New Camera

I’ve been a fan of the Olympus Digital cameras for over 4 years now. I started with the 320, got a warrantee upgrade to the 400 model and then got a C-2000Z.
All the pictures in the blog are from the C2000 – a very nice, if slightly bulky 2 MegaPixel (2 MP) camera … see My Digicam Page for more history specifics.
Anyway, I noticed in the paper last week that Olympus has come out with a new 5 MP clamshell pocket camera, the C50. It has an all metal body, but they finally made some changes from all the previous models. The C50 uses a new proprietary battery and a new xD memory card. They’ve also done away with the top status panel. I did some extensive reading of reviews and commentary and it seems that a number of folks really like the previous model – the D40. Some even said its better than the new C50. Its nearly as small as the C50, had a number of nice presets, used 2 AA batteries (I’ve got 8 AA Nickel-Metal Halide batteries and a charger already), takes the old smartMedia cards (I’ve got a number of them). I even went to the local Circuit City and checked out the new C50 model – and yes, it IS compact – like a thick deck of cards!
So – I did the good thing – I shopped Ebay for the D40 – and got one for just over $300 – should be able to call in my VISA info tomorrow and maybe get it before the weekend! Thank goodness for my tax refund!
photo of the D40 Camera

Spring (yard) Cleaning

What a day – I am exhausted …!
Spent most of the day raking the leaves that fell since we last raked in the fall …

that the fun of living in the forests of Fairfax – cool and shady in the summer – but payback time comes often! So I raked into pileds, ground it up with the lawn mower, then used the wheelbarrow to haul it to the compost pile. I even cleaned around the pond some, tho I want to raise the surrounding ground to the level of the pond’s edge. Once thats done, I can border the pond with slate
and give it a really cute look. Anyway – contrast this with the shot below from Feb!
Here’s a picture from 5pm – just after I fed the fish!
(Click to enlarge)
Fish in the pond

pond on a sunny afternoon

Winter’s gone AWAY

Its amazing but we’ve had a string of days this week that felt like temperature got into the 70s! I was out raking leaves in shorts and a tank top after work yesterday (just before the rain) and was quite comfortable. The pond has finally thawed and it looks like there are a dozen or so large goldfish swimming around in there! They survived all that snow and ice!
I’ll get out there with my camera this weekend and get some current pictures!

Here’s a picture from Feb 7, 2003 – all Snowed In!

(Click to enlarge)

Icicle Cathedral

Icicle Cathedral

Just another digital picture from the big snowstorm of February 18th – this shows some of the icicles hanging off our raingutters … Click to see a larger version

click to enlarge

NOW in Movable Type!

I set the initial blog up using GreyMatter. I did some occasional blog entries over the last few months. After the last couple snowstorms I realized I was more interested in posting pictures than I was in running an online commentary.
So, I did some research and decided to try Movable Type …
I just got the initial setup done and imported my previous blog … tho I still need to recreate the stylesheets and such of my previous entries …

Call this a first test entry …

Serious Snowfall

Seems we just got over the last snowfall, when another came our way. We woke early Saturday so we could get downtown for the 9am plenary speech at the True Spirit conference – and found the snowstorm had started overnight Friday, but wasn’t too much trouble with our drive downtown. We stayed at the Conference ’til about 2PM, and planned to staff the MCC NOVA table Sunday – but when we woke early Sunday, we found a good foot of snow was on the ground and more was falling. It was enough that they called it a snow day for church – something that had never happened in the 5 years I’ve been a member of MCC NOVA! The local Highway admins were requesting people stay off the roads – Serious stuff – we stayed in and watched it fall, hiked out back to check on the pond, then came in and had cheesey brocoli soup (yum!).
It was serious enough that they shut down the federal Government on Tuesday while the road crews plowed again and again to get the snow out of the way! Ah well, tomorrow is Weds – back to work!

Click Pix to enlarge!
backyard full of snow
Note the bench mid-picture that is buried up to the seat!
cars waist deep in snow
Note the depth of the snow drifts by the cars

Snowbound

Friday February 7th we had another morning snowstorm – I woke at 4:30 and, after checking the news and the reports of a half-foot of snow, decided the best plan was to stay off the roads
So, I called in snowbound and once it had gotten lighter, I went around the backyard with the trusty Olympus Digicam taking pictures … here’s a sample!

As usual, click the image to see a larger version

January’s End

It may be that I’m not cut out for this online diary thing. I was perhaps more inclined for this sort of thing when I went through my life-changes in my late 30s … but its more than I’m willing to share at this point.
One good thing … we got Kitties Jan 17th! They are just now staring to settle in – a pair of Himalayans – the girl is a seal point, the boy is a lilac point …very cute, but pretty shy for the most part. Em calls the girl cat Dolly Lama Diva … I was calling the boy cat Winston Purrchill – then we decided he really looked more like Teddy Roosevelt than Churchill … I keep singing McCartney’s song “Teddy Boy” at him … but of course he doesn’t get it …
Click the picture to see a larger version …

Cheers for the weekend!

A glorious sunny weekend in Fairfax! I love the way the light is reflected off the snow – everything is so bright, tho there are a lot of leaves laying on top of the snow. 2 days off – woohaa!

Started the day makin’ pancakes for my honey, listening to Bowie’s Low album … followed with a boot of Bowie at the Apollo (London) from Oct 2 this year … ahhhh!