I left work early today due to the development of an itchy rash from using Tiger Balm the night prior. That and it’s nice having an afternoon off. I told my boss I’d probably head out early one night this week when I was preparing for meeting out of town guests, but since those plans fell through, I went home and relaxed instead.

I thought I had some witch hazel to quell the itch, but found some aloe instead.

I did drag out my bear skin and try to take some pictures of that deck I was talking about before. I don’t mess with divination at all, but recently became interested in this supposed “native” theme deck. It’s alright, but I don’t think divination will hold my attention for long. Though I’ve been starting the habit of drawing a card every morning during my daily piety.

Anyhow, it’s a rather tall deck, and wouldn’t fit into any normal suede bags that I had, but I realized I had a white leather bag that wasn’t being used, that fit quite perfect.

Picture 1
Picture 2 (I think I should have shot these with the sun in front of me, instead of behind me)
Picture 3 (close-up of the bag)

When my digital camera broke last weekend, I decided to invest in a new one. Summer time is a keen time for me to take pictures with my fathers flowers and our home here, and I didn’t want to miss out on any if at all possible.

My previous model was a FujiFilm 3800 digital camera that I had bought from my good friend Stacey (whose father just died yesterday, bless her heart), because I prefer to support my friends and my Grove before looking to purchase through other means. It served me very well for about 2 or 3 years, allowing me to take pictures like this, this, and these.

When searching for a new camera, I found one for sale on Overstock.com for $115 that was a lesser model, but looked exactly the same as the one I have now. The Fuji Finepix S3100. I was tempted to buy it because the price was cheap, and I could reuse my current equipment (memory cards mainly). I imagine I could still get decent pictures with it, but I really wanted to try something better. This was going to be an investment that would need to last me for several years, afterall.

Then I ran across the Canon Powershot S3 IS, which was approximately in the range of what I as willing to spend. This camera goes for $499, but on Overstock (and I even checked on ebay) runs for about $380, saving me over $100. There were some cheaper ones for sale on Ebay that stated they were “brand new” and “never opened!” but I liked having the guarantee with Overstock.

I just started playing with it today, but am limited to the 16mb memory card that comes with it. I may lower the resolution to see if I can fit more than 6 pictures onto it, but two 1 gig memory cards are already on their way none the less (also found very cheap for only $5/each). So far I am very happy with it, and am learning all the new gadgets and gizmos that this one has that the other did not. Though I am very simple with my photos, and don’t expect I will need to use much more than the basics.

Some of the differences I’ve noticed so far, is that the Fuji camera maxed out at 1280/960 resolution. Some pictures I took today with the Canon were at 2816×2112 resolution, and I’ve no clue if it can go higher, I haven’t done the research. But that’s more than plenty for me.

The Canon has a rotating LCD monitor that twists and turns in all kinds of directions, whereas the Fuji had an LCD camera embedded on the back of the camera. The Canon allows me to attach memos and sounds to pictures, where as the Fuji did not have any sounds or editing at all.

One of the crazy little additions the Canon also seems to have, is the ability to customize the operating sounds, one of the choices being nature sounds. So every time I take a picture, I hear a dog barking. When I view pictures, birds chirp. And I forget what makes a wolf howl, but all in all it is an amusing feature.

I did feel the “spending guilt” for buying this camera, since I’ve been so focused on being frugal lately. But what it comes down to, is the fact that I do work really hard to save money, and I am still keeping track of my expenses and looking for places I can reduce bills and such. It’s important to be smart with your money, and it’s important to save your money. But it’s also important to enjoy your money.

My first picture with the Canon, and also a look at what I’ll be doing later today (oh yes).

I’ve posted some pictures that I took this weekend, mostly of my father/dog and our old and new water heater. They all open up into very large photos for detail.

As you can see the old one is fairly grotesque:

Keep in mind it’s 28 years old, as you can tell by the label (also in the series of pictures). That is what was holding our water! Gross.

Our new one is tre awesome (and I’m sure more energy efficient):

Keep in mind this all comes out of our pocket. Though we may see if the landlord will let us take it out of the rent for the month.

The tree and garden.

Well, not really autumn pictures, because the leaves aren’t turning so much around my house yet. But pictures none the less!

I also took two videos of Bastian: Bastian and my dad playing, Bastian following me around the tripod

A good portion of today involved putting new brakes on my dads truck, since they failed on him yesterday twice, nearly causing him to have a rather severe accident. There went the Baltimore Pagan Pride Day.

I also did some computer file clean-up, which isn’t anywhere near done, but it feels good to do some purging and organizing. Especially of photos, which I have now started to accumlate into an online gallery, though I still have more to add.

With this I also took pictures of a new “alter-in-development” for the three realms. It’s a 3 shelf cabinet that was given to me some time ago, that has served as storage for rocks and candles over the last few years. I suppose technically it still does, but I am starting to develop it into 3 altars instead, for the Shining Ones, Nature Spirits, and Ancestors.

I also may be buying a house. I mentioned once before that the ladies across the street might sell theirs, and my dad got confirmation that they will. He’s already told them I was interested in buying it, and I hope they’ll cut me a good deal. I don’t actually intend to live in it. The sisters built it in the 70’s and developed it into a duplex, so I’d actually like to rent out both sides to pay off the mortgage. Then it’ll be a good investment for me for the future, and a backup in case I ever need a place to stay.

That and Mr. Right owns his own home, so if he decides to sell that and move here, having the money from his home plus the income from this house, we’ll be set. Either way I need to do something for -my- future, without the possibilities of anyone else. So we’ll see how this goes. No idea how much they want for it yet, so everything is still up in the air.

Who would have thought I’d ever consider buying a house. Hell I still don’t think it.

My uncles came over to help us kill rabbits. I think we killed about 19 in all. They each took about 10 home, and the rest my dad and I will be freezing.

Being around my uncles though, makes me feel like a little kid. Especially in my family, if you’re female your opinion just doesn’t amount to much. You can’t do things like the men can, you tend to be ignored, etc. But it was always like that growing up on my dads side of the family, so it doesn’t bother me too much. I’ve always felt like I had something to prove to them and my cousins. I had to shoot just as good if not better, I had to ride bikes just as fast if not faster, I had to climb trees higher, etc. It doesn’t amount to anything, but I still felt like I had to try.

It was neat listening to them talk about all their hunting expeditions though. Hunting elk in Montana, taking horses up the mountains. They can afford to do all of that though, my father and I never could. I’d like to someday though.

I took a lot of flower pictures today, and a few of my dad, of my uncles, etc. Putting them behind a cut though because there’s so many. Mostly because I got carried away with the Morning Glories.

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