My New Love… the Lumix ZR1

In my haste to flee Texas (and the beet-smelling water), I left my hand-me-down Polaroid camera in the Mesquite house. I didn’t think anything of it until I found myself using my web cam to snap photos of my Movie Night appetizers. So I went to Target and saw a Sony for $109 plus a $20 Target Gift card… so total cost (for the mathematically challenged) = $89! Whoo! But I am a weirdo who won’t buy anything without checking to see if I can get a better deal elsewhere.  So after some initial talks and review, I decide to go with the Sony. But ACK! The sale was over. I hem and haw over the other cameras… trying to make a decision. Before I can pick a second choice, the guy behind the counter lets me know that he’s basically totally out of stock. What? Argh! Double bummer. I pack the babies up and go to Fry’s. No cameras. We hit the Target in Mission Valley. No cameras. Sports Arena Target. No cameras. But we did have a very strange encounter a Target employee.

WARNING: Random side story having nothing to do with cameras.

After we left the camera counter empty-handed, we passed a rack of children’s DVDs. Jaxon found a Thomas the Train DVD and picked it up, put it under his arm and then explained to me (in his Jaxon  secret language) that he was going to buy this DVD. I decided that he could carry it around until we got to the exit. As we approached the door, I took the DVD from him and told him to say “bye-bye” to Thomas. Well that was NOT acceptable. Jaxon  threw himself on the ground, right in the center of the aisle, and started screaming. Knowing this might happen, I just stopped and waited for him to finish his fit. But before I could ask him to stand up, this woman pops up from around the corner as if her injured-baby-alarm went off , asking if he was okay. I explained that he was just upset and she swooped down upon him and picked him up. What!?! Yes, there is my dear, teary eyed boy in the arms of some strange Target employee. She brings him over to me, oohing and ahhing over him, stroking his curls and asks if we are coming or going. I tell her that we are leaving and then she says that she is leaving as well. Then she proceeds to walk me out to my car toting little Jaxon in her arms the whole way. She asks if he’s potty trained and I’m like no… And she says that she can’t feel a diaper. (Horror – what if she was sexually feeling up my boy!?! Oh GOD!) She explains that she hasn’t started potty training her boy (about Jaxon’s age).  Ahhh, okay. We get to the car and she seems hesitant to give Jaxon back to me. I eventually pry him from her arms and escape with both babies intact. Weird.

And still NO CAMERA!

So I go home, grab the Consumer Reports, and get to work looking for a camera. Six hours later I head to Costco armed with three options. I get there… I can’t make up my mind. One camera has a dead battery so I can’t play with it.  The Canon is my least favorite. The Nikon CoolPix S570 is slick, small and seems easy to use. I am torn between the Nikon and two Panasonic cameras, so I give Matt a call to help in the decision-making. Matt’s gut feeling says to go with the newer Panasonic. I want a camera that I can turn on, point and shoot, and get a good photo without fooling with a bunch of menus. I am worried that the Panasonic will be too complicated, but Matt’s gut is hardly ever wrong, so I decided on the Panasonic Lumix ZR1. Once I have it in my little grubby hands I’m like a kid in a candy store. I bust it open before pulling out of the parking lot. It’s beautiful, sleek, and sexy. And didn’t even need Ashton Kutcher to sell itself.

The Panasonic came with a slim carrying case, 100 free prints at costco.com, a two-year extended warranty, and a 2GB memory card (whoo!) all for $180. Here’s are my first shots, testing out how it performs in low lighting and playing with the zoom.

Dashboard up close inside the Yaris.

Mema letting me use her as a test subject.

Not bad!! Tomorrow I will be able to test how it works shooting babies-in-action, play with the 8x optical zoom, and shoot some HD videos! I can’t wait!!

The Panasonic Lumix ZR1… my new love!

The Latest Attempts

I am of the firm belief that we are put on this earth to be happy. Eating, drinking, sleeping, pooing, making babies… are all things that give us pleasure because if we didn’t eat, drink, sleep, poo, or make babies then we as a species would cease to exist. But there has to be a happy medium. If you eat too much then you’ll get fat, if you drink to much you’ll get water poisoning (or at least a terrible tummy ache), if you sleep too much — well you won’t get anything done and won’t be able to afford the toilet to poo on or the room to make babies in (or the doctor bills!)

Saturday morning the sky was blue and the air was warm (sorry to all of you in other parts of the world where the idea of a skirt and flip flops in Mid March is just crazy talk) so I decided that I was going to take Jaxon swimming. We had a great day at Costco and Target — but why are Little Swimmers $10.99 and why doesn’t Target sell a generic brand??!!?? $45 bucks and a 2 hour nap later we were on our way to the heated pool. Even Matt came along, despite his disdain for anything related to pools and sunshine. It was a bit too chilly for my taste at 4pm, but Jaxon had a good time. The cutest part was when Matt (clad in dark denim jeans and a heavy leather jacket) looks down at Jax and me and asks, “Do I have a swimsuit?” He never had a reason to swim before Jax came along. So sweet!!! It’s moments like this that make life really great. We’re planning on going again today when Jaxon wakes up. Hopefully he’ll learn to love the water as much as his mama does!

And now it’s time to take the dog out to poo.

Happiness all around. – Jessie

Happy 2008!

Well it’s officially 2008 and I still haven’t finished cleaning the bedroom, sorting through the bags and boxes of papers I cart around with me from apartment to apartment, or downloaded my music from my computer to my MP3 player so that I can work out every night. I have, however, finally put the above mattress for sale on craigslist (it’s free – come take it!), put up all of the Christmas decorations (actually, I tossed them in the closet until I can get to organizing that), had awesome sex 3 times (whoo!), decided to stay home with Jaxon full time – which means I that am officially jobless, began taking my vitamins again, AND have started my blog (again). While I adore Christmas, I am actually glad that the holidays are over. I think we planned too many things. We technically had plenty of time, but with Matt’s art work taking off and Jaxon, there was little time just to relax. Target still didn’t have the bookcases I need to finish my bedroom. But Christmas stuff was 90% off. I knew if I just held out, I could do better than 75%. Of course at 90% off, the air was thick with the stench of (as Matt described it) poor people. Today was a lazy Sunday. I only left the house to haul away that mattress and a 2/3 full box of unused diapers. I turned in my resignation to my job today. The email was short and sweet. I know they will be upset, which in turn makes me very upset, but Matt pointed out that they would be upset because they need me and I am hard to replace and that I was under-paid. This made me feel a bit better. The surprise flowers (tulips are my favorite!!) also helped. Man, I have a great man. We did get to enjoy a nice evening before Matt returned to work, complete with pizza (No! it’s not delivery –because only nasty Round Table delivers to Terra Linda — it’s DiGiorno!), Family Guy, and homemade hazelnut cappuccinos. Tasty. In final news, Jaxon can officially push himself up on his hand while on him stomach and roll to the right.Two days ago he couldn’t lift that massive head of his if the world depended on it. Now, he can stare me in the eyes for a second or two before rolling. Time to be more attentive at the diaper changing table.