In the kitchen area we have a basket that the cats take turns laying in. This time it was Ai’s turn. They are quite the models, don’t you think?

On our way out to Phoenix, we had a layover in Chicago. Long enough for us to venture down into the tunnel that runs between the concourses. I have always been fascinated by this light show and had to drag Lisa down to see it herself. The last picture is a self portrait of the two of us on the moving sidewalk with our reflection in the ceiling.

It has been quite a long time since I have updated the blog. Have been real busy with fall sports, wedding orders, pictorial directory and Seniors. Anyways, Lisa and I took some time together to venture out to Jim Thorpe and do some browsing up and down the streets. While she shopped in some of the more odiferous stores, I spent some time with the camera taking some shots of the architecture. Well, I also couldn’t resist taking a photo of Lisa outside of one of the shops too. Enjoy.

On our way back home from our 21st wedding anniversary dinner, Lisa and I spotted this interesting cloud formation while we were picking up a movie at Walmart. Very interesting design, perhaps I may use it on a picture collage project in the future.

Spent a couple of minutes with Victoria and one of the cats so that I could post some new pictures. Sakura is in the clothes hamper on top of the clothes. We moved her around the house in this vessel until we got some good light coming in through a window and reflecting off of the white walls in the bathroom. She loves all of the attention we give her and is such a good sport to put up with our shenanigans.

Life hasn’t slowed down since June of last year. Until this weekend as I get ready for a wedding on Valentine’s day. So I did a lot of bills and catching up, such as cleaning the office and a little bit of the attic storage area. Got 12 hours of sleep last night and a good 1.5 hour nap this afternoon. So this evening I was not in the mood to continue doing bills. I took out the camera and spent about 3 hours taken pictures of marbles. This is a real challenge, as the surface is very reflective and getting glare and ghosting to a minimum takes some work. Put into practice some of my lighting rules, such as hard lights are best for textures and the further away the light, the harder it is. Anyways, that and a copious amount of black cinefoil and foam board with some tricky cutouts gave me some acceptable results. Still can’t get the full 3D look of the marbles into the pictures yet, but now I have a better handle on the lighting.

After setting up the Christmas Tree after Thanksgiving, we ran into a situation where the cats decided that this was their personal climbing structure. Fortunately, Lisa had foreseen this event and had the tree tied down to the walls so that it wouldn’t tip over. But, they weren’t allowed to sit under or climb in the tree. So the punishment was delivered via a squirt bottle. Ai didn’t seem to mind too much, but Sakura was not so keen on the wet stuff. Well, after 20 odd days of cats vs. Krouse battles, on the very last day (Christmas Eve) the cats won as you can see from the pictures taken.

On a side note, I have been battling a cold since the Tuesday before Christmas and it has really knocked me out of commission for 5 days straight. Back to work on Monday though. Figures.

Here is Sakura


Another pose.


The two of them, Ai being a sleepy head.


Zoomed all the way out to 16mm.

Lisa and I have less than 6 days before we begin our trip to Tasmania, Australia. We have most of the details worked out, just need to get the final packing done. Spent a good part of this week checking all of our powered items - such as battery chargers, hair dryers, curling irons, and such to make sure that they can take the 240V/50Hz power input. Have the adapters on order and will hopefully get here this week. The money and traveler’s checkques are here and ready to go. The dollar is really strong, about $1.50 AUSD to $1.00 USD. Earlier in the summer it was 1.05 to 1. So regretfully, if the DOW stays down the exchange rate should stay strong and if it goes up, well we won’t be able to buy as much. We will be spending a couple of days in and around Hobart (visiting Cadbury Chocolate Factory, Mt Wellington, and Battery Point) and then move on up the east coast to Diamond Hill resort where we will spend the night with penguins and the next day walking around Freycinet and Wine Glass bay. Then off to Deloraine to stay overnight at a B&B at a local winery and off to a quick trip to the Great Swamp (rainforest). Then over to Cradle Moutain for two days of adventure in the highlands and finish it off with an overnight stay at Launceston. So we will be out of touch for a while and Grandma will be here taking care of Victoria.

The passing shower rewarded us with an unexpectedly bright rainbow tonight.