the prime of my life and I'm enjoying it, old age be damned!!!

I wish I had photos of everything but I made a promise to myself... NO CAMERA. =) You know how painful that was. And it pained me to use my Blackberry in desperation, but sometimes the moment called for it.)

It started with the sweetest birthday party at my office, complete with Cold Stone Creamery cake. Midnight Delight, for the record. I am so lucky to have such wonderful co-workers and work in such a great place.


It moved to partying all night at Stash's to Sugar, wearing a hot pink feather birthday tiara looking like a dork, free drinks, free birthday desserts, and time spent with wonderful friends.

Followed by a DELICIOUS lobster lunch on the water at Dock & Dine with my parents... you were delicious, Larry.


Complete with some sinful mint chocolate chip cake from Take the Cake!!!


Then there was the visit from my best friend on her way through from NJ to Boston for some shopping, gabbing, drinking and gorging at Chip's Pub and of course, the requisite Carvel Cake.


Then there was dinner and drinks with a bunch of Vegas scofflaws at First & Last Tavern...

(Photo courtesy of Robert Norman and a waitress who bravely shot this group of crazies.)

And you can never escape being tagged on Facebook when out to dinner with photographers and their iPhones...

(Photo courtesy of Cronin Photography)

Who managed to surprise me with the YUMMIEST birthday dessert... and they sing WELL for a bunch of shutterbugs. =)

(Photo courtesy of Robin Dini)

And it was all capped off with the weekly tradition of good food, good beer, and good laughs with friends, and my favorite Shiny Lapel Trio at the Gris.

And because this event needs a photo to accompany it, I'm going to swipe one of my dear friend Kim's photos from their website because they are just too much fun. =)

(Photo courtesy of KTphoto.net)

To even give them a plug, they'll be on CBS morning news tomorrow morning (Friday) with Scott Haney. Try to catch it if you can!

And some thing that truly made this particular birthday special... TECHNOLOGY. More birthday messages than I can count on Facebook. Emails. Ecards. Tweets. Message board posts. Text messages. Cards with music in them. I was giddy with every single note I received.

I have not had this much fun in AGES. And I'm POOPED! =)

Thank you everyone... I love you all. XOXO

"Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness of existence." -Sydney Smith

My beautiful flowers from a wonderful friend. :)









And to zoom out a bit to see what I really put such pretty flowers in... my favorite vase on earth. Purchased when I was living in London years ago, at a kooky little shop in Covent Garden. =D

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Just a big smooch to all my loyal blog readers. =) Thank you all for always checking in on me.



XOXO!

Julia

Arooooooooooo!!!!!!

The crazies have been out in full force everywhere thanks to this. (Wish I could have gotten better shots but I haven't ordered my 70-200 yet!) ;)





And in the spirit of outtakes, this was a sneeze... (In my defense, it was cold and I was standing out there in my jammies and slippers.)

"Outtakes"

I've been purging a lot of crap from my harddrives this weekend and I always get a kick out of the stuff I bypassed the first go 'round. The "outtakes" so to speak.

Everyone always tells me how impressed with Grover they are. How tolerant he is. How he works the camera so well. Well, I admit, there is a lot of patience on MY part... I don't always get "the" shot, and if I do, I rarely get it the first time. =)

For example...

The quintessential Grover vs. Rubber Duckie shot


CHOMP!!!


Ahhh... my peaceful little flower.


Whoops. I woke the beast.


Rawr!!!


My sweet little boy.


Such a tortured soul, isn't he?


=) He really IS so very tolerant. He's just a riot to shoot. I have way too many photos of him. I've had him since he was 11 weeks old and he will be turning 8 in March. And suffice it to say, my first digital photos are from the day I brought him home. So that's 8 years of "outtakes" that I can't bare to part with. Yikes!