The Girls of YML find their happy place

One bottle of Langhe Nebbiolo Doc (cheers Alberto!) + an assortment of breads with fresh olive oil sprinkled with black pepper accompanied by whole milk mozzarella cheese made by hand at the moment ordered (Mozzarella Fatta Al Minuto--aka "obscene cheese"). Organic green garlic and asparagus soup with morel mushroom brown butter (Zuppa Di Asparagie Aglio En Erba). Garden greens house made red wine vinegar, pears, walnuts and point reyes blue cheese (Insalata Mista). Then for Sly: Wide pasta with braised rabbit ragu, wild mushrooms, fresh sage and parmesan (Pappardelle Con Sugo Di Coniglio--aka THE EASTER BUNNY). For me: Smoked and braised beef short ribs with soft polenta, natural jus and horseradish gremolata (Costata Di Bue Con Polenta). All followed by three bites of the most heavenly Tiramisu you can imagine, times 1000.

That, my friends, is a meal served from the fluffy heights of Cloud Number Nine. Short of actually going to Italy, the Tra Vigne restaurant in St. Helena (Sonoma area) tops any restaurant I have ever been to in my life. Ever. Sly and I made sounds during dinner that Meg Ryan would be proud of and only with much restraint resisted the urge to throw our heads back and howl in ecstasy. Be sure to click any photo in this post to see the picture gallery.

I had found this restaurant a few years back while traipsing through wine country with another girlfriend and I've been trying to make my way back each Macworld, but it never happens. The place is an hour and 20 minutes from downtown and that requires planning + free half day + rental car. Happily, Sly is now hooked so when the two of us disappear for an entire day next January under the guise of "shopping", you'll know where to find us :)


This fabulous meal was preceded by a beautiful drive up to the O'Reilly Media offices where I had a fun preso showing off the iStockphoto site and selected Photoshop tips & tricks. We trotted out to the apple orchard (which happened to be in full bloom), and the famous Marsee and I got our photo near the O'Reilly animal sculpture (during SPE in Miami I met the lady responsible for those animals--hi Edie!--but more on that in another post). I also got a few photography tips from Derrick Story, photographer and O'Reilly evangelist.

From there we took a super windy road over to Sonoma county and Sterling Vinyards, where we hopped aboard a gondola ride to the top of a big hill (the movie lives here). Two hours and several tastings later, we descend from said gondola (that movie lives here) quite giggly and members of the Sterling wine club :)

The Girls of YML Do San Francisco--Day 1

As I sit here munching broccoli in bed (indeed, a very odd phrase to type -- it's part of Sly's leftover dinner which she so sweetly bequeathed to me as I didn't get to eat at the event I hosted earlier), I can't help but be amazed over several things which I shall now describe in detail:

a) How happy I am that we got to go to one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco for lunch: Annabelle's Bar & Bistro.

b) What an amazing room rate the Argent Hotel has *outside* of Macworld Expo. It's $150 a night! And what a view we have! Click either of the photos in this post to see the whole gallery.

c) How good the kit lens actually is on my new Canon Rebel XTi when everybody said it would be total crap. Just look at the food photos I took today; extreme artichoke!

d) How very small the TV is in this otherwise completely plushy room (Sly pointed that out moments ago and she has a point).

e) How very weird it is for us to be in San Francisco and not be in the throws of Macworld stress.

f) How incredible it would be to be able to afford this room during Macworld Expo.

g) How much it's going to suck NOT having this room during Macworld Expo because we can't afford it and now that we've had it we know how awesome it would be (liquor store next door, Peet's Coffee and California Pizza Kitchen right across the street).

h) How neither Sly nor I have ever been taken up to the top of the big Marriott on 3rd Street for cocktails. A sad fact that we shall remedy this weekend because we can see the darn bar from our room and it's taunting us.

i) How lucky we are that we get to tour the Apple Labs on Saturday with Dave Martin. Holy smokes batman, that's gonna rock.

j) What a rip off it is to pay $150 a night for a hotel room and still be charged $14.95 a day for internet access.

That's all I can think of for the moment.

So tomorrow we're off to Sebastopol to spend a few hours with O'Reilly Media, then we're off to visit Sterling Vinyards. Whee! More pictures to come :)

First riding day

So today my husband and I cranked up the bikes and took a little afternoon ride. We bundled up nice and tight and though it was a mere 47 degrees out, I was quite comfy. We took a narrow little road up a nearby mountain to a town called Bethel. Super cute and quaint, there just so happened to be a pub within 20 feet of where we parked the bikes (that, my friends, is called good karma).


And wow, it feels so good to be back on my bike again. Seems like forever! Can't wait till it gets warmer.

NOTE: Pictures taken with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3, wide-angle lens digital camera.

A surreal weekend in Miami

Last weekend I had the honor of teaching at SPE, the Society of Photographic Education, in Miami, FL. Wow. What a great time that was. My girlfriend Leslie from Dunedin (near Tampa), drove five hours to hang out with me and we had ourselves a right proper good time.

They sky was blue, the ocean was turquoise, and the people were bronze, buxom, and just amazingly beautiful. The clubs were hopping, the food was fantastic, and due to an unholy volume of mojitos, we felt like we needed a vacation come Sunday (click on the photo to the left to visit the photo gallery, built in Aperture). The photos you see include the beach, Star Island (where the super rich live), a photo display taken at the Margulies Warehouse collection (both fantastic and fantastically depressing), and various seafood imbibed at restaurants such as Nobu and Tuscan Steak.

The only downside is that on the weekend it can take an over an hour to get across the bridge from downtown to the beach, and cost upwards of $15 per 10 minutes for parking. It's complete madness. A video of the surreal club Mangos lives here. (DISCLAIMER: This video is not for the faint of heart. It involves half naked women gyrating things heretofore unimaginable. Download at your own risk! And yes, I really am the best wife ever.)

Beach art

Sometimes you see the most interesting things on the beach. My girlfriend Leslie and I tried to get the artist to add more seaweed, well, you know... in the southern region. He wouldn't. He said he wanted the sculpture to be "natural."

????

We shook our heads and called him a big chicken.

Much fun at the Golden Nugget

Yes it's in the seedy downtown area and I frackin' love it. I'm talking about one of my favorite hotels in Las Vegas: The Golden Nugget. While I was there for PMA (Photo Marketing Assoc), my mom met my husband and I there and we all had a blast. Where else can you get an $8 filet mignon eggs benedict and play $5 three-card poker?! Mama and I also enjoyed a decadent spa day. Then we all relaxed in a pool with... well... a bunch of sharks!

Check out the pictures because it just doesn't seem real. Video of the water slide through the acquarium lives here!

Red Rock Canyon photo shoot with Panasonic

While in Vegas for PMA, Shawn and I had the pleasure of taking a Hummer out into the desert for a private photo shoot with Panasonic. Click here to see the gorgeous photos I snapped with the new Lumix DMC-TZ3; a really sweet, 7 megapixel camera with 10x optical zoom and a 28mm wide-angle Leica lens.

Lesa and Tiffani do Orlando

I'm going to Disney World! Or actually, I just went. While working the NRB convention in Orlando on behalf of iStockphoto, Tiffani and I somehow managed to pack Disney World, Epcot and our beloved Kennedy Space Center (we're both huge NASA geeks) into 1.5 days. I don't quite know how we did it, but it was great fun! Tiffani took some fantastic pictures with her Canon Rebel, which I've posted here. We also shot a video of us floating in space while at Epcot. What fun we had! Hope you enjoy the pictures and video.