Mama, Don't Take My Kodachrome Away

I need to write a new post about my our Independence Day weekend. It was a lovely time. Unfortunately, my camera has been giving me fits (I think I have dropped it a few too many times!). Even so, I managed to take more than 300 pictures. How does that happen?! I feel like I have to take a ton to get a few good ones, but going through them and cropping and editing can be so time consuming. Poor me, I know. This one just makes me giggle. I was getting so tired of my camera that I decided (with a half-hearted blessing from Allen) to purchase a new camera. I have mentioned it before, but I would LOVE a Nikon D5000. It's gorgeous, and although Allen thinks I should get a D90 because it has the AutoFocus inside the camera instead of on the lens, I love that the D5000 has a vari-angle screen. That is probably the feature I love the most about my PowerShot--being able to take pictures from lots of different angles without having to contort my body to be able to see the screen. Anyway, second runner-up, and I'm sure an excellent camera in its' own right, is the Nikon P90. It is basically a DSLR, but it has a fixed lens (point-and-shoot). The P90 is about $399 and the D5000 (with two lenses) is usually $1099. Yes, that's a lot of money that I don't really have, so I was willing to put it on the Best Buy card. So Mom and I walked in to Best Buy on Saturday, and I told them I wanted to purchase a P90. They said okay, then went to look for it in the back. They didn't have any in stock. GRRR!!!! So I started considering the major purchase of the D5000. Turns out that they had it on sale for $949, and I had a 10% off coupon, so it would have been about $855. That's seriously a great deal. There was another sign that said you could get an additional 10% off the purchase of a D5000 with one lens. Mom was bound and determined to get them to take that promotion, giving me 20% off. The Best Buy guys tried to ring it up that way, but it wouldn't work. So I didn't do it. I'm pretty proud of myself for the restraint, but on the other hand, I really want a new camera! Mine is dying! The retractable lens cover is broken, the casing is falling apart, the LCD freezes and I have to shut the camera on and off repeatedly, it tells me to replace the batteries when I just put new ones in, the zoom sticks, and the lens is so dirty--I think there's some moisture behind it. It's a great camera, but it's time for him to retire. Anyway, I was looking at Costco online today. Guess what--they now have the P90! And it's only $369 (essentially the same price I would have paid at Best Buy with the 10% off coupon). They also have the D5000 for $999. The price isn't as good as Best Buy, but I'd rather make such a major purchase from Costco, in case I need to return it, or if I drop it in the parking lot and it gets run over (no, I still haven't gotten my BlackBerry fixed). I also realized that I get 3 paychecks this month, so I'll be able to buy it!

YAY!! I'm pretty excited about that. I should be responsible and throw the extra bucks at my student loans or something, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy a camera (and I can see my Dad just shaking his head right now). Like mother, like daughter, eh? ;o) ---------------------------- Okay, I started writing this post some time ago, and I never published it. I guess I was waiting to get some pictures up and talk about more than just my camera woes. Sorry. I'll throw in a picture from the weekend and call it good. I promise I'll write more next week . . . if anyone cares.