Doing the crawl in Concord on Pickwick Drive. We lived there for my first 4 years before moving to Pleasant Hill.

Learning to take my first steps in this world.

Dad sent me two slides I'd not seen before. These were taken of me at 18 months.

My second Christmas alone with my dad. My brother would arrive the next year.

Graduating to the trusty tricycle for neighborhood transportation.

At last! My first bicycle, complete with training wheels.

Heh, mom really thinks that putting this apron on me is going to make me want to help with the dishes.

Bah! One of the few times I actually did them and they took a picture for evidence!

The Stuart arrives. Isn't that a cute look of devilish delight in my eyes as I contemplate the joys of being the big sister?

I was 4 years old here. Not sure what's happening. Either I was afraid of Santa and was crying or this is soon after me falling on some glass milk

bottles and having my face cut up around the eyes. I look like I'm being tortured by Santa.

My first recital. Tap dancing lessons came in handy for later in life when I had to be quick on my feet. That's me in the middle.

I think this is my kindergarten school picture.

Might be 4th or 5th grade, not sure. Quite an expansive forehead, eh?

Hula hoop extraordinaire! I was the topless hula hooping, watermelon chomping queen for many a summer. Wonder what ever happened to those hips.

Stuart and I and our cocker spaniel, Christopher. He was a wonderful family dog.

Not sure what year his is, might be 6th grade.

Our birthday parties were extravagant productions.

Don't know how she did it, but each year mom would come up with a unique theme for our birthdays and go all out with the decorating and baking. My favorite theme was the Japanese Tea Garden theme. That year the cake was in the shape of a pagoda and we all made a trip to the Japanese Tea Gardens in San Francisco Golden Gate Park. The Puff the Magic Dragon theme was a close second as far as favorites go.

Example of the elaborate displays mom put on for our birthday parties.

Oakland Children's Fairyland

That year I was chosen to be Mary Mary Quite Contrary. Mom made my costume, red white and blue ruffles from head to toe with my favorite hula hoops underneath to give it shape. It was my duty to recite the story and hand out magic keys to all the kids as they came by so they could hear the story about the peacocks beyond the arch.

Don't blink! It is the one and only vision of innocence in my history.

Yes, my brother and I stood still without fighting long enough for our first communion ceremony.

Can't remember if I was mad at the world or just trying to look "cool."

The teen years begin. This is from 8th grade.

Members of the highschool volleyball team photo from the yearbook.

Don't know why we were all gathered around a basketball for the photo. Wish I could remember their names.

Told you there was more then a bit of sorcery in me.

She was my best bud for a couple years before she moved away. I think her name was Maureen. Seems like most of my friends usually ended up moving away and we'd lose touch. Thank goodness the internet helps people keep in touch now.

BJ and Lynn at Dinosaur Hill park.

I met BJ's dad at a neighborhood veterinarian's farm one year during high school when we volunteered to help rescue and care for the seabirds caught in the huge oil spill in SF Bay in the '70's. Very cute kid and warm-hearted gentle man. He was my first crush. :::heavy sigh:::

Gary and Lynn.

My husband, Gary and I on our first visit with my mother at her apartment. I was deeply in love with that guy....too bad he didn't feel quite the same toward me.

Photo taken by the Pulitzer prize winning publisher of the Point Reyes Light for an article in his weekly paper.

I played a minor role in the research that led to that winning set of articles. Dave and Cathy Mitchel are wonderful folks.

The Afro!

Yep, that's me. I adopted the afro for several years. It was a case of straight haired wanting curly hair and boy did I get curly!

Me, on my trip to Europe. I bought the button at a shop in England. It says "Born free -- taxed to death."

Barefoot barbecuing in the backyard while visiting dad and his wife in Texas.

The 'Fro chopped off.

Unfortunately, in an effort to save money on hairstyling, I purchased one of those Flobee thingers and butchered my hair with it.

A study in self portraits

A recent photo of me as I experimented with my new digital camera. The hair is very long now, but also beginning to thin. My forehead is starting to look more and more like my dad's!

There's that evil look again!

This is me, trying to get it right while learning to use the timer on my camera. After many shots, I read in the manual that there is a remote control thingy that came with it. :::rolls eyes:::

Not quite, stand a little further back and look at the camera!

Well, you're farther back now. Show us them blue peepers, babe!

There we go! For the next lesson, we'll work on smiling for the camera.