Photography frustrations and the joy of junk mail

Nick was thrilled in this picture because I let him keep all of the mail. There wasn't anything important that I needed, so I let him tear it to shreds and chew on it. He was all, "Best toy Ev-er!" Then he spent the next twenty minutes tearing papers and shrieking joyfully. I'm sure that's not what all the politicians figured would happen with their attack ads and fliers.

We get the funniest junk mail. Besides being on every democratic/liberal mailing list in three counties, we get a ton of baby coupons and fliers. When I was pregnant with Nick, I signed up for everything. Plus, Greg is a child and adolescent therapist, so he gets fliers for seminars and such all the time. In a typical week, we receive ads for programs on how to help: adolescents who cut themselves, children with psychopathic tendencies, and video game addiction and its implications. (Yes, really.) Finally, since I'm a teacher, I get union fliers and magazines, educational journals, and fliers for seminars. Oh, and you can't forget the catalogues for prizes and children's books. (Every year I spend hundreds of dollars on prizes for my little friends. The catalogue people have caught on to this.)



The camera saga continues. My camera, a Nikon Coolpix S220, apparently had something wrong with the lens and two other parts. We mailed it in and they agreed. Yup. The pictures it took sucked. They fixed it at no charge, and mailed it back to me. I finally got my camera back this week, and I excitedly snapped about a dozen shots of Nick yesterday and today. However, when I uploaded the pictures today. . . well, you can see what happened. I'm not using any weird mode. These pictures were taken in auto mode in a lighted indoor room. I cannot be that bad of a photographer. So I emailed Nikon again and thus, the saga continues. I swear, if I have to mail it to them again, I'm not going to be a happy camper. We paid for insurance and priority mail shipping, and the darned thing still doesn't work right.

This last picture (below) isn't quite so bad. Still grainy, but not too blurry. I'm not sure why this picture worked and the others are all blurry and spotty. I know the lens is clean because they replaced the lens. Sigh. Anyhow, Nicholas was bringing me a book to read. . . again. Not that I mind. Lately Molly (my female cat) has taken to sitting on the arm of the couch, listening to me read to Nick. I wonder if she understands any of the stories. She sure looks interested. Then again, while she's pretty smart for a cat, she's not smart enough to run away when Nick gives her hugs. Instead she just growls and whines until I come and get him.