swegles.com

Hello again.
It has been nearly a full year since I last posted here. I have not been entirely out of touch. It just got to the point at which I needed to use outside tools to simplify things like the management of our family photo gallery. So I set up a PicasaWeb account. You will find that there is a new block on the right side of the page, which will automatically scroll through the items in my PicasaWeb gallery. It is not perfect, I know. Click any picture to go to the full gallery.

I have also linked a bit of calendar information in the right block. Easy access for dad!

Wow, it has been too long. I have accumulated what appeared to be an insurmountable heap of images to share with you. After being somewhat shamed into action by grandpa yesterday (thanks, grandpa!), I decided to spend the day prepping and uploading most of what I have ready to share. There is more, but I am kind of burned out. Links and summaries follow:

Hey, everyone.
Since the move from Lansing to Port Huron, phones have been a bit chaotic. They got more chaotic a couple months ago when Peggy's cell-phone got shut off. Well, another recent event has thrown yet another wrench in the phone works, and now the cell-phone number I have been using for nearly a decade is changed. If you are trying to call my old number (517-410-xxxx) you will not get through to me. If you need my new number, please use the contact form here to e-mail me.

Life is still crazy, and seems to be getting more crazy. Gallery updates will be sporadic, and the Gallery integration fix ... well, I might get to that sometime.

The boys' season has started. We are already one game in. The full schedule is here:
http://swegles.com/?q=event (as well as the upcoming block on the right of every page)

No, the gallery is still not fixed. Free-time is short right now. I am stockpiling pictures to post after I get it all fixed up, though. So keep on the lookout!

Yes, I have uploaded a bunch more pictures to the gallery, folks. Still, it represents only half of the month of June.
There's beach stuff.
There's soccer stuff.
There's pet stuff.
There's school stuff.
There's even a picture of Rowan in there!

More inside:

Aidan got his upper braces this morning. He's determined to be conscientious in taking care of them and his teeth (after seeing the scary pictures at the orthodontist's office).

He thought it would be cool to keep track of his progress here throughout the course of his treatment.

Ok, after this last round of gallery uploading, the pictures database was getting very large and out of hand. I had been storing all the full-resolution originals as well as each size iteration (a thumbnail, a medium res, and one at a reasonably high res). In the interests of maintaining a reasonable gallery size, I have resampled all of the images at 1000x* resolution and dropped the high-res originals. If you want anything at printing resolution, you will need to e-mail me. Sorry for the inconvenience.

OK, one last specified update for today. The following shot (and more gallery items) is from a bike trail ride we took from Wadhams to Avoca, MI about a month ago.

Years ago I did all my photography with a 35mm film SLR (Canon Elan IIe). I had a brief time during which I used a digital Nikon (Coolpix 4500), until it was stolen. I went back to my Elan IIe, but missed the convenience of digital. Peggy got a nice Sony Cybershot (DSC-P10) not too long after that, and we have been using that as our daily camera since then. However convenient the digital format has been, I have been missing the flexibility and power of an SLR ever since setting aside my camera. Well, Peggy got me the best of both worlds (well, the best we could afford) for my birthday. I am now the proud user of a Canon EOS 40d, a powerful digital SLR. One of the extra-cool things is that all of the lenses I had for my Elan work with this new camera, so there is no big initial investment in glass. In the past couple months I have taken around 2000 shots on it. Most are garbage due to my just getting used to the equipment. But there are some gems in there. And it'll continue to get better. I will be peppering the gallery with a bunch of new random stuff, and almost everything posted from here out will be in much higher resolution and much more clear.
A few samples:

Aidan and Rowan spent a few days in Chicago with their grandma, seeing the sights, and visiting the Mythical Creatures special exhibit at the Field Museum. They rode the train there and back, as part of the adventure. No pictures of the Mythical Creatures exhibit, but there are a few of the Chicago sights in the gallery.