New Addition To The Family

What weighs nearly nine pounds, is a little temperamental, and makes people say "ooooooh?" My lastest eBay purchase - a nearly new Polaroid 600 SE. Look at the size of this thing. Built like a Sherman tank, this best of the best Polaroids promises to be a very fun camera. There is nothing automatic about it, no light meter, no flash, nothing at all to help you expose the film correctly. Ergo, I'm re-learning f stops, depth of field, and exposure times.

When Polaroid announced last year that it would no longer produce film, I hoarded a bunch of film in a cool dry place. Luckily Fuji film has no plans to end its production of peel-apart film. I got this sucker for a great price too. The seller made the amateur mistake of being overly critical of his own product and pushed away many potential buyers. Scratching his head he wrote "I dunno much about these" and then added on the very last line of his dire description "the shutter and lens work fine." That's all I needed to know because that's all that matters with this style of camera. I placed a low bid and won this baby for the price of a nice dinner for two (a used but good condition 600 SE can easily sell for $500 to 600).

I pulled it out of the box and this is the first shot I took - Heather unpacking from a Costco run. Expect some interesting Polaroid shots soon.

Caption Contest

Alright all you faithful NelsonsInSpace blog followers (all three of you). Study this photo of Juliet and her cousin Alex and submit your own caption. First place gets a free breakfast cupcake (see below).

UPDATE - THE SUBMISSIONS. Below are the submissions.

"I told you gravity is relative" - Albert Einstein

"Earthquake!" ~ Irwin Allen

"This milk has gone straight to my head" ~ Hunster S. Thompson

"Oooh, I love the nightlife, I gotta boogie, on the disco' round, oh yea" - Alicia Bridges

"Now if we could just get the chair to move it would REALLY be like a roller coaster" ~ Marissa

AND THE WINNER IS: Marissa. Clever and besides, she was the only real person to enter the contest. Marissa - you can collect your Breakfast Cupcake now. See above.

The Breakfast Cupcake

Heather's visiting teacher Doris Fill left the most delicious chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting and silver sprinkles. Erika occasionally awakens from her nap in a sour mood. The cupcake turned her mood right around.

I thought cupcakes had hit their fever pitch last year but they continue to be popular. Heather has a friend named Denine Shern who was featured on Good Morning America after winning first place in a cupcake contest for her s'mores cupcake. Check it out here. http://www.duotoneonline.com/crumbs/

An old friend Chrissy Ladd seems to publish a new cupcake idea every week. http://laddsandlasses.blogspot.com/2009/04/april-cupcake-of-month-1.html

Can I put out a challenge to all you cupcake bakers? The breakfast cupcake. Wrap a strip of fried bacon inside the muffin tins, fill with pancake batter, and top with a dollop of emulsified maple syrup. If you're feeling a little crazy drop a quail egg on top during the last minute of baking and then shove a sausage link in the center. Serve with milk. After breakfast rub your heart vigorously until it starts beating again.

My Ears Hurt

Juliet loved her first Easter despite having an ear infection. Her ears weren't the only ones that were hurting. Doctors Heather and Doug didn't diagnose her ear infection for a day or two because Juliet is a generally a patient patient. She doesn't push her way into the emergency room demanding a specialist stat. Rather, she spends her day looking sad and occasionally wimpering then at night she lets her displeasure known to the entire neighborhood. By 6:00 a.m. our ears were killing us.