Happy New Year!

Almost there... Here we are, the ball's almost dropped in Time Square.

10, 9, 8 ...

I for one am not entirely sad to see this decade come to an end. Let's hope for better things to come in the future.

7, 6, 4 ..

By the way, if you started the year like these people (above photo), you might want to check this article for a few tips on how to cure a hangover. :D

4, 3, 2 ...

Happy New Year to all of you!

Happy Holidays from ...

First, let me wish all of you a very happy holiday season, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, or just winter solstice.

Wherever you are, I sure hope you're enjoying these last few days as the year 2009 winds down.



I've been scratching my head wondering what could I possibly show you guys that I haven't already shown you before during this holiday season in San Francisco.

You've already seen the skating rinks (both of them)
You've already seen the puppies at Macy's and the Giant cuckoo clock.
You've already seen the giant balls and the building decorations
You've already seen the giant Christmas tree at Union Square...

And then, the other day, I walked up to this ...


Christmas Palm Trees, San Francisco 2009

... and thought this might just make the perfect virtual card for you all!

Speaking of virtual cards, you'll never guess in a million years who sent me one?

Click here to see

Enjoy! :)

Meet my friend from out-of-town!

Are you ready?











...ready?







...are you sure?









Here goes ....











...












(groan)











OK








drum roll...







^ This (above) is my out-of-town visiting buddy.


Right about you know, you're probably wondering if I completely lost it.

I wonder the same thing myself from time to time ;) but in this case, there is an explanation!

This (above) is a my traveling panda buddy from an online forum I belong to. We mail him from one forum member to the next, show him a good time for a couple of weeks, take pictures of him while he's visiting, and post them up in the forum for the enjoyment of all members.

Of course, each person has their own idea of what the panda wants to do and see, and so the pictures are highly personalized and can reflect a variety of things.

Myself, I did what I always do whenever someone from out of town shows up: I showed him around town, walked everywhere with him, even took him to the restaurant one night, and for a drive out to Marin County.

To be honest, that panda has seen in a couple of weeks more of the sights of San Francisco than I have in the last 20 years! I literally took him *everywhere* a tourist wants to go including to places I had never taken the time to visit before, even though I live here!!

Yes, he got the VIP treatment and then some, but it made me happy to play the game, and believe it or not, when it was time to mail him to the next guy, my stomach kind of sunk when I put him in his box and walked to the post office...

But now I have close to 500 pics of that panda posing in front of various San Francisco landmarks in my hard drive ... I really hope you like pics of traveling pandas because I might just show you a few ;)

Here is one to start with.


Here, Panda looks at the Golden Gate Bridge from [Horseshoe Bay?] in Marin County.

I know what he's thinking. He's thinking "Wouldn't it be fun to climb up on that suspended bridge and look at the City skyline from up there?"

More to come.

White Christmas in the San Francisco Bay Area?

(Updated 12/10/09 : scroll down)

"A snow covered hillside is seen on Mt. Hamilton in San Jose Monday. A rare dusting of snow has fallen over the hills east of San Francisco Bay and in the Central Valley as residents brace for freezing temperatures this week." Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP

Yes, you read the title right. Monday morning, the Bay Area woke up to snow, frost and black ice.

There is still some snow up in the hills (Oakland, Berkeley, Mt. Diablo, San Jose) and it's mighty cold outside (by San Francisco standards) so you all be real careful out there on the roads, especially those of you who like to drive up to Mt. Tam :)

All I could manage to photograph was the little bit of snow still on top of the Oakland Hills, seen between 2 buildings from the Financial District of SF and I'm not sure what kind of shot I'll get with my point-and-shoot, so in the meantime, I "borrowed" these photographs above from the San Francisco Chronicle this morning.


"Snow covers the hills on Highway 24 at Interstate 680 looking toward Walnut Creek on Monday."Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

More photos here and the complete article here (yes, when it snows around here, it makes the front page of the paper ;) )

I'll update later tonight with my own shots if they come out reasonably OK.

PS. I'm real glad you want to meet my little buddy from out of town because I took close to 500 pictures during his visit to SF, so prepare yourself to seeing a lot of him on the pics in the near future ! ;)

Thank you all for the visits and comments.

Updated 12/10/09: Here you go, snow between buildings in the FD of SF.