What I didn't do yesterday...

I forgot to call my dad to wish him a Happy Birthday! I'm such a bad daughter.




It's not like it was an important birthday or anything...he only turned 65.


My hard drive is out of commission at the moment (nothing serious; I just need to relocate the power bar it used to be plugged into), so I didn't have access to old pictures of my dad. However, I think I may have done one better by locating and pulling out this (plus, of course, now having digitally preserved it*):



This is my dad's lasting contribution to my autograph book, signed about 25 years ago in 1986. I got an autograph book in 1986 shortly before heading off to Choir Camp in Berwick, N.S.,** and got my family members to sign it. I may post more of these in the future -- some are pretty funny.

So my dad is now 65. He will be retiring at the end of the summer, and my parents have decided to move to Ottawa. They are looking at buying a condo in the same building as my aunt, right near U of O. This is a bit crazy for me to get my head around. It will be fun having my parents back in the same city as me; however, it will be strange not having my parents in Toronto, which is where I am used to them being. Toronto has been "home" for me for many years, and that is going to change. Robert and Judy will be staying in Toronto (despite mine and Jerome's numerous entreaties to move to Ottawa), and I still have many friends who live in Toronto, but without a bedroom to call my own when I get there, it's just not going to be the same.


* This is also my submission for the Shutterbug Challenge for today.

** My brother's ex-wife also attended that same Choir Camp in 1986. I can't remember how we actually discovered this, but sure enough, there she is in a corner of the group photo we took. She wasn't in my cabin, but it's entirely possible I spoke to her at some point (there was maybe only 100 kids there). Crazy!

You Know What We Did Last Month?

We were in Cairo! There were markets! There were no protests! Kate and Sally were there, too! It was humid and rainy and dusty and FANTASTIC!

Pictures will slowly follow. I have been sick and under the weather since our return. I will also blog about some of our trip, as it was quite blog-worthy (even without protests threatening our departure). However, I am also going to pick one photo from each day to continue the Shutterbug Challenge which I set myself at the beginning of the year.

T minus 5-point-5

Guess I should stop goofing around on the computer and finish packing, huh?

(Click on the photo to go to the original page to see all the items in their detailed glory.)

i can haz cheezburger?

The best photography lesson I've learned so far: let Randal take them. Yeah, sorry; today I am entirely cheating. These are pictures from last night (January 8) of my brother's cat, Wednesday. They were better than any I attempted, so here they are!

Series In Yellow: Cat

            

puppydog eyes

January 5's photo. I like the dark to light contrast. Could have probably fiddled with it - strategically used the flash, etc. - but I like this how it came out anyway.

Then I skipped a couple of days. Trust me; you don't really want to see any of the horribly mundane photos I took January 6-7. (I deleted them all; they were even putting ME to sleep.)

So I get home from work and look what I discover...

I'm pretty sure one of the minimized windows reads "Daily Kitty".



BUSTED!

photography lesson*

Ignoring the fact that I obviously needed to crop the photo a little bit more at the bottom, I think this is a much better attempt at Lucky Cat's portrait than my first attempt, which was face-on, and how I take way too many of my photos of objects. Don't you think?

     vs.     

Probably higher shadow contrast would have been even better. But I think the 1/4 profile shot makes Lucky Cat look almost, y'know, a little wistful...

* This is my somewhat-daily photo, a day late. I would have posted last night but I started running all my virus scanners and so had to wait till today. Deal with it. This blog makes no claims or guarantees of timeliness.