revjim.net

My fingers are covered in the sticky sweet of the orange I just had for breakfast. I'm tired, my legs hurt, my arms hurt, my cheeks are burnt and I couldn't be happier.

I spent Friday night doing my best at drinking an entire bottle 1.75L bottle of JD. I had help from two other people (thanks, Stacey and Laura). By 3am the bottle was half gone and I was $30 poorer (thanks to playing poker while drunk). However, I did see boobs, twice, and had my cards rubbed on some for good luck. My hand still sucked, but that's okay. I had a great time. I think that even Jess had fun (despite the fact that she had to go to bed early since she had to be at a work thing the next day). She and Stacey were upstairs talking about… god only knows what… for what seemed like forever. I'd keep trying to talk to them, and they'd keep boring me to tears.

Saturday morning, Jess left the house early. Two hours later I met up with her at her work. They were doing a fund raiser/charity thing at the Pre-School she works at. I offered to photograph the event. 200 images later I realized something. I generally prefer working with fixed focal length and small range zoom lenses. They are generally sharper and cheaper and they force me to think about focal length as a choice as opposed to a convenience. But, for fast moving events where you are fairly close to the action and must act quickly, nothing beats a zoom lens. I was working with a 19-35mm zoom, and a 50mm fixed. Jumping back and forth between the two was more than annoying. I think, for an events like these, a 18-50mm would be a decent range (that's 28-75mm in 35mm speak). 18-70mm or so would be even better. I poked around a bit and added a few items to my "wish list":http://grat.uito.us/revjim. Feel free to buy me any of these:

NOTHING SPECIAL: "Sigma 18-50mm f/3.5-5.6 DC":http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=335741&is=REG $119.00

A LITTLE BETTER: "Sigma 18-125mm f/3.5-5.6 DC":http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=324386&is=REG $289.00

BETTER STILL: "Nikon 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G AF-S ED-IF DX":http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=324190&is=USA $339.95

BEST: "Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX SLD IF DC":http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=340173&is=REG $499.99

HOT DAMN: "Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8G AF-S ED-IF DX":http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=300490&is=USA $1349.95

A photographer for a "local paper":http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=1426&Nav_Sec=68876 was there as well. She had a nice ass Canon digital SLR with what seemed like a great lens. I only say this because she was taking shots from a lot of the same distances that I was using, only she never had to change lenses once. Sure, hers was huge and probably a lot heavier than both of mine put together, but I'm sure the convenience it afforded gave her a lot more good shots.

After we had our fill of Photography for the day, we stopped at the hardware store picked up some supplies and tried to do some landscaping in the front yard. I won't bore you with the details of our failure, but, suffice it to say, a few bags of dirt, lots of planning, and 4 hours of sweat later, we learned a few valuable lessons about landscaping. It could have been much more expensive, so I'm grateful for that, despite the fact that Jess stabbed me in the arm with a spade.

That evening we drove out to see my Grandparents at my Parents' house since they were heading back to Vermont the next day. We had a good time and left late.

The next morning, Jess and I got up and went back out to the hardware store. We were sick of dealing with the situation we created in the front yard, and knew what we had to do to fix it. So, we decided to work on the back yard, just for a change. For about $80 (not counting the plants) we built the first of many projects that we have planned for back there. It took about 4 hours of work (not counting travel) and at least 4 phone calls to my dad to finish. All in all, I'd say it wasn't too bad for our first landscaping project.

Under the window Planter

After all of our hard work, we cleaned up and then went to the grocery store for some supplies that Jess needed to make dinner for a family whose mother is dealing with a second bout of cancer. After coming home, and making dinner, we headed out for Sushi with a few friends and then home for some much needed rest.

These are the kind of weekends I love. I can't wait for next weekend: Canoing in Arkansas. Weeeee!