Happy Birthday to bigcityal!

Yes, Ladycleo works for our tourism board. lol.
Victor, very funny.... tpk exit 7A nowhere near the GSP.
The taxes and traffic are getting to me.

Yep, Leno was making fun of us again tonight(I think it was a repeat, though).

You do have some interesting politics in Jersey!

Tell me about it, last year we were the only state that DIDN'T have a budget surplus and we're one of the states with the highest property taxes. Ah, excuse me what did you do with my money??!!

Check where the bodies are buried.

New Jersey is totally cool, but ya gotta live far away from the cities. New Jersey's cities are um, unattractive. I would've moved back to Chester when I sold my NY apartment, but I just couldn't afford it. I sure have wonderful memories of the place.

Harper

WoW - how did I stay away from this one? Some kool beans here. It started with Pirls neighbors and went to Mich how does Al get in this forum to NJ. And everything in between.

Everyone plant posion ivy. Send it to Pirl and he can get it going in the direction of his neighbors land. Ohh that thought is evil.

Harper, it would be great having you and Pirl as neighboors... I am not afraid of you girls!!!!! can just imagine the amazing gardens....

Would we ever get anything done or would we be sitting and talking?

A new concept - a talking garden!

I'm already arguing with my plants, I usually win.

As long as you're holding the pruners.

I was yelling at the fool coleus today. They keep falling over, in their pots, with some of these winds. Many pieces broke off and no matter how I yelled they wouldn't stay put. I'm rooting the viable pieces.

That's not how to teach a lesson, you have to grind them into the ground in front of the others.

And then draw that chalk circle around them. Crime scene tape helps too.

I'll resort to my fire weeder on a stick if they try it again: burn baby, burn.

I protect my fire weeder on a stick and only use it for emergencies.

So high tech, I only have my magnifying glass.

I'm getting a fire weeder!! WooHoo! Long ago, on Mother's Day I was promised one. It's finally been ordered.

Kass, my yard would look like Hee Haw and Pirl's would be gorgeous! I'm a very sloppy gardener.

sloopy!

that too. You saw the weeds! That's not grass there.

That's it - native!

Native New Yoakah

........and here I thought you were a Chester NJ gal!

I am not the most organized either... right now I have tons of things all over the place... lol....I have all the intensions of being organized... but then I see a pretty flower and get my camera and there goes the end of the work... I think gardening has awaken the other passion I always had which is photography.... my dad was a photographer when he was younger and we always liked to talk about it... so now I plant and take pictures....

so I don't really worry about my garden not being perfect... I have pics to take!!!!

Photography was what led me to gardening, Kassia.

Kassia, please remember to capture the WHOLE flower. Know what I mean??

That's really cool Kassia and pirl. Photography is wonderful and plants are some of the most perfect subjects.

Pirl, I am from Chester, NJ. I've only been in NY since '94. That doesn't make me a native, does it? Sorry....

Nancy I am taking your advice to heart.... every picture I take I think of you and what you could do with that....
I have been so busy this week .... vacation and all.... tons of gardening and cleaning... but I will email you the pictures I promissed!!!

Pirl, we ended up at the same place... at DG!!!!! so interesting!!!

I have mentioned to Nancy and Jan how my roses deserve a better camera.... oh I am dreaming with Panasonic Lumix FZ8.... and I have spent the last 2 hours reading about Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.... I am tempted to get that one too....I want to try before I get it.... with all these pictures I can't help it but dream about it!!!

Kassia, with a good Photo program, you can improve any photo. Here's what happened to yours.

You use photoshop, right Nancy?

Harper: you can be a honorary native New Yorker. Is that okay?

Paint Shop Pro, Anita. You like what you get used to. I suppose they are all very good.

Kass - try the Elements 5 demo. I've been stalling in the off season here and need to pick up 5 myself. I'm on the CS3 demo now, I tried the PSP11 demo and Elements5 demo so far.

Oh Nancy it looks great.... I love it...

I am trying the open source one GIMP this week ... my friend Mike told me that is very similar to Photoshop... let's see!!!

Al, did you like the demo for Element5?

I am using FX Photo - it was an impulse buy... it does few nice things but is not what I really want!

I love Picassa for the organization thing... it's nice because I can send pics to my blog etc... but is so limited!!!! .. ACDSEE came with my camera and it's ok for organizing too... but also limited...

I will let you guys know how it goes!!!

I liked 5, it looks like it should be around $40 to get online. Actually for what I use it for it was better than CS3 which is about $300.

In my humble... people depend too much on fixing photographic errors and shortcomings, rather than preventing them. It's really not hard to become a better photographer. In fact, it's probably easier than learning some of these software packages! Digital makes it so much easier to take better pictures compared to the film days.

Victor I agree... but I am a banana head... I get way to excited and end up taking so so pictures.... now I am getting a better camera so it's a bit heavier so I may be a bit more focused!!!!

I am not going to alter all the pics ... just some... the one thing I want to do is be creative in terms of collages and adding borders... my nephew did so many cool things with Corel 11... I have not spent the time with corel but by the looks of it it's way too much for me... I don't know!!!

I agree you can do some real cool things with these programs - that's why I keep saying I'm going to get one and get into it. Just hasn't happened yet!

What camera are you getting. I've been 'lusting' after the Nikon D200 for over a year now. It's a phenomenal camera - it's two years old now and still has hardly come down in price - proof positive!

Victor - I will agree to an extent with you on using them, but you can't fix a bad photo(because I've tried) they can only improve what is already there. They are great fun - I've never even read any instructions on them.
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