au.was.here.

it's supposed to be scrapping night really but as usual, it's eat fest for us girls. this week it's at Coco Asian Bistro. the food was yummy yet not expensive (just the way we like it!) but you'd think it would be judging from the bright, warm yet cool interiors. the food was Asian fusion type.






and their version of Hong Ba, a popular chinese dish which is a favorite in my own household. theirs taste pleasantly different than ours, though.

again a delicious and simple weekender for us scrapbookers. i wonder where the next week will find us. hopefully scrapbooking for a change instead of just engorging ourselves with yummy delicacies...hmmm...or maybe not! :-D more photos HERE.

ok...the reason i was so insistent on getting an sb800 (Nikon flash aka strobe) is because i have been hanging out this really cool site called strobist.com. (so many things to learn there but it makes you long for more gear.) i have an old flash, an sb26 (a remnant from my Nikon F4 which i never mastered, BTW. it was too expensive then to develop so many films. digital is a godsend, i tell you.). i almost sold it to get new gear but luckily stumbled on strobist.com before i did! no wonder it still fetches a pretty good price on ebay. strobists like it because it can be used as a slave flash!

here is a really cool video by a guy named Paul Duncan on strobist gear and techniques. his website here.




and here is my first attempt at slaving the sb26 off-camera with the sb800 on-camera. i still need to properly understand all the principles of light metering and other techniques but at least this is a start. camera was triggered using a remote. and, yeah i know, i could have gotten a better model!...hehehe... sige, next time na lang... :-D

i think we all need to see this...



i have practically quit watching the news. i have to stop blaming the government and simply start doing something for others...one person, one being at a time.

for the past few weeks, i have been in "camera" mode. since i have been looking and reading and learning a bit more on photography stuff, it was probably inevitable to long for a few more gear to further my meager photography skills a bit more. with a birthday coming up i knew i am up for getting at least one thing on my wishlist. on the topmost of this list are a couple of things: the Nikkor lens 18-200 VR and the SB-800. both were quite pricey so i thought i should position to exhort both from hubby. even if i shocked him with the price, i stand to get at least one of these items. smart, yes?

a day before my birthday, i called up a seller from the phphoto yahoogroups, Lloyd. he gave me a good quote on the prices so i passed on the message to hubby. he was non-commital about it and even said i would not get a gift till next week since he is still waiting for a cheque to clear. i smiled inside but tried to look cool. at least i am assured of one.

next thing that happened was funny--he tried to surprise me. he went to the seller by himself but he didn't expect that it was NOT a shop he could just drop in on. it was just a meet up place...and Lloyd was in Subic! when he realized it, he had no choice but to call me for directions since he didn't even have the seller's number. hahaha! good thing there was somebody home to transact with him. before we put down the phone, he told me he was getting me the lens! woohoo!

i went to meet friends that night and was itching to come home to my gift. but since i wasn't home when hubby came in, my silly kids had time to brew a trick on me. as soon as i came home, i eagerly asked to see my gift. what they handed me was an empty lens box with a note inside that said "surprise". they made me go on a "treasure hunt"...arrrrgh! each note is a clue that leads to another note. i tell you i was in no mood to hunt! i wanted my hands on my lens already!

so amidst cussing and frowning, i went through the clues. when i finally found it inside my green bag in my closet, i was so joyful. as i snapped it on my DSLR, daughter Gabey handed me a little giftwrapped box. "awww, a small token gift from my daughters," i thought. i proceeded to unwrap it. it was a small white plastic thingy. i instantly knew what it was. "where is my SB-800?!" i excitedly shouted. hubby and daughters just laughed at me. joke lang daw. joke sila dyan?!...they probably didn't even notice that the thingy had a part number on it. i quickly googled it and confirmed my suspicion. it was the diffusion dome of the top of the line Nikon flash, SB800. but the silly talking things in my house kept denying it. i offered bribes but they wouldn't talk for even a hundred bucks! hah! i have other means to extract the info. i am going to work on hubby instead.

i think now that it was probably hubby's plan all along. smart(ass) guy too, eh... but even after some romancing (ahem), i couldn't extract from him where he hid the darn thing! he said he only had the diffusion dome because he just put a deposit on the item. "hindi ko inuwi...", he claimed. arrrghhh!!! it was already way past 3am by then because i still had to cook some dishes for the next day's birthday party of my eldest son and daughter (yes we share the same birthday week). i even tried to play with my new toys but i just couldn't get it out of my head. how can husband come home with just the diffusion dome? it MUST be in the house. i couldn't fall asleep without finding it! so as surely as hubby was noisily snoring, i had to go on another treasure hunt. i search out the front of the house, even inside the washing machine and dryer, the car, the cabinets and all the odd places where he could have hidden it. the last stop was inside our own bedroom. by then, it was 6 am. hubby stirred from his sleep and saw me digging through the corner where we keep our shoes. he gave me a glance and smiled. "sige na nga, kawawa ka naman e...malapit the dyan..." he murmured. good thing i was too happy to know i have both of my top wishes that or i could have wrung his freakin' neck! the next shoe box i pulled revealed the gold and black Nikon box! treasure found! double woooooohooo!!!

hubby claims these are gifts not just for my birthday but also for the next anniversary and christmas. i really couldn't complain. besides, i am just too happy to have them now instead of waiting for the next occasion that merits me getting a gift. but we'll just see about that when the time comes...heehee...especially since i am already dreaming of the next thing on my wishlist: the 50mm Nikkor F1.4...heehee...