Blog

Its been a slow week, really. Jeff caught a cold in our waning days in Michigan, so we spent most of our week back quietly recuperating. This weekend, we ran some short errands here and there. Not really the stuff of riveting blogs.

Nevertheless, I’ve had my new camera out. Testing the zoom and the composition. Getting familiar with the auto focus. Really trying to get comfortable for my first big outing of the year…a work trip to Las Vegas this week, followed by a family visit in North Carolina.

Sooooo, I broke down before Christmas and picked up a new digital SLR that I had been eyeing. Frankly, its a bit intimidating, because I haven’t shot with an SLR in over three years. I’ve been enjoying the spontaneity of my little sub-compact camera, which I am in the habit of carrying EVERYWHERE. Nevertheless, I am trying to improve my people photography skills, and for that, I really want the power and speed of an SLR. (Of course, I will still continue to carry the small camera as well.)

I took shot #1 in Michigan on Christmas Eve. And, of course, it was out of focus. Sigh. But overall, I’m pleased with the nimbleness of the camera. Now I have to learn what all those buttons do 🙂 Keep in mind that my last SLR was a manual Nikon that I bought in college…it served me well, but boy was it simple!

Happy New Year, my dear family and friends. Jeff and I returned home yesterday from a week in Michigan with his family. The week truly sped by…much like the rest of December.

We flew into Chicago the Friday evening before Christmas, and drove straight to Muskegon to arrive at 1am. No snow in sight–it was relatively warm all week–so the drive was smooth sailing. Along the way, we got in the holiday spirit by listening to all-Christmas radio stations as we hopped from Illinois to Indiana to Michigan.

On Saturday, we did last-minute shopping…mainly picking up fun odds and ends for stockings. Those have always been one of my family’s big traditions, and I’ve tried to build fun-filled stockings for Jeff’s family. The kids definitely loved theirs!

Christmas and days that followed were filled with family, food, and general relaxing. We watched tons of DVDs that people received as gifts. We introduced Jeff’s family to Rummikib. We did an IMAX film in Grand Rapids. We even managed to celebrate a few January birthdays early.

On Friday, Jeff and I drove to Lansing and met up with his friends Matt and Nick from Detroit. Not only did we enjoy the visit, but we also got to test out my new Garmin Nuvi GPS that Jeff gave me for Christmas. We’ve named it “Emily” after the units British female voice. Emily got us there and back again, and even found a Starbucks for us along the way.

Saturday, Jeff, Emily, and I drove back late to Chicago for our early morning flight the next day. Emily proved her worth by automatically locating traffic and rerouting us–we had our doubts, but she was right. Somewhere along the way–probably from the kids–Jeff picked up a cold, but we managed to meet up with his friend Paolo for a delicious Italian dinner before he totally succumbed to illness. On the plus side, we did get upgraded on the flight home, which made Jeff a bit more comfortable.

Nevertheless, we arrived home a bit run down from such a full week. I made some hearty chicken enchiladas for dinner with our friend Chris, and we rang in the New Year in front of the fireplace.

On Saturday, our friend Pamela–a photo classmate of mine at Ft. Mason–and her husband hosted their annual cookie decorating party at their beautiful home in Telegraph Hill. This was our second year, and we had such fun painting with colorful glazes and sprinkling with dots and sparkles other miniature bits. The cookies sparked imaginative conversations for a perfect December weekend.


Afterwards, Jeff and I walked a few short blocks to North Beach for dinner. We happened upon an intimate northern Italian restaurant–Da Flora–which served us the best gnocchi I have ever tasted–melt-in-your-mouth morsels in a bacon and sage cream sauce. (Jeff’s hearty pork bolognese and my dungeness crab tagliatelle were certainly worthy dishes to follow.)

Inspired by our surprise dinner Saturday evening, I made a wonderful “Tuscan shrimp” dish on Sunday night. This simple dish from the Food Network was warm and flavorful, which was particularly nice on an unusually frigid SF evening. (Hey, I had a razor thin layer of ICE on my windshield this morning. For SF, that is C-O-L-D. 🙂