I'm trying a new photo blog.

Shutterfly. It's pretty, it's simple, and it's free. It's everything I'm looking for in a photoblog mainly because I tend to look for the impossible.
I've started a new collection that we can all add photos to. Eventually I will migrate all my Flickr photos there.
It turns out Flickr is great for organizing and resizing on the fly but the free service only includes 3 photo albums, the bandwidth (the bytes uploaded or downloaded) is limited per month, and they only allow you to see the last 200 pictures uploaded (the older photos are still there but hidden).
Shutterfly appeals to me because it has unlimited space, with the option to organize your photos in an unlimited number of photo albums. They also have all the cool personalized products and prints you can purchase. It makes sense to me that this is what they are making their money from and not from selling disk space and bandwidth.

Uncle JD has something to say

Link to more photos.
Uncle JD said...

Your doing real well so far... I e-mailed changes of seasons....you guys probably don't miss from Ontario...The Mounstephen's here love it and would like to share it with the rest of the family at this Christmas season... I found all the pictures in your archieves and found them very interesting..I don't know where they were so may be let me know where to find them again..

Sarah had another birthday as well as Blake it would be good to get up to date pictures of both..

Chill out it is the season for Stress and there is no need for stress

enjoy/ Uncle John Aunt Kathryn

Hope you enjoy the pictures of our back yard.

December 12, 2005, 3:57 PM

More Halloween pics

Stellan's lovin' his first Halloween.

I've added the Halloween Stellan pics to the Haloween gallery (who knew you could say Halloween twice in a sentence and get away with it? I guess I just said it 3 times, heehee).

Katherine, Brian and Stellan were here yesterday and we managed to upload pictures from their camera even though my computer decided to go on a half-assed strike.

Don't let your computer get the best of you. If there's something you really want to do and your computer won't let you do it, find another way.

New blog

I've added a new blog chronicling my graphic interests. Take a look.

Doomsday July 29th, 2006

Here's the happy couple, Ryan and Corryn Mounstephen. Ryan just emailed this lovely photo. It looks like it was taken at the local barn dance.

Ostrich jockey?

See more photos.
First Halloween in our new neighbourhood and it was great. Lots of kids, all dressed up. Most of them loved the chicken/turkey/ostrich I was riding. They were hilarious! If they weren't scared by the singing skeleton outside the door then the gigantic chicken got them.
Some of the things I heard:
"Those aren't your real legs . Your legs are those ones (pointing at the wrinkled ostrich legs)!"
"I was going to get that costume."
"Why are you riding a turkey?"
"What are you supposed to be and why are you riding that chicken?"
"Can I have a candy for my cousin? She's too scared of that thing (the skeleton) so she won't come down the stairs. But she really wants a candy."
"Are those your real legs?"
"This is where Sam and Jillian used to live, can I come in?" She was already standing in the middle of the front hall.
"I don't know which candy to take. I can't decide."
"Can I have two candies?"
We had enough candy to supply an entire elementary school. I took the leftovers to work. It'll be gone tomorrow.

Batubba asks do you want a Trick or a Treat

Here's a normal looking dog wearing a prefectly respectable Halloween costume but wait....


What's this? It's Batbubba.

Feedback

Thanks to all who responded. I received some very valuable feedback, from "was that pizza you ate for Thanksgiving?" to what the f___'s a blog? So if you did decide to bookmark this valuable page here's the answers (I know you've all been waiting with baited breath).
No that was not pizza in the baby picture, it was focaccia bread with feta and carmellized red onions from Duso's on Granville Island. Mmmmmm, yummy. Next time I'll only buy three pieces, 5 pieces was way too much.
We also had a scrumptious organic turkey roast from the Turkey Stop and a small Irish ham from one of the butchers at Granville Island. Mom supplied the fresh-baked apple and pumpkin pies, mmmmmmmmmm, and Katherine added her world-famous mashed potatoes (if they're not, they should be, they're fabulous!)
Enough about Thanksgiving.
For those asked about what a blog is there's the official definition on Wikipedia and there's the smoot version. A blog is a blog is a blog. It's whatever the blog you want it to be. Bloggety blogblog blog.
On with it.
Today is Jennifer's birthday. From now until December 11th we're the same age and we both hate that, at least we used to when we were younger, not such a big deal now. Happy birthday Jenn! Hope you had a great day.
Tomorrow is Halloween!
It's going to be fun here in the new complex. There's going to be a gathering at the entrance of "The Complex" where everyone who lives here is going to bring their fireworks and set them off in one big extravaganza. I don't have fireworks but I have enough candy to feed the entire public school up the road for two days. I'm also ready with my costume. It's a doozy and I love it. It scared the shit out of Bubba. I'm glad he was outside and there was a pane of glass between him and I when I put it on because he almost attacked me, heehee. It's the funniest costume I've seen in a long time. I couldn't have planned this one if I tried. You'll have to wait a couple of days for the pictures.

Enter into the abyss

Ryan's announced his engagement to Corryn. Who the hell is Corryn?

Blogger and blogging woes

Wheh!

This blog, Alive and Kicking, is meant to be the place where we share our words. I add entries to the blog and friends and family add their comments. Dad and Bubba have joined in already. I envision people talking to each other about whatever is going on their lives at the moment. It can be thoughtful and insightful. It can be about what I put in the blog but it doesn't have to be. It can be random thoughts, poetry, meditation, prayer, jokes, rants, free-flow thought, whatever you want it to be. Just write something.

I'm spending way too much time trying to make everything just perfect here but I think it's paying off. I have a bit of a template going right now for this blog thing. Now I need to figure out how Flickr's supposed to work. I know what I want it to do. I want to create one space for all my friends and family to share their favourite pictures. I just need to figure out how to get Flickr to do it the way I want. Wish me luck.

Writing is the easy part so I'm going to commit to writing something, anything here at least once a week. Download Firefox, the coolest browser around, and subscribe to this site by clicking on the cute little orange icon in the bottom right corner (I'll put a picture here to show you later).

It's the Mootoo portal of words and pictures connected together. I'm curious to see what we create here. It's going to be great!

Thanksgiving 2005

See more pics.
The Mootoo's hosted this fine dinner at their new abode. 2 dogs, a baby, 2 guys, and 3 girls had a scrumptuous meal. We laughed we argued, no crying, lots of barking. As quickly as it started, it was over and Kevin and Bubba and I were left to enjoy the Canuck's game.

Bubba's in Heaven.

More pics on my photoblog.
Bubba's best summer yet! So what if it was the first one he actually remembers. Spanish Banks is the perfect place for running and running and running and meeting new dogs and people and running and running and chasing birds and running... and when you get to the other side of the big sand bank in the middle of the harbour you can go swimming!

The new place.

Before the Mootoo's moved in there was a lot of beige, very neutral. We decided to jazz it up a little. The result is much warmer. It really is amazing what a little paint will do.

The sofas are reupholstered, the walls are painted (touch-ups pending), a few new light fixtures and it's hard to imagine this is the same place we moved into.

More pics to come.