Zak invited us over today to play in a little pool he set up on their balcony. Anthony likes playing with Gen (who is now almost four years old).

The situation lent itself to fun, but not to photography. At one point Zak was out on the balcony with his big camera, asking his three-year-old to not shoot the water gun his way, until he (Zak) realized the futility of it and came back in mumbling something along the lines of "I'm the idiot for thinking it was a good idea to go out there in the first place".

Zak's [...]

Okay, so the What am I? quiz wasn't very challenging this time, unlike my first one and the one prior to this. At least there were some answers this time, unlike an earlier quiz.

So, yes, Fumie got some new bowls. They're not mixing bowls, but fine tableware, the "deep bowl" style of the Noritake N4 series. I'd never seen nice tableware that stacked like mixing bowls, and thought they were beautifully photogenic. She also got the "flat plate" and "deep plate" series, which are also elegantly stackable.

I think the concept is that the different plates and bowls of [...]

Like the previous quiz, it's something practical, not ornamental.

Last week, on the two-month anniversary of Fumie's grandmother having passed away, we stopped by the grave to pay our respects. It's located near where the Kyoto Biwako Canal cuts through the mountains bringing water to Kyoto from Japan's largest freshwater lake (the same canal that runs right by our place a couple of miles downstream).

Woo-hoo, as the rumor mill has been buzzing about for the last two weeks, Nikon officially announced the "D700" professional SLR today, just 10 months after announcing the D3 and D300 followups to the D200 that I have.

Last year, I got to play with the D3 & D300 before they went on sale, and despite lusting after "shiny & new" and the benefits over my D200, I decided to not upgrade.

This time might be different.

I didn't believe the rumors first started, not least of which because the name – D700 – makes absolutely no sense in light [...]
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