Katerina’s News

Ok, I’m not going to suggest that we actually did the whole walk yesterday, but we did go at Venice and visited our friend’s Emy exhibition. The exhibition was great and Emy has proved to be the best hostess ever! Not to mention that her show had the best food by far!!! We had fan visiting the exhibition and later on going out for dinner, drinks, coffee, dessert etc… Check out some of the photos!

Emy and Kostas

Emy and Katie

Emy and Me
 

Me and Katie

The guys: Kostas, Evan, Nassos

I had some photos to upload but unfortunately I cant since I have a monthly limit of 50 photos
 

Last Friday we celebrated Kostas’ birthday (although it wasn’t his birthday that day) and we had lots of fun. Check out some photos from that night!

Poor Kostas! I’ve never seen this before in my life; while Kostas was in one side of the table all the others were seating right opposite! I run to his side but only to realize that I was the only one  while everybody  else stayed in the other side! Unfortunately, Olga couldn’t come because she was trying to take some pictures so me and Kostas were left standing there… Anyway, it was a great night (we stayed there up to 4 in the morning chitchatting  with Olga and Kostas)  and a  kick ass dinner by Kostas  who prepared his legendary Turkey. Cheers Olgaki and Kostaki!!!

Honestly Vicky and Theodore…
Don’t you ever do that again!

Well…
I couldn’t help my self, I had to post that photo! From the party for the opening  of DreamWorks’ animation movie "Flushed Away"… that photo is hilarious! Now you all know how formal DreamWorks’ parties are!!!

It was that time of the year again…November 17… Yes! It was my birthday and this time it was a milestone birthday as you might know already… 30 years… So I decided to have a party this time and we had tones of fun but not that many photos…
You know how I usually like to cook and do tones of food that is left over for the next day and we end up eating it for two weeks? This time I tried not to go down that road and generally spend less time in the kitchen. I said I tried! OK, I ordered some kabobs from an Armenian place that makes really good stuff and I said "I’m going to make some salad and some finger food". I said and I truly believed it, but when the time had come I realized that the food I was preparing was more demanding than I thought. I could have chosen, for example, to make some mousaka and it would have been much easier! Instead I chose to make squash croquettes, eggplant croquettes and some mini cheese pies (tyropitakia), food that needs you to be all the time on your feet standing on top of it! Anyway the result was that by the time everybody arrived I was so freaking tired that after my first glass of wine I was already drunk! They were people in the house that I didn’t even remember talking to! So anyway, here are some photos from the party…

Hey everybody!

Last Sunday we had a small BBQ at the house, the first after a long period of unbearable heat, and consequently no outdoors entertainment….

So this time we had a different crowd, besides the usual suspects like Evan or Katia. Our new friends, Andonis and Aria

Kostas and Emmy

and Grigoris

are great and we are very happy to spent time with them and have tons fun! Poor Emmy is the only non Greek and I have to give her credit; how can she even stand us? If I was in her place…. oh men!

So anyway, like every BBQ we started at about 3 o clock (thanks to Antonis and Aria who went "hiking"…) and we finished quite late but not that late! don’t forget that we live in the US after all… To say the truth, I was terrified because I usually take care of the BBQ and I never get to eat with the others but always I end up eating by myself near the BBQ… you know what they say about the psisti…. But this time my dear angel, Grigoris, took over the BBQ and really took care of everything…and here’s the proof:

Because of that, Grigoris is now not only my hero but also the new official BBQ victim!!! Oh, he asked for it!!!

After the food, wine and desserts orgy and since the sun had already set and it was freezing out there, we decided to go inside and yes! we fired that fireplace for the first time this season! Oh, God I had missed that! Winter is finally back!   

Another highlight of the day, which I can say was hilarious, was when the guys started to take pictures with Nassos’ EMMY (not the person Emmy but the statue Emmy)! That was so funny!

That was a nice Sunday spent with friends, saying jokes, having some laughs, being happy!

You can check out all the photos from that day in the photo album!

Kisses!

Hey everybody!

Our dear friend Theodore is famous for his huge parties in his house at Beverly Hills. On September 16 he throw one of his typical parties again, like he does every September for his daughter’s Name Day.

Now, Theodore is known to be a party animal and an absolute value for the Greek community in Los Angeles. In my two years living in this town and having attended tens (!!!) of Theodore’s parties I could say that these parties are truly events for the Greeks around the L.A. County (and even further) and a cultural shock for the fellow Americans! These are not your typical get together that you might drink a little and dance and chat with your friends and go home and have a good sleep…No, no,no! These are parties that can easily get out of control and you might wake up in the next morning in a boat to Mexico!!! OK, I might exaggerate a little here but the bottom line is that things happen in Theodore’s parties… people dance on the tables, sometimes even on the roof, people brake plates (typical Greek way of expression), open champagnes, chairs (and people) end up in the pool and police never comes!

This one was one of his best parties ever and so I had to upload some photos…. You can check them out at the Photo Alboum!

Hi everybody!

Today I’m very very excited; finally Nassos’ first EMMY award has arrived! The statue looks great! I never thought I would see one of those in my own house… Us you can understand we’re both in heaven!!! (but mostly is me….I admit it…) Of course now we cannot compromise with anything less than… another EMMY!!!xixixi…

For those of you that want to take a look on the award winning material you can visit Nassos’ personal page and click on the Animatics link.

If you’re just curious to see the statue take a look at the pictures below…

Kisses!!!

We just came back from our trip to Vegas and even if it was a short one I still had tons of fun!!! Unfortunately, both me and Nassos managed to catch a cold which spoiled our fun and continues to torture us now in LA. But beside the cold these three days in Las Vegas were terrific!

One of the reasons why, is the fact that our dearest Greek friend Giorgos from NJ  joined us there with his wonderful sister Aggeliki who visits from Greece. It has been a long time since the last time we show Giorgos and we were very very happy that we finally arranged to meet. Aggeliki is a very funny and smart woman and we had a blast teasing the men of the group that behaved like an old married couple! As we would say in Greece "mazi den kanune kai horia den mporumune"!!! Just take a look at the photo on the right and you’ll understand what I mean… Nassos and Giorgos were teasing each other all the time which is something that for Greeks comes very naturally when you feel so familiar with someone. Of course Nassos and Giorgos know each other since high school which make things among them even easier…

One of the things that you always do when in Vegas is visiting the different Hotels and Casinos and see what’s new or just admire what these guys have done! The newest Hotel and Casino in town is the Wynn and I believe is the definition of luxury!!! I had seen the hotel during our previous visit to Vegas a few months ago but Nassos insisted to visit it again and so we did, and for one more time I have to say that this is one fine hotel…My only objection here is that while all the other hotels have a very specific theme Wynn is a little bit of everything… But by all means is one of the best hotels in Las Vegas.

My favorite one, though, would be the Bellagio, a luxurious hotel with a classic Italian theme. Although everybody agrees that this is the best I used not to like it because classic Italy is not my style. But this time I had to accept it: Bellagio is THE hotel! I visited the new indoors gardens and I was astonished by the work and the money they have put into that. A whole miniature world with toy trains and water arches? I couldn’t believe in my eyes… Toy trains were going around the place and water arches that Nassos called a physic’s miracle! I have no  words to describe the gardens but I’ll upload some images in my photo album. Of course the all time classic murano ceiling that I’ll upload in my photo album is a must. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time to watch the show with the dancing fountains in front of the hotel which is consider to be one of the biggest attraction in Las Vegas, but that’s OK; I have watched it in the past…

Unfortunately, our cold and the exhaustion didn’t allow as to visit the Olympic Gardens which is a completely different kind of gardens… The Olympic Gardens is maybe the most popular strip club in the city and no, you didn’t guess wrong; it is owned by a Greek family!!! A lot of the people that work there are Greeks as well and the girls (these are not Greeks…) dance on stands decorated with images from the Greek countryside and archaeological sites… (no comments on that…). It’s always a pleasure visiting the place when in town and I have to admit that is one of my favorites in the US.

Of course gambling is always part of the fun in Vegas! Usually I don’t have fun gambling and I’m bored when Nassos who is an old gambler plays in several tables. This time though we enjoyed playing together and it was fun. I also managed for the first time time to win in one of the slot machines almost 60 dollars which of course I lost soon after in another game… We played a lot of roulette and I can officially say that roulette is my favorite game…

That’s it guys, I have no other comments for this trip. I hope the next time we go we have more time and better health so I can give more details. Nevertheless, I’m going to upload some photos in the album with some comments like always!

Kisses from LA!!!

OK guys this is it!!!

In less than three hours I’m flying to Vegas! We’re not going to stay for long though, since we have to be back by Wednesday but that’s OK. Our friend George with his sister is meeting as there today so I expect to have some fun teasing him!!!

You can expect some photos when I’m back!!!