Cracked the LCD on my new (October, for the 3-Day) mini digital camera. Called Canon customer service to figure out whether it would be cheaper to fix or replace.

Me: I cracked the LCD on my SD300. Can you tell me about how much it would be to--
Mister Monotone: Ican'tassessthedamageonyourcameraoverthephonema'amyou'llhavetosenditin.
Me: Okay, but I'm just trying to figure out whether it's worth--
Mister Monotone: Ifyousenditinarepairspecialistwillcontactyouwithanestimate.
Me: But can you just give me an idea of how much a--
MM: Ican'tassessthedamageonyourcameraoverthephonema'amyou'll--
Me: ...have to send it in, I know. But if you got in some OTHER camera that DID have a cracked LCD, how much would you charge to fix THAT camera?
MM: Um. Well. About $350.
Me: Thanks.

Considering that a new one was on sale for less than that price, and we'd have it in time for Tony's birthday trip (rather than in "tentofourteenworkingdaysnotcountingshippingtime") we went out and bought a new one this morning. We're calling them Chip and Dale.

But this time we bought a case.

Hey, neat. The Mini Bath Gourmet Kit (coming out on Tony's birthday next week) is the "#35 Early Adopter Product in Health, Mind and Body" on Amazon.

We're number thirty-five!
We're number thirty-five!
Rah rah rah!

Voom! It's out the door!

The climbing book is officially on its way to New Agent, who will shortly send it on to Old Publisher. They have an option on my next nonfiction manuscript, and this is it. Now they have 90 days to say "yes" or "no", and I understand that they usually take every last minute of that time.

So now I get to figure out what to do with myself for ninety days. Any cool ideas, anyone?

(Actually, I already know that for part of that time I'll be taking an advanced nutrition class to keep up my trainer certification requirements. But that still leaves me plenty of time free, so I'm still in in the market for those cool ideas!)

Decided it was Road Trip time with our friends on Saturday. Went to the Jelly Belly factory about an hour from here, got a free tour, big bags of (amazingly fresh) Jelly Bellys and some Jelly Belly-shaped hamburgers before driving home. It was something we'd talked about doing forever, and turned out to be a lot of fun. I'm only sorry I didn't buy the Jelly Belly temporary tattoos or the fancy silver Jelly Belly necklace while we were there.

The rest of the weekend: super quiet. Just watched the commentary for Dead Heat, and now waiting in line (I'm number #538) to get on our server in World of Warcraft.

Finally woke up to silence instead of the hammering of rain.

It's a good thing, too. The lagoon behind our house was rising, rising, rising. Just a little bit each day, as if it wasn't trying to draw attention to itself. I know better. A few years ago it crept up over our patio and started licking at the sliding glass doors, just dying to ruin our carpet. We bought a trunkful of tarps and sandbags to keep it out, but we got rid of them last summer in the Great Garage Cleanout of '04. Mistake.

Just spent an hour wandering around Draeger's, going "Oooh, look at these caramel-corn flavored caramels!" "Oooh, look at the marzipan loaves!" "Oooh, look at the antioxidant-spiked dark chocolate!" "Oooh, look at the cheesy asparagus polenta!"

Damage: 50 dollars and unknown pounds.

Happy New Year!

We started a new New Year's tradition this year, inspired by the tsunamis. About an hour or so before midnight, we got online and started brainstorming about charities that we'd neglected so far in 2004. Mercy Corps got a lot of love from us (due to the tsnunamis, of course) but we also managed to buy a few acres of rainforest and 'adopt' two snow leopard cubs before midnight.

Felt great.