July in a Nutshell

Been a whirlwind of a month. Too busy and too lazy to write. You know the drill - sloppy bullet points, then pictures.

What's new:

* Made our first real attempt to catch the city's fireworks display, which means elbowing through a thick crowd on the West End Overlook. Everyone else came prepared with picnic blankets, lawn chairs, and tripods; we simply stood guard over our little plot of balcony space. For the 20 minutes or so, it was worth it (I think).

* Upgraded my equipment! Retired my 75-300mm (no IS or USM) and acquired a snazzy 70-300mm USM with IS. Also got a 50 f1.8 and 430EX Speedlite, filter and stofen. My family grows. (75-300 for sale!)

* Shot my first wedding. Professionally. I knew nobody but the bride, who 'hired' me. Made a few friends by the end of the night, and learned a whole lot.

* Hubs flew to a conference in Chicago on Dave's plane, and this time I got to see it. It was a mosquito, a Piper Seneca with red velvet(?) interior, almost like an old London cab. Discovered that the county airport is a great place to watch clouds and soak in blissful solitude.

* My flip flops betrayed me. Cheap Old Navy black flip flops, my trusty walking companion - I've trekked a hundred miles with it around the world, from San Francisco to New York, DC, Tampa Bay, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Bali, Singapore... The threads are starting to wear down and it gets tricky to walk on wet and slippery surfaces (the locals say 'slippy'). Last week, it was raining pretty hard, and as I walked down a flight of fire-escape style stairs in the back of an apartment, the blasted sandals gave out and I slid down the entire flight of stairs. It hurt like a bad mofo and I got an awful bruise. I gave the flip flops a little time out in the corner... but I love them too much and wore them again the next day.

* Visited Princeton's campus and the art museum. Mad archaeology department - suddenly made sense that Indiana Jones is at Princeton. Oh, and we got a parking ticket.

* Went to N's Indian wedding extravaganza. 3 days, 3 towns, 3 hotels. 4 events, 400+ guests. The grand finale was in Philly's Hyatt Regency at Penn's Landing... very fancy.

* Had dim sum at H.K. Golden Phoenix in Philly's Chinatown with Le. Lounged around and chatted over coffee all afternoon. Then... an early birthday present from hubs: omakase at Morimoto.

1. Toro tartare in dashi-soy with osetra caviar and chives, Japanese peach
2. Whitefish (red snapper) carpaccio with hot oil, yuzu, and mitsuba leaf
3. Sashimi with creamy yuzu dressing
4. Intermezzo: Strawberry-chili jelly(?) and micro-mint
5. Halibut in yuba and seaweed, lobster, with beurre blanc
6. Australian lamb with hoisin glaze, ratatouille
7. Sushi plate
8. Flourless chocolate cake with creme fraiche and miso

Yeah... something like that. I was too shy to take too many pictures or any notes, though in hindsight, I should have. Every course was phenomenal, the carpaccio and halibut in particular being mind-blowingly orgasmic. Our server was discreet but attentive, and quite knowledgeable. Decor was rad. Hubs was equally excited about this pilgrimage to chez Iron Chef, and he agreed that the food lived up to the hype.

Pics in a future post. Bedtime!