Bought the toy, now I need to learn how to use it

OK, so I went a little crazy. It has been known to happen from time to time. This time I bought myself a camera. Not just any camera, a DSLR.
Getting down to the specifics. It's a Canon 500D body with a Canon 18-200mm IS lens. The set made a huge hole in my budget, but I think it'll be worth it. I tell myself it's a camera to last me a lifetime. We'll see.

Not having much free time during the work week, a proper field test of the camera had to wait until today. Here are a few of the photos I took. I still have a lot to learn about taking photographs with this kind of camera, but I think these four turned out OK.