Costco is flipping sweet!

About a month ago Cindy and I noticed that our Costco does picture enlargements. These enlargements aren't 5x7 or something like that... they are monsters! I thought about one day seeing how they look but never got around to it until yesterday. I decided to find a picture that was really clear and Cindy mentioned something about this picture... so I found it - tweaked it (more on that below) and printed it at the following sizes:

11"x14"
16"x20"
20"x30"

I was really amazed at how clear it turned out at the biggest of sizes. My camera is only a 10.2 megapixel DSLR....so I figured that it would be limited. The other limiting factor is that I cropped it (making the picture less than 10.2 MP ...). The dark gray area is what was cut out. All of these things were playing against the overall quality of the picture.

The thing that I noticed the most was that that the whiskers seemed a little blocky/pixellated...when you get close to the print. That originally made me think that the 20x30 was a step beyond what I should ever print... but then I realized that with my fancy imaging software I oversharpened the image.

Notice how the whiskers are a little jagged along the edges? I should have never made it like that before printing!

This is much more natural looking. But I guess you live and learn?! I think those prints were the best 20 dollars I have ever spent on prints (there were actually 3 11x14's...1 16x20 and 1 20x30 in that 20 bucks).

Why......hello there!

"Officer Shea"

Now that you have gasped some....I decided that it was time to shave off after 6+ years. Why? My skin gets really dry and crackly under it... so I am letting it go and will let it come back in the coming weeks. Cindy has never seen me without it... and she is asleep right now (nap queen) and is in for a surprise... but she did know it was coming as she suggested it. Now for 5 minute progression.

Angry face.... not sure I want to do it.

Give me some leather chaps, vest and a Harley. I could almost fit in.

The regret phase....

I want to say... this goes back to Freshman or Sophomore year of college....01 to 02ish. I am amazed at how sensitive the skin under there was. It is bright red now... hopefully it will stop burning (and bleeding)!!

Enjoy a laugh on my behalf.

Blog slacking to a whole new degree....

It has been a long time since the last update (dont believe the june date on Cindy's last post... that is just when we got the car).

A lot has gone on over the last few months... I spent a few weeks in Kansas City getting training and have been to western Alaska for work. Cindy has been keeping busy with work and has recently joined a book club. Both sets of family have been up for about a week each...and they got to experience the good and bad weather of Alaska. In all.. we hope to eventually catch up with some blog posts in the near future...so I will wet your appetite with some pictures I took yesterday on a hike (alone) in a town south of here.

Click for a larger (and clearer) size!

View in an avalanche area near the Alyeska Hotel

Winner Creek Gorge

Hand tram that goes over the creek (and is a PAIN in the rear when I just want to go across and come back)

Saw too many of these fresh bear prints on the way to Berry Pass... I decided to turn around and go on a much more traveled path after I encountered close to 3 dozen tracks within a half mile on the trail.

Size comparison of the print to my size 11 shoes. The claws are literally the width of a #2 pencil. I am glad I didn't run into any...but I did have my bear spray at my side in case one decided to mess with me.

Subi!

A new car!!!

Well, new to me anyway! Now that I have a job for sure, we thought it was time we could purchase another vehicle. We had been sharing the other Subaru since we got it in February 2008. Carpooling to work, trying to coordinate pick ups, drop offs, hobbies...we did just fine really. But now we have the freedom to come and go as we please, and leave for work at a reasonable time instead of 45 minutes early or leaving an hour late. So we found a 2001 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS...4 door, sunroof, low miles....perfect for me! I had the same car, only a 2 door version and dark blue back in 2001, and it was my pride and joy. I loved that car so much, but had to sell it when the car payment was more than my rent. I had always hoped that I could have a similar car someday, and now I do!

Roadtrip - Day 7 (Final day!)

Our last day on the road....



So some of you may be wondering how we slept in the car.

Thanks to my mom's ingenious idea, we fabricated a screen for one of the windows so we could leave it open some while we slept without mosquitos. The first night we both tried laying on the folded down back seat, but that didn't work so well for Sam. So this time he slept in the reclined front seat, and I slept in the trunk/cargo area.

Luckily we could put a lot of our stuff in the rooftop cargo thing so it wasn't too bad at all. I usually sleep scrunched up like that anyway. If I could have had another 2" it would've been perfect.

Sam actually let me sleep until 7:30ish, so I woke up slightly less cranky.

Time to hit the road! We drove for a little while to Tok, and had breakfast at Fast Eddy's. It was still pretty cloudy, so we missed the Wrangell St. Elias mountains that I was really hoping to see since it was raining on the way there too. We did get to see the Mentasta Range though, which were beautiful!

This a good example of road conditions along the Alcan. The cones on the side of the road are emphasizing the frost heave - basically where the pavement breaks up or folds, causing rolls, bumps, mini-hills that you need to slow down for or pay dearly. A lot of them from the previous year that the Milepost noted had been fixed, but there was a whole batch of new ones.

I never get tired of seeing moose

We enjoyed the scenery, and made it home by late afternoon. We had a great time and saw some amazing things. We would highly recommend this trip!