MY CAMERA!!!

well, yesterday i purchased a nikon d40x!!! i'm soooo excited!!! i can't believe i finally own one myself. you guys won't have to let me play with your cameras anymore! just had to let you guys know cause i'm soo excited. i'll have to make sure i ALLOW you guys to get a glimpse of the incredible pictures that my skills and camera will make. haha. yeah, maybe that will be at a slightly later later later date. anyway, hope everyone's having a good week.

Glen and Marketa win an Academy Award!

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova performed their Oscar nominated song "Falling Slowly" at the Academy Awards on Sunday. Suzanne and I watched the entire show waiting for them to perform and for the winner to be announced. It was really neat to see them win this and they were so gracious in their acceptance speeches. Here's a link to those as well: Glen and Marketa acceptance speech

Pictures from Chicago

I finally got around to posting some pictures from the Chicago trip. We had an amazing time but it just went by so fast. We had plenty of good food, great shopping, visiting time, and sight seeing. We are ready to go back! Those of you planning to visit soon are in for a treat. Thanks again to Jeff and Laura for being such wonderful hosts! Here are the pictures.

Chicago

We've had an amazing time here in Chicago. I've taken lots of pictures which I plan on posting in the next few days but I was really excited about this one. Jeff and I headed downtown last night and we went up to the top of the John Hancock building. I did some research before coming to town and this is supposed to be the best spot to photograph the city. I've been experimenting with High Dynamic Range photography and this proved to be a great candidate. It is a panoramic composite of 12 different images. The full resolution version is pretty cool. Click on the image above for a larger version.

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

Hi Everyone. I just put down Baby Tallulah. It was my first time putting down a baby all by myself - Laura has gone downtown to pick up Jason and Suzanne from their date night - and I must say, so far so good. It was pretty easy. I gave her a bottle, we watched some Transporter and then I put her in her pack-'n-play. Hopefully, she'll be sleeping quietly by the time I finish typing this entry.

I wanted to share the following link with everyone. It is Tim Keller's website for his new book The Reason for God. The website has a short clip of Keller describing the book, and under the media tab you can find several of his sermons. I haven't read the book yet, but I hope to soon.

I just checked in on Tallulah and she is sound asleep. Beginners luck.

Countdown

Went to the doctor yesterday - the heartbeat sounded great. Just wanted to let you know that we will find out the sex in less than 3 weeks!!! At that time, they will do the big ultrasound which measures everything and checks out the baby - so please continue to pray for a healthy, strong Townsend 2 to come!

Coming this Fall!

We received official confirmation on the impending arrival of little baby B 2.0 this past Friday. It is finally starting to sink in (for me at least). We were able to see a heartbeat! The doctor told us that the fetus is the size of a grain of rice. Wow! The miracle of life. Suzanne has been more nauseated this time around but thankfully the snoring has not yet begun. I now begin my search for "2 for 1 kids kayak" deals. We are really looking forward to visiting Jeff and Laura in Chicago. Somehow we "planned" our flight tomorrow for 9:50 A.M...

Tomorrow will come early for us.

The Swell Season - Live at the 9:30 Club

This is for those of you who enjoyed the movie "Once"
The Swell Season - Live at the 9:30 Club

michael's interview

mikes...how'd it go????

it never got above 3 degrees today!

AND I LOVE IT! THIS IS THE TIME TO VISIT GUYS!!! SUZ AND JASON...SEE YOU SOON!!!!

Ode to Colorectal Surgeons

Thought you might enjoy a jab ( an ode sung at their annual conference in Chicago) at the colorectal surgeons...for those of you who don't know who these guys are, you might want to pass this and never know personally. Don

Here is the link for the show: Ode to the Colorectal surgeon

Photography stuff...

I've been inspired recently by a photographer named Dave Hill. You can see some of his work here: http://www.davehillphoto.com/ His signature style has a very artistic almost painting like quality. It's kind of hard to describe. It is really quite unique though. His technique seems to involve really good lighting (wrap around to be specific) and post processing (aka Photoshop). I've been playing around with it and the above photo of Tallulah is what I came up with. I want to try it with a larger scene though. Maybe I'll be able to do something this weekend...

Super Tuesday

Having trouble deciding between the candidates? Answer some questions on www.electoralcompass.com and they will tell you how each candidate compares to you on different issues. I found it really useful.

Thanks!

Because I am a fellow blogger, I am graciously accepting this invitation to "blog" with the men of the Townsend family. Jason, I'm not going to assume that we were asked just because 95% of the posts are yours. I will assume it' because you would love our womenly insight. Jeff, see my comment on the tax question, and let me know if you need any other tax advice! Well, I must go pretend that I am interested in the Super Bowl! Our blog is www.thetclan.blogspot.com if you want to check it out.

Discontented women

um, so yeah, i recently recieved an invitation to be a part of this blog. and while it's sweet of you guys and all, i must admit that i feel a sense of discontent shall we say? us women who live along the edge of augusta's ghetto feel that we have been placed second in this whole affair. and yes, that means that i'm saying we should have been placed first. uhhuh. so anyway, while i will continue to gladly take part in this, i felt i just needed to put that out there. hehe. so there it is.
anyway, we seem to have computer difficulties unfortunately, so i feel i need to go and help jules try to figure this out.

Fire!

Suzanne and I were inspired by the wood burning (gas starting) fire place at the Big Canoe cabin. We visited a few weekends ago when Jeff and Laura were there. It was the first time we had seen a gas/wood hybrid fireplace. We had one installed and it is amazing. We love it!

Open!

I've opened the blog and invited the girls to read and post.

1$ Image Stabilization

I saw this video posted on the Digital Photography School site and thought some of you might find it interesting. It looks like it might actually work. :-)