Wow. my last blog post was ... june 30? how time flies when you're having fun!

This past weekend I went hiking in the Purisma Creek Redwood Open Preserve. The goal was to complete this 7 mile loop... but it ended up bring almost a 10 mile loop due to an unfortunate wrong turn.

That being said, I thought I'd share a few photos from the hike itself:


There was shade for the vast majority of the hike... which was good, since i forgot to bring my hat. It did make for a chilly experience


Along the way, a group of very excited hikers walking in the opposite direction pointed me at an uncommonly large cluster of ladybugs... Individually, ladybugs are nice and cute, but in groups as large as this... they're just kinda gross...



This was taken at the highest point of the hike. There's a nice feeling of accomplishment when you get to the top... or maybe just relief because you know it'll be mostly down hill from here!

Video Games have undergone a renaissance in my life since I was given the Orange Box for my birthday, I've found myself burning a lot of time trying to beat them. "Beating games" is something born in the nintendo generation. Its sortof an obsession. No matter how lame or crappy a game was, you just had to beat it once you got ahold of it. Prior to this generation, there weren't many video games with a beatable plot... ET for the Atari 2600 being one such game.

Earlier today, Portal became the first game from the orange box that i managed to beat. The game is an addictive combination of a dark, progressive storyline combined with some really wicked sarcastic humor. The ending song is a pretty awesome example of the general tone of the game... although, i guess you won't really get it unless you've beaten the game yourself.

The next to fall? Half-life 2. Several years late, yeah... but 2+ year old games are way easier on the bidget.

Last Wednesday, I turned 33. Only two more years until I am in my "Mid 30s". Its funny how we describe ourselves in ways that try to hide our age. "Oh. I just turned 30". "I'm in my early 30s". "I'm a thirty-something". I did exactly that for my 20s... now its the same set, but with a different prefix.

Today, I had the most kick back day ever. I crawled out of bed at about 11:30am, spent about an hour properly waking up, ran over to Darla's Restaurant for the best hamburger ever... then took a nap under a windmill at Golden Gate Park.



After napping, Rosa and I met up with Victor and his little lady, Erica. It's a little weird how living in the same city, we still had soo much stuff to catch up on. There was also this crazy puppy...



Aparently, the dog's tongue is unnaturally large. Poor thing has trouble keeping it in its mouth.

anyway... i hope everyone's weekend was as relaxing!

Yeah, so went to go see The Cure last night. It was totally a blast from the past since this band hugely shaped my generation's middle school and early highschool culture.



My little camera phone was definitely NOT up to the task of capturing anything, but I had to take a shot anyway You can sortof see the band in that picture!

Just for completeness, here's a camera phone video of their performance of "Pictures of You"...

but you probably don't really want to play it... it sounds terrible. Instead, here... listen to an official recording, live from Detroit!

This weekend, Rosa and I celebrated our first anniversary up in Napa.

It was a really nice get away... Saturday night, we hitched a ride on the Wine Train... then woke up at about 5am to secure our spot on a Hot Air Balloon.







After the hot air balloon ride, we wandered around Yountville. They had some seriously picturesque scenes which left no choice but to go crazy with the camera. This time, i decided to use my Lensbaby...

The lensbaby really lets you monkey around with the focal plane... but its incredibly hard to use.

I've put together fairly detailed write up in the photography group about my Lensbaby photos