It has been a while since I have been on the conversation side of the FN. So, I totally was missing this thread. Congrats Sharon and Susan on getting Canon cameras like mine. You both will love them!!! Good choices you made! I bought two sets of 4 AA rechargeable batteries in 2005 when I got my camera and kept recharging them over and over again. I just threw out one of the sets about a month ago. They sure lasted a long time! The other set is still going. The third set I used at the start were batteries I found at home but I misplaced one or two of the batteries and so, never used that set much. Now, everytime I go somewhere with my camera, I throw the recharger in my purse with the 4 freshly recharged batteries in it. It is amazing how often I will be in the middle of the Westman Gardeners meeting taking pictures and the batteries will die then or in the midst of another function and they die. Just taking the few extra seconds to throw in the freshly recharged batteries in the purse sure has been a lifesaver. I have now taken about 25,000 pictures with my camera...it rolls over at the 9999 number to 0 again....of course, I haven't kept all of them but have a lot in the computer though! Thanks Susan for the fun sites to explore this winter. I have all the pictures I took this summer to label, crop, adjust lighting on, etc etc. this winter when I can't work outside anymore. It will be fun to work with some of the pictures with the fun techniques. I was given a Manfrotto tripod with a joystick head (pistol grip) for my birthday in June to use along with my camera and haven't taken the time to experiment with it and my camera. I am hoping for time this winter. Just wait...that will be the next thing on your wish list, Sharon and Susan. Brenda

What a fun thread! Now, as in my most recent 'former life' I was a professional in the computer arena, I find I must comment that y'all who are using 'spreadsheets' should seriously consider overcoming the somewhat steep learning curve and convert that data into relational databases. The reasons are too numerous and complex to discuss in a mere posting, but those who do it will come to full understanding of why it is worth it. Email was optimized for fast, efficient communication. Spreadsheets were designed for complex numerical data manipulation and presentation. Databases are for robust reliable and cross-referencing of data. I wish I could easily and succinctly write why you should store your data in a database. Again, those who have misused spreadsheets for data storage and have been burnt, or had their data munged will strongly agree with me. Been there, done that, not going back. Even a 'flat-file' database will beat any spreadsheet, hands-down, for data manipulation, data safety, and even speed. Yes, I alluded to the fact that learning database vs. spreadsheet is steep, but the rewards are sooo many. hh

Hi Betsy! Glad to "see" you again too! How goes the new job? And Sheryl, great job on the Christmas gift bought! You're doing better than I am this year...for some reason, I am not even a little bit organized as far as gifts go this year! I have to mail a wedding present for a cousin who got married at Christmas (will do that today), and I'm working on a baby afghan for another cousin who is pregnant...hopefully I can get that mailed to her *before* the baby comes, as it was supposed to be a shower gift! Obviously, I really need to be back here on a regular basis, so you guys can help me stay organized! ;-) Julie, congrats on the sprouting flowers! My hubby won't let me do any more outside planting until he gets the yard spruced up, so it will probably be awhile. ;-)I bet things growing in your basement really make you "itchy" to get out and start planting stuff!! Married life is great...it's really great to be working toward the same long-term goals with someone else (and sharing the bills too!). LOL My husband is wonderful - but I knew that long before I married him, so I expected no less. That's the nice thing about having dated for so long before we got married - we knew each other very well, good and bad, so we both knew what to expect. He's still my best friend, not just my hubby, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. ;-) My dogs are doing well - getting older, unfortunately. Vashti (my doberman) is 8 this year, which is the average life span for her breed. I can tell that old age is starting to get to her a bit, so we'll see. My collie is getting older as well - we don't know her exact age, but she was older when I got her. We'll probably lose both of the "girls" within a couple of years, sadly. But we'll enjoy them for as long as we can. :-) Gabriel (my dobe/lab x) is doing well too - he's around 6 or 7 now, so still in his "prime". He started having seizures a few years ago, and still has them, but otherwise is healthy. All the dogs *love* the huge yard we have now, and more room in the house to spread out. We were pretty crammed into my first house, and they've all adjusted quite well. It helps that we moved into a neighborhood where everyone likes/has dogs - my collie isn't such a problem when she has to go out and "bark" good morning to everyone. ;-) As for the new house - uh...slowly but surely is our motto. :-) We worked pretty hard on the basement this winter, getting my husband's pool room all decorated and organized with bookshelves and such. We still have a couple more shelves to buy, and then it will be pretty much done. We've also been creating a "movie room" adjacent to the pool room - painting and moving furniture in and such. It's starting to look really great too! My hubby reorganized our storage room, and it works much better now for all the holiday/seasonal decorations I have - that was another project this winter. So we've been steadily working away. Our next project is working on the lawn, and getting a storage shed built in the back yard, so we can clean his mom's stuff out of our garage (long story), and get that space back for our cars, and a wood-working area for him. So lots of plans and lots to do...but well worth the work. As for the main floor - organization is badly needed in a few areas. My office is a mess - I've been working on it, but it needs a lot of help. My closet needs "help" as well...and we have to figure out a better way of dealing with clothes at night. But we'll get it all organized eventually. If that wasn't long-winded enough, here's my "report" for the rest of the weekend: - I showed my husband the shopping lists I created on my PDA. One for the main grocery store, one for costco, one for "miscellaneous" and one for the pet store. So he knows where to add things to the list that he needs - and he made use of that yesterday to add his things to the list. He also added his things to the calendar, and where I had "What's for dinner" reminders on the calendar every day, he made a note with his requests. LOL - He saw that "Vaccuum" was on the list for yesterday, so while I was out running errands, he vaccuumed for me, which was helpful. - I also scheduled an alarm to go off at 9:00pm every night to remind me to work out. Hopefully that will get me moving again. The one bad thing about marriage is that I've gained about 20 lbs since the wedding...time to get back to working out again and get healthy, for both of us! - I looked for a bill-organizer, but couldn't find one, so will have to order that online. - Got some more laundry done, but not put away. - Made my bed this morning. - Cleaned the kitchen last night...not as well as it should have been, but getting closer. - Got 2 of my aquariums cleaned - will clean the goldfish tank tonight So I got some little things done...a good start. And I followed my morning routine this morning, and was much more organized. I know what's for dinner tonight, and I have my list of "to do's" for my lunch break all ready to go. So I'm starting out organized this week - I just hope I can keep it up! :-)

Hi ... using my wife's call sign. I am in the process of digitizing my slides and will eventually digitize a boat load of my father-in-law's (60+ years worth). I did some research and found that, as mentioned, scanners will do the job, but they're very slow. So, if you're digitizing a few rolls of slides, they'll work fine. But, it's probably takes too much time if we're talking about hundreds or thousands of slides. I have a DSLR, a Nikon D80, and some old slide copying equipment ... a Nikon PB-5 bellows and a Nikon PS-5 slide copier. I attached to this set up a Nikon 28-85mm zoom lens, set at 85mm. With this set up, I can take a digital image of a 35mm slide without cropping (see the picture in the link). You need to use a lens longer than 50mm to avoid the APS-C sensor cropping. My 85mm may not be ideal (a Nikon 105mm Micro/Macro is probably better), but it's what I have available. So, how's this work? Images are OK, not as sharp as the original slide but acceptable. Speed is outstanding. If you don't need to alter the exposure, it's a matter of popping in one slide, hit the trigger, pop in the next. I can digitize a 36-exposure roll in about 15 minutes. I also understand you can use a macro lens (attached directly to the camera body ... no bellows) along with a extension rings in front of the lens, attached to a slide copy holder. Here's a link: http://www.scantips.com/es-1.html Here is a link that might be useful: Digitizing 35 mm slides - Nikon D80