A Real Camera... Isn't it about time?

That's right. I finally did it. I splurged and bought myself a real camera. I had had it up to here with my little point and shoot and after the blurry, unfocused, unzoomed, uncropped pictures of Kimball at his white coat ceremony I decided to end this. I knew I wanted a DSLR, my first, so I did a bit of shopping and read a zillion professional and consumer reviews and top ten lists and compared Nikon vs Canon. I've always been a Nikon fan, but I really don't think it matters. Everyone says they are neck in neck with features and consistent updates so it really doesn't matter which brand you go with, both deliver phenomenal results. I chose Nikon, the Nikon D5100 to be exact. Only problem is, the price. If you know me, you know that I'm a cheapwad. I most likely got it from my Dad, who I love, but the man could use his senior citizen pass to get a discount on church tithing if he wanted to. He just knows how to cut a deal. So I don't ever make any serious purchases without consulting ksl (if I'm in Utah) or craigslist (for everywhere else). I was able to find a couple ads selling Nikon's D5100's. But this one particular ad had everything I wanted for a price that was just too good to be true. I sent him a text and offered him even less than what he was asking... just to test the waters. His reply, "sure, sounds good." What? Okay I must be talking to a 12 year old kid who stole this from their Mom's closet and was trying to make a buck or two. So after asking a couple more 'tester' questions, we agreed to meet so that I could test out the camera. He wanted to meet at his grandma's house, op I was wrong; it's Grandma's camera, not Mom's. When Kimball and I showed up, This man answered the door:

Not exactly the 12 year old girl I was expecting but we'll take it. He said that the camera was a gift and photography is not his thing. I didn't really believe that but I stopped asking questions. The camera was sitting right by the front door in its brand spanking new box with all the packaging still intact. I was shocked that it really hadn't been used yet. I pulled it out to check the lenses, which were still in their individual boxes and turned it on to see how many actuations it had, none, zero, zilch. So we bought it! I'm so happy! This is, what I hope, the beginning of a very beautiful relationship. And it will become even more beautiful when I figure out how to use the dang thing.

As we were walking out, I asked him for his name so that in the case that things go wrong within the next couple of days with the camera that I could call him. He says "my name is Kenny" and I look up from my paper where I was writing this down and say, "... and your last name?" He looks around the room then to Kimball then finally back to me and says, "G. You can call me Kenny G."

Thanks a lot Kenny G.

How My Facebook Profile Picture was Changed

Kimball started school on September 12th. It was a range of emotions for all of us, well mostly just for him. He was nervous and excited and ready to learn and I was bored, downright bored. We had such an amazing week and a half just getting to sleep in until 10, heck sometimes 11, then playing for a couple hours, going to explore the city all day, taking a late afternoon nap, going out to dinner, and falling asleep to an episode of 24 (we hadn't set cable yet and our options were few). We did that like 10 days in a row, plus church on one of those days. Then when school started I felt like a little puppy dog waiting at the door for their owner to come home. By the third day of Kimball's orientation, I was something short of a mess. That Wednesday morning, things started out as normal, I slept in, lounged around and when 12:00 rolled around I patiently waited by the window-which is the only place we get cellphone service in our apartment- for Kimball's lunch phone call. Okay, I am exaggerating, I patiently watched the season finale of 24 while my phone laid next to the window. Still, the result was the same, there was no lunch phone call. Looking back on it now, it's not anything to think twice about. But then, wow, the highlight of my day didn't happen because my husband forgot about me. It was the worst thing that could have happened. And to shorten this story up- we'll skip the details about how I may or may not have cried myself to sleep that night and I may or may not have locked him out of the house for minute, opened the door a crack to say, "You didn't call" and then closed it, ahh fine, slammed it.

The next day I made an appointment with a temp agency that was recommended to me by another dental wife in the ward. I googled her company just to see what people have said about them, to make sure My interview was in downtown San Francisco set for 1:00 that afternoon and I was on the road by 12:00, feeling confident that since I was only 15 minutes away I'd have a world of time. So wrong. Finding parking amongst all the one way streets, the little china town, the private parking lots, the red zones, the white zones, the yellow zones and the blue zones (who really knows what all those colors mean!?) was a nightmare. I finally walked in to my interview at 1:40. Checked in with the front desk and sat down with an application, a grammar and a spelling test. I spelled definitely wrong. I have been having dreams about it ever since, that is not a joke. In the middle of my spelling test, a very friendly woman walked in, greeted me and walked into the boss' office (also the lady who I was supposed to have interviewed with over an hour ago). A few minutes later, the boss lady, who I had not seen or met yet comes out and asks me if I have a car. I began to spit out my apologies of why I thought I could drive and find parking for my car, and yes my car is the reason I was late and how this is the first time trying to park in the big city and oh my gosh blah blah blah. She stops me, "do you have a car?". She must have been looking for a shorter answer. "Yes" I reply and she leaves. I finished my test, turned it without double checking definitely...idiot idiot. And then proceeded to the boss lady's office.

And that was it. Just like that, I had gotten a job. She sent me away to go start my computer tests.

I sat down and started the 2.5 hour long computer tests which tested my skills in outlook, word, powerpoint and access. In the middle of taking the test, boss lady sticks her out of the door and tells me to stop everything and come in her office. She and her assistant where standing there looking me up and down. I figured they just realized that I didn't know how to spell definitely and were going to boot me now. No, but really she said, "The company that you were going to work for called and said they googled you and they do not feel comfortable with you working for them now." I was so confused. Boss lady sat down at her desk and pulled up the same page the company had seen. As it loaded the title "Model Mayhem" popped up on the screen and I knew exactly where this was going. Tess Burton from Orem, Utah the beautiful blonde model pulled up with her hair draped over what should have been draped with a shirt, a tank top, maybe even a bra would have been nice. Ha. The assistant, bless her heart, kept saying "no, it's not her, look at her eyes, this girl has brown eyes, that girl has blue eyes, they are not the same" to which boss lady would reply, "I don't know, look at the hair, the hair looks just the same." Geeze. My hair color is not even real.

Anyways, to cut to the chase, after ten minutes of talking with the CEO over there, she called me back in and said they want to see your facebook. I pulled it up. The boss says, "Oh gosh, that's you?! You look fat in this picture. I can't send this to them" she paused to look me up and down and after much thought she said, "Hmm.. You're not even fat! Yeah, we definitely need a different pic. Do you have something on your phone or just anything?" haha I was immediately reminded of my long summer days which were spent watching this garbage: _________

I let her scroll through my previous profile pictures until she found one that she liked. I start on Monday!

And that's the story of how my facebook profile picture got changed.