The atmosphere at the Stinking Rose restaurant in San Francisco is rather unique. Saturday night was the first time I’d eaten in this room. Just look at all the cool wine bottles and corks strung up on the ceiling. That sure is a whole lotta wine!
Archives for December 2011
where to draw the line
There’s nothing like inviting a few people over for dinner to bring out the inner-critic. Whether it is as little as two or a many as 15, I’ve always had a tough time with the whole entertaining thing. In preparing for my most recent entertaining attempt (a lasagna dinner for The Man and his family), I did my best to hold back the feelings of inadequacy. I had limited time to get the tables out, the dinner cooked, and the usual clutter picked up.
When my inner-critic began making it’s appearance, I posted the following question to FB: Why is it that we are our toughest critics? I hoped for a little more encouragement but it didn’t come. I suppose everyone was out shopping for Christmas presents. Christmas shopping will be my next encounter with my inner-critic. It always is. But that is a topic for another post.
Somehow, I managed to keep my inner-critic at bay long enough to cook up 3 large lasagnas, garlic bread, and some vegetables steamed in chicken broth. A meal as simple as this was all I could manage and I hoped that it would be enough for the folks that were included on the invite.
Meanwhile, the guilt for where I ended up drawing the line on the invites was, and still is, in full attack mode. There were so many others who I really would have liked to have included. I lost a lot of sleep over this. So much that I had to chase down my physician for a renewal of my Ambien prescription.
photography experimentation
It’s been a LONG time since my photography class at the community college. Sadly, I’m afraid that I forgot a lot of the key take-aways.
Fortunately, I have a few honest friends who know photography really well. Friends who are willing to question my framing of a shot and point me in the direction of photography websites that discuss basic and not so basic concepts.
My ego eventually gets past the initial feeling of hurt. [Read more…]
Christmas Shopping in Union Square
How’s that Christmas shopping coming along? Are you done with your list yet? I’m certainly not.
I’d never been Christmas shopping in Union Square and, somehow, it seemed like the thing to do. Crowds are not really my thing but this beautiful Christmas scene, which seemed to extend beyond the square, was so enchanting that the crowds of people taking it in made it even much more enjoyable.
I still have so much more buying left to do; it seems that everyone I know has made the nice-list this year. I am hoping it will all come together soon because after I finish MY shopping, I need to take YaYa out to do his.
the happy birthday project
Today is The-Man-of-my-dream’s birthday! Wanting to make the day extra special, I decided to make a slide show of the some-odd (even actually) years of his life. I queried a few people for photos from his younger years, pulled some of my favorites from the past few years, selected a song from Tom Petty, his favorite musician, and Wal-La!
The whole exercise was an exercise in falling in love again and again. There were so many photos of many wonderful times we’ve spent together.
When I got so absorbed in my work that I ignored the “low battery” alert and lost many of the critical edits, I returned to the project with a renewed vision…and started over.