YAAAAAAY....STELLA IS HOME SAFE & SOUND:))

THIS LITTLE GOLDFINCH WAS HAVING A VERY VIGOROUS BATH THIS AFTERNOON (click to enlarge....Goldfinch is facing left)

Received a phone call this afternoon from Stella's owner to say Stella (the missing Burmese Mountain dog) had just been returned home by a lady who had been keeping her for the past couple of weeks. Don't know all the details but she was apparently well looked after & is now happy to be home. Yaaaaaaay Stella:))

ADDED A TOUCH OF YELLOW TO THE BIRD BATH ON RIGHT TO GIVE IT A BIT OF COLOR

Loaded up the 2 big furry guys this morning & we took the big wheels for a drive up to Goderich & back. Sure was nice to be back in the rigs driver's seat even if it was just for a short time. The Sons of The Pioneers boomed out of the speakers all the way there & back. Max & Checkers were all excited thinking we were off to see their pals, Gleason, Pearce, & Corky, at the Arizona ranch. Had to tell them, sorry guys, not yet.....but soon:))

THE GOLDFINCH AT TOP LEFT IS ON FINAL APPROACH TO THE BIRDBATH AS A LITTLE BLACK CAP CHICKADEE WATCHES FROM THE WATER'S EDGE I WAS TOO SLOW ON THE TRIGGER & ONLY CAUGHT HALF OF THIS BLUE JAY LEAVING THE BIRD BATH:((

Had trouble with our external hard drive yesterday so took it along this morning to the computer place in Goderich to have it checked out. All our travel photos are stored on that external hard drive & I didn't want to take any chances on losing them. I also have most of the photos on DVD's as well but that hard drive is the working copy so to speak. MAX & CHECKERS WERE READY TO RUMBLE THIS MORNING. MAX IS MAD AT ME FOR NOT GETTING HIS BEST SIDE!!
THE BISBEE KIDS ON THE DASH ARE WATCHING THE ROAD AS WE HEAD HOME

With the positive response to last night's blog about Picasa 3 I've decided to throw a few more photo examples in to-night's blog.

I ADDED SOME PICASA 3 SOFT FOCUSING TO THIS PHOTO TO GIVE IT A MYSTIC FEELING. I ALSO USED "GLOW" UNDER THE EFFECTS HEADING TO GIVE THE WATER SOME SPARKLE

(when I look at this photo now I realize I should have cropped a bit more off on the left side to rid that overexposed rock...I will do that to the original later but it just gives you an idea of what you can do.

Kelly comes home Friday so that will mean some real food again. I can cook stuff OK if I have too but I think my main problem is that I'm just to darn lazy to go through all the motions so I just eat stuff like cereal, porridge, & Oktoberfest sausage, etc. Whatever is easy to throw to-gether in a few minutes. Swampin down a tin of salmon is always pretty easy too. I've never been a big food person but I sure do eat enough of the darn stuff sometimes!! But never seconds. I just eat what's in front of me & then quickly remove myself from the area, ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF CROPPING THE SURROUNDING BACKGROUND OUT TO FEATURE THE FLOWER. AN EXAMPLE OF ADDING TEXT TO A PHOTO

Was doing a little reading up on Microsoft's new operating system due to launch on October 25th of this year. It's called Windows 7 & sounds good so far. I like the fact that it isn't a power hog like XP & especially Vista.

THESE TWO HUMMINGBIRD FEEDER PHOTOS DEMONSTRATE THE POWER OF THE "I'M FEELING LUCKY" BUTTON. ONE CLICK OF THE BUTTON BRIGHTENED UP THE PHOTO & I COULD HAVE FURTHER LIGHTENED IT BY USING THE "FILL LIGHT" FEATURE FOUND UNDER BASIC FIXES

Not much else new to-day so maybe I'll just throw the cameras in the van & go see if I can track me down a sunset................:))

COLOR HIGHLIGHTING THE FLOWERS IN "FOCAL BLACK & WHITE"

-Hummingbird feeder & single flower photo were taken with a Nikon D40 & 700mm telescope lens.

-The two RV photos this morning were done with my Canon A720 as was the motorcycle pics yesterday.

-The flowers & pond shots were taken from inside our sunroom through a glass window using a Nikon D50 & 200mm zoom lens.

-The birdbath photos were taken from inside the sunroom as well using the D50 & zoom lens at 200mm

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Life is like a roll of toilet paper.....the closer you get to the end the faster it goes.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.