Looking back through Flickr at my most popular photos, I still love this one. It was taken at Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. If your a fan of outdoor music, picnics and don’t mind a drive, it’s well worth the trip. Tanglewood is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Craig will get lawn tickets for us and we’ll drive up with our chairs, blanket and a book and listen to classical music. Very relaxing.

Sunset on Good Hill, originally uploaded by criana.

When we got back from Maine, I really enjoyed looking through my photos. It also got me thinking, why do I wait for vacation to make time for photography and really enjoy it.

After work I came home, had dinner and then Craig and I headed up to Good Hill and I set up the tripod and just relaxed and watched the sun go down. Snapping photos along the way. It wasn’t a very dramatic sunset but it was nice to not be sitting on the couch thinking about what else I should be doing.

I ordered from B&H Photo a 0.9 Neutral Density filter, just for taking photos of waterfalls. In Machias is Bad Little Falls, luckily for me, there was plenty of water flowing through them. I set the tripod up, with the filter and used my remote to snap photos.

I had the camera settings at ISO100 / f18 / 1.6s.

This year we rented a 1800’s cottage on a bay in down east Maine. When we first arrived I was questioning what the heck we rented. Craig on the other hand was very happy and loved the place. After moving our items in, it started to feel more like home. It really is amazing to realize that this house has withstood so much. The guest book went back to the 1940’s.

We had a great relaxing week, visited with family who also rented a home in the area. We never rode our bikes, but did do quite a bit of reading, exploring the area, watching movies, visiting and taking photos.

I drove back to Mount Desert Island on Saturday evening and decided to try to meet up with my group at Thurston’s Lobster Pound, but stopped at Southwest Harbor (Map) to take pictures of the sailboats in the harbor. I tried to take photos here in 2004 but my camera was stolen later in the day and I lost the photos.

When I pulled over, another photographer was out shooting photos already. I took out my tripod, camera, remote and started setting up. I used the graduated filter to keep the sky in color while also getting the boats exposed.

When I walked over to the area side of the dock area, I met Ted, who was the other photographer. We started chatting and it turned out he lived one road over from where Craig and I lived for a year and a half. He shared with me information on the photography class he was taking while in Maine. We swapped contact information and websites. I finally had a chance to give a moo card to someone who did not know me prior.

By request, some more info : )

Location: Cadillac Mountain Summit Loop Trail on Mount Desert Island in Maine, in Acadia National Park
Camera Settings: ISO100 / f8 / 1/320s / 18mm focal length

I used a graduated filter on the lense to keep the sky a deep rich blue while exposing the trail properly. If you’ve never been to Acadia National Park, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s beautiful, scenic and the whole Maine coast is wonderful to explore. If you like to hike and particularly bicycle it’s a little slice of heaven.

June 21-22 was the 6th Annual HondaSUV Georgia Meet in Bar Harbor, ME. It happened to coincide with our vacation already planned in Maine. There were members driving up from Georgia, Tennessee, Maryland, New York and more. I had tried to get NorthEast Member Club members to go to Acadia in the past with no luck.

The turn out was great. Racoon and 4HondaOwner put together shirts with the event name. We had a lot of fun visiting with everyone. Friday the weather was foggy and cool, but Saturday mid-morning turned into beautiful weather. Craig and I drove to our rental late in the afternoon and then I drove back down in the evening to hang out for a little longer and say good-byes.

NYC Waterfalls, originally uploaded by criana.

Craig and I definitely want to go down to NYC to see these. Not sure if we’ll get to see all of them.

The land that the main house is on, is beautiful, there is a great craggy tree in the back that just beckons to be climbed. Much to our dismay your not supposed to climb it. Shhh… one of us did.

I shot 290 digital pictures, and 60 black and white negatives. This Friday I’ll get a chance to see how the negatives came out.

I’ve decided to use iCal to track my health because I have it available to me at work, at home and on my iPhone. It’s very simple, I don’t have to pre-enter information and create databases. I’ve tried Traineo, but it didn’t track food as well as I’d like. I’ve tried Gyminee, and it’s ok but a pain to enter new foods in. I’ve also tried FitDay which also you need to pre-enter foods. If I’m spending my time entering foods, it’s a waste of my time.

In iCal I’m tracking my food for the day, exercise, weight and any other health related items in a separate calendar called “Health”.

I’ll post an update at the end of the week as to how this is working.

When I got new that the local yarn store was closing, which I’m really bummed about, I realized if I was ever to create a stash this would be as good of a time as any. I shopped frugally still, I went in looking at each yarn with the idea of how I would use it. If I couldn’t come up with a good need, or if it needed 8 balls to make it, I passed. Below is a slideshow of all the goodness in my new stash.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Rainbows, originally uploaded by criana.

A nice view to start my ride home.

Harlot @ the Calvin, originally uploaded by upstateknitter.

RantingKnitter, Knitorious and myself went to see the Yarn Harlot at WEBS in Northampton, Massachusetts back on April 27th.

I’ve been following Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s blog, the Yarn Harlot for about 3 years now. Not only is she a gifted knitter, but very funny. She’s written a few books. I’ve read Knitting Rules, Cast-Off and am working on The Yarn Harlot.

The reason for her visit to WEBS was a book signing for her newest book, “Things I’ve Learned From Knitting”. We got to WEBS shortly around 10:30. Did some shopping, bought our stuff and then got in line for the book signing. The time went by quite quickly. The ladies from Knitting Liberally were in front of us. We got “stuck” in the warehouse section of WEBS. I think if I were truly addicted to knitting (not yet) I’d have gone crazy with wanting to buy everything around me.

We did finally make it up to Stephanie just before 1:00pm and got our books signed. I shared a quick story with her regarding my last name. She laughed and said she had a very similar one.

Off we went to the Calvin Theater to see her speak. Meanwhile I had been working on my socks, which I hadn’t touched in quite a while, on the car ride up. I then worked on them some more at the theater. I got a lot done!

Stephanie spoke for roughly an hour. I haven’t laughed that hard in a while. She shared some great research studies about the brain, different frequency waves and how knitting puts the person into a state of almost meditation.

Afterwards, we got lunch at FitzWilly’s where I introduced Kelly to the most decadent of treats, Garlic Bread in a pool of melted Gorgonzola and Asiago cheeses.

There was still some shopping to be done at WEBS and then we made the journey back to Connecticut.

To all the Mom’s out there. Happy Mother’s Day!

While going through photos I found this picture of my Dad at the Bronx Zoo, July 1949. He’s 13 years old here It’s so interesting to see my Dad’s childhood.

I could watch this over and over and over again, and still laugh each time. This is our cats.

hello there!, originally uploaded by Marlis1.

This is a great photo from Marlis, posted over on Flickr. It brought a big smile to my face and a laugh. Animals are great, they have so much character.

That’s so the look of, “who goes there”.

Gifts from Santa Garyvee, originally uploaded by criana.

Thanks Gary!!!

Screengrab Sunday #4, originally uploaded by criana.

Still researching a GTD app that would work with the iPhone. I bought OmniFocus just before it went to full version, and I really like it, sometimes I don’t think I use nearly half it’s features.

But at the same time, I’ve tried iGTD, Things, RTM, Midnight Inbox… none of which I really find second nature.

Problem is many times I’m without internet so I was looking for something offline for the iPhone. But would sync up… I know… just have to wait for June.

In the meantime I’m going to use OmniFocus and check out Vitalist which a friend recommended.

Rebellious Youth, originally uploaded by Roger B..

Roger B. posted this photo and it’s just too cute to not share! Great photo Roger!

We had a good time, went in with a clear focus and didn’t lose a whole day strolling around the Javits Center. A note on parking, it’s gone up. It’s usually $40.00 at the lots around it, this time it was $50.00.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Forgotten, originally uploaded by criana.

Air Field, originally uploaded by criana.

On my drive home