I've been asked a few times where the pictures on the banner come from, so I thought I'd take the time to answer here on the blog. All the pictures but two were taking with my ancient 2 megapixel Canon Powershot A40 -- the others (marked with an *) were taken with my brother's much nicer 6 megapixel Canon EOS-10D (I think). Yes, I need a new camera.

From the top left, and proceeding clockwise:

1. A corridor of the 19th century Fort Jefferson on Dry Tortugas National Park, on a small island located 70 miles west of Key West and not much farther from Havana, Cuba. (Spring 2003)
2. A window of the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. (Summer 2005)
3. Balanced Rock in Arches National Park, southeast Utah. (Summer 2005)
4. An assortment of figs freshly picked by my uncle and laid out to sun-dry by my aunt, in my family's village in the mountains of northeast Sicily near Messina. (Summer 2002)
5. *Relatively smaller mountains east of the Grand Tetons in northwest Wyoming. (Summer 2004)
6. *Me reading David Foster Wallace's Oblivion en route to Rio de Janeiro from Boston. (Summer 2004)
7. Newspaper Rock, a Native American petroglyph panel located in southeast Utah with art that is potentially 2,000 years old. (Summer 2005)