A fantastic first day of being 31 years old

I'm a lucky guy, cuz I'm married to a lovely woman who knows me like no one else. It'll be tough spending time apart as I relocate first to Seattle (she's not joining until the end of the school term). We'll have visits pretty much every weekend, of course, but that just won't be the same. Oh well... absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

So the wife outdid herself and got me a totally killer birthday gift: a new lens for our digital camera. She's more of the photographer between the two of us, but I've been trying to figure out for the longest time how to take pictures with more dramatic perspective. This new lens is a huge step in that direction... it's so clear and precise, I feel like I'm shooting pictures with an entirely different camera!

She took me to enjoy a beautiful sunny day (after days of pretty hard rain... ah, Seattle, how dreary wilst thou be?) in the city, so we hit the Ferry Building for my last visit to the Hog Island Oyster Company. It also gave us a chance to try out the new lens a bit...

I took this photo of the brownies in the display case from a distance of at least 10 feet

Organic fruit... of course. I suppose they'll have an abundance of apples in Seattle.

Deliciously sweet clams cooked in wheat beer, with the insanely unctuous gruyere "grilled cheese" sandwich in the background.

We were pretty much reeling from the decadence of the grilled cheese sandwich (which was followed about an hour later by a terrific salumi plate and some wine tastings at Nectar), so there was really only room for a salad for dinner. What better way to end a birthday than going to an old favorite, Bistro Liaison in Berkeley, for my absolute favorite salad nicoise.

It's good to be 31! So let's see here... so far, I've lived in San Diego for about 3 months, Chicago for about 3 1/2 years, and the Bay Area for over 26 years. How long will we be in Seattle? I guess we'll have to wait and see...