CoolPix but Are they Great Pix?

 We must be in August because my hair looks more like this...

... than the usual "full bodied straw" look. 

When the humidity gets about about 45% (which actually it doesn't here for most of the year), my "Irish curls" (which are really waves, as curls actually spiral while my hair is just kind of scrunchy) become significantly more noticeable. The camera always flattens it out, but in reality, I look like an 80s glam rocker once the humidity hits about 55%.

FETCH ME THE AQUANET!

According to beauty influencers on top of the movement (and hairstylists in other sources) Irish curls-really-waves are a type of hair that tends to texture unevenly. The under layers and lower parts of the hair are much wavier while the top of the hair is relatively straight. It waves up when there's moisture and flattens out when its dry. Also, at least in my experience, if you so much as look at it funny, the whole thing gets really really straight until you add moisture at which point it crinkles up again. 

If I actually wanted to style it, many stylists have told me I need a "curl activator" with some manual scrunching or adding in a sea salt spray and letting it get really beachy. 

I take the shortcut of "leaving it alone for as long as humanly possible and letting it become much much crazier than it looks in pictures." 

Anyways, most of the time I can't help it and flatten it back down one way or another. 

This is how it looks after I've either brushed it or dared to exist in 40% humidity. Still unruly for "straight" styles, but a lot more temperate. Nonetheless, a great barometer for the weather of the day. 

We're now truly into August and all that insanity! 

Bring on the parties and whatnot!

To warm up for the whole shebang, last Saturday I brought along the imp to a birthday party for some of the kids in Allan's homeschool group. It was listed at 1 - 3 pm.  A bit short for a birthday party, but brilliant in terms of wrapping up before anyone hit the overstimulated meltdown phase, so I supported it!

We made sure to be there in a timely fashion so as not to miss out on anything!

Spoiler alert, the party did not actually run from 1-3. We were, of course, the first people to arrive (surprisingly promptly at about 1:10 having apparently met very few of the typical transitional barriers that are typically encountered) and settled in just as the birthday family were bringing arm loads of activities and food for what appeared to be a bit more of a long-haul party than a two-hour quickie. 

There's a rhythm to most birthday parties. You have kind of a free play period in which food becomes increasingly available for the adults milling about and trying to balance granting independence and preventing mass casualties. About 30-45 minutes in, the grill yields fruit (or meat, really). Around an hour to 90 minutes in, there's some shenanigans with something sweet and frosted. A song or two. Maybe presents (depends on the family) and then people fairly rapidly start bailing after the first family gets up the gumption to leave. 

I knew we were in for it when the grill was still going after two hours!

In fairness, there was *a lot* for the roving gang of young 'uns to do. They started at the playground. Somehow ended up with balloon swords. Sat at the picnic table while adults loaded their plates with food. Ignored the food and ran off again waiving their balloon swords, splashing in the wading pond (no, no Allan didn't bring a bathing suit, despite many offers to help her pack it). Demanding a change of clothing and generally complaining about being wet. Complaining about the one kid (or kids) who won't stop splashing. 

General yelling... and later there were clay projects to be done and a pinata

I started suggesting we would want to go home "soon" at 3:30, as all of the kids were getting a bit wilder and closer to The Lord of the Flies making an appearance. But of course, there were many things that had to be done before we could leave. And it's just never ok to leave before the other kids leave. FOMO for realz!! 

Cupcakes did manifest while the children were splashing around in the wading pond. Then clay had to be played with. The clay didn't have blue and eventually the Steller's Jay sculpture got a little too smooshed, at which point I really thought maybe it was a good time to leave.  

Naturally, the pinata happened to get whacked open by somebody before the older kids got a turn. Allan had repeatedly begged to go earlier in the turn-taking because she was afraidshe wouldn't get a chance, so this was not received particularly well. 

Worse still, the candy was not exactly to her liking. I guess she likes Jolly Ranchers ok, but bazooka gum and tootsie rolls do not merit much esteem. The rest of the kids were pretty understanding, but sometimes you gotta take your losses and head out early. 

I would call it a generally successful party, but I will be kind of dead for the rest of the week. 

And of course we followed that up with a playdate with the same group on Monday. It was significantly ore chill. 

Apparently, we need buckets and shovels like ASAP because Allan has just discovered the joy of making "sand potions" and castles, so that's in the works... Anyways... 

Did I mention I mention the new camera rental? Yes, you're with me until the saga is fully completed at this point. 

This one is a bridge camera. It has some fancy schmancy technology that allows a much wider range of zoom, from very very zoomed out to very very zoomed in. And it's remarkably light compared to how it looks. Slightly lighter than the Sony Alpha. 

It does have quite the zoom. 

CoolPix

Compare and contrast with my Nikon... 

Nikon

In the first picture, the crow was perched on a light post many feet away, while in the second phoot, the crow was a few feet from me (waiting expectantly for me to offer peanuts). I probably could have zoomed in more on the Nikon and kept the full body in frame for preference, but the distance between the two is pretty impressive.

Here's another Nikon that got a little bit more of a zoom. This one was in a tree, but at a pretty near level to me and very definitely close by expecting to be fed. 

Nikon

Now the zoom part is impressive, but for me there's a way that the Nikon really brings the crows into focus that feels a little different.

I struggle to put a finger on it, but it's not a surprising thing, as the sensor of the CoolPix is smaller and I hear that can impact the crispness. 

The DSLR can give a lot of detail without it feeling over-processed. 

Nikon

I like how you can see the beads of moisture (it was a damp day). 

Nikon

And I appreciate the depth of field that really focuses the image on the crow itself. 

The Sony Alpha had a pretty similar quality to me... (I know I just shared these pictures, but I didn't have the camera very long!)

Sony Alpha

I took a series of these in mid-caw, ignoring my usual prohibition against auto-shutter. It navigated the movement really well, so that each picture was still pretty crisp. 

The Om meanwhile gave me some trouble figuring out the right settings, but undeniably caught a lushness pretty dramatically. 

Back to the CoolPix. There's nothing wrong with the images. They just feel a little different to me?

CoolPIx

 Another challenge with it is that when you are zoomed in, the small shakes involved in holding the camera are magnified enough that the autofocus can really struggle to keep hold on the image. I don't always love the Nikon as it can be fussy and have meltdowns, but the CoolPix is a whole 'nother level of constantly losing your image. Heaven forbid a bird actually moves! 

And it can grab some really "soft" looking photos.

CoolPix

For a slightly different comparison, I pulled the zoom back and bled out the color... 

Nikon DSLR

versus...

CoolPix

Maybe a bit more of a draw, although in larger size, I do like the Nikon DSLR picture better. 

But, also, there were more crows on the CoolPix visit so that never hurts... 

CoolPix

For contrast on the other side, this is with my Pixel 7a, which I have set on pretty low image size and resolution in order to save space. 

 I do give the CoolPix kudos for catching some level of flying better than I expected it to

CoolPix

Maybe a bit of a tie. I caught a little bit less with my Nikon a few weeks back, but I do like something about how the light bounces off the wings in both pictures. 

Nikon DSLR

So definitely not a terrible camera. It took some cool shots. It felt like more often than with the mirrorless or DSLRs the CoolPix was harder to keep focused and gave more fuzzy looking shots. But sometimes it took really "cool pix" and sometimes I take crappy photos with my DSLR, so definitely it's hard to landmark it. 

Still, the autofocus was by far the more annoying issue. It took a lot of work to get photos and - unlike the Sony and the Nikon - it just doesn't keep up with flying birds quite as easily. 

CoolPix

Caught a fairly cool finch, though, but again there was just a little squishy. I think I could tolerate that more if it wasn't so hard to luck into an actually focused picture!

And I do think this photo turned out pretty well

So perhaps it's more than sufficient for mid-zoom ranges and stationary objects. My bigger concern is that it doesn't seem to be exceptional at catching moving things and the focus definitely is less robust than the other cameras. 

At any rate, I wrapped up my test on the thing a few days ago and left it around for Andrew and Zach to investigate. Zach of course has been into photography for decades and has several specialized bodies and lenses of pretty much all type. So, I know Andrew was a bit curious what he would think. Zach held it for a few minutes, and proclaimed it "a toy" and that's about that. 

At any rate. August has come fast and furious and I've gotten very little sleep, so I'm just riding for the coffee to finish brewing to maybe, just maybe function. 

Generation Alpha Full Frame Mirrorless

And just like that... August was basically here

Oh my god, August! Yeah, no I disavow any connection to the month. General warmth and tendency towards forest fires aside, August always gets weirdly busy. And while all of the things would be lovely events in isolation, the way that they all pile on relentlessly just kills me. 

Typically I plan "events" in my life with a remarkable amount of preparation and recovery on either end. Any one out-of-schedule event takes a lot out of me, and I usually need a week to really recover if not more. My social month cycle usually involves one or two family outings and maybe one social thing with a personal friend. Or some variation on that. 

In August we have three family visits, one of them lasting a week, all of them back-to-back or overlapping.

 In addition, a few other people will be "in town" for a hot minute and want to meet up. Again, all awesome in isolation. But with zero reprieve on either end. 

Also in the middle of this is Allan's birthday - which takes reverent and grave planning - a few office party type things, some additional play date type things, all colliding into maybe a week of "downtime" before school starts up again. 

Yes, I did omit my birthday. I don't like having my birthday in a month I hate, so I'm moving it to October. Carry on. 

Anyways, hooray for July, which has been remarkably civilized. A few regular playdates, a visit from my mom, a birthday party and ... oh wait, there was that time our neighborhood lit on fire. Several nights in a row. They're still setting off fireworks in the evening to this day!

uuuuuuh

I don't care for summer. The end. 

At any rate, it's less crazy at the moment, so let's just get into it shall we?

I did suggest I might give some updates on the second camera rental. 

The new hotness is a Sony Alpha Somethingorother with a Tamron lens that sees as far as my much bigger Nikon through the magic of... I don't know? Magic? 

It's about 2/3 the weight of my Nikon in its current form. While this isn't exactly light-as-air, it is lighter than a 4 pound weight! And, when something pendulously bobbles from a thin strap around your neck... every pound counts. Two pounds is intrinsically a lot less damage than four. I still find myself holding onto the camera with one hand to keep it from bouncing against my belly button. And it can add up. But still the difference is tangible. The fact that it is a few inches shorter also helps in terms of the bobbling and ergonomics. 

Picture-wise, I think it is about on par with the Nikon. I doubt I'll be getting any amazing hummingbird pictures with either - but it suits my purposes pretty well.

 

I still haven't had as much of a chance to check out how it photographs raptors in flight - and forget about ever catching swallows in anything but a splotchy blur - but stationary things look how I want them to. 

I've taken a range of pictures (deleted most) to get a sense of how it functions. Needless to say, it always looks better on the viewfinder than on my computer or phone, but such is the nature of photography.

How many? 

Well. 

 When I went to transfer the photos off the SD Card after a photo walk, there were well over 250 photos!

Yeah...

... no. I actually have maybe taken (and not deleted) about twenty. 

Last Saturday, Allan and I went outside intending to take a walk and then got sucked into gardening instead. It is very cool that Allan actively wants to do "chores" like weeding and watering, so off we went into the yard with the crows to terrorize some willowherb and hawksbeard.  

Seems that as we got into it, Andrew returned home from a hike, found the camera in a pile of stuff I had set down when it was clear we wouldn't be doing a photo walk, and seems he took off with it to apparently take 1.5 gigabytes of photos. 

After a minor heart attack, I have zipped them up and sent them along. 

He would like to emphasize (unprompted, mind you) that he is not trying to steal my hobby. I mean it's his rental, so whatever. But... that was... a surprise! Reviewing photos is one of the more arduous part of photography, so I'm just as happy not to have that many at once. 

That method of rapid-fire photography is admittedly one of the better ways to happen into a few good shots. Unquestionably. The more you take, the better your chances of magic. But I find it incredibly overstimulating and - for me - counterproductive. It often means I can't engage with even looking at my photos, because they all just kind of blur together and I don't ever feel confident that I'm picking "the right one".

 I get overwhelmed when I have more than a few shots of the same scene. I end up hating them all, because each has some way that they're worse than the others, and none quite capture the true amalgam the multiple shots compose. Choice fatigue is real, yo!

Aaaanyhow, it's been nice to have a smaller camera, as it increases the likelihood I would actually want to take it anywhere with me. 

Like on our walks around the pond... Which have been a bit quieter in Birdland of late (somebody sent a lullaby perhaps?)

I think it's just that the birds have all completed their mating shenanigans and the fledglings are screaming a wee bit less for their munchies at their advanced ages, so it's just more business as usual after an upsurge of activity. 

The pond itself is having a moment, though. When I first noticed it had gone from a non-descript slaty color to "bright green" I thought somebody had added food coloring or something. The, um, earthy watery sludge smell tells a different story. 

For a few days, the pond was basically teal, with all the white froth looking a bit like a bridesmaid's tulle. But the waterfall has turned white and frothy again. I think the pond isn't quite as glaringly green. Fingers crossed. 

The crows however are everywhere!!!!

The babies are babes no more. I think they are more like teenagers now. This means their eyes are no longer that glassy blue - more onyx with a smack-dab of sapience - but they still have red mouths and rowdier personalities. Many give off constant raspy caws with extra vocal fry for reasons never specifically clear. They are much bolder now and have retrieved peanuts that we left on the fence posts for them a few times. They also did not fly away when we came into the alley to water some of the plants. They spar a lot like puppies but seem to generally get along alright. It's kind of amazing watching them all grow up so quickly. 

I'm not entirely sure where their parents have gone off to, although I'm still fairly certain that they have largely chosen to abscond to further reaches of their territories to avoid their very raucous children. Pretty sure the Cemetery was harboring many parental refugees.  

Allan would call this baby a crowrb. Baby actually isn't a baby. You can tell from the darker eyes and black mouth. 

But definitely baby is about ready to molt. Everything is looking a wee bit scruffy. 

Any any rate.

It's a boisterous time out and about... 

From all walks of too-smart-for-their-own-good wildlife. 

Love squirrels... outside... they can stay outside. 

I stopped feeding the squirrels some months ago, after too many started coming around and battling with each other. I never really wanted to feed squirrels as much as the far more timorous crows, but they sure arrived assertively to claim the peanuts. Nowadays, they've largely given up on the free meal, and I can leave some food out for the crows if I see them outside. But I try to be very careful, nonetheless.

Anyways, speaking of "hobbies" - The World Cup is over!!! I feel a bit empty. But what a way to go. Quite a weekend! I watched with my mom and sister, but it was - you know - the big deal. So everyone in the household had to watch! I don't ask for much here, but I need to share some games!

As you can tell, Andrew really enjoyed watching the soccer-football with us

He did rally (about as much as France ever did) after the fifteenth time I started shouting at a close call, and eventually got his phone out to keep himself occupied. Yes, we're a very big soccer household here... 

Allan - having taken her weekend half dose of Vyvanse - was extremely energetic for the entire round. C'mon FRANCE, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE GOOD!!! And MBAPPE DOESN'T CARE HE GOT THE GOLDEN BOOT!! And so on. 

In fairness, it was kind of a friendly exhibition game with a crazy number of goals because nobody felt like mounting a defense.

 Naturally, a more riveting game like THE FINAL drew a bit more attention!

Bwahahahahaha, ok, yeah he did wake up for the half time show, which I imagine was a very disorienting way to come back to reality!

The halftime show!!! 

(That was weird. Like really weird!)

We started out with some Muppets, which was not necessarily expected but ok. I like muppets. Solid intro. 

Then, I went to grab some lunch and came back in the middle of some kind of music video featuring Madonna looking like she's the human equivalent of a youthening glitter glow instagram filter. This blended into a White Stripes marching band of some sort. Some ode to Norway even though Norway was definitely not in the final, but everyone did get a lot of mileage out of those Haaland memes, so... fair...

The number of lusty fangirls about to start following Man City next season is going to be interesting. (No, I'm not lusty for this child, even though I think he's awesome. He kind of reminds me of my youngest nephew? Anyways, yay Norway! Everyone gets a racoon holding a liquor bottle!)

All this was followed by the Kpop sensations BTK... 

... I have been informed that it's BTS and BTK is a serial killer...

... but seriously we all watched Kpop Demon Hunters and we know that this entire boy band is in fact a bunch of demons attempting to drink up my soul like soda pop (my little soda POP)

Which feels pretty evil. I'm not down for that nonsense, for reals. 

..YOU WILL NOT BREAK THE HONMON ON MY WATCH, BTK!!!!!

Ok, Jinu, (one of them is Jinu, right?) lick my soul, baby... who'm'I kidding? 

Mmmmmmmmm yes, yes ok... 

I'm down on my knees, baby... 

What were we doing in this stadium again?

No wait, Demons were vanquished by... Ted Lasso...? I don't know. I watched like an episode one time and ok anyways he's gone and we have...  

White guy with a guitar... singing kind of a soulful love song maybe? I'm told it's Justin Bieber?? Last time I saw Biebs was in Zoolander 2, which I thought was pretty funny, but what do I know, nobody else in the world did. Also, I think he golfs? Anyways, I'm failing to understand what his soulful guitar ballad has to do with anything but ok. 

Ok, ok, Shakira seems fair given she's been to like almost ever World Cup game I've seen. 

And let's wrap that up with Miss Piggy and some kids?? Alright we did that!

... whew

I don't really watch the Superbowl stuff, so this was a novel experience. It didn't really have anything to do with soccer and was kind of distracting, but honestly, it didn't seem to do much bad for the players except make the Argentine players a fair bit more violent! I'm not saying they aren't always pretty rough, but once you get a yellow card you back the fuck off, boys! You spread those fouls out, luvs! I don't know what that red card nonsense was, but that was just poor planning. Very much the "I tried to play chess but then I started losing so I upended the entire chess board" vibes, which doesn't jive as well with the "implausible come back in the final moment" vibe they've been rocking the rest of the games. 

I was, incidentally, disappointed that they hadn't reserved a second show for the overtime halftime show. Not that a bunch of overheated players running through the sprinklers wasn't awesome. 

***

But yes, back to the camera. I was/am about 96% ready to embrace the mirrorless Sony (and I still think it might be the right camera for me) but then I saw this online video about a bridge camera that can digitally zoom to about 3000mm and that's a hell of a parlor trick. 

So that was... enticing. It turns out that this particular bridge camera can struggle with low light situations (which is the default light around here much of the year) but there is a wide world of bridge cameras, including one that is lighter than the Sony (barely) and zooms out about twice as much. 

So, the quest and its question continue. I absolutely forget what it is but it's out for delivery so let the shenanigans begin. On Monday because the UPS guy came when I was in the shower. 

Seems I'll have one week to play around with it before August explodes in my face and I lapse into some kind of overstimulated coma! Happy happy joy joy everyone!

Olympus Odyssey: Not the Nolan version

Counting one's mercies. Well, a week further away from the 4th of July shenanigans has not been fully bereft of warzone explosives, but an improvement. Despite the rather dire situation in Eastern Washington and most of Canada, I can say that we are not on fire... so far... it's early in the summer... 

I mean, not literally. Artistically, oh baby, I'm on FIIIIIRE!

As my birthday tentatively looms, Andrew has undertaken to find me an even-more-betterer camera set. My current camera - a Nikon DSLR from the beforetimes - is heavy enough to do a number on my already twisted and miserable back. Which is weird, because the whole set up is a smidge less than 4 pounds, but then again, you try wearing a 4 pound weight around your neck (along with your usual several pound purse and your very light binoculars).

 It's more awkward than you think! And it's enough that I've stopped taking it on walks every day, opting instead for every few days or any novel excursions. Also, might be contributing to the mystery ribs-back-stomach-hip pain that's fairly disconcerting these day, though probably not a primary mover. 

This, of course, cannot stand. 

Also, when I got into photography (ok, bought a camera so I could go to a photo walk in the hopes of maybe having a sense of identity outside of  disabled mother-and-wife) and then he got super obsessed with photography shortly after, I might have sulkily accused him of "stealing my thing" a few times. So, he may feel obligated to make sure I have a nice set up before he inevitably buys a few million cameras, some fancy lights, a subscription to Lightroom and whatever else gear is absolutely necessary to complete all the online photography challenges and work group showoffs and whatever else while I languish in obscurity with a creaky back and several thousand crow buddies ready to pick me dry for peanuts (it's not all bad).

Which, no cap, he totally did and I have deeply mixed feelings on that, but I'm not gonna sit around and sulkily pass up some improved gear for my millionth bird photo. 

And, I do really like the birdies. 

Rabbit hole unlocked.

Discernment begins. 

My personal process with any equipment is the following:

 1. Attempt to research what I should get. Get overwhelmed by all the specs and different features. Crash out. Buy something fairly at random with a sincere feeling of dread.

2. Feel panic when I receive said item. If I get it out of the box within the first week or so, we're all good. If I don't, then it sits in the box for several years until I forget it exists or give it away in a cleaning binge.

3. Assuming it made it out of the box, start using it a week or two later after several pep talks. 

4. Learn how to use it better by repeatedly getting frustrated when something doesn't do what I want and figuring out how to address the frustrating thing. Become attached as we reach a detente on frustrating things and gradual tweaks. 

5. Enjoy until I drop it enough to break it or possibly just lose it somewhere. If it's just a little broken, keep using it in its newer quirkier form. Keep dropping it until it's fully non-functional. 

6. Rinse. Repeat. 

7. Or start to do all that, get interrupted by a gearhead who knows in his soul that there is in fact a perfect tool for every user and by god it is his destiny to find it! Step back and try not to panic as the magic happens. We are working on #7. 

This camera process is a little more involved. Mostly in terms of Andrew telling me lots of things that sound like words when he says them but seem to go off fizzing off into the ether once I try to wrap them into any semblance of syntax. We get it down to like "big zoom good" "heavy bad" and then I can waltz with it, but there's always some processing involved (har har). What can I say? I go almost entirely by feel on pretty much all aspects of the camera, so it's a little hard to revert back to the technical underpinnings of the dials and buttons I pushed to get to whatever photo I wanted. 

 I think in the end he will probably propose the perfect camera with a pristine presentation mostly in Excel but I'm not ruling out PowerPoint and I'll be like "wow!"

That said, I am participating a decent bit more than average: the process so far has also involved fancy camera rental. 

First off: awesome you can rent cameras (though I'm terrified of breaking a rental). Second off. Yeah fancy camera!

Olympus Om cameras are super chic for birders. I think there was a lot more to the research experience beyond my "I saw a couple of targeted ads on Facebook" but I do know that much from my targeted Facebook ads. 

Turns out the fancy rental camera wasn't particularly lighter than my current (discovering this allowed Andrew to spend roughly the rest of the week obsessing over different camera builds in grams across a rainbow of different set-ups - expect his new guidebook SKINNY CAMERA! to be published in May), but it was definitely fancier.

 My Nikon is a DSLR that's 10 years young and comfortably used at this point. I bought this used because cameras are freaking expensive, I was literally buying this so I wouldn't look weird going on a "photo walk" I impulsively signed up for to get myself out of the house, and my hobbies have been known to (1) never actually take off, and (2) only last a few months if they do take off 

 Had I not spun myself up about birdies, this was a very likely trajectory. But here we are. It's been a good little steed, other than the scorching back pain and whatnot. It is also definitely a bit simple compared to more modern cameras. Probably a good thing in the great scheme of my learning process. 

 The Om is far more recent, mirrorless and much smarter than me. To a fault, at times, because I kept accidentally changing up settings (I'm not even sure how as it seemed to happen, while I was walking or possibly fidgeting with it) until it took full scale abstract art photography as the default.

 That said, it did have some very cool features. Including a very fast lens speed (8000) and the ability to take a crapton of photos very very quickly. Oh and a "bird mode" subject detection autofocus. Not entirely sure how important this was, but it did seem to correctly identify the general location of many birds and put little focus squares around some of their eyes. 

Whatever it did or didn't do, I'm really pleased with this picture of a female Anna's hummingbird it helped me get.

In a perfect world, I would like the lighting to be a bit different, but still... the camera caught the wings and I love it. 

I'm not sure I'll ever capture a picture quite like this again and I'm really grateful to have had the opportunity. 

Still, it was not a huge improvement in back-breakingosity, and it was - again - far too clever for me. The quest continues. Andrew needless to say, has several more pages of notes based on research following this experience. I will have the trimmest, fittest, zoomiest fastest damned camera in the world! Within reason!

Olympus did get one last hurrah before the return. On Sunday (Sunday having absolutely zero World Cup Games, because life is cruel like that and seriously we had to wait until Tuesday???) we went to Seahurst Park to check out low tide.

The environmental center does kind of an informal event most weekends of the summer, in which naturalists from the center hang around the beach and answer questions. It seemed like something we all would enjoy in our various ways. Allan by cavorting around investigating everything with her poking stick, Andrew by wandering about and taking pictures with his Sony camera, and me having a really nice hour and change of wandering around before starting to feel faint and achy and muttering about needing to go home soon for the next hour and a half without any particular conviction because it's nice to see Allan enjoying the world. This is how I party. 

We did not necessarily have many questions (I didn't anyways), but we did think it would be fun to go at low tide. At the very least, there were definitely going to be (sea)gulls. 

And of course, crows

Not a particularly awesome picture, photo-wise (I hit some random buttons on the fancy camera that rendered it partially unusable quickly enough to confound myself), but I just really love a good wingspread. I like bird wings, I dunno! Crows are so high-fash! Like who wouldn't want a cape that drapes like that?

There were also several geoducks, to Allan's delight. Miles of various seaweeds to slip and break one's neck on. Pebbles to help break your fall. Tons of little rivers and tide pools to slog through. And the general tide pool ambience. So. Many. Things. To. Poke!!!

Seahurst is a really cool park. I don't go there much, and largely just to meet people who are staying in Burien or thereabouts. But it has some fond memories and some cool landscapes. I heard a lot of birds in the woods as we walked into the park, and the trees were pretty cool. 

Wearing sneakers the entire time was a choice, since there is no way to go tidepooling without splashing through plenty of water. But I just don't have any actually waterproof boots, so wet socks it was! Best part about all that was changing into dry socks a little while later. Highly recommended. Super indulgent!

Anyways, it was a fun camera adventure until I fidgeted my way into a fairly inoperable camera and had to make do with my cellphone again. This was a bit of a repeated theme with the Om, and I do not blame it for being a little too clever for me. 

The Om has gone home, but the Odyssey continues. Next up: Sirens! Or Samsung. Or no, Sony I honestly get them all confused. No really, Sony! Something Sibilant.

The next rental came in the mail on Wednesday and it is 1.1 Kilos versus my current camera's 1.6 or 1.7 ( I can't totally remember because kilos are nonsense units to me). But it is markedly lighter. Stay tuned for my impressions on this... if I decide to share them... which I probably will, but you just never know!

While we wait... life!

Not to be daunted by a single beach, Allan and I returned to Puget Sound's edge for a playdate - hers, mostly, but I suppose I did participate in the frisbee toss and general wading. 

Yes, I had my cell phone camera hereabouts. It takes better pictures than most cameras I have owned, but now I'm spoiled enough to really notice all the deficits

The beach was exhausting, although not nearly as exhausting as yet another round of evening fireworks on the 13th and 14th. I guess some of our neighbors observe Bastille Day?? Be so for real. Serves France right that Spain beat their asses on their special day. 

Yes, yes they did! Oh my gawd, the World Cup is shaping up nicely. First Spain just trounced France and then Argentina did its heart stopping "rally from behind" to take England. I honestly don't care how the places go over the weekend, I'm just pumped to watch the games!

I've been watching with my mom and sister this year (via text - we're all pretty far apart), which has been quite nice. Usually it's a hard sell to get anyone to watch with me. Although Allan is moderately interested, as long as she can use her phone or kindle to fill in the gaps between excited announcer screaming! She also maxes out at a game per day, so I've been selecting one a day and watching the rest on the laptop. 

And, so, with that, I bid you all adieu. There may be a hike this morning. There definitely will be foot-soccer-ball. And - if I'm lucky - I will not break the hot new Sony and its fancy new lens.