My favorite Sony Cybershot W55 camera died on the 4th of July. The button you use to take pictures broke off and since it was attached with plastic, it couldn't be repaired. Sigh... it gave me a good 4 years out of it though and took a beating since I had dropped it a few times over the years...

I ordered another Sony Cybershot on Amazon.com. I got the W570 with 16.1 MP for $149.00 on Amazon last week. The macro on Sony cameras is one thing I really love about them, since I love taking up close photographs of flowers, pets, food, etc. The focus is great. The low lighting photos are also amazing on this new camera. One shot I took of Aspen was actually in a dark part of his cage, but it turned out perfectly, not washed out with the flash at all! Love it!

Aspen

Olive

Clover & Honey

Iris

Other News:

F.B. has an interview for Amazon.com on Friday! It's for their shipment facility in Allentown, PA. So pray and keep your fingers crossed that all goes well! We are also going to the DMV one day so he can apply for his PA drivers permit.

I was also told today we will probably be getting furloughed from work by the end of July and not getting recalled until January. So good and bad news.

I have two vacation days on the 15th and 18th, so we are thinking about going to Hershey Park one day this weekend! I've always wanted to go!


(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a book or music when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)

My cousin Jessica's laptop screen died a few weeks ago. With her new baby, she didn't have money to have it repaired at a store or money get a new one right now; so we did some searching on ebay and I was able to find her a brand new LCD screen for $79. Her warranty was expired. (If she had taken it somewhere they would have charged $199+ for a new screen plus repair fee's).

I've done repairs on my own laptop before. I've replaced the keyboard, replaced casing, etc. So I was pretty confident I could repair her LCD display after looking at her HP G60 service manual online. I also ordered her a new LCD inverter for $5 since it works together with the display. It took about 3 hours- (I kind of dropped one of the tiny screws in our dining room carpet lol! It took forever to find it!). HP had the LCD data cable running under the hinge, which is a really strange spot because as you open & close the laptop it wears down the wire. I moved it so it was over the hinge. Her laptop is working just fine now, I returned it to her this evening and she was very happy to have it back!

I also got a new cell phone on Ebay brand new. I love my Blackberry- but I hate how with Blackberry Curve it will freeze up and you'll get the hourglass and you'll have to pop out the battery to reset the phone. (It does it often!) I can't get any upgrade deals with T-mobile because I'm on a special $59.99 plan with 500 minutes unlimited nights & weekends and unlimited texting & data. That was the catch to sign up for the plan- I would have to pay full price for a new phone, no special price upgrades.

I'd been looking at the Motorola Charm for a little while so I did some searching on Ebay and was able to win a brand new one for $149. (T-mobile is charging $269 full price). It also came with a car charger, headset, 2 batteries, 2 back doors. It has a touch screen but it also has buttons like a Blackberry. It's also Android so I had to call T-mobile to switch over my data plan.


It's really a nice phone, I love all of the features, how it backs up my contacts into my Motoblur account online. How it streams all my networking sites into one window on the phone for quick updates.

What I hate though is the battery drains extremely fast! It came with a regular and extended battery and I have the extended battery in the phone. Even with a full charge and screen dimmed all the way, by the time I was heading home on the train after work at 4pm the battery so low (30%) it shut off my data service to save energy. I had to order another extended battery on Ebay and I'll carry that & the regular one for emergencies. I remember I had the same issue with my Motorola Razr before. I would have to keep a back up battery with me at all times.

I've been wanting a new laptop for awhile. I got my Dell Inspiron E1505 almost 4 years ago. I'm outgrowing the hard drive and my games (Sims 3, etc) don't run as well as I wished they did. I've been looking at Dell's laptops lately and whenever I customize a laptop with the specs I want it's been coming out to $1,500 at least. So I've been waiting for a good sale before I got one, because I only wanted to pay between $500-800. When I got my E1505 4 years ago I paid, $1,200 and I really didn't want to pay that much again.

Friday I had an email from Dell. They were having a sale just for the Dell credit account holders. So I went to see what they had. I customized a laptop and even upgraded a few of the specs and the total still only came out to $789! Wow! When I purchased it, I even got free shipping. Also if you pay for your purchase within 6 months you won't have to pay interest on it.

I got a Dell Inspiron 1545

With:

-Intel Core 2 Duo 2.20 GHz Processor
-4GB RAM
-256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330 video card
-500GB Hard Drive
-15.6 inch wide screen display
-Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam
-8X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive
-Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
-9-cell Primary Battery

I customized it online and upgraded some of the features. I was really wanting a 512MB video card, but all they were offering was the 256MB which isn't bad, that's what I have in my current laptop and with the faster processor speed and extra RAM my games and photo programs should run smoothly. I really like the Intel Core Duo processors. I also have that in this laptop right now. It's a high end processor and runs smoothly and lets you operate multiple programs without slowing down your machine. Dell has a comparison chart online for it's processors and I thought it was funny Core Duo 2 is rated: Genius. Haha!

F & I were talking about laptops when I was in the Philippines. I said he could have my old one if I got a new one. He calls my current laptop a powerhouse, lol. He likes a lot of old games, so he said he would like having my older laptop. So it will become his when he comes to the USA. I'm excited to get the new one, though right now it says the estimated ship date is March 29th! So long to wait! The only thing I won't like is transferring all my photos, music, etc to the new laptop when it arrives!

So last year when I found & talked to our immigration lawyer. He said immigration would need proof of our relationship. He said making copies of my plane tickets, our letters, etc would help to establish proof of our relationship.

I bought a all in one printer last weekend from Walmart. Surprisingly they had an HP Deskjet for $34! And it doesn't seem to be a sale price. It does seem to be an online only purchase though. I couldn't believe the price when I ordered it!

It arrived this week and I set it up and started making some copies. I've kept every boarding pass, every email from Orbitz.com. I have receipts, movie stubs, play tickets, basketball game ticket stubs from the times I've been in the Philippines. I'm planning to make copies of these. Maybe not every receipt, but I'm sure ones from the hotels we've stayed at, etc may be helpful. Since F.B. & I have sent tons of letters in the past 5 years my lawyer agreed making a copy of the 1st page of the letter and the front of the envelope with postmark should be sufficient.

F.B. has also kept trip journals each time I've been in the Philippines. He wrote down what we did on each day of my stay. I'm going to make copies of those too. F.B. will be making copies of my letters. These are all to provide immigration with proof of our relationship. We will need other documentation and even statements from relatives to prove our relationship to immigration. The more proof we have the better! It's going to take awhile to make copies and records of everything but that is why I am beginning now so we are prepared when we start working with our immigration lawyer in early 2010.

I've also been bidding on eBay again like crazy. When am I not?! Whenever I want something, I always check eBay first for a great deal. I am always saving money that way. I've gotten books recently and clothes and I've been wanting Bose in ear headphones for awhile now. They are so expensive. They retail for $99! I can't stand my tin can sounding ipod buds anymore. Not since I started listening to my music through my new car stereo! I have sony in ear headphones for the plane but they are uncomfortable so I was looking for something that sounds great and is comfortable too.

I was bidding on Bose headphones for the longest time and always getting outbid until a week ago or so. I was outbid on an auction but a few days later I received a 2nd chance offer because the winner the auction failed to pay. I got brand new in the box Bose headphones for $40! My highest bid. They are amazing too! They don't go in your ear all the way so they are comfortable and I barely have to turn the volume up on my video ipod at all it's so clear & loud! With the ipod buds I had to turn up the volume almost all the way and it still didn't sound so great. I'm very happy with them!

So it's been extremely rainy in Philadelphia for a week straight now! It was supposed to overcast for the weekend and then it changed to scattered thunderstorms. I've been wanting to take my new rattie girls (Ginger, Nutmeg & Saffy) to the park to get some nice outdoor shots of them like my older girls. Well I woke up by chance this morning around 8:30am and the sun was shining in my window so up I got. I was definitely heading to the park! My brother & I stopped for breakfast sandwiches and redbull at Wawa and then took the girls to the park where I got some lovely shots of them outside.

They were very curious sniffing and looking around at the park. And of course people had to stop us and say, "Is that a rat!?" "Are they good pets?" "What do they eat!?" And others just pointed. Yes, I'm the crazy rat lady at the park, haha! It was really humid out though. And it did start raining just as we were leaving and heading to the parking lot but we had a really nice morning.

Here are some pictures from today:

You can view the rest of the pictures at my photobucket album here!