Life Begins at 30

Wandering Southern California

As much time as I spend in Southern California, I don't often get the chance to play tourist in my own hometown -- I grew up in LA, went to college there, and lived there until I was 26.  When a good friend from here wanted to experience the true Southern California, I was happy to play tour guide last week.  It was fun to show her some of my favorite places, and take a lot of photographs at the same time.

The above sign can be found at Zuma Beach in Malibu.  To tell you the truth, I have never seen the stand open, but love seeing the food stand as you turn the big curve on Pacific Coast Highway heading north.  The first couple days we were there were unseasonably warm, and the beach was lovely -- complete with a pod of dolphins playing in the nearby water.

The Southern California growing season is always a bit ahead of our Northern California season.  The Wednesday Santa Monica farmers market was full of visions of spring, and it was really wonderful to see the abundance that we have to look forward to in Northern California soon.  My find of the day was La Nogalera walnut oil -- a nicely balanced, light walnut oil that is grown and processed in Central California. 

While firmly in the "Californian Mexican" camp, I have always loved Border Grill for their appetizers and cocktails.  We stopped in one afternoon and shared a shrimp & hearts of palm salad, and a mushroom quesadilla along with about 20 pounds of chips and their wonderful salsas.

Nearly every Southern California trip in the past couple years has included a stop at Patisserie Chantilly in Lomita.  A Japanese bakery with French-style pastries, everything I have ever eaten here has been impeccably executed.  The epitome of perfection at Chantilly is the cream puff.  As soon as I walk into the patisserie, I usually have a huge smile on my face that remains during the whole trip.

We stopped by the old farmers market on Fairfax and Third -- just a quick run-through to check it out.  This particular farmers market (much more of a tourist destination with permanent store booths than the modern farmers market) makes me feel very old and curmudgeonly as it's hard for me to believe that a modern mall has sprung up around the market in what used to be the parking lot.  This photo is of the famous diner called Du-Pars which is famous for its pies and breakfasts.

The trip was great.  Additional food highlights included Mozza Pizzeria and Sunday Supper at Lucques, a vegetarian dinner we cooked for my family,  along with other bites and nibbles throughout the Southland.  Even five days felt short, and I feel like I didn't do my hometown justice. But there's always next time ...

Shutter Sisters

{147} in my kitchen window, originally uploaded by jen_maiser.

Some of my favorite people on the Internet have come together to create Shutter Sisters -- a "collaborative photo blog that welcomes all women with a passion for photography from experts to amateurs alike." 

I am very excited about this website!

Food Photography by Smitten Kitchen

Really great post about successful food photography over at Smitten Kitchen (via Serious Eats).

SPQR, Photos, and New Site Design!

Durian vendor, Ho Chi Minh City

I wrote a post on Tuesday at KQED's Bay Area Bites detailing my first impressions of SPQR.  I don't often do formal restaurant reviews, so this one is called "SPQR: A preliminary report."  In the words that I used on my flickr page, "Go.  Go Now."   I have a long history with A16, so the fact that I had to try SPQR within days of its opening probably isn't a surprise.

Speaking of Flickr, I've been slowly going through the Vietnam trip photos and posting a couple a day.   The photo above is one that I posted this week.  Nine months after the trip, I am finally feeling like I can start to digest parts of it and talk about it.  It took that long to not be completely overwhelmed by that amazing trip.   So I've been writing a small amount about my impressions with the photos.  You can see it all in the Vietnam Collection of my Flickr.  You can subscribe to a feed of my Flickr photos using this link.

Also, if you read this site through an RSS reader, you may not notice the site's new look.  I am happy to have new digs.  Thanks for everyone who weighed in months ago about the new look.  I chose a design that will allow me to swap photos in and out of the banner fairly easily.

End. August.

The end of August finds me in San Francisco, with a belly full of Little Star Pizza and looking forward to September's Eat Local Month.

Are you still wondering what the mystery machine was?  The first guess, Anita's, was correct.  It was a cherry pitter -- a machine that John Lagier showed us on our tour of Lagier Ranches through CUESA's farm tour program.  It was a fascinating tour, and I want to be able to tell you more about it.  But until I get to that, check out Marc's post about visiting the almond orchards and a discussion of the new law that will affect raw almonds. 

On the same day, we visited Hidden Star Orchards, an organic almond, stone fruit and grape orchard who sells at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market. Johann Smit and his family have an amazing story, starting with his parents who immigrated from the Netherlands and started a dairy farm on the land where Johann now grows apples.

If you are a Flickr lover, please keep an eye on my photos, as I have been spending quite a bit of time on my flickr site.  I am doing an exciting new project called "365 days" in which I take a photo a day for a year.  I'm on day 22, and it's been a really interesting experience so far.  I am really grateful to the project as it's causing me to have my camera with me most of the time which can only be a good thing. 

I'm leaving tomorrow for a couple weeks in Los Angeles.  The timing of this is interesting, as it's the beginning of Eat Local month.  I am really looking forward to spending time there exploring the local options available to those in Southern California.  I will be going to farmers' markets and working local foods into my family's menus as much as possible.  While I won't be attempting the 100% local foods diet that I have done in the past, I think that being in Southern California while concentrating on eating local will be an interesting spin on a routine that is part of my daily life in San Francisco.  The energy of the Eat Local Challenge is always such an exciting thing, and it continues to be a very invigorating part of my life.  Thanks to all of you who support it, or at least tolerate my talking about it fairly regularly.

Have a fun and safe Labor Day weekend!

Photo taken in San Francisco at August Street and Union Street, August 29, 2007.   

Mystery Machine

Mystery Machine, originally uploaded by jen_maiser.

Anyone know what this is? 

No fair answering if you happened to also see this machine today!

Edit: Still wondering?  The answer is in this post.

An unabashed attempt to lure you back

A few friends of mine have left the Bay Area this year, or are in the process of leaving for greener different pastures.  You know exactly who you are.  I only have one thing to say:  Joe's dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes are back for the season.  Come home!

CUESA's Coastal Harvest Farm Tour

Yellow oyster mushrooms, originally uploaded by jen_maiser.

Ever wonder how a mushroom is grown?  It's a fascinating process that I wrote about on KQED's Bay Area Bites this week.  As a part of the tour, I visited Far West Fungi and Yerena Farms.  It was a fun and informative day.

This summer, CUESA is conducting two additional farm tours:

Valley Orchard Farm Tour
Sunday, August 26
Tour Lagier Ranches, our local almond producer, and Hidden Star Orchard in Linden.

Milk and Honey Farm Tour (SOLD OUT)
Sunday, September 16
A tour of Spring Hill Cheese in Petaluma and Marshall's Farm Honey

Both tours are $25 each and include lunch made with farmers' market ingredients.

Grandma's Tomatoes

"Take a picture of my tomatoes and put it on your blob,"  she said.  Amazed that she even knew that the word was close to blog, I felt I must comply.

Habit Coffee, Victoria, BC

Taking a minute away from the Eat Local Challenge

... to talk about photography.  I took this picture of my friends' baby a couple weeks ago.  It was part of a series that I took while testing out a lens from Ziplens.  I had rented the 85 mm f/1.4D Nikon for my Vietnam trip and was thrilled with the results.  That lens is just a gem of a piece of equipment.  But at $1,000 retail, it's a mite pricey for my budget.  The lens I used for the picture below (and for these pics of my cousins) is the 85mm f/1.8D from Nikon.  The price for this lens is much more reasonable at around $420.  You give up some speed, and the boke is not quite as luxurious, but for $600 less, I think it seems to be a really excellent lens.  This will be going on my wish list ...

In other news, I posted on Bay Area Bites today about my 72 hours in Portland a few weeks ago.  Check it out!

And to continue the complete randomness of this post, click on this picture of my mother doing a "trick shot" at a car race expo a few weeks ago.  Funniest.  Thing.  Ever.

 

Happy Easter

May all your chocolate bunnies be delicious.

I had no idea ...

I'm a bit of a thinker.  Most things that there are to think about, I feel like I've pondered.  But I can honestly say that I never ever wondered what a pineapple plant looked like.  And when I came upon one in an orchard I was wandering in the Mekong Delta, it was a revelation.  Good grief, it was beautiful. 

On my tour, we had a home stay in the Delta.  I am a tiny bit of a princess about where I lay my head.  "I don't camp and I don't go to dumps," I've been known to tell friends.  Give me a chicken to break down, or homemade soup on a street corner and I'm fine, but I was a little apprehensive about our home stay.

But it was wonderful.  And as soon as I saw the line of hammocks for us to relax in, I knew that we were in good hands.  We played charades between 3 Americans, 2 Vietnamese, a Norwegian, and 3 Aussies, and I can't remember the last time I've laughed so hard.  We ate fantastic food - most memorably a whole fish that was artfully presented. 

An ice chest full of cold beer was set out and we kept a tally of how many we had so that we could pay in the morning.  And then we retired to long bunks in our location right over the river.  The next morning we were up to check out the floating market, then it was back to Ho Chi Minh City for a few final chaotic days.

Baseball. Soccer. Baseball.

That's been my life this week in Long Beach.  It's amazing how much activity two boys can be involved in.  In my spare moments I was able to go see a few friends and snapped some shots of a couple of little girls as well.

Abigail.
Getting ready for the game.
Concentrating on untying a knot.
The Dodgers.
Jack the text messager.
Mark.
Kate the play-doh head.
The winners.

Monday Thoughts

I have been developing a few photos from my trip, trying to decide what I am going to do with them.  Of the few that I printed, this one came out really nicely in 8 x 10.  I took it at the Dalat airport while we were waiting for our flight to Ho Chi Minh City.

I'm back in Los Angeles this week, working and also babysitting my favorite 12 and 9-year old boys -- the sons of some lifelong friends -- for a whopping eight days.  Yesterday was a banner day as I took them to the first farmers' market that they've ever been to.  Mark, the youngest, was pretty interested in everything, even choosing some purple cauliflower from Weiser Family Farms, carefully inspecting about 5 booths of strawberries before settling on our purchase, and also taking home some kettle corn. 

If you happen to see a copy of Time magazine this week,  check out this week's cover story "Eating Better than Organic" about the local food movement and one man's account of trying to make a decision between local and organic. I felt like a proud parent when I received the press release on Friday, as the Eat Local Challenge blog and the Locavores are both mentioned in the piece.  Big pat on the back to all of you who work so hard to talk about the importance of where your food comes from.  We are being heard, and are acting as catalysts for a conversation that is now occurring throughout this country!

Candy Street, Hanoi

Hanoi's Old Quarter is a maze of small streets spread over a few square miles in the middle of town.  Many of the streets have a singular focus:  A street of nuts and bolts, a street of carnival-sized stuffed animals, a street of shoes, a street of travel agencies, a street of mirrors. 

The picture taken above was a street of vendor after vendor selling dozens of varieties of small candy.  The yellow candies in the middle became a favorite of mine - strong ginger flavor in a hard, sticky candy.  Delicious. 

Haircut II, Saigon

Haircut, Saigon

Streets of Saigon

Friends and family are asking to see more Vietnam photos on a daily basis.  I have yet to figure out an efficient work flow for editing from RAW to web (and to print) effectively, so the photos may be coming one or two at a time for a while. 

Vietnam UFO Fruit #2

Thanks, everybody, for your help on UFO Fruit #1: Wax/Rose Apples.  Now what can you tell me about this next one?  I've been told that it can't be eaten raw, and is used to flavor/color sticky rice.  It has a bright orange, spiny exterior and a blood red interior.  It's pretty large - size of a large grapefruit or small pomelo.  I think that the seeds are put on top of sticky rice too.  Anyone know?

Day Thirteen, Dalat

Thanks for all the compliments about the photography.  This country is infinitely inspiring me to take more and more photos.  Since I posted last, we've been in Nha Trang, a beach town toward the south and now we are in Dalat which is a town like no other that we've been in.  It's high in the mountains and is a vacation/honeymoon destination for Vietnamese.  So while it's a "touristy" town, it caters much more to the Vietnamese tourists than to Westerners, which is refreshing.  It is highly influenced by the French colonial period, so it reminds me much more of a village in Switzerland or elsewhere in Europe than a Vietnamese city. 

I spent a lot of time at the market here today -- it's a large market for such a small town.  It was the first market where I saw many vendors in a row selling eggs, then another set of vendors all selling dried shrimp.  The market photos below are from today.

The land here is so fertile.  I want to talk more about Vietnamese agriculture when I have a little more time, but generally the land is studded with very small farms one after another, all growing different crops.  According to our tour guide, the largest cattle farm in Vietnam has about 100 head of cattle, which should give you an idea of how incredibly small the farms are. 

Today, we went to an organic farm that is owned by an American man.  The farm mainly supplies vegetables to the Hotel Sofitel Dalat Palace, and grows many European/Western herbs.  In fact, our tour guide had not seen many of the herbs.  I introduced him to sage and had him smell it.  He hilariously told me that the sage smells just like roasted dog.  I'll have to take his word for it as dog is the one thing I have religiously avoided seeing or eating in this country!

I did, however, try "cafe chon" yesterday.  It's coffee that, as a fresh bean, is fed to a small animal (I think it's a civet, but haven't had time to completely investigate on the 'net).  It is then "excreted" by the animal, cleaned up, roasted, and turned into a delicacy-type coffee.  To me, it was really good coffee, and I'm glad I tried it, but it wasn't revelatory or anything.  Unlike eatstuff, I didn't find it to smell repulsive -- the one I tried had a pretty basic coffee smell.  In fact, eatstuff's reaction to it makes me a litle curious as to whether I was swindled.

We're off to Ho Chi Minh City next.  I am trying to gear myself up for the heat, and for the busiest city in Vietnam!

And now for a few photos ...

 

Buddha, Hoi An


Organic farm, Dalat


Woman selling green mangoes, Dalat


Grains, Dalat Market


Dried shrimp, Dalat

Day Eight, Hoi An

I am having trouble finding words to describe this trip.  So I am going to just give you some images from my days here.  All the pictures below are from the past two days in Hoi An.

I am happy and healthy and eating wonderful, glorious food.  The people here are really unbelievable.  I am enjoying them more than anything else, though the food is a close second. 

The best thing I ate today?  Meat on a stick in the market.  I stopped at the stand of a woman who only had a small charcoal fire and was grilling pork marinaded in a ginger sauce.  I bought four of them (for about 70 cents) and she just motioned that I should eat them as-is.  After I got through the first meat stick, she decided she liked me enough to offer me a chair.  After I got through the second meat stick, she decided she liked me enough to wrap each one in a rice paper wrapper, give me a peanut sauce, and add herbs to each roll.  I bought two more, and she patiently wrapped each one for me as I was ready for it.  Heaven.

Day Four, Hanoi

It is hard to describe what it's like to be in Asia for the first time.  It's noisy and hectic and beautiful and pungent and friendly - I am just overwhelmed and loving it.

My friend Malik happens to be travelling here and met me for the first couple of days.  Last night, after dinner, we walked back to the hotel. As we walked into the lobby he said, "How odd."  I asked him what was odd and he laughed because I hadn't even noticed that there were about 12 scooters parked in my lobby and a man sleeping on the floor.  I had become so used to seeing really strange and foreign things that I no longer had the critical ability to notice a really odd sight when it was right in front of me.

I am eating the most amazing things.  Yesterday, I ate five fruits that I had never eaten before -- once I get it together a bit (more about that below in "geek notes"), I'll be able to show you pictures of them. The best thing I ate today was grilled pork from a street vendor wrapped in "la lot" -- a pepper/betelnut leaf.  Wrap that all in lettuce and add spices and fresh herbs, and it makes for an amazing snack.  I also have had to learn to be comfortable with having the locals laugh at me, because we Americans trying to eat local food seem to be their entertainment.

I am having a lot of trouble posting from here.  In fact, if you are reading this it is thanks to my good friend Rachel who put the post up for me.  Hopefully I'll get the hang of it soon.  Also, keep an eye on my Flickr page because I may have an easier time posting photos there than here.

I'm going to leave you with a few photos and hope to bring you more in the near future.

One day this week, Malik and I went to go see a temple that was a bit out of town.  There is a point near the temple where tourists have to leave their taxis and walk.  When we were done and ready to find a taxi again, we had to talk to this boy ... a real wheeler-dealer who has a local business of calling cabs for poor abandoned tourists and then getting a commission from the cabbies.  The boy demanded Malik's cell phone and then used it to call the cabbie (who we suspect may have been his father).  Aside from being a crack-up of a kid, he was a real ham for the camera.

This is UFO Fruit #1.  Can anyone identify it?  It's apple-ish tasting, but did not have black seeds like an apple.  If I remember correctly, they had a pit.

Fruits and vegetables on the street.  Many of the vendors sell pre-prepped vegetables.  Given that most people buy vegetables the day they are going to use them, prepped food makes more sense to me here than it does in the States.

Whisks and brooms from a street booth.

GEEK NOTE:  I have been shooting with my Nikon D70.  Days 1 and 2, I shot purely in RAW format until I realized that getting photos to my blog from RAW was going to be complicated.  So now I am shooting RAW + JPG and putting the JPGs here when I can.  They are unprocessed on this end, as I am using random computers in Internet Cafes.

I am travelling with 3-1GB compact flash cards and uploading the photos to a Wolverine 60GB Flashpac each evening.  So far, that plan seems to be working well.

The other decision that I'm happy with was to bring my small Canon Powershot, which is nice to have when I don't feel like lugging the D70, or when I want to be less conspicuous.

Walk Around the Neighborhood

I've had a crazy few days because of a big work project I am trying to get out the door this week.  Finally decided a little while ago that I needed to at least get out for a few minutes in order to feel human, and grabbed my camera to walk around.  Some pictures from the walk:

Cauliflower Kids

I wish you could have seen these beauties in person -- they were a sight to behold.  Teeny tiny cauliflowers of several varietals from Weiser Family Farms.  I saw them at the Sunday Long Beach Farmers' Market, but if you are in Southern California do yourself a favor and track them down ... they attend sixteen markets in the LA area, and also sell amazing potatoes, carrots, and other root vegetables.

Ode to a Lens

Excuse me while I wax poetic about a lens I rented.  When I read on Still Life With that it is possible to rent a lens online from a reliable company, I hopped to the site for a rental for the party last weekend.  I thought it would be a perfect time to try it out. 

My pics from last weekend turned out ok, but not great. Given the chaos of the day and the fact that the lens had been in my hand for two days, it doesn't surprise me.  But this weekend, I felt that I really came into my own with the lens, which is a little unfortunate considering the price, and the fact that it has to go home to Ziplens this week. 

I went to the Heart of the City Farmers' Market today, and will be reviewing it on Bay Area Bites for my market review series.  But I'll give you a preview of some of my favorite shots with the heavenly lens.

Signs of Broadway

When I'm in Long Beach, I spend a lot of time driving up and down Broadway, a long street which takes me between my mom's house and toward San Pedro to my grandparents' house.  Driving on it the other day, I started to notice the really cool signs that are up and down this street.  Here are some of my favorites.  Click through to see the entire picture or go to my Flickr site.

The Party's Over

The big anniversary party was today, and it seemed to be a big hit.  I am culling through over 600 photos (we hired a photographer), but the one below really stood out.  I am a part of at least three generations of women in my family who LOVE chicken wings.  The other day mom brought home a roasted chicken and promptly ate both wings before I even started eating.  So I cracked up when I saw this picture of grandma making little pincer fingers and heading for the chicken wing while grandpa looked on.  It proves that we are all a part of the same chicken wing legacy.

I'm back to San Francisco tomorrow - it's been a great trip here, but I'm looking forward to going home.

Grandpa getting a haircut

We're having a big party tomorrow for the grandparents tomorrow -- thus the lack of blogging in the past two days.  While I took grandma to get her hair done, mom took grandpa to get a haircut at an insane barber shop in Long Beach.  Check out the decor.

   

In very short eating news, I ate some fantastic potato tacos today which I had heard about on Good Food when Jonathan Gold reported on them.  Try googling "porno burrito" and you'll find info about the restaurant where I ate them.  I'll be back soon to have them again. 

More Images from the Hollywood Farmers' Market

"Markets breathe, they rest, they laugh, they yell.  They absorb all the life around them and multiply it."

Alford/Duguid, Hot Sour Salty Sweet

Does it count if I post somewhere else?

I posted about the Mountain View Farmer's Market today on Bay Area Bites.  I am really enjoying this farmers' market series as it gets me out of my normal farmers' market cycle, and I have been able to find some fun and exciting new markets.

In other news, I received an email today announcing that Percy Schmeiser is going to be in the Bay Area in a couple weeks.  If you saw The Future of Food, you may remember Schmeiser as the farmer from Canada who was sued by Monsanto. 

• Monday, November 13, Santa Cruz, Live Oak Grange (831-423-2263)
• Tuesday, November 14, UC Berkeley, North Gate Hall (510-847-7141)
• Thursday, November 16, Sonoma, Burlingam Hall (707-935-7960)
• Friday, November 17, Ukiah, Mendocino Community College Little Theater (707-468-3012)
• Saturday, November 18, Pt. Arena/Manchester, Garcia Grange (707-882-3425)

All programs begin at 7 p.m. with doors opening at 6 p.m. Cost is a $10 donation (except for UC Berkeley, which is free), and no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

For more information, check out the CCOF website.

And ... why don't I leave you with a photo today?  A couple of weeks ago, I went to Pt. Reyes with some good friends and this picture (along with the Halloween spiders) is from that trip.  It was a bittersweet trip for me for a ton of reasons, but it was a beautiful weekend and I got some ok pictures.

I'm off to LA for a few days (quite a few, actually) so you can look forward to a few posts from there.  See you tomorrow!

Happy Halloween!

My spider friends and I wish you a Happy Halloween!  Taken by me in Pt. Reyes Station, California.

Early Morning, San Francisco

I haven't been sleeping well lately.  One of the benefits of being an early-morning riser in San Francisco is watching the city come awake.  The pictures below are of a walk I took last week when the sun was coming up.  That morning, I had woken up at four a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep.  So I got up, made a pot of coffee, and read for a while.  When I noticed the sun rising over the city, I rushed out to walk up and over Russian Hill.  Now if only I could find some breakfast places that open extra early.

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Along the Maine Coast

I am spending a few days with my good friends Amy and Brian in Massachusetts.  On Saturday, they took me for a drive up the coast of Maine, where I'd never been.  The day was full of great food and beautiful sites.  I can't wait to come back some day and spend more time. 

You can view the rest of the photos from the day here.

Photo of the Day V - Mark at the Batting Cages

Photo of the Day IV - Kate

Photo of the Day III

Taken at the fabulous Santa Monica Farmers' Market.  Peacock Farm has delicious raisins and other dried fruits, in addition to shiitake mushrooms.

Photo of the Day II

This is a great children's bookstore in Long Beach.  I had to actually do research to hunt down an independent bookstore in the area.  The woman working here told me that there are only 10-15 in the entire Los Angeles area that she's aware of -- that's only about 1 per every 35 square miles.  We are lucky in San Francisco to have so many independents within a small range of our town.

Once Upon a Story Books
3740 E Fourth Street
Long Beach

Find an independent bookseller near you.

Photo of the Day

I'm in Long Beach this week and told Jason I would post a picture each day I am gone.  This one is from last night, as Mom and I took a walk along the bay.  Some parts of Long Beach have such a small town feel.  Ten minutes into our walk, we ran into some people we know and sat and had a glass of wine with them while watching the sunset. 

Random Thursday (non-food) Quiz

Quiz of the day: Where am I, and why is this picture significant?

Hint: The picture was taken at around noon today.  Click to enlarge and get a better look.

February already?

You are about to find out what a procrastinator I am.  You see, Jason and I did a way fun New Year's card this year.  My plan was to send out the card and then do a post talking about the photos that were on the card.  Most of the cards went out -- probably 90% of them -- but there were a few last ones that I had to send that never made it out the door.  And then the stamp prices increased, and all of a sudden it was February.  And is it too late now to send them out?

Well, I wanted all y'all to see the card because it was such a great look back at our random year, but please promise me you won't hate me if you should have received a card and you didn't.  It's not you, it's me.

Row 1

1) Me and J in Pt. Reyes Station.  We took this picture in the bookshop window one Saturday that we went to the Farmer's Market there.  If you look closely, you can see another man inside the store who is in the reflection as well.  It makes the shot very strange, but I like it nonetheless.

2) Trattoria da Gianni in Bologna.  In April, we went to Venice and our only trip out of town was to take a 2.5 hour train ride to go to this restaurant in Bologna for lunch.  We had gone there for the first time a few years ago.  As the train approached, we both worried that Trattoria da Gianni wouldn't match our amazing memory of it.  But it was really perfect -- such a great meal.   

3) This is me on the vaporetto in Venice.  I remember being so dang happy in this picture.  Those of you who have seen my Blogger Profile or my Blogher Profile will recognize this as my new favorite picture of myself. 

4) A palm tree that's in the park outside our house.  We have so many pictures of this palm tree because it always looks cool against the sky.

Row 2

1) We had to put in the quintessential Venice shot - if for no other reason than to prove that we were there.  This picture is of St. Mark's Square.  We managed to spend a week in Venice and do very little actual sightseeing.  We spent about an hour one day in the St. Mark's area, but most of the time just walked and explored the city.  Everything that you know about the light in that city is true - it really is a magical place.

2) This is me holding some rocks on a beach near Abbott's Lagoon in Point Reyes.  The beach there is amazing because it looks like a normal beach, but when you get up close you notice that it is tons of little pebbles that are so smooth and beautiful.

3) The weekend in September that my family was here for the birthday celebration of my mom and I, we took a bay cruise on The Adventure Cat.  II highly recommend it, and I think reasonably priced.  This picture is of my shoes and Jason's shoes and the bridge.  This shot is a perfect example of me directing the shot and making Jason take the picture.  He had to get in the most impossible position on the catamaran net, but I think the picture was worth it.

4) The pan statue outside the new De Young museum.

Row 3

1) Flowers in our house.  In the bottom right-hand side, you can see THE salad bowl -- the hand-carved one that was our main Venice purchase.

2) This picture of Jason makes me smile.  I get that eye-rolling look a lot.  People who see this say that it makes the card look like the Brady Bunch, with me at the top and him looking upward in this picture.

3) Pumpkins from the Nicasio Valley Farms Pumpkin Patch. 

4) Pizza from A16 for our birthday dinner.  That's my mom's hand holding the pizza.

Row 4

1) This cute Buddha is in Jason's mom's amazing garden in Monrovia.

2) I made place cards for our birthday dinner.  These belonged to me and J. 

3) Do you know what a chiton is?  While in Bolinas at the tidepools in October, we came across a chiton shell.  I turned it over and found this beautiful blue interior - it was such a surprise.  And of course, I directed Jason to take the shot!

4) During that same trip in October, we were out in Pt. Reyes and Jason stopped the car to take a picture of something.  All of the young cows in the pasture across the way came running up to the fence thinking that we had food.  Here's another picture from that day.