Creepy Crawly

Our home is always ready for Halloween because of these guys:



Any clue what kinds of spiders they are?

Pooch Party

Guess who's visiting again?


And this time he brought his sister, Zip:


Rylie's so excited:


So is Karma. Wait, why are they all passed out? Carbon monoxide poisoning? Wait, 1, 2, 3... where is Karma?..BRB...

Bored Silly

Rylie is bored. So this is how she entertains herself (and me):



She looks surprisingly comfortable. I think cast beats pancake. Votes?

Break a Leg

Literally.

This weekend Rylie broke her right tibia while jumping for a toy. She landed wrong and ended up with a spiral fracture (apparently this is possible, I asked the vet if this indicated a prior injury or underlying condition). So for less than 48 hours she had this splint/soft cast/elephantitis leg:


On Monday she had her surgery and we were able to take her home (which normally does not happen). I think she preferred recuperating at home in her own bed. Here she is with her shaved leg and butt and a smaller splint/soft cast, icing her swollen paw:


Caring for this dog is no easy task because she believes to be all better and will try to do things she shouldn't. If I so much as step away to potty, she will try to jump on the couch. This is why I haven't been posting (and may not for a while).

It's going to be a long road of recovery for this dog (what is 6-10 weeks in dog years?). Thankfully the surgeon said there should be no long term side effects as it did not affect her joints (ie. arthritis). There's much spoiling to be done to her. And lots of doting upon. Who knows, she may end up a cuddly lap dog after all this...

First Sight

I've already mentioned my new toy (dSLR). And you've already seen some initial shots with it (here, here, and here). But here is the actual very first photo I took with it:


Rylie loves being my muse. And despite this depiction, she actually has a body and 4 legs. Hopefully I'll improve so I can catch her killer blue steel poses she's always striking.

Do your pets love the camera? Hate the camera? One of each, as in my case?

Veg Out

I've never had much success with vegetable gardening (or any gardening for that matter). So imagine my surprise when my real-life-friend slash blogger-friend brought her home grown zucchini (green bell pepper shown for scale):

Who could resist having fun with vegetables before eating them?



Anyone else grow some freakishly enormous vegetables? If so, what's your secret?

A Long Way

A couple months ago when we went on our road trip, we missed all the scenery due to night time driving. But we caught it all during our drive back during the day:




And here is the view inside the car:

(Did you notice the PVC pipes on top of our luggage that we brought home, what is wrong with us?)

We were also accompanied by an old friend along the way:


Is there no escaping it?

Garden Variety

Last weekend a guest brought a small bouquet of flowers:



It was a nice change from the usual snip-from-the-garden-cause-it's-free variety:

(Left to right: Rose, Golden Eunonymous, Azalea)

Do you ever take snippets of your garden to enjoy? What kinds? Or do you buy bouquets? Or buy artificial flowers and plants? Or go without altogether?

New Heights

Everyday I definitely appreciate all the aspects of our new kitchen. Lately, it has been our fridge. Although it is smaller than most fridges (under 20 cubic feet), it suites our needs perfectly. I love that it has french doors, so the kitchen doesn't have to be completely blocked off when one door is open. I love that I can open both doors and fit a pizza box in there (even though we've only done this once). I love how quiet it is. I love that the drawers are clear so I can see all the food I have (or lately, don't have). I love how I don't have to bend down to dig around (especially with my old lady back). I love that I can drop a bag of peas into the pull out bottom freezer. I love that we have the ice maker hooked up. And I love that I can select the ice cube size (even though I never change it). And most of all, I love that this new love of mine is no longer in the living room and has a permanent home.

Initially a new fridge was not planned. We were going to wait for our old one to die to save some money. However, since we had already ordered the base cabinets and the old fridge would no longer fit, we were forced to upgrade that too. Yeah forced. The new fridge twisted our arms.

But before the new fridge was permanently rolled into place, we had to hang the cabinets above them. We must have been so enamored with our new appliance that once again, we ordered wrong size cabinets, to go above it. Here you can see our markings for the old wall cabinet, the fridge and the new wall cabinet:


The blue chalk lines mark the studs to mount the wall cabinets onto:


I wonder if anyone will ever see those markings? I wonder if we'll sell the fridge with the house? I wonder if we'll ever move out of this house?


Everytime I open the french doors on our fridge, I forget all the hassle we went through. It was so totally worth it. Wouldn't you agree?

ISO confused

...so therefore I am experimenting. With the new cam. First up: ISO settings.

I understand the concept of the different ISO settings (if you can remember back to non-digital camera days, it's the 'speed' of your film. Basically it is how sensitive the film is, higher the number = higher sensitivity. And if I remember correctly most common was 400, lower numbers for outdoor shots, higher for low lighting).

But knowing which setting to use and when is another story. Since I am a visual person, I'll share my results because I know you must really care, right?

ISO 100

ISO auto

ISO 1600

This stuff is probably obvious to everyone else but the last time I used manual settings on a camera was ages ago. And the last time I used an SLR was eons ago. By ages and eons, I mean since high school (which is the same thing). And even then, I didn't pay attention. Because I don't do numbers very well. I mean even the lowest ISO setting is 10 times higher than the amount of fingers I have (at least that's what my calculator says).

Will I master the prosumer dSLR? Or am I only suited for point-and-shoot/auto mode forever?

Tub Scrub

Remember when I scraped off the old tub caulking? And I learned the hard way that it's not always worth it to be green? Here, let me remind you.

And then let me show you the path to success:


You're welcome.