peace out home fries. (ode to adam)

for more info, click here.

in the meantime, i've been a bit blogunder (blagunder, does that help? as in under the blog weather?  it's a stretch.)  and just out of blog juice lately as we've focused on um, life.  adam and i have decided to put our house up for sale next month.  the city has been oh so good to us and has defined so much of who i am as a person, so it's a little odd to think about being somewhere else.  we're leaning toward webster or kirkwood at the moment.

this has been prompted by the thought we never thought we'd have.  we want a family.  part of me wants to stick it out and raise kids in the city.  the other part of me wants peace.  as much as we absolutely adore benton park, our slice of the city is not as peaceful as we'd like.  not a good time to sell, clearly, but a fabulous time to buy, so we'll more than make up for it on the other end.  this house will be a steal and it's in infinitely better shape than when we bought it, so if you're considering a move to the city, stay tuned until next month.  within walking distance is the venice cafe, frazer's, benton park cafe, the map room, blues city deli, mclozzi's, yemanja, niche, sidney street cafe, the stable, the park, and not to mention all of soulard.  i can say with confidence that all are totally fabulous.  that's quite a lengthy list for walkable date options.

i think we will probably stay benton park photography co. even though we'll no longer live here.  it seems a little silly to rebrand, but what do you think?  should we still be benton park photo co without being in benton park?  sound off.

i harvested my first vegetable the other day.  it was unbelievably exciting.  i say this partially tongue in cheek, but even though it was just a lonely radish, i was pretty excited.  yep, i've turned into a garden dork.  i like to watch plants grow.

and on one of my famously unrelated side notes, last night we said goodbye to our good friends, jennifer and adrian (+ super smart and adorable baby caleb).  adrian is going to be a rockstar ranger in the australian outback, so they are relocating back to his homeland.  we're going to miss you guys!

these photos are from a couple of weeks ago, not actually last night.  you wouldn't want to see us after our ridiculously fun, monsoon-drenched walk back from lemongrass.  wet rats anyone?  it started gushing right before we left to go back to their house.  it poured the whole walk home and then stopped two minutes after we got inside.  it was the most fun i've had in a long, long time.  who knew?

http://twitter.com/BentonParkPhoto

let's see how electronically, cyber-spacily i can intertwine myself.

every single bite i put into my mouth was pure deliciousness.  every one.  i think it is seriously my favorite meal ever. 

we started with a sample appetizer with oyster poorboys, honey mustard shrimp and crabcakes--- one bite-sized piece of each.  i had the beet salad.  don't know what my love affair with beets is lately, but so goes it.  adam had the wild mushroom soup.  for entrees we had the halibut and marlin.  and dessert, the smores cupcake and a spring strawberry something or other. 

needless to say, we went a little over board.

we're considering a nice little walk to the tower grove farmers' market today to walk off the calories ingested last night.  it was so worth it, though.  if you see us on arsenal, honk and wave.

it's been a great ride so far.  we have grown together as people in so many ways.

i love you, boo!

since it's cinco de mayo, if you're feeling celebratory, you should show the facebook love here.  we're hungry for facebook fans.  no, the two things have absolutely nothing to do with each other except that they are currently sharing typepad post title real estate.  :-)

cheers and peace out.  for now.

seeing such a diverse group in one place in st. louis happily interacting gave me hope for our city.  st. louis is racially divided, no question.  if you haven't seen or experienced it, you just haven't spent enough time here.  tension is often palpable, and that's sadly unfortunate.  not yesterday.

yesterday attracted a good cross section of st. louis city society and it was awesome.

the people's joy parade was the coolest, nuttiest parade i have ever witnessed.

cherokee is one of my favorite streets in the entire city.  

i spent a year freelancing for the post-dispatch, but since then, i've not often gone out to shoot for myself in a documentary setting.  it felt super duper.  hehe.

click the floating arrow at the bottom to play the slideshow.

who's this guy?  he looks familiar.