sjamesho.v3

when we had finished to group shot, we headed to a bowling alley around the corner of Thai Delight to see if we could get in a game or two. the night wasn’t too old yet and we figured we could continue the festivities before calling it a night. when we got there we learned that it was about an hours wait before a lane would be available, so we ditched that idea and decided to go back to the “Best Westerns”. Phil and i stopped off at Safeway to pick up some chips and soda.

when we got there Nitro decided to make me the object of attention… or rather, the object of ATTACK! so he got muzzled. it was very amusing to watch him lunge at me because it looked like he was poking me with his nose. so to temper him down i would catch his head like a football and hold him still while giving him the evil eye. we did this several times much to his frustration. when things seemed to “quiet” down we started figuring out what to do with ourselves. at first it didn’t seem to go anywhere but eventually Chrissie brought out some of their many board games.

we decided to play Sequence. i think it was my second time playing it. it is a pretty easy game to learn and was quite easy to remember.

you play teams alternated around the circle. i was teamed up with Mike and Mae and we won two out of two games. go team green!

Nitro is looking rather depressed because of his naughty behavior. he is probably thinking “once i get this off, i’m going to bite of a chunk out of you!”

before i left i hooked the Westerns up with the latest episodes of Bleach and watched a little of that week’s episode. and that my friends was how i ended my evening… well Nitro did make a lunge at me as i was walking out.

after battling my way through the Friday commute, i eventually arrived at Thai Delight in Cupertino where i joined up with Mae, Mike, Mike, and Louie in waiting for Ted to surprise him on his birthday. i learned that Louie also had a dSLR though she didn’t bring hers. she had some questions about different kinds of shots so i was more than happy to explain what i know.

here’s another picture using my 50mm f/1.4 lens. these centerpieces are used throughout the restaurant. i was hoping to use this lens more than i did that evening. however i did get the opportunity the following night.

Chrissie and Phil showed up at the table first while Ted got distracted with the Friday Fry’s ad at the entrance. the “surprise” was a bit lacklustered since there was no surprise vantage point where we could… uh… surprise him. however when friends can get together for a meal and conversation is good times in my book any day.

i love taking pictures of people as someone else is taking pictures of them. so as Chrissie was taking a picture of Erick and Ted, i couldn’t resist to getting a shot in before she finished counting to three.

now this is the stuff! no wonder Ted doesn’t share. it is THAT tasty. Ted and i were the only vegetarians so i ordered and devoured one myself.

for dessert Ted and i ordered coconut ice cream. however, they ran out of coconut ice cream and brought three different dishes: 2 scoops of mango, 2 scoops of coconut, and one of each on one dish. so Ted and i swapped his scoop of coconut with my scoop of mango so we all got some coconut action.

the obligatory group shot. i was thinking about bringing a tripod, but that would push me over from photo geek to photo nerd. so we had the manager take this for us. not trusting his zooming/framing skills with my all-purpose 28-135mm lens, i threw on my wide angle (10-22mm), composed the shot for him and joined the group. i then noticed that he held my camera at a distance looking very puzzled. “i don’t see the picture”, he remarked. oh, duh… i have to remember to mention people that my dSLR doesn’t have “Live View”. some new ones released this year finally do but that’s besides the point and potential future upgrade. so after telling him that he needs to look through the view finder, he managed to inadvertently take two shots which was cool. this second shot was the better of the two!

part two of the evening will be in my next post.

a lot of things happened last weekend so i’m going to start on Friday afternoon at 12:15p when i went to check to see whether or not my expected shipment of my new lens arrived yet. i work at home on fridays now so it is very convenient to accept shipments that require a signature. there was nothing at the door but there was something on the door. lo and behold there was a sticker stuck on the door that delivery drivers leave when no one is home to sign. it was written that no one was available at 11:40a. what the heck? after getting my car serviced, i’ve been home since 10:00a! so i called the “unmentioned” delivery service and repeated my irritation of their poor service. that i indeed was home at the time of the delivery and HAD the driver used common sense and “rang” the doorbell, that i would have come right away.

okay… that brings me to yet another peeve of mine… why would anybody knock when there’s NO door knocker and a doorbell is provided? plus, if people don’t like doorbells then in subsequent attempts knock HARDER!

back to the story… i was kind of bummed that i would not be receiving my new lens that afternoon but i got the details from customer service that the package will be secured at a shipping location instead of being out on delivery the next day during the time when i definitely know that i will not be at home.

around 3:30p i received a phone call from the driver who told me that he would be back around my area shortly. i wonder if the customer service representative got a hold of him explaining my dissatisfaction. anyways… i tipped him about using the doorbell since i was still working in my office/bedroom upstairs and within 15 minutes or so i received my new lens. after finishing up my work i quickly freed it from its brown cardboard encasement.

my dad was already home for about an hour and was working at the dining room table. yeah… he tends to annex the entire table with his laptop and external drives when he comes home. so i showed it off to him explaining the kinds of photos that the lens will allow me to take.

and with that being said i used him as my model to take the first test shot while he was watching 3ABN.

this cloisonne bowl was on the table, so i shot off several frames with different settings.

later that evening i attended my friend Ted’s surprise birthday party. i was hoping to test it more there but i ended up putting my 28-135mm and my 10-22mm to more use which you will see in my next post.

i spent most of Monday relaxing and getting better which was good because today i went with my friends Ted and Chrissie to visit the San Francisco Zoo.

the day was quite fun and enjoyable. the weather was unusually perfect for San Francisco – sunny with occasional clouds. i was glad to have had the opportunity to take a lot of pictures and to simply get and walk about. i have about 360 pictures that i have to sort through so that will be yet another task. but in the meantime, i’ll post select pictures for your viewing pleasure.

it is a wonder that as local Bay Area residents some of us have never taken the opportunity to visit local venues, parks, events, etc. this is something that my friends and i would like to remedy. so we did a little brainstorming on the way back from the zoo finding alternatives to get out of our own respective “cages”.

well my body did revolt against me. ok, maybe not a full revolt… rather a protest. so i spent all afternoon yesterday as well as the first half of today sleeping. that’s what i get for going against the laws of health and temperance.

after waking up today and having a late lunch with my dad, i stopped off at Best Buy to check on something and then came home to continue the process of updating site. i’m half way through 2006. hopefully by the end of the week it’ll be all done.