Eat any good books lately?
I just finished a great book Tuesday night, and I wanted to recommend it to everyone. It's called The Time Traveller's Wife, and it's by Audrey Niffenegger. I'd forgotten what it is to be engrossed in a great work of fiction. This book has such a compelling story line that you won't be able to put it down.
Back in Canada... what's next?
Well, I got to go sailing with Carolyn, her dad, and her grandfather, up at Fifty Point last Sunday. It was quite fun, and I took pictures, but both my lenses and CCD (digital equivalent of film) are dirty, so the pictures did not turn out, and I am just fed up. So I will be trying to clean everything this weekend, and hopefully all will be well again.
Also this weekend, besides cleaning my camera, Carolyn and I are going up to her family's land up near Tobermory. We'll be camping, maybe hiking, and checking out Flowerpot Island. I hope to do some night photography too, because it should be splendidly clear up there.
What else? Oh, my basketball team was this close to winning our first game of the season. We played the other 0-4 team, but we only had 4 people show up, so we had to borrow two players from the other team. We ended up losing by 3 points, but we played really well, and I'm proud of the guys.
I feel remiss for not posting any pictures, so here's a photo of the shoes I bought in Arizona (Ryan helped me pick them out.)
Also this weekend, besides cleaning my camera, Carolyn and I are going up to her family's land up near Tobermory. We'll be camping, maybe hiking, and checking out Flowerpot Island. I hope to do some night photography too, because it should be splendidly clear up there.
What else? Oh, my basketball team was this close to winning our first game of the season. We played the other 0-4 team, but we only had 4 people show up, so we had to borrow two players from the other team. We ended up losing by 3 points, but we played really well, and I'm proud of the guys.
I feel remiss for not posting any pictures, so here's a photo of the shoes I bought in Arizona (Ryan helped me pick them out.)
Trees!
Oh heavenly, luscious greenery! How I have missed thee! I had forgotten that trees can grow more dense than one every five square meters, and taller than the giant trucks they have in Arizona. On the way home from the airport, I wanted to jump out of the car so that I could hug the trees and let them know how appreciated they are.
On another note... man is it HUMID here!
On another note... man is it HUMID here!
Some notes, while reducing my butternut squash...
Hi all. I'm waiting for the butternut squash to thicken (for butternut squash ravioli), so I figured I'd make a post.
So, let's rewind to last friday. We decided not to go that night to the Grand Canyon because people got off work late. Instead we saw Star Wars III, which was better than the first two, but still left something to be desired.
On Saturday, it became evident that Ryan and I had worked our magic on our fellow co-worker, as she spent 3 hours in Tempe Camera looking at cameras. When she left the building, she had a Canon Rebel digital SLR in hand, along with a telephoto lens, and numerous other goodies. Needless to say, we didn't leave at 10am as we had planned.
After concerted efforts to get a car charger, so that we could charge the batteries for the camera, we finally made it out of the city by 4pm. We made it to the Grand Canyon just before sunset, and found a good spot perhaps 20 minutes before the main event.
Ok, dinner is done, and I've maybe had a glass or two (or four) of wine. Dinner turned out pretty well. I'm definitely going to make that again.
So we took many picture of the sunset at the canyon. Most of mine did not turn out. I was fiddling too much with exposure, and either under or overexposed. :( We came back after midnight and took some night shots, and some of those were pretty cool. Unfortunately, most have purple fringing, but at least now I know how to get rid of that problem.
The next day we got some pictures of the canyon in the morning (again, most of mine didn't come out well), and then we drove home via Sedona. Sedona is quite gorgeous. It's surrounded by deep red rock, and we got there around sunset, so we took some pictures (of course!).
What else... hmm... that's about it. I'll see if there's any pics to post.
Oh, I go home tomorrow! It's bittersweet, for sure. I've had a great time here with Ryan, but I miss Carolyn a lot, so I'm definitely looking forward to the weekend. T-22 hours until I get home...
EDIT: Just read over this post... I realized I should thank Ryan for helping out with dinner. He made an awesome sauce to go over the ravioli. And he helped knead the dough... you just can't keep that guy out of the kitchen!
So, let's rewind to last friday. We decided not to go that night to the Grand Canyon because people got off work late. Instead we saw Star Wars III, which was better than the first two, but still left something to be desired.
On Saturday, it became evident that Ryan and I had worked our magic on our fellow co-worker, as she spent 3 hours in Tempe Camera looking at cameras. When she left the building, she had a Canon Rebel digital SLR in hand, along with a telephoto lens, and numerous other goodies. Needless to say, we didn't leave at 10am as we had planned.
After concerted efforts to get a car charger, so that we could charge the batteries for the camera, we finally made it out of the city by 4pm. We made it to the Grand Canyon just before sunset, and found a good spot perhaps 20 minutes before the main event.
Ok, dinner is done, and I've maybe had a glass or two (or four) of wine. Dinner turned out pretty well. I'm definitely going to make that again.
So we took many picture of the sunset at the canyon. Most of mine did not turn out. I was fiddling too much with exposure, and either under or overexposed. :( We came back after midnight and took some night shots, and some of those were pretty cool. Unfortunately, most have purple fringing, but at least now I know how to get rid of that problem.
The next day we got some pictures of the canyon in the morning (again, most of mine didn't come out well), and then we drove home via Sedona. Sedona is quite gorgeous. It's surrounded by deep red rock, and we got there around sunset, so we took some pictures (of course!).
What else... hmm... that's about it. I'll see if there's any pics to post.
Oh, I go home tomorrow! It's bittersweet, for sure. I've had a great time here with Ryan, but I miss Carolyn a lot, so I'm definitely looking forward to the weekend. T-22 hours until I get home...
EDIT: Just read over this post... I realized I should thank Ryan for helping out with dinner. He made an awesome sauce to go over the ravioli. And he helped knead the dough... you just can't keep that guy out of the kitchen!
Camera catastrophe curtailed!
I just found out (well, a few hours ago) that I can eliminate my purple haze problem that I'm getting when doing long exposures at night! Apparently the problem is with electrical noise, and it affects many Nikon digital cameras. But there is a feature that does long exposure noise reduction that looks like it removes the purple haze completely! The only drawback is that for however long your exposure is, the camera needs the same amount of time to do the noise reduction. But the fact that I can fix the problem makes me extremely elated. Also, I think I got rid of that nagging black spot that has been appearing on my shots... it was on the CCD, so I used an air puffer to blow it away. Unfortunately I only did all of this stuff after my Grand Canyon trip... but better late than never!
Oh, and I suppose you're expecting pictures and stories eh? Well, it's late and I'm tired, so you'll have to wait another day. Sorry! Ok, maybe one picture.
Oh, and I suppose you're expecting pictures and stories eh? Well, it's late and I'm tired, so you'll have to wait another day. Sorry! Ok, maybe one picture.
