Thanks so much for the welcome! As Tim mentioned, I just returned from mousefest where I attended most of the the official and some of the not-so-official Magic in Pixels meets. I personally had a great time and am very happy to have had the oppurtunity to meet many of you. I just made the leap to a digital SLR with a D80 that I haven't yet played around with (forgetting in time for mousefest that cameras and lenses should be in the same physical location to be useful, and therefore shot most of mousefest on a Canon SX10 IS). Thanks also to the encouragement and tips Tim and Gary ever so patiently provided I definitely improved in a few short days, and can't wait to see what I can do once I know my new camera. I apparently do not have a picture of myself in the parks to post here, but I am sure that will be remedied when mousefest paparazzi pictures go up.
I look forward to continuing with the shenanigans!