One More.

Easily, the leap of the weekend.

Never underestimate your canine athletes.

Cleared For Takeoff

I've often mentioned here my preference for shooting on fields that have some character. "Flat" is the enemy of exciting lure coursing, and lure coursing images. On the list of great fields, soccer fields are usually at the bottom of the list.

This weekend, we were at a soccer/football/baseball complex located in the center of a big oxbow of the Brazos River in Richmond, TX. This is not your average soccer field lure coursing field... What makes it different from your run-of-the-mill flat field?

Ditches!

Hounds that negotiated the three jump opportunities on the course flawlessly were rewarded with high scores. The same can't be said for the less successful leapers...

Believe It: It's the Only Chicks These Guys Can Get.

P*TA is shipping inflatable sex dolls overseas, apparently for wild sex parties involving chickens, scalding hot water, and a goatee'd dead guy in a white suit. That's some rough sex.

Help Find Haggis.

No, not that nasty Scottish "delicacy"... this is a Scottish Deerhound, "Haggis", who's been missing near Bowie, Maryland since a car accident Thanksgiving. Details here.

According to reports on the Deerhound discussion list, he's been spotted many times, but will not approach anyone. He's in survival mode. I've heard of this happening with Salukis that get lost in the New Mexico deserts.. they become practically feral overnight, and won't even approach their owners. It's what keeps them alive.

Hopefully Haggis can be reunited with his people soon.

Georgians. Pick Up Trucks. A Pee Wee Football Team?!?

This will irritate Todd, but I can't help myself. There's just too much raw material. I'm just at a loss for this guy's motive.

All that's missing is "Mama", and "Prison". "D-i-v-o-r-c-e" is probably in his future, if this loser's even married.

Christmas Fark.

I just love Fark. Follow the link to see holiday stories about:

• Slow news day: Woman discovers she is allergic to Christmas trees


• Humbug, the law that banned Christmas


• It wouldn't be Christmas on Fark without at least one story of a drunk naked guy plowing his car into a garage. Happy Holidays, everybody


• 6.2 magnitude quake hits Japan. No word on possible tsunami. Large Caucasian man in red suit seen near epicenter wanted for questioning


• LAPD arrests 280-pound man dressed in Santa hat, red lace camisole, purple G-string, and black leg warmers for DUI. Thankfully, this article has no pics


• 
  
  Man missing in the wilderness near Humptulips found safe just in time for Christmas. In related news, submitter now can't stop saying 'Humptulips' (I've actually been in Humptulips! - DG)

...and some non-Christmas stories:

• Man demonstrating how he would kill companion with a nail gun shoots himself

Check it out. Lots more where that came from.

Anniversary.

Christmas day marks the 3rd Anniversary of the Hare-Brained Express Tour blog. I just finished looking over the very first couple of posts. I was pretty clueless, and Blogger was pretty primitive. But we've gotten to this point, and while readership isn't in the "Daily Kos" range, by any stretch of the imagination, we're averaging close to 20 looks a day. And that's pretty good. Thanks everybody.

Merry Christmas to All...

..or whatever your special holiday. As I mentioned the other day, we didn't get a card made this year, for a variety of reasons, none of which are important enough to go into here, so I just had a brainstorm. Our.. My Christmas Card to all readers... with thanks to Robert Earl Keen:

And That's Why They Call it "Jerky".

I was sure this story was going to take place somewhere in the South.

One-Handed Photography.

Why "one-handed"? I present you with Exhibit A. My left hand was busy holding dogs. Fortun-ately, I found out that vibration reduction is a good thing to have, especially when all I had was the heaviest camera in the arsenal-and no flash. Thank goodness for "editing tools"! Would have been a good time to test out a new D300. (I wonder if we're getting one for Christmas??).

Anyway, Mr. Puppy was suffering from extreme cabin fever, so I packed him.. and Rally, in the car and drove 30 miles to the Big Thicket National Preserve, where these images were taken on the Kirby Nature Trail. We had a great walk, with the following exceptions:

• Extra 3 miles of walking, backtracking to find the cell phone



• Half a dozen deer ticks on the dogs. (None on me.)

Other than that, a very nice afternoon for a walk. More images are on the new slide show on the sidebar. If you want to see larger images, click on the slide show to be taken to the web album. Enjoy. As usual, heavy on the fungi.

Crazy Horse Lives!

image ©Crazy Horse Memorial Fnd.

The Memorial, that is. With the help of a $5 million matching donation, from a South Dakota billionaire banker, the memorial, which promises much more drama than a bunch of dead presidents or Confederate generals, will probably be completed. Hopefully in our lifetime.

The Mother of Invention.

I've been logging a lot of internet time since I have a lot of it on my hands, and I don't have to share "WiFi time". Tonight I finally decided to check out a relatively new service from Netflix, called "Watch Instantly". I/We've been subscibers of Netflix for a number of years, and enjoy the huge catalog of movies they have to offer.. mainstream flicks, indies, documentaries, TV shows, foreign, classics... the list goes on. Our problem is our travel schedule. The movies have to catch up with us, and we don't always watch them right away. In fact, right now we've got a movie on our shelf we've been carrying around for over a month. That's not economical at $16.95 a month.

With the "Watch Instantly" option, I can download up to 16 hours of movies during any billing period, so tonight for my "road test" I downloaded some Japanese Anime... a little ditty called "Girl's School"... (and now I know why geeks and adolescent boys are so enamored of this genre ;^)

Next, wanting to watch something short, I chose Season 1 of 30 Rock, (primarily because I was forced to miss it when it was on air because - someone - always wanted to watch CSI instead). My personal opinion is that 30 Rock is one of the funniest, and best written programs on television due, in no small part, to it's creator, Tina Fey. Not only is she wickedly, brilliantly funny, but she's so damn hot! (It's OK... Margaret knows about this crush and is cool with it.. right?) Besides, I'm not alone!


Anyway, my experiment with Netflix downloads.. (which are included in our monthly service, by the way) was a mixed positive. Because I'm parked a fair ways from the antenna at this campground, the signal was low, causing some buffering issues, but Netflix has a nice fix, which halts the stream until a sufficient amount of buffering has occurred to not hold up the movie again. Their viewer (which you download for your first movie) adjusts to the speed of your connection. Overall, I like it, and will probably use it whenever we're in a place that has faster than dial-up speeds.

A Pretty Cool Dog.

HT Linda Stillwell in Oklahoma.

Not to bum everybody out, but it's been reported that Skidboot passed on earlier this year.

A Problem.

The return flight's not until the following Friday!

Shades of "Donald & Lydia". So much for doing our part for world peace.

I've Got Some Bad News.. and Some Good News.

There. It's not just the South. Received word last week from Margory that the spectre of AB1634 is about to raise it's ugly head again. Just when we were ready to venture into the Sunshine Golden State next Summer for the Scottish Deerhound Club of America National Specialty at Lompoc. Not if this piece of garbage passes, we won't. Not one tire tread will cross that border, and if the Club is smart, they'll pull their event out of the state. Anyway, keep abreast of the news on this issue by regularly checking (and supporting) the link above.

On a related subject, Steve Bodio informs us of a new advocacy group directed specifically at sporting dogs. Check out the website, and see if it deserves your support. I like the looks of it.

The Bachelor

That's me. Took Margaret to Houston Intercontinental Airport.. (yeah, yeah, I know.. think Washington National.. or Idlewild).. to fly to spend Christmas with "the Georgia Reiniches". (Congratulations reader Cynthia!). Ordinarily, we'd both go, but with no events to attend in Georgia it made no sense to make the 900 mile trip there when we were going to be back here in Texas for year end.

So here I sit, at the Escapees Rainbow's End RV park in Livingston, TX. Just me, 5 dogs, and a cat. There's a big ham dinner on Christmas at the Activity Center, and maybe one of the single RV geezer ladies will hit on me. You never know.

Anyway, there's plenty to do around here. The Big Thicket National Preserve is not far, and Lake Livingston offers much to explore as well. I'll survive.

Oh! One more thing: We never got around to getting a Christmas card done this year. So don't be running breathlessly to your mailboxes every day. I should come up with something before the holiday.

If not, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everybody!

Wow! It's Like Christmas in.. in.. December!

Yes, that's brand spankin' new University of Michigan football coach, Rich Rodriguez... Godfather of the spread offense. And believe you me, boys and girls there's going to be some changes made... not just at Michigan, but the whole Big Ten; if they want to keep up, that is. This will represent a sea change, a paradigm shift, a... a... oh, I don't know- pick a superlative- in the conference. This might just be the guy to drag the Big Ten, kicking and screaming, into the 21st Century. And I couldn't be more excited. We will soon be playing a very un-Big Ten brand of football!

When the rumors first surfaced last Friday, I thought it would be a great hire, but didn't think it would have a prayer. We talked about it at the lure trial this weekend, but no one thought, given the ridiculous way the coaching search had progressed over the last month, that Michigan would accomplish anything more than getting Rodriguez a healthy raise from West Virginia U. When I was told yesterday that Michigan actually pulled it off, I was ecstatic.

The same can't be said for the poor residents and students in West Virginia. For the second time in less than a year, Michigan has grabbed a high profile coach from West Virginia University. Last spring it was John Belein, the basketball coach. They're feeling abused down there, but it's been going on for over a hundred years. As it happens, Michigan's first great football coach, the legendary Fielding H. "Hurry Up" Yost, known best for his "point a minute" teams at the turn of the last century was born in Fairview, West Virginia in 1871, only a handful of miles away from Rodriguez' home town. Wow.

I even got an email from a well known veterinary orthopedic surgeon who operates out of Wheeling, WV and is a WVU grad, voicing his disappointment in Coach Rod, and wondering how he could leave the team in the lurch and not even coach the Fiesta Bowl game. But this is just how the game is played in the big time, like it or not.

And speaking of playing the game... if West Virginia had done it's part, and not gotten upset by the lowly Pittsburgh Panthers in the last game of the year, then "Coach Rod" doesn't have his secret meeting with the Michigan search team in Toledo, Ohio, and Les Miles is assembling his new coaching staff in Ann Arbor, and not preparing to put a whoopin' on Ohio State in the BCS National Championship game. Funny how things work out.

For now, we'll just have to remember, if we have to take a dog to WV for treatment, we'd better remove our "M" sticker from the rear window, and the "Big House Football" frame from around the license plate.

Just like I can't wait to get to New Mexico to run the dogs on jackrabbits, I can't wait for next Fall!

Yeah. They're That Good!

Patriots Proud Of Defeating Whoever That Last Team Was

FOXBOROUGH, MA—Patriots quarterback Tom Brady diplomatically emphasized that defeating whoever it was they had just played gave him and his...

Site Changes

Seems like whenever we return to civilization from an extended visit to a land of zero, or limited, internet signal, it's like being resurrected from the dead. I'm sure you're tired of coming aboard and seeing the same (cute) picture for over a week straight. But here we are again, at a decent little campground on the side of US 290 near Hempstead, TX. Not WiFi, but the GPRS/EDGE is about as fast as I can remember.

Anyway.. over the past month we've made some changes to the blog. While the general appearance remains the same, we've been able to add a lot of new elements, because Blogger finally made it easy to do.

Starting from the top, you've probably already noticed the slide show. I picked jackrabbits to start, but will probably change the subject matter from time to time. If you want to see a larger version, just click on an image.

Below the slide show, I just added our shooting schedule for the next 2 and a half months. This is much more convenient than doing it in a post and then watching is scroll down, down, down and out of sight (and mind). It's always going to be right there. That big gap between the AAWC trial at Hutto, and the Pack Hunt/Desert Hare Classic, represents our "vacation" in New Mexico. We'll be running jacks, eating green chilis, and drinking tequila. I also may venture into Mexico for some discount dental work and new glasses. And maybe this will be the year I finally meet Steve Bodio face to face! That may mean more tequila.

The next couple of blocks of items remain pretty much as they always were. I should point out a few new links in the "blogroll". First, they're not all "blogs", but that's just a technicality, right? You can now link to both of our Photoreflect sites: Events, for your dog's pictures in action, and the Nature & Art site. You were probably also wondering what's up with the "Life With the Georgia Reiniches". First one not named Reiniche, (or Jenkins) to guess correctly will win a $5 Shot On Site gift certificate. Hint: check their archives.

I also added Fark.com. Yeah, like he needs our help. If you've just crawled out from under a rock, Fark is the number one visited site (OK, occasionally number two) on the internet. Go there and you'll see why. It's addictive.

Last, at the bottom of the sidebar, is the return of the Backwards Bush countdown calendar. Where we're about to go under 400 days!

Dog posts and more puppy pictures coming soon! Just weighed Sandia. 49.5 pounds! Holy Crap! And one other news flash: We now know why Rally has been so slow of late. She's begun a tear of the achilles tendon on her left leg. So she's back on the disabled list for at least two months, according to Dr. Don Hulse of Texas A&M. Thanks doc. :(

Y' Want It?

You can have it. Go on. Take it. You know you want it. C'mon take it. Just try.

I believe I've finally succeeded in capturing Sandia's personality. ;^)

Rally's, too.

Monkey In the Middle.

More Fun at the South's Expense.

I don't make this stuff up. While watching some football this weekend, on CBS's Chattanooga affiliate, I noticed something strange. Everytime a promo for the Victoria's Secret annual Christmas program came on, the volume would go down, rising up again after the spot. It would also happen when the football announcers would talk about it. This happened on Saturday, during the college games, and on Sunday during the NFL broadcasts. And who's job is it to sit and monitor these spots, because it was definitely someone manually turning a volume control dial? (Because they didn't always get the sound all the way off).

Is it me, or is this just plain weird, since the air dates and time are flashed on the screen during the promos? So who's being protected here? Or maybe it just says something about literacy in the South.. they can't hear it, and they certainly can't read it.

Wilderness.

Yes, we're lost in the wilderness again. This time, about 6 miles east of I75 near Calhoun, Ga. We're camped out for the week at friends' new home and lure coursing venue: "GANG Park". As coursing fields go, this one's got some character, ie: no flat, level parts anywhere. Cool.For economic reasons, we decided to stay for the week following the trial we shot last weekend, even though we're not shooting this weekend's trial. When the bus ain't moving, we ain't spending money! We also had access to the field and some pretty big dog runs all week...

...something we don't see at a normal campground. Drawbacks include the fact that neither our phones, nor our aircard are picking up a signal. So I'm writing this from the Java Junction Cafe in Calhoun. Pretty good place.

UPDATE: I got rushed out of the coffee shop on Saturday before I could finish this with a fun little anecdote. The name GANG Park comes from the lure coursing club, "Greyhound Association of North Georgia". We know that, but apparently the nearby residents didn't. When the homeowner put up a fancy "GANG Park" sign, the town offices were flooded by calls wondering how they could let "gangs" have their own place!? It's all been straightened out now, and since there was no permit for the sign, it has now been removed.

Eye Candy

Just ignore the message.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today, with reports of wild turkey attacks, and wild turkey overpopulation, it's hard to believe that at one time they were nearly extinct in America.

Patrick gives us a comprehensive background, as usual, on how at least one big government program worked. Maybe too well.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving turkey.

Football.

John Runyan.
Steve Hutchinson.
Charles Woodson.
Ian Gold.
Steve Breaston.
Amani Toomer.
Braylon Edwards.
Anthony Thomas.
Brian Griese.
Jim Backus.
Drew Henson

These are just off the top of my head... Oh yeah, and this guy...


...and there are dozens more. All stars, or at least valuable role players in the National Football League. What's their connection? Obvious to most sports fans: they all played at Michigan. And were coached by Lloyd Carr. Hmmm. Maybe he was better than the "experts" thought. His 13 year record would certainly lead you to believe it.

Lloyd retired this past Monday after 13 years as head coach. He's been getting a lot of praise this week, much of it from the same fan sites, and bloggers who screamed for his head for the last 4 or 5 years. I'm not going to add to the craziness.. You can find all the good stuff at just about any sports site you wish to Google.. ESPN.com, Sporting News, Freep.com, etc. But I did want to point out a new blog I've added to the blogroll column at the right. MGoBlog is maybe one of the best written blogs- of any genre- that I've read. I've listed it below Bodio's and TerrierMan's blog because, well, because it's just that good. Even if you're not a Michigan fan, you will enjoy Brian Cook's posts. In fact mgoblog scooped the mainstream media on news of Lloyd Carr's impending retirement- almost a week before it happened.

Meanwhile, in the real world of Division II football, where national champions are determined the old fashioned way, with a tournament, my Grand Valley Lakers will be hosting North Dakota this weekend in a second round game. It's difficult to remember back that far, but North Dakota was the last school to hand the Lakers a loss. That was back in 2004! If you haven't been paying attention that's 38 straight without a loss, and includes the past two DII championships. I'm hoping for 39, 40, and 41... and 3... over the next couple of weeks.

Go Lakers!

We're Global! ...and a mystery

This is pretty cool. Here are the last 100 visitors to this site, by location. Every continent is represented! The mystery is that nearly all of the non-US visits came from Google image searches that returned hits to this post from last year. Now what would be on the internet that would cause people from all over the world to search for the Beach Boy's Pet Sounds album cover? Did I miss something?

I Just Didn't Get This Town.

photo from the co-pilot seat by Margaret.

Envy!

We're still over about 2 months away from our Winter break in New Mexico. We've got a bunch of dogs that aren't getting any younger, and one who has yet to see his first jackrabbit. And here we sit on the wrong side of the country.

Meanwhile, many of our friends have already gotten a couple of hunts under their belts in Wyoming and New Mexico. Blog posts about hunting are showing up here, and here.

And perhaps, the bit that increases my anticipation of getting into the desert the most, was the news from the TCC mixed hunt the weekend before last: The hunt was won by Sandia's sire, Tuxedo; 2nd was his "Aunt" Camille; 3rd was his mother, Gogal. A real "family affair".

So, when you see us over the next several weeks, make sure you buy lots and lots of pictures so we can enjoy our New Mexico trip... at $3.50/gallon. =8^(

Schedule Update.

Later this morning we'll head to our favorite Georgia state park, which means we won't have a particularly strong signal- if we have one at all- so I wanted to post the changes in our schedule.

Next weekend, Nov 17-18, we will be at the greyhound training track in Jacksonville, FL for two days of all-breed NOTRA (oval racing). I've wanted to get to this track since they started running NOTRA events there last year. It's a real track, with a rail lure and sand surface.

This means we will miss the Michigan - Ohio State football game. Given the events of the past weekend, maybe it's no big deal.

The rest of the 2007 schedule:

Nov 23-25 MAWA (ASFA trials) Calhoun, GA
Dec 1-2 OPEN DATE. Call us!
Dec 8-9 AHCA (AKC trials) Lampasas, TX (New field!)
Dec 15-16 ASA/GBSC (AKC/ASFA) Waller, TX
Dec 22-23 OPEN.. Happy Holidays!!
Dec 29-30 AHCGH (ASFA) Richmond, TX

We'll list a couple more Texas trials at the beginning of the year, and then it's off to New Mexico for a month (at least) to show Sandia his first jackrabbits. We will be so ready for that!

New Album

It's been a while since I added anything to the Google albums pages, but with so many pictures of Rally and Sandia running through the water, and chasing each other, I just had to share...
click below..

Watersports at Windyglen

I wonder how many of the people who were at the ASFA National Greyhound Specialty this weekend knew there was a small pond in the far northeast corner of Don and Sally's 40 acres. Well, "Team Beige" found it this morning, and boy did they have fun! This has got to be good for Sandia's development, and it doesn't hurt Rally's rehab, either.

Other than the pond, water was scarce this weekend. In fact, today marks a whole week since we've seen any clouds! I can't remember that ever... anywhere. It's eerie. Temps in the 60's, light breezes, a full Hunter's Moon at night. Those who didn't come missed the best weather anyone could recall for a running event. I'll post more when we're more settled than we are at the Sherman, TX Sam's Club parking lot...

You! Yeah You! You Know Who You Are!

Patrick's got you nailed with this recent post. Should be seeing some of you in Oklahoma this weekend, but...

...and the Universe is, like, a Really, Really, Really, Big Place!

Gosh dang it!! I love this article! ;^) !!

Puppy Fix?

After yesterday's bile, I thought it was time for more cute puppy stuff. Brand new today in Santa Anna, Texas. Of course, this was in the afternoon. When he was really ramming around at a high rate of speed this morning.... I didn't have the camera with me.

Hijacked!

As it turns out, we will not be going to the Bluegrass Coursing Club's November trials, as noted on our schedule for the past couple months. That leaves an open date between the ASFA Region 7 regional and the MAWA trial in Calhoun, GA. If anyone has suggestions, let us know, (although this makes Margaret very happy as it allows extra time with the grandkids!)

I'm a bit peeved, myself. Many trial organizers, when they think about a photographer at all, (which is seldom), make the convenient choice, rather than consider what the exhibitors would prefer. There's a reason Shot On Site Photography has been selected to shoot 11 of the last 12 ASFA International Invitationals, (and have been selected already for '08), the inaugural ASFA National Greyhound specialty and this year's event as well, 9 of the last 10 Saluki Specialties, and... well I could go on, but I think the point's been made.

We're easy to reach: dan@shotonsite.us , or margaret@shotonsite.us ...and the phone number is on our website. In 2008, we plan on being more proactive in setting up our schedule. If you're an exhibitor, and you want us at your trial, tell your trial chairperson or secretary. We want to make up a schedule that makes sense driving a 7 mpg motor home around the country.

UPDATE:
OK, I don't mind missing the BGCC trial now.. I just checked, and it's the weekend of the UM-OSU football game. And I know from experience, there's no TV reception at the trial site... (or for many miles around there, for that matter.) Thanks providence!

Dashboard Bobblehead

These last images are for people who've indicated they needed a puppy fix. Sandia was 5 months old yesterday.

Ottoman Empire

...think about it.

Arkansas 2

Before

After...

Now maybe w'll go to work on SC... and the whole Pacific Northwest.

images: top Dan, bottom, Margaret.

Arkansas

Our route to Hutto, TX takes us, this time, through Arkansas. As luck would have it, we've stopped for the night at the WalMart in a place called Hope. Hmmmm... a place called Hope? Why, that would make a good title for a campaign video!

Be that as it may, our overnight stop in Arkansas allows us to do something to the outside of the Express that we've needed to do for some time. I'll try and post "before" and "after" pictures tomorrow when we get to our weekend digs.

Sabbatical

Things have been quiet around here lately, I know. We're leaving for Texas this morning, and for the last couple of weeks we've been busy preparing for the trip. Too busy to blog, I guess. And we'll be moving quite a bit for the next couple of weeks, so posts will remain spotty. But we will be back! So keep checking, or better yet, subscribe to the feed so you know when things are happening here.

There's much I want to cover, like a whole multi-subject dog post covering things like the puppy's progress, Rally's National Turtle, Randir's "real age", the best shot at the AR movement yet, and more...

So stay tuned.


UPCOMING EVENTS:

Oct 20-21 AAWC Hutto, TX
Oct 27-28 ASFA Greyhound Specialty Boswell, OK
Nov 2-4 Cirneco Specialty Cat Springs, TX

Lucky Dog!

Daisy experiences what other dogs worldwide only dream about.

We're Baaack.

Since the middle of last week, we were lost in the "wilderness" of the Finger Lakes Region of New York.. specifically, at the Wine Country Cluster of dog shows and performance events at Sampson State Park on the shores of Seneca Lake. A beautiful venue, but one lacking in the necessary essentials of blogging.... like an internet signal. Cell service was also spotty at best.

We're back in Jackson, MI getting ready to head on down to Indiana for the weekend. So here's a schedule of upcoming events:

October 6-7 LGRA/NOTRA OB National Racemeets Carthage, IN
October 13-14 MGA ASFA trials Gibraltar, MI
October 20-21 AAWC ASFA & AKC trials Hutto, TX
October 26-28 ASFA National Greyhound Specialty B0swell, OK
November 2-4 Cirneco del Etna National Specialty Cat Springs, TX
November 10-11 ASFA Region 7 Invitational Cartersville, GA
November 17-18 BGCC ASFA trial Columbia, KY
November 23-25 MAWA ASFA trials Les's new place, somewhere in Georgia.

I'll get the name of that town in there when I find out what it is.

EDIT: Calhoun, GA... that's where we'll be Nov 23-25!

Also, watch for an upcoming photo contest, and maybe some pictures of boy and girl dogs being bad.

Another Good Blog

I noticed Christie Keith's "Dogged" blog on Patrick Burns' blog list this morning. I've known who Christie is for many, many years from postings on the Scottish Deerhound discussion list, but I've not looked at any of her writings prior to this.

I figured, if Patrick likes it... it must be good! And the post I read today was damned good. All about a more than slightly disengenuous marketing campaign by a well known pharmaceutical company. Good enough to add "Dogged" to the blogroll on the right. There many more good dog-related, (and some entertaining non-dog-related, as well), posts. Check it out.

PSA

Mine was negative, thanks, but in this case the PSA refers to "Public Service Announcement". I get a daily "Wiki-How To" on my Yahoo home page... some are very whimsical, like "How to Be a Drum Major", to plain old dumb, like "How to Clean a Suitcase" (valuable, I suppose, if one has been smuggling cocaine into the country), and some valuable How To's, like "How to Prevent a Hangover".

Today's Wiki-How To falls into the latter category, especially for dog owners, (who probably make up the bulk of readers of this blog). It's "How to Avoid Foods Dangerous to your Dog".

Most readers I know, are familiar already with most of warnings here, but it's worth reading again. I always used to give Randir a little beer on my finger, (never let him lap directly from the pint, though), and he's eleven years old and going strong so, some things in moderation are OK, I guess. If you know folks less "in the know" than you are, pass this on.

Blatant Commercial Message.

A week or so ago, Margaret sent out about 500 email messages to people we have addressess for. Kinda like spam, only with a more valuable message. Her idea is to have periodic "specials" for our customers. The first of these specials is for a gen-U-wine art gallery style poster... 16x20, and custom designed by Margaret herself! These can be done from any picture we've taken in our "digital era"- from August 2003 to now.

Ideally, they will look a lot like this one of our staghound, Buffy.

Regular price for a 16 x 20 print is $40 + $6 for shipping. If you order by October 10, the price is only $25 for each, and shipping is only a flat rate of $6, no matter how many posters you order. So far, we've sent out about a dozen, and the feedback has been beyond positive.

About 70 messages bounced. If you didn't get one, or if you know someone who might be interested in this special product, pass this post on by clicking on the envelope icon at the bottom. To order, simply send your request to margaret@shotonsite.us. It's as simple as that to get the ball rolling.

See other samples at our event website.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled entertaining blog posting.....

Super Wide

Finally got the lens I've coveted for over a year. I would have had it long ago if Nikon would have anticipated the hit they had on their hands. The lens covers the range of super wide angle, 18mm, to telephoto, 200mm, thus replacing a couple of lenses in the bag. In addition to the astounding range, it also has vibration reduction... so I can handhold shots at slow shutter speeds I would have formerly had to use a tripod for.

This above shot is Sandia, on the loose, and having fun. Shot at the 18mm setting, this image has been cropped about 40%, and the puppy was only about 3 feet from the front of the lens, which accounts for the little bit of distortion.

And how good is the VR? This shot was taken in the Express, at 1/2.5 seconds... hand held. Other than cropping so you can see the detail, this picture hasn't been sharpened with Picasa editor. It is as it was. Click the image to enlarge and look at the detail around the eyes. Pretty cool. It helps when you can catch the subject in an abnormally pensive... and still... moment.

And the best difference between the 18-200 and the giant 80-200 f2.8 I've been using for the last 4 years is that it weighs almost nothing.. probably almost 2 pounds less I have to carry around all weekend. I love it!

And that's how you foist more puppy pictures on the unsuspecting public without boring them to death.