Here are a couple more pics...

What an eclectic group of women: Miss Teen South Carolina, Amy Winehouse and Martha Stewart! Meantime, Richard gets a leg up on the others in the costume competition. Too bad he didn't win. Looks like all that be-dazzling was in vain...

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was so fun this year! I had been traveling a lot for work the couple of weeks leading up to the spooktacular holiday, so I wasn't sure how much I could commit to a costume, let alone a party. Friends of our friends Carolyn & Ryan invited us to their annual Halloween bash here in the City, so Brian and I decided we couldn't stay at home. Carolyn was coming into town and so was our friend Jen, so by the time Friday rolled around we were pretty excited.

Due to my travel schedule, I decided to pull together a costume based on things I had in the house already. With my domestic diva apron, a stiffly starched shirt, a basket full of homemade cookies and Living magazines, I was a decent Martha Stewart if I say so myself.

No surprise, 2:00 Saturday rolls around and Brian still hadn't chosen a costume. I thought we were going to be destined to another year of the Yankees jersey. We headed to the way too crowded Halloween superstore on Van Ness, where we found the perfect wig and even fake chest hair. After a trips to American Apparel (shorty shorts) and Walgreens (Queen Plus size panty hose), Richard Simmons was born!

I'm so proud of Brian for bringing his A-game to Halloween this year. It's a good thing.

Another good thing is Christmas carols. That's right, we're just cusping November and I'm ready for Joy to the World. Carolyn, Jen and I got a taste of some holiday tunes at a local eaterie on Saturday night - a full four days before Halloween if you can believe that! Premature? Definitely. Still great? I thought so, but I was the only one. I think Jen was still bitter with Target for replacing their costumes with Christmas ornaments before Halloween. I don't know why she was so upset though, she made an impressive Amy Winehouse. Tupperware alert!

Coming soon: How in the world do I change the formatting of these pictures? This might be harder than I thought...

Talk about Neal News - We're Blogging!

Just when Web 2.0 is jumping the shark into "has been" territory, leave it to us to hop on the blogging bandwagon. As reluctant as I am to let 80's music remain in the past, there's no way I could let the opportunity to talk more continue to pass me by! Brian might say it's kind of like being a Red Sox fan - suddenly chic despite perhaps my better judgment- and I guess I can go along with that (now that baseball season is over, after all).

So this is a big thing for us, and I'm kind of proud of myself for thinking about it. I just learned how to post pictures (I thought this one was appropriate), and I'm still working on HTML basics, but you can bet I'm going to get pretty good at these details over time.

Good and obsessed. Probably, but also grateful. I've been thinking about a blog for a while, and I must give credit to our friends Mike and Jen, who really inspired us (me). Check out their very funny and irreverent blog here. They definitely lit the fire. Plus, they have a black cocker spaniel, Cooper, so that automatically makes them fine people. Just ask my dad.

Speaking of whom...Dad, have you ever read a blog before?

Well, either way, I'm excited to be writing without a deadline or an approvals process. I was hoping Brian would be pumped, too. I figured if I put Ron Burgundy allusions in the title and a baseball reference in the first graph, he would be on board pretty quickly. I don't think he wants to make a major commitment (after all, this does not involve sports), he says he might be a guest contributor from time to time.

I think that brings us to the conclusion of my first successful blog posting! Feel free to bookmark this page and check back periodically. Hopefully this platform provides a creative outlet for us and an ongoing source of entertainment for you. And it wouldn't really be newsworthy if we didn't put a tease in the end, would it? So here you go. Coming soon: Halloween pics and Christmas commentary. -Katie