A Foggy Day in St. John's

There are a few more pics online at my picasa web album. Kristy and I were in St. John's today, running around some of our old hang outs. These shots were taken from Signal Hill - it was too foggy from the very TOP of the hill . . . this is about halfway up.

It was a good day. We had dinner at Swiss Chalet with my parents and hung out with some of our family a little later who are moving to the "mainland."

It's pretty crazy how quickly this time is going by. But it's been a lot of fun and we still have a couple of days left!

Let me know what you think.

Grace,

Des 

Shots from Newfoundland

I'm VERY happy to be home in Newfoundland. I had forgotten how beautiful this place really is. I'd DEFINITELY forgotten how beautiful it is in the summer time. This is the first summer that I've been home in about 3 years. We ended up taking a trip with Kristy's family to the West Coast.

Kristy's brother Scott is involved with a dinner theatre in Corner Brook. So we piled in a couple of cars ("We" being Kristy's entire family and their respective spouses) and travelled for several hours across the province. The dinner theatre was amazing, even better than the stops at Tim Horton's every couple of hours.

I REALLY enjoyed myself. We stayed at a litte motel by the Humber River, just outside of Corner Brook. There was a lot of laughing and a lot of eating. It was the first time that we ALL had a chance to be together and it ended up being a lot of fun.

The west coast of Newfoundland really is pretty amazing. Now that I live in the mountains of North Carolina, it's neat to be able to compare them to something. The mountains here are definitely much older and much more worn than the lush Appalachians. But no less beautiful.

There are a lot more photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/desmondcsmith so feel free to go there and check those out (30+ photos for now, with more to come). It's neat being blown away at how beautiful your homeland is. Kristy has said that it's too bad it takes going away to really appreciate what we have here.

I definitely agree.

Grace,

Des

Picasa - Organize Your Photos

So, now that I have a digital camera, I take a LOT of digital photos. I'm also a recently converted Mac user who lived most of his life on a PC. Mac has iPhoto - it's a no brainer to use it. But, if you're a PC person, and you're a digital camera person, you need to download Picasa. It's by Google. It organizes your photos. And it's amazing.

What's neat about Picasa is that you can automatically import all of your photos from your camera/memory card, catalog them, edit them, crop them, add neat effects, and print them, all from within Picasa itself. On top of that you can email them using any number of services, make gift CDs with slideshows, blog photos, and even order prints from professional printing companies (Kodak, SnapFish, Walgreens, Wolf Camera, etc, etc). Plus, because it's from Google you can even search through your catalog to

If I didn't have iPhoto, I would be desparate for Picasa. Check it out. You can download it for free using the button to the right of this post - "Google's Photo Software . . . "

Official!

Well, a few days ago, Kristy had received word that we were approved for our Green Cards. We also were notified that we may need additional biometrics, but if not, the cards would be sent directly to our home address.

Today we got home from camp. AND, lo and behold, in our mailbox were two envelopes. And, in said envelopes, two "Permanent Resident Cards!" So here we are. Permanent residents of a foreign land.

But it is SUCH a weight lifted from our shoulders!

Des

Video: 'Liquid morale' flows in Kandahar

Tim's in Kandahar

*This article can also be accessed if you copy and paste the entire address below into your web browser.
http://www.cnn.com/video/partners/clickability/index.html?url=/video/offbeat/2006/07/02/chao.can.donuts.kandahar.affl

Some time ago, a friend of mine told me that a Tim's Horton's was opening in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It's true. Granted, the only way that I can get it HERE is to bribe and/or plead with friends who will be in the vicinity of a Tim's.

This is a short video from CNN showing the soldiers lapping it up.

Grace,

Des