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Keats Weekend · Oct 24, 11:59 AM
We had some yummy salmon and halibut on Saturday night, compliments of Kevin, and boy, was it scrumptious! The boys talked shop a lot, and I did some soaking in the hottub and a lot of reading during our stay. And here we are again, mid week, and all I can do is look forward to the coming weekend. Braeden’s birthday party on Sunday should be great fun, and Julie and Jess will be in town all weekend, so I’m looking forward to some good times! Better get myself to work now though. It’s not the weekend yet. |
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I guess the relaxed feeling has worn off by now, but I had a wonderful time at Keats with Colin, Ryan, and his dad over the weekend. We took Brimley along, and he tried desperately to engage the other dog, Harley, in some fun and games, but was rejected time and time again. Poor guy. Harley’s a little older and not inclined to put up with puppy antics. Brimley doesn’t take a hint very well though. Colin and I took Brimley for a nice hike to the highest viewpoint on Keats on Saturday, and we took some family photos there. 
We also played around a little with the Experimenting · Oct 13, 03:27 PMWe’ve (well, mostly Colin) discovered a new and exciting piece of software for processing digital images taken with an SLR camera using a technique called HDR, or high dynamic range. If you use the auto exposure bracketing setting, which ensures proper exposure across a wide range of lighting conditions, this application lets you merge them together into one beautiful image! One of the aspects in which digital photography is inferior to film photography is exposure latitude. It’s especially noticeable when you try to do black & white image with a digital camera because the pictures come out very flat. This piece of software offers a solution, and I, for one, am quite enthused!
Now, the reason I got so excited about this application in the first place was because I was browsing HDR images in Flickr and there are some absolutely amazing photos. It’s worth a browse. This HDR application lets you play around a little, and some people have come out with very surreal-looking images. It’s really neat. I can’t wait to experiment some more. So far I’m only using the trial version of the software, which leaves a watermark on your images, but eventually I think I’ll purchase the software. It’s $99 for the HDR portion, plus another $69 for the tone mapping plugin, which you really need for the best effect. A little expensive, but I think I’ll suck it up and pay the money. Happy fall everyone! |
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Last night we zipped up to Burnaby Mountain to catch the last of the sunset with my camera so I’d have something to experiment with. Conditions weren’t exactly ideal for this application, as you really want dynamic shots with a wide variety of areas with low and high lighting to appear in your image. However, I managed to produce a fine first specimen, which I’m sharing with you here. The colours are vibrant on both the tree and the sky, which is something that’d be impossible using just one exposure. You generally get only one portion of your image properly exposed, and that’s really the problem. I took three exposures of the same image, at normal exposure, and then +2 and -2 stops. The underexposed image brings the colours in the sky out nicely, but everything else in the foreground is totally dark. The overexposed image does a great job on the foreground, but leaves the sky looking pale and washed out. And of course the normally exposed image is an attempt at a happy medium, which ends up being fairly poor overall. But when you combine them using the Photomatix software, voila! A much more interesting image. Off to Salmon Arm · Oct 5, 08:48 AMYup, it’s that time of year again. The leaves are changing colours, and I’m craving turkey. So we’re off to spend Thanksgiving in Salmon Arm with Colin’s folks, and it sounds like we’ll be having dinner with his Aunt Melody and Uncle Dan — always a treat! It’ll be Brimley’s first road trip, so I hope he does well. It’s a 5.5-hour car ride, his longest yet. We’ll have to take him for a big walk halfway through or something. I hope he’s not a little terror at Carol and Arden’s place, although he’s so far a pretty good little puppy, so I have high hopes. Anyway, hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! I’m so glad to have three days off in a row! |
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There's a Chill in the Air · Sep 19, 10:32 PMWell, we’re firmly into September, and with it, autumn, which normally sends me into a mild panic and a slight fit of depression. I have trouble letting go of summer, my favourite season, and hunkering down for another long, rainy winter. But this time I feel slightly more light-hearted about the whole thing. Our house gets really hot on those baking summer days, so it’s a nice change to have a cool living space once more. And I’m already feeling whimsical and looking forward to being home for the holidays. It seems the older I get, the more I appreciate and anticipate going home for Christmas. I’m not sure why — perhaps it’s a touch of homesickness, perhaps excitement to see my Alberta friends again. Maybe it’s my sister’s annual birthday fondue that’s calling out to me, or maybe I just love spending a few days at mom and dad’s place relaxing and being cozy and getting all caught up… Whatever the case, this fall isn’t torturing me the way most falls do.
Anyway, not much else to report really. Thanksgiving will be pleasant, as we’ll be making the trek to Salmon Arm to spend it with Colin’s mom and Arden. It’ll be Brimley’s first real road trip, so I hope he does okay and doesn’t go too crazy! I have faith though — he’s turning out already to be a fairly well-behaved puppy. So anyway, enjoy the start of fall! |
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Brimley has changed somewhat over the past week or so. He’s had a little growth spurt, and seems to have put on a pound or two and grown an inch taller or so. He’s much easier to walk with on a leash, and he’s been picking up on his training with relative ease. He can now sit on command fairly reliably, and he almost has the potty training down. He also has a bigger appetite and more energy, so we’ve taken him on a couple of walks longer than just a block or two. We’ve even discovered a little dog park a few blocks away, which is quite lovely, and Brimley seems to find the whole adventure quite exciting and fun. He’s also getting better at sleeping longer stretches through the night, and we usually only have to get up once in the middle of the night to let him go to the bathroom, and then again in the morning, a little earlier than I’d normally like to get out of bed. But I can handle that over the three or four times per night that we started with! A New Chapter · Sep 9, 11:25 PM
Anyway, I’m feeling so happy to have a new animal in the house. He won’t be able to replace Chester, but he’ll be a highlight of many of my days, I’m sure of it. |
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Well, I’ve had an emotionally challenging couple of weeks. I still feel Chester’s absence, and I wonder if the ache in my heart will ever go away. But we’ve opened a new chapter, and with it, added a new canine member to our family. We did a lot of research to come up with a breed that would suit us and our house and our lifestyle, and the beagle breed ended up being the frontrunner. So after doing a bunch more research on beagles and their personalities and traits and training requirements, we managed to find a litter of pups ready to be adopted. So we picked up our little boy puppy this afternoon and brought him home, and then took him over to Roger and Donay’s place for Jess’s birthday party. Little Wilford Brimley (named after the Quaker Oats guy…because it’s the right thing to do) had a fun-packed day filled with all sorts of new experiences. 
We’ve had a more relaxing evening, and have done a fair bit of reading on how to properly train a puppy. I’m hoping we can avoid some of the problem habits that some dogs acquire by starting early and using some positive reinforcement and very consistent training. So far he loves his little crate, as most beagles do. I’ve put a cozy blanket in there for him, and he spends a lot of his time there by choice. So far anyway. Toilet training him will likely be the biggest challenge for the time being, but we’re off to a good start so far. One successful bathroom break outside already!
That’s right, dear. Chop chop!