Boy, what a difference half a year can make. LOL As I said yesterday I finished Illustrating that children’s book a few months ago and the resulting fruits of my labor were very pleasing to the author. I’m almost done with my “to do” list and since a few weeks ago I upgraded to a new internet service. What a difference. So far so good. It also helps to be wireless. No more annoying cords all over the place for people to trip on and or damage. I also mentioned that I finally got that long elusive package I was expecting in the mail. Who knew it would take that long. So I finally get to upgrade my photoshop.

Besides all that, this year no new peach jam. I guess hot and humid summers are not a good mix for peaches. It was mold and then the darn resident squirrel that did all the peaches in. It was bad enough that he was talking them and then he brings his family along for the feast too. A gray female and two little black kittens or what ever you call two little annoying black squirrels.

Oh and then there were the grapes. These are the kinds the kind that ripen just after my peaches. They’re these super sweet little green grapes with out seeds that are more on the yellow side if they get to that point. But nope. The resident robin that comes back to our house every year decided that they were too delicious for us people to eat and would promptly get rid of them before we had to taste them.
He also brought his annoying family too. So I ended up making this fake hawk out of foam and paper, painted it up and my dad placed it just above the grape vine. Unfortunately it didn’t work since he didn’t hang it properly and it ended up all tangled up on its fishing line est. None the less I still managed to sort of save a few bunches of grapes by placing a few plastic bags with little holes on a few of them. It worked some what since now when they got close to fully ripening but the insects started to have a go at them.
I had to pick them more sooner then I would have liked to.
Next year I’m going to stick those plastic bottles (the kinds used for water)with the tops cut off on to the bunches of grapes with the plastic bags. Maybe that’ll work.

Oh yeah the author and now friend has asked me to post this for any one that is interested and looking for a adventurous and beautiful getaway, also here's the rest of those zoo animal pics. ;)

http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p294825

Wow that was fast. Earlier I had ordered these two books with the help of a gift card I earned with Air miles and the next week they're already here. And then come labour day I won some software at Ebay at an phenomenal price of around 61 dollars which would normally cost around 700 when new. How lucky is that. I so appreciate that since I really needed those things but I wasn't expecting to get them so fast. I guess when opportunity knocks, it knocks fast.


Unlike fish tanks, you should never knock on them. It gives the fish headaches. ;)

As you know I haven't been spending a whole lot of time on the net lately. Unfortunately I have been spending it as in life doing a whole lot of worrying about things. Well I can't help it and some how I still manage even if I'm sometimes just hanging on my rope. When I am online, its just checking up on things and just a bit of surfing. On a lighter note I found some cool things that were of special interest to me not to mention very helpful. That is software. Its from an open source and hopeful very useful. I think what I'll do is post the ones that I have already tried that I think are cool and useful that others might find useful as well.

Here's a nifty one that you might like and best of all its free.
Its called CamStudio and what it does it basically records what ever is currently on your computer screen. It has some nice controls as in you can adjust things like pan speed, it records in AVI or flash format and also records the sound just like you would here on the computer.
Its definitely a nice find for Window users. They might make it for Mac's as well but not sure but its cool none the less.