Yet Another Date Night...

Natalie and I usually have fancy date nights at fancy places with fancy people and fancy music playing... like this one:

This is my first foray into timelapse photography. I've always found it extremely interesting... and I hope to tackle some more interesting projects, but I thought this would be a good start.

If you're interested in making your own time lapse photography, here are the tools I used (and a couple I found and didn't have to use).

1. A webcam. I used a Logitech C200. $30. Available at Walmart.
   
2. Webcam Timershot Powertoy for XP-- this saves JPG files at specified intervals from your webcam. I've seen lots of people have problems with the program not detecting webcams, and I've actually had a lot of trouble in the past, but I had no trouble with mine now.
   
3. Yawcam-- free webcam software with motion detection, FTP upload... seems very cool. You can even set it up as a quickie security system! I will probably use this in the future because Timershot doesn't support Vista or Windows 7.
4. JPGVideo-- this takes a series of JPG files and combines them to create a video file.
5. Windows Movie Maker-- I use this to do editing, video compression, and adding music and effects.

Simple-- and all (except the webcam) free! Hurrah!

Ooops

We're still here. Promise.

We have two posts in the works, but between work, the holidays, and renovating the bedrooms we haven't had much time to do anything else.

We also have a fun craigslist find to share with you guys once Graham finishes up the post.

Hopefully (Graham hates it when I say that, apparently it is not proper English), we will get a new post up for you guys soon.

Our Christmas Tree

We just finished cleaning off our brand new (to us) 1959 aluminum Christmas tree, delivered directly from my grandma's barn in northeastern Indiana.

Complete with a color wheel, spinning base with music box.

Now we're all in the Christmas spirit. Merry Christmas, everybody!!

Countdown to Christmas

A few weeks ago, Natalie gave us an ultimatum (Why? I don't know... but she did): finish all four bedrooms by Christmas. Well, we're not going to be anywhere near done, but we're still working like crazy people to try to get as much done as possible.

This includes:

• getting our new Christmas tree cleaned off (it lived in a barn for a couple of years and mice made a nest in it)
• finishing drywall work and texturing in the study
• painting all four bedrooms
• removing border wallpaper from 3 bedrooms
• buying new carpet for all bedrooms
• installing new baseboard and trim in all bedrooms.

So, here's what has become of our house in the meantime:




I think I was just looking for an excuse to throw the Benny Hill theme song onto our blog. That song makes anything more entertaining.

A hint of things to come...

Life has been crazy for us the last couple of months. Natalie just finished with open enrollment, my company has grown a lot and I've been having to handle a handful of new client. Just wanted to throw a post up and let everybody know we're still alive and kicking. I will post some more work-in-progress pictures in the following days.

Here is this evening's entertainment. More to follow. Merry Christmas!