Even Cheesier

For those who couldn't figure out what I meant when I said my camera processes slow, let me demonstrate.

While trying to photograph one of my favorite, most adorable subjects, I patiently watch for a cute pose and quickly push the button to capture it. I get this:










It was a great picture when I started. I promise. But give the dog 2-3 full seconds and he's gonna move.

Then, I'm taking a picture of a new toy. A toy that can't move, is perfectly still. In between the time I press the button and the time my camera actually takes the picture, I have this:


or this...









Yes, that's partially my fault for doing anything while sitting in the floor with a dog in the house, but seriously, he was on the other side of the room when I took the picture, but the processing delay gave him time to come over and investigate!

Bad Pun of the Day

Ok, I should preface this by pointing out that we got a new A/C unit in June, which was the best money EVER spent, and we love it so much we named it Fred, after the gentlemen who sold it to us and installed it. It can now stay sub-freezing in our house when we're home, even when it's 106 outside. We like it.

So, last night I climb in bed and have this conversation:

Greg - "You have socks on?"
Me - "My feet were cold last night."
Greg - "Cold?"
Me - "Yeah. They had brrr-situs."

Megan Mullican would be so proud of that one.

With great potatoes comes great responsibility

The newest member of the family:












I just love the fact that my husband will look all over town to buy me a potato head. This one he finally found at Books A Million. Walmart was out of them.

Say Cheese!

We're thinking about buying a new camera. This doesn't sound like news for most people, but for me to drop money on a new toy that costs more than $15 is a pretty big deal. We had discussed getting one as a joint Christmas gift for each other, but now we're thinking maybe an early Christmas gift, in time to take it to the beach to play with it there.

You see, Greg had this awesome Canon Powershot that would do everything but dance the polka. He took thousands of pictures at Disney, but at some point while we were using it to take pictures for Ebay (the auction, not gnome) the lens got stuck and the dreaded E18 error code showed up and it's now a fantastic paperweight. I have an older Samsung Digimax that, of course, was a Christmas gift from the parents several years ago. It's a great small camera and takes good pics - 5 megapixels, 4X zoom (better than the average small camera now!) with just enough extra options not to totally confuse me every time I turn it on. It's pretty fantastic. Except it processes really slow between shots and uses up batteries faster than Oliver the monkey can pick a lock. That combination means I get about 30-40 pictures, or less, per set of AA's, depending on how long I dink around between shots. I pack extra batteries at all times.

While my camera is fine for general day to day snapshots, I don't think it'll hold up well when we go to Disney in April. We'd spend more on batteries than we would on the park tickets. So we're looking for something new. The problem is, the camera we want doesn't exist. We want something small, Greg's camera was bulky and was hard to haul around while traveling. I want something I can carry in my purse or bag. However, we want the same type of features his had, a better than average zoom and closer to 7 megapixels. The only compact camera we've found with those features has gotten great reviews (even from somebody we know that owns one), except the picture quality isn't that good. Huh? Isn't that the point of a camera??? Who cares if it can zoom to freckle on a gnat, if the picture is too grainy or fuzzy to see it?

Now I'm in research mode. I bought a basic photography book to figure out what the buttons do so I'll know which ones I care more about when looking at new models. I've checked Consumer Reports and a variety of websites that review point-and-shoot cameras. I've browsed the camera department of every store in town. The only thing I know for sure is this: within ten days of deciding on and buying a new camera, the PERFECT camera will come out for about $10 more.

Hats

For some reason I have been reminded of this story twice in the past three days, so I thought I would just share it.

I've always been the favorite toy for several of my friends' kids. It's because I'm the one that teaches them bad things and gives them back. Like when I taught Parker how to shoot straw wrappers and blow bubbles in his drink. I'm always shocked at the things parents don't teach their kids. With Edwin I felt it was my duty, since he was such an insanely brilliant child, to dumb him up a little. I taught him things like how to spin in a circle until you fall down. Except he'd spin a few times, then run over to wherever I was sitting and fall down on top of me.

My favorite lesson came during my halloween visit a few months after his first birthday. He already had a frightening vocabularly, so I went about teaching him to be creative with hit. Since he wasn't picking up the lingo from Stargate SG-1 that I was drilling him on, I tried something different. I finally got it through to him that any object you put on top of your head can be called a hat. It's block, put it on your head, now it's a hat. It's a book, put it on your head, it's a hat. We played that game quite a bit on that visit.

Jump forward a few weeks. It's the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, the day I traditionally take off from work to finish my Christmas shopping. I'm standing in line at the food court in the mall when I get a call from Lauren. She was home with Edwin and had just given him lunch. While he ate his spaghetti in his high chair she washed up the dishes. She could hear him babbling to himself, "Spoon. Fork. Plate. Plate. Plate. Hat." Ooops. I would give anything in the world to have a picture of that moment. I've been proud of corrupting quite a few little people, but that was a shinning moment for me. Man I miss those guys.