Condensed

I have lots of blog entries, and limited computer time anymore, so I've condensed a bunch of entries into one.

Editing Pictures
I was asked to elaborate about the tips and tricks the wedding photographer gave me on my flight from Atlanta to Sacramento last week.

First, she said she shoots many pictures in a RAW file format. For more about the format, click here (yes, it's wikipedia). It will tell you much more than I ever could. I have a Sony A100 Digital SLR with a 2GB compact flash card. In the "Fine" format setting, I can get nearly 500 pictures on my card. With a RAW/JPEG format, I could only fit about 85. The pictures are much larger, and since they are truer to the picture you actually shot (from what I could gather on the wiki), you can manipulate them to get precisely the look you want. I use Picasa on my computer to store and edit my pictures, and occasionally use an ancient version of Photoshop to add funny orange taglines and sayings into my pictures. Programs like iPhoto or Picasa have features where you can edit a picture.

The two pictures below are identical, except I used the Soft Focus feature in Picasa to soften the edges of one. It took less than 5 seconds after I had Picasa open. Cool, huh?! You can also change the color of a picture to black and white or sephia using the tools in these programs, or saturate the color more towards one end of the scale. Photoshop is a little more technical and less user friendly, and that's probably why I use it to do like 5 things. Like add funny orange taglines to my pictures.

Ghetto Birdbath
A long time ago, I posted instructions on turning an old satellite dish into a bird bath. At first it sounds kind of ghetto, right? But it actually looks really cool and is about the right depth for birds to drink and bathe. Plus the hammered silver paint finish gives it some texture so the birds won't slip around.

Well some of my long time readers (months, if I may say so myself) may have noticed the lack or absence of pictures dealing with said birdbath. I have to admit, I never had any visitors. I religiously cleaned and refilled it, but I thought it was in the wrong location so I was waiting to put it on a post and move it somewhere else next year.

As part of the big garden plan we have going on (see below for blurb), Chris spent Sunday ripping out the photinia bushes in the backyard, revealing the wonderful fence we share with our court neighbors. And there sat the birdbath, in all of its naked exposed glory. I thought putting it near bushes would encourage birds, as they had a safe place to fly to if there was any problems, but apparently the bushes had the opposite effect and scared the birds off!

I saw a bird drinking from it for the first time yesterday. Happy me!

Big Plans
You know when you tackle one project, and then more projects seem to come into view, and by the time you realize it, you're knee deep in ideas and projects? Yeah, that's kind of where we are at the moment.

As part of our Landscape Re-do, we had phases. Well we've renumbered the phases and reorganized.

Phase 1a
Garage cabinets
Phase 1b
Garage epoxy flooring and finishing garage
Phase 2a
Pushing out side fence to give us more room in backyard
Phase 2b
Redo backyard
Phase 3
Redo front yard
Unnumbered future phase
Redo master bathroom

We figure that for as much as we use the back yard, we might as well have it the way we want it to look. The front yard's grass is manageable, doesn't require a whole ton of water, and by getting rid of the awful front side yard, I can live with the way our front yard is right now. Plus the plants out front don't look too ghetto.

Because the backyard is now the main/first project to tackle, and since we were having a hard time keeping 1/2 of the lawn alive anyway, we decided to turn off the sprinklers on that side and let nature take its course. We left the green side for the dog to lay on. And poop on. The other side, as you can see, is straight-up crispy like.

It's interesting to see exactly where the sprinklers water. I suppose. We're going to level the two mounds of grass so they are more level. Water simply runs off of them and pools towards the edges, creating an inviting weed habitat anyway. Plus by letting 1/2 of the grass die, my hope is that we actually get in gear and do something.

Fall is here? Oh really. Is it?
After my recent post about how cool it has been here, Mother Nature decided to let one rip and we're in the middle of a heat wave. But it's 100-103^o, so it could be worse. Like last summer when it was 115-118^o! Oh well.

I'm off to clean the house and do about a zillion other things while Chris is at school. I'm going to Reno for the weekend (Bachelorette Party), so no posts from me.

Have a happy weekend all!