Yippy Skippy!

Delivery slip for my package was on the front door. Sat in DHL air express delivery for over an hour because, no suprise, the driver whose truck had my package was new and running late, late, late. I sat for the hour but finally driver arrived and package was in my arms!

Got home - are you excited? - opened package, removed bitchn' new lens and... and... THIS ONE WORKS! Wooot! Tomorrow I give the lens its first outing photographing albatross, tropic birds and whales!

Honestly, am I a happy girl or what?

Must shower, feed grumpy old kitty and get to bed. *happy sigh*

Vindication!

Wild Tom out strolling

On Monday I went on a photo trek with co-worker Terry, whose passion is wildlife photography. He has the same lens I just returned and his lens worked just dandy with my camera. It was not my imagination/ineptitude/stupidity or malfunctioning camera that were the cause of the new canon lens screwing up. Hurrah!
Here are a few shots I took with my camera and Terry’s lens a few days ago.

Mama Great-horned Owl at home with her 3 fluffy chicks

Different nest, different Mama Keeping the kids warm

See? See! Perfectly perfect operation of my camera with Terry’s lens.
Enough gloating. Terry gave me some great photography pointers and now once again, I am capable of shooting pics on manual in the manner of "stand back, a very nearly professional photographer working here!" as opposed to shooting on automatic, in the manner of “help me I’m so inept I can’t read a meter or bracket to save my life." geeze, that was the longest sentence I've written in quite a while.Aside from putting my camera/lens fears in the toilet, Terry had great advice finding critters, for example how to locate coyote dens and such. His motto is 'if you can find and photograph animals and leave them doing what you found them doing, that is the goal.' In other words, don't scare the crap out of the critters.

Learn to Leave 'em Browsing

It is my belief that some day Terry’s going to wake up and discover he’s been channeling Steve Irwin. Honestly, he’s that good.

Anyway, we had fun hiking up hill over dale, photographing deer, birds and of course, two families of Great Horned Owls. I learned a ton of good useful information. I told Terry he really ought to hire himself out as an experienced wildlife photography guide. Hope he gives it a go because I mean, he managed to teach an old bat new tricks (me = old bat) and he might as well get paid and finance his hobby/photography addiction. The end of a great outing was a twilight view of a River Otter floating downstream. No photos of the otter, it was too far off and the light was spent - bugger! Oh well, maybe next time.

Happy Bunny-Day

Easter Sunday I bunny-hopped over to Napa for Sunday brunch with the whole of the Smolinski/Wilson family at Tante (Aunt) Judy’s.
Almost everyone was there, including Hans & his caretaker, Barbara, her sister Suzi and her boyfriend Bob O., their cousin Sharon, her husband Randy (the Daddy), big sister Sarah and little sister Anna. That pretty pair only call each other ‘sister’ which always charms me to bits.

When we arrived, the kids had already passed a busy morning searching for like a zillion hidden Easter Eggs. Sad to report, one egg is remains MIA – thank heavens they are plastic eggs and not the hard boiled potentially smelly sort.

Hans has looked tired lately but he was up for the challenge of a large crowd and there was no 'prune face' today! Judy is her family’s gourmet quality chief. The mimosa flowed & the French toast with maple syrup vanished as did any other food that dared to show its yummy self at Judy’s wisteria draped holiday table.

Besides loads of chit chat there was sport. Sarah challenged me to a Peeps War. Peeps are those fluffy marshmallow concoctions that annually haunt Easter baskets. We each chose a Peep to carry our colors into battle and then armed our Peeps with a deadly spear (toothpick). Then our confectionary warriors were put into the battle arena (microwave), set on STUN (100% nuke power). Resulting chick-type carnage in photo at below. I warn those of a sensitive nature, beware; the end result of a Peeps War is not pretty - ok, I'll grant you it's colorful, but it's not for the weak hearted.

Poofy Peep protagonists, post joust -
a glorious battle ending in a tie

Big treat, Sharon showed me around a website where I can do some genealogy work. Sharon told me that what birding is to me, that is what Genealogy is to her, i.e., her one true love. I ♥ when someone speaks any version of my language. A quick search yielding a military record of an unmarried man of 31, an alien living in Manhattan who was born in the West Indies, and who went by the name of Charles Lomax Carter. Hurrah! We found my Grandpa the database!

I find it interesting how just as I’m about to do a deep genetic roots search through the Genographic project, an ancestor should jump out at me like that. Oooo, can hardly wait to search for my paternal ancestors without even having to resort to a shovel. Thanks Sharon!