our weekend in pictures.

i won't bore you with pictures of me doing laundry, cleaning the fish tank, or any other glamorous chores that i did this weekend. instead, i will share our day we spent in the city:

{sculpture in front of my work building...don't ask me how in the world we ended up back at my office building after busy season.}

 {my work building....jack thought i should document the building "for our grandchildren" haha}

  {sf street view from work building: second & howard}

 {new favorite park in the financial district}

 {haha, i don't know why i love these guys so much}

{view: up.}

{attempt to fluff my hat hair}

 

 {bay bridge}

 {the embarcadero from the san francisco bay bridge}

{beyond handsome lunch date at tres agaves}

sunday highlights{besides the chores/studying}:

{shmeezmo helping me make the bed}

{sushi enjoying her sunday funday at the beach}

Meow.

I realize this is a little crazy cat lady...but I found this poem by Harold Monro and I LOVE it. It perfectly describes my pretty kitty, Sushi, as she is certainly someone who is never tardy for a meal.  In fact, she is by my head every morning at 6am, placing her paw on my shoulder to let me know it's time for breakfast. 

I took some pictures the other day of her in the sunshine, and thought this would be a fun way to share them. 

When the tea is brought at five o'clock,
And all the neat curtains are drawn with care,
The little black cat with bright green eyes
Is suddenly purring there.

   At first she pretends, having nothing to do,
She has come in merely to blink by the grate,
But, though tea may be late or the milk may be sour,
She is never late.

And presently her agate eyes
Take a soft large milky haze,
And her independent casual glance
Becomes a stiff, hard gaze.

Then she stamps her claws or lifts her ears,
Or twists her tail and begins to stir,
Till suddenly all her lithe body becomes
One breathing, trembling purr.

The children eat and wriggle and laugh;
The two old ladies stroke their silk:
But the cat is grown small and thin with desire,
Transformed to a creeping lust for milk.

 The white saucer like some full moon descends
At last from the clouds of the table above;
She sighs and dreams and thrills and glows,
Transfigured with love.

She nestles over the shining rim,
Buries her chin in the creamy sea;
Her tail hangs loose; each drowsy paw
Is doubled under each bending knee.

A long, dim ecstasy holds her life;
Her world is an infinite shapeless white,
Till her tongue has curled the last holy drop,
Then she sinks back into the night,

Draws and dips her body to heap
Her sleepy nerves in the great arm-chair,
Lies defeated and buried deep
Three or four hours unconscious there.

-Harold Monro 1879-1932

Not many people "get" her. OK, no one gets her but me...she is a little difficult. She only likes...me--and Jack is no exception. I rescued her when she was a year and a half old from the San Diego Humane Society. I saw her in her cage and she was  just beautiful...in a mangy, skinny, wiry, dirty sort of way.  She looked right in to my eyes and gave me this huge, sad, scared yowl that will echo in my head forever.  She was just five and a half pounds, and she had horrible collar neck from her previous owners--they had put a collar on her when she was a kitten and didn't bother to increase the size as she grew. She was absolutely terrified of humans and life. I took her home and have spoiled her rotten from the first moment she was mine. That was seven years ago. 

I don't know why she was dropped off at the Society, and I can't imagine the abuse she lived through. I can only guess that she was mistreated by a man, which is why she has an unusual aversion towards Jack and other males. To this day, she hates having the back of her neck touched by even me. As she has become more comfortable in our house, her personality has been growing. She has turned into an absolute diva, so we call her our little Miss. America. Well, I call her that. Jack calls her "football" or "sausage," nicknames representative of her transformed gluttonous shape.  It's hard to put her on a diet after imagining what she went through when she was so small. She is an extremely well behaved kitty, but she likes things to operate her way. She will only be touched when she allows it. I'm glad she has Miso...our other kitty we adopted a few years ago, to keep her company. She has taken him in like a son, giving him baths and such. In turn, he keeps her on her toes and gives her the exercise she needs. I think having another kitty in the house with her has has helped warm her heart towards whatever she has endured in her life. I can't even imagine what that must be, but I'm glad she is now safe and cozy and warm with us...with a ridiculous choice of fluffy beds, her own section on a cal king, catnip on demand, a gourmet grain-free diet, filtered water, and a tri-weekly dose of relax drops.

{Rescue Remedy Relax Drops have been an all natural way to really help with her anxiety...I highly recommend if you have a pet with emo issues. She prefers them on a half teaspoon of Wellness grain free turkey & salmon wet food...I mean, this is crazy, right?}

DSLR.

One of the things I've been wanting to learn is how to take my own professional quality pictures. I quickly found out that this would start with a new camera. The ol' point and shoot would no longer be cutting it. My hubby and my credit card company were almost as excited as me about this new revelation! Helloooo air-miles.

I ended up finding a fantastic deal on a perfect entry level DSLR camera online: The Canon EOS Rebel T3 using Woot. It was over $100 off...take that, Visa! It is not the most fabulous camera on the planet, but for the price, it is great for my level, and I'm having a blast with it! My goal is not to make money or do this for a living...so fear not, my fellow photographers. I more aspire to the level of the crazy soccer mom, spitting on my thumb to wipe chocolate off my kids' faces and nagging them to stay still for three seconds so I can get the perfect group shot. Or the frantic wife at Christmas that is forcing the whole fam damily to take a break from opening gifts or eating dinner because NOW is the TIME we HAVE to get a family picture. Yep, that's me.

From my last post, you can see that I've mostly been staring at Jack study since my new little beauty has arrived, but I have had a few chances to get out there.  Here are a few of my favorite shots so far:

{This is the first outdoor shot I ever took. Outside Jupiter in Berkeley on the Patio with my muse, pictured below. No, not the frosty beverages...the human, Jack.} 

{At the same location as above. His & Hers Hefeweizens on our date.}

{I have a small obsession with portraits. I wish to master them.}

{To be fair, maybe my obsession stems from the fact that my muse looks like this...}

{First time using my sunset setting. Alameda, California from our patio.}

{His Highness, Miso Henry. First time messing with ISO & aperture. Yep, technical term.}

{My Miss America, Sushi. Same photo session as above. Same ISO, Aperture settings, which I conveniently don't remember.}

{My Gramma Ilene. I love how this camera can capture joy like this...One of THE motives for this hobby.}

{Hubby & my hike on the Matt Davis Trail through Stinson Beach. Messing with landscape settings. One of the fellow hikers we passed by that day got it right when he called this the Enchanted Forest. I could have died here that day and been perfectly okay with it. That's an exaggeration, but you get my point.}

Just looking at the progression of the above, I can see that I'm getting a little better each time I take my camera out, just with practice alone. I could learn more if I took a class (or four), but for now, I'm self teaching and reading Rebel T3 for Dummies. Every actual photographer reading this probably just cringed. I have no shame. Let's not forget, I am the wife of a medical student {see blog heading}, and the cliche book purchase was better for the budget than enrolling in a class.

I have to say, my biggest motive for learning to take pictures is for my family. There is something priceless about catching moments, expressions, and experiences...through the various stages of life that seem to be gone in an instant. I want to be able to take amazing photos without having to pay for a photographer to follow me around every time I want to have a keepsake...like this:

{Gramma Di & Grampa Curt with their first granddaughter and my niece-y poo , Rylee Roo.}

Oh, and my other motive? I love the noise of the shutter button. Case closed.