In about a year (give or take a few months), Ben will be selling the current bus we live on and we will be moving onto the vintage bus, which has been a major project that’s still in the works). Will I be sad to leave the current bus? Yes. I’ll even cry. I’m sure of it. But at the same time, I’m so looking forward to the next bus…. not only because it will be adorable and totally custom-designed for our needs, but also because it will be a new experience.

So let’s look forward a few years, shall we? The vintage bus will be a major chapter in our lives. It will be wonderful. But how long will we want to live on it full-time? Neither of us know, really. What we DO know is that after a life on the road, we would both like to explore a life on the water. We would still be nomadic, but instead of moving from one RV park to another, we’d be moving from one marina to another. Now, I will admit… this scares me. The ocean is scary, but still an intriguing idea that I just cant seem to shake. When Ben first brought up the idea of living on a yacht, I wasn’t completely gung-ho on it. I picture these sterile-looking, bullet-shaped yachts that rich folks keep in a marina somewhere to show off. They were more pretty than functional, in my opinion.

On our way north from San Diego, we were very lucky to be invited out on a cruise with Jim & Linda.

Enter Nordhavn. Things changed for me. Ben took me to an event called Trawler Fest last year and I toured several trawler-style yachts. To me, trawlers were SO different! They were sturdy, beautiful, and extremely seaworthy. They were made to do more than just hug the coast and sip cocktails on. When it came to Nordhavns (our favorite trawler brand), they can even cross oceans. They are some of the only power boats with this capability. That’s some serious s***. If they can cross oceans with little to no problems, imagine how amazing they’d be on shorter passages!

I think Ben had mixed feelings about my reaction to the trawlers. In one sense, he was happy because living on the water was always something he wanted to do. In another sense, I was falling in love with a lifestyle that carried a whole lot of dollar signs! The good thing is that this would be many years down the road. But isn’t it interesting that we haven’t even moved on to the vintage bus yet and we’re already looking to the next thing? It’s just how we roll (or float), I guess.

On the fly bridge, Ben watches Jim navigate out of the marina.

So why am I writing about this now? Well, just before we left California (we’re in Vegas now), we met up with Jim and Linda Lenthall. Jim had attended one of Ben’s photography workshops a few months ago and they had struck up a conversation about boats. When we learned that Jim had a 47′ Nordhavn, Ben started asking lots of questions (that’s the size Ben would eventually like to have). In the course of the conversation, Jim invited us to come and see the boat when we would be in town. On our way out of San Diego, we stopped near the marina and he and Linda met us on the boat and even gave us a tour. It was just wonderful to talk to people who have been traveling on their trawler for years. They’ve been to Mexico several times, recently went on a months-long trip to Alaska and are looking forward to visiting Panama in the near future. This just sounded amazing to me and Ben, and we both just adored the boat. In fact, we probably had to occasionally wipe the drool off our chins!

My goofy self-portrait

After a wonderful night hanging out on the boat, Jim and Linda invited us to go out on a cruise with them. So on Friday morning, we met them back at the marina, and they took the boat out. It was FANTASTIC! We loved seeing how everything worked and it was great to get an idea of what these things felt like on the water. The ocean was really rolling, which was good because an overly mellow sea would have given us a sugar-coated experience.We even got some porpoises riding the waves from the hull for a bit. I was in my glory!

Ben’s thinking he could handle this one day…

When we got back to the marina, we hung out on the fly bridge and shared some snacks and brews. Yup… Ben and I can very much see ourselves living this lifestyle one day. In my opinion, it would be ideal to eventually live on a boat but also have the vintage bus stored somewhere for land tours. This would be a perfect world for us. But of course… we’re the “fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants” type, so who knows where we’ll be in a few years. If we had to predict though… we’d like to see a trawler in our future.

Ben and Jim in front of Jim’s 47′ Nordhavn trawler

On a logistical note, we stayed in Huntington Beach for a few days after we moved on from San Diego and then made it back to Las Vegas. More to come…

In October of 2009, I drove through the streets of Philadelphia with a smile on my face and tingles down my spine. After years of admiring the Mini, and cutting out Cooper photos from magazines, I had just placed an order for a Lightning Blue MINI with a white roof, mirrors and bonnet stripes. For me, this was a dream coming true. Somewhere in Oxford, England, MY Mini was being “born,” and would soon board a big ol’ ship and sail across the pond to MY house. (ok, well, my dealership) When you order a Mini, you can track its progress online, and I was pretty much pressing “refresh” on my browser every 10 minutes. About a month after I placed the order, I got a call from Mini of the Mainline (my dealership), telling me that my car was ready to be picked up. This was like my baby. I almost wanted to cry. (In fact, maybe I did … just a little)  Do you know that feeling where you get a little pang in your heart from being either really sad or really happy? Well, I got that pang when they drove Pixel up to me that day. Pixel is his name, of course. Every MINI needs a name, and his was decided even before he had tires or an engine. If you never thought a car could make you smile inside… make you happy… then you’ve never had a Mini.

Pixel and I hit it off immediately, of course. I had been told that MINIs are fun to drive, but I had never really experienced it. Pixel is not an “S,” (aka sport model) but man, can he corner. Everything about him is solid as hell. And to top it all off, he’s adorable and gets amazing gas mileage. It wasn’t long after I got him that I was reminded of something I heard at my dealership. “You should join PhillyMINI.” PhillyMINI is the local motoring club, and I was told that if I was an enthusiast, I should join. So about a month later, I attend my first member meeting, and about a month after that, I drove in my first rally. PhillyMINI is made up of the greatest folks in the tri-state area. I fell in love with them immediately. I was also amazingly tickled to see 30, 40 and sometimes 50 MINIs ALL together in the same parking lot. The photographer side of me also took over at these rallies, and I started getting some AWESOME car shots. And I probably shouldn’t admit it, but I spent a lot of time driving and shooting at the same time (but you didn’t hear that!).

So Pixel and I had a pretty fun life. On the weekdays, we’d deal with standard rush hour traffic, but on the weekends, we’d motor like crazy with PhillyMINI through some of the most scenic and twisty roads in the area. If there were no rallies on a particular weekend, we’d head to the shore or Longwood Gardens… anywhere we could just let loose and motor. Then things changed a bit. My thirst for travel took over AND I met the most amazing man in the world. He lives a mobile lifestyle and I started living on his motorcoach/tour bus full time. I did have one condition though… The MINI stays. So although Pixel didn’t join in immediately (he needed the proper towing gear), a few months later, we came by New Jersey to switch out Ben’s Jeep for the MINI. He got his towing gear installed and Pixel was ready to tour the U.S. of A. And that he did. He went coast to coast with me, and lots of places in between. From Acadia, Maine, to Arches National Park, Utah, to Lake Tahoe, etc. Pixel got around.

When the time came for Pixel’s lease to end, I knew I had a big decision to make. Originally I had planned to just buy out the lease, but that was when it was just me. Now that Ben and I are together, we learned that the Mini is a bit small to hold all of our photo gear. It’s doable, but not comfortable. In 2011, the MINI Countryman was released. The Countryman is the first 4-door MINI with somewhat of an SUV feel to it, while still being a MINI. At first, I wasn’t into the Countryman. Really, I wasn’t into anything that wasn’t Pixel. But after seeing the Countryman’s debut during the MINI Takes the States event, and then taking it on a test drive at a Las Vegas dealership, I had to admit that the Countryman was damn nice. But still… I just couldn’t deal with the idea of handing off Pixel to a complete stranger. This was my baby.

Then… something karmic happened. Ben and I were parked in St. George, Utah, with our dear friends Cherie and Chris. They are nomads just like we are, and they just switched from their Oliver trailer to a vintage bus. They were spending a lot of time customizing their “new old bus” to their needs, and adapting their lifestyle a bit. When they had a trailer, they used a truck to tow the trailer. Now, the motorcoach they live in is the towing kind, not the towable kind. They had no tow vehicle… but they wanted one. Their new bus happens to be blue. Pixel is blue. And he was set up for towing. Wheels started turning. I couldn’t bear giving Pixel up to some stranger, but to great friends… this was a different story. After discussing it a bit, we all decided that this was a good thing for everyone. Cherie and Chris bought Pixel, and Cherie flew out to Las Vegas, where we were parked at the time, to pick him up. I have to admit, I cried. Ok… I cried a lot (In fact, I’m welling up a little right now as I type this). But in my heart, I know that Pixel couldn’t have gone to two better people. I’m actually honored to have them in the driver’s seat. If you haven’t already, you must check out Technomadia.com, because Cherie and Chris are not only “technomads,” but they are a driving force behind the whole idea of technomadism, and they’re the inspiration and support for tons of folks to get out there and travel full-time.

  Above is a video of my time with Pixel. Makes my heart warm inside.

Pixel with his new home on wheels!

So what did Ben and I do? … with no car? Well, we went to Desert Mini, in Las Vegas, and ordered a 2012 MINI Countryman. After several beautiful years with Pixel, a new chapter begins. The only problem was that the order time was over two months… which meant we would be without a car for a while. I wont lie. It sucked. We ended up renting cars three times, when we absolutely had to for special destinations (like Napa Valley) and special events (like amazing gallery opening), and for the rest of the time, we either walked, took public transportation, or got really used to hanging on the bus for long periods of time. When we migrated down to San Diego for the Winter, our friend Misty loaned us her VW Van, appropriately named Vanna White, so we’d have some wheels while we waited. Vanna was great. She gave us our freedom back. But then she decided that she wanted to visit the auto spa (aka the shop). I can’t say I blame her.

During this car-less period, I was not only tracking the new MINI’s status, but I was trying to get myself excited over the new Countryman. I was still sad over saying goodbye to Pixel, and I really wanted to be happy over the new “baby.” I even put a big pic of the new Countryman on my Mac’s desktop so that I would warm up to him sooner. I’ve got to admit that the whole tracking process helped up my enthusiasm. I was straight up giddy when our new MINI was on a ship, making his way through the Panama Canal. I had a live webcam going, and was watching intently all morning as the ship went through. By the time the ship docked on the West coast, I was antsy.

Above is a screen shot from a live webcam of the Panama Canal.

Since we were parked in San Diego, and the Mini was being delivered to Las Vegas, Ben flew over to pick him up and drive back to the bus. At the time Ben took delivery, he still didn’t have a name (and that’s just wrong). I had been going back and forth in my head over what he should be called but I finally came to a decision. It would be “Red.” That might sound unoriginal, but it’s really not. He’s not named after a color at all. Instead, his name takes inspiration from the Red Pill in the film, “The Matrix.” The Red Pill represents freedom… the real world. In a way, it represents our nomadic lifestyle. So there it is.*)

I was pretty much jumping up and down when Ben finally arrived with Red. I was worried that, because I loved Pixel so much, I wouldn’t have the warmest feelings toward Red. Luckily, I was wrong. I connected with him right away and was delighted! I’m not 100% comfy driving at night, so I waited until the next day to take the driver’s seat, but when I did… holy s***.  Red is an “S” and hides a lot of power under that white roof. Mix that with the spine-tingling sound system and gorgeous red accents and Karen’s in a happy place.

The day after Red came home, he got his new base plate installed. That’s what will allow us to tow him with the bus. The only thing we have left is the installation of the bonnet stripes. They should have been installed before but were somehow forgotten. Considering they’re cosmetic, I’m not making a big deal out of it. At the time of my next post, the stripes will be on.

I still have yet to take real (meaning DSLR) photos of Red, but I’m sure that’s what the next post will be. The current shots are from my iPhone. I have a lot of bonding to do with Red, and  I CAN’T WAIT to take him on his first PhillyMINI Rally, but as of right now, I couldn’t be happier. Pixel is in wonderful hands and I will be seeing him every time we see Cherie and Chris, and Red is just amazing. I know I talk about these cars as if they’re actual beings, individuals….  But they are… because they’re MINI.

* Notes about the name and the color: I mentioned that the name “Red” is inspired from the Red Pill in the Matrix. This is true, but being a horse gal, I also like that the name pays homage to the greatest (in my opinion) racehorse who ever lived… Secretariat (whose nickname was Red). I must also add the the main reason for the choice of red is to match the Vintage Bus that Ben and I will soon call home.

I don’t believe the first month of 2012 is already coming to an end. Time flies! With February rolling in, here is your free desktop calendar/wallpaper. I shot this last year at Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park during sunrise. What’s funny is that when I shot this, my wide angle lens was “in the shop” getting a minor repair done. I was bummed, because this scene just begged for a wide angle, and the slew of photogs at the arch that morning were mostly shooting wide. Instead, I had my 50mm prime (non-zoom) lens on my camera, and was parking myself far behind the other photographers. I was enjoying the beautiful morning, but I didn’t have high hopes for getting an amazing shot. Then I came back with this image. I was (and still am) thrilled with it. It just goes to show you that beautiful, creative images can be made even when you don’t think you have the gear you need. A few weeks later, I returned to Mesa Arch with my newly repaired wide angle lens and shot another sunrise. Yet this image is still my favorite. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

   HD Screens: Click the image above to open the HD screen size. Then right click (or control+click on mac) to save the image.

Wide: Click the image above to open the Wide screen size. Then right click (or control+click on mac) to save the image.

Normal: Click the image above to open the Normal screen size. Then right click (or control+click on mac) to save the image.

During my first few weeks of the new year, I’ve been stretching my legs in the culinary world. I kind of feel like cooking is a great way for me to be creative in the analog sense. Replace the Wacom pen with a spatula and pixels with spices. I’ve always enjoyed cooking, have accumulated a lot of cookbooks over the years, and have gotten to the point where I would consider myself decent. But here’s the thing… I want to be really good.

Great News Cooking School in Pacific Beach, San Diego. They offer daily classes on all kinds of things, and bring in a wide variety of chefs/teachers. I’ve been frequenting this place a lot lately.

In my last blog post, I mentioned that I went to a cooking class on Thai Curries. I had tried to make curries in the past but there was always something lacking. It never came out the way it would had I ordered it in a restaurant. I wanted to figure out why. Well, after that three hour class, I not only knew what I was doing wrong, and how to make a perfect curry, but my interest was sparked on cooking in general. I was so excited by how much I learned in less than three hours, and I wanted to learn more. So I signed up for more classes.

In this class, authentic Asian home cook Mary Pu teaches us how to make Asian Party Appetizers.

Above is a completed appetizer of Mini Chinese Steam Bun Stuffed with Pork Belly, Green Onions and Hoisin Sauce.

My second class was on Asian party appetizers. Though I try to eat very healthy, I do like the idea of entertaining and hosting parties, so the app recipes usually catch my attention. In this class, I learned how to make Mini Chicken Kabobs with Teriyaki Sauce, Mini Beef Lumpia with Spicy Dipping Sauce, Mini Chinese Steam Bun stuffed with Pork Belly, green onions and Hoisin Sauce, and Asian Mojitos. There are two things that are odd about me going to this class. First off, I’m a vegetarian. Most of this stuff I can’t even eat (though I’ll cook it with no problem) and second, some of it is fried. That is like the F-word to me. Despite these things, I totally loved the class, because not only will I make all of this stuff on special occasions and for parties/gatherings, but I’ll be able to put the general cooking knowledge to use in everything I make. And I can proudly say that I can now roll the perfect egg roll and fold a pretty decent wonton. Go me!

In another class at Great News, I learned how to make this Wild Mushroom Risotto. It’s topped with a Parmesan cheese crisp, which in my opinion, just made it look more fancy. The risotto was great all by itself.

The next class I went to was on risotto and polenta. Risotto is another one of those things that I wouldn’t want to make all the time, but would love to have it in my skill set. Plus, even though Ben eats a low-carb diet, he has a secret love for risotto. (ok, well I guess that’s not so secret anymore, huh?) The risotto recipes were AMAZING. The teacher that night was the owner and executive chef at a local restaurant called La Taverna. She was VERY Italian. She taught us Lemon Artichoke Risotto with Grilled Asparagus, Wild Mushroom Risotto with Portabella, Shiitake and Herb Garnish and Sweet Pea and Prosciutto Risotto. But like in the previous classes, I learned a lot of things about cooking in general. For example, she taught us how to improve any kind of dish at all by seasoning every layer of food that goes into the pan, and how frozen food is ok to use, but should always be thawed in steps in order to maintain its integrity.

This class also covered some polenta dishes, but I think that I’ll get fat if I even type about them. Ok, just kidding (well, not really). The polenta stuff she taught us was very rich and very full of cream, cheese and butter. Though they tasted great, I just cant see myself ever cooking these. It’s against my dietary religion. But just so you know, the dishes were Polenta with Warm Cream and Gorgonzola, and Polenta with Meat Ragu and Crispy Pancetta. I’m sure some folks wouldn’t balk at these at all, but I, personally, like to maintain my girlish figure and clean arteries. I didn’t mind the Asian Apps so much because they’re made in tiny pieces and meant to be consumed on special occasions and in small amounts.

Private Chef Megan Barnett teaches a class on “What to do with Tofu.” Apparently, there’s a LOT to do with tofu, which makes people like me very happy.

Ok, moving on. My most recent class was VERY Karen-friendly, meaning healthy and vegetarian. It was called “What to do with Tofu.” This might sound really unappealing to some folks because tofu doesn’t sound like the most exciting thing in the world. That’s actually one of the reasons I went to the class … to learn how to make it more exciting. And that I did! Our teacher was a private chef and did a great job of coming up with a good variety of tofu recipes that were loaded with flavor. She made Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms with Tofu, Aromatic Vegetables and Roasted Red Pepper Coulis, Grilled Spice Crusted Tofu Steaks with Chimmichurri Sauce and Roasted Butternut Squash, Teriyaki Tofu Salad with Swiss Chard, Cashews, Pineapple and Sesame Vinaigrette, and Savory Tofu Cakes with Herb Aioli and Arugula. It was hard to pick a favorite, but I think it would be the stuffed portobello. When they were finished, it was hard to believe they were made with tofu. I also made this one at home the same day, and was so proud of myself because it came out perfect! I even shot a nice photo of it because it was just so darn pretty.  I’ve always liked tofu, but I’m excited to try to make some of this stuff and have Ben try it to see if he thinks its as flavorful as I do.

Above are the Teriyaki Tofu Salad, the Grilled Spiced Tofu Steaks with Chimichurri and the Soy Ma Po Tofu with spicy bean sauce.

So as you can see, I’ve really been delving into this cooking thing. I’d like to get to the point to where I don’t always have to rely on recipes and can just whip something amazing up on a whim. I’m having a lot of fun with it and will probably take at least one more class before we leave the general area.

This is the stuffed portobello that I made the night after the class. I was anxious to put my knew knowledge to use, and I think it came out amazing!

Misty loans us “Vanna White” so we’d have some mobility while we wait for the Mini to show up.

When it comes to mobility, there are two things that saved us here in San Diego. The first is the fact that we are staying in an RV park that is close to a trolley station. With the trolley, we can easily get to downtown, Old Town, etc. It’s not as convenient as having a car, but it works. The second is that we eventually got a loaner vehicle! No, we didn’t go to Enterprise and rent a car. Ben’s friend Misty, who lives in San Diego, happens to have an old VW camper van that she only uses on occasion and was happy to loan it to us. I should actually refer to “it” as “her,” as her name is Vanna White. (can you guess what color she is? Well, you can just look at the picture.) The name is appropriate, to say the least. Vanna has a lot of character, and some definite quirks, but she’s gotten us around, which has been awesome.

So with this new-found freedom, what have we been up to? Well, there’s a few things:

Friends

First of all, meeting up with friends! As you might know from reading this blog, we have friends everywhere. We even have other nomadic friends who can MOVE everywhere. Right after I flew in from spending the holidays in NJ, we went to a party at Mike’s place. Ben has been friends with Mike since he lived in Minneapolis, so they go way back. The next morning, we went to an excellent hiking spot right on the beach. Perfect way to start a day! It’s so nice to be able to hike in short sleeves in the dead of winter Before we went back to the bus, Mike took me for a ride in his Tesla roadster. Now, I have to say, in all honestly, that I have never experienced anything like this before… at least not in a car. In a plane about to take off, maybe. This thing accelerated like a damn fighter jet. 0-60 in something like 3.6 seconds. My eyeballs were pretty much sucked to the back of my skull. If you’re not familiar with these cars, do check out LifeWithTesla.com. They’re pretty wicked cool.

Earlier in the post, I mentioned Misty, who lent us some wheels for the time being. Well, her mom, Beverly, is also a great friend (and we frequently park the bus in her driveway) and she was in town for a few days, so we all met up for some dinner and drinks in Old Town. It’s funny… even though Beverly lives in Las Vegas, we have also seen her in Florida, New Mexico, now California, and next month we’ll also cross paths in Hawaii! That’s just how our lives work. I love it!

A fun nomadic meetup in San Diego!

Another couple we got to knock off another city with was Sam and Tracy. They also live on the road and were en route to Slab City when they stopped to meet us in San Diego. We went to lunch with them and then went to see the Martin Luther King day parade downtown. We’re generally not parade people, but any excuse to get together with friends is worth it! At the parade, we also met up with Ayo and Jair. They also live in an RV and camped with us at Burning Man. It was nice to get to know them a little better in more of a one-on-one situation.

Food

I got a front row seat in my Thai Curry cooking class at the Great News cookware store and cooking school.

I love to cook. It’s a great way to get out from behind to computer screen (where I generally spend most of my day) and do something creative in the analog world. I’m a pretty decent cook, but I want to be really good. Like REALLY good. So I decided to look up some cooking classes in San Diego. One of the things I’ve always had problems making is Thai food. Ben and I LOVE Thai, and could eat it every day, but every attempt I ever made at cooking it seemed a bit lacking. Well, I found a class that taught four different curries. We even learned how to make the pastes from scratch. It was AWESOME. I learned that there are some key ingredients and steps to get that magic flavor, and I just didn’t know them before. After the class, I was gung ho on making curries and ended up making four in one week! I even made the curry pastes, from scratch. That’s quite a process, and I can see why most people buy them in the store. It’s like baking your own bread just to make a sandwich. What’s funny was seeing me in the Asian food store trying to find all this stuff I had never heard of before. I felt like I was on another planet, and I probably looked like an idiot. That’s ok though, because the curries came out awesome … just like having them in a restaurant.

Testing out my new skills in the kitchen on the bus. A LOT of ingredients go into these curry pastes!

Work

Aside from cooking and hanging with friends, I’ve spent a lot of time getting work done. We’ve been working on an e-book we hope to wrap up by the end of the month, and we’ve also been re-vamping Ben’s web sites and merging his three sites into one. I’m learning more about WordPress than I ever thought I’d know, and have spent countless hours making graphics, writing text and making tweaks. We hope to launch the new site sometime this week, and man, will that be gratifying!

More to come…

Christmas is always my favorite time of year. Despite the cold, I was so excited to fly to Jersey and spend the holiday with my family. I know I’ve mentioned on here before that I have the most awesome family in the world. But I’ll say it again. I have the most awesome family in the world. Of all the amazing places out there in the world, there is no other place I would even think about spending Christmas. We have so many fun holiday traditions, and we’re creating more every year. (For instance, this year saw the first annual “Christmas Morning Bloody Mary Happy Hour.”)  Anyway, I flew from San Diego to NJ on the 19th, and Ben followed a few days later on the 22nd.

Every year, I make Laura build gingerbread houses with me. This year, Rich got to suffer through it too. But really, it’s a lot of fun. Mom usually hangs around as damage control. And of course, there’s wine. Always.

As soon as I landed, the full-blown holiday spirit kicked in. The house was totally decked out for Christmas, with no less than TEN stockings hanging from the fireplace. This was a record for us, because this year, both Ben and Rich (my sister Laura’s other half) were spending the holiday with us. I got to wrap all the gifts I had shipped over, and of course, force Laura to make gingerbread houses with me. She always rolls her eyes about it, but I think she secretly likes it. We always come up with some distorted artsy, sugary creations.

The festivities actually started early with a dinner party at Amanda’s place on the 23rd. Of all of my friends, I’ve known Amanda the longest, and we’ve shared over 20 Christmases together. (Wow. That’s scary.)

From left, Laura, Amanda, John, me and Liz. This crowd has known each other since high school and earlier. Crazy!

On Christmas Eve, my family always has company over and my Grandmom cooks the traditional seven fishes. (We’re not even sure where exactly this tradition comes from, but our taste buds don’t complain!) Now, my grandmom is pushing 90 and she is the most AMAZING Italian chef. Nothing compares to her creations (my fam calls her meatballs little gold nuggets), and the Christmas Eve dinner is like her flagship night of the year. She made crab imperial, two kinds of shrimp, bakalao (sp?), scallops, calamari, mussels, & fluke. Since she is getting pretty high up there in years, she needed an assistant chef, and I volunteered whole-heartedly, taking vigorous notes! As usual, she outdid herself. The meal was amazing, and the company was just as good.

Grandmom tends to her scallops, one of the seven fishes she cooks every Christmas Eve.

Not much changes over the years. On Christmas Eve, the “kids” hang out and watch the presents being carried down at midnight.

Christmas morning has always been an insane gift-giving extravaganza, and this year was no different. In fact, I think this one needed two intermissions! For us, the exciting part has always been more about giving rather than receiving … it’s the one time of the year where we just go all out on each other, and every gift is something sincere and thoughtful. The morning starts with emptying out stockings and then the gifts are opened, one at a time, taking turns in order of age. Yes, this is how we did it when we were kids, and it’s how we still do it now. Mom and Dad go last. Since our family has gotten bigger in the recent years, with Ben and Rich joining, we didn’t finish up Christmas morning until about 4 in the afternoon. Like I said, we DID take two intermissions … one for breakfast and another for a Bloody Mary happy hour. By the end of the whole thing, it looked like a bomb made out of wrapping paper exploded in the family room. We all had an absolute blast, and it was nice having an uninterrupted day of family time.

Laura and Rich with “Humphrey,” their new butler. My parents have a very similar “Henry” in the foyer and he holds keys, sunglasses, etc. He’s a crucial household figure, and Laura and Rich just bought a house, so… enter Humphrey.

My grandmom had been mentioning that her computer was getting very slow and non-responsive. It was a very old PC. For Christmas, my parents got her a new one. Her surprise and overwhelmed response was adorable and priceless. At 90 years old, Grandmom gets her first laptop. It didn’t take her long to fire up that smokin’ new solitaire either!

At the end of the “morning” (afternoon, really) the family room looked… well… like this.

I think the most fun gift of the morning was my Grandmom’s new laptop. At 90, she actually uses a computer, loves Google, email, and everything else that’s great about the internet. But her computer was getting old and slow. When she opened up her new laptop, her reaction went from tears, to surprise, back to tears, then laughter… you get the point. It was adorable. She was so overwhelmed. Santa was very good to me too. In the past year, I’ve grown very fond of Athleta, a comfortable yet stylish brand of clothing, and I pretty much got a new wardrobe of it! When I got back to the bus, 3 bags of old clothing went out to Goodwill to make room for the new! I’ve also got to mention another favorite gift. Ben got me the Alien Abduction Lamp, and it absolutely RULES.

I know I’m an oddball, but I had been wanting this lamp for a while. It rocks!

I stayed in NJ until Jan. 3, which is when I flew back to the bus in San Diego. I spent a lot of time visiting family, hanging out at the house, and getting a lot of work done. For New Years Eve, we went out to The Italian Affair, one of our favorite local restaurants. It was a wonderful way to bring in the new year.

Happy New Year everyone! More to come…

Me and Grandmom at one of our favorite restaurants on New Years Eve. This is Grandmom’s 90th new year!

My parents toasting on New Years Eve.

It’s hard to believe the year has come to an end. It seems like just yesterday that Ben and I were bringing in 2011 in a hot tub with our fellow bus nuts at a rally in Florida. One thing is for sure though… We took on 2011 and jam-packed it with events, friends, family and travel. In fact, to say that the year was more tightly packed than a fat Italian sausage would be an understatement.

Instead of using words to reminisce about everything that’s happened, I’d rather make it a more visual thing. Just as I did last year, I created a book that documents our year in pictures, fun graphics and blog posts. When it was printed, it came to 215 pages!

So farewell, 2011. It’s been great, and 2012 has some really big shoes to fill

Check out our 2011 memories HERE.

Hey gang! Here is a free desktop calendar wallpaper for January. I figured something bright and colorful would help battle the cold winter weeks. This was shot this year at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta and I just loved the simplicity of the shot. As always, you can click below on the size monitor you have and then right click (or control + click on mac) to download the image. Hope you like it!

Also, if you want a print of this image for your actual wall, you can purchase it HERE.

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We spent a night light painting at Sunny Acres during Ben’s class at the Light Workshops in Los Osos, CA. I liked this shot I got of the cute little car peeking out of the garage.

Hi folks! As you can probably tell, I’m playing catch-up again here on the blog. Between projects, meet-ups with friends, and holiday travel, the poor old Pixel Diaries have gotten neglected. I wanted to tell you about the awesome week we spent at the Light Workshops in Los Osos, CA. This is right near Morro Bay, and about half-way between San Francisco and LA. Ben was teaching a 5-day course there on shooting for Photoshop, and we parked the bus just minutes from the photographic center.

Ben spent a lot of time in the classroom, covering techniques that would help everyone out in the field AND later in Photoshop. Then, we would head out to shoot, and the gang could put everything to practice. Our first shoot was at a place called Sunny Acres, and it was awesome, though I’m not really sure how to describe the place. There was a huge garage/shop full of vintage cars and tools, and spread across the huge property are dozens of old trucks, cars, and other unique oddities. Oh yeah… and there was a killer goose. If you managed to stay out of its way, you’d get some pretty nice shots at this place.

An image I made inside a garage at Sunny Acres

Since everyone really liked Sunny Acres, we decided to head back there at night for the light painting shoot. While everyone else ran off to try to compose something that included the full moon, I hung out at the garage and shot this adorable old car that was peeking out from behind the worn doors. The shot is at the top of this post. I’m still getting the hang of light painting and I was really happy with the result. This was a good thing, because after I finished my series of images there, my camera battery died (doh!) and I was done for the night.

The two shots above were shot at sunset off the CA coast. We drove to the bluffs hoping for some good light!

One of our other shooting locations was right along the California coast. We headed out to the bluffs at sunset, hoping for some nice light and color. The weather didn’t completely agree with us, but I think we all still managed to get some nice images. It was the perfect place to utilize some slow shutter speeds and blur out the water. During the last night of the workshop, Ben and I joined some of the attendees for dinner at the Firestone Grill in San Luis Obispo (about a 20-minute drive from the photographic center). We both highly recommend the place. It’s the kind of place where you order at the register and then find a seat and wait for your number, so you don’t want to go there on a date or anything, but the food was great and the casual atmosphere was a lot of fun.

The Light Workshops are run by Hal and Victoria Schmitt, and they do an awesome job of arranging interesting photographic events. Not only do they have the kind of “in-house” workshops that Ben did that week, but they also take students to some amazing destinations like Alaska. Check out the Light Workshops HERE.

As an added bonus for the week, Hal and Victoria took me to some of the local wineries in Paso Robles, including Midnight Cellars, where Hal also serves as assistant wine maker. And you know me, any day that involves wine tasting is a good day

After moving on from Los Osos, we headed south. Next stop: Huntington Beach!

Hal, Victoria, me and Ben in the lobby of the Light Photographic Workshops in Los Osos, CA.