the new camera happies

i may have mentioned that during my adventures in the zion narrows, my camera took a bath. technically, it wasn't 'submerged' (a term which makes a difference in redeeming your 'accidental damage' service plan), but rather, a little bit of water got into the waterproof bag i was carrying it in. the bag, fyi, was not shut because at the time, we were only about calf deep in water. i'll just summarize the tragic event by saying that i cannot walk and chew gum and rub my head and my belly at the same time. nor, apparently, can i walk and put something in aynsley's backpack.

i took the camera back to best buy to see about actually using the service plan i had purchased. i provided all the necessary information, noting that i had 'spilled' water on it, and was told that it would be sent out for repair. when i asked how long that would take, the response was 2-3 weeks. seriously, 2-3 WEEKS! do they not know who i am?! i'm the ocd photo taker!

when the shock registered on my face, the clerk tried to soothe me by saying 'it's faster if they can't repair it and just exchange it. let's hope for that.'

indeed.

since then, i've been religiously checking the status on the geek squad website. i was remiss to see that it took three days for the repair people to even receive it. so imagine my shock when last night, a mere 5 days from my drop off date, i saw that i had been approved for an exchange.

promptly at 10am this morning i visited the best buy:) since i bought my camera (3 months ago) the price has dropped (shocker!), but there is a new improved model (+2 megapixels and a larger screen) that's just a little more than i paid for mine. so the choice was obvious. i received a credit for the same amount i paid for the last camera, and now have the 10mp version. yay! by the way, i can't say enough good things about the canon

it was a sweet ending to a pretty sweet week.

on wednesday i celebrated my 32nd birthday. the day started when i arrived at my office and found that it had been completely pimped - birthday style. streamers and sparkly things hanging from the ceiling, the happy birthday sign strung across my window. it was awesome.

we used to have people on staff that would do that kind of thing, but we lost them 2 or 3 layoff rounds ago, so i was genuinely shocked. my co-workers took me out to lunch, and later brought out a cake and ice cream. they are so fantastic!

after work, i headed over to the d's for the evening celebration.

about two months ago, jenny and i bought tickets for pageant of the masters. i've mentioned it before but it is a performance held in laguna beach annually, for 75 years now, and pieces of art (paintings and sculptures) are recreated using live people. any of you arrested development fans should know what i'm talking about.

me and jenny before going in to the pageant of the masters

the rest of you should check out this photo gallery. it gives you a good idea of how they do what they do.

watching these 'performances' was simply amazing. it is virtually impossible to tell that there are real live humans on the stage. once in a blue moon you can catch a blink, or just the slightest movement (with binoculars), but it is a very rare occurrence.

it was a wonderful way to spend my birthday!

NICOLE makes me a cake!

friday was supposed to be my last day at work. in fact, it was my last day until about 3pm, when some discussions resulted in my staying on for one more week.

prior to those discussions however, we had the 'last day lunch'. there were four of us slated to go in this round, so we had a company lunch at lucille's bbq smokehouse.

'leftovers'

i'll be working from home next week, so it was a great way to say goodbye. i have genuinely enjoyed working with these people, and my only sadness about the end of this chapter is just that. there hasn't been one day where tyler hasn't had me rolling about something idiotic, or alison and i have shared our latest dramas, or holly and charity and i have discussed and debated the books we're working on. i feel genuinely blessed to have developed these friendships and hope they continue.