Santa was good to me

So I've been going through a few "difficulties" with my back of late. While things are relatively manageable right now, it's been a source of concern for a while now. A chance conversation with my daughter months and months ago ended with a surprise present this Christmas. This picture is from my Z10, and while not bad it truly doesn't do the pieces justice. I'll see about possibly adding some individual shots at a higher resolution later on.  This is, however, an almost perfect representation of my current back health. Especially the relative positions of the canvases :)  What you can't really see in this grand shot is the tiny details throughout... the robots arguing over construction scaffolding in one, the spiders in the other, the hidden objects (including submarine) here and there.

I love my daughter!!

Christmas in our house

My wife is an artist; has been all her life. She also managed to pass those talents down to the kids which means that, with my passed down sarcasm, we sometimes get some interesting results. Now, normally the word 'subtle' isn't used anywhere near me, but the girls are more refined.  For instance, the "hint" for one of my gifts this year. Please pay close attention to the snowmen. :) It's interesting to note that each and every one of the snowmen on the wrapping for this present were similarly enhanced.

I love my family :)

It's important to appreciate the little things in life...

Like a Physiotherapist that *really* loves her job; don't let the smile fool you, she's a slave driver and giggles every time she finds a new way to make me scream like a little girl.  She's extremely competent, can man-handle me without apparent effort and has a solid sense of humour. Have to admit I kinda look forward to my sessions these days :)

Meat Nest

Well, it's that time of year again!

Actually, with things being the way they have been, I finally had to acknowledge that I would not be able to do our Christmas tourtiere this year.

So my daughters are doing them, instead.

They're not going to be the same as our usual ones, as we weren't able to get the variety of meats we normally use, but the basic recipe is the same.  We also won't be making as many as we usually do - probably just 3 or 4 pies.  It's still enough to use the big pot, though, which won't fit in our refrigerator.

My daughters made the filling, and now the pot is on the balcony, in its own little meat nest in the snow, to cool down. 

Hey, if we're going to be colder than Mars, we may was well take advantage of the situation!

Waxing poetic about my Blackberry

Yes, I realize this is another picture of our cat, but for this one I used my Blackberry Z10's HDR feature. HDR (High Dynamic Range) is taking several shots at different exposures and mashing them together to get the best exposed sections of all in a single shot. Most HDR is done manually, though there are a few phones that have a built-in process. While the cat looks nice and ordinary, the extreme depth of field and detail rendering of this un-retouched photo are nice and impressive to me. 

Did I mention I *love* my BlackBerry Z10?

:D

P.

Sent from my supremely cool BlackBerry Z10 which totally doesn't look like an Iphone....

My seat

What I found on my chair this morning.

Do I have the heart to kick them off?  I need my chair. LOL

Sent from Anna's phone

Matched set

Mom and son.  They both have a thing for crawling all over my daughter's shoulders.

Freya (facing the camera) is still up for adoption.  And, no, she is not available as a loan.

Yeah, we actually got that.

Sent from Anna's phone

This took effort

Somebody really didn't like this sign.

Sent from Anna's phone

Our new view

Looks like we finished the move just in time.

Sent from Anna's phone

Moving on

So we're moving this week, meaning this view is on its last few days. 

Here's hoping the new place has something comparable...

Waiting

Some of our books, waiting for their shelves.

Hauled in backpacks rather that boxes.  Much easier on the body that way.

Sent from Anna's phone

It's Been a While...

... Since someone ignored the private parking, members only, will be towed signs all around our parking stall.

Sent from Anna's phone

Non stormy skies

As we were driving to the WEM (West Edmonton Mall), the skies were interesting enough to try and capture; based on past experience, I waited until it was on my side and lowered the window instead of trying to take it through the windshield. This got me a nice, tense "please don't drop the phone" from the back.

It's the little things that make life fun :D

P.

Challenge Accepted

There is a parking lot were people constantly drive over the concrete framed grassy areas.  The ground gets torn up and signs get knocked down.  This summer, the lot owners fixed the damage, then placed boulders right at the corners that people drive over.  They are highly visible.  When we first saw them, I thought it was a grand idea. After all, who would be stupid enough to ram a boulder with their vehicle?

I underestimated people, I guess.  Apparently, some view it as a challenge or something.  This boulder has been pushed several feet from where it was installed, and there are tire tracks where it used to be.

Sent from Anna's phone

Oh how the mighty have fallen...

Roast coffee house used to be the pinnacle of coffee houses; rife with exotic drinks, they also offered various appetizers ranging from goat cheese and basil sun-dried tomatoes to a charcutery plate with wonderful amuse-bouches to try out.

 Today, due to a change in management, approach or budget (I honestly don't know) they have reduced themselves to a handful of drinks, no longer offer some of the better drinks still listed on their menu board and are even-odds to not having the ingredients required to make the most basic of drinks.

At least they're still expensive....

Humbug!

Silly habits

So I haven't taken my DSLR out in a while. The main reason is that cell phone cameras are getting better at rendering light and details. This was taken as I was crossing a street, so generally pointed skyward while I looked where I was going so as to not trip :P 

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

My favorite meeting room

You know, I don't even feel guilty about taking shots every time I get in here.

:)

Why, Hello there...

This is what I found when I went to shut down the computer for the night.

Sent from Anna's phone

The Mileage can be rough

  I've carved out a career in the Information Technology field, and as I started out low and late (second career at 27 after Military, and starting out at the bottom of the salary scale) I had a tendency to always keep an eye open for better opportunities. This meant that I averaged approximately two years per company, some more, some less. Companies are big on regular small salary increases rather than large jump so I arranged my own; the down side is that these usually ended up dragging my family across the country a fair bit. While no-one complained, I could see the toll this was taking on them.

  For the past seven years or so, I've been concentrating on stability more than anything else. The moving has settled down a fair bit and so has the job hopping. I'm happy to say this picture signifies almost five years with the same employer.

Sometimes I just don't understand my daughter...

Pulled pork and cream cheese on waffles. I don't get it. :P

Sent from my BlackBerry Z10 which totally doesn't look like an Iphone... totally doesn't

Fall Equinox

So I follow several photogs on G+, and one of them had a "sunrise and sunset shots for the Fall Equinox" event. The sunrise shots were easy-ish, as I've got a great view from my deck, though the sunrise was about 8 minutes after advertised and that's a long time to wait barefoot and in shorts in 7c weather. Sunset shots were kinda cloudy but efforts were made nonetheless :P

You'll notice that there are more sunrise shots. The longer sunset shot is a stitch of 4 independent photos.

P.

So Faaaaahbulous!

Have I mentioned that we're sucks when it comes to our elderly cat?

Yes, these are her new, fabulously pink toenails.

There is a reason behind this madness, however.

This is our 15-or-so year old cat, Tiger.  She hasn't been able to retract her claws very well for some time now, and they are huge and very sharp.  They are also brittle.  When we try to trim them, they crack and split, exposing the nerve.  So we have stopped trimming them.

While it's rough on the clothes, the real problem with this is that she has started going after the carpets again.  When we first moved here, she went after the carpeted stairs with a vengeance, completely ignoring her scratching tower.  We ended up having to cover our stairs with plastic runners to get her to stop.  And it worked.

Until now.

There are still a couple of inches of exposed carpet on either side of the runner, and she's suddenly started to go after them.  She has also discovered a slight bump in the carpet that formed under a heavy bookshelf and started to claw on that.

Yes, we do have scratching posts.  She doesn't use them.

So to save our carpets (and our clothes!), we got these little plastic claw covers.  They're glued on and are supposed to last 4-8 weeks.

She seems quite content with them.

We ended up putting some on our other cat, but just on his front paws.  Sparkly pink ones.  It was rather amusing, the first time he tried to climb up the couch with them!

These things are turning out to be worth the investment!

Update:  I didn't realize my husband had already posted a photo of our cat's new look.  For the record, the other cat did not manage to chew off the pink ones.  They're just not as visible.

Fashion statement

So my daughter's cat is a little old... and by Old I mean deaf, mainly blind and unable to retract her claws anymore. but she still loves to destroy carpeting, especially on the stairs. We found these little gems at the local PetSmart and I have to say they're definitely worth the money. Results may vary however, as our younger cat who got the same treatment ate them right off within minutes :D. 

Sent from my BlackBerry Z10 which totally doesn't look like an Iphone... totally doesn't

Playing with fire

So I got an invitation to an event this evening; essentially, one man got to risk life and limb spinning a flaming orb of molten metal for our long exposure amusement. I wish I could say I was sorry I took part in this kind of thing, but I'm totally not :P

While I took many more shots, these are the more interesting ones.

Philippe

My favorite restaurant

Pampa restaurant is relatively new in Edmonton, but has successfully established itself as a go-to business lunch location. Frankly, with their food selection and service, I don't really need encouragement to head over :D

Sent from my BlackBerry Z10 which totally doesn't look like an Iphone... totally doesn't

Ya Just Gotta...

See the giant egg while in Vegreville.
All these years of road trips, yet somehow we never stopped here before.
Quite a nice park it's in, too.

Sent from Anna's phone

Cat in a box

So my daughter loves to cuddle her cat, while he prefers to hide in whatever cardboard box he can fit in. 

...problem solved :P 

Sent from my BlackBerry Z10 which totally doesn't look like an Iphone... totally doesn't

Slight framing issue

So I'm Trying to take a picture of the presents I got for my birthday. Somehow, the cat found them more interesting  interesting than I did. 

Sent from my BlackBerry Z10 which totally doesn't look like an Iphone... totally doesn't

Yet another sunrise.

While I love the view and don't mind getting up to capture it, I'm starting to chafe at the mobility restrictions keeping me at home...

Sent from my BlackBerry Z10 which totally doesn't look like an Iphone... totally doesn't

Playing with the camera

This shot isn't as focused as I'd like, but it's been a while ;)

Sent from my BlackBerry Z10 which totally doesn't look like an Iphone... totally doesn't

Downtown Edmonton.

We live in a beautiful city.

There are hiking paths in the valley that my daughters hike every chance they get.  For much of the time, you can't tell you're in a city, never mind downtown.

Beautiful.

Sent from Anna's phone

I love my BlackBerry

So these are before and after pictures using BlackBerry's built in software. 

I'm loving this phone :D 

Sent from my BB Z10, that totally doesn't look like an Iphone ... totally doesn't.

Found a coin

So I've got these wonderful Olloclip lenses for my Blackberry Z10 phone; while I'm sure I've mentioned them before, I have to say that the Macro is definitely one of my favourites. This is an old american 50c piece I found in a drawer

Louise McKinney Park

I was able to take a whole bunch of photos in Louise McKinney Park in downtown Edmonton today, including some from the pedestrian bridge.

Considering how deep the valley is, it's amazing to see these areas covered in water.




You can see the complete set at my flickr account here.  There are all straight from the camera, completely unedited (not even resized) photos taken with my old Canon S3.  I chose that camera because it can also take video.  I took several videos at different areas and put them together, opting to make several short video compilations, rather than one really long video.

One
Two
Three 
Four

Riverdale

Parts of Riverdale are seeing some flooding.  This is our view of Riverdale and the river from our balcony.