very simple

I’m pretty sure I’ve given up the ghost on the 365 project (again), but I’m still taking pictures when the mood strikes. I’m going to blame it on the fact that I’ve got a new job (finally) and that’s taking up a lot of my brain-space now, which I view as a good thing. Getting paid doesn’t hurt either. But, in any event, I headed up to the family compound in the Berkshires for memorial day weekend, and took some pics of the burgeoning spring/summer flora and fauna. As always, click on the thumbnail to see the full photos.

We are not a particularly religious family, but we still do the big holidays. of course, we do them in our own unique, potentially sacrilegious way.

Our seder plate – the plate itself is beautiful, a gift to my stepmother from someone she knew who was an Iraqi jew. We, of course, never have all of the proper ingredients, so we do things like replace the hard-boiled egg with a purple marshmallow peep.

I can’t even estimate how old this bottle of Manischewitz is. It’s got a modern label, so it can’t be that old, but I do know that we dig it out of the basement every passover, use about 3 oz of it for the actual seder (and Elijah’s cup), and then drink good, non-kosher wine with our actual dinner. Then the bottle goes back in the basement for another year.

And finally – our passover table. This one is pretty traditional, including the deluxe edition Coffees of Maxwell House Passover Haggadah.

This weekend, we headed up to the berkshires for an early passover seder on Sunday. But on Saturday, we had a farm day at our friend Billie’s farm. Billie runs the farm (where she raises chicken and cows) largely by herself, so a few times a year, friends head over to take care of some of the bigger projects that require more than one person. This year, we were re-fencing a pasture after the fence got damaged from all the snow this winter, and we were tearing out one of the gardens in order to turn it into more cow pasture. I (of course) brought my camera. I ended up taking more pics of the animals than of people, because that’s what happens when you put me near adorable farm animals (including adorable baby farm animals), but nevertheless, here are some shots from the day.

My brother, who just finish his Masters Degree in education, is leaving the country (again) to travel to Africa and Nepal for a year. In between climbing lots of rocks, he’s planning on visiting a variety of educational institutions during his trip in order to…well, I’ll just let him explain it himself.

I can’t believe he’s leaving again. It seems like he just got back from the Peace Corps yesterday.

(and yes, he is totally one of those do-gooder-type people who wants to make the world a better place while the rest of us obsess over the real estate market).

Tuesday was beautiful out, and it was also the museum mile festival, where all of the museums on Fifth Avenue open their doors and let people in for free for the evening. So I headed up there with my dad, and we hit the Cooper-Hewitt and the Met (where we met up with my stepmom). Got yelled at for taking pictures in the C-H, so only one from there, and most of the photogenic stuff was outside, but we hit the Picasso exhibit, the Egypt exhibit and Big Bambu at the Met. And had cocktails. Very civilized.

I’m, as always, too lazy to individually label the photos, so you’ll have to guess what’s what.

Last weekend I went up to the Berkshires for our Passover Seder, which we rescheduled for everyone’s convenience to Sunday night (Passover started at sundown on Monday). On Saturday, we didn’t do too much, but we did go for a walk around the neighborhood. And then I watched our dog, Oliver, spend hours attempting to fit a basketball into his mouth. You’d think after 11 years he’d have figured out that it’s just not going to work, but he keeps trying.

Oh, and apparently everyone in my family really likes orange. Not pictured is myself, wearing orange-framed sunglasses. At least we’re ready for hunting season.

Saturday was my birthday, and my parents sent me these lovely flowers. They’re quite pretty, but my stepmom was a bit annoyed that they included a LOT of red flowers, given that she had specifically ordered a non-red bouquet in order to try to get away from the whole birthday-getting-overshadowed-by-valentines’ day thing. I would have never known the difference if she hadn’t said anything, but I chalked it up to the fact that you’re not getting a whole lot of variety in the middle of February. Still pretty.

I haven’t done a non-photo related post in some time, but I just finished my latest book while sitting in the cafe at barnes and noble, and was reflecting on how nutso this week is going to be.

First, the travel. As always for thanksgiving, I’m heading to the berkshires to hang with family. Except, instead of staying through Sunday as I would normally do, I’m flying to Houston on Friday, because one of my oldest friends is getting (re)married down there on saturday. And then i’m flying back to NY on Sunday. Of thanksgiving weekend. I’m thinking it’s a good thing I don’t have a job I’ll need to actually get to on Monday.

Actually, that’s about it for my nutso week, now that I think about it. Although apparently my brother is sick with something that may be the flu (swine or otherwise) and is only finally going to the doctor because my dad convinced my brother’s girlfriend to drag him there. Or an emergency room. I’ll have to call him later to check on him. I’m not going within 100 feet of him though, because I’m pretty sure that swine flu makes a pretty crappy wedding present.

I’ll return to photoblogging later with a post about the book I just finished, but I left the jacket at home so I can’t photograph it yet.

This weekend, when I wasn’t traipsing all over Roosevelt Island with the 365-ers, I was at a giant food expo for hours on end handing out samples of these cakes (it’s my dad’s company). They are soaked in liquor, which makes them very, very awesome.

and yes, my feet are killing me.

I will hopefully have snapped out of the mindset that causes me to try to feed these to everyone who comes within 3 feet of me by tomorrow.

no actual photo class this week, due to a final show occurring for a prior class. I’ve done my homework for next week though, and will post those photos soon.

In other news, I feel like the tide is turning ever so slightly on the job front. Not that I’ve got a new job or anything that crazy (!), but it seems like there’s more opportunity out there, even if in small doses. I don’t want to get into too much detail because I think that starts crossing into the “blogging about work” thing that I’ve always tried to avoid, but, suffice to say, I had two meetings this week, which is two more meetings than I’ve had in the several months prior to this week. And it seems like there are more job listings that fall into my “wheelhouse” and that I feel comfortable applying for, as opposed to the months of listings for litigators and bankruptcy attorneys (both perfectly good professions, just not what I do). So I’m just generally feeling more positive, even if it’s still slow-going overall.

I haven’t been riding my bike as much as I’d like to, mostly due to the weather. We seem to be living in a period of alternating thunderstorms and heat advisories, neither of which are weather conditions that are particularly conducive to a leisurely bike ride around the city. but I am signed up for a bunch of organized rides in the next few months, so that should help get me back into the swing of things. I did spend last saturday volunteering for transportation alternatives at this year’s summer streets event, and got lots of people to sign up. That was a fun way to spend the day.

And in even more other news, yesterday was my baby brother’s 30th birthday. conveniently, I didn’t have to do much of anything except post on his facebook wall since he’s diving somewhere in Indonesia at the moment (yeah, his life sucks), but it’s making me feel a bit old. and nostalgic. how the hell did I get old enough to have a much younger sibling turn 30? But happy birthday, Jeff, wherever the hell you are!