All us LAO-ers peeled our heiners off our desk chairs this morning and headed to Tarzana for our Second Annual LAObserved Brunch at stately Rensin Manor. As you can see, we are a handsome group, and we know how to eat. The board was groaning and excitement was in the air as we anticipated the year ahead. Veronique starts her new gig as news blogger for the LA Times tomorrow. We got to fondle the hefty galley for David Rensin's Miki Dora book "All For a Few Perfect Waves," coming in April, and Deanne Stillman showed us the stunning cover for her new book "Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West" due in June. Kevin announced some exciting changes in for LAO, so stay tuned folks! All of us at Native Intelligence left replete with lox and fully resolved to post more. I personally plan to strive harder to clutter this blog with the kind of piffling puffery that is my hallmark. So 2008 is going to be a fantastic year at LAO! Thanks to David and Susie for the hospitality, apologies to those who left before I got my camera out. Thanks most of all to Kevin, our fearless leader, for creating and helming such a spankin' website and for giving us all the opportunity to contribute.

Photo left to right:
Erika Schickel, Cari Beauchamp, David Rensin, Denise Hamilton, Jenny Burman (with daughter Madeline), Veronique de Turenne, Judy Graeme, Eric Estrin, Deanne Stillman, TJ Sullivan and Kevin Roderick.