About two months ago these flowers started growing out of the bark mulch I had put down in front of the house. I thought they were weeds and began pulling them. Then, I thought that maybe they were seasonal flowers coming back, since there were so many of them and they were all over the beds. Now they have become 3′ high beautiful flower bushes all over our front yard!

After taking our 3 week digital-SLR photography course I am finding it even more fun to use my camera. Here I set my focal length to 35mm, which is equivalent to 50mm on a film camera. This focal length gives a 1:1 representation of the image being photographed. Using a fast aperture setting of f4.0 throws the background out of focus but gives good detail on the object of focus. I took the picture in RAW mode and then processed using Bibble Labs software and the PerfectlyClear plug-in.

After a nice seafood dinner at Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto in Berkeley, we stopped to snap some photographs of the sunset. Unfortunately by the time we found a decent place to view the sunset, it had already dropped behind the hills.

Here are some photos of our Memorial Day Camping trip. We went through Lassen Volcano Nat’l Park and then to the Lake Oroville area.

Well, we’ve done so many things in the past few weeks and we’ve been so busy I haven’t taken the time to update my blog. We’ve camped, partied, made an offer on a house, helped friends move, taken a photography class……..

Yesterday Erin and I rearrange our house to make it more functional to the two of us. We had purchased a queen-sized bed for our spare room when we moved in. In 6 months the room has hardly been used. We decided to toss the bed and make ourselves each an office/personal room. I get the wood-Tahoe room and Erin gets the larger room. Hopefully the extra space will give us both room to work on our personal projects. Mine include getting more familiar with my DSLR camera, designing websites for Erin’s photography business and Joe’s Design business, practicing my banjo and working with my micro-processors.

We put an offer on a house around the corner from us. The house is about to enter foreclosure, and there were lots of bids so we aren’t sure where we stand. We decided on an amount that we’re comfortable with and decided the rest was up to fate. I’ll post when we receive word one way or the other.

Since I’m at work I don’t have access to any of the numerous photographs I’ve snapped over the past few weeks. I’ll try hard this evening to get in some more updates!

We made reservations this morning for our honeymoon. We’ve been looking around, trying to find an affordable destination that offers a great, relaxing atmosphere. With all the airlines dropping out, we (I) were a little worried about booking too soon. This morning we settled on Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and the Marriott Resort. We booked airline reservations and hotel accommodations so that the next 4 months can be spent planning our activities and not worrying about the travel. The flight there is direct on Alaska Airlines, and is only 3.5 hours from San Francisco!

Here’s a picture of the thermometer on our kitchen window!

We’ve spent the last few weekends trying to beautify our yard. Since we’re renting, our goal has been to get everything we can into pots so that we can take it with us.
Our first project was to cover up the dirt around the redwood tree in the back yard. During the day the dogs would spend the majority of their time rolling in the dirt to cool off. The bark keeps them a little cleaner.

In celebration of Earth Day 2008, we decided to finally start composting our waste; something we’ve been talking about forever. I got on craigslist and found this great starter compost bin for FREE! How’s that for a deal!

Our back fence is pretty ugly. It’s in poor repair, and there is nothing growing along it. Erin really want to see something different, so we picked up this inexpensive trellis, a pot and a bougainvillea plant.

The bed in front of the house had roses planted when we moved in but they were overgrown and ugly. I cut them way back in January and added some fertilizer, and now we have a continuous supply of beautiful roses to add to our vases in the house.

Here’s another bed in the front corner of our house that we have landscaped:

and the dianthus flowers that I planted around the tree out front:

Erin and I flew to Gainesville this past weekend to attend
my friend Dave’s wedding. It was great
weather for an outdoor Florida wedding. Not too many mosquitoes, a
steady breeze and comfortable temperatures. There was also plenty of time spent
with Noah, Raphael and Stephanie. You can see all the photos from the
trip at: My
Picasa Website (Noah/Raphael/Stephanie Pictures) and at:
my
Smugmug website