If she had the proper words to say,

I just ordered another lens cap for my (very) old Olympus C-740 UltraZoom. The one we had for it broke a few years ago, and we never replaced it. I'm torn between selling that camera or giving it to A.J. as a starter digicam. Jack received a small digital camera for his birthday - a Pirates of the Caribbean one. It's not great quality, but it's good for him. Giving the old Olympus to A.J. would be a considerable step up, but after all, he's older.

I also just ordered a 15mm eyepiece extender for the new Canon Rebel XTi. Even with screen protectors over the LCD, I don't like getting "nose prints" on them, and I'm anxious put a bit more space between my huge nose and the viewfinder. In addition, a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens is on the way, as well as another UV filter. The camera bag is getting quite hefty! Unfortunately, my circular polarizer filter arrived in pieces, so I need to call about getting it replaced (but I keep forgetting during the daytime).

Everything for the Canon PowerShot S2 IS is still in good condition. It's crazy to think that we have four digital cameras in one house!

Edited to add: Yes, I know that I haven't yet posted any pics from the new cam. I've taken some, but I've not done much learning yet, and there is quite the curve for the Rebel for me. I promise I will post some eventually...

My camera is back! *huggles it*

It arrived a little bit ago from FedEx. It's been gone since the 21st of August, so I was really missing it. I hope that the Canon Factory Service people were good to it.

I completed everything from my list last night, and today has been fairly relaxing. Jack and I ate lunch at A.J.'s school, and it seemed that the meal was over so quickly!

( Picture. )

Afterwards, Jack and I went to Baker's to use the CoinStar machine for both his and A.J.'s piggy bank money. A.J. had $6.09 in change, and Jack had $5.18 (after the small fee, that is). Jack loved working the machine, and he was very careful to hold onto his receipt until he received the cash from the register. I was making copies of the forms I needed for the cell phone rebate, and we were out of there soon.

Jack didn't want to run to the post office with me so I brought him home first. I mailed off my camera this afternoon (*cries*). Hopefully, it will be back on its way to me very soon!

Philip was awake when I returned home after 2pm, and he left to get his hair cut. He picked up A.J. on his way home, too. The boys and I will be taking him to work this evening so that we'll have the van later on. Tonight is the Open House for Jack's preschool class. He is excited to drop off the Play-doh® we bought for his classroom - silly kid!

The flash on my camera has mysteriously stopped working. I can't seem to figure out why or trouble-shoot it. None of the options in my manual are touching it, and I'm getting really frustrated.

It is NOT a good time for the camera to break. However, it is still under the extra warranty I bought until August 14th...

(It's a Canon S2 IS, by the way.)

First off, a belated but very good-intentioned birthday wish:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHELE!

Chele's birthday was 3 days ago, but again, I missed it. :-(

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Good news and bad news today. The good news first: Philip somehow managed to miraculously fix the old digital camera to a point where it works again! It's still scratchy-sounding, but it seems to work just fine now. The fix involved lots of banging it around on the countertop (which just shouldn't have been what would make it WORK again), but now it's back to functioning and taking pictures just fine.

I'm happy. I just LOVED my old camera. Even when he got it working again, I was all wistful just looking at the last pics taken (which were still on the camera). The new camera is good too, but I just don't yet LOVE it like I did my old one (even though I know it's on major backorders for a lot of people and they are dying to get their hands on one). Still, I was VERY HAPPY to have my "buddy" camera back.

The bad news: I just finally deleted the old camera's downloading software from the computer a couple of days ago, and now I can find the install disc ANYWHERE. Until I can be sure that I can get the pics off the camera, I can't say for certain that it all still works fine.

The bad-but-not-really-too-bad news: we already spent quite a bunch of $$ on the new camera over 2 months ago now. However, Philip is excited because he will now have a digital camera of his own (the old one) to use at work or on short deployments and such. If he ruins it, no biggie - we already have another, and we thought it was broken beyond disbelief anyway.

Once we find that disc, that is...

These are the last pictures my dear camera got to take. *sniffle*


Reflection on the world.

( Meerkats and ponds and ducks, oh my! )

It was such a great friend. I will miss it so.

After church today, I decided to take the boys to the zoo. It was much too glorious of a day to be stuck inside, and I figured it would be good to see the zoo under such glorious conditions - not too hot, not too cold, not too windy, etc.

Apparently, about fifty thousand other people thought the same thing. ;-)

We parked out in Kalamazoo and hiked about 5 miles to the entrance (no, not really, but we were MUCH further out than we had ever parked before). I bought our new family membership, though I couldn't believe that we hadn't been back to the zoo since Mar. 6th. We then set off. The 'Desert Dome' is always our first attraction, and after stopping at the fish pond and the 'Zoo Ball,' we went inside.

Naturally, I took pictures. I always take pictures. It's what I do. Click, click, CLICK!

After seeing all of the Desert Dome and the 'Kingdom of the Nights,' we set off across the stone puzzle path to the zoo's pavilion - a bunch of indoor exhibits. Halfway across the 100-yard stretch, an awful thing happened.

You see, while we had been in the Desert Dome, A.J. had been flipping around, flailing his arms and other such crazy physical nonsense. He was dancing to anything, and he was just way too excited for the circumstances. I know, I know - trips to the zoo ARE fun, but they're not excuses to get so CRAZY. I had asked him twice to "Calm down, A.J." and to walk like a normal person. On the way across the stone pathway, he was doing it again, and Jack was laughing his head off at his antics. Again, I told him to calm down.

He didn't hear me, however, and he whipped around to ask me, "What, Mom?" In the instant that he whirled around with his flailing arms, he knocked my camera out of my hand.

I swear the next second of my life happened in slow-motion. I watched in horror as the camera catapulted feet away from me, having no chance at all as it slammed into the stone ground. I heard the sickening crunch as all things that make my camera so lovable met their untimely demise.

Instantly, I felt sick. My camera came to a rest upside-down, and turning it over to pick it up was gut-wrenching. It's "face" was so obviously broken - a cracked slash ran through the focus cylinder. The housing was smashed and glinted metal under the powder coating that had once been so smooth. Pushing buttons only resulted in horrible grating and crunching sounds from inside, and nothing could be found in the blur of the viewfinder.

Oh, I wanted to throw up.

My camera was very nearly a member of the family. It had served me so well, and I felt awful and felt such guilt that I had failed it so.

The boys and I entered the pavilion, and while they set off for all sorts of exhibit-related discoveries, I sat down and took inventory of the damage. I already knew it was hopeless. I called Heather and then Annie in near-tears. I felt silly about crying in public over a camera, so I didn't allow the tears to fall... but oh, how I felt them.

We stayed at the zoo a while longer, seeing many more things. Finally, it was time to leave. All the way home, I just felt sick. I knew what I had to do, but I just felt so awful for the poor camera sitting next to me - my baby. My first digital camera, and the 'child' that had served me so well.

There were no other options, of course. I had to do what I had to do: buy a new camera.*

I now have a Canon Powershot S2 IS camera. From what I have now leared online, it's not available in many stores yet - even Amazon.com has it "coming soon." I *will* get excited about it, I'm sure, but for at least the rest of today, my heart (or shutter finger, anyway) is in mourning.

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* Thanks to ignu2k for being available for consultation in my camera "emergency" - she answered her phone even though she had NO clue who I might be! :-)