Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 21

Reflecting - Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego

Today I am thankful for:

• A productive day
• My hubbie making dinner AND cleaning the kitchen
• An evening with two of my favorite kiddos

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 20

Beauty Abandoned - Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego

Today I am thankful for:

• Catching up with a good friend over coffee
• AppleCare protection on my iPhone
• Dinner with my hubbie on his ship
• Rain

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 19

Today Les and I got out to shoot some pictures. We spent a couple of hours wandering around downtown San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter, exploring and capturing a bit of our awesome city.

With my camera in hand I tend to see more than I do when I'm simply running errands or out for a shopping trip. I noticed little things - colors, shapes, historic details...some of my favorite photographic subjects. Over the next few days I will be sharing a few of my favorites from my downtown exploration. I hope you enjoy them!

Today I am thankful for:

• Time to make photographs
• Time with my hubbie, doing something I love and sharing it with him
• The release of Topaz Adjust 5 (a free upgrade if you have Topaz Adjust 4!!) - one of my favorite tools in the digital darkroom
• New pictures to "play" with

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 18

The Owl Pendant on the necklace that Les gave me for our anniversary

Today I am thankful for:

• The time my hubbie and I had to spend together while he was on leave
• Date night - I'm savoring these because there won't be many more before my hubbie deploys
• Crossing a few more items off of the pre-deployment checklist. I strongly dislike the countdown, but I'm thankful to know that we are going to be as prepared as possible.

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 17

Sunset Surfer 2 - Morro Bay Strand

Today I am thankful for:

• The release of the 2011 Beaujolais Nouveau
• A new keychain, the Wisdom Owl Charm by Brighton - I've wanted it for months! When I first saw it I didn't have the money for it and when I went back to buy it as a birthday present for myself it had sold out. I lucked out and found it back in stock today!
• "Jewels" from a Pomegranate - eating a Pomegranate is like a treasure hunt!

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 16

Anniversary Rose

Today I am thankful for:

• Eight years of marriage to a great guy!
• A nice relaxing anniversary
• A massage
• A fabulous dinner at Island Prime
• Two very thoughtful gifts from my hubbie (even though we had agreed no gifts) :-D A cute little necklace with an owl pendant and a "just because" gift that happened to arrive today - an Olloclip len for my iPhone - crazy cool! (The rose photos above were taken with the macro lens attached to my iPhone!)

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 15

Sunset Surfer on the Morro Bay Strand

Today I am thankful for:

• Making it halfway through the month, blogging daily! Its not a easy as it sounds...
• A yummy dinner with a very fun guest - one of my lovely aunties!
• A relaxing end to a very busy day

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 14

Wine & Olive Oil - A year ago in Sicily

Today I am thankful for:

• A good start to Anniversary Week - a flower from my sweet hubbie who noticed I needed a pick-me-up
• An (almost) clean house, at least the laundry is done...for today
• A tasty glass of French wine to sip while I unwind

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 13

Fun Colors in Little Italy, San Diego

Today I am thankful for:

• Dinner with family - great company, great food!
• A new shower head - a HUGE improvement over the one that came with our house!
• A good, productive weekend

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 12

Balboa Theater - Downtown San Diego

Today I am thankful for:

• The opportunity to see one of my favorite musical groups perform - Pink Martini!! The show was AMAZING!
• My awesome parents for buying the tickets for Les & I
• Date night, two nights in a row
• Going to the theater twice in one week!

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 11

Today I am thankful for:

• All of the men and women who have served and are currently serving in our Armed Forces
• My Sailor
• Date night

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 10

Today I am thankful for:

• The opportunity to see an amazing play - Come Fly Away
• Time with my awesome aunties
• Newly discovered space in our living room (we cleaned out a few things)

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 9

On a Front Porch in Little Italy

Today I am thankful for:

• Finding an activity (not sure if I'd call it a hobby yet) that I share with my husband
• My husband's encouragement when we are out on a bicycle ride
• Completing a LONG (for me) bike ride
• Not having to make dinner (because I'm exhausted from said bike ride)
• A glass of wine and curling up on the sofa in my PJ's

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 8

Today I am thankful for:

• My Crock Pot and ease with which it allows me to prepare delicious food - tonight's dinner was Carnitas! (find the recipe here) Seriously AMAZING!
• A clean house
• Getting things checked off of the to-do list

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 7

San Diego City Lights

Today I am thankful for:

• My super-cool star filter (used in the photo above) 
• A new bike rack for my car (I've been wanting one for about a decade!)
• Delicious Posole for dinner (click here for the recipe)
• My hubbie cleaning up the kitchen after dinner
• Relaxing with a glass of vino

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 6

The City by the Bay

Today I am thankful for:

• A laid-back day
• Yummy Pho for lunch
• Starbucks' Egg Nog Lattes

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 5

Another look at the River Boat on San Diego Bay

Today I am thankful for:

• Quality time with my hubbie
• A fantastic date night with dinner at Blind Lady Ale House and dessert at Demille's
• Limoncello - Gratis from our server who was from Palermo

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 4

The Chain*

Today I am thankful for:

• My husband being home & starting some much needed time off
• Rainy weather
• Curling up on the sofa with my cat for a snooze while listening to the rain

*Today's photo is my submission for Photo of the Week (hosted by Jessica Rogers Photography).

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 3

Today I am thankful for:

• An awesome dentist - she and her staff take such good care of me!
• Stumbling on to an opportunity to do something I haven't done since high school - play handbells!! I don't know if it'll pan out, but I'm excited about the possibility!
• Parents who are always there for me

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 2

Positive. Patience. Perseverance.

These are three things I had to keep in mind last night when I was out shooting. On a whim I decided to try and capture the downtown San Diego skyline in evening light. Circumstances weren't on my side, though. There was a massive tanker blocking my view of downtown and a huge bank of fog rolling in behind me, taking the sun with it.

By keeping a positive attitude, being patient (looking around for other subjects), and persevering (not giving up and going home) I found something really cool! Did you know that San Diego has a creepy old abandoned river boat?

How cool is that? It is out on the east end of Shelter Island in case you want to go looking for it. It is pretty heavily fenced off with plentiful "no trespassing" signs which makes photographing it challenging, but definitely worth the effort.


Today I am thankful for:

• Photography and the lessons it teaches me