New camera

I’ve been a photo buff for a long time.  I gave myself a gift of a film SLR camera for my high school graduation present.  A Fujica SLR.  Nothing takes a picture like a SLR Camera.  Like every one else, I got into digital photography years ago with my first camera that was not even measured in mega pixels, but rather by image size – 640×480.  Now my cell phone takes better pics that that one did.  Then Canon announced the Digital Rebel. Finally, a digital SLR I could afford!  Even tho I paid a fortune for it.  When I first got it in April of ’04, I took it everywhere, carted the camera bag around instead of a purse.  Decided a while later that I really needed a good point & shoot camera, so I got a Canon D-9, which at 12.2 mp was better than the Rebel at 6.3, so the Rebel got shuttered off to the side a bit.

But back at Christmas time, I took a trip to Longwood Gardens.  Decided the Rebel had to go along on this trip.  That’s when I decided that maybe it was time for a new DSLR.  Happened to get an email from Brads Deals with a link to a deal at Buy.com for a Canon T3 and Pixma Pro printer for $817 with a $400 rebate.  Too good a deal to pass up!  So, I ordered, and sold the old Rebel and the printer for $400.  Combined with the rebate, that netted me a new camera for $17!  Can’t beat that with a stick!

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

The boots update

The second pair of boots – the Brielle arrived and fit as nicely as the Brinkley’s do.  Yeah!

The saga gets even better…. As I am fortunate to live close enough to the Dansko Company Store in Jennersville, I buy my shoes there.  Got an email from them with 15% off coupon.  Lo and behold when I went to the store they had the Brinkley boots in stock – at $35 less than I paid online.  Guess what got shipped back to 6pm.com post haste?  Had picked up another pair of shoes while at the outlet that I decided just were not quite right.  Took them back last week.  As they only give a store credit instead of a refund I decided to look again while I was there and sitting on the top shelf just waiting for me was a pair of the brown Brielle in my size.  Boy did I snatch them up quickly and make a quick exit.  Guess what got shipped back to onlineshoes.com?  Yup, the first pair of the Brielle.  Saved myself $63 to boot (pun intented!)

So, thanks to Dansko, I don’t hate my feet quite so much “)

Read Full Post »

“Can I help you?” / “Probably not…do you have new feet in the back???”

Did you ever really, really, I mean really want to trade in a part of your body for new?  Of course, we all do.

For me, it’s the feet.  I literally hate my feet.  Thanks Dad.  For I inherited his wide feet with a high instep, and absolutely the worst shape for most shoes.  I mean they look like duck feet.  Daisy would have an easier time shopping at PayLess or KMart than I do.

I decided I’d like a pair of high dress boots this winter.  HA.  Good luck with that idea kiddo…. I go into stores, ask if they have anything in a Wide-Wide width and far too often the answer is *no*.  I found a couple pairs in a *wide* width online (at a really great sale price) so I ordered. And promptly sent back.  Wide according to just whose standards??  My sister took a pair that were almost too tight on her size 8 narrow foot!

I literally only buy Dansko shoes and clogs any more.  Thank goodness I live near their “Company Store” in Jennersville, PA where their shoes are 50% off.  Tho it’s a crapshoot as you never know what styles they’ll have in your size.  But I like shopping there because their shoes are hand-crafted and if (like me) you have one foot almost a size bigger than the other or (like me) have one foot a size wider than the other (did I mention I hate my feet??) you can pull 4 or 5 pairs off the racks and mix and match till you find the one that’s got just a bit larger right foot, etc.

So when the email came in advertising Dansko at 40% off at 6pm.com – well I just had to go look.  Found a pair of their Brinkley boots and thought I’d give them a try. Never mind that they were 4 times the price of the ones I previously ordered…

Thought maybe if I ordered in a size larger, there was some snowball’s chance they’d fit.  Well, lo and behold – they did!  Tho the right leg just wouldn’t zip all the way up my larger calf.  Did I mention besides the wide foot, high instep and mis-matched feet I have larger calves?  So I wandered around a bit figuring they’d stretch out some and after about a half hour, they had stretched enough to zip them up.  I’m not saying I’ve got mis-matched legs too… must be the boots 😉  By morning, they zipped up with no trouble.   Matter of fact, I was so thrilled to find they actually FIT that I ordered their sister pair – the Brielle – in brown.  Now we just have to wait and see if I’ll be so lucky with the second pair.

Read Full Post »

5,000 kwh less!

Quick update on our solar..or should I say never ending quest to beat the power company at their own game…

We’ve got an energy/solar generation monitoring system set up.  I took at look at our total usage for 2010… around 13,840 kwh – and in 2011 we bought a new pool filter – total usage was down to 9,920 kwh!  Can’t believe the pool filter saved us that much in two months… Did the daughter (who moved out in July of ’10) really use that much electric??

Read Full Post »