I grabbed this shot leaving work today. It's nothing really spectacular, I know. I am mostly shooting as much as I can with the Nikon D300 and 18-135 lens kit I was able to purchase with the insurance money I received for he theft in December.

I want to get familiar with the camera as quickly as I can because my wife, Sandy, and I are set to fly to Rome a week from tomorrow. I'm pretty excited to be going back to Italy after a little more than 10 years. We are going to spend 2 days in Rome, and then travel down to Augusta Bay, Sicily to stay with some of my Italian friends I met while stationed at Sigonella in the mid 1990's. We will be staying at the B&B of Santo and Nella Manzella. I met Santo and Nella shortly after I arrived in Scily in 1994. I was looking for some B&W film and went into Santo's studio and asked in broken Italian for B&W film. Santo replied "I speak English", and after that we just becacme good friends. When I left in 1997 I thought I would have been back sooner, but life has a way of happening so that plans must sometimes change.

But now, in a little over a week I'll be back. I can't wait.