Happy Festivus... Poodles had a (mostly) great year!

[poodlesrule]

Happy end of the year to all fellows Fretters and hangers-ons -if you are just lurking, join in!

Look at what The Chief did over at Truefire... wow!

Poodles had a mostly good year.
Lots of (other people's) music: Two super regional festivals, Open Mics, local bands (some now friends), year-end benefits, and even credits on two CDs (fan and "$upport")!
I think my music efforts may even regressed. Need to address that. A factor was setting a music room in basement. Did not work well, a convenient excuse. More work (thoughts and investment) needed there.
Health (my other hobby) was going OK until a liver functions acted up a little, under investigation right now, hoping it's not going to upset the cart.

And I am back into photography, with y new Panasonic LX7!
I hear it is great at macro work, even in stock form...

[tjcurtin1]

Sounds good, Poodles, more good stuff than bad! I hope that all remains good and that 2014 treats you well! Let me know if you are heading to the River Club or Narrows ever, maybe we can meet up.

[Duffy]

That is definitely a nice camera. I have a Nikon DSLR D5000 and some lenses. I can do everything I want with it. I also picked up a point and shoot Nikon L820, that takes surprisingly good pictures for an inexpensive camera; and it has a 30 power optical zoom Nikon lens. The 820 doesn't have any manual modes though, and to approximate certain manual settings you have to use the preset "scene" settings, of which there are a lot of choices. I want to get something like that Nikon 520 point and shoot that has all the manual setting options, plus a LCD screen that folds away into the back of the camera so that hard plastic is on the outside, not the glass of the screen. This protects the screen from breaking the glass a lot better.

The 820 is super convenient though, and is great for taking places with a minimal amount of stuff and it still takes great pictures within the scope of what it is, even in low light, which is something that I look for in a camera.

Good luck with that new camera and I hope your liver values are falling into your goal range. It is good that your doctor is on top of that.

[Tig***]

Merry Christmas, poodlesrule and family, as well as you other guitar hounds out there.

The T house has had plenty of ups and downs, but it has been a fantastic year overall. Last weeks $700+ in vet bills for George the cat's run in with a tom and a car, plus the dog's kennel cough was better than watching any of them die during the holidays.

We had a nice family get together last night with my grandfather and cousins. Here's the annual 5 generations photo. My grandfather at the bottom is nearing 94, but is looking frail lately.

L to R:
Me, my dad (next), my nephew (middle) from my older brother (second from right), my uncle (right)
little Noah, my nephew's son
my granddad (seated)