Valentine's Flowers

Happy belated Valentine's Day to you all! Last night, Liz and I went out to our local Buca to celebrate the day-of-love at the Vegas incarnation of the place we had our rehearsal dinner. Good times, but we feel like the garlic mashed potatoes have gotten gradually less garlicky over the years. Still good... just less garlicky.

And, of course, I brought Liz home a dozen roses on Thursday. They proved a handy subject for me to experiment on with my new camera. Although we've had a little Fuji point-and-shoot digital camera for a couple of years, these last few days have been my first real experiment with the power of a digital SLR. Once I figured out how to get the white balance corrected for indoor shooting, I got some nice results. Check them out above.

I'm really excited about the new toy and the possibility of sharing some images as time goes by... so look for a photoblog from yours truly later on this spring. Until then, keep your eyes glued to this blog to track my re-entry into serious amateur photography.

Jeeves and Wooster

We've been thinking for some time about getting a second cat, but this Friday was finally the day! We traveled to the Nevada SPCA with two names in hand -- Wendy for a girl cat, and Bertie for a boy cat. (We've been watching "Jeeves and Wooster" lately, and Bertie Wooster seems like a good name for a cat who might be a little bit of an aristocratic fop).

And here's who we found! His name is Bertie now, but it was Midnight, and he had been at the SPCA for a year. He was sitting on a ledge when Drew came into the room, and bumped his shoulder with his head as Drew walked by. He purred and rubbed against Drew, but we noticed that whenever another cat approached us, he would retreat. But his eyes never left us. He followed us from room to room, and kept trying to get our attention, but was always scared off by some of the other more aggressive cats.


We thought his timidity was probably due to an overly long stay in a crowded cat sanctuary, and when we brought him home, we found this to be the case! He is the biggest cuddlebug, and spends all his time sitting next to us, purring, and rubbing all over us. He and Lyra have only met each other through the baby gate we were advised to get from our vet, but Lyra seems (after, of course, initial misgivings) excited to meet him. He's still getting used to his surroundings, so we are being patient about introducing them whisker to whisker. He's all black, with green eyes. He's the same age as Lyra (6 yrs old) which our vet advised us was a good idea.

I tried to take a picture of him eating, but he kept winding around my legs. The results are humorous, so I'll include them, along with a face to face picture of little Bertie.

Some of you may be asking yourselves a very specific question about him, and the answer is none. None more black.