If This Were a Shopping Blog

If this were a shopping blog, first, I would advise everyone to have a 10-year anniversary. This is the "tin" anniversary, and in honour of the tintype (plus in honour of things we just really want), we celebrated with the purchase of a nice macro lens and (finally!) an external flash.

Both are great; I can photograph the hamsters from a distance and bounce a flash (no more waiting for day time then throwing open all the curtains), and no rodents go blind or are unflatteringly lit.

The photo below of Arthur was a throwaway shot as I tested the new equipment. He's a little blurry, but still cute. (Cute enough to be #182 in the top 500 photos on Flickr for yesterday. That's down from #140, bur still! It's an honour to be in such august company and all that.)

(Update: He's back up to #149.)

The external flash is the more amazing of the two. Everyone who said it would change my life was right. Ours is only the entry-level model (it can never be a master, only a slave), but it makes such a difference. The lens is great, though. 100mm, 2.8, USM, and heavy as hell. Still, I like it.

We also got a circular polarizer - another "finally!" - but I haven't tried it yet. I always protect the lenses with a UV filter. I know that's controversial ("why are you covering your nice lens with a piece of cheap plastic?!"), but I know me and I know I'd have a smudgy, spotty, and possibly cracked lens by now without it. However, for the new lens, we splurged on the more-respectable-than-10-dollar-Tiffen Canon 58mm UV filter. It is heavier and more intimidating. I like it, too. Heavy is apparently in. (Seriously, the new lens weighs more than the camera.)

But enough about photography! Hold on, no, here is another photo with the new lens/flash (keep in mind I still don't know what I'm doing yet). This one features Edith, and it turns out that, hey, the girls love their flying saucer after all. It just took a few days for them to embrace the freedom of running with an open view. We're getting more, that's for sure. If this were a shopping blog, I'd advise you to do the same.

Now, an interruption from a Ronco impersonator: "What would YOU pay to have a flag flown over the nation's capitol building in honor of something YOU choose? Wait! What if we said we were throwing in a commemorative certificate? WAIT! What if we said you get to choose the occasion, choose the day, have the flag flown, get the certificate, and GET THE FLAG ITSELF? What would YOU pay for ALL THESE THINGS?!"

In Nevada, if you choose a cotton flag (instead of nylon), and a 3'x5' flag, then the answer is $17.30 (via Senator Harry Reid or Senator John Ensign). Not big enough? The 5'x8' in cotton is $28.05. That's everything: the date, the reason (optional), the certificate, and the actual flag! S/H included! Who knew about this? Everyone but me, I guess, since it seems to be prominent on the website of every senator and rep I checked.

More stuff I didn't know (according to the official Flag Code):

• If you don't take your flag down at sunset, then you're supposed to illuminate it at night. (The car dealerships around here will need some industrial spotlights.)
• "Hoist briskly, lower ceremoniously." (I'm not seeing enough brisk, people.)
• No draping the flag on your boat.
• "international usage forbids the display of one flag above another in times of peace." (This confuses me, as my sailing friends would fly both the US flag and the Canadian flag as a friendly gesture when on the Detroit River, with the US on top. Were they actually starting a war? Can I now claim that I served on Chris Craft Battleyacht "Kohn-tiki" under the leadership of General Sharon Kohn's Dad?)
• You may not "festoon" the flag, and any red/white/blue bunting should be displayed as blue/white/red from top to bottom.
• "The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any way whatsoever." Really? That "in any way whatsoever" seems so clear. And yet, a corpus of junk mail disagrees.
• The Mexican-born students of a fellow teacher last year? The ones who tried to get her to fly a flag of Mexico in addition to the U.S. flag? The ones who cut a big patch out of the classroom flag? They're going to need to give a lot of CPR to lepers before that karmic debt is paid off. (This is more of an inference from the Flag Code than a quote.)

I can't wait to think of a reason to get a flag flown. Oh! I thought of one! Heh heh heh... (More on this later.)

If this were a shopping blog, I'd talk about the "Noble Collection" brochure that came with the Amazon order. As much as I am tempted to have my own Da Vinci Code Cryptex or the Phial of Galadriel, what my heart really yearns for is a Harry Potter-style Time Turner. If I just believed hard enough...

When we signed the new lease, the property manager (the lovely property manager of what I have come to believe is Las Vegas' best apartment company, hence the new lease) surprised us with a $50 Wal-Mart gift card. I think it will all be spent on subbing outfits for Mike (his training is next week, so the journey begins), but it's nice to shop at someone else's expense. Maybe we'll go crazy and get a $2 propane jug-sized jar of pickles, too. (If this were a shopping blog, we could spend two paragraphs on dill vs butter vs gherkin and another paragraph on slices vs long wedges.)

Comments

[Heather in PA]

Dill baby. Kosher Dill all the way.

:)

[Ann]

Both are great! Canon UV 58 mm Filter is a colorless filter, which absorbs ultraviolet radiation without affecting visible light,effective for reducing distant haze in landscape pictures taken on sunny days, especially when using black-and-white film.