i did it… i swam a full mile today!!!  that’s thirty laps in the pool in just fifty-two minutes.  i have been so stinking proud of myself all afternoon!  and, strangely, a little bit sore.  go me!!!

i did it.  i ordered the first new camera to fill in for my dearly departed.  yes, my beloved camera was so special that it will take two to replace her.  since it is summer and the kayaking and surf-learning is in full swing, our immediate need is for a waterproof camera. 

we had a waterproof housing for the old one and it worked wonderfully, but it wasn’t very convenient.  first, it was an extra thing to have to carry.  second, you had to clean and grease the o-ring before each use.  and then there was just the super bulkiness of it.  not that it’s a bad solution… since you can get a housing for pretty much any camera, you can definitely have a much better camera for underwater use… but it’s just not an easy, spur-of-the-moment kind of thing.  as such, this time we decided to get two cameras, one for underwater and everyday use and one for real photography. 

i had pretty much decided on the olympus 1030sw but i had trouble pulling the trigger on it.  see, i’ve always been a canon girl; i don’t know anything about olympus but they seem to have all of the waterproof cameras and canon had, well, none…  until now.  a couple weeks ago i was set to suck it up and order the olympus when i saw that canon had finally released their own u/w model.  i’ve been mulling it over and then, today, my cousin-in-law sent me a link to a one-day-only sale promotion for the canon d10.  it was meant to be!  i can’t wait for it to get here!!!

is it here yet???

my sissy is a much better sissy than her sissy is. this came in a care package when i was sick a couple weeks ago. it made me smile very much a lot.

clearly, he should be in a pink floyd recording.

this is my kayak that i paid for in blood:

ironically enough, it is one of the ones that was in our final cuts from this weekend’s shopping. i’m thinking of calling the store (same store we had seen it, skew is still on the kayak) to see whether they will do returns without a “gift receipt”. don’t get me wrong, i am thrilled to pieces with it. but on the unlikely chance that they will do a return, we can take the money and go get the super nice kayaks that we really want but they’re more expensive and we hated to spend so much since we’d need two of them. with what this kayak cost, it would cover most of the better one and we won’t feel so bad buying them. but, i’m also a realist and am very doubtful that the store will give us money for it. i figure, if they’ll do a return at all, they’ll want to give us store credit and there’s nothing else in that store we would buy. either way, i’ve got a kayak and i’m pleased as punch!

you’ll never guess in a million years what just happened… i won a KAYAK!!! apparently, when we gave blood the other day, they were doing a drawing amongst the donors for a kayak . i recall them mentioning it in passing when we were almost done there but i never thought anymore about it because, let’s face it, i’m not a winner. and, actually, while hubby was talking with the woman and said i won a kayak, i was racking my brain to remember where that whole discussion even took place. anyhow, we’ll be going to pick it up after work this afternoon and i’m looking forward to seeing it (please, please please, let it be small enough to fit in the elevators!). i’m so excited. i don’t win things. especially things i really want. you know, since we’ve been kayak shopping for the last several weekends and were really close to buying two of them. yay for blood-letting!!!