Wife's birthday fruit basket

My wife's birthday is in a few days, and this morning she recived a fruit basket from her sister. The fruit basket was from Edible Arrangements. You can check them out at the following URL

Edible Arrangements

Click on the photo for a larger view. You can see there are some chocolate covered apple slices in there also.

Pranksters Too

Last night I went to Pranksters Too in Scottsdale to listen to some Hans Olson music. I stayed for parts of two sets, then picked up some sandwiches for a late dinner and headed home.

Guitar Class

I attend an advanced guitar classes once a week in Scottsdale, one of the other students brought in the music for "T for Texas" by Jimmie Rodgers. This video is of the class playing through the song. I think this was our first time through it, we did it a few more times but didn't get any better. :o)

One of the other students is doing the vocals.

Stooooooooopid Pigeons/Doves

Sometimes I think Pigeons/Doves are the most stoooooooopid of all animals; as they don't seem to understand the concept of gravity. And you would think that they would seeing as how they are able to fly. But they don't seem to understand that if they jump down our chimney, the chance of them getting back out by themselves is almost zero.

The video below is a male Mourning Dove that I just rescued from our chimney about an hour ago. He seemed a little reluctant to take off.

Neanderthals still among us?

Today I was reading some online articles about a new theory of how the Neanderthals did not go extinct throughout the entire world, and that many are still surviving in a few states in this country.

A very interesting theory, I don't know if it is true or not, but in looking at some of the above photos, I think it may be possible.

Walkin' Easy Blues

One of the things I've been doing since I retired last year is "trying" to learn to play the guitar; but it is difficult for me as I have no musical talent, not one molecule.

The above song is "Walkin' Easy Blue" and requires alternating between the bass notes and the notes on the two high strings. This would probably be much easier to play on a piano where you can have separate hands doing the two separate parts.

But I'm still plunking away at it. Click on the above picture if you want to see the music in more detail.

The Fuji F30 camera

In February of this year, I decided I wanted a new digital camera, I wanted the best low-light performance camera that was small enough to slip into my trouser pocket. I was willing to trade off other desireable features in a camera; like image stabilization, a wide angle lense, etc., for the best low-light capability. I quickly selected the Fuji 6.3 MegaPixel FinePix F30 as it seemed to be in a low-light performance class by itself with a 1/1.7" CCD chip (large for a small point and shoot camera). And I've been very pleased with this camera. Fuji is coming out with even better models now (e.g., F50), but that's the way it goes.

Above is a picture I took a few night ago in a local parking lot. The picture was taken at ISO of 1600, f/2.8 and 1/15 second (hand held) shutter speed. The same picture at ISO of 3200 had a shutter speed of 1/27 second, and a little bit more digital noise, but still a very good picture.

Honeyboy Edwards

I finally got around to ordering a copy of the Honeyboy Edwards autobiography; I received it yesterday.

I haven't started reading it yet, but will later today. I took my first look through the book this morning while having breakfast. It has only 287 pages, so should be a quick read. Honeyboy is 92 years of age, I've seen him perform several times.

If you are interested in checking out another blog, check out the following link; Da Mosh Journal

2nd Post test case

This is my second post into this "Manly Journal." Today is Friday. Since it just started, I don't really have anything to say, and this is just another test case which I will delete later.

Let's see if I can find a photo to go along with this post, hold on a second. Yep, I just took a photo of my two sleepy-head cats, and will use that for today's entry. I'm setting it to a larger view (Medium) than I did on the burger photo (you can choose 3 sizes for your photos). Plus I'm centering the photo. The burger setting in the 1st test case was set to "Small," and off to the left.

1st Post test case

This is my first entry into this manly journal.

Today I created a "To Do" list for the rest of my life, or at least started it.

And I grilled some burgers for dinner. See "burger photo." You can click on the thumbnail and see the photo in the original uploaded size.

That's been about it so far. This is just a test case which I will delete later.