This is the old windmill on the greenbelt behind our house.

This is Xena at the back door with her flat ball. If I throw it off the deck, she’ll retreive it, but she only brings it back if I go back into the house, stay away from the back door and pretend not to be paying attention to her.

Filling my quota of cute dog photos.

A couple of months ago, I got my dream camera, a Canon Digital Rebel XT dSLR. Unfortunately, I haven’t had (or made) the opportunity to take that many photos with it yet. Last Saturday, we had a birthday party for Samuel and his friend Collin. I’m not usually very good about taking photos at family events, because I don’t want to miss the action, but I made a concerted effort at the party.
The party took place inside the clubhouse and in and around the pool. The clubhouse was lit by several windows and a couple of overhead lights. At first, I tried some flashless shots, but most were blurry. So, I tried a few with flash. Not impressive. Finally, it dawned on me to increase my ISO from 100 to 400. After that, I got some nice inside shots with no flash. Outside, I primarily used fill flash to counteract the strong sunshine.
I didn’t get any outstanding shots, but here are some of the photos I’m happiest with:

This one is blurry, but it turned out to be a nice effect given the subject:

Xena and Penny lying together under the desk

A detail from the balcony of my room at the Valencia Hotel in San Jose.

Well, after lusting for one for a very long time, I bought myself a dSLR camera this past week. Here are some of my first photos. Nothing spectacular yet:

Our dogs lead good lives:

I pass by this apartment complex every day on my way to work. I’m not sure why the management thinks this is an amenity:

If I give a piece of rawhide to each dog, Xena eats hers then steals the others. She eats all but the last one, which she then carries around for a day or two before eating it. Flaunting her booty, I guess, to Tippie and Penny.