Ups & Downs, Thumbs and Otherwise

It's been a while since my last post, and there are a couple of reasons for that. First, it was a little hectic last week. The Vincents were in town for a visit, and I was fortunate that they made a couple slots for me in their busy visitation schedule for me on Thursday and Friday. They are doing well, and Lila is just about the happiest baby I've ever seen... Even when I get to hold her.

Maybe if they send me a pic or two, I can get it posted here. I would have had my own, but I brought my "party" cam to dinner and naturally left the battery at home. How convenient. As far as my "that guy" cam, well I realize now all of the pictures I took with it at my place are out of focus. More on that to come.

Friday night also happened to be book club meeting. We were discussing The Stranger (my pick). The discussion was quite lively and much more enjoyable than the book, in my opinion (note I didn't include the customary "humble" in there). It helped me out a lot getting everyone else's thoughts about the book, but in the end, I still wasn't quite sure what Camus was getting at. Excuse me... at what Camus was getting (this is probably grammatically incorrect as well). So in the end I had to give it the ol' thumbs down, the solitary negative amongst the group (but I'm sure they were all just sparing my feelings... Ha! As if I had any).

OK so back to my "that guy" camera... (This is what Caleb dubbed it when I bought my small "party" cam. I said I didn't always want to lug my big camera places, particularly in social settings - as if that's much of a danger for me - where it can be a bit distracting. Caleb succintly expressed my sentiment as, "oh, you don't always want to be that guy." I'd say that's pretty accurate.) Anyway, this is the second reason I haven't blogged in a bit, as it has had a couple of performance-hindering issues lately. As I mentioned in my last post, I got a new lens from the Corwins. Well, after trying it out on my BOC, I found I couldn't detach the lens from my camera. Yadda, yadda, yadda, the lens was defective and actually broke slightly while I took those dozen pictures. A guy at the local camera shop was able to remove it in a not altogether gently manner, but when I put my other lenses on there were frequent camera-to-lens communication errors and autofocus was not operational. I drove the lens and camera down to Canon (holla OC!) today to see what they could do. They are going to fix the lens, and the camera issue looks like an easy fix they were able to take care of today (but not after trying to charge me $180 - I politely explained that my camera was fine until I attached their faulty lens... and perhaps an encounter with an aggressive camera shop employee). Bottom line is I'll be getting a repaired or new lens in the next week, and my camera is as good as before. And I am much happier now.

One good thing that came of this whole camera situation was that I am now alerted to the fact that Cruella DeVille is roaming freely through the Southland. It's good to be aware that this type of element is nearby.



Unfortunately, the sight of that car in traffic was not the only indication of Ms. DeVille's presence I would receive today. Early this evening, I received a knock on my door from a sweet young lady who suspects she had her miniature dauchsund stolen. It was a pretty sad story, and was actually looking for witnesses who might have seen the perp steal her dog away (she lives across the street). She thinks she knows who has it, but the police can't search based solely on her suspicion. She suspects her ex-boyfriend took it, but if it were me I'd follow the trail of green smoke and puppy. Seriously, what an awful story.

And since I know Anne will ask, no, I did not get her "contact information." Actually I know her name and where she lives so I guess I kinda did.

UPDATE!: Pics from The Vincent's visit courtesy of Jenny's blog (I stole 'em).

Chics dig my beard.

"You've got a baby... in a bar."