Hello! We're Jack and Steve, two guys in San Francisco who have been together since 1994. We moved here to San Francisco in 1997 from Cohoes, N.Y., and were married at City Hall in 2004, but it didn't take. We tried again in September 2008, although we're currently in legal limbo until the controversy over Prop 8 is decided by California courts.
For more info about us, check out our About Steve and About Jack home pages, using the navigation bar there on the left.
Jack created his own web site several years ago, but Steve created this one. (So, I say "us" and "we," but it's really me, Steve, who is responsible for all this.)
I created this site for several reasons:
- Photo galleries of our friends and ourselves. Jack's old web site had quite a few pages devoted to photos, but there was nothing in it more recent than 2004.
- A place for me to practice HTML, JavaScript and graphic design, in a non-serious, have-fun-and-try-things-out way.
- A convenient destination for links to Jack's Live Journal blog, my Live Journal blog and various other entertaining and educational web sites.
- Most importantly, a repository for our favorite recipes, including all the recipes from our project, The Bears' Cookbook, which we published in 1998 as a gift for our friends and family. There's also pages devoted to newer recipes we've found and enjoyed since the publication of our cookbook, to favorite foods, and to the recipes of several friends.
- There's also pages devoted to fun: jokes, puns, games, optical illusions, Spirograph. If you know us, you know we're big kids who enjoy all that stuff.
- Part of the reason for this site is to learn about various web technologies, so I've created pages that try out different techniques using JavaScript, PHP, Cascading Style Sheets, etc.
This site was pretty much coded from scratch. Much of the JavaScript was written by me, with extra bells and whistles courtesy of The JavaScript Source and other sites. The navigation bar (to your left, you can't miss it) uses jQuery, a new JavaScript technology. Zoomed photos were enabled using FancyZoom and these introductory boxes were created using Highslide.
Until November 2008, all the graphics were created and/or tweaked using Microsoft Paint. Yes, Paint. You can laugh and point now ... but at least I also had the resizing capability of ThumbsPlus. I now have Photoshop, so I'm in the process of updating the graphics as needed.
Part of my reason for doing this site is to learn and try out various techniques, so there's a lot of Easter eggs to discover here: image maps, hidden frames, zoomed photos, animated GIFs, alerts, etc. Just keep poking around and you'll find them all.
Have fun!
Here's the newest stuff on this site, with date added, section it is in, and what was added or changed:
| Jan. 26, 2012 | HOME PAGES: Now that I'm done with the latest cookbook project, here's some updated photo pages, of summer and fall visitors, a trip to Key West, and our big vacation in Florida and the Caribbean. It's all in the Photo Galleries. |
| June 4, 2011 | HOME PAGES: Spring visitors, including Bill and Joe and Steve's family, as well as a trip to Miami, again in the Photo Galleries. |
| April 1, 2011 | HOME PAGES: Winter visitors, including Keating and JP, as well as Steve's 50th birthday celebration (in 3-D!), all in the Photo Galleries. |
| Jan. 22, 2011 | HOME PAGES: Fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas 2010 and beyond in the Photo Galleries. |
| Jan. 18, 2011 | HOME PAGES: You've seen us as superheroes ... now see us in 3-D!! |
| Nov. 10, 2010 | HOME PAGES: Jack goes into the hospital, and fall events, all in the Photo Galleries. HOME PAGES: You've seen us as superheroes ... now read our first comic book adventure! |
| Oct. 7, 2010 | HOME PAGES: Two updates to the Palm Springs CDs page. |
| Oct. 6, 2010 | HOME PAGES: Picnics, street fairs, beach ... it's summer in San Francisco in the Photo Galleries. |
| Oct. 5, 2010 | HOME PAGES: Who are we? Not sure? Now you can see some of the best photos of us at a glance. |
| Sept. 2, 2010 | HOME PAGES: Setting up the Palm Springs house, in the Photo Galleries. |
| August 19, 2010 | HOME PAGES: If we were superheroes, what would we look like and be able to do? |
| August 11, 2010 | HOME PAGES: First look at our Palm Springs house, in the Photo Galleries. |
| July 27, 2010 | HOME PAGES: Three more Photo Galleries, this time from 2003 and 2004: Derek visits from Cincinnati, a trip to Palm Springs, and Christmas at Disneyland. |
| July 14, 2010 | HOME PAGES: Another Photo Gallery: A short trip to Palm Springs to look at houses. Also updated the Palm Springs CDs page. |
| July 2, 2010 | FOOD: What foods don't we like? Now you know. |
| June 27, 2010 | HOME PAGES: Two new Photo Galleries: Putting up the big pink triangle again, and Steve rides the Virgin America float in the SF pride parade. |
| June 14, 2010 | HOME PAGES: Steve's most-often-visited links are now in one handy place. |
| June 14, 2010 | Corrected kitchen conversion link on header of recipe pages. |
| June 13, 2010 | FOOD: Many great cookie recipes are featured on Randy's Family Desserts page. |
| June 13, 2010 | Corrected coding errors and misspellings on many different pages. |
| May 26, 2010 | HOME PAGES: Six new Photo Galleries from 2009 and 2010: Thanksgiving, Virgin America, Christmas, Late Winter and Spring, a Giants Game, and Palm Springs/Tucson vacation. |
| Mar. 2, 2010 | FUN: A few more new links have been added to the Fun Links page. |
| Feb. 26, 2010 | FUN: A few new links added to the Fun Links page. |
| Jan. 26, 2010 | FUN: More than a dozen new Jokes have been added to our list. |
| Jan. 16, 2010 | FUN: A new format has been created for the Fun Links page. |
| Jan. 12, 2010 | HOME PAGES: Four new Photo Galleries from 2004: Bear Week, Albany, train trip, and marching with the Mayor. Also, a new format for the photo galleries and some minor clean-ups here and there. |
| Dec. 20, 2009 | HOME PAGES: Two new Photo Galleries: Christmas in Oregon, and the Folsom Street Fair, both from 2005. |
| Nov. 11, 2009 | FUN: Ten new Jokes have been added to our list of jokes, as well as a dozen new additions to Puns. |
| Nov. 10, 2009 | HOME PAGES: Two new Photo Galleries: JP visits from Mississippi, and Jeff visits from Minnesota. |
| Nov. 6, 2009 | FOOD: A "Death By Caramel Bars" recipe is new on Scott's Southern Cooking page. |
| Nov. 1, 2009 | FOOD: New recipe pages by our friends Joe and Patrick. Plus an addition to Jeff's recipe page. |
| Oct. 29, 2009 | FUN: A quiz tests your knowledge of major Airport Codes. |
| Oct. 28, 2009 | FUN: Fifteen new Jokes have been added. FUN: A few more Optical Illusions. FUN: A sixth page of cool images joins the Image Bank. FUN: Even more classic advertisements join Our Sponsors. |
| Oct. 4, 2009 | HOME PAGES: Six new Photo Galleries: Summer visitors, Denver and Chuck visit, Owen visits, painting a garage, and a trip to Gilroy Gardens. |
| Sept. 15, 2009 | FOOD: Southern cooking from our pal Scott. |
| August 28, 2009 | HOME PAGES: Links to more web banner ads and clips added to the About Steve page. |
| July 21, 2009 | HOME PAGES: Updated Palm Springs Mix CDs with yet another compilation. |
| July 15, 2009 | HOME PAGES: A new entry to Palm Springs Mix CDs. |
| July 7, 2009 | HOME PAGES: Two new Photo Galleries: Pride weekend in San Francisco, and a July 4th trip to Palm Springs. |
| June 22, 2009 | HOME PAGES: Links to web banner ads and clips added to the About Steve page. PROGRAMMING/WEB TOOLS: Browser warnings added to the JavaScript page. |
| June 19, 2009 | FOOD: New recipes from Jeff and Jamie, and also Jeff.. FUN: A new page (the fifth) in the image bank. |
| June 16, 2009 | HOME PAGES: Four new Photo Galleries: Steve's trip to Austin, Houston and San Antonio, and a visit to the beach. |
| May 22, 2009 | FOOD: Another new page: Rice Pilafs. |
| May 4, 2009 | FOOD: Cool, creamy, refreshing ... the Frosty Drinks page debuts. |
| April 29, 2009 | FOOD: A new page debuts: recipes by our friends John and Frank. |
| April 28, 2009 | HOME PAGES: Two new Photo Galleries: Winter and Spring 2009, and Sam and Wade's wedding in Long Beach. |
| April 28, 2009 | FOOD: Cheddar Cheese Soup and Grecian Chicken Gyros Pizza have been added to Jamie & Jeff's Recipes. |
| April 21, 2009 | FOOD:Three new recipes have been added to Jamie & Jeff's Recipes. |
| April 13, 2009 | FOOD: Barbecue pulled chicken has been added to Jamie & Jeff's Recipes. |
| April 10, 2009 | New home page features Highslide technology. |
| Mar. 30, 2009 | FOOD: Fresh Fruit & Vegetables shows what's freshest in any given month. |
| Mar. 22, 2009 | FOOD: A metric converter pop-up window added to all pages that contain recipes. |
| Mar. 21, 2009 | PROGRAMMING/WEB TOOLS: "Crazy Window" in the Javascript section replaced with "alternating message." |
| Mar. 20, 2009 | FOOD: Our friends Bill and Joe share their Wedding Recipes.
FOOD: An Albondigas recipe added to the Meatballs page. FOOD: Recipes for Caponata, Baba Ghanouj and Imam Bayildi added to the Eggplant page. |
| Mar. 9, 2009 | FOOD: Confused by the secret menu at In-N-Out? Now, order with confidence. |
| Mar. 8, 2009 | FUN: Many new jokes added to the Jokes page. |
| Mar. 1, 2009 | PROGRAMMING/WEB TOOLS: Hexadecimal color picking is easier than ever with the jQuery method. |
| Feb. 27, 2009 | HOME PAGES: Genre CDs chronicles some of Steve's homemade music mixes. |
| Feb. 24, 2009 | FOOD: Our friend Jeff loves peanut sauces. |
| Feb. 8, 2009 | FUN: The Jokes page debuts. |
| Feb. 6, 2009 | FUN: A few very poor examples added to the Puns page. |
| Feb. 5, 2009 | FOOD: Hearty recipes added from our friends Jeff and Jamie in Minneapolis. |
| Feb. 5, 2009 | FOOD: Trace the rise (and possible fall) of Popovers. |
| Feb. 4, 2009 | FOOD: Two more breakfast items added to Breakfast Casseroles: Confetti Eggs and Country Eggs Benedict. |
| Jan. 22, 2009 | FOOD: Kitchen Info makes recipe conversions easier. |
| Jan. 22, 2009 | FOOD: Two new sites added to Favorite Food Links. |
| Jan. 20, 2009 | FOOD: Recipes for Eggplant Pie, Stuffed Eggplant, Sicilian Eggplant and Eggplant Salad With Yogurt added to the Eggplant page. |
| Jan. 19, 2009 | FOOD: Recipes for Brownie Pie, Cocktail Pie, Crunch-crust Pie and Ice-Cream Mince Pie added to the Retro Pies page. |
| Jan. 17, 2009 | FOOD: Four new recipes added to the New Recipes page. |
| Jan. 14, 2009 | HOME PAGES: Four new Steve-centric Photo Galleries added: Steve goes skydiving, spring in California, including a trip to Palm Springs, Steve's trip to Texas, and Steve's family reunion. |
| Jan. 12, 2009 | FUN: A bunch of cool images added to the Image Bank. |
| Jan. 3, 2009 | FUN: Four new games to the Online Games page. HOME PAGES: A dozen new links added to the Steve's Links page. |
| Jan. 2, 2009 | FOOD: More recipes, this time for Brunch Egg Casserole and Sausage Brunch Cake, added to the Breakfast Casseroles page. FUN: Some terrible examples added to the Puns page. FOOD: Recipes for Vegetable Casserole and Lentil Soup added to the Cold Weather Stews page. FOOD: Eggplant Moussaka and Stuffed Eggplant added to the Eggplant page. |
| Jan. 1, 2009 | PROGRAMMING/WEB TOOLS: Knowledge of vi comes in very handy for anyone who uses UNIX. HOME PAGES: Two more photo galleries: Jack's 50th birthday celebration and street fairs in summer 2005. |
| Dec. 29, 2008 | HOME PAGES: Photo Galleries added of Christmas 2008, protests at City Hall in October 2008, Winter 2005-2006 (featuring our friends Joe and Bill) and our misbegotten trip to Disneyland in 2005 in which Steve broke his leg. |
| Dec. 26, 2008 | FOOD: Cold Weather Stews page added, with beef stews, pork stews ... and, oddly, not much in the way of chicken. |
| Dec. 5, 2008 | FOOD: "Cookbook & Recipes" section name changed to "Food." FUN: Thumbnail photos added to Fun Guide page. |
| Dec. 3, 2008 | HOME PAGES: Four additions from 2006 to the Photo Gallery: Tucson, Summer, Back East and September. |
| Dec. 2, 2008 | FUN: A few new Online Games added, including a Queen Mum simulation. |
| Dec. 1, 2008 | FOOD: New page debuts: the most complete listing of Lunch Counter Lingo that you'll find on the web. |
| Nov. 30, 2008 | FOOD: New page: Easy Thai recipes that don't involve too many hard-to-find ingredients. |
