We Lost our Camera

I intended to update our blog several times in the last little while, but never ended up following through because I was waiting to upload pictures from my camera onto my computer. Sadly my procrastination just got the best of me. Those pictures will never make it to our blog...our camera is lost. For good. I think.

Random, but just in case you wanted to know: in high school I loved photography. My love hasn't changed, I'm just no longer equipped with the amazing camera that I used to have. I used my mother's lovely Canon Rebel SLR (not digital), developed my own film, and processed pictures in the dark room. So fun! Surprisingly a couple of my photographs even made it to the Springville Art Show (bet you never knew!). Since high school, however, I now have (had I guess you could say) a smaller point-and-shoot digital camera that was perfect for our needs. It's hard to lug around a big camera - especially when you're in the city trying to minimize all of the things you carry around anyway. The smaller and ligther the better.

Anyway, back to my story. Jonathan went backpacking last week with his 9th grade advisory class on the Appalachian Trail. He spent 3 entire days with 15-year-old kids who had never been outside of the city (most rarely even leave their ten-block neighborhood radius). Hopefully he will update our blog with his stories. They are really funny! I wouldn't do them justice. On his bus ride home he switched seats and forgot to grab the camera. Unfortunately he didn't know that he even left the camera on the seat until he was back at the school and the buses had left. One week later we're still waiting on our friends at the bus terminal to let us know if they have retrieved our camera. No news yet, but we're still hoping.

Gone are the pictures that fully document my dear husband is now 26. Included were your typical birthday photos: opening presents, blowing out candles, and eating cake. Also gone are the pictures he took on his crazy "mountain" adventure with kids from the Bronx. All gone. Maybe my mom will send my favorite camera of hers! Now all I need is a dark room, some chemicals, and photo paper...hm.

Ceviche is Delicious

Just as I was getting ready to make dinner on Tuesday night Stanton called and asked, "What are you doing tonight?" Before I could respond he quickly said, "You and Jon are coming over for dinner. Rubi's making ceviche." I had no idea what ceviche was, but boy oh boy can I tell you it was amazing!! Who knew that mayonaise, seafood salad, ketchup, and avacado would go so well on top of a tostada? We devoured it! To top off the night we also had incredible key lime muffins (Rubi is quite the cook), two fun rounds of UNO, and yummy coconut popsicles provided by Zack and Linda. We love having these friends close to us in the city! And thanks to Rubi we haven't lost all contact with real, authentic, scrumptious Mexican food.

First Day at School

It's tradition, right? My mom made me pose for a picture every year on the first day of school, so I had to do the same thing for Jonathan (poor guy). I'll let him give an update on how his first week went...I just had to post the picture!

The US Open

Jonathan's oldest brother Tom was in Connecticut last week for business meetings and was kind enough to make the trek into the city and stay for a short visit. Can I just tell you how fun it is to see family and friends in a place where you don't see too many familiar faces...so fun!

Among the plethora of gifts Tom brought with him were tickets to the US Open!! Getting those tickets, however, proved to be quite an adventure. After searching online through Stub Hub and Ticketmaster on Friday night, we finally found a nice man named Dave on Craig's List who was selling 3 tickets for a much better deal. Thrilled to beat the inflated prices of the online venues, arrangements were made to meet Dave 15 minutes before the matches started the next morning.

The morning was filled with excitement as we ate "New York's best bagels ever" from Absolute Bagels and made our excursion towards the US Open, arriving in ample to meet Dave. We wandered around the outside gates getting even more excited to get in and watch some world class tennis. As the clocked ticked closer to 11, though, Dave had not responded to phone calls or texts. People around us must have seen our distraught faces because they kept coming by asking if we wanted tickets. Within a few minutes we found a cheery old man selling 3 tickets at face value that his country club gave him (the benefits of belonging to a country club I suppose...). We texted Dave, "we found cheaper tickets...sorry you were late" and anxiously made our way inside (beneifts of being punctual)!

Once inside we saw Sam Querry, Andy Murray, Jurgen Melzer, Amelie Mauresom, Lindsay Davenport, and women's and men's doubles and singles by other amazing players. At a few of the field court matches we sat on the very front row and even rubbed shoulders with a few of the players after their matches (we didn't get too close, though...they were pretty sweaty). Even our seats for the more popular players were incredible! There's really something about watching tennis pros in real life. Thanks to Tom we had a wonderful time!!!

Sam Querry vs Ivo Karlovic

Andy Murray vs Jurgen Melzer

Stilts and tennis anyone?

Jonathan Curtis and fans after he beat Andy Roddick!