It's been awhile...

So I haven't updated in awhile, but we've been busy house-hunting...and packing.  We didn't intend on buying a house right now, but it just kind of snowballed since we looked at a house close to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law.  This is a picture of part of the backyard.  We have a gazebo and a solar green house!  How cool is that?!  Hopefully we'll be in the house before Christmas.

Mystic Aquarium

Went to Mystic, CT last weekend with our nieces.  We went to the Aquarium as soon as we got there Friday afternoon.  It was nice, and on the way out, we got our tickets stamped to go back the next day.  I'm glad we did that, because the girls really weren't that interested in going to the Seaport. 

It turned out to be a very good idea, because it wasn't as crowded when we got there, and some of the exhibits that weren't as fun as they could have been the day before were much better.  One of these exhibits was the Birds of the Outback.  The birds weren't very hungry in the afternoon, but in the morning, they were voracious little creatures.  In fact, one of them bit me trying to get his turn at my stick of food.  

Another exhibit was the penguins.  The penguins were way too crowded the day before, because we got there at feeding time.  When we got there in the morning, it looked like they were just waking the penguins up.  Hardly anyone was there, and the girls got a really good look at the birds.

My older niece, who's 7, also got to pet the bamboo sharks.  In the afternoon, they were in the middle of the petting tanks, hiding from the kids.  In the morning, they were swimming near the edges of the tank, and she spent quite awhile there petting them.  She also got to pet the Rays, but she drew the line at feeding them when she found out she'd have to hold the dead fish in her hand.  LOL!  

Fish Hatchery

Last Saturday, we took our nieces to the Fish Hatchery.  When I asked her if she'd like to go, my seven year old niece asked me if there would be piranha there.  :D  I had to explain that they raise trout there to stock ponds and lakes in the area.  ( After looking at the website, I discovered they actually stock fish throughout the state and region, not just Long Island.)

The girls seemed to have a good time.  We bought a big container of fish food, and the fish go crazy when you toss a handful in their pool.  It's hard to make out individual fish in the pictures I took, so I'm posting a picture of the turtles sunning themselves.

Let's go Mets!

We went to see the Mets last week.  They lost the game, but at least it was a close one.  We had really good seats (my husband's company seats), and we had a good time.  This is one of the better pictures that I got.  I get very frustrated with the auto focus in the digital cameras. I find that sometimes the auto focus decides it likes to focus on things other than my intended subject.  I think I might have to play around with the manual focus on the Canon more often.  I miss using my old SLR sometimes, but I'm so spoiled by the immediateness of being able to see the digital pictures right away.

Physical therapy is slowly helping my arm.  At least I can use my left hand to type now, which is a very good thing.  :-)   Typing one-handed is never fun, especially when it's part of your job.    I'm hoping that I'll be back to my old self soon.  I would love to get out there and take more pictures for my blog.

Big Apple Circus

I'm going to physical therapy for my injuries, and I'm feeling a little better, but I'm still doing a lot of things one-handed.  It might be awhile before I post again, but I wanted to share a couple of pictures from tonight.

We went to the Big Apple Circus tonight.  It was really good.  Bello, the daredevil clown, is back with the circus, after eight years with Ringling Brothers.  It was at Ringling Brothers that I saw him a few years ago.



I took this picture of Bello while he was up near the top of the tent.  I think it's one of the better pictures of the night. I'm still getting used to the Canon, and no flash photography was allowed.  Many of the action shots I tried to take came out blurry.

We're going to a Mets game next week, and I'm hoping to get some good shots.  I would love to bring my DSLR, but I don't feel like lugging it with me, so I'll settle for playing with my Canon for now.  Hopefully I'll have something to post after the game.

Forced hiatus

Just wanted to let everyone know that I won't be posting for a bit. I did something to my back and have very limited use of my left arm.  Have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, and hopefully he can do something.   It's driving me crazy not to be able to do most of the stuff I love.  Hopefully I'll be back soon.

A kind of hiatus...

I meant to post when we first came home, but I haven't really been feeling well.  We went on a family vacation to Walt Disney World for a week.  It was a lot of fun, but it was very hot, 90+ degrees most days we were there.

This picture was taken in Epcot, by the China exhibition.  It's one of my favorite shots.  I think the countries were one of the best parts of Epcot.  (Okay, the Nemo ride was pretty cool, too!)  The fireworks there were really great, and I wish we would have had a better spot to watch them, so I could have gotten pictures or something.  At Magic Kingdom, I was able to take some really nice pictures of the Wishes fireworks.

I took about 600 pictures, so I'm sure I'll be posting more of them eventually.  I'm currently working on a crocheting charity challenge that I've been neglecting since we left for our trip.  I really have to get back to that, since it's over mid-June.

Bunny!

Most of the pictures I took this weekend were from my parents' deck.  I caught this bunny sleeping under the pine tree to the right earlier in the afternoon.  The tree is about halfway across their yard.  There's a crazy amount of rabbits running around my parents' neighborhood over the last few years.  I wonder why that is?

So excited!

I got my new camera in the mail on Friday before I left to visit my parents.  It takes such awesome far away shots.  However, this isn't one of them.  *g*  I was just fooling around with taking pictures of different things on my parents' deck and took this picture of a "wish" stuck in a spider web.

I'll post a few more pictures over the next few days.  I took some nice pictures across my parents' yard, and I was impressed with how they came out.  I can't wait to take this camera away on vacation.  :D

New camera!

No actual picture from me today, unfortunately.  I haven't really had the time or inclination to take new pictures.  I've been busy crocheting baby items for a charity contest over at the Bella Bambina blog.  However, in anticipation of an upcoming family trip to Disney World, I ordered a new camera tonight.  It's the Canon PowerShot SX120SI.   It's going to replace my Samsung S85.  (Shh!  I don't want him to hear!  I still love the little guy, but it's time.)

With the exception of the Canon D90, which I wanted in the worst way, but it was way out of my price range, I tend to shy away from Canons.  Mostly because they can be a little pricey compared to other cameras.  This one had most of the features I was interested in, and the price wasn't too bad...especially since I had a nice sized gift card for Walmart that I used toward my purchase.

I'm going to try to take some pictures when I get my camera sometime next week, and I hope to post something here soon.  I'm so excited to try this camera out.

Wax Museum

Back in 2004, my friend Jessica came to visit me.  We too a day to go to NYC to see Madame Tussauds' Wax Musuem.  I'd never been there, and I'd love to go again. I finally found the disk with my pictures, so I thought I'd post a picture from the museum. This is Albert Einstein, for anyone who doesn't recognize him.  *g*  I was using my first digital camera (which I still have), an Olympus.  

We also went to Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick's Cathedral.  It's almost impossible to get the whole cathedral in the shot, even from across the street.  Maybe next time I should bring my DSLR with me.  We finished off the day by seeing Little Shop of Horrors on Broadway.  I don't think it was out there too long, which was a shame.  I thought it was great.  Then again, I loved the movie.


I was hoping to go visit my parents this weekend and maybe take some pictures of all the snow they had, but between the amount of snow they had affecting the roads and my husband catching a cold, it just didn't happen.  We're going to try again next weekend.  Hopefully some of the snow will be gone so driving around will be easier.

Monster Truck

Our library won a a visit from a Monster Truck. The driver held a storytime inside as well. Since there was a possibility that our library might be closed for renovations, they held the event at our local school district. It was really fun. I couldn't get too many pictures, because there were kids climbing all over it.

I haven't really posted in awhile, not only because I haven't taken too many pictures lately, but also because my dad is in the hospital. He's suffering from congestive heart failure, and they're still doing tests. Any prayers, well-wishes, etc. would be greatly appreciated.