Friday, May 30, 2008

"I'll Have My Eclipse, Dolores..."


...and Steph will have her percebes.


Yes, I did. Seek these out. And eat them. Sea barnacles.
So did the Dinnerman. And we loved them. Even though they look like prehistoric elephant "toes", or something.
They taste great. You just give them a little twist, and out comes this jiggly shaft-like thingy which you stick in your mouth. Then you crack open the hoof and eat its contents, which tasted like lobster on the larger ones (at least that's what the Dinnerman said...). Not sure I concur with that assessment, but ok.
To my palate, they are deliciously fresh and briny tasting. - like the sea. The "shaft" has the texture of really tender octopus and the "hoof" is a bit more intense and sweet - more firm and sometimes almost slightly crunchy.
We looked all over for these, and finally found them at Restaurante Santiago in Marbella, where I had what was easily the best meal of the trip and maybe even of my life. Go there.
RESTAURANTE SANTIAGO
Paseo MarĂ­timo, 5 - MARBELLA
Tel. 95 277 00 78
Fax. 95 282 45 03

The Weather is Here, I Wish You Were Beautiful!


Greetings from sunny southern Spain!

We had a great lunch today at a beach restaurant in Mijas Costa. The Dinnerman and I shared some grilled squid, he had some grilled sardines and patatas fritas, and I had some grilled rosado and ensalada.

We then found our requisite Irish pub for a couple of Irish coffees, and now we're downloading Judy Garland songs in the room. Good times.

I've got much to tell you about upon my return, and a few photographs. As usually happens on vacation, I take many pics initially and then abandon the camera.

Hasta luego!

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Pink Lilacs - From My Balcony to My Kitchen Counter


Pink Lilacs
Originally uploaded by whatstepheats

The previous owners of our condo left behind all these pots of plants on the balcony. One is a huge evergreen, and the rest looked like weeds. I was so happy to discover that one of them was a pink lilac bush - my favorite! This year light purple violets bloomed in another pot.

I brought a bunch of lilacs inside yesterday and they made the kitchen smell so fragrant. A splash of spring!

I think yesterday was the most beautiful day we have had this year so far. It was surprisingly warm, especially after the cold Friday we had. The Dinnerman and I have been actively trying to avoid restaurants where we think graduation dinners will be monopolizing the scene, so yesterday we ate at Mike's and today at Quito's. Sorry, no pics! But be on the lookout, I have figured out Flickr and now I'm on a roll.

Last night was so mild and beautiful. We sat in the courtyard drinking Cold River potato vodka and pomegranite juice with Kenny, who was in a bad mood. Then we ordered a little sushi from Sakura and The Dinnerman picked out an awesome movie at the RedBox. It was called Untraceable with Diane Lane, one of my favorite actresses. She had a cute shorter haircut in this thriller. I remarked during the movie that it reminded me of Silence of the Lambs, and the Dinnerman said that it was billed using this comparison. I guess I should have been a movie critic, based on that. (As George Costanza once said, "I like movies...")

Sorry for my scarcity of late. We've been pretty busy. We just got back from California, and this week we leave for Spain for the rest of the month.

I uploaded a bunch of pictures to Flickr - check them out! There will be plenty more to come when I get back!

(To see my Flickr photostream, click on the above pic)


Friday, May 2, 2008

Pictures of You, Pictures of Me...

I took this picture in South Beach in September, 2004. I didn't notice until after that the man is undressing the mannequin!


My loyal readers may have noticed a lack of original photographs on my blog. It's not for lack of picture taking or lack of desire to post said pictures. It's mainly because I lost the software for my camera and also lost Photoshop when my hard drive crashed some months ago. I have tried uploading pics directly to Flickr, but with whatever current setup I have it takes forever. It's very frustrating, because I have been a shutterbug for as long as I can remember!

The first camera I remember using was a Polaroid. I grew up in the 70's, and it seemed that every place I went there was a Polaroid camera. It's on my list of things I want to possess from my childhood, along with 2-tone Guess jeans and my sticker collection (remember those gel-filled stickers - or Trend Scratch and Sniffs?).


Next, I had a C110. It was perfect for taking shots of my classmates in school or on field trips. It was the camera I used to photograph the beer bottle smashed on Plymouth Rock. I took thousands of pics of my beloved and beautiful tortioseshell cat Rascal with this camera.


Then we had a few Kodak Disc cameras when they were all the rage. The pics were so low quality, but that didn't stop me! This camera was around in the mid 80's, when I was 13 or so. Again, Rascal occupied many frames, as did many family members in various candid poses. I seemed to have a knack for photographing people while they were eating. I guess it was a collision of preoccupations on my part.


On to my first 35 mm. My dad handed down an old Minolta SRT 101 SLR camera, completely manual, to me when I was 14 or so. I didn't put it down for years. This was a time in my life when my mind was a fertile ground. I was so interested in so many things that my dad also loved. There was music: I hijacked guitars and multi-track recording equipment. I spent hours listening to old records: Simon and Garfunkel, Janis Ian, Cat Stevens, The Beatles, Linda Rondstadt, Billy Joel, Elton John. I would record myself singing and (horribly) playing the guitar. I was such a loner, and such a child of my father. There was photography. There were breeding pairs of angel fish. There was all that.


This was my "coming of age" camera. I took rolls and rolls of film, and I still have all the negatives in bins in my closet. It's my goal and desire to convert all the negatives into digital form and get them on Flickr. I also want to get into a darkroom to have my way with them. There is so much good stuff there. I feel like this is such a poor representation of my skills. I so miss taking pictures!

The SRT 101 eventually died, and I graduated to a Pentax K1000, with which I took a ton of pictures too. I loved this camera also. It was my instrument, and I am ashamed to confess that I let it go in an act of stupidity. Youth. It's wasted on the young, and often on the stupid. I once was both. I am no longer that young.
I got another one but it was never the same. Now, I have a stupid point and shoot digital, and I miss miss miss the SLR!
Someday. You will see my work. Hope it's not posthumously.