Christmas 2012

I've found that not having internet in my apartment seriously cramps my blogging style...as in, I tend to very rarely post anything these days.  Honestly, I find that very sad because it means that it's unusual for me to exercise my literary abilities.  When working at a software company, literary abilities are not something that I put into practice terribly often, except to write careful instructions:

"This issue is due to (error).  To fix, click (link), find (tab), change (field value), update, and refresh."

I'm getting distracted.

The point of this post is to recap our Christmas in Florida, which also meant my first Christmas not at home with my family.  Instead of Christmas looking like this:

...it looked like this instead:

Since pictures are worth a thousand words, here's a photographic recap of the trip (please pardon the phone photos).

So overall, we spent time with family, went to a lovely church on Christmas Eve, hung out on the beach, saw an alligator, viewed another fantastic church, and saw an amazing sunrise on the plane back to Boston.  It was a low-key Christmas, but the best part about it was the time.  It's so rare these days to just have some time to stop and let go the cares of every day routine, and so when an opportunity to take that time to just rest presents itself, I think it's truly invaluable.  

Washington! Whistler! Adventures!

As it turns out, Washington state and Whistler, BC are two fantastic places.  Here's the pictorial overview of our trip:

Today's Tacoma Narrows Bridge:

(The replacement for the one that collapsed in 1940 - things get interesting around 3:15)

Lavender sold at the Public Market in Seattle:

Kayaking on Hood Canal:

Canadian mountains!

The Whistler Inuksuk (also referred to as "the stone guy"):

ZIP LINING.

More mountains:

I would be a neglectful blogger if I failed to mention that we ate at Arby's...multiple times.

And finally, what would a trip to Seattle be without a sideways picture of the Space Needle?

Specific stories to follow.

And again...

Look, the color version! Can't decide which I like better...


(Does anyone else have trouble with Blogger making pictures look more dull? I feel like I need to oversaturate in order for them to look right...)

MA vs. VT

New fave picture from home.


Nothing in Mass can beat the superiority of VT cows.

Meine Familie und die Schweiz

Well, the fam managed to make it back from Switzerland all in one piece.


It's quite nice there.


They stayed in a teeeeeeeny tiny town way high up in the Alps.


It was even pretty at night, where it stayed light until very late.


And my mom got to sit in a little pod car thing. Evidently there are only 90 of them in the world. Volkswagen-made, of course.


Pretty cool, eh?

Now I want to go on vacation.

Fun at Work

Ok, so I know I'm supposed to be getting a real job and all, but honestly, babysitting is kinda fun. I mean, how often do YOU get to have someone do your hair, dress you up in a fancy evening gown made out of a large green blanket, and pretend that you're a movie star for 45 minutes at a time? I even had a photographer.

He was 4.

But still.



I felt so pampered.

Even if my hair was held in place by marker-covered popsicle sticks.

Way cool 2.

Guess what! I have TWO brothers! Christopher is a pretty cool person too. These pictures are from awhile ago, but I have a video of him too so maybe I'll put that up later.

 

I think I'll get him to guest blog tomorrow.

Be excited.

Fotobooth Fun

Hello world!

I am writing today in order to explain a photo collage which apparently grows larger upon the commencement of one clicking somewhere on the surface of it. This collage came to be in existence because my sister, the notorious and infamous Jillian Griffin, who i'm sure is known for her blog posts throughout the interwebs, opened photobooth on her computer... Apparently the fun does not end after this outrageous photo taking program is running. We spent nearly an hour creating funny and inexplainable facial expressions as well as body gestures to entertain ourselves in the evening.

One would think that you would use effects to have the most fun, but that is not the case. Simply have an excellent time on good old normal mode and off to the races one goes. You see, I have found that there is not so much ingenuity or perplexity involved in the making and observing of photos that rely simply on the effect to make them funny, like having two faces and four arms. All you really need is to have the soft susurration of your imagination prompt you, within three seconds, to plaster onto your features an indelible moment of creativity that is now saved to less than one kilobyte of space on your hard drive. Congrats you've made a photo!

Well over the course of that one hour, I had a most excellent and bodacious adventure. *Bill and Ted fans insert laugh here* I hope that everyone who reads this blog tries out their own version of photobooth or crystaleye or whatever type of program you have so that they all can have as much fun as my sister and I did. I dare you to try it :)

K, Later all

(Jillian's brother, not v v v)

Way cool.

Johann (the Brohan) and I are cool people. You can tell by looking at our fun pictures.

 

Aren't we the greatest? Or at least Jonathan is. (That's his real name. I refer to him as Johann.)

I think he should guest blog sometime. Maybe today.