Long time no post

A few unimportant updates from the past couple of months.

For the past few half a year our washer was telling us it wanted to die. After every load a little more grease, oil and water was leaking out from under it. Our dryer was also taking longer and longer to dry clothes. So we bought a new pair a couple of weeks ago. Cool new frontload, electronic, LG appliances. I've never had new a new washer or dryer; it almost makes doing laundry fun. Both the washer and dryer play a little ditty when they start up and when they shut down. Plus they have cool LED lights. I'm not convinced that the washer takes any less time but it definitely uses less water.

I went up to Lake Memesagamasing for the deer hunt in November. It was the first time that I have been hunting with a rifle. I'm not use to walking through the bush with a 8lb rifle on my back; I fell over more than a few times. The hunting party was a little smaller this year and we only bagged one deer (a joint effort between my brother-in-law Tim and the cottage neighbour and all-round awesome guy Mr. Mathews). The deer were scarce this year - I didn't even take my safety off. But as always a great time was had by all. Plus I only got lost once this year (and technically I wasn't "lost"; I knew where I was I just didn't know where I needed to go).

My parents came down for a quick visit in October. It's been a while since we had some time to just visit together. We hit the farmers market Saturday morning and just relaxed in the afternoon. It was good to spend time with them.

I haven't been taking hardly any photos lately. It's been a combination being busy and not making the effort to get out and shoot. I want to get out and shoot more, I just need to make the time. I'd like to get more into portraits and have been considering making a concerted effort to find subjects to practice on. Let me know if you want to be such a subject.

We got one of our retaining walls redone in October. It was built by the previous owner of our house and was basically stacked flagstone. That might be good enough for a fence but not for a retaining wall. The new wall  was done by Black Diamond Landscaping (email address - no website). It was built in less than 5 hours and looks really solid. If you use them, let them know I sent you.

We got a small amount of snow yesterday. Seamus couldn't get enough of the stuff. He ran and ran and rolled and rolled. He even started digging in it (which quickly turned into digging into our grass - that behaviour won't be tolerated). Here's a quick pic of the dog in all his snowy glory.

I think that's all the important stuff. I'll do my best to keep this blog thing more up-to-date.

On a swiss hillside...

This past weekend Tara and I went to a horse show out Orangeville way. Tara and Lego were supposed to be in it, but Tara is still out of commission from her fall a couple of weeks ago.  The horse show is inconsequential except that we met up our friends from the barn, Laurie and Ian. Laurie and Ian weren't riding in the horse show either. Like us, they were there to cheer on Jeanine who is also from the barn and the only from the barn competing. But Jeanine competing is inconsequential as well. I only bring up the horse show for context.

Ian, who along with my lovely self, were the only ones from the barn at the show that don't ride. And Ian is a photo buff like me. Only he is much better at it.

While we were chatting and waiting for Jeanine to start riding, Ian offered to lend me a few lenses to try out. Nice lenses. Nicer-than-I-have lenses.  I took him up on his offer and very carefully attached them to my old camera body and took a few shots.

70-300mm. The rider was at least 150ft away (large version)

The first one he lent me was the 70-300mm 4.5-5.6 IF-ED. I took a few shots and noticed how much quicker if focused than my cheap 70-300mm G lens. It also has vibration reduction which results is much sharper photos. At less than $600, I'd consider buying this lens, if only for photos of Tara riding.

  

70-200mm. Wide open. (large version)

The second one he lent me was the 70-200mm 2.8 IF-ED. The famous 70-200mm. This lens was bigger than I thought, and I really had to be careful using it without a tripod. It handled beautifully and even wide open it was still sharp. This is a lens I would love to have, but it's currently out of my budget (at $2400, I'd need to take a lot of photos to justify it).

However, the last one he lent me stole my heart. The 85mm 1.4D. This is the lens I want. This lens made my dinky little D70s, my 6 year old camera, work like I had always envisioned cameras to work. And the image quality, well it is like butter. But not factory farm butter, more like a fine European butter, from a Burlina cow grazing on the side of a Swiss mountain. Butter that makes day-old baguettes taste divine. But don't take my word for it, take a gander at the photo below (click the link for a larger version).

My hottie and a 85mm (large version, flickr)

With the announcement of the D7000 today, the smart money is on upgrading my body from old and out-of-date to shine and new. But the wise money may be on the 85mm if I can hold off camera envy for a little bit longer....

Bees!

Busy month

August was a busy month.

August 1-3 was spent in Buffalo.

Hot and hazy was the name of the game

A week after that we headed down to Raleigh, North Carolina (Aug 10-15). This was for the second part of Tara's residency examinations (the practical part). We gave ourselves a couple of days to drive down and a day to adjust before the Friday exams. We are glad we did; the weather was very very hot. We're talking 38°C at 8:00 pm hot with a humidex in the mid 40s.We ate outside one evening; it was like being in a sauna.

We spent our adjusting day visiting with other optho residents and trying to chill out before the Friday exam. On Friday, Tara had her exam in the morning and then we drove up to York Pennsylvania to stay with one of Tara's good friends and fellow resident Mitzi.

The visit with Mitzi was really great. It was good for Tara to chat about the exams and get rid of some excess stress. Saturday evening we spent at Mitzi's parent's country club. It was pretty swanky; we took part in a wine tasting for Mitzi's upcoming nuptials. We tasted quite a number of great wines included a Heitz Cabernet Sauvignon, 2001 which was divine! It was back to Ontario on Sunday for us.

Tara was up in Caledon on Aug 16-18 learning how to do a surgical procedure involving the eye and anti-inflammatory implants. I don't really understand it all, but Tara had a good time.

Tara and her mom headed to Ireland Aug 19-28.This was a long awaited Mother-Daughter trip to the emerald isle. Tara had a great time. I was left at home to take care of the dog :). I got a few things done around the house, but not nearly as much as I had hoped.

A few days after Tara got back from Ireland, she put in a few days working at a vet clinic in Toronto (Aug 31-Sept 1). Time to start paying off the trip.

The plans for this long weekend were to head back down to York for a wedding. Unfortunately Tara had a rather abrupt meeting with the ground this past Thursday at the barn. Tara and Lego were jumping the cross-country jumps when Lego clipped one of them and stumbled. In his effort to right himself, he dislodged Tara and sent her flying. She hit the ground rather hard and an ambulance had to be called. Tara is sore, but doing OK. No bones were broken and nothing seems out of place. Her fall did cause the cancellation of our weekend plans.

So that was our August; a little too busy if you ask me. Oh, and in case you were wondering, we found out on Wednesday that Tara passed all her exams. No real surprise, but a welcome relief from the waiting.

Inception

We just came back from Inception. Excellent movie - best I've seen in a while. It's kind of a cross between the Matrix and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. Sort of.

It's one of those movies that I you need to watch a couple of times to get everything out of it. The DVD extras have the potential to be outstanding.

Go see it.

Preview