Tomato plants that I hope to move outside soon, if we can get the soil to be more reasonable. And less, um, hard.

A new rug and she believes she looks very nice upon it.

The bleeding heart plant that bloomed in our backyard. This particular flower always reminds me of when I was little and my mother had them in the garden.

I got a package in the mail the other day. Bright pink Crocs my father bought for me and tiny pink Crocs my Aunt Barbara bought for the baby.

More pictures soon, especially since J has been experimenting with his new Canon Rebel XTi, which far outshines the little digital camera I stole from my parents several years ago and have been using since then. I might even start taking some pictures with the new camera, once I stop being so scared of it.

This weekend we had some friends in town to celebrate J’s birthday. There were a few nice cameras among the group, and while we were taking a walk down by the water, enjoying the late afternoon sunshine, my friend Matt suggested it might be fun to throw Mina up in the air and get a few good pictures of her.

Which turned out to be one of the best ideas ever.

Thanks to Tom and Sam for taking these amazing shots.

J very correctly pointed out that I should have put a few pictures up with the kayaking post I wrote yesterday, especially since I spent a good deal of my time out on the water taking pictures of, like, the same thing over and over again. The sun coming up, for instance. Which happens, you know, every day.

Anyway, here are a few…

I know that people think it’s real, real cute when dogs make faces like this:

But the thing is, when you spend all day with the dogs, and the dog in question is making that face because there was a miscommunication, and she thought that when you very clearly said in a very loud voice, “Get the HELL out of here I am trying to work,” what you meant was, “Do you want to go swimming?!” and therefore proceeded to cock her head and then prance around from foot to foot like an overweight ballerina, and then twirl around in circle, followed by a flagrant display of French kissing with the Labradoodle just because of the sheer joy of the potential situation, and, of course, the grand finale of grabbing a stuffed dog toy and throwing it into the air before breaking into a chorus of high-pitched, excited whining, well then, actually, it’s really not that cute at all.

J and his labmate Tabb at The Carolina Brewing Company. How about that shirt!

I am on a mission to perfect my quesadilla making technique. I tried a pan after discovering that the oven doesn’t really work that well and the toaster oven…well, the toaster oven really, really doesn’t work.

Because we had nothing better to do…

I logged into my MySpace account today (because yeah, I’m 29 and have a MySpace account) to find that Jennifer has posted a picture on my page. But not just any picture. This picture:

I know, I know, so many questions. Like, What is going on here? How did two awkward teens score a photo with such a sexy beast? And whose hair is more awesome, Cara’s or Fabio’s? (I think I win).

The simple answer is that back in day day my father was director of the National Italian American Foundation and their major fundraiser was an annual dinner held in D.C. Many Italian American celebrities and politicians attended over the years and I got to meet a lot of them, since my dad was in with the security guys. I met people like Perry Como and Debbie Gibson (that’s right, she’s Italian American) and Jon Bon Jovi - and if you think this picture with Fabio is a rather embarassing relic of my adolescent years, you should see the picture I have of me and Bon Jovi. Jesus Christ. Luckily for me, I’m not going to show it to you.

Jennifer and I attended a few of these and had many adventures, that got more age-appropriate over the years. For instance, when we were 14 or so, like in the picture above, we tried to score as many autographs as possible. We once, out of sheer good fortune (and because we were smaller than regular sized adults and could push our way in) rode the elevator with Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman and Dom DeLuise.

When we were a little older, we waited until everyone had left the banquet room, then went from table to table taking the mini bottles of Sambuca and other goody bag loot attendees had left behind.

Meeting Fabio, though, is probably the best story I got out of all the dinners I attended. And judging from the look on his face, it was one of the best moments of his life, too.

Vinnie took some great pictures of Mina doing some of her favorite things - eating Christmas cookies and baring her teeth - over the holidays, that I thought it would share. After all, nothing makes people happier than a small, angry, hungry dog.

As I promised the Amity High School crew, I’m posting some pictures of their 10-year reunion held this past Saturday night. I had a great time, as always, with J’s high school friends, who are…how to put it? Completely awesome.

When we got there they pointed out this guy, Tonto, and told me to take pictures of him. I don’t know why, exactly. I’m also not sure they realized how seriously I’d take the assignment.

I hope he doesn’t read this blog.

You can see the rest here.