Home again in Tennessee

We had a smooth, easy drive home from FL or TN. Good to have been there; good to be home, too.

Sunshine and palm trees

Today was a beach day for us. All day, actually, sitting mostly under our big red beachbrella, drinking lemonade (no alcohol or glass bottles allowed on Naples City beaches), watching the shorebirds, and reading. (I'm halfway through Anna Karenina for the second time. It is much easier to understand this time, when I'm 40 years older!) I didn't take the camera onto the beach with me, as I forgot to bring any of our beach bags from TN this time, and I didn't want it to get set down anywhere near all that sand. But, if I'd had it, I would've taken a shot looking up at the clear, sun-brightened red umbrella, with the dark blue sky and white puffy clouds ... with a couple palm trees peeking over for good measure. So pretty.

Second try

OK, I know I wrote this and posted it a couple days ago, but I still don't see it my blog. Phooey. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I'm still around and reading everyone else's Blogs. I've been working on sorting and editing all the hundreds of photos from everyone from the SmithKith Reunion, so I haven't had the energy to do more pix for my blog.

I'm still here

Just a note to say I'm still alive and kicking, even tho I haven't blogged lately. I've been working on organizing, titling and filing all my photos from the SmithKith'n'Kin Reunion last year.

Now I've begun downloading everyone else's photos from the SmithKith Blog, which turned out to be a bigger challenge than it seems it should have been. With moral support from Tracy, I have figured out a way (rather labor-intensive, if one call call clicking a mouse "labor") but at least I'm getting 'em.

I plan to edit them (there are hundreds of pix) and put them together on a VCD so everyone can watch a slideshow of them on their own TVs.

Thanks, Karin, for the ProShow Gold!!! Of course, there is a learning curve with that program, too ...

I'm not speedy, but I'm cute! Wait, even that excuse doesn't work any more. Oh, well. I'm enjoying reading everyone else's doings.

12X Zoom

So, here are a couple of experiments with the new toy. The second shot is the moon with the default (normal) setting; the first is with the 12X optical zoom. (Yes, Tracy, I am reading the manual, but I seem to be a slow learner...!)

Buggy Theme

OK, so I haven't really quite gotten the hang of the new camera yet, but I'm trying. This "writing spider" has been in the same place every day (she eats the web and night and re-weaves it every morning) but we will be gone for the next two weeks or so; I'll try again when we return if she is still there.

New Camera

It's here! I love it already. The 12x optical zoom is awesome. I got a OneGig memory card today (the one that came with the camera would hold only about 8-10 photos) so I will be playing with it in earnest soon.

On its way

The new camera has been shipped! This is a holiday weekend so I'm sure it won't be here until mid week next week, but I'm pumped already anyway.

This evening we had our neighbors over to watch the UT football game on TV, but I have no photos to share. They are probably just as glad that I was camera-less; I've noticed others are less enthusiastic than I about all the constant photography.

Our neighborhood is filling in nicely with the new contstruction and also with a new couple on the street below us. It's good to have "friends our own age to play with" right on our very own street. Makes it easy to get together with minimum planning.

My camera wore out

Well, it finally bit the dust. It has been a good and faithful companion, and I have taken more pictures with it in three years than the average joe would take in a decade, so I can't complain. I ordered its replacement yesterday ... a Canon PowerShot S2 IS with a 12x digital zoom and image stabilization. It's actually not the newest version, but as soon as the S3 came out (a couple weeks ago), this one's price dropped considerably, so I'm happy. The new one will be quite a bit heavier and bulkier, but I'm not quite back up to the SLR size yet.