Howdy!

I am moving most of my blogging activities to my own domain at schmenzer.com. I am trying out Wordpress to see if it will allow me more control of my blog and if it will be useful as a tool for constructing websites as well as blogs.

I've liked Blogger and will keep using it so there will likely be a post here from time to time.

I got a paying photography gig and hadn't upgraded my flash system since I bought My Nikon D-100 last year. I was going to go for the SB-800 at that time but it was a pretty spendy and I didn't have a real need for it. Today when I went to buy one at Amazon I noticed the SB-600. Seems to be just the ticket for this job and most others I am likely to do for the foreseeable future. Just slightly less power, faster recycle time and lighter. All good things. If I do deceide to get the SB-800 at a later date this will work nicely as a slave unit so I think it was the right flash at this time. I'll keep you posted!

Yesterday was my daughter's 6th birthday and the third of 4 days with some type of celebration! So far we celebrated with Papa and Susan on Friday, Sydney had her kid party on Saturday, most of her other relatives came over on Sunday and today is the school party in her class. Wow! I don't remember all those parties when I was a kid.

On neat think we did with Sydney was to make her work for her present by solving a riddle, putting the answer in an Encrypta ™ cryptex and then, with the clue found in the cryptex, go hunting for her presents in the house. She had a blast! BTW, if you haven't seen a Encrypta ™ cryptex yet check out at www.encryptagifts.com. It is a wood and brass "keep-safe" that has 7, 8-sided woden tumblers with letters on. Only one combination, the answer to your riddle, will oben it and reveal the compartment inside. Very cool!

My buddy, Dave has been working a metal sculpture for a while. I stopped by today to take a couple pix.

The Outdoor Life Network (OLN) coverage of the Tour has been great. I don't remember better, ever. They run an expanded coverage edition at 7:30CST but have couple hour long segments all day long so you can watch whenever you have time!

If you have not been to bookcrossings.com yet, and you are a reader, you ought to check it out.

The concept is simple. As they say, "BookCrossing.com gives you a simple way to share books with the world, and follow their paths forevermore!" After reading a book go to bookcrossings.com, register the book and receive a unique ID for it, attach the info to the book and leave it somewhere for another reader to find and enjoy. If they are game they will go to bookcrossings.com as well and add a comment about where they found the book, how they liked it and where they left it for the next reader to find. You can even hunt for recently released books in your area!

Scott first mentioned this site a while back and more recently I found a registered book in a local park, read it and released it. Somehow it was fulfilling to complete the cycle and I am now getting ready to set free my first original release and look forward to tracking it.

I am looking for a place to get some 2 or 3 inch diameter, ovalish stickers made. I have checked a few online places and may give one a try. 3-color over a white background. If anyone has any ideas please let me know.

Seemed to work out fine. The cards took less than a week from order to delivery. They were 1/3 the price of the lowest local bid. The quality is good if not outstanding. Overall we were happy with the results.