I’m temping for the government (the Ministry of Low-End Digicams, haha), hence the Ontario Ministries symbol on my passcard. It’s supposed to be for a week, but that remains to be seen as the office is shortstaffed due to jury duty and people on summer holiday. Today I worked until 6pm and lunch was a quick bite across the street.

I get to use my beloved Excel again, although it’s a Windows 2000 version (phooey), and missing some rather important features that I’m accustomed to having at my disposal in XP.

It’s only 11 o’clock and I’m ready to hit the sack!

It’s not just because I’m back on a working schedule again — for the first time since 2004! — it’s because of the PETS. I have to get up at 7am to walk Gigi, chase Hugh down and give him his two pills, eat breakfast, take a shower, get ready, out the door, then get back home asap to do the whole thing all over again: walk Gigi, pill Hugh, buy groceries, eat.

*eyes drooping*

Bath, then I’m going to pass out, hopefully not in the bathtub.

Totally different from Harbourfront Centre in Vancouver and great for a summer afternoon/evening once the morning clouds moved on. (Shot these with my regular digicam, not the cameraphone like the previous pic.)

When I took my eyes away from my plate, Gigi jumped up and tried to eat one of the tacos I bought at the world food fair at Harbourfront Centre. I didn’t know until a man walked by and started to laugh, which made me look over and I saw her nab a chorizo. Little rascal!

Flight by Cat Faery Shari

So I’ve been posting photos I’ve taken with the Nokia 6682 mobile phone for the past few days, but its convenience doesn’t touch on what you can achieve with a regular digicam.

Shari took this photo last month with a Canon PowerShot SD500, which is in the category of “regular digicam” (like my Canon PowerShot A80). Cameraphones like the Nokia 6682 don’t have the shutter speed range to capture fast-moving objects such as birds in flight. (Great shot, Shari!)

However, I was fairly pleased with the phone’s results yesterday to get some shots of the kids on swings. The challenge was not only the kids moving, but that it was cloudy and coming up towards early evening.

More photos from yesterday.

I like the photo on the right, but there’s no in-camera cropping tool. You can only see the expression on Jakim’s face if you view it at full size, which is 1280×960 for this phone. It has 6x digital zoom, but digital zoom is a useless feature for capture. After all, if you want to zoom in on your subject AFTER the photo is taken you can on the phone (and any other device after upload), but digital zoom is not “real” zoom, i.e., you are only enlarging the available pixels, not capturing more detail at a closer distance. Anytime you see “digital zoom” touted somewhere, it’s merely a marketing gimmick, not a selling point.

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This is what contrite looks pretends to look like. I’d scolded Jakim (4) for picking flowers out of a sculpted garden.

“But I got it for you!”

Less than 10 minutes later, Gigi the beagle spotted a rabbit, pulled Yanis (6) so hard he faceplanted down a hill and was dragged through thistles, and while I was attending to the ensuing chaos, Jakim ran off towards a street full of cars!

Thankfully, THANKFULLY, all’s well that ends well, but I am NEVER going to take all three of them out without three leashes!

*yawn*

Played photographer’s assistant this morning for a Picture the Cure shoot (see the Heroes gallery), leaving the pets alone again to ease them into sharing their living space with each other. When I returned, I fed Hugh his medicine and took Gigi out along the waterfront for a good long walk. It had rained on and off this morning, but the clouds have thinned out and hopefully we won’t get drenched this afternoon when I take her to the park.

Hugh’s being an ornery old goat today. When I was eating toast, Gigi was watching me intently and Hugh snuck around behind me to sniff her tail. I thought this was a good sign, but not long after that he started hissing and going after her.

Why now, Hugh?!?! So much for peace talks.

It’s been an interesting day here in Yuppieville, the best Friday I’ve had in a while.

I took Miss Gigi out for a two-hour walk and errands this afternoon, and when we returned Mister Hugh didn’t even hiss at her — this is progress!

Hugh seems more energetic today and his appetite for chicken has returned, as evidenced by a wild-eyed look once I imprisoned Gigi in another room so he could eat in peace. I spoke to the vet about whether I should keep to the pill schedule and reduce the frequency of the bethanechol chloride to 2x per day instead of 3x, and he said we should try it, but continue to give Hugh 1/2 pill each time instead of the regular 1/4. He isn’t anywhere near regular yet, and folks, this is what it’s come to:

I am a Poop Hunter and I am Hugh’s Pee Cheerleader. If any of you could see what I do to try to get Hugh to use the litterbox… really, the only way it could be more embarrassing is with pom-poms. After Hugh achieves successful expulsion, I give him treats and shower him with praise — “Good BOY!” — like he just won a triathlon. Pet ownership is a slippery slope to MADNESS, I’m telling you.

In other news, I picked up the promo cards for Picture the Cure from the printer and they look great!

And best of all, I received an agency call this afternoon — I’ve got a week-long assignment starting Monday, working for the Ontario government. Hooray!

More “walking the dog” photos after the jump. All shots are from the cameraphone.

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My stomach started to grumble around 5:00 today, and I got the irresistible urge for sushi. In Vancouver I ate sushi all the time, but with sushi purveyors practically on every block the temptation is… on every block! Here in Toronto, it’s been more a case of out of sight, out of mind.

I decided to ring up China and see if she was interested in joining me, since the last time we had sushi together was on the north side of town and she expressed an interest in expanding her raw fish horizons. We went to Sushi Time on Queen Street West, because my cravings preceded my patience for trying out a place I hadn’t tried before and I wanted their Japanese pizza. I can’t say it’s like the traditional okonomiyaki because it bears very little resemblance other than being round in shape and topped with salmon, but Sushi Time’s version is very tasty and I highly recommend it. In fact, the filling reminds me somewhat of the seafood spring rolls at Gyoza King in Vancouver. Man, I miss that place — I have to search for a Toronto equivalent soon.

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– as seen on Mel’s site, 2bitstudios.com

I watched this a few days ago and was enthralled by this wunderkid. I love breakdancing — it’s one of the best things that ever came out of the 80s, if you ask me.