I want!!!

Polaroid digital photo printer; zero ink; 30 cents per print; size of a large deck of cards; ships Fall 2008; $149. Serious sprinkles!!


To see the little guy in action, watch this video from CES (Consumer Electronics Show). The demonstrator guy could be a little smoother (he's kind of annoying) but the last 10 seconds of the video are worth it.

Ask and you shall receive

Not long ago, I asked when the wireless home theater would be available. Well, sooner than I thought. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas this week (one of these years I've GOT to get there somehow--total kid in candy store scenario for me), Belkin demonstrated a nifty $500 gadget that lets you have all your equipment on one side of the room, and the giant TV on the other, with no wires running in between. So that means, maybe in a year or two it will be affordable to the masses!

Also revealed at CES: a new line of navigators from Garmin. These have speech recognition, which means they respond to your voice. No more typing in long addresses!

My new camera!

So I finally just took the plunge and bought the Canon G7. It arrived today and so far I am very happy and relieved. It is not too big, and the photo quality is fantastic. Of course, all I've tested with is household items, so I haven't "stretched her legs," so to speak, but I am confident she will continue to impress. What follows will be of little interest to most people who read this blog regularly, but for anyone out there who lands here via a search on the G7, they might find this info worthwhile.

Photo comparisons
Both set on auto, no flash.

Me (Sony T1)


Me (Canon G7)


Flower (Sony T1)


Flower (Canon G7)


Both set on macro.
Quarter (Sony T1)



Quarter (Canon G7)

I'm practically a celebrity...

I was walking out of Qdoba this afternoon, Queso Chicken Burrito in hand, when I heard someone call my name. I gave a only a half-hearted glance around, since I knew it most likely was not intended for me. I continued walking to my car, and someone called my name again. I looked in the direction of the sound, and saw this couple standing in the patio seating area of Qdoba. My mind raced, wondering who these people could possibly be. Someone I met through work? No. Through my knitting group? No. Someone from those game nights I used to go to? Nothing was ringing a bell. But I started walking over to them anyway, and the guy said, "You don't know us, but we follow your blog."

Holy cannoli, people!

Meet Kim and Chris from Massachusetts.


She initially found my blog by searching for a Trader Joe's in North Carolina, and then began reading all about our cross-country journey and my transition into Triangle life. She said that I became the face of NC for them, and I made it easier for them to move here! I don't think I could have gotten a higher compliment. I was so flattered--and flabbergasted! I mean, what are the chances that a) we would be in the same place at the same time, and b) that they would recognize me from photos on my blog?! I wish I could come up with something more eloquent, but all I can think of to say is, "How cool!!!"

We talked for about 20 minutes outside of Qdoba, about growth here, the weather (currently gorgeous), the job market, the housing market, etc. They live in Apex right now (Kim even said she thought of me when there was that big chemical explosion), and they're buying a house down in Holly Springs. During our conversation, they kept apologizing, I guess because they felt it would be kind of weird for me to talk to strangers who know so much about my life. But oddly, it wasn't weird at all. It was very fulfilling to meet poeple who actually found my blog helpful!

By the way, Trader Joe's opens tomorrow, and I'm going to be among the first in line. I've even told my boss I'll be in late. I drove by today and looked in the window...it looks all ready to go!

~ ~ ~

Thanksgiving was lovely. I went to my parents' house where we had the traditional meal and fixings.


Even the dogs got in on the holiday feasting.


We gathered 'round the television at 9 and watched a wrenching Grey's Anatomy. What a big mess! And when you think about it, it all comes down to Izzie. She had no way of knowing that cutting an L-vad wire would have this kind of domino effect, but if it weren't for her attempt to save Denny last season, Burke would not have gotten shot, he and Cristina would not have become an undercover "team," George would not have been forced to call in an outside doctor to perform his dad's surgery, and everyone's relationships would be less strained. In an indirect way, Izzie is even responsible for putting the Chief in a position where he cannot save his marriage. If Burke had never been forced to cover a hand tremor, he would be chief of surgery, but now the current Chief has no one to leave his post to, so he'll have to stay on.

~ ~ ~

While Thanksgiving dinner was cooking, we browsed the Black Friday ads and formed our plan of attack. We decided that Circuit City was the best place to go, so the next morning we got up at 4:15 am (!) to grab our bargains. (This was my first time attempting to brave the early-morning crowds.) We didn't get to the store until after it opened, but we managed to snag some of the things on our list. (I can't say what, exactly, because they're Christmas gifts!) It was a madhouse, though. I couldn't help but laugh, it was so crowded and people were running around all confused about where to find the advertised deals. I wonder what it was like when the doors opened. Watch out!

I have to tell you about how we managed to get two of our bargains. One was a really popular item that sold out in the first couple minutes the store was open, but I happened to spy one locked up in a glass case. Score! The other item was also gone within minutes, but while my dad waited in the incredibly l-o-n-g line, my mom and I walked around looking at other stuff in the store. I came across a guy who had like 12 of this desirable item in his hand. I looked at him, looked at his stash, and was about to say, "You know, there's a limit of 6 per person," but before I could open my mouth, he asked, "How many do you want?" Score again! A few minutes later I found another one sitting on a random shelf, and I was tempted to take it for myself, but I had already gotten enough, so I walked up and down one of the long lines and held it up asking if anybody wanted it. It was snatched in a heartbeat!

When we finally got through the line at Circuit City, it was only a little after 6, so we went to breakfast at Perkins. I love going out to breakfast! It's such a rare treat. Then we went to Tuesday Morning, which was a total bust (unlike last year where both my parents and I found tons of cool toys for the kids). We went to Kohl's next, and although all of their superbargains were gone, we did find a couple of cute outfits for the kids. Once again my poor dad got stuck waiting in the long line. What a trooper! When we got to the front, a kind person gave us a 15% off coupon so we got an even better discount! We made stops at A.C. Moore and Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but didn't make any purchases there. Lastly we went to JCPenney, where we knocked out a whole bunch of other things on our list, just in time for the noon deadline for Doorbuster specials.

I think I'm going to save my money and next year try for one of the LCD or plasma TV's. By then I'll have Time Warner cable, so I can get HD channels, which will be sweet! The bargains this year were incredible. Thousand-dollar sets for 500 bucks!

~ ~ ~

While I'm here let me just post a few random shots that have been lying around for a while.

This'll be a great shot to show Cassidy when she gets her license 15 years from now:


This was outside my bedroom window a few weeks ago. He's going to town on that pinecone!


What, you can't see him? How about now?

~ ~ ~

Man, I can't wait for someone in town to stock the Canon G7.


I think it's going to be my next camera. It has 6x optical zoom (twice as much as my current camera), fully manual everything, and image stabilization (so you can take pictures in low light without a flash). It's about twice as thick and twice as heavy as my current camera, but the photos will be about ten times better. It's a good compromise between what I have and a ginormous SLR, which would take awesome pictures, but would be too big to lug around. You can only get it online right now, which stinks, because I want to see and handle it before I shell out all that cash. Wolf Camera (aka Ritz) said they would order one for me, and if I don't like it I can return it on the spot, but they'll charge my credit card in the meantime. I doubt the problem will be that I don't want it...it'll be that I don't want to pay their full retail price when I can save over $120 and avoid sales tax by purchasing it online!

Glorious Fall

If I won the lottery, and I could afford a dozen houses all over the country and world, I would have one in North Carolina so I could visit in the fall. Autumn is the most spectacular time here. The weather has cooled off, the humidity is gone, and of course the leaves change color. The beauty of fall foliage is not a new topic on this blog, and you may be tiring of my endless photos of it. And I'll even admit that they're all starting to look rather similar. But I can't help snapping more because the sight it is just so amazing. I took these on the way to work the other morning:

~ ~ ~

Last weekend I went to the Pittsboro Street Fair again with my parents.


There was a caricature artist there and I'd always wanted to get one done. So my mom and I posed in the gusty wind while the lady sketched cartoon versions of us with our pets.

~ ~ ~

Sunday afternoon I had to drive to Asheville for a marathon training day on Monday. This was the second weekend in a row when my Sunday was not my own. :( At least the mountains were beautiful, of course, and it was not too cold yet.

~ ~ ~

I got a new cell phone a couple weeks ago, the Motorola 325. I chose it because the salesperson recommended it for its good reception quality. It did seem to work fine in my apartment (the same as, if not slightly better than, my previous model) but it did not work at all at my office. My boss sends out at least two or three test messages a day, and my phone just was not ringing. It would show three bars, then zero, then back to three again, then back to zero, all within 20 seconds. This was not acceptable to me, and thankfully Verizon has a 15-day satisfaction guarantee so I exchanged it for a Nokia 6315i. I really like it. It's not as bulky as the Motorola, and it has great reception. The sales rep said that contrary to what you'd think, sometimes a pure digital phone (like the Nokia) works better than a tri-band phone (like the Motorola).

~ ~ ~

My Weekend of Cleaning was quite productive. The apartment looks much better, and I feel better when I look at it. I finally got around to filing all my bills, etc., which I had not done since I moved in (yikes!) and I sorted through the piles and piles of mail that had accumulated over the past couple months. Ninety percent of it ended up in the recycle bin, but I did come across my Wake County voter card, which will come in handy on Tuesday. I have to vote before work, because I have a 2 pm flight to Houston. Yep, I'm goin' to Texas. Galveston, to be precise. It's on an island in the Gulf of Mexico, so it should be pretty.

Can you hear me now? Not really.

I can't decide if I'm shocked, amused, outraged, or a combination of all three. My cell phone broke today. All I was doing was closing it (rather gently, actually) and somehow the hinge just suddenly broke. (By the way, the phone is almost two years old.) It's quite a pathetic looking piece of electronics now, but it still works. A coworker told me he had the same phone and the same thing happened to him, and he was able to use it for over a month like that. I have to say, this never happened with my Motorola, which is still perfectly usable. If it didn't involve transferring all my new numbers, I'd probably switch back, but I think I'll just limp along.

Thankfully I'm up for Verizon's "new every two" program only a couple weeks from now. Of course, that's assuming I stay with Verizon. I've contemplated switching to a different provider. Although I've heard Verizon is the best overall in terms of coverage, they don't cover my apartment so well. For a while Alltel's "My Circle" promotion intrigued me (pick 10 numbers, any network, or even landlines, and get unlimited calls to them), but when I checked it out, it was a bit disappointing. "My Circle" is only available with certain plans, the cheapest of which is $20 more than I currently pay and includes 900 anytime minutes--double what I have now. If I doubled my minutes, I wouldn't need "My Circle"! I'll probably stick with Verizon, because I won't be living in this apartment forever, and it does have good coverage in the Triangle and has proven reliable throughout my travels. Crossing the country, only Oklahoma City was inhospitable to Verizon. The only thing is picking out the phone. So many to choose from! And from what I've heard, certain phones have better reception than others...so if I pick right, reception might improve in my apartment. That would be awesome! Does anyone have any opinions on Nokia vs. LG vs. Samsung vs. Motorola?

~ ~ ~

While I have you, a movie recommendation: Go rent The Lake House! It is a wonderful film.

~ ~ ~

Oh, and one more thing: if you like Parmesan cheese, try Kraft's new Grate It Fresh. It is so cool. It actually works really well, and the taste of the cheese is entirely different than the powdered stuff.

The A/C, it mocks me

I stayed at a Best Western in Covington, VA last night. It was decent enough. Yet I got barely a wink of sleep because of the bloody A/C. It did a fine job of keeping the room cool, but it was the loudest A/C unit I've ever heard! I had the fan on low, and turned the thermostat up so it would not click on as often. But there was no winning with this beast. Faced with the choice of either lying awake sweating, or lying awake not sweating, I'll take the latter! But that meant I got up at 5:30 having gotten more or less no shut-eye. Which is fine--anyone can hack that for a day. New moms do it every night for months.

What was so ironic was that at my training today, the A/C was down. Yes, imagine a dozen adults in a school computer lab, body heat adding to machine heat, with no circulation. The outside temp was around 85, with humidity around the same--and it was cooler outside than in. (Honestly, for a second, I considered if there was any way we could do the training outside. Ha!) I was sweating buckets, which is oh-so-professional. I began to wonder if the A/C gods were punishing me for cursing the hotel unit's volume.

The Garmin got me lost today. My destination was a school built in 2001, which is not all that recently. Both Google and the Garmin gave me the same directions, so I didn't question them. Somehow I ended up on a one-lane road that was basically a glorified driveway. A huge German shepherd and a little white puffball dog greeted me by running toward my car. I was only going 10 mph and I saw them from afar, so there wasn't a problem, but the way they approached me made me think that they wanted me to stop and pet them. I did not--I was too concerned about the fact that the Garmin led me astray, and I had an appointment to keep! Thank goodness someone answered when I called the district office (and luckily I had cell phone reception, although barely). The kind lady was able to give me directions...which were completely different from what I had. Go figure. I still made it with plenty of time to spare, because I tend to allow time for these kinds of incidents.

Driving up to Virginia, the Garmin had me go on all these two-lane small-town highways, and I just figured there was no better way to get to where I was going (Middle-of-Nowhere-ville). It was the scenic route, to be sure. I got to drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway for a short spell, and passed through some quaint towns. But I also lost satellite reception a couple of times on the windy mountain roads. So after my training I asked a couple of the guys if they had any suggestions, and they gave me a much more direct route. It turned out to take about the same amount of time, but there were basically only five highways to remember (64 to 220 to 58 to 86 to 40), as opposed to the dozen or so the Garmin had put me on. Bottom line with navigators: do not rely on them completely. But the same goes with Google maps. However, I would guess that they are much more accurate in the urban areas.

I haven't talked much about what's going on at my office these days. It's all quite thrilling. In addition to all my traveling and training and other assorted duties, I was tasked with screening, interviewing, and choosing two new employees. At first I was very flattered to be given this assignment, considering I've only been there five months myself. But then I realized that the job fell to me mainly because no one else wanted to do it. I thought it was fun to read everyone's resumes and interview them. We got over 60 inquiries, and I was surprised at how many people have no clue how to do a proper resume! When I was searching for a job, I figured everyone looked up the same online resume tip resources as I did. Apparently not! About half didn't bother with a cover letter either, which was immediately a big minus. I probably conducted a dozen phone interviews, and then called in half of those for in-person meetings. I was beginning to second-guess my ability to judge candidates when, after three consecutive interviews, I was unimpressed. But then the fourth was the jackpot! The second position was harder to fill, because skill-wise there were several candidates who fit the bill, but there was one whose personality stood out. I do hope both of them accept their offers.

Meanwhile, I will be starting a new schedule. Currently I work 8:30 am - 5:00 pm. In a few weeks I will switch to 6:00 am - 2:30 pm. You may think I'm bonkers, but I volunteered to do this. Yes, I will have to get up at an ungodly hour, but imagine being done by 2:30!! I worked a similar schedule several years ago, and found it to my liking. My boss foresees that on some days they'll need me to stay late for trainings, but he offered a bit of an incentive. Sweet.

What else has been percolating lately? Oh! Hopefully after this weekend I will have news to share regarding an upcoming trip (for pleasure, not business). If you know me, you know I l-o-v-e the planning stages almost as much as the traveling itself!

I will leave you with a couple photos taken during my drive yesterday. These are somewhere in Virginia, but could just as easily be North Carolina:

The Ivy Monsters

Training adventures, part 1

I just got back from my first on-site training. The trip was so fun! I went to Spartanburg, SC and Maggie Valley, NC with my coworker, Taylor, and he had me cracking up the whole way. He drove, so I got to relax--and play navigator. We used my new Garmin, and there were a few, um, mishaps. It would take way to long to fully explain what happened, so suffice it to say that once, after we got off the freeway to get gas, we ended up seeing the same five-mile stretch of I-40 twice (a congested part, naturally), and then another time, in an attempt to find a place to eat lunch, we ended up seeing the same seven-mile stretch of I-85 twice. I do know that one of these incidents was absolutely due to user error (the driver not trusting the Garmin's accuracy) but the other time the directions were not clear (she said to "keep right" instead of "exit right"). It's a learning curve. I definitely feel like I made progress in terms of understanding the nuances. In fact, even today--after just one day of practice--there were no mishaps.

This was my first time in SC, so of course I had to photograph the state line sign:


And there was another curious roadside monument. It strikes me as odd, because I thought Georgia was the peach state.


We arrived in Spartanburg about 45 minutes early, which was good, because the training had been moved to a different location. It was only a block away, but if we had been running late that would have been super stressful. The training went pretty well, although there was some trouble with the computers. We were in a student computer lab, and the PCs were very restricted so our online application didn't run properly on them. But we managed to come up with a workaround and it all turned out okay. I did not lead this training, since it was my first on-site. I observed and helped out a few of the participants.

When we were finished, around 3 pm, we headed for Maggie Valley, NC. It is such a cute little town!


Definitely a touristy resort-like area, which is fine by me. We checked into our hotel (a Comfort Inn) and later went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant across the street. Decent food. We drove up the street a few miles, at my request, to see what one billboard touted as the "most photographed view." We found it, but the lookout tower was closed. It was still pretty, even from where we were standing.


We drove back to the hotel and Taylor went back to his room to do some work (he has a company-provided laptop) and I went to a little shopping area down the street. Most of the shops were closed, but a couple were open and I bought a few postcards and a souvenir magnet. I also met a Harley biker guy, complete with long gray goatee and full arm tattoos, whom I never would have started talking to had his lap not been occupied by an adorable chihuahua. He was telling me that "Tip" was tired from a long day of riding (he has his own box on the back of the bike!) and missed his girlfriend (who couldn't come along because she's only two pounds (!) and isn't such a fan of ride alongs). Then I went back to my room, changed into my comfy jammies, sat up in bed, and knitted. Meanwhile I was listening to Jennifer Weiner's Little Earthquakes on my iPod. It was so nice to just be away from everything. I mean, I could do the same things on any night of the week at home, but for some reason I just don't. There are so many other distractions when I'm home: the computer, the TV, etc.

This morning we trained in Waynesville, about 15 minutes from Maggie Valley. Once again, the location had been changed and no one bothered to let us know. Thankfully, though, we were early again, too. The school we ended up at was a very dismal place, indeed. I would have been depressed to work there. But I must say, the computer lab looked like it belonged in a brand new school. It was a very nice setup. I did the bulk of the training this time, and it was a big class--45 people. I got to wear a lapel microphone! How cool is that? And, the local news came to film the goings on (must be a slow news day). Overall I think the session went really well, and Taylor said I did a great job. Yay!

We left around 10:30 am and got back to Raleigh around 3:00. I went inside the office to check my work email, and tied up a few loose ends for my trainings in Georgia next week. After experiencing only two on-sites, I already feel like the next ones will go even more smoothly. And I'm excited to travel to yet another new state!

Sprinkles

Sorry it's been a week since my last substantive post. I wish I could say that I'm so busy I haven't had time to give the blog a second thought, but the truth is, I think about it every day and just haven't been able to come up with something compelling to write about. I was reading my favorite, James Lileks, yesterday, and he was talking about sprinkles.

If I die next week, put sprinkles on my coffin; it’ll soften the blow. Sprinkles make anything better. They’re tasteless, waxy, nothing but pointless sugar, but they’re SPRINKLES! I look for sprinkles in my own daily life, actually. That leather gear-shift knob option at the dealership: sprinkles. A new icon set to replace system defaults: sprinkles.

So I was thinking, what are some of my sprinkles? Well, I love electronics, for one. I got myself a new toy from Amazon: the Garmin StreetPilot i5. It's one of those handy GPS navigators for the car. With all this impending travel, I figured it would come in pretty handy. I researched the options, and you can spend over $1000 on these things. My main requirement was that maps for the entire U.S. come preloaded. I didn't want to mess with USB cords and CD's--and running the risk of being somewhere I haven't loaded the maps for. (Total coincidence: I just read about David Pogue's recent nightmarish experience with an ill-equipped device.)

When it comes to electronics I usually spring for all the bells and whistles, because, well, they're my sprinkles. But I read lots of reviews and there were so many problems with the fancier units locking up and not functioning. The i5, on the other hand, got solid reviews, and I liked its small size and the fact that you can run it on batteries (no unwieldy cords to grapple with). It also happened to be one of the least expensive units--especially considering it has preloaded maps. Both buy.com and Amazon had it for the same price. I decided to go with Amazon, which turned out well, because when I selected two-day shipping I was offered it for free (the shipping!) if I signed up for a three-month trial of Amazon Prime (a program that gives you free two-day shipping on all orders for $79/year). I figured I would just cancel after the three months, and in the meantime enjoy free fast shipping.

So far I've used the i5 around town and am pretty happy with it. It took a while to acquire the satellites the first time, and it still can take up to a minute, but once it's locked in there haven't been problems losing the reception. I haven't driven anywhere unfamiliar yet, but I've had it on to see what it can do. It wants to put me on the most obvious main routes, and sometimes I know quicker and easier back ways. But if I were unfamiliar with the area, sticking to the main streets would probably be better anyway. I can tell that the maps are a little out of date (I would guess about a year old) because one of the newer shopping centers here does not exist in its database. But I simply input a nearby intersection and it got me there fine. The screen is plenty bright, the volume is plenty loud, and I even got to choose a British accent for the voice directions! The only issue has been figuring out where to put it. It comes with a windshield-mount suction cup, which works great en route, but when left sitting in a hot car for a few hours, it falls off. Not to mention that if it's stuck to the windshield, the little gadget is in full view of any envious passers-by who might see fit to break my window and treat themselves to a "sprinkle" of their own.

Let's see, what else is a sprinkle? Mmm, the new KFC bowl. I tried it for lunch today, even though I was a little wary of the gravy-cheese combo (they looked at me funny when I asked to put those on the side, and said, "It's the bowl," as if it's some sacred combination not to be toyed with, so I buckled). It was dee-lish! I looked on their website to check out the nutrition info, but I guess it's too new of an item to be listed there. I'm sure it's sky-high in terms of fat, calories, cholesterol, and carbs. But at least the portion wasn't outlandishly large. In fact, it seemed kind of small, but afterwards I was quite full.

Any more sprinkles? Have you seen the new progress bars over on the right? And my new Relocating to NC graphic? Those are definitely sprinkles! How about getting change and finding state quarters or the new nickels--ridiculously thrilling sprinkles! Oh, and guilty pleasure TV, that's a big sprinkle--shows like Gameshow Marathon. I watched it last night since American Idol and Lost are over. It's a fun concept. Their first game was Price is Right, and it's a hoot to see celebrities trying to figure out how much things cost. Of course, they also had rather odd items up for bid, things that no one would know the price of, like a ceiling-suspended "bubble chair." And in the Showcase Showdown, there was a vintage Mustang. Something like that is really not fair to put up for bids, because who knows what kind of condition it's in?

One touch that I liked was that the games and set were exactly like the real Price is Right, down to the old-school digital readouts of bids, and the giant wheel. Of course, the celebrities don't get to keep what they win; lucky home viewers win all the stuff. (You can enter via text message, or online.) The winning celeb each night advances into the final round (Family Feud with the celebrities' own friends and family!), and the winner of that will win $100,000 for their charity of choice. The next episode is tonight, and they're playing Let's Make a Deal. From the previews, it looks like it's the same celebrities, which is odd. They showed a whole bunch more in the audience, who were never called up... Some of the other games they'll be playing are Card Sharks and Press Your Luck. I loved those shows as a child!! (I told you I was a couch potato in my youth.)

At the same time on ABC are the finals of the National Spelling Bee. That could be interesting too. I came across this blog, written in real-time by an on-location observer. Did you ever see Spellbound? Good movie!

So what are your "sprinkles"?

Phooey on the fuss over resolutions

How's this for thumbing your nose at New Year's Resolutions:

My only intention is to be unapologetically who I am. It is the resolution to favor authenticity over manipulation.

Thanks to Teri for pointing this out, and to JackZen for writing it in the first place.

Oh the drama that can arise over the spectre of self-improvement--the struggle, the cautious optimism, the fear of failure, the fear of success, the fear of the unknown world which awaits, if only.

Yeah, I guess that's where my mind goes when I don't have pretty flowers to distract me on New Year's morning.

But let's get 2006 off to a less glum start! Last night Arvind and I went to a lovely gathering at Larry and Carlee's house. We played Apples to Apples and even breaking the rules I couldn't manage to win a round! Of course at midnight I could be found plopped in front of the TV watching the ball drop. I squealed with delight when I saw the local station's inset of Raleigh's Acorn dropping, right next to the fancy New York number. Poor Dick Clark. I applaud his hard work--recovery must be quite tedious--but how sad...I think he should have left the hosting duties to Ryan Seacrest, and just enjoyed the festivities. Heartbreaking to see what has become of such an icon.

So last night, at the party, I met Carlee's sister, Cynthia, and her husband, Dan. Dan has a grown-up camera. Big, heavy, expensive--and fabulous! It takes amazing photos. Gasp-worthy photos. I must have one. I always knew an SLR would do better, much better, than my dinky point-and-shoot, but man, I never knew how much better. It's a whole new world, as Aladdin would say.

Wireless!

Yee-haw! The wireless works on the laptop! I'm posting this from a friend's house using their wireless connection. The graphics stink and the Blogger interface is different with 98 than with XP...kind of like regressing into the olden days of computing. I apparently can't tinker with the html or post photos...hmm. I'll have to work on that. I think I might be able to circumvent the 'puter by using my cell phone camera. Low res, to be sure, but perhaps better than nothing. But at least the basic system works! :)