day 80: John and Valena had us over to their place this afternoon for a fun memorial day BBQ. Their son is just about the cutest kid on earth so I had to take some pictures of him.
We’re leaving this afternoon for Dallas and we’ll be gone for a couple of days. I’m not sure if I’ll have internet access so if I don’t post for a few days don’t worry… I’ll still be taking pictures and they’ll be up when I get back.

day 79: Today we went hiking in the mountains to the east of San Diego. The weather was perfect and the wind was blowing through fields of tall wild grass. It was the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

day 78: Ben and I are visiting Encinitas for the weekend and Allison’s good friend Emma from college just happens to be in town also. She brought along her boyfriend Nick and since they’re so fabulously photogenic I asked them if I could do some portraits. This is one of my favorites but there are a lot of great ones! Thanks guys!

day 77: Today my office took a field trip to a building site for one of the homes we are working on. This house is conspicuous consumption at its finest (worst?) The site was a hill, but thanks to some 30 foot high retaining walls is now flat. And what happens when you excavate out a hill to make a flat site? Well you end up with a GIANT mound of dirt of course.

day 76: Ben’s office is part of a softball league and tonight was the first game. It wasn’t a close game but I really don’t think anybody expected it would be. That’s what happens when a)your team has never practiced b) has not all even met before the game … and c) is made up of architects. Much fun was had by all.

day 75: I spent almost the entire day today inside of our house. I only left to go out with friends for dinner but I was too busy enjoying my delicious food to remember to take a photo… oops. So instead of a photo of my tasty veggie fare, today you get to see a photo of our bookshelf. Thrilling…

day 74: In loving memory of Michael, all my thoughts and prayers are with the family. You all mean the world to me. I love you.

day 73: This evening we were walking to dinner and passed by the back side of the Santa Monica airport. This fence runs along the whole length of the street. I guess this is the low-tech version of airport security.

day 72: Today I met up with some amazing photographers in Fullerton for a day of shooting, talking, and general good times. Thank you so much to everyone who helped organize and to all of the wonderful volunteer models. I couldn’t bear to post only one photo… so check out the slideshow below. These are only a handful of my favorites and I’m still sifting through to find the ones I like, so more will be added soon!
http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

day 71: What do you get when you mix an airport hangar, artificial grass, and Ed Begley Jr. ? The Santa Monica alternative building expo! While there were a lot of products I’d seen before there were also a couple of cool ideas I hadn’t heard of, one of which was earthfriendlymoving.com . The expo is over, but there are still home tours tomorrow… hurry and you may just catch one.