New blog now at: www.jenniferannphotos.blogspot.com

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In Seattle

I made it to Seattle just fine, aside from white-knuckle driving conditions the first two days of my trip. High winds + towing a trailer = nervous driver. We had gusts up to 40-50mph, and consequently, I couldn't go over 55 most of the drive, until I hit midstate Idaho, where calmer weather prevailed.

I haven't seen much of Seattle region yet. Today is really the first day I've had nothing to do. Almost every day in the past week since I've arrived, I had maintenance coming in to fix random things around the apartment (I'm sure they're really loving me right now), and I felt like I had to stick around because otherwise Apollo would make a nuisance out of himself trying to get them to play with him. On the upside, I have a brand new dishwasher and stove now. And my tub no longer floods every time I shower. And the toilet doesn't take 5 minutes to flush.

My apartment is...fine. It was a bit of an adjustment, actually - my initial impression was, "it's so small!" (that's what she said!). My place in Denver was a 1200 sq ft, 2 br unit. This is about 600. But amazingly enough, my stuff doesn't even come close to filling it. So. No big, right? I'm just used to gadding around in more space, I guess. Spoiled chit. I decided that this year, I would make a better effort at making it homier, and have plans for decorating it. I want to feel a little more grown up, I suppose.

The apartment overlooks a very small park, in which Apollo and I have been enjoying. It's very convenient to have a place for him to go run right out my door. But I have to say, I hate walking on the grass. It feels like it's just floating, as if, any second the grass will give way to this watery cesspool of mud that will trap my feet. I have a thing about getting dirty/muddy, so that's not a pleasant sensation for me.

I'm also adjusting to the rain. In Denver, and even back east, in D.C., PA and NY, if it rained, Apollo and I would make up for the lack of exercise the following day. Here, rain daily. Can't just wait for a nice day; if we do, Apollo and I will go batshit crazy from lack of exercise. It also feels damp allll the time indoors. A dehumidifier is high on my list for fall, but for now, I'm told it will stop raining so much in a couple weeks. I keep complaining to my poor friends that I feel hot from the humidity, even though it hasn't topped 65 since my arrival.

My internet should be up and running tomorrow, I hope. Comcast tech is supposed to come set me up. In the meantime, I've been using my nifty little android phone, which will be returned later today, for internet on my little netbook. It's a very slick phone, I'm impressed by it. But right now, I don't really have much use for it.

The only other piece of news is: I've decided to take a break from blogging here. I might return to it eventually, but I feel it will be a permanent break. I will however pick up the Thirty Days blog again, probably restarting in May or June, so keep an eye out for pictures of Apollo over there.

The End.

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Taking a break from cleaning

I'm moving to Seattle metro area.

I prefer to be closer to Seattle proper, but I had a tough time finding an apartment that allowed "large dogs." The definition of a large dog? A dog 25 lbs and up. Cue massive eyerolling. I'm sure I would've found something eventually if I had more time and was already up there. But I'm not...this apartment complex, one of the few that allows large dogs, will do in the interim.

My current apartment complex has a very long checkout list, and I am determined to do as much as I can because they overcharge for cleaning or replacement. Here's an example: One of my electric burner's drip pan and ring was really dirty and I couldn't get it perfectly clean. The replacement for that would've cost me $18 for the ring, $16 for the drip pan. Total: $34. I went out and found the exact same kind for my specific stove. It cost me $7 total for both. Talk about ripoff... I know I'll lose some of the deposit because the carpet is filthy. But I'm hoping to get at least some of it back.

Last year, I moved across the country with only what fit in the trunk of my car. My folks kindly helped out by shipping a few straggling boxes that I couldn't fit in the car. This year, armed with a Jeep, I'm renting a small trailer, which I highly doubt I'll even halfway fill. But this time I actually have a few pieces of furniture. Woo.

Keep an eye out for photos next week! I anticipate it'll take me about 3 1/2 days to get there even though we could do it in two. Between the trailer vs the mountains and Apollo's frequent "Gotta pee" breaks, we'll be going fairly slow.

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April is a bubble gum month

I haven't posted pictures because between getting ready to move and my parents visiting (read: staying with me) for my nephew's birthday, I've been fairly busy.

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Friday Apollo

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Assignment Monday: P is for...

"Póg mo thóin" of course!

Another macro image. When the novelty wears off, Mondays will return to its usual programming, which is spotty postings of random images.

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Friday "OMG It's Snowing!" Apollo

On the last day of Winter, I chose to exercise my privilege as the foodlady to torture Apollo. Don't be fooled by these pictures, he was NOT happy about having to wear goggles and boots.

Last year, it snowed here in Denver in April. And it snowed on the last day of Summer. Since September, we've had about 60 inches of snow. And the weather guys are saying we could get up to 18 inches today.
I don't mind too much, actually. But I'm definitely glad I didn't plan on a road trip for this weekend.

As a side note - I absolutely hate those boots made by Ruff Wear. The rubber part is stiff and it doesn't conform to Apollo's feet, and inevitably ends up on the top side, with the cloth portion on underside. Supposedly the doggy socks - yep they make them now - helps with that, but I don't believe it. I will be on the lookout for a better-designed set for next year.

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I visited the Arctics

And took pictures while I was there. Here's one from my trip. And yes, it was cold!

I'm having entirely too much fun with the macro setup.

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Assignment Monday

A few months ago I got a hankering to do some macro shots, but I didn't want to put a lot of money into a new lens that I'd use only occasionally because I have an eye on a pricey $10,000 camera - it hasn't even been released in the States yet. Expensive tastes. Anyway. I did some poking around and discovered that there are some very cheap workarounds called extension tubes. They range from $10 to $100 or so; I ordered the cheapest one for $10 - free shipping too - and eagerly waited for it. It was shipped alll the way from China.

When I finally got it, two weeks later, I tried it on my camera and...it didn't work! CRAP! I was pissed and confused. Kinda like how you'd feel if someone pissed on you.

Reading up on the extension tubes, I discovered that I needed an old fashioned lens with an aperture ring. Some of Pentax's newer lens don't have one because the camera's on-board computer can control that. And none of my lens have an aperture ring. At first, I was a little mad about that. What if the world ended and I wanted to be able to take pictures? But then I realized...I wouldn't have any way to charge up the batteries. Or download the pictures. My brain can be a strange place sometimes.

Back to the drawing board. I hit the ever-informative internet and found out that ALL of Pentax's lens are backward compatible up until a certain date - sometimes in early 70s, I believe. None of the other major camera producers can lay claim to this - they all change the mount system every few years. Hallelujah! I'm so glad I went with Pentax when I was first looking into professional cameras.

But I digress. Backward compatibility meant, in short, I could order an old manual lens very cheaply. I found and bought a nice 50mm f2.8 lens off Ebay for around $12. I actually got lucky with that buy - other similar lens were selling for around $40 or so. After waiting over a month (the seller took forever to put it in the mail), it finally arrived yesterday.

FINALLY!

Here's an image I took without the tube...

With the tube - the macro shot

Both pictures are of a pack of "gels" - translucent colored cellophane that's used to tint the flash.

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