cool caterpillar, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

lamentables suggested Googling the problem with my camera (which I should have thought of, but I plead full brain on account of camp prep), and I found a Nikon forum which had several suggestions. The one that worked was to "smack the back of the camera moderately" with the camera pointed down. I turned it on, and the lens extended and retracted. OMG, yay. I took it out for a test run, and it appears to be working just fine. *whew*

Thanks also to grrlfriday (a.k.a. my cousin Deanna) for offering to lend me hers for camp. And thanks to all of you who commiserated with me on my loss.

I walked down to CVS, where I found zinc-based spray-on sunscreen (the cheap store brand, even), a floppy straw hat (cheap *and* on sale), and a notebook that's small enough to fit into my little bag but big enough to comfortably write in. They were completely out of any kind of insect repellent, but I'm not too worried. Somebody will have some if I don't find any before I go. I know it's noxious, but I am apparently especially tasty to skeeters, so I can't do without it.

I've also made arrangements for a ride out to camp and back. Yay.

The only problem I'm still having is with the stupid shoes. The ones I bought rub my feet raw in a couple of places, and that just will not do. Fortunately, there's a Payless here in town so I don't have to go back to the maul. I guess I'm going to have to make do with my old, split, beat up sandals. I will probably go barefoot whenever I can. If only they'd had those Skechers in my size... story of my life. I briefly considered going back and paying the $50 for them at DSW, but I just can't justify that (nor can I face going back to the maul). *sigh*

Oh well. At least my camera works. Which, yay! That's very good. :)

DSCN7335, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

Nobody wanted to go to the fireworks with me yesterday, so I went by myself. I went down late, and there were still a lot of people walking down Western Ave. I found a perch on the stone fence, and extended my monopod, which I finally found in the Great Cleanout last summer. I took a bunch of shots, a few of which came out pretty well. I even took a short video.

parking lot Pringles, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

One person's trash is another's photo of the day. *g*

This morning, a coworker was telling me about her new grandson, but she didn't have any pictures because she didn't have a digital camera. *Ding* I've been wanting to give my old camera to someone, preferably someone who really needed it, but hadn't figured out a way to decide whom to give it to. Turns out, I'd been saving it for Nancy. :)

I had a few moments of panic when I checked my bank account online, and there was a lot less money in it than there should have been. I mean, a *lot*. I looked at the account activity, and a deposit I made a few days ago wasn't there. I looked at the deposit slip, still in my wallet, and as it turns out, the teller deposited my money in somebody else's account. Whoops. I called the bank, and everything was fixed. Thank you, Mercury retrograde! Good thing I caught it before I went to buy gas or something. That would have been embarrassing (not to mention panic-inducing). I will be checking my deposit slips more closely from now on!

milkweed flowers, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

I found these milkweed flowers on my lunch break today, and was pleased that I could get such a nice macro out of them. I'm finding that the more I use this camera, the less I have to edit or crop photos. Which is a good thing, as it gives me more time to take them. :)

grab, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

It's so wonderful to be able to spend my lunch break at the park again! Gods, I missed that. It makes all the difference in the world to be able to get out of the building for an hour.

I found these burrs along the edge of the grass; it took a couple of tries to get the camera to focus on them, but when it did, *bam*! It was like magic. It understood what I was trying to do. We're becoming good friends, this camera and I. We're still learning each other's idiosyncrasies, but having fun along the way.

This guy was a little too far away to get a really clear shot of, but I love the look on his (her?) face:



There were several dozen geese floating on the pond, and as I was leaving, another large flock started descending for a pit stop. It was quite loud. Geese are a loquacious lot, aren't they? *g*

perfectly bokeh, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

I managed to get two loads of laundry done before going out today, go me. I was afraid that I had missed the sunshine, but I snatched some sunny moments on a nice long walk around town. It was quite springlike, in the mid-forties at least.

I started out at ( Grandmothers' Garden )

lonely, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

I've read through the manual and found out all the nifty things my new camera can do. Now I'm ready to play with it to try out all these nifty things. Today, it's color options. I can shoot in black & white!

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