2004-01-05 5:08 p.m.

My New Year will officially start on Wednesday, Jan 14th - same as the Russian Orthodox. Granted I don't think I have any Russian heratige, but you never know do you? So January 14th it is.

My 3rd of the 4th days - the one that wasn't wasted - was Saturday. When I woke up my fever was gone and while I didn't feel chipper by any means I did think that I felt good enough to meet David and Shannon for brunch in Anaheim. We met at the Mimi's right across from Disneyland and had great time. We exchanged our Christmas gifts - I got him wine from a San Diego vineyard, he got me wine from a vineyard he had visited in FL (great minds, right?). Plus it was the first time I had met Shannon. She's so the coolest. All in all, a great morning.

Post brunch, David had to head back to Santa Clarita to work, and I was in the picture taking mood. I had thought I was going to go to Santa Monica, but then I realized I've been there. A few times. So I just kept driving north on the 5 until I saw a sign that struck my fancy. I ended up taking Hwy 126, through the mountains to Venice Beach. The drive was so beautiful, and 126 not being a major Interstate, traffic was great. The beach was very not-crowed, mainly due to the fact that it was freezing cold! {ok, not freezing as in 32 or lower, but still, in the 40s and really windy} I did lots of experimenting with photos of waves crashing on the sand & waves hitting the rocks. And I took some standard landscapes just because its always good to have at least one of the 24 shots turn out. Hopefully I'll get that roll, and the roll of Randy, to Sav-on this week.