Move Over JC Penney, There's a New Game In Town

I'm officially expanding my repertoire of photography skills with two new baby shoots over the last two weekends! They were both for co-workers of mine (it happened to be that when I joined the company, we had a virtual explosion of babies being born...so it seemed).

These little bundles are just around the same age (a few weeks apart) and I had a great time playing Supermodel with them. I find that I am learning a ton with practice and Dave helps me critique a few shots afterwards to figure out what could be better. For example, with Oliver (first photo shoot), I learned that an f-stop of 5.6 is my friend. It allows me to get things in focus that I need, while still allowing for that "fuzzy" depth of field that we all love. From the shoot with Devon (last Sunday - 2nd baby down), I was reminded that just because you have a certain pose in mind for the baby, the 7-month-old baby does not always share your "vision"! They were both adorable, really well-behaved munchkins and I had a great time.

Highlights from Oliver can be viewed by slide show or gallery.


Devon slideshow or photo gallery


My next step is to take a class on post-processing!

Stop What You're Doing.....

And go see The Color Purple. I went last week and it was AMAZING! Though Fantasia, Chaka Khan and Bebe Williams are in it in NYC, Destiny's Child's Michelle Williams was in the touring version of the show. It was truly phenomenal.... I loved the movie (with Oprah and Whoopi), and my expectations were moderate for the live show - just figured it would be "pretty good"...I was so wrong. The crowd was into it and the music can put you over the edge.

Check out the website to see if it's coming to a theater near you. You won't regret it!

Time to Give Thanks

Dave and I decided to stay in San Francisco for the holiday to relax with friends and enjoy our (relatively) new "home" in the city. Lindsay & Jon went to Texas to see Jon's parents and Mom went to Los Cabos with her girlfriend, Gaye. Dad & Carolyn stayed in Charleston after a big trip to NYC and an upcoming trip to San Diego and Los Cabos (yes, ironic and coincidental that my 3 parents would all go to Los Cabos for the first time in like 30 years within a month of each other).

Thursday morning, we headed over to Chris & Valerie's to watch a little football. We also decided to integrate "show and tell" where each of us brought a few pictures to share with the rest of us (pictures of that 'awkward stage' that we all went through, pictures of your first boyfriend, pictures of an achievement, etc). It was a lot of fun and we kicked off the day with - what else? Mumm sparkling wine.

Dave and I intended to go home around 12pm to get officially dressed for the day, but ended up staying at C&V's apartment until almost 10pm!!! Yes, almost a full 12 hours spent in the confines of someone else's 1 bedroom apartment. We had a blast though! We split up the TGiving "duties" with Dave on Turkey, Chris on Green Beans (and beverages!), Valerie on stuffing and mashed potatoes, and me on the Bryand-Rynearson "famous" cranberry sauce and Mama Dianne's "famous" sweet potato with marshmallow casserole (Mmmm-mmm good!). Here was our feast (did I mention there were just FOUR Of us???):


Chris introduced me to a Tom & Jerry cocktail, which I had never heard of! It consists of a delicious mix of brandy and goodness, served hot and goes down like WATAH' my friends! Interestingly enough, it wasn't named after the famous cartoon. Read more about Tom & Jerry Drink!. Thanks, Chris!


On Friday, instead of hitting all of the Black Friday craziness, we headed north to Napa to spend the night at Silverado Resort. We tasted wines at Mumm (of course) and Honig, then went to a newbie (new to us) called Robert Sinskey, recommended by friends of my parents named Dee and John. They ordered Sinskey's Pinot Noir at dinner with us a couple of months ago and we immediately fell in love with the wine. The tasting was interesting because, though a little on the pricey side ($20/person), you do have a food pairing with the experience (I use the term "food" quite lightly as none of the pairing food is larger than the size of a quarter...not exactly enough to get full over!). We had a great experience there though and I'm glad we tried it.

The last highlight of the quick getaway was a reservation at the famous chef, Thomas Keller's restaurant, Ad Hoc. This is such an interesting concept because you have no idea what is on the menu prior to arriving AND you have no CHOICE on the menu once you get there! It is a prix fixe $45 four-course meal and you don't have to make one single decision except for what beer or wine you'd like to enjoy. The food was absolutely delicious and I highly recommend this experience if you can score a reservation (we had ours at least a month in advance for a Friday night).

For more pictures (this post turned into a NOVEL!), you can view them here.

This year, we are most thankful for health, our families, our new home in San Francisco and the truly wonderful friends we have made here. xoxo

Chalk One Up for Dave

No, we're not back in school again, but Dave had a GENIUS idea (if I do say so myself) to get a CHALK BOARD in order to help us display our photos! Over the last few years, we have struggled to find a way to actually enjoy all of the pictures Dave has shot. We all know how it is - you get a few frames, thinking you'll change them out frequently because it's "so easy" to print online...next thing you know, you've moved from Boston to San Diego to Raleigh to San Francisco and you still have the same 10 photos in the frames! So at long last, we have a solution. This is our new 8 foot x 4 foot "photo gallery"!



Another new addition is a piece of art we bought at a local art fair last month and has been in the frame shop ever since. The artist is about 80 years old and the name of the painting is "The Way It Was". The scene is her memory of how dances, including her Prom, looked 'back in her day'. She told us about how she loved the dresses and suits that people wore and that she wanted to capture the memory. We love it!


Our next addition was a lamp we picked up in Julian, CA (outside of San Diego) when we visited two weeks ago. The one thing our current dream apartment lacks (aside from a dishwasher, disposal and laundry) is OVERHEAD LIGHTING in the living room! It's like a séance in there every night with all of the candles, so hopefully this new lamp will help!


Our final addition is our coffee table that arrived early (as in pre-Jan. 2008)! It's by Knoll and we both love it. It's durable, adds some character and hopefully we'll have it for a very, very long time.


And if you aren't sure if our apartment looks like a florist or a funeral parlor, you can blame that on Mama Dianne. She believes in having fresh flowers every week and it's a habit that I have picked up. I love having them (gents, take a hint at how you can keep your wives happy on just $10/week), though I enjoy picking them out at the farmers market or grocery store myself!

Anyways, that is all for now. We still have to get one more rug and a set of curtains for our bedroom, but then I think we will totally be SETTLED IN! We moved to SF in January 2007...we're almost at a year mark and still getting it together!

So You Think You Can Dance? (no, they really can)

For three weeks, I've been counting down the days to the annual SF Hip Hop Dancefest. And no, I'm not kidding. Our friend Adrienne clued us in that this little slice of heaven (my heaven involves 24 hours a day of hip hop and daily performances by Marvin Gaye...) and we rushed to buy the tickets. Friday and Saturday nights were all but sold out, so we went with the blue hairs at 2pm on Sunday. There was a huge variety of people at the show - from 8-year-old preppie wanna-be-homies to people my parents' age to "I swear I am a rockstar dancer at the bar after 10 tequila shots" people like us. Yes, quite the mix. It's hard to describe how absolutely incredible these performers were, so I attempted to capture a mini video in order to catch even a glimpse.

The total video is about 30 seconds, so watch the whole thing!


There is a better "teaser" video on the Hip Hop Dancefest website:


Dave and I promptly went to the GYM after the show this afternoon. I have all but made a vow of celibacy from food (well, except wine....and martinis...and chocolate...and ice cream - but a STRICT vow other than that) in order to start working on my Hip Hop Dancer Body that's just screamin' to get out (or is that the tequila talking about my future career? Sometimes you just can't tell). Pass the turkey!!

Lions and Tigers and BABIES, OH MY!

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY, NATALIE!!!

I can comfortably sub in the word "Babies" for "Bears" because the two are equally scary to me. I went to North Carolina two weekends ago for my friend Natalie's baby shower and got to visit with all of the babies that have been born or grown since I left NC in January!

Natalie's shower was really great - I love seeing "the girls" and spending time together. As Natalie makes the move into motherhood, I'm really glad I could be there to celebrate with her. One of the highlights from the day was spending time with Nat's husband's mom and stepmom. I have kept in touch with Nay's mom over the years (she is the one that created our very cool "heart" piece of art), but I hadn't seen his stepmom since high school. It was a true joy to see her and catch up. She is a free spirit on firm ground and I really enjoyed seeing her. Nay's mom repainted the rocking chair that Nay had as a child and they are going to put it in the nursery for their baby to use. I thought that was really sweet and cool...what a great act of love!

Natalie looks glowing as a mom-to-be and it was really wonderful to see her and Nay as they prepare for the new member of their family. There are pictures of "the girls" at the shower posted here.

The other portion of the weekend was spent hanging out and practicing my photography skills on all the aforementioned babies! I'm pretty sure each of them have no idea that I actually have a face because all they saw of me over the weekend was a big black lens in their faces, about 4 inches from their grills. They were good sports though. Here are my favorite shots:

Rives Smith, son of Elizabeth (Mann) Smith

Emerson Lisk, daughter of Nicole (DeFeo) Lisk

Elizabeth Farmer, daughter of Mary (Tripp) Farmer

Dino Pirozzi, son of Meg (Koester) Pirozzi

The rest of the photos can be seen by clicking here.

We had a great, quick, 48-hour weekend. It was a long flight from SF to Raleighwood, but well worth every moment of it.

NBA Ballah' Style

I can now officially say, "I AM A BASKETBALL FAN!!!!!!!"


Taken with Dave's iPhone...must give credit where credit is due

At approximately 4:58pm yesterday, I found out there were 2 extra corporate tickets (no, Dave and I did not pay $400/ticket to watch a basketball game!) to see the Golden State Warriors play the Cleveland Cavaliers (read: LEBRON JAMES!). I called Dave to see if he wanted to go and we were off! I had to give up Book Club (we read "A Wrinkle In Time" this month and I was actually anxious to discuss it with the girls), but it was well worth it because the tickets were 3rd row from the bench!!!! Absolutely awesome. We made it to our seats about 10 minutes before tip off, so we had time to watch the players warm up, grab some beers and relax. We brought our "good camera" (the digital SLR) and snapped a few photos including these:



We didn't see any celebs except for Phil Hellmuth (the poker god) which was pretty cool. This picture was taken from about 3 feet away from him (Dave was paparazzi on this one). I don't watch much poker, but Phil is my absolute favorite player:


And as an homage to the company that GAVE me this opportunity, check out our sponsorship! It was all over the arena during specified times and is cool to see because a guy on my team (the guy that gave me the tickets) creates and runs this for Symantec:


The Warriors didn't win the game, but it was a great experience and we had a BLAST! I have only been to one other NBA game (Celtics vs. Lakers, which was pretty sick with Kobe & Shaq), but I have certainly never experienced a professional game like this! One last picture with THE Mr. James:


Yes, I could get used to this life! Ha Ha. The rest of our photos can be viewed by clicking here.

En Fuego

I really don't mean to make light of the fire situation in San Diego and LA (no pun intended), but it is quite surreal to be in the area or to have lived in the area, then see everything on CNN. Unless you are completely living under a rock, you would know that Southern California has been battling major, major fires this week. Almost a million people have evacuated their homes, and a few thousand have lost their homes entirely.

Lindsay, Jon and Mom are all very, very, safe. The closest fire is about 40 miles from where they live in La Jolla and San Diego proper, respectively. Here is a diagram of the fires from CNN that gives a good view. They all live directly IN the white "San Diego" circle.



Mom flew up here yesterday, not because she needed to evacuate, but because she was basically "stuck" in her own home. With the ashes and fumes and general danger outdoors, they instructed everyone to stay inside their homes as much as possible. Doors and windows were closed (which NEVER happens in San Diego) and everyone has, understandably, been glued to the TV watching CNN non-stop. So it made sense for Mom to come up here for a few days and leave the unfortunate scene behind her. Lindsay and Jon JUST got an adorable dog named JACK about a week ago, which made their "escape" a little more complicated, so they opted to stay back in San Diego and wait it out.

Just wanted to give the update that our family has a happy progress report. Thank you for all of the emails and phone calls with concern. I know Lindsay, Jon and Mom all appreciate them. Mom is definitely giving a big "WHAT THE HECK???" (if you know Dianne, you know she has never used the word "heck" in her life) about life in California. First, she experienced the earthquake with us back in February, then there was a landslide in La Jolla this summer and now these horrible, horrible fires have swept across Southern California. She's questioning the "peacefulness" that came with the annual hurricanes and tornadoes of North Carolina...you always knew to expect them and you almost always have time to evacuate. And hell, if not, grab a bottle of moonshine and it will get you through just about anything. Right, y'all?

All joking aside, our thoughts are with our neighbors to the south as they continue to fight the fires and protect their homes. It is such a sad scene to see areas we know burning down, yet we are grateful to hear that our friends and family in SoCal are all safe.

January 2008...Just Around the Corner

That is what the sales clerk told us when she set the delivery date for our new end table from Neiman's. I almost had a heart attack....seriously? January 2008?? And this was ordered at the end of September, when I couldn't believe we would wait almost a half a year for a piece of furniture. With our fickle taste, who knows what we'll even LIKE at that point?

Just the same, one month later, I'm still really excited about both of our new pieces...or soon to be ours when they are delivered...in January 2008 (did I mention that?)

#1: End Table from Neiman's: How cute is this? Just cute and funky enough, with a great color of "celedon" to put a little punch into our living room:


#2: Florence Knoll Marble Top Coffee Table: This was originally Dave's idea and I am now really excited to see it in our place. My Mom had this really great, really durable coffee table in her Raleigh house. It was the kind that you could put your feet up on, put your drinks on without coasters (and Mama Dianne wouldn't even blink an eye!), you could drop a brick on this thing and it wouldn't even flinch. It was awesome. Our new table isn't exactly that way, but it's along the same lines that it's fashionable (to us at least!), while being fully functional and comfortable.

Anyways, these are the newest additions...soon! We just have to get a couple of bedside tables, a rug for the living room and curtains for the bedroom (so it doesn't look like it's 12 o'clock noon at 12 o'clock midnight), then we are officially "settled"! First things first...January 2008...just around the corner.

You're Ruggin' Me the Wrong Way

Rugs! I realize this isn't necessarily the sexiest of topics, but it's a growing part of our landscape here in 3625 Fillmore Street.

Our landlady came in a few weeks ago and - first thing she said - "You need more rugs." We are forced to cover 75% of our hardwood floors by rugs to help in noise reduction within the building. We only had about 25% when the landlady "stopped by" unexpectedly and we're up to about 50% now. Multiple challenges in finding rugs:
1) We are not 90 years old. That eliminates about 90% of the rugs out there because they are geared toward old, wrinkled women who probably wove the darn things 75 years ago when they were young bucks visiting Iran. Do I sound bitter?
2) Holy HELL they are expensive. We had absolutely no idea. We scoured all the "usual suspects" of Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, etc....then went to gigantic local rug stores here in SF with my Mom, then finally bought (and returned) one from Ikea. Even at IKEA it was $800...not sure I can say WTF on my family-friendly blog, but... WTF?????

We were resourceful on CraigsList (we have bought and sold at least 50% of what we have owned on CraigsList...I would be a paid walking advertisement for that site if I could) and Dave found a woman in Half Moon Bay (about 30 miles south of SF) who was selling a particular rug from Iran out of her house. We thought we were going to see ONE rug she was selling, but it turns out she has at least 30 she is selling! She calls it a "hobby" - collecting and selling rugs. Some do stamp collecting, some watch baseball, this women buys and sells thousand-dollar rugs. Hey, I can't knock it...my husband shines shoes as a hobby for god's sake. SIDE NOTE: Dave added a new member to our family this week with a new pair of Alden 405 Indy boots. (He claims, "I'll have these for the rest of my life!" I'm just not sure how these "lifers" are different than his other 5 pairs of brown boots that are also "lifers" that look identical to these. I realize this is role-reversal and it's a crime to women of America that Dave has more shoes than me, but COME ON!!!!)

But I digress. We had a great experience with the Rug Lady of Half Moon Bay and ended up buying three rugs from her. They don't necessarily fit perfectly in THIS apartment, but hopefully we WILL actually have these for the rest of our lives, which presumably will someday bring us to a real, live HOME (i.e. full size space where you don't have to make things "fit" in one of three rooms). So, without further ado, check 'em out (or 2 of the 3 at least)! The top one is by Dave's desk and is an Heriz rug from the 1930s.

The Dirty South Comes West

Yep, the Dirty South arrived last week in full force. Meg, Marco, Nicole and Will arrived from North Cackalaka and San Francisco will never be the same. From a day in Napa to a trip to the Farmer's Market to watching the Blue Angels fly overhead in our neighborhood, to shopping, shopping, shopping and watching sports at local bars, we had a great weekend together and we absolutely appreciate the four of them flying cross-country for a visit with us!

Here are some highlights from the day in Napa:
1) Mumm: Dave and I LOVE this place. I have written about it a few other times because I love doing tastings here and walking through their art gallery.


2) PlumpJack: PlumpJack is partially owned by the mayor of SF, Gavin Newsome. He also owns 2 restaurants, 1 bar and 1 wine shop....all on our street. We wanted to check out his vineyard for the tasting and it turned out to be our favorite winery all day! September and October are harvest season in Napa, so we got to see the winery in action which was cool.


3) Hurley's: We ate lunch here and it was delicious! It's in the town of Yountville and food from their popular burger to the risotto was great.

4) Mondavi: Yes, the biggie. We had never been to such a large vineyard before. Mondavi, as you can imagine, is gigantic. It was more beautiful than I expected, but also a churn-and-burn experience (lots of people, relatively small space...not much time to learn about the wines from the person pouring). I definitely enjoyed the grounds and we took a few pictures out there...

Dave keeps this photo of me in one particular suit jacket.... It is from my 5th birthday when we lived in Evanston and I tried to recreate it here...



5) Clos du Val: This was our last stop for the day. We stopped because, like crackheads, we wanted "just one more". This turned out to be a not-so-great idea as it got us riled up enough to stop at the store and buy cocktails for the hour drive home. Meg came to regret this for the next 24 hours as she intimately got to know the bathroom floor at the hotel. Awww.....

The rest of the weekend flew by and we were very sad when Monday came and we all had to go back to the reality of work! They were anxious to get back to NC, especially back to their adorable kids, Dino and Emerson. For more photos, check out the photo album...

I'm Baaaaack!

I can't believe it's been over two weeks since my last visit. Oh, sweet blog....can you forgive me? Google, can you try not to cancel my account for lack of use after being loyal for so long?

At long last, I'm baaaaack! I actually didn't GO anywhere...life has just somehow snuck in and got in the way of me WRITING about life.... ???

A few things have happened since I last wrote. One of which is that I got a joooooooooob! I'm still with Symantec, but I am now PERMANENT, as in a full-time, salaried employee with benefits, days off, health care, even a free gym membership. I was scheduled to be a contractor through March 2008, but am absolutely thrilled to have "converted" to a full-timer. I'll be doing the same job - Marketing Programs Manager - focusing on ways to market to the consumer.

Anyways, we're back!

Luring Me In....

Well, Jon finally did it. He succeeded in the impossible. No, he didn't stop global warming (yet) or discover a way to halt aging....he got Dave and me to go FISHING!

We spent Jon's 30th birthday weekend in Tahoe with his family (a.k.a. HEAVEN ON EARTH). This is the same location that Jon and Lindsay got engaged almost exactly a year ago. Dave created this site for them at the time and is a fun walk down memory lane.

The entire weekend was fun and relaxing. In my 29 years, I am finding that I feel the most serene and relaxed when at Jon's grandparents' house on Tahoe. It is fun, easy and 100% enjoyable. They live directly ON the lake which is nothing short of phenomenal.

But I digress from Jon's major life accomplishment. Lindsay and I took out their row boat one afternoon (which was like 2 of the 3 Stooges trying to row and not knock each other with the fishing poles...I thought Jon should swamp our boat for Lindsay and me being complete idiots, but instead he was just thrilled that we were fishing at all!). We thought we had LOTS of bites, but come to find out that sometimes you just get caught on a rock and it's not REALLY a fish. We (I) actually believed that we "caught" about 20 fish before Jon let me down (gently) by saying that perhaps...just perhaps...some of those catches were rocks rather than fish that got away. I was a little offended at first until I realized he was absolutely right...and I could prove it because Tahoe's water is so amazingly clear that you can see the fish (or lack thereof at times!) in the water below you.

Jon patiently set each of us up with lures and rods (Dave knows how to fish, he just hasn't exactly been a huge enthusiast before...we try to limit our activities to just ONE "hick" thing and you know he already has NASCAR pegged as his favorite). I refused to put a worm on the hook myself (DISGUSTING) but did put Salmon Eggs on it (they are just like squooshy jelly beans more or less).

Lindsay's big catch? Ready for it? Not sure the screen can even handle this gigantic size:

Awwww.....she apparently went on to catch a fish larger than this two-inch beauty after we left (yeah, we've all heard THAT story before), but this is the ONLY fish the four of us caught in our day of fishing. After fishing in Lake Tahoe for a bit, Jon wanted to take us through some of the creeks he fished growing up (he spent lots of time at this house visiting his g-parents and knows the area quite well). In one creek, he lost a lure he had JUST purchased and really liked. So he decided to "go fishing" -- human style. Here is Jon plunging into the cold yet clear creek and victoriously finding his lure!

Our hero!

We had a really, really great time visiting with Jon's parents, who drove in from their new home in Texas, and Jon's grandparents who were just getting ready to go back to Sacramento for the winter. We took some photos on the pier together.



Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for sharing in this family tradition with us!