Month: June 2008

Thunderstorm

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I’m on my own for dinner tonight because Joe is at a work gathering. That’s very unusual for a Friday evening but I think I will survive!

Right now I’m making chicken tacos and doing laundry while I catch up on blogs. I’m thinking about playing on the Wii later since it’s been awhile, provided the power doesn’t go out. There’s a good storm brewing but I love thunder so it’s all good. Last time the power went out we quickly realized just how dependent we are on electricity for almost all forms of entertainment. Then we went upstairs and found our iPods and Nintendo DS and forgot all about it.

Indiana Beach

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Saturday we took the kids to Indiana Beach. This time we remembered they’re an hour ahead and got there before the rides started at 11 am. We didn’t get our super premium parking, however, because they are building a new rollercoaster right by the entrance and the in-park lot was blocked. We also had to walk further to get into the park.

The first thing I noticed was how they repainted a lot of the rides including the skyride. It used to be all white and now it’s yellow, pink, green, and blue. Not sure how I feel about it to be honest. It’s a bit odd. They also sealed the boardwalk so it is black instead of gray for the time being. Nothing else seemed to have changed.

Boardwalk

The weather was much better than last year; I didn’t sweat nearly as much and I didn’t burn at all because I put on enough sunblock and wore a hat.

Everyone got ride wristbands ($23 each) but Joe and I didn’t go on a lot of rides. The kids went on the swings the most. The lines got a bit long as the day wore on. In fact, even though we were there longer than in the past (10:30 am – 4:30 pm), we seemed to do less. We didn’t play any games or miniature golf.

I dragged the kids on the Shafer Queen for a half hour tour of Lake Shafer after a lunch of yummy tacos. It’s an Indiana Beach tradition. You have to ride the Shafer Queen at least once and they had never been on in the years we’ve been going.

Next year we plan on taking Thursday and Friday off and going for the evening ride time. I think it will be cool with all the lights, plus there’s no sun threatening to cook you.

All Indiana Beach photos.

Suck it, Newegg.com

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As you know, I ordered the Canon 40D kit from Newegg.com last week. On Friday, I got an e-mail saying they couldn’t fulfill my order because my billing and shipping addresses didn’t match. They said I needed to add my shipping address (which is my employer) to my Discover account. I did just that and tried to resubmit my order but it wouldn’t work. So I canceled the order and placed a new one thinking they’d call Discover, verify my shipping address, and that would be that.

I was wrong. Yesterday I got a voicemail from them saying they still didn’t have enough information to verify my order was legit and I had to call them back Mon-Fri. I was also told that my order would be canceled three days from the order date if I didn’t contact them in time. Well, considering I ordered on Friday but wasn’t able to contact anyone until Monday, that means they’d possibly cancel my order before I could set things straight.

At this point it was becoming too much of a hassle to deal with these people. I get that they want to protect themselves against fraud but come on already. I did what you told me to do and still it’s not good enough? How do you think that address got added to my Discovercard account if it wasn’t me? They ask you for three pieces of identifying information you know. So whatever.

I canceled my order last night and found the camera at Buydig.com for $10 cheaper plus a free 2GB compact flash card. So nah-nah, Newegg.com. You just lost a sale because you’re a big pain in my ass. I would have ordered from Buydig from the very beginning but the camera wasn’t on their site last week. I’m so glad I was able to get it from them, though, because it shipped out today from New Jersey and will likely arrive before Friday. That means Joe and I will be going on a photo excursion or two this weekend.

Cameras

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My new camera was delivered this afternoon only 45 minutes before I left work so I didn’t get a chance to charge the battery until I got home. It just finished a bit ago so I quickly configured the settings and took a few test shots.

Canon Powershot SD870 IS

I’ll post an in-depth review in about a week but here are my first impressions –

Small and light, just like I wanted.
The screen takes up much of the back of the camera, therefore I am getting fingerprints all over it! I see that I will need to buy a screen protector.
The door to the battery and SD card seems a little flimsy but then again so do they all and I’ve yet to break one (knock on wood).
Nice clear indoor shots with the image stabilization.

This baby will be going everywhere I go once I get a case for it.

And don’t hate me, but I ordered another camera today – the Canon EOS 40D. I got the kit with the 28-135mm IS lens from NewEgg for $1,130 (no tax or shipping, whee!). I’ve been tossing around the idea of upgrading for awhile now. I’m happy with my 20D but Joe isn’t happy with my old Nikon 5700 that he’s been using. Not only is it inferior to a digital SLR, the batteries – and we have several – are all shot and barely hold a charge so he’s constantly having to swap them. Instead of buying new batteries, we decided he’d get my 20D and we could pretend we’re serious photographers. I also ordered a 50mm lens so we’ll have a few to rotate between us.

I’m pretty excited because lately Joe hasn’t been too interested in going on any photo excursions and it’s not as fun if he’s standing around bored while I’m trying to get shots. He really enjoyed using my 20D last year when we were in Indianapolis so I know he’ll be more motivated with a new (to him) camera.

Now I have two cameras to sell – a Nikon 885 and a Nikon 5700. I wonder how much I can get on Craigslist for them. I might end up selling the 885 to my brother since he says my dad wants a digital camera. Otherwise he was going to buy him some suckass p.o.s. from Aldi’s. Please. Even my 7 year old camera is going to be better than that no-name junk.

Faster, Faster!

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I have been contemplating getting a new point-and-shoot digital camera for awhile now; the smallest camera I currently use takes 4 AA batteries and takes up too much space, not to mentions weighs a bit much, to be carrying around all the time.

I’ve read countless reviews over the last few months and finally decided on the Canon Powershot 870 after checking it out twice in person at Circuit City.

I placed my order Friday night (I buy all my cameras from BuyDig.com since they don’t charge tax or shipping) and I’m hoping it will be delivered to my work sometime this week. There’s no estimated delivery date on FedEx’s website though so it’s anyone’s guess when it will really arrive. As you can see, the camera is in New Jersey at the moment. [Update: Ok, how did I miss that estimated date right in the screenshot? I am dumb!]

I may have taken months to make a decision but now I’m feeling very impatient!