Excuse me, maam, is that dress felt? Would you like it to be?

Attended the Annual Tampa H3 Red Dress Run today. Since late-November, I really haven't been going to many hash runs, so it was nice to get out and see some old friends. We hit several locations near the old water tower in Sulphur Springs with even a special bus transportation arrange to take us to a dance place so everyone could have some fun.

If the US is a Melting Pot, Canada is a Mosaic.

For the past couple of years I kept meaning to put in an entry for the photography exhibit/competition at the Florida State Fair. This year I finally remembered about the competition and entry deadlines in time and decided to put in one of my favorite shots taken at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. In itself I really liked the shot, but I decided to make it different by turning it into a Mosaic.

Originally, I took 5 vertically captured, side-by-side, photos of the terrace-like layers of the springs. I then used a photo stitching program call Panorama Factory to put them together to make one panoramic photo.

Then using only photos I had taken while in a National Park/Monument, I used a free program called AndreaMosaic to generate a mosaic. I tried to get it to only use a photo once or at least as few times as possible with the resulting in the use of about 8000+ of the 15000 photos selected and putting them into a 4960 x 2822 picture.


Kristen was instrumental, with her vast graphic design and photography experience, in selecting the right printing type and backing for the photo. In retrospect, I should have allowed the pictures to be bigger since even up close it was difficult to make out the individual tiles that composed the shot, thus losing a bit of the appeal. I may try the same technique next year or maybe look into applying some HDR techniques to some shots for a different effect. We went to the Florida State Fair and found that my submission had won an 'Honorable Mention' award. I would have like to have conveyed that information concerning the individual tiles and where they were taken, but all that was allowed as a short title and name on the title card.

Roses smell better than onions but make bad soup.

Last year for Valentine's Day my awesome girlfriend got me me one of the most origional gifts I have ever considered, a bouquet of onions; Remember when Potato had an 'E' and we had lower taxes? This year I tried to duplicate it a bit. For whatever reason, just a couple of days prior we talked about onions, so for Velentine's Day I made her an onion bouquet. I got some large red onions from the grocery store and cut them into rose-like shapes with an exacto knife, sttached stems, and made my own vase to support them. As a final bit of garnishment, I went to Outback just prior to closing last night and picked up a Blooming Onion. Not to be a total copy-cat and unoriginal, I also got her a new Lowepro shoulder sling camera bag that was the next size larger than the one she had been using for a long time and loved so much. She mentioned several times that she'd eventually get a larger one now that she had more accessories and lenses, so I ordered one for her and made sure that it arrived before V-Day. I wish I had throught to take a picture of one of my few ever craft projects, but I think it ended up being decent.

Pirates demand your money or your life; women expect both.

Kristen was able to get some VIP tickets for the Gasparilla event and parade, so she invited me along with her mother, father, and best friend. In the previous years I'd always been on the public side of the read. the VIP areas were nice with relatively empty seating, some food and drink, and a lack of drunken people running into you. On the way in we saw the famous Naked Cowboy posing for pictures. The Red Bull flyers were out and the parade was pretty enjoyable, though Kristen of course got the majority of the attention and the motherload of beads that she was collecting to be a part of the 'Relay for Life' event next month for part of the pirate planned theme.

Never mind the grey poupon - you have bird poopon!

Yeah, I'd say Kristen likes the bird. After going through a bunch of names, the new family member has been dubbed 'Zoey'.

I don't cruise the web because I'm afraid I might meet the spider

Kristen and I went on the annual Jolly Roger H3 cruise as we did last year on a out-and-back trip to Cozumel. I'm not sure what it was, but I really wasn't as excited about this trip as in times past and though I had a fair time, it wasn't nearly as memorable as some of the other cruises. I did enjoy renting scooters and going around the island for a while, but in all things were just a bit off for some reason. Even though I got the wrong room, I should have gotten an outside or balcony, I really did enjoy spending some alone time with Kristen. The re-wedding of friends Jim and Kim was nice and it was good to see everyone in their formal best and looking good. We did pick up some good deals at the duty free alcohol shop on shore and even on the ship. I took my relatively new camera, however apparently the memory card was corrupted, so unfortunately most of the couple of hundred photos I took failed. I think I'm about done with cruising for quite a while without some substantial deal popping up or a better reason to go develops. I'd probably prefer using that time to spend with family or even visiting other places in the world with my girlfriend.

Early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Kristen has always been intrigued and in love with birds and had a beautiful bird when she live in Bradenton that had to be given up. I knew that she very much wanted one again sometime and had been constantly looking on Craig's List and other sites for one. Knowing my dislike for noise and such, she was very sensitive in deciding on a species and wanted to want until the right opportunity came up. A week or so ago that opportunity presented itself when she found a listing where someone wanted to trade a hand-reared bird for a pool table. Knowing how important it was to her, I would have been willing to give up our pool table, but her enterprising mind came up with something even better. Through a lot of back and forth e-mails, she was able to find a pool table to the liking of the bird owner and arranged for us to go purchase a pool table from one person, dissemble it, transport it to the bird owner, and then reassemble it. Fortunately I had experience putting together the pool table at our home and leveling the table at her father's house and I had the tools needed to get the job done. Early this morning we headed up to Dade City and got to work. I was able to put the table together while Kristen spent some time with the new bird and talking to the bird's owner. As part of the deal, or maybe as a bonus, a large bird case was also included, so we were able to get everything loaded and still have room for a tree stand that we picked up on the way back home in the evening. It was a lot of work, but it was so worth every bit of effort as I could see Kristen was falling in love with the bird even in the short time. She's done so much for me that it felt really good to be able to contribute just this little bit towards completing the family and household. Now for a name.

Reporting in, sir. We have spotted and engaged the enemy ... the wedding is next Spring.

Our friends Jim and Kim had a lovely beach wedding on Treasure Island in St. Petersburg today and besides attending, Kristen and I did some photography. Besides normal wedding stuff, there was a special trial hared by the groom, so everyone had a pretty good time. It was a bit chilly, however I think things went quite well and am quite happy for the couple.

Can you swim in melted dry ice without getting wet?

After attending the Ground Zero hash campout, Jason, Kristen, and I went to the ICE! exhibit at Gaylord Palms. This was one of the first trips/dates that Kristen and I did together, so I wanted to maintain a sort of tradition and figured this would be the best chance to see it. I purchased tickets ahead of time, but was pretty surprised to see the extensive lines around, so after talking to the group, we decided to just purchase the VIP access pass that enabled us to skip the several hour wait. Although the event, with parking, is decently expensive, I still really enjoy seeing all the formations and designs and was glad to experience it again and will probably sucker myself into going each year. I was glad to have brought along the gloves and hats for everybody since the coats they provide don't have pockets and hoped that we got a few decent pictures.

Every day above ground is a good day.

Jason came down to hang out for the Christmas holidays and stayed through New Year's before he went on a hash cruise. We all went to the Ground Zero campout hosted by Orlando H3. Kristen came in a little after us since she had to work late, but we were able to have a good time. We brought out the laser machine that she got me for Christmas and a borrowed fog machine from her parents to add a bit to the festivities.