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In case you missed this incredible satellite image of the enormous fires raging in Southern California, I’m posting it here. This high resolution image is ~600K in size, and pretty impressive.

This and the fire images on tonight’s evening news definitely brought back some memories of the Oakland Hills Fire of 1991. That fire killed 25 people, gutted 3,000 homes, and caused $1.68 billion in damage - the most destructive fire in California history, but it covered a mere 1700 acres. This current fire has already scorched more than half a million acres, and although it has not burned as many homes - yet - it promises to be the most costly ever.

The setting for Ellen’s 50th birthday celebration was almost as gorgeous as the Birthday Girl herself. Last night’s party at Solea in San Francisco was splendid. The food and wine were delicious, and as you can see, there were beautiful people everywhere. Thanks to Itzik for pulling it all together!

If you’d like to see the rest of the shots from last night, click here.

Hard to believe it’s almost November. Of course, two of my whacky roommates are lovin’ the unwelcome heat wave.

We’ve got to get moving though. We’re heading to the city to celebrate a dear friend’s 50th(!) birthday. I guess you know what that means… Come back soon for more photos!

By now, I know that some of you have already seen some of the pictures of our New York trip. Unfortunately, the tiny Ofoto thumbnails just do not do justice to the images - UNLESS you get them printed, that is. Well, in order to fix this sorry situation, I’m posting some higher resolution images. I’m going to EMBED these on the page so that you can view them full screen in the browser of your choice. (Of course, Opera is by FAR the best browser for viewing images.)

I did something else I have done only once before on this site. I compressed the thumbnail images somewhat along the y-axis in order to get four of them to fit across the page. (If this upsets any of you terribly, please let me know.)

And so, I bring you a few of thedude’s favorites - in no particular order. (Apologies to those who have been crying for more pictures of thedude and fewer of Kelly - wherever you are.)

I took about 10 of these panoramas so that I’d be sure to get one that would stitch together nicely. I was absolutely determined to share the view from Lelah’s balcony with all of you. Click on the image below to view a 180+ degree panorama of the view. The file is quite large, (400K) and will take a moment to download. Please be patient, and let me know if this does not work in your browser.

Having trouble viewing the panorama? If you’re running Windows and Internet Explorer and you see nothing but a gray box when you click on the image above, go to this page and install the Java plug-in.

We just returned from New York this evening, and we’re both thoroughly exhausted. I have about 250 images to go through - I promise to post a few as soon as I can get them ready. For now, here’s a shot of Kelly and her mother on Lelah’s balcony. As you can see, Lelah has a spectacular view over Greenwich Village. In the distance, you can see The Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building.

My very cool, very talented neighbor Andrew dropped by tonight. We started talking about one thing, which lead to the next, and then to the next and then to the first record we ever bought and Lonnie Donnegan and Wobble Boards and finally this page.

It’s a wonderful world.

Hope you enjoy your stay in California.

Good luck. No, really - we’re hoping for the best. Positive attitude and all that…

Alert reporter Randy Kincaid scooped this image of thedude at a recent rally for Ah-nult.

I’ll admit it - the thought of rolling out of bed extra early on a Sunday morning to run in a 12 kilometer race has never crossed my mind. The same can not be said for my fantastic and highly motivated wife. She and Steve completed the annual KFOG Bridge to Bridge race before I even got dressed. (How did I get so lucky?) The two of them were jamming with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy when I finally arrived to take them home on yet another totally gorgeous day in the Bay Area.

I’ve been unable to get this out of my mind for days now. I guess I just have to say something about it.

Kelly and I went to Yoshi’s on Sunday night to see Branford Marsalis. We were lucky enough to score a couple tickets to his last performance of a six day stint at the world-class jazz club.The show was fantastic - unbelievable, really. Branford and his amazing band possess more talent than perhaps any other performers I have ever seen live. Kelly and I were absolutely dumbfounded by the band. I do not have words to describe the music we heard that night - a stellar performance!

The crowd went wild as Branford and band returned to the stage to perform an encore. I could hardly wait! I thought, “This is going to be amazingly amazing!!” Branford introduced guest performer, George Alexander on trumpet. I’m thinkin’, “Oh boy, this is gonna be GREAT!”

And then it got really weird.

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