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Christmas 2007

Babalu Tom and June TaylorConnie and Ernie Desi
Taylor Family
Kevin and Martin
Oracle fun run
Swell Season Live
Small Dog walk at Ocean Beach
San Francisco
Heather and the boys
Stacey and Zevi
Photography class
Michelle and Paolo

If a picture is worth a thousand words there's about 33,000 words worth here. What do you mean, you want more? You want actual words as well a visual equivalents?

Ok, but as I've already provided the equivalent of 30k+ words I will keep it brief. Too much reading can be bad for your eyes after all.

2007 was good to us in an undramatic way. We didn't change the world in some headline making way but we did get through the year having learnt and grown some and it's hard to ask more than that.

First, lets get the things that didn't change much out of the way. We still enjoy living in the same house. We still have two dogs, Baba and Desi, as surrogate children. Martin still works for Oracle and commutes in the same car he's had for 12+ years - you can have my Miata keys when you prise them out of my cold, dead fingers, or whenever the engine finally blows; whichever comes sooner. We're still together - 10 years now!

Highlights of our 2007 included a long, planned trip to England, We got to explore a changed London - everything is so groovy, and beautiful and expensive (have you seen the dollar / pound exchange rate lately?). We also got to catch up with family over kitchen tables rather than over the telephone. As Martin's Dad was celebrating 40 years as a vicar the whole family was together in the same room for the first time in a decade - that really was special. And, no sooner had we got back to the States but Martin's brother, Richard, called to say he and Consi, his girlfriend who the whole family had just met, were getting married next summer. I guess we'll be back in London much sooner than we anticipated.

We also enjoyed our annual Thanksgiving road trip to Phoenix to catch up with Patti's family and to smell the Arizonan desert that Patti loves. Patti's Mom and Dad were in good form and her brother, Dennis, and his wife Cammy hosted the feast itself out at their beautiful home in Apache Junction.

As for other milestones - Martin hit the big 4-0. Patti and his friends threw him a fabulous party. Still, he doesn't look a day over 39.

Much of the rest of our free time this year was spent on photography (hence the 33,000 words with millions more on our collective hard drives). This was the year Patti's photography really took off. Just last year Patti was shying away from DSLRs (bigger, more professional cameras) - this year she's rarely without her precious D40 and a couple of lenses. She has progressed both technically and artistically and is scaling new challenges in the field with aplomb. You can see her work both on her photoblog and her flickr account. Both Patti and Martin have taken part in a photographic project to take, and post a picture a day for a year. It's part photo-journal, part artistic project, part marathon but it has become part of our daily rituals to share images we took that day; you can see Patti's project365 set here, and Martin's here. We're met real friends in the process and learnt so much - we both intend to continue our picture-a-day projects in some form in 2008 - stay tuned!

Favorite concert of the year - the older we get the more impressive a band or personality has to be to get us to drag our butts out to a venue. This year Glen Hansard rules, with the more acoustic Swell Season gig and the rocking Frames set at the Great American Music Hall. We both hope their fan base and success continues to grow and that there's a Oscar nod or two towards "Once" when the Academy Awards are announced in 2008. Others included Luce, Eddie Izzard in a work improgress set and David Sadaris.

Which leads to Patti's favorite movie of the year, "Once". Martin is more undecided with "Bourne Ultimatum", "The Host" and "Gone Baby Gone" all contenders - Martin is obviously much more mainstream than Patti.

So that was the year, that was. We wish all our family and friends a safe, happy, creative, prosperous and peaceful 2008

Peace - sig

 

 

Patrin Xmas Card 2007

Patti cheers!
Richard and Consi
Susan and D
Martin's Miata
Simon and Karen
Meta Patti and Martin
The Frames at the Great American Music Hall
Flickr Party
Martin, Baba, Desi
Desi Cammy and DennisLondon from the Eye Babalu

 

 

 

 

 
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