So How Was Your Thursday?

Mine was one of those crazy days where nothing ever stops. After busy morning at work I had to step out to make a visit to the Dr. for my eyes. Our family doctor is very good, but oh my goodness, I nearly had another birthday for the year while I was waiting. Finally I got to see the doc, got my renewal for my eyedrops and headed on my way.

Back at work, I sat down at my desk at 2pm for lunch and the moment I finished I had visitors and questions. So, off I went to problem solve but the best was yet to come. First, I found out the formulation we have been using for making some particles was wrong (my fault) then I find out that some very expensive equipment had gone for a walk (not my fault) and then I find out that some samples have gone missing for one of our clients (my fault).

Following this final discovery, I spent the last hour and a half of the day in the dumpster out the back of work rifling through trashbags, looking for the missing items. After the first pass through all that garbage, I didn't find what I was looking for, so guess what, I had to go through it all over again... While fishing, I recieved several sarcastic comments from passers by (which really weren't that funny anyway) but I did think to my self, I bet noone would even offer to help. And how I was wrong. Dear Ashley came up to me, asked what I was doing and then volunteered to help! So together we bonded over the trash and in the last bag in the dumpster, she found what we had been looking for! PHEW!

So how was your Thursday?

Playing House

Well, a few weekend's ago, Jenee was asked if she would babysit the Cravens for a few days while they went on a short trip. Of course I tagged along too. Three kids, 4 days, Jenee and Nate...

We...had...a...blast.

It was so much fun, we got to take them to soccer and dance, we went to Miss Linda's house and saw horses and big dogs and all of that, we went to a birthday party too, and the best thing was they had a bouncy castle there!



I think it gave me a really good insight for what it will be like when we have a family. It's full time, hard work, but its worth it! By the end of the day, Jenee and I found ourselves in bed exhausted only to see that it wasn't even 9pm! I have a new respect for all the mommies and daddies out there, thats for sure.

Embracing My Inner Minimalist

Well not only have I resisted spending my birthday gift card at Best Buy in the last 24 hours, but I have also embraced my inner minimalist by putting into action a carefully concieved plan of space saving and convenience (two of my favorite things). I have been thinking for a while now about what to do with my growing collection of photography journals and a while ago the solution came to mind.

I realized that I have at my disposal, a full, legal version of Adobe Acrobat Pro, a scanner with an auto feeder and a surgical scalpel. Put that all together and what do you get? Scanned magazines that are catagorised, searchable and functional, no longer take up shelf space, and won't degrade or get torn up. What more could I want?

I used my scalpel to carefully cut the pages out of the magazine and then scanned them. The trick of the process was to recombine the odd and even pages, since I could only scan one side at a time. I looked online for software, I played around but refused to sort 180+ pages by hand. In the end, the easiest possible solution turned out to be built into the very computer I am using. I used Apple's "Automater" and created a script which did the task for me. (Actually truth be told, A colleague at work made the script cause he's a genius).

So there you have it, now I have 3 years worth of two journals all on my computer, not taking up space, and the pages are off to the recycler! Love it! Chris you'd be so proud of me.

Posts Are Coming, I Promise.

I know its been a couple of weeks, and I have about 2-3 posts floating around in my head and all I need to do is steal a minute to edit a handful of pictures and then write the posts.

Bare with me, it will take a few more days. I have started a few personal projects that have been tugging on my mind as well as work and all that stuff.

(As I write this, I am thinking, is there anyone who is actually waiting with baited breathe for me to post? Somehow I doubt it...lol)

Its That Wonderful Time of Year...

... where the air dries out (to normal humidity) a gentle wind starts to blow and the pollen reeks havoc on the common folk. Thankfully my sinuses are not responding to the tremendous allergen levels, however its a different story for my throat.

I have the most annoying tickle, which therefore makes me cough, which therefore has made my throat sore and best of all has given my a husky, smooth sound. As a responsible husband, I have stopped talking in public places as I do not want to be responsible for making women other than my wife stumble.

As for Jenee, she just keeps marching on, which is totally unfair. I dont think she should be exempt from allergy season. What happened to being a team player? To sticking together? Just unfair!

We have been working hard during our free time to finish off a quilt that she has been working on for Skylar. I will post a picture soon, it looks really amazing so far!

Storage Problems

Most of you know, I really enjoy photography and I LOVE my camera that my wife gave me. I use it every other day. Well, while reading through my popular photography magazine this week I came across an article that was discussing good practice for keeping your digital files safe on a long term basis. Charged with enthusiasm, I have started looking through my library and figuring out how many DVD's I'll need to make a preliminary hard copy backup.

I have been taking digital photos since 2002, which at the time of writing makes it 7 years. Also, knowing I started with a Canon S45 point and shoot, guess when I got my new SLR?

2002 - 109 files - 0.07 GB
2003 - 949 files - 0.76 GB
2004 - 759 files - 0.86 GB
2005 - 2255 files - 2.2 GB
2006 - 5683 files - 11.2 GB
2007 - 15,608 files - 41.7 GB
2008 - 7528 files - 16.6 GB

Totals: 32,000 files and counting, 72.9 GB.

I hope I don't have any drive failures before I get that all backed up...

Just a General Entry...

So what has been happening over the last couple of weeks with us? Well, life goes on as always and we have been making plans for travel, sewing quilts, sorting through 20,000+ picture files, entertaining, BBQ'ing, BSF'ing and gyming.

To illustrate how exciting things have been, UF has constructed a brand new walkway for students and staff to enjoy, just a stones throw away from our building. Woopee I hear you say, but when you consider that we walked through dirt and sometimes mud everyday for years just to get a decent cup of coffee, this is a nice change for us. It's actually very nice and we like to walk on it cause it makes us feel like we are on a rainforest walk. I recently took a small walk around the building and snapped a few photos.


Can you see anything unusual in the above photo? Click on it and look closely. You will see a baby 'gator hidden in the weed.

On the weekends we have been getting up nice and early to go to a staff meeting for BSF and getting home after a detour to the gym. Its really nice to get home at lunch time and feel like you have done so much and have most of the day left! Saturdays have been dubbed BBQ Saturdays and as such I have been buying nice cuts of meat to BBQ for our dinner. I am getting better everytime and hopefully I wont burn the expensive kabob's I bought this week. I wasn't really paying attention to how much they were and when the butcher handed me the package I had a nice supprise.

We have also been entertaining friends and we recently had Rob and Sarah and my friend from work, Greg, over for dinner. All I can say is I am the burrito meat master, and actually cooked the meat really well! Even I was supprised as I have not had much success cooking jucy tender meat.

Sable passed out on her playland.

Its really fun to have Rob and Sarah and Meredith over. Meredith is such a cutie and she has us all entertained. As you can see she is actually pretty laid back and loves to explore new places and pat the kitties. Well, luch break is over so I hop you enjoy!

One Thing For Sure, We Are Not Fish People

Jenee and I are on a quest to eat better and be healthier. If you have been reading over the last few weeks, you probably already know this. Apart of our diet is supposed to include at least 2 servings of fish per week. Now, neither of us are particularly partial to eating fish. Be it the fishy taste, smell or both I couldn't say, however, one thing for sure is that we are not gifted at cooking it.

For example exhibit A, below. Now, before you read any further, know that I received Jenee's permission to post this, and it is in no way a reflection on her as a cook.

What you are looking at is several pieces of seasoned fish that we bought from the Fresh Market. Together we seasoned it, and then started to cook it. Now, we did have a small misshap where the pan was hotter than we anticipated and started to smoke the kitchen out, but apart from that, things were pretty straight forward. After the fish was cooked, I was asked to try it. Breaking off a piece I tentatively placed it in my mouth and started to chew. At first it was nice but then the taste grew... worse. By the end of what would be a normal amount of chewing to digest food, I had worked the fish into a ball that tasted a lot like, well, rubber and what we could only idenitfy as Mercedes (her parents dog).

This was simply the last straw that broke the fish eating camels back. We both had a good laugh about it, and decided to leave fish and fish cooking to the pro's...

What is Wrong With the (Photography) World?

And to add to that, whats up with Qantas putting and excessively enforcing the 15 lbs / 7.5 kg carry-on baggage limit? As I have blabbed on before, Jenee and I were annoyed when we were leaving Melbourne International when we were stopped and forced to go back and in the end we had to check in my carry-on. Very annoying. Well, we have been thinking about our next trip to the motherland (Aus) and I have been doing some guesstimates about what I can carry (theoretically) in my carry on. Now I know I should bring a change of clothes, travel documents, a book, iPod and maybe a game, but I would also like to bring my D-SLR, with 2-3 lenses, flash and some other accesories which quickly adds up to my quota.
Well, surfing the internet I stumbled on the image you see above. Its a Leica M8.2 with a 50mm f/0.95 lens attached. I thought, wow, a small compact digital camera that would really be awesome (sample pictures show great quality) and that would potentially solve my weight dilema. So I investigated a little more, great range of glass available (lenses for the lay-folk :-p), great specifications and so on. So what about the price? Well have a guess how much the above camera is? How much would you pay? Keep that number in your head. Now highlight after the semicolon: Camera and this particular lens are gonna run you $14,000. Ahuh, 14000 big ones.

I'll take 3. One for each hand and one for Jenee's spare hand.... rediculous...

We Are Gym People Now

Yup, we have joined a gym here in Gainesville with the intention of getting a shape of some description associated with our fitness. Our first visit we decided that we would try a Body Flow class. Now apparently, Body Flow is a combination of tai chi, palates, yoga and stretching. We were total newbies. We had no idea what was going on, the instructor would go left and we'd go right, because we were new we used the gym mats which are slippery as an eel so when we got into the "warrior" pose, we had to work 3 times harder because our feet were slipping apat and then there was something extra special for me.

The instructor asked us to turn our mats and I found myself face to face with a 40 something lady. Nothing out of the normal until our exercise required us to raise our arms above our heads. Well hello armpits. Her armpits were hairier than mine! Bushier, thicker and longer to boot. ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew!

So now we have discovered that Armpits is a regular at our gym. She's being added to our collection of local people whom we only know by their given names. Let's see, there is Buff-Guy who walks around our complex without his shirt on most of the year. There is Grumpy-Guy who also lives in our complex and never smiles, then there is Honda, he drives a white Porsche Boxter (Jenee thinks it looks like a Honda) and there is Scary Carpark Guy and Girl, they pose as homeless people and beg for money. Sadly for them I came across them listening to their IPODS and enjoying their loot from good willed people so they wont be getting anything from us, ever. Sadly people like them ruin giving to people who are in desperate need.

Anyway, enough soap boxing, there is another post to be written.

Update
Parka Guy - He wears a snow parka all year round, even in August!

(Thanks Krista, I forgot about him)