Mar 1st

Yes....Medland, it's true.  March 1st role around, and out come the flowers.
Well, this was often the case in Victoria, BC.  Calgary?  Well, snow in May is not uncommon.
That said, the last 2 weeks here have been GORGEOUS.  Above 0*C during the day, and single digit below zero at night.  What more could ya ask for?  The snow pack on the road in front of the house is near gone, and the accumulation on the front lawn is mere inches of ice.  I can see GRASS in the back yard....

Per my last post, Alex and I didn't quite make it to the mountains....we headed S of Calgary to Okotoks, where we went for a walk to one of the largest Erratic's in Southern AB (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacial_erratic for those of you that skipped Geology 12 class in high school). Located @  50°42'20.77"N, 114° 4'35.11"W.

Still learning more about the camera.  Taking photos outside, in daylight is easy enough.  It's the dark, dingy chinook days that has some of my landscapes looking dull.  I'll be working on that next.

Planning a hike today

If Alex would sleep in a bit more, this would be a guarantee!
We're hoping to get out the the mountains for a hike, cameras in hand, and enjoy the warm 7* weather that they are forecasting for today.  It's 7:30 now, and we can already see the gorgeous blue sky, and sun starting to come up.  For southern AB, this is practically summer :)

Focus for today:

• snow capped mountains
• Evergreens on snow background
• bodies of water (river, lake, waterfalls etc)

Peachland, BC

If we could find something like this, with an 'end of winter' feel, the day will be a success!

Photography

Photography has always been something that I've wanted to dabble in, but have always prioritized funds in other areas (mainly, my trucks).
As such, I've tried to do some fancy work with the point-n-shoots:

• Canon A70
• Sony Cybershot

Check out my home page @ MacDaly.com I've done some ok work with these...about as good as can be expected, I guess. A DSLR was my dream, and was a "one of these days" type of wants.

With the imminent arrival of Kadyn, Courtnee's Sony was bound to give up the ghost on us.  Not entirely sure what happened to it...might have been a 3.5 yr old involved...? :)

A frustrating Christmas Pageant (Lexa's first) of not having any decent photos got us into the DSLR market.

Shopping:

I don't take shopping around for something lightly.  One might say thorough...other might call it OCD. Point in case was the 9 month shop for the PERFECT winter beater car (91 Passat, I paid $1000).

Now I was expected to buy a camera in 5 days OR LESS.  OMG, what's a guy to do?

Late nights (2am?) of research, reviews...

• Nikon D3000
• Olympus E520
• Canon XSi

These were the contenders.  With some final decisions, the Nikon ended up being my choice.

Features from the D70 and D90 (I'm guessing a previous generation of DSLR's from Nikon in their high end market) were now incorporated into the D3000. A "Guide" feature that walks the user through a menu driven config of the camera for the novice/intermediate shutterbug was also attractive.

Now 2 months into taking pictures with the new body and lens, and I'm hooked!  But more on this later...

Another early morning: family life

The first few months of Parentdom (even for the second) is an Endurance Test.
"How many days in a  row can I go with broken sleep, little to no sleep etc?"  Let me tell you: 2 months and COUNTING!
As we continue to grow, as do the little ones.  We had some more smiles last night....LOTS.  This is what makes it all worth while.

It was the middle of the night....

And I decided that it was time to BLOG.  I have often wondered whether the act behind this web verb was an activity that I'd end up dabbling in.  I've lasted how long?  Well, I entered the internet in '92, with my very first email provider: mail.yahoo.com :)
17 years later....I have 2 kids, a house, and am a Solution Architect for a large Telco/Service Provider in Western Canada.
Let this be a first.  Colors of the future could be in IT, trends, Social Media, automotive, the outdoors, family etc.