New Camera

My beloved camera, an Olympus SP-550UZ, has had a piece of dust on the lens for as long as I can remember. I never got it taken care of because I knew I'd have to send it in, and I didn't want to have to do without it. Finally, I decided to go to Fry's and have them send it in. Wouldn't it figure that Fry's said my 3-year extended warranty did not cover dust, and I'd have to pay Olympus $180 to have it fixed. I decided that a better use for this money would be to get a dSLR, as I've been wanted. After some research on the internet, I decided that the Olympus E-420 would give me the best value for my money.

I've been shooting in manual mode on my point-and-shoot for two years now, but a dSLR is still quite different. I'm slowly adjusting to it while continuing to use my other two Olympus cameras (the SP-550 UZ and the rugged 790 SW). I'm impressed with the crispness of the images. Here are two flowers blooming in my front yard (or "embankment," as Brad put it).

Edit: The E-420 is great, but I found the E-520 online for only $50 more, and it includes image stabilization, a larger battery, and a more substantial grip. I'm going to be testing out Amazon's return policy...

I Really Love Flowers

Val sent me a beautiful bouquet of purple roses to thank me for my efforts on a very taxing project that we just wrapped up after several years of work. I love working with Val, so it was my pleasure to collaborate with her, but I am always thrilled to receive flowers. This bouquet absolutely made my day!

I Love Flowers

Val and Sheri sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers for my birthday. It was so special to have them delivered to my door, and they had lots of pinks and purples.

Planet Hollywood

On Tuesday, I met one of my best friends from elementary school and her family at Planet Hollywood. The Aladdin officially changed its name and theme to Planet Hollywood (aka, PH) just a week earlier. I've only been inside the Aladdin one or two times. It had a very cheesy Arabian Nights theme and looked run-down compared to other Strip casinos, despite having been demolished and rebuilt in 2000. They've been transitioning to the rebranded casino over the past few months, and you could watch as the facade changed. The sign on top of the hotel read "Planet Ho" for several days, then changed to "Planet Hol" as they were installing the letters at a leisurely pace.

The casino is fabulous inside now. It is a very contemporary style with clean lines, contrasting colors, and of course bright lights. The only thing that would keep me from coming here often, and this is a big thing, is that the parking garage is a long haul from the casino. I don't know what genius designed it this way, but you basically have to walk through an entire shopping mall to get to the casino. You have to read the map to even figure out how to get there. Because the casinos are so big and it can take a long time to talk from one end to the other, parking is very important to me - I want to be as close to the casino entrance as possible. The Wynn has the ideal parking garage. It has electronic signs telling you how many spaces are available on each level, and the door is about ten feet from my favorite destination, the poker room.

We all ate at Lombardi's Romagna Mia in the shopping mall (the Miracle Mile, or formerly the Desert Passage). This Italian restaurant was a bistro style with open air seating (well, open air in the sense that the mall is designed to look like it's outside, though it's just painted ceilings). The food was wonderful. I had a chop salad, my favorite meal as of lately. It had avocados and artichokes in it, yum! I usually don't order desserts, but since others were having some, I jumped on the Crème Brulée. Oh, it was so delicious! If you somehow find yourself lost in this mall, I would highly recommend this restaurant.

I don't have any pictures from PH to share, so instead I will share these pictures that I took from Stephanie's garden this weekend. Her husband, John, has done an amazing job on their landscaping. Their yard is the envy of the neighborhood!