Municipal Tunnel

Yesterday felt like a busy, busy day. In the morning the whole fam was outside in the sun, and we got a bit of yardwork done. We trimmed back a couple shrubs, and hauled all the debris to the municipal yard. While I was trimming, Sprout was helping move some of the branches around with his dumptruck until he got tired of that, and then started running around the yard. Also, it wasn’t just me that took the yard waste to the yard, Sprout and I hauled it there. He loves to go for truck rides, so we do this once in a while.

After the work was done, he and I headed down to Macaulay Point Park. Sox and I had heard about some proposed changes to the park which would affect the off leash access there. We wanted to learn more. The tent they had set up was pretty loud, but I managed to convinve Sprout to let me read a few signs. I grabbed a couple comment forms, then he and I were off for a walk in the park. He wanted to run through the tunnel.

After the tunnel he had a play on the beach. It was lots of fun to watch him running around in the water and playing in the sand all by himself. By the time I decided it was time to go (it was close to lunch time and I was starving) his pants were soaked, and I had to pour the water out of his boots.

Once lunch was done we did some more things around the house including hanging a mirror in the master bedroom, something that has been on a to-do list for probably 10 months.

I love days that are lots of fun, yet feel like we got a lot accomplished.

Leaves Manageable

‘Tis the season for leaves to fall. We have a few in our yard from the cherry tree, and a couple others, and this makes it difficult to clean up after Yoshi when it is dark out.

The other weekend I was out walking with Beet and Yoshi, and we strolled past our old house. The Gary Oak trees had covered the ground with leaves. Suddenly I remembered the hours spent cleaning up the yard, and the several trips to the municipal yard to get rid of them.

Ahhh, I am so glad I don’t have to deal with those any more. What we have is much more manageable, and doesn’t have to be dealt with yet either.

Fun Playing

Some family fun at Bamfield Park this morning. Yesterday was a very wet and rainy day so we never really got outside for anything. Today it was sunny out, not cold, and pretty much a perfect fall day.

We spent a considerable amount of time at this park, and the kids had a great time playing, climbing, sliding, throwing leaves, chasing each other, watching the ocean, and talking to other park go’ers.

For a break we headed to a nearby cafe. We got some coffee’s for Sox and I, and a hot chocolate for Sprout. Something happened that caused Sprout to have an outburst. Sox got him settled then waited outside for the drinks. A moment later a couple at the next table who were talking had a slight pause, and the lady said to her companion, “Sorry, I was distracted by the tantruming child.”

I almost started laughing. The one outburst was not a tantrum. I considered saying something like “if you think that was a tantrum then you are in for a shocker when you experience a real one”. It was pretty funny. She came off as a snobby mid 20’s college girl who hasn’t spent any time around kids. On to the pics.


Trainer Workout

I’ve been wanting to ride for a while now. The timing this weekend for me to go mountain biking just didn’t work, and I wasn’t feeling up to a road ride. Instead I popped the road bike on the trainer and stayed home for a spin.

There are some things about riding a trainer that I forgot since last time. First, no matter what, get a fan blowing across yourself. A constant spin like that generates a lot of heat and without actual wind blowing over you, there is no heat dissipation.

Second, don’t wear a jersey. This just traps in the heat even more.

Third, a headband would be a good idea for keeping sweat from running down your face.

Fourth, wear gloves. This may sound odd, but I have never worked up a sweat like I have on the trainer. Everything gets soaked quickly and gripping bars with slippery wet hands is not easy. Gloves give traction.

My workout today was 5 minute warmup, 30 minute hard ride, followed by a 5 minute cool down. It was a good workout, and I think I will try to get back into the trainer once a week again.

In the new house, I have a space downstairs to ride which helps keep the noise down. Downside is no TV to watch, but I will just have to create some good playlists for my ipod.

Tournament River

I played some poker last night. The night started with three of us playing a cash game while we waited for the fourth person. Second hand I lost close to half my buyin to someone who won with a Royal Flush. I also deserved to lose that hand and should have folded much earlier.

When our fourth showed up we decided to play a $5 tournament so he could get the hang of how the game worked (he was a relative newbie). I ended up heads up against a very strong player. Our stacks were pretty even, and around the third hand I hit a good hand, pocket Q’s. I made a decent bet hoping to entice a big call, and sure enough he went all in. I called right away, he turned his over, and I showed my Q’s. If I remember, he had a 10 and something else. On the flop he paired his 10. The turn missed him, and on the river he hit another 10 and won. He had just a little more than I in chips, so I was done.

Not much more I could have done there. On that last hand I felt fine with losing. I played it exactly the way I should have, and got him to call like I wanted. He lucked out and got trip 10’s on the river to beat me. What else could I have done?

After that tournament we went back to the cash game. I played alright throughout this. I played a few hands really well and won a few good pots. I even made a few good calls that I was proud of. As the evening wore on I started playing worse and worse.

I got knocked all out at one point on another hand where I was leading before the flop, and lost out on the draw. I sat out for a few hands and dealt while I figured out if I wanted to buy in again. After a few rounds I bought back in and picked up where I left off.

Nothing really happened for a while until I was dealt an AK. I made a good size bet to try and scare off a couple people which worked. The newbie stayed in which was good for me. On the flop I paired my A and put the other guy all in. He called, and he had a much lower pair. I won that hand which greatly increased my stack size.

The rest of the night I slowly declined in chips, and got pushed around by the big stack at the table who was hitting hands that he likely shouldn’t have been playing (same guy I lost out to on the tournament).

It was a good night overall, but I think I need to practice more. I still feel like I am floundering on some hands where I should just know what to do. I would like to get to the point where I can figure out what someone’s hand is based on their past performance.

I know I switch up how I play enough when I hear people putting me on a hand that is much lower than what I have. Unfortunately both times that happened I still lost due to luck. 🙁

Resolution Noise

Since I was talking about noise at higher ISO I though I would post a couple comparison shots. Warning, the links take you to the full resolution images which are a tad large.

Below is a shot from my 20D at ISO 1600. It looks OK, until you crop.

You can really see the noise there.

This next shot was taken at ISO 3200 on my 50D. The crop on each pictures is the same (640 X 472).

This crop takes a much smaller portion of the overall picture, yet there is less noise than in the photo above. Awesome. I need to remember to use the higher ISO levels when I need to freeze motion.

Sunset Varies

Some pictures from last night’s sunset. It wasn’t the most spectacular sunset I’ve seen, but it had some nice depth. In a sunset like this I love how the color of the sky varies from brilliant orange to a deep blue.

For this shot of Yoshi I wanted to test the noise of my new camera at higher ISO settings. This was shot at ISO 2000. Much better ISO performance over my 20D. The 20D at ISO 800 had way worse noise than this.