Rio Bistro

If any of you ever have the opportunity to visit Pueblo, Colorado, I recommend eating dinner at the Rio Bistro. I was so impressed with the owner, the staff, the food, EVERYTHING! You can read my blog for more details: http://totallytaggarts.blogspot.com/ .

Blaine's Wedding

Oregon Coast

Donnell and I travelled to the Oregon Coast with our friends Bob & Connie Price April 25-28. We stayed in Netarts, about 8 miles from Tillamook, Oregon. Tillamook: The land of Cheese, Trees and Ocean Breeze (and Cow Manure). I've never seen so many bovine. The smell was so strong you could taste it. They have great cheese though. I've been eating a lot of cheese lately. I can't seen to get enough. But I digress.

The four days we spent by the sea were relaxing and allowed my back to recover from the move. We went to Church in the Tillmook Ward on Sunday and heard three wonderful talks on forgiveness. We hiked down Cape Lookout and walked the beaches looking for agates. It was hard to come back to a house full of boxes and of course work.

Star Wars - an a capella tribute to John Williams

This is pretty incredible. Whether you like John Williams, Star Wars, or music this is fun to watch. I hope you all enjoy it.

Portraits

By Jon Marrelli

In an attempt to learn a bit more about how the software I recently purchased actually works, I have spent the last few days playing around with some photos in my library. I was able to punch up a few landscapes, and show some details in some architecture.

However, I've never been that great at taking photos of people. I like landscapes and architecture, and as a result I take a lot of photos of them. I am always worried about what people will think of photos I take of them, and as a result, I don't take that many. This is something I really want to fix.

So with that in mind, I have worked on the two portraits below, both to attempt to boost my technical knowledge of my new software and to start learning about taking photos of people. Please leave me some feedback about what you like or don't like about them.

The Greasy Spoon

I've added another family blog to the "Finer Links" located to your right. This is for "The Greasy Spoon" a blog created by our own Chef Chris. According to the blog description, this is the place for greasy gears and recipes, and a place to share frustrations of Ford trucks and delicious recipes. So enjoy the gift of grease, gears, and gustatory goodies.

My Hobby - Photography.

By Jon Marrelli

Today I received my copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2, which is a photo organizing and editing software.

I am very excited about this. As most of you know, photography has become a big hobby of mine recently. I have been having a lot of fun taking pictures, which I generally upload to my Flickr account. (see top right corner of the blog for a sample from it.) Moving forward, Lightroom will let me organize much better, and my Flickr feed will be more of a showcase for my best efforts. Right now it is kind of a catch all for my photos. 

Tonight I was able to use Lightroom to take two "okay" photos and turn them into something a bit better. I just wanted to share these, as I'm really excited about getting a little bit better at photography.

This has gotten me wondering what everyone likes to do for a hobby or for fun. Please post about what you have a passion for, and interest in, or just have fun doing.