Christmas unwrapped...

Before Christmas arrived, my Canon XTi accidentally fell about 18" from the coffee table onto a rug...and in that short distance hit at just the right angle to shatter the LCD screen and, so it seems, jostle some sensors. Unfortunately on this model, all display and adjustment data is displayed on the screen only, and below is all I see besides 'black' from inactivity...

It shoots and downloads, but I'm always playing with exposure adjustments in multiple categories, and it's current 'setting' is both unknown and not ideal. I have to manipulate the images a good bit in post-processing, and even then it yields only mediocre results. In the greater list of things money needs to go towards, looks like a replacement body is waaaay down that line.

Thank goodness for the little silver Canon S2 I had repaired last year! While not at all the professional digicam as the big (broken) one, it does a very good job and will have to be my 'bud' for a while to come. With that said, following are some pics from Christmas morning at mom's, where my brother's family was staying after driving down from Boston. They were 'victims' of the snarled flight conditions from the Dec. 18/19 snow storm, canceled flights, and finally chose to just drive down as it was quicker and cheaper.

Twins William and Ellen (aka Willie Boo and Ellie Sue by me!) are ~2.5 years old, fully mobile and talkative...and believe me you with Molly thrown in the mix there were at times energy levels that were making the needle sit on the edge of the gauge! Bottom line was a good time was had by all, even with the 2.5" of rain that fell Christmas Day.

Yours truly with William who's wearing a bear backpack I gave him and his sister...


Ellen was in full princess mode with her tutu and fairy wand...


...and there are the two most precious gifts of all...along with Molly's squeaky porcupine that Mercy eventually confiscated and mined the squeaker out of!

Eeegads but it's been cold of late here and only getting colder as the new year rolls in on refrigerated freight cars. I can only hope that before too long it warms up nicely if for no other reason than to ease people's pocket books from their heating bills.

Speaking of bills, it is rather unsettling to consider that sooner as opposed to later there will be no free TV airwaves. That possibility continues to loom darker and bigger, with Fox Network leading the way the end of this week....at least in terms of yet another showdown at the "NOT" O.K. Corral. Cable companies pay networks so much per viewer channel, and the networks keep demanding seriously steeper rates. Fox has demanded a new 'sum' from Time Warner that, if not paid or some higher level agreed upon, will pull their plug at the last second of 2009. Comcast now owns NBC, and I know they won't be far behind.

Do cable companies give in to demands or fight back? Like our current elected officials in Washington, there seems to be very little true compromising going on in the network-cable battlefields. It's capitalism and greed and power struggling at its finest...and we're only watching the trailer of the blockbuster 'features' yet to come. Joy of joys. *SIGH*

Stay warm, all y'all! This too shall pass....yeah, right....