I was deeply saddened to hear of Steve Jobs' death today. I will truly miss him. I have to admit I would enjoy his enthusiasm showing off his products at the online keynote addresses. I was actually already sad when I heard he was stepping down as CEO of Apple.

I've had a love affair with Apple products for a long time. My first computer was an Apple IIe with a whopping 128K of RAM. My first Mac was a Macintosh Plus with a 20 MB serial hard drive which was excruciatingly slow by todays's standards, but at the time was like a magic box compared to the single density, one-sided 5.25 inch floppy drives. I had a pair of those hooked up to my IIe.

Over the years I have owned many Macs. I still love Apple computers. I use a Mac Pro now with a 30 inch Cinema Display. I have an iPhone and an iPad. I love them all. They help me to express myself every day.

Thank you, Steve, for touching my life in a very personal way although I never met you in person.

Yesterday, I had very enjoyable time at the LA County Fair with my friend Judy, her daughter Elaine and her granddaughter Aly. It's always been strange to me they call it the Los Angeles County Fair but it's held in Pomona. I feel like Pomona is more the Inland Empire than Los Angeles, but I guess it's technically in Los Angeles County.

I had never met Elaine or Aly before, so it was a treat. Now I just need to meet Serena and I'll have met all four of Judy's daughters. I rode in the back of the car with five year old Aly. For the first 20 minutes or so, Aly was completely quiet. She didn't utter a peep and just looked at me with her huge eyes and made mouth gestures. But once she was more familiar with me, she opened up just fine. She yelled out when she saw a roller coaster on the way. It was at a miniature golf amusement park beside the freeway.

Aly had a simply marvelous time at the fair. She ate a chocolate ice cream cone, tried shave ice, fed sheep and goats, ran a hay maze, ate popcorn, rode on a kiddie roller coaster, but most importantly, she got to ride a pony! Riding a pony can bring a special joy to a little girl. The kind of joy I wish I could muster at my age. The smile on Aly's face atop the beautiful pony gives me incentive to enjoy each day more fully. With age we gain wisdom, but sometimes children can help us adults put things into perspective. I want to not take things for granted and live in the moment, in the present and not worry what tomorrow holds.

To end our day, we stopped at In-N-Out for dinner. I bought Aly a Neapolitan milkshake, where they put vanilla, strawberry and chocolate flavors in one shake. It's very cool because you can taste the individual flavors as you drink. Aly loved it. I told her the changing flavors were magical.

After photographing a very late wedding at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza on Saturday, I met up with my friend Tony at Disneyland on Sunday. It was a fun and relaxing time since Tony and I broke off from his wife and children to explore the parks on our own and take pictures. I showed him the sights and acted as an informal tour guide for the day. I didn't shoot much during the day, but later in the afternoon and evening I did bring out my camera to capture a few images. Tony mentioned fond memories riding the then white rocket ships which used to be located on the platform where the People Movers loaded. So, I said, "Let's go on the Astro Orbitors to relive your childhood." We rode them once before sunset and once again after dark. That's when I got the idea to capture the motion and lights of the ride. I thought my 50mm lens would create too tight of an image to get a good result, but I ended up quite happy with the image. You never know how nicely a photograph will turn out until you give it a try!

I use this blog to post personal information which might be interesting to people, but mostly, it serves as an online pictorial journal for me to reminisce about fun things I've done in my life and my interests which inlude Disneyland, travel, food, cooking, family and photography.

If you are newly engaged or plannning a wedding, please visit my wedding photography site. If you like my photographic style, I'd love to meet to discuss your wedding. I simple love capturing the joy of a wedding day!

When I'm at Disneyland and I feel like some good old comfort food, I love to get the fried chicken at the Plaza Inn located just off the hub at the end of main street. The fried chicken is surprisingly good for amusement park fare and it's quite filling as well. If you and your spouse are not terribly hungry, you can share this meal. Another perk of eating at the Plaza Inn is you get refills on your soft drinks. That's a great thing on a hot summer day! There's another favorite food item Toni and I love that is located nearby this eatery which I'll blog about on a later post. Bon apetit until then.

Erin graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of California at Riverside. I am so proud of her. I honestly couldn't ask for a better daughter. It was extra special since Toni and I both have degrees from UCR. Her graduation was June 12, 2011, but we are just getting ready to celebrate it along with my birthday and a number of other family birthdays and anniversaries because it is near to impossible to find a day where we're all available.

Taffy looks out the front window seated on her favorite Mickey Mouse pet bed.

Toni discovered these english muffins at Fresh & Easy recently. They are not your ordinary English muffins. They're extra thick and the flavor is fantastic! I like to fork split them, toast to a golden brown and add real butter, then lightly top with honey. Do yourself a favor. Try these English muffins. You'll be glad you did.

Taffy was featured on The Pioneer Woman blog! Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman, said, "Oh, I love this." Taffy is honored to have been chosen and would like to thank Toni and me, Ree and the academy for this great honor!

I was excited to hear Captain EO, a 3-D movie starring Michael Jackson and Angelica Huston was returning to Disneyland where it debuted in the 1980's. The film was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by George Lucas. The return of Captain EO to Disneyland started on February 23, 2010.

For me, it brought back memories of seeing the film as a young adult. I had always wanted to see Michael Jackson perform live, but unfortunately never will due to his untimely death. At the D23 Expo, I saw the actual Captain EO outfit Michael Jackson wore for this film. I was amazed at how slim he must have been to fit into that costume.

As for the film, the sound and image quality is better than what I remember in the past. They used the original 70mm master for the Captain EO Tribute. The audience applauded during the viewing, I believe reminscing about viewing it during it's first Disneyland run.

My friend Ingrid was in town for business and pleasure, so I made it a point to get together with her while she was here. Ingrid moved to Virginia fron San Diego a while back because her husband is Naval officer. Although I haven't met up with Ingrid many times, I miss her being on the West Coast.

I had the pleasure of meeting ingrid's best friend Miki. It's funny. I had never met Miki before, but I felt I knew her because of all the pictures I have seen of her on Ingrid's photostream at Flickr. :)

Since Ingrid and I are both half Korean, it seemed fitting to meet at a Korean restaurant, Min Sok Chon in San Diego for dinner. We had a great time catching up and eating. Ingrid ordered a large Raspberry Soju, a Korean rice wine, not knowing it would be a huge carafe!

We ordered BBQ Beef, Spicy Broiled Pork Ribs and Kimchi Fried Rice.

Toni and I met with some friends for lunch today. We had a great time sharing stories and catching up with Susan, Judy and Hillary, a few of Toni's middle school teacher colleagues. We were entirely too loud and boisterous, but we had fun. We talked for so long, I was thinking the restaurant might charge us rent.

Taffy turns 5 years old today. I can't believe she's that old already. Her diminuitive form makes her still look like a puppy. Toni and I love her so much. Happy birthday Taffy! :)

On a recent trip to Hoover Dam with the Los Angeles Flickr Group, I discovered this delicious Snapple Apple Plum White Tea. It had a yummy flavor and was so refreshing after exploring Hoover Dam on a warm Spring day.

The thing is, why do I find these really cool foods, or in this case, drink, during my travels, but then am not able to find it when I get back home? This happened to me before with Snapple Kiwi Tea in Hawaii. I guess it's just one of life's mysteries! Hehe

This Friday I'm going on my first out of state Flickr meet. A small group of photographer friends I know from Flickr will be going with me to Las Vegas for a weekend of shooting and fun.

The group organizer has a full itinerary for the weekend. During our stay, we will be taking photographs of Hoover Dam, the Boneyard, the Strip at night and Red Rock Canyon. I'm sure I'll get in some photos of my friends and the food we eat.