Tracy SCUBA Diving So I had been telling Tracy that I'd be happy to show her some of the basics of SCUBA diving in her parents pool whenever we both found some time to do it (and the weather was nice). One afternoon I grabbed my gear, we stopped off at a dive shop so that I could get a tank, and we wound up doing a weekend of SCUBA diving in her parents pool. There obviously wasn't much to see, but it was a fun time nonetheless. ...not to mention I think she got the hang of it.

4th of July, 2004 Ara and I went to a pool party / barbeque at one of her friends apartments. We played some water volleyball, had some food, and pretty much the typical things associated with the 4th of July.

Moth Photo Shoot This was a rather interesting little photo project that just kind of came to light one evening. I was about to enter my room when I noticed this tiny speckle of what looked like paint on the side of my door frame. I went to pick at it when I realized that it was in fact a very small moth. I don't know why I decided that I would shoot some pictures of it, but I did. Not only that, but after experimenting with some lighting and the digital macro options, I was able to get some details of this little critter that I never thought would be possible with a standard point and shoot digital camera. Kudos to Canon for their product!

Preston's 29th Birthday Another year gone by, only this time there are a number of babies running around. The Graham's had a little get-together at their house for Preston's 29th birthday and Tracy and I were invited to hang out. We got Preston a remote controlled helicopter for the day, though it turned out to be a pretty crappy one after all. Half of the night was spent playing with babies, the other half of the night was spent playing Catchphrase with babies.

Another 311 Mary Party As with all of the 311 Mary parties that I attend, this one was as fun as the others. I had an especially fun time hanging out with Danielle's cousin, Roxie, at the party, and managed to keep the guitar to myself for most of the evening playing some tunes for everyone outside.

Axel Lane Fence Building Thankfully I had Preston to help me with this one. After I had already cleared the land, measured and planted the stakes, used the auger to create 3 ft deep holes, and set the posts by myself, it was finally time to install the fence. I had a 330ft long cattle fence in addition to 1200ft of barbed-wire to wrap across the front of the property. It took Preston and I the better part of a day to complete this task, but it looked great once it was finally up.

4th of July, 2006 The fourth of July of 2006 in New York City will be one of my more memorable fourths. At the [album=230]Hefferon family reunion[/album] just a few days earlier, I met some of my second cousins that I never knew about. Two of their husbands, Gino and John, have unique ventures in the city. Gino owns an authentic Italian restaurant just a block away from the Queensborough Bridge, and John is a lieutenant in the NYPD. Since both of them had previously extended me an invitation, I took Eric and Amy over to Gino's restaurant and then John got us into a special viewing of the fireworks along the East River (at a special function for Ronald McDonald children). Both were very simple gestures, but the three of us thoroughly appreciated it and took great pleasure in the uniquenesses.

Selling Crockett's Stereo Before the time of digital cameras being a literal dime a dozen, Dave had one of the nicer ones amongst my friends (a max resolution of about 1280x960). Crockett was selling his car stereo and asked if I would shoot the photos for him.

Warm Chubby Photo Shoot A bunch of pictures that either Tisa, or one of my flatmates at the Warm Chubby (my Dunedin flat) took of me playing my guitar in my room.

West Coast and Haast River More of the family and Tisa's adventure down the New Zealand west coast highway (Hwy 6). One of the stops we made, slightly north of Wanaka, was at the Haast river. I guess there had been some pretty heavy rains a day or two before because the river was running pretty quickly making the scenery all that much better.