50mm Lens

Last night I borrowed some lenses from our friend Ann who has an old school Pentax SLR.  One of the many reasons that I chose the new camera that I did was because I'd be able to fit old Pentax lenses to it, and I thought I could probably find them for relatively cheap.

So Ann let me borrow a few lenses, and, omigod.  I don't really know much about lenses and what all of that millimeter stuff means (note to self: learn that), but the first one I tried out was the 50mm.  

Um, amazing!  Like, this lens has some sort of  magical property where it just makes everything beautiful.  Ugly stuff--beautiful.  Beautiful stuff--even more beautiful.  Me--f'ing gorgeous!  

So for the last 20 minutes or so I've just been walking around the house taking pictures of things.  I kind of wish that I could see the world through a 50mm lens at all times. (Which is kind of like seeing the world through rose-colored classes, except with blurry backgrounds and less pink.)

Award for Outstanding Performance of the Century. 

Strawberry frozen yogurt that isn't very good.  At least it's pretty. 

 Not dead.  Yet.

Well, with that I'm off to take a nap.  It'll be a quick one.  Only 4-5 hours or so.

New Camera!

Man oh man it's been a busy few days.  I've been so busy cleaning and decorating and baking and wreath making and phone talking and wine drinking that I've completely neglected to share the arrival of the newest member of our family with you.

Meet Whitey.

I just named him that like five seconds ago, but I think it might stick.

Whitey is my new camera, a Christmas gift from my wonderful husband, who is a poker extraordinaire.*

Here's a picture of the camera that someone else took (kind of hard to take a picture of the new camera with the camera (kind of like vacuuming the vacuum).

Isn't he beautiful? 

He's also really easy to use and takes great photos and feels great in my hands and takes HD video and is quite an upgrade from my DSLR from 2002.  Hugh recommended this camera when we were there for Thanksgiving, and as soon as I saw it I knew it was the one for me.  It also got great reviews and has great features and is a Pentax, so I will be able to buy older Pentax lenses for it. Since Whitey arrived on Thursday, I've probably taken thousands of pictures, and I'm in awe of just how easy he is to use.  I'm still figuring everything out with it, but having a blast doing it.

Here is one of my favorite shots from my favorite camera when I took it to my favorite bakery.

*We share money, and sometimes when you share money and then spend lots of it on an expensive gift for the other, it's like, "Oh, hey.  Thanks for spending all of that money I made on this thing." Anyway,  Matt has not been playing online poker and winning a lot**, and he's definitely not made enough to buy me a new camera for Christmas.

**Because it's illegal to play online poker for real money, or something like that.

Happy, Happy

The last few days have been pretty quiet, but productive and nice.  Matt's been sick (with a cough due to cold--either that or scurvy.  I keep trying to get him to eat oranges, but he refuses), and I've been getting the house ready for the arrival of our Christmas tree (tomorrow, maybe?) and next week's house guests.

For everyone who's counting, I've got 8 more school days until Christmas break, and couldn't be more excited about it.  I'm also excited about this stuff.

1.  Christmas gifts are all wrapped.  Granted, we don't buy for all that many people (and a few things have been shipped already), but that part's done.  I can't wait to put the colorful boxes under the tree!

2.  This weird little mason jar with lights and crazy sprig things.  I love it.  It's like robot flowers.

3.  Finally got rid of our old desktop, which freed up tons of space in the office (and eliminated about 200 yards of cords that used to be a tangled mess under the desk).  By the way, if you live in Savannah, there's a group called AWOL (All Walks of Life) that accepts old electronics (working or not).  They teach kids to work on them, fix up the computers, and then donate them to families that need computers.  Hell yeah!  (Also got rid of the old elliptical machine, which means that next week's guests will actually have a little bit of space in the guest room.  Horray for the free ads on Craigslist, and for women with husbands who have trucks.)

4.  Christmas lights.  I seriously can't get enough of them.

5.  Mitchell.  Sweet face, cuddle friend, giver of kisses and eater of marshmallows.

6.  Hot chocolate.  Maybe I can't make coffee, but I make a bangin' cup of hot chocolate.  The secret?  Milk.  Water hot chocolate is gross, unless it comes from a vending machine on the JMU campus.

7.  Christmas lights again!

8.  P Cubed for dinner!  This stuff is so good I can't stand it.

9.  And, finally, my new camera should be here in the next couple of days!  [big giant stupid grin on face]

What's making you smile today?  Are your halls decked and jolly and lit and whatnot?