Eden's off to a dance tonight with some friends, and because they left from our house, I had a nice opportunity to try out my flash off of my camera and a couple other new toys. These were taken with a flash shot into an umbrella high on a stand and overlooking the group. I did add additional lighting effects in Photoshop, something that doesn't surprise me because one flash, even into an umbrella, is hardly enough for more than one person.

Anyway, I thought my xanga friends (and Mom) might appreciate seeing Eden all dressed up with some of her best friends.

The nervous tension in the air is obvious by Eden's expression.

Taking their images this way reminds me a bit of a time long ago when my brother took pictures of my own date for a dance. I had a red rose, while Eden has a friend in a red dress.

Lots of things have been happening since I blogged last. Here are a couple I cherish most.

I had my first exhibit. It was only a one-evening, book-signing show, but it was an exhibit of my work nonetheless. To top it off, the work was from my labor and delivery shoot, the work I'm most happy with.

Today, we "gave birth" to three apple trees. It was quite an accomplishment, doing the research, ordering the trees on the appropriate root stock, and getting them in the ground. The three of us all put our hands in the soil to make the planting happen. I'm quite proud of our small orchard, and I'm looking forward to watching the apple trees grow.

Something else exciting, Dave Matthews tickets go on sale next Saturday. I'm ready!

Happy Easter, everyone.

Up and Running!

My entire computer has been replaced by Dell. Well, pretty close. On the first visit, the Dell technician replaced the power supply and mother board. They knew to do this from a simple test done on the unplugged machine over the phone with Mr. Halie. These initial replacements were done on December 24th, yes, Christmas Eve. After these replacements, the internal fan was still revving and running like crazy whenever I logged in, and I was still getting memory errors in a diagnostic test, so I called Dell again and gave them the exact errors I was getting. They scheduled for another visit from the same Dell technician, who, this time, replaced the fan and hard drive. He reinstalled my operating system before he left and gave me instructions on how to install the device drivers.

Of course, I know that I'm brilliant and much smarter than those Dell techies, so I decided to forego the instructions on installing drivers and to reinstall everything from a system backup I performed prior to the visits. In doing so, I preceded to screw up the operating system and bring everything back to a standstill. Another call to Dell software support took care of the matter in a mere 45 minutes, and my computer was back online.

My machine now hums very quietly, something I'm not used to. I really can hardly hear it and listen carefully for files to be written and programs to be installed. It's like a new computer.

So I really don't understand all the Dell bashing going on. My experience with Dell has been top notch, every time. I even asked the Dell technician what he thought. He was pretty professional about it, not saying too much, but he did explain that certain components have different warranties. Monitors, for example, do not have the long warranty that a CPU has, for example. I don't understand it, but I'd bet other companies have similar warranties.

My experience on the phone was good. I did notice that the representatives are likely outsourced to India. The representatives have Indian names but only a barely discernable accent. They are also incredibly professional and polite. Personally, I don't have a problem with international business relations, as I think any positive relations internationally can only help ease misunderstandings and hatred.

Anyway, I'm up! Yippeee!

Now, if I can only catch up from all of the chaos caused by the time down . . .

Computer's down again. I managed to mess up the reinstallation by attempting to reload from a back up.

Don't ask. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure it out with a Dell software tech tomorrow.

Halie

Lots of things happening around here, some good and some annoying. The dogs keep counter surfing, getting into candy and butter and opened cans and anything within their reach. They also are quite rude with their behavior when coming in and going out of the house. I've wanted to beat them for it. The computer is still having problems. The fan runs pretty much on high non-stop while I'm on. For some reason, it doesn't do it when Mitch is on his account. Surprisingly to me, the computer is still under warranty until August of '08, so in addition to the power supply and mother board that were already replaced, we're now set to receive a new fan and hard drive this Friday morning. Sounds great, right? Except I have to back up our lives and cross my fingers we don't lose anything in the back up process. I'm not very confident in this whole back up thing yet. Eden is still in the process of moving downstairs, but she hasn't moved very far yet. Her old room, the one she still uses, is now stacked high with things from the new room, as the new room is still going through renovation. So far, Mitch has patched an annoyingly large hole (that leads to the plumbing in the adjacent rest room) and fixed a couple of cracks. I can tell, I still need to fill in nail holes in addition to taping all the woodwork. I'll have to get Eden to do some of this stuff. After we paint, we have carpet to go in. We found a perfect remmant for $124 at a close out store. Now all we need is clean padding, so she can have a room with clean air. In addition to all of the above, my website is finally looking like I'd like it to look, and people are visiting. I'm hoping to lure in some more interesting pregnant couples for photo shoots. So far, no queries.

So you can see a lot is going on. I'm keeping myself focused on the new blog. I'll be blogging on photos and giving little photography techniques on that site instead of this one. I'll try not to forget you guys, though Hah, maybe I can share what not to do in photography over here!

Happy Day!