Anno nuovo, vita nuova...

#76: Join a CSA

On Sunday T and I received our first CSA box:

Say hello to our new vegetable supplier: Suzie's Farm.

Suzie's is an organic farming operation operating here in San Diego (in fact, Google maps informs me that they are located between 15.7 and 17.1 miles from my house depending on the freeways that I take). The sell their produce to lots of local restaurants, at farmer's markets, and through their CSA .

"But what is a CSA, and what's in the basket?" I hear you asking.

Allow me to answer those questions one at a time.

1. CSA=community supported agriculture. CSA programs put local farmers in direct contact with their customer base. These programs generally work as such... the customer pays a flat fee for a certain number of produce deliveries and every week (or in our case, every other week) the farmer supplies said customer with a box of produce.  These types of programs are helpful in supporting local farms because it guarantees the farmers a customer base and gives them the capital that they need for planting and other big projects on the farm. And in exchange for their pledge of support, the customers are supplied with a variety of high quality veggies without having to pay assorted middle men, and with the peace of mind that comes with knowing exactly where your veggies come from and your money goes.

2. This week our CSA box contained the following:

• Tomatillos (1 lb)
• Cabbage
• Zucchini
• Onion Fennel
• Tomatos (2lbs..... delicious San Marzanos)
• Padron Peppers
• Lettuce
• Okra
• Onion Sprouts
• Cilantro

While we don't get to pick what comes in our box each week, we do varied an assortment of different produce depending on what is ripe at the farm. I find this to be one of the most compelling reasons for joining the CSA.... It puts people back in touch with seasonal eating, an experience very different from the standard supermarket produce section.

All Local Salad

If you're interested in what we're making with our produce just check in on T's food blog. I'm sure you'll be seeing plenty money shots of Suzie's amazing vegetables over there before too long.

Cheers,
Nick

#5: The Hillcrest Farmer's Market

Farmer's Market #3

It was our bikes first outing in San Diego and our first time at our closest farmer's market... such a solid Sunday afternoon. We picked up fresh corn, teas, lentils, wild rice, Pesto Bitchin' Sauce, mint, dragons tongue snap beans (SO good), peppers, an assortment of mushrooms, fresh orange juice, AND joined Suzie's Farm's CSA!!! (#76- Join a CSA, so more about that soon.) 

We <3 the Hillcrest Farmers Market. 

#2: Bargain Music

It has officially been (approximately) a month an a half since I attended the best show that I have ever seen in my life... the Bargain Music 15th Anniversary Show at DiPiazza's in Long Beach.

(I have been procrastination about writing up this post because I know that I can never really do justice to the show with mere words on the page.... but here it goes)

Before I get into the show... let me give you a brief description of my personal history with Bargain Music. I was originally turned on to the band by my good friend/former roommate, Woodrow McPants. Over the years the band has gone through numerous personnel changes surrounding the back bone of the band: Josh Fischel ("a six foot four troubadour who can barely play guitar" but can melt your face with his vocal power and range). If I was forced to describe their style I would have to call it punk rock and reggae, with folk, country, heavy metal, and countless other influences. Unfortunately, by the time of my introduction to Bargain, they band had essentially called it quits, thus nixing the potential for me to see the band in concert (or so I thought). I dug my way through the band's back catalog and they quickly became my favorite band. Fischel's vocals and songwriting are some of the best I've ever encountered. While I had seen Josh perform solo (which is, don't get me wrong, absolutely astounding), I had long wished that I had been able to see the whole band play. Thus, when Woody told me that the original Bargain Music line-up would be playing a one night anniversary show, I was there.

And so it was that Woody, Smalls, Panda, Chow, T and I found ourselves at DiPiazza's on the night of July 30th.

Prior to the night's main attraction, Josh opened (for himself) with his new band Josh Fischel and the Fiction. The Fiction kicked ass... Josh's singing was epic as always, their bassist was tight and funky, the guitarist shreds, keys were holding it down, and don't even get me started on their drummer. Their version of Cripple Creek was one of the best I've ever heard (no disrespect to The Band). The Fiction alone would have been an amazing show unto themselves, but... then came the original lineup of Bargain Music.

I only managed to snag this one crappy photo because I was too busy having  my socks rocked off

I was seriously not kidding when I said that this was the best show I've ever seen. They played all of my favorites: "Black Eye", "Long Beach Millennium", "It's Called Fucking". Sure, they were a little bit rusty having not played together for more or less a decade, but seeing all of those songs played live was incredible. And the energy of the show was amazing, DiPiazza's was packed with people who had been fans since the beginning; many of them knew Josh and the band personally... hell... some of them were even the subjects of song lyrics. Everyone in the entire building sang along the entire time. My face was literally melting with the awesomeness of the entire spectacle. It was a life changing experience.

In the end, it was an evening full of songs that I never thought I'd see performed and will never forget having seen.

#79 Make Homemade Orange Juice

Simple and delicious. Nothing beats homemade OJ. 

Oranges: From Nick's parent's CSA box

Juicer: From Ikea

Super cute napkin: Anthropology 

#5: Little Italy's Mercato

Sunset Magazine recently hosted a "food fight" between Northern California and Southern California. (Check it out here.) They compared the many aspects of food in each area- new ideas, locality, markets, booze, diversity, etc. This hit home for me- being a LA native and having lived in the Bay Area for four years- I was torn between which I thought was the best. Although Northern California has Alice Waters, Southern California won the food fight! (Stoked... especially since I'm living in So Cal again.)

Within a week of living here, I've noticed that the craft food and slow food movements Northern California sometimes claims as their own are also in full force here in San Diego. Two small examples 1.)- The Linkery (these guys have vegan options and the BEST sangria). Their food is locally grown, and the restaurant has great connections with the farmers. Oh, and it's also delicious. 2.) There are a TON of farmers markets every week in the many neighborhoods of San Diego. We might be able to complete all 20 on our list within our new city.

This past Saturday, Nick and I made it to our first San Diego farmers market- Little Italy's Mercato, which I also found out about through Sunset. Date Street was lined with over 100 booths and it quickly became my new favorite farmers market... I could see the ocean, there were two great bands playing on opposite ends of the market, there were vegan treats, fresh zucchini flowers, succulents for sale, and a green smoothie booth.

The Mercato's end, over looking the ocean :)

Mmm... greens.

We also found our future CSA. ( #76!) Suzie's Organic Farm at the Mercato. Their booth was awesome.... my favorites- they have legumes and squash blossoms, and their farm is just about 15 minutes away from our neighborhood. 

Our purchases at the Mercato:

my green smoothie, and vegan chocolate and butterscotch brownie, 

Nick's citrus cranberry scone, and goat's cheese, our zucchini flowers, micro greens, and dates.

Not in the photo: Mango, chili popsicle.  

Dates for our vegan date shakes... find the recipe here: www.vegalicioustee.blogspot.com

If you're in the area, I highly recommend Little Italy's Mercato, just be prepared to search for parking for a while. A lot of our favorite vendors at the Mercato told us that they also have booths at our neighborhood's FM, so we're planning on biking to that one this weekend. But- I'm sure we'll be back in Little Italy very soon for some good eats. 

Mangia Bene!!!
- T

#65: I've Joined the Club...

I've been approved.

I'll be good, I swear.

(And yes, it supports UC Davis because a. my alma mater was not on the list of college options (surprise, surprise) b. USD was not on the list?! c. most of my favorites are Aggies d. Davis is freaking awesome)

#2: G.Love & Special Sauce

I love my friends. I love good music. And, I love summer nights. 

What happens when you put all three together? 

Pure bliss. 

Who: G.Love & Special Sauce (.. and Nick, Devo, and me)

What: Crowd surfing, a harmonica, a kick-drum, and amazing tunes

When: the evening of July 22nd

Where: San Diego, Del Mar Race Tracks' outdoor venue

Why: Many reasons... 

1. our good friend Devo works at the Del Mar tracks and hooked it up (thanks again Devo!)

2. I love G.Love & Special Sauce's unique style, and rhythm 

3. when G.Love plays that harmonica... I melt

4. G.Love (Garret Dutton) plays with the Avett Brothers, Jack Johnson, and Tristan Prettyman (love them all)

5. the Avett Brothers are his producers and Brushfire Records produced his older albums

6. each of their songs sound different than the other (...this goes for their records too) 

7. basically... he's a seriously talented artist 

This show brought such a wide variety of people together to simply enjoy life for a few hours... It was awesome. Music is powerful. 

Best song of the night: Booty Call

Never heard of G.Love & Special Sauce? Check them out here. 

Milk and Sugar

Fixin' to Die

XO- Theresa

#73: Eat at Native Foods

Well, hello there. Long time no see... I don't think I've posted on here in about 3 months, but it feels good to be back.

This weekend was a busy list weekend for T and me, in addition to visiting the Long Beach Farmer's Market we managed to cross an additional item off of our list... Eating at Native Foods in Costa Mesa.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with it, Native Foods is an all vegan restaurant that first opened back in 1994. They have a lot of fusion dishes combining flavors from different regional cuisines as well as the veganization of some old favorites. Theresa has been in love with the place for a long while now, and has been dying to take me there.

Theresa had the Oklahoma Bacon Burger (which she is apparently unable to resist whenever she goes there), featuring seitan, BBQ sauce, tofu bacon an assortment of veggies and fried pickles. I opted for the Scorpion Burger: a blackened tempeh patty with chipotle sauce and avo. We also decided to split a side of sweet potato fries and a strawberry shortcake parfait. Everything was quite delectable... particularly the fried pickles. One of the things that I really enjoyed is that all of the "meats" are made in house, so the quality is much better than the standard Gardenburger.

I definitely recommend a stop by Native Foods if you find yourself in the area. (Even if you aren't veg, the food is still worth it. Their menu even points out items that are recommended for first time diners)

Until next time.

-Nick 

#5: Go to Farmer's Markets in 20 different cities

Farmers Market #1: 
Sunday, July 3rd 
Long Beach, California
Alamitos Bay Marina (Marina &2nd St.)

I love my home town's market because it is in our marina and includes a huge arts and crafts section. Here, Nick and I enjoyed sampling the local, seasonal produce- a lot of berries, plums, apricots, peaches, etcetera, the live music and a delicious fresh "very berry" scone from a local baker.  We purchased eggs from a local farm, locally produced vegan body lotion made from Bolivian cocoa, a bundle of fresh lavender, and a gorgeous bouquet of irises and mexican bush sage grown in Oxnard. And of course, it isn't a trip to the farmers market without some fresh (pomegranate) apple juice.

Thanks for reading :) Love, Theresa

#100: Finish our bachelors degrees

On May 21st I graduated from Saint Mary's College of California with a Bachelors of Arts in Liberal and Civic Studies and a minor in Music. It was a fabulous end to an amazing chapter of my life. Thanks Mom and Dad! :)

#60: first harvest and more

Parsley... yum :)

Cilantro

Basil

#13: Take Piano Lessons

I hate to admit, but my mother was right. I regret the decision I made to stop taking piano lessons when I was younger. I became so bored with the lessons, never got a chance to play songs that I really enjoyed, and dreaded recitals. Lame excuses, I know. (I didn't entirely give up on music though. With the guidance of an amazing mentor in high school, I fell in love with the guitar. As a music minor, I took two guitar and voice classes during my undergrad at St. Mary's but these didn't seem to fill the void that was left from my break-up with piano.)

This past Christmas, Nick gave my a keyboard and I signed up for piano lessons with three other girls at St. Mary's. Able to read music but out of practice on the piano, I was at an awkward level, s0 our teacher worked with us each individually during our one hour time slot, two days a week. I was SO stoked to be back and playing, until I found out we had a recital at the end of the semester. NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I wanted to drop the class, so I called Nick to explain the situation and he convinced me to just do it.

And of course, it was totally worth it.

Having to practice playing piano this past semester definitely helped get me through the stressful and crazy days. Playing piano is so calming and inspiring. (Admittedly frustrating at times.) I actually loved going to lessons this time around. We began with learning folk melodies from tons of different cultures, along with many different scales and technique exercises. My favorites pieces I played this semester are: Duet Exercise #42 by Ferdinand Beyer (because this meant I got to play with my piano teacher who is a phenomenal pianist), Arches by Paula Dreyer, Op. 39, No. 1 by Kabalevsky, and Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany's.

All of a sudden- it was time to choose our songs for the recital. It was too late to drop the class. I had to do it. NOT stoked. My piano teacher selected Memory by Andew Lloyd Webber (from the musical Cats) for my recital piece. I practiced religiously, and tortured Nick, my parents, my friend Molly, and even the little girls I babysit, who all endured listening to me play the song for them (or via Skype) in hope to be comfortable playing in front of a crowd, which is clearly not my forte.

I survived the recital and actually ended up playing decently. You know that feeling you get after succeeding at something? ... like you can save the world? Yeah- that's how I felt.

I absolutely love playing piano again :) Lessons learned: 1. Don't be a quitter 2. Practice makes perfect 3. Music is medicine for the mind. 4. Don't touch a Baby Grand, you'll just get greedy.

Next piece to conquer: The Entertainer by Scott Joplin

Thanks for reading! Love, T

#60 Herb Garden Updates...

Parsley

Marjoram

#60 Lookin' good!

Cilantro and basil

Parsley

Marjoram

#90 Don't eat out for a month

In hope to save some money for my future adventures in Italy, I've decided to start #90 on our list ("Don't eat out for a month"). The kick-off meal: One of my favorites- seitan and broccolini over brown rice. Inspired by: Vegan YumYum. Simple and delicious. Maybe #90 will also lead towards checking #71 off our list (Cook all recipes in a cookbook)? -T

#60 (Days 8, 9, 10)

Marjoram and thyme:

Cilantro and basil:

#60 (Day 7)

The marjoram and parsley are sprouting!

#1: Arrivederci America, Ciao Italia

Ciao! I can now officially cross number 1 off of my list. But I think I will wait to do the official cross-off until T gets here in May. Until then, I will be keeping you all up to date on my shenanigans via the wonders of this here world wide web. So, if you find yourself asking questions like:

1. "What is Nick doing in Italy?" 
2. "What is Italy like for a recently 'graduated' young person?" 
3. "Does Nick even speak any Italian?" 
4. "What's the Italian word for shit?" 
5. "What am I doing on this strange person's blog?"

Hopefully you'll find the answers here:

1. I am WWOOFing for 7 weeks, then sight seeing for a few more once T gets here. (If you haven't heard of WWOOF, it's an organization that puts organic/sustainable farmers in touch with volunteers world wide. Essentially, volunteers (like myself) put in work on farms in exchange for room and board. WWOOFers (as the volunteers are known) get to to see the world and learn about organic/sustainable farming practices, while the farmers get much needed help; it's a win-win.) The current itinerary is 3 weeks near Spoleto, 2 weeks near Modena, 2 weeks at another farm somewhere in Italy, and 2.57 weeks doing something with T. In case you were wondering, I am super good at planning ahead..... or not.
2. I'm not sure I just got here yesterday.... So far the answer is: awesome.
3. No. Wait....I said "ciao" at the beginning of this post, and "no" means "no" in Italian. So.... Yes?...or rather.... Si?..... What did you mean by "any Italian"? I'm so confused...... I guess my final answer is: Solo un po'. 
4. Merda
5. It's ok. You probably just hit the next blog button. That happens sometimes.

Anyway, now that I've gotten all of your questions out of the way, I'll get to the point.

Rather than cluttering up this blog with travelogues from Italy, I'll be posting in a new blog. So, if you're curious, please cruise over to: Il Percorso Scenico

 (Yes, that does mean "The Scenic Route" in Italian. No, I'm not very creative at naming blogs)

If you have any real questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to comment on this post and our friendly (but less than courteous) staff will respond as soon as possible. And as always, thanks for stopping by.

-N

#60 Plant a window herb box

“Gardening may seem like just a hobby to many people, but in fact growing food is one of the most radical things you can do: Those who control our food control our lives, and when we take that control back into our own hands, we empower ourselves toward autonomy, self-reliance, and true freedom.” Flores, Food Not Lawns

Just before Nick left to WWOOF in Italy, he bought me a garden box, and 5 packets of organic seeds full of marjoram, Italian dark green flat parsley, English thyme, slow bolting cilantro, and Italian genovese basil. Thank you Nick! :) Since spring has sprung in the East Bay, and we've graduated to 50 degrees + in the evening, I planted everything last Sunday with hope to see signs of life within 5 to 10 days. I am SO excited about my little garden and can't wait to start cooking with what I've grown.

Stay tuned for our window herb box updates. For now, here are photos from Day 1.

In the kitchen:

On the balcony:

Love, T

#56: Get a New Laptop

Speaking of my credit card.... I used it yesterday to make my first major purchase.... a new laptop computer, an HP Mini 210

Why did I buy a new computer?
Well.... My old laptop is from 2006, which makes it the laptop equivalent of Methuselah, or a saber-tooth tiger or something like that. At any rate, my old Dell meets my needs in terms of general tasks: word processing, excel files, etc... but it's slow as molasses when it comes to surfing the web, not to mention the gamut of other problems that afflict computers of a certain age (rheumatoid arthritis, etc...). Since surfing the web is pretty much the only thing  I do on my computer these days, I figured it was probably time for an upgrade. Plus, with Italia looming, I was guessing that I wouldn't enjoy lugging around close to 25 pounds of laptop just so I could check email while I was there. I have to admit, I was initially seduced by the prospect of  the iPad 2; but then I came to my senses, thought about the criteria I was looking for in a new machine, and made a more sensible purchase. So, what went into the decision?

My Criteria:

• Webcam: I think my Dell was made in the last year that built in webcams didn't come standard in all laptops. And would like to occasionally see my friends and family while I am in Italy
• Portability: As I mentioned before, I didn't want to be lugging around 15 pounds of laptop while I'm gone.
• Price: I'm not made of money (I'm told that I'm made primarily of water and carbon). Even though I intended to (and did) purchase my new computer with my credit card, I am going to have to pay this thing off eventually, so I was looking for something inexpensive.
• SD Card Port: A mere matter of convenience, but finding the USB cord to my camera is a pain in the ass. Being able to put the SD card directly into the machine makes things a hell of a lot easier for blogging and things of that nature.
• Quality: I prefer when my final purchase doesn't run like shit and fall apart as soon as I get out of the store 

With these criteria in mind, I set about seeing what was available and weighing my options.

Stuff I Looked At :

• iPad 2: While the iPad certainly is stylish and seductive (and now has the camera for video chatting), it also is fairly pricey and only comes with 16GB in its base model. And it doesn't have an SD card slot. Basically, I realized the iPad only did about half of the stuff I wanted and still cost an arm and a leg. No thanks.
• Dell Inspiron Duo: This is a pretty gee whiz piece of machinery, bridging the gap between tablet and netbook with a rotating screen. It has the full capabilities of your average netbook, with the convenience of a tablet when you want it. Definitely an interesting possibility. The down side, you never know how extremely new products like this are going to pan out, and it seemed to run slow in the reviews I saw. When it came down to it, the price tag and lack of SD Card slot conspired to turn me against it.
• Dell Inspiron Mini 10
• HP Mini 210

The Dell and the HP netbooks are essentially interchangeable in most respects; the processors, RAM, size, weight, battery life, and price are all comparable. Both met all of my criteria. In the end, the HP won out because the screen looked a little bit nicer and the keyboard was easier to type on (my sausage fingers make typing on these little laptops problematic at times). It's been a fine purchase so far, but I'm sure that I'll be ranting about it if it turns to shit at some point in the near future.

Thanks again for reading

-Nick

#65 and Things That Make Me Feel Like an Adult

(Note: As usual we have been making progress on the list whilst entirely ignoring the blogging process. Apologies. We'll try to get a few more things to get up here in the next few days. And, as always, thanks for reading.)

I don't know about you, but there are certain things that just make me feel like an adult... and I'm not talking about things like my voice getting deeper and all of those physiological changes that you learned about in sex ed, although I'll be stoked if/when I can finally grow a reasonable facsimile of a full beard. (I just realized that I should probably inform you all that I am Nick, because if you thought T was writing this post that last sentence would have seemed very weird) At any rate, I'm talking about when I started liking things that my former child-self would have thought was totally unacceptable (like blue cheese, onions, or having any dressing on my salad that wasn't ranch.... I was a strange child). At any rate, I did something the other day that made me feel that same way: I applied for a credit card.

Now, I know that that may not seem like a particularly big deal to some of you, but I had been putting it off for a long time. You see, I already had a perfectly functional debit card which acted just like a credit card... you could slide it through the card swipe at the supermarket, buy gas with it, open a tab at a bar, what the hell did I need a credit card for? And something about the idea of having "credit" made it seem so scary and grown up, I would have to start  thinking about building a credit score and paying bills on time and understand interest rates and essentially do a bunch of shit that required forethought instead of just flying by the seat of my pants. And I like flying by the seat of my pants. Besides, what if I couldn't handle the responsibility and having a credit card somehow sent me spiraling out of control, until I eventually ended up starring in one of those debt management commercials on late night TV, where the person had like 17 million dollars in credit card bills until they called some cheesy lawyer from Oklahoma who worked everything out for them. Scary, right? So, I gave my middle finger to the credit card industry and stuck to my debit card for the entirety of my collegiate career.... and I ate a lot of ramen sometimes.

But then, after moving back in with the parents roommates and quasi-joining the workforce, it occurred to me.... "Holy shit.... I have absolutely no credit score and I'm assuming at some point in my life I'll probably want to like buy a house, or at least a car. I should probably work on that."

So I bit the bullet, started looking into things, realized that I was definitely going to be getting screwed on interest rates, applied for an Amex, and was declined.....at which point I thought, "F*&K, this all sucks just as much as I thought it would."

At this point in the story, I'm going to veer into a brief tangent/rant, but bear with me. As you may or may not be aware, if you apply for a credit card and are declined, you have the right, by law, to see the credit report that the company pulled (so that you see why you were declined, address any discrepancies, and so forth)... for free.  That is, if you can figure out how to access your free report. Even though I knew that I essentially have no credit history, I figured, since its free, I'll check it out. Amex referred me to the Experian website, but the bastards at Experian don't put anywhere on their website the option of reviewing your free report that has already been pulled, but they will try to trick you into paying 15 bucks for essentially the same thing. So I called the 1-800 number and, after about twenty minutes with their automated phone system, finally managed to come up with a url for that would let me see my free report. It's a part of their website, but is definitely not referenced anywhere on their homepage. In fact, the free report page didn't look anything like the rest of their corporate pay-to-see-your-shit website. Moral of the story: I had a right to see my report; they made me jump through hoops to do it and almost tricked me into paying $15 for something I eventually got for free..... and I now have a burning hatred of them.

Whew, I feel better now that I've got that off my chest..... Now where was I........

Oh yeah, so after being declined and nearly having an aneurysm trying to see my credit report, I had pretty much decided that I was over the whole thing and that it was going to be up to T to check off #65. But I decided to give it one last shot and started looking into getting a Visa from BofA and, I've got to say, their customer service was pretty fantastic. As I was perusing their site, one of those little chat windows popped up asking me if I had any questions that they could answer for me. I normally just ignore those things, but, since I did have a lot of questions, I figured why not. Lo and behold, there are real people on the other end of those chat windows that are actually very helpful. She not only answered my questions about the different options available, but she helped me with questions I had while filling out the application. And, mere minutes later, I had been approved.

For those of you that got tired of my rambling, here are the key points from the last few paragraphs:
-Experian = jerks
-The B of A customer service reps that I talked to gets an A+
-Amex doesn't find me trustworthy, but B of A does.

So here I am: feeling like an adult and holding a little piece of plastic with my name on it.
I think I'll go buy something.

#45: The Recap

Well, we've already taken photos for the last 30 days... and it flew by. We've decided to make today's post a brief wrap-up instead of the usual photo post. Each of us will give our thoughts on the project, pick our 5 favorite shots from the other person, and officially cross #45 off of our list.

N's
This was all sort of a difficult task for me seeing how as I'm not a natural photog... but I actually really ended up enjoying it. The hardest part was just trying to not just take a photo of what I was eating for dinner every night (although that might not be a bad idea for a future project), and just trying to figure out how to take a different photo every day definitely improved my camera skills a bit. On day 18 I discovered that my parents' roommates' camera had an auto setting with a picture of what looks like a baby (I refer to it as the "cherub setting"), but it makes food pics look bitchin without having to mess with manual settings. I feel like a food blogger when I shoot with it...

My favorite part of the project: getting to see T's photos every day. It was hard to pick just 5, but here they are:

Days 8, 9, 14, 18 and 23

T's

I loved this project and am so sad that it's over. It was nice to have to take time out of my busy days to find something intriguing, appreciate something around me, or admire the beauty in something, photograph it and share it with others. Life can fly by us, it's happening to me right now as I'm completing my last semester of college, and I love being able to capture things that I hope to remember for ever. Nick had bugged me about learning to use the manual settings on my camera and this project pushed me to do that and.... now I'm obsessed. The close- up setting was previously my "go to" setting however, I believe I only used once for a photo of the day (day 21). (Somedays I was stuck using the camera on my phone, but at least I remembered to take a photo, right?) I also loved seeing Nick's photos everyday... it made me feel like I wasn't 456 miles away from him.

Conclusion: I love photography.

I really have 10 favorites from Nick's collection but since I had to narrow it down to 5, here are my top 5: (The pretzel photo is definitely #1 on my list... it's foodgawker.com worthy.)