I forgot to post my exciting news! I was asked to be on the Board of Directors for the AZ Professional Photographers Association. I feel very honored to be a part of this organization and since I’m chairing the Education programs for 2012, I’ll work hard to continue to bring in great speakers that are relevant to the industry. If you are a local photographer, you should really check us out!

I guess I should have changed my blog clock while I was in a different time zone, it makes it look like I skipped a blog day since I blogged at the end of the night. SPA was amazing, I’ll spend this weekend going over my notes and assessing all the info and what I need to implement.

So SPA is winding down. I was fortunate to be gifted several Serendipity Backdrops and also won a Mad Camp backdrop! So I’m coming home 4 new backdrops to try out! I’m so excited.

Just finished the first day of “pre-events” at SPA. It was awesome. Tomorrow the real programing begins! Here are a few shots of our hotel!

My wonderful 11 year old asks me ever night “did you blog today?” It usually is the reminder I need before she goes to bed. Last night she spent the night out….and I forgot!! I even had a topic! My favorite Thai restaurant in the west valley, and what to order!

My mom is Thai and lives in northern Thailand. So we always gauge how good a Thai restaurant is by how close it is to what we get when we visit my mom. We don’t vary our dishes much, occasionally we’ll try something new, but when we want Thai food, if we don’t get our standards, we feel like we were missing something!

Last night we had a hankering, and even though Sarah spent the night out, we ordered her favorites also! Here’s the list, you can print and take it with you the next time you order Thai!!

BANGKOK THAI BBQ
on 51st Ave and Thunderbird, NW corner. We’ve tried a bunch, it’s just our fav!

Chicken Satay -this is for Sarah, yummy peanut sauce, not spicy. It has a curry, coconut marinade

Wonton Soup-this is for Katie, pork wontons, sliced BBQ pork, bok choy…mmmmmm, we usually add some rice to the broth to make it more filling for her.

Laab-this is our favorite dish. It’s a northern Thai dish. It’s ground meat (pork or chicken, pork is our first choice, they usually have even if not on menu), lime juice, a little salty, cilantro, sometimes mint, onions and chilis (now Thai chilies are HOT, hotter than jalapenos) we get medium spicy and it puts just a hint of sweat on our lip! We like to eat w/Sticky Rice, which you can break off and eat w/your hands. No, it’s not white rice just cooked sticky, it’s a special rice, you can mop up juices on your plate w/it. Sometimes they don’t have…you have to ask!

Yellow Curry-medium spice- with chicken. Yellow curry is a mild curry, but we kick it up a notch. We like because it has potatoes. Occasionally we’ll get crazy and order Panang Curry, which is red…it’s great too, but no potatoes.

Pad See Ew – w/chicken or beef. This is a noodle dish. Now most people go to Thai restaurants and order Pad Thai. It’s good here too, but if you want to try something different, something my Aunt used to make us every time we’d visit, try Pad See Ew. It’s even on their lunch menu. No spice at all…Katie has discovered it and eats half the order now…

For dessert in the spring, get the Sticky Rice w/Mango. They warm the rice and put coconut milk on it and top w/sweet mango. It’s to DIE for! The coconut ice cream is always good too!

The thing about Thai restaurants, is the amount of spice varies depending on who’s cooking. If you food isn’t spicy enough, you can ask for the spices, and they will bring you chili powder, chilies in vinegar (yummy on Pad See Ew or in the soup, adds a little hot and sour). and I think chilies in soy and don’t remember what else, we just use the chili powder and chilies in vinegar.

Now we order ALL this, every time we go. It’s WAY too much food for 2 adults and 2 children. We can usually feed 4 adults and 2 kids, though we might order extra chicken satay because that’s all Sarah will eat and if we have to share…The food w/out desserts will run you $49 plus tip. They also have a nice lunch special.

I hope you go out and try something new!!!! If you do, come back and post a comment!! Or add your favorite dish!

Edit: Oh, my sister just pointed out another of our favorites, Tom Yum Gai soup. It’s a spicy coconut based soup w/lemon grass and chicken. Too spicy for the girls, so we don’t get it as much as we’d like. Hint: The lemon grass (looks like an asparagus stalk) and ginger (like thin, round sliver w/dark edge, usually size of nickel to quarter) are tough, you’re not supposed to eat, just put aside, like a bay leaf!

Almost forgot to blog tonight because I was spending too much time on the UPPPA forum. It stands for United Professional Portriat Photographers Association. It’s such a great group of photographers and NO WHINING allowed. One thread started to be the typical bash you read on so many photography forums re: lack of skill of the newer photographers, yada, yada, yada. And it was deleted! I like that! No negativity threads just to be negative.

There’s a lot of charity work too. Most recently, they had a “wish” thread. What do you wish for. One of the things that came up was the chance to travel to this wonderful event I’m going to on Sunday called the Senior Portrait Artist event, or SPA (I actually won a scholarship to the event in Jan from this forum). Well, people were offering up rooms, the creator of the forum got a free registration donated, and now 2 people are going as of today, that didn’t think they were going to make it (its next week). I threw in a SWA buddy pass for my good deed (for a total of 3 for people to attend the event). Every one just pitches in what they can!

Anyways, if you are a professional photographer and are interested in joining a great organization, check it out, and tell them Lisa Schaaf sent you! UPPPA.com. There is an application process and a 10 image review. You must be a licensed business and you have to participate. No lurking. The “post of value” scares people off, but it’s not like you have to post 4 tips every month. You can’t just say “Awesome” and have it a post of value!

So today I did a session for the organization NILMDTS. I’ve posted about it before on FB, but it’s such an amazing organization, it deserves to be talked about again. Here’s their mission statement, copied from their website. In the Phoenix area, there are only about 54 volunteer photographers. With so many hospitals, we really need more volunteers! It’s such a simple way to use our gifts to give back to others.

Okay, here it is Feb 1 and my first blog of the month. I should be at the airport today, trying to get home from SYNC 2011 in Florida. But, since I was traveling standby (love SWA), I chose to avoid the travel mess that was predicted for today and came home yesterday. Here’s a secret that I totally forgot about standby travel: Always check your bag on the first available flight. You might not get on, but at least your bag will and should be at your final destination waiting for you. I forgot my advice, checked my bag on a flight that I thought I could get on, made it home on an earlier flight and had to go back to the airport this morning to pick up my luggage. But at least I made it home!

I have decided to blog for a month and see if it renews my interest in keeping my blog up to date (FB seems so much easier!). I guess I’ll start taking notes of things I might blog about…the nice thing is Feb 1 I’ll be traveling home from a photography convention, I should get a lot of ideas there, plus I have a mid-Feb convention too…good thing I picked Feb as my blogging month!