First of all, we stayed at Bill and Susan’s place (Adam’s family), which was incredibly huge and gorgeous and…wow!

Red and I stayed in the "casita" above the garage. We had our own kitchen, flat screen, and outdoor shower!

Of course there was also a swimming pool, which led to a whole new set of wild sports-related action.

Love this shot of the guys doing what they do while I hang out with Zooey (Adam's daughter) on the side.

We even took surfing lessons!

That's me standing up for the first time!!! Zooey is clearly as shocked as I am.

Overall, it was just the right “getaway” we hoped for: relaxing, great friends, great food, great conversation and great atmosphere! 

Terrible, terrible view. Bad weather too.

If you have interest in seeing all the photos, check them out at http://www.clubramey.com/405/san-jose-del-cabo.

Red on the rooftop of his office! (Yes, that is the Washington Monument behind him). 

We are still ironing out the kinks on the website, and I also need to go over what has happened since Red’s birthday!  In the next few days I will be updating the website remotely, which means if you scroll past this, you will start seeing former posts.  This will eventually include Red’s birthday, Tom and Harold’s wedding, Claire’s birthday, Cary’s lifetime achievement award and many other events that many of you have been waiting to see. 

One more reminder, you can subscribe to the RSS feed on the left of this screen, which will make it so you get an email every time we update the website.

In the meantime, you will have to be satisfied with the following: shortly after Red’s birthday, we had the pleasure of going to Conway’s housewarming party in Harlem!  It was great catching up with many of our Rutgers friends from “Red’s” class!

Red was then shipped off to D.C. and I enjoyed a special Mere performance in Hoboken.  I took the big camera and edited some of the shots for their professional use (hence the gratuitous photos).

Red then flew back for 24 hours and we said a quick “goodbye” to Hoboken (for now).  This included some good times with Robin, Vickie, Asha and Tom and a very exciting performance by Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees.  For those of you who remember, I used to be obsessed with the Monkees. 

Though I was in deeply in love with Davy Jones, I still insisted that Mickey sign my charm bracelet.

Then we drove to our new “home” in Washington D.C.! Here are some photos of our few days in town, including a big move in day for Scott and Elizabeth into their new apartment.

I also slipped off for a quick visit to see Ragan, Steve and their new baby, Noah in Arizona.  Ragan’s brother, Justin, was visiting so I got to catch up with him, plus I of course visited Ramey and Zee. 

Congratulations Ramey!  He graduated last week with a M.B.A. and a Masters degree in ____(insert technical computer term here.)

And here is the proud (and beautiful) new mamma, Ragan!

(For those of you out of the loop: Red and I went to high school with Ragan and Ramey. )

This trip also included a 24 hour Seattle layover, where I got to squeeze in coffee with Red’s mom, a slumber party with Sharon, lunch with my parents and a quick visit to World Vision!

Here is me and the lovely Verna Pratt (and yes, this is “the” Verna whose candy dish I “conquered” in 2002).

That is all for now.  Check back soon to see all the birthdays and other announcements since January 1st!

I’m having too much fun looking at the photos!  I just finished the photos from Big Sky.  They are, without question, awesome.  Dutch, Amir, Sharon, Mary and I had a great trip.  There are also some amazing videos of us running in the snow from our hottub to a cat-track, but I’ll have to put those up another day.  The video page needs a bunch of work in general.

For now, enjoy the photos.

As many of you may know, Red started his job at O’Melveny & Myers this Monday.

Here he is in his office on his first day. Isn’t he cute?

And…that’s the last time I saw him.

Seriously though? He got home at 6 a.m. this morning, only to wake up and go back in at 10 a.m. He worked the entire weekend, including Friday and Saturday night. This is a picture of the room where he and all his teammates are working non-stop to read (this is not a joke) over a million pieces of paper in 6 days. It is ridiculous, but that’s why they get paid the big bucks. There is a lot at stake in these high profile cases and, while I can’t tell you what he’s working on, I can tell you its something you’d all recognize.

He came home briefly for a 4 hour window Sunday during which I forced him to move furniture so my life would be back in order.

Here is the before and after shot of the dining room. It is getting closer to where we want it to be.

We also painted our hallway gold. Gold!

We also scored some new art for the hallway made by none other than Joe Sherno, Tricia’s husband (how new it is to say the word “husband!”) I look forward to Red hanging them up someday, but only if he wears this outfit.

Out of sheer exhaustion from updating the website, I will leave you with two sets of photos to browse. One is of my 29.2 birthday in Las Vegas and the other is a random medley of photos with no relation to each other. I have included captions for your viewing pleasure.

I must admit that this was, by far, the greatest birthday on record. Having all my closest friends in Las Vegas was incredible and I would like to send out a special shout out to my favorite AI, Amir. Thanks dude. Seriously.

That part where you dressed up like Bono? That was incredible.

I would also to thank the good doctors and The Sharon for coming, and Jonathan… well, you already got your tribute.

Of course, Phil and Jess – thank you for your amazing East Coast rally. (It is about 6 a.m. New York time in this photo).

Finally, I would like to thank my lovely husband, Red, for making this all possible.

Way to wear the pants, baby.

That is all for now. Take care!

Love,
Mary

Mary’s Job

First of all, I had the greatest summer on record with Credit Suisse.

Part of our awesome Summer Associate posse on the last day.

As you may have heard, I worked in the CDO and Fixed Income Derivatives Team. If you have no idea what that means, that is okay. All you need to know is that it was awesome, I learned a lot, and the people in the next two photos are now my collective “Super Gurus.” These guys went all out to hook me up with an interviews and if things pan out, I may have a great job lined up for this summer!

And not only that! They offered for me to stay at Credit Suisse during the school year, which I accepted!

Of course, my work as a student has not ended. Thus, I am still enjoying the rigors of law school. This semester I am taking Employment Law, Administrative Law, International Trade Regulation, and Professional Responsibility.

As you can see, it took awhile for me to get the book out of the cellophane…

I also spent a lot of time planning and executing law school events. Sadly, however, I forgot my camera at the Buddy Mixer, but it was a PACKED party!!! Follow the link for the random photos I have of SBA events, including our SBA retreat.

Scabies and Babies

Thankfully, I have neither scabies nor babies. However, we had a big scare recently (about the scabies, not the babies). I have been itching up a storm since July 27th.

Not sure if you can see, but my thighs are covered in itchy red hives.

After five different diagnoses and treatments, my doc said, “Well, there is absolutely no way it could possibly be scabies from India, because if it were, Red would be itching too.” However, he decided to treat us both, just in case. His reasoning? “With you my dear, anything is possible” (e.g. CDC alert Typhoid fever).

Here we are, banished from our bed to the air mattress so we can treat our non-existent scabies.

Truth be told, I am still itching now, though not as badly. I will be getting a biopsy on my skin soon. Worry not – whatever it is is in no way communicable says doc. Besides, no one is itching yet after two months of hanging out with me. Perhaps it is just stress? More likely it is a non-food allergy.

As for babies, I would like to introduce the world to Zooey Madelyn Halverson, born August 19, 2007 (a.k.a. “Jonathan’s birthday”).

I just can’t get over her little smile!!

I would also like to point out that Ragan and Steve’s baby, Noah, got the outfit we sent him. Noah, you look good. Keep it up.

I like to call this piece, “Hoboken Noah.”

So that is it for baby news. As of now, there are no pregnancies to report.

Birthdays and Shoutouts

I did an absolutely terrible job acknowledging anyone except for Sharon since the month of July. So here you have the birthdays and anniversary shoutouts, all at once, beginning with July.

Click “Continue reading” below to see the rest of the post…

Happy Birthday Matt! Yes, this shot is from high school.

Happy Birthday Jessica! Here she is giving me attitude on the boat in Alaska.

Happy Birthday Tricia! Here she is at T-2 days before the wedding.

Happy Anniversary Matt and Alicia! What a gorgeous wedding!

Happy Birthday David! I’m sure he is like 15 years old now, but it still an adorable photo (FYI, I looked it up and he turned 7, so he is still a baby.)

Happy Birthday Tamar (and hope the Portland marathon went well)! Happy Birthday Bruce! Happy Birthday Ethan! Happy Anniversary Bruce and Tamar!! What a happy family!

Happy Birthday Sam! Happy Birthday Jay!

Happy Anniversary Steve and Ragan! I am perpetually hijacking photos off their website, but this was just too “Ragan and Steve” to pass up.

Happy Anniversary Tanya and Dave!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Dawne! Happy Anniversary Dawne and Larry!

Happy Anniversary John and Christie!

Happy Birthday Auntie Jeanne!

Happy Birthday Alayne!

Happy Anniversary Ali and Mike!

Happy Birthday Declan!

Congratulations Warren and Karen! They will be getting married December 2rd!

And last but not least…

The Jonathan Tribute

At this point, Red and I have known Jonathan longer than we haven’t, which means we have watched him evolve…

from ordinary…

to extraordinary!

And thus begins the Jonathan Tribute, as the man, the myth, the legend himself, has passed a new echelon of evolution that I will never reach. That’s right. He turned 30 years old in August.

The first of our high school friends to pass over this evolutionary hump, Jonathan, also known as “Dutch,” has aged like a fine wine.

Though it was not a simple process.

In order to evolve, Jonathan had to try many new things:

He biked across the country for charity (Push America).

He explored his deeper appreciation for man’s best friend.

He even tried gambling in Vegas. I am trying to pry him away from the slot machines in this photo but as you can see, he is in one of his “phases.”

We had a lot of growth in Vegas, but mostly because (to our shock), he packed a massive serving of prime rib into his mouth AFTER eating a huge buffet meal. (As you can see, he is taking a bite of the cupcake before attacking the slab of meat on his left).

And finally, he took up modern dance. Here he is performing, “Fat Man in a Little Coat” at the Excalibur in Las Vegas.

Through all the trials and tribulations over the many years we have known each other, Jonathan has proven to be a friend who lasts the test of time.

We love you Jonathan!

Even when you pack a massive bottle of almost-empty Listerine.

Because when I am down, you make me feel better.

And when Red is being lame, you pretend to barf on him.

There is no friend like you, I am quite sure of it, and I want the whole world to know!!!

Happy Birthday Jonathan! We love you!

Road Trippin’

Because of numerous scheduling issues, Red and I were not able to take a major “bar” trip after he finished the exam. In lieu, we good a series of mini road trips all over the east coast, which is something we have wanted to do for the last three years!

I know its hard to believe, but we did go to band camp. Road, that is.

To make this easier, I have put together a medley of photos of our trips with captions explaining where we are. It was a lot of fun.

Baked Alaska

Over Labor Day weekend, Red and I flew out to Juneau, Alaska with his family.

His parents rented a renovated tugboat and we went fishing.

Here is our boat!

As a child, I had a fundamental disgust of fish and all things associated with them. My father will be interested to hear that I did indeed agree to hold a pole and in fact “caught” a fish, but I refused to be photographed with it.

Here is Cary holding my fish.

Regardless, it was the wildlife that stole the show on this trip.

Here is a massive humpback whale breaching.

This shot gives better perspective so you can see the size of these things!

Red holding some fresh catch of the day.

We did a lot of eating and celebrating as well (both Phil and Red finished taking the bar exam). Jan made things as festive as she always does. For a complete narrative with captions, click here.

Tricia and Joe’s Wedding

Once we got home from Alaska, our number one focus was to prepare for and enjoy the much anticipated wedding of Tricia and Joe.

What a gorgeous wedding.

What a beautiful couple.

We finally have all the photos up and organized, so enjoy.

• Spa Butterfly
• Rehearsal Dinner
• The Pig n’ Whistle
• Wedding Day Preparations
• The Ceremony
• The Reception
• The Bus Ride Home and the Afterparty

Hope you enjoyed!

Mary