Pretty Pictures

My birthday is coming up and I have decided that I want one of them fancy new-fangled digital cameras. Now I have never owned a camera in my life unless you count those disposable cameras you buy at the grocery store. So I'm going to need some help. I've been doing a little research and I think I know what I like but I need a little explaining on a few things.

1 - What is the least zoom and megapixel capacity I should look for? I'm not getting anything overly high-tech because I think that would be overkill, but I do want to take fairly nice pictures. So I'm thinking about 8 megapixels and 4x zoom - does that sound good?

2 - What's the whole normal, macro and digital macro stuff mean when it's talking about the focusing range & what do I want to look for?

3 - What does the ISO sensitivity mean?

I want something that I can play around with and learn a few things so if you have any advice - let me be your grasshopper and share with me your knowledge of the ways of photography and cameras. As a reward, I'll share lots of purty, purty pictures with you!

A Word about Arnica Montana

It's a homeopathic medicine and is sold in pill form and gels. The pill form is an extremely small dosage and is typically used before surgery and such to reduce the amount of swelling and bruising that occur with the surgery. It can also be used to treat sore muscles, bruises, sprains and imflammation. The gel is also used to treat sprains, bruises etc.

Anyhoo - my neighbor swears by it. She has a sister who is a doula and she recommended that she take it before she delivered her last baby. She says that her recovery and healing time was much faster than the two previous babies. Recently I also saw an article in Runner's World about it. My ankle has been giving me a little grief when I run since I sprained it playing basketball in February and sometimes my arthritic knee aches a little after running. So I thought I would give it a shot. I have been taking it for about a week (I take about half the recommended dosage) and I'm going to say I notice a difference. I have even been running more and I have had only the slightest twinge in my ankle after one of my longer runs.

So I am just going to throw that out there for what it's worth and if you have an ache or sprain or whatever that you are not comfortable taking more ibuprofen - do a little research, see if it might work for you.

Also - speaking of running, writersblock is going to run the Disney marathon as a fund-raiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. So if you can, donate a little money and support her as she runs! She'll blog all about her training and you can envy all the miles she has run. She will also send you a very gracious thank-you note!

Update: So I'm reading over this post and I realize that I sound like a spokesperson for arnica montana. I apologize for the length and excess information, but I have been really liking the results that I have seen so far from using it and I wanted to share. But I hate sharing if I don't pass on correct information and I sometimes go overboard! So that's what you get! :-P

Because You Want to Look

Because I am so smirt and just figured out how to post pictures (with a little help from friends, Thanks, Alexis!), here is a picture of the most ridiculously cute boys I know. Don't try to convince me they aren't.

Incomplete Process Analysis

Do any of you have a salad spinner? I love mine. So nice for getting all the excess water off the lettuce and other vegetables. I had some grapes the other day and used it for washing them. As I was spinning them dry, I took the lid off when it started to slow down. NT loved it, he thought it was so cool watching the grapes spin slowly around and settle back to the bottom of the bowl. But since it was almost done, it didn't last very long. Being the indulgent mom that I am, I decided to spin it up for him again. Only this time, I would take the lid off sooner so that he could watch it go 'round and 'round for a bit longer. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a flaw in my planning. I did not account for the centrifugal force at the higher rate of speed as I took the lid off. NT did have fun finding all the grapes in all the various corners of the kitchen though!

Chilly

It is 9:30 in the morning and our current temperature is 49 degrees! Have I ever mentioned how I love when it gets cold at night? Love it! I used two blankets last night with the fan in the window and was in heaven. Yay for fall - even if it isn't September yet!

Gym Shorts

Maybe I'll share one little story before I go to bed since all (one) of you begged for it.

Sometimes, when I think of Gym Shorts, I start giggling uncontrollably before I even think of a particular incident. But I think this one is my favorite. Gym Shorts was fluent in Spanish - he spent 2 years in Mexico (LDS mission). I spent two years learning Spanish in high school. So you would assume that he would be the expert on the language. However, I still disagree with his translation of Assay Wipay. (If I knew how to do the cool little accent over the e, I would do that. But I don't so you will have to bear with me on my Anglicized version of the name)

See, he had really short, curly hair so they called him Brillo Pad. Which apparently translates to Assay Wipay. I think our coverage of cleaning supplies in Spanish class was limited to jabon, so I can't say for sure that Assay Wipay does not actually translate to Brillo Pad. But, in the words of Inigo Montoya, "I do not think it means what you think it means."

P.S. In case you happen to be feeling bad for Gym Shorts, I can assure you that he fully deserved that nickname. I don't believe I have ever met anyone who was so thoroughly convinced of his lofty station in comparison of those around him.

Update to the Running Madness

So I promised to keep you all up-to-date on my progress. Yeah. Sorry about that. Anyhoo - the first week was bad. B.A.D. I only ran twice and I was thinking of giving it up. Not sure if I could do it again, wondered if I had bit off more than I could chew, etc. But then, I got all the encouraging notes from you nice kids and I re-considered. As a matter of fact, I ran 5 miles yesterday (Saturday). I may have to scale back on my goal a little - maybe plan on a 10K for November instead of the half-marathon - but I am going to keep at it. Thanks for all your support - it is totally rad!

So if I don't do the half-marathon in November, who wants to run Robie Creek with me in April??? You know you can hear it calling!