Welcome to your fifth decade, Dude. Hard to believe. Don’t listen to Hillary – I love the shirt.

Thanks to Debra for throwing a super surprise party. More images here.

Our foodie friends Jim and Wendy dropped in while celebrating 25 years of wedded bliss. Congratulations to both of you, and thanks for giving us a reason to visit some of the best the Bay Area has to offer. I’m full now.

Thanks, Tom and Julie for a wonderful party last night. As always, the food and the company were exceptional!

A few more images can be viewed here.

I love barter. In trade for some web work, I get days at this fabulous house. This works out great for everyone involved, but the biggest beneficiary is definitely me. Its on trips like this that I am reminded how great my friends are and that I have the most wonderful wife in the world. Lucky me!

Grant makes a pretty good case with this shot – frozen at 1/4000th of second.

Once in a while a friend sends a photo that amazes me. Dave was practicing with his new camera, and managed to capture this cool image of googly-eyed puppies going crazy in the Wisconsin snow.

Dave, I’d say this picture proves that some pet-owners do look just like their pets! :)

Welcome! You certainly picked a gorgeous day to fly in to Oakland.

My Achiever wife and a couple neighbors got up very early this morning to participate in the KFOG Bridge-to-Bridge Run (OK – walk). I don’t know how they do it. I wish I had a fraction of that energy! While Jack and I were just too busy to squeeze in a 7K walk, we did get to pose with them in front of this giant inflatable floss dispenser!

Thanks, Steve, for taking this fun shot!

Need I say more?

thedude and Steve out on a shoot on a clear day in October, 1983. I don’t remember where we got the 4 x 5 camera, but I know Steve got some great results with it. Got more scans, Steve?

My old pal Steve is scanning his old slides and negatives, and he sent me this gem, shot somewhere in the late eighties – Steve thinks it was 1988 or 1989. He shot this with Kodak’s nearly grain-free Ektar 25 negative film in his Pentax ME Super from San Franciso’s Corona Heights Park. (Google placemark) Yep, that’s a young dude in the foreground. If Steve’s time frame is right, I would have just returned from a year in Diego Garcia.

My circle of old friends is getting wider. Yesterday I received a long e-mail from Troels Nørlem – another old pal from Greenland. What a thrill it is to hear from Troels – the official Thule Air Base Photographer! Sounds like he’s is doing well with his wife and two kids in what he refers to as, “the outskirts of the civilized world (Djursland, Denmark)”. These days he’s working as a photojournalist and sells photographic flash equipment on the side. That’s him on the left.

Way back in 1987, Troels and his friend Jesper flew to Germany in a 1953 Danish military aircraft to visit yours truly. The trip turned out to be a test of their endurance and bravery. The two of them managed a top speed of about 70 miles an hour in the old plane with fabric-covered wings and a back seat made of bare sheet metal. I remember Troels telling me how frustrating it was seeing cars on the Autobahn below speeding away from them. Not only that, but the plane had a very short cruising range meaning they had to land every two hours to refuel. I think it took them 8 hours to make the trip from Copenhagen to Pirmasens, Germany – a distance of about 500 miles.

I got a chance to fly the old plane – but only for a few seconds. I “took control” and immediately realized that if the pilot was to release his tight grip on the stick, (it took both hands to control) the plane would go straight into a nose-dive. Yikes! All I can say is that it was a very good thing that Jesper was able to take back control of the plane, as we’d certainly have crashed with me on the stick.