Pictures: And a Story

There are so many things I want to blog about and have been meaning to blog about. Instead I'm going to tell you about my camera. I bought Red Camera last April, just in time for a few trips. (Side note: with all of the other things I name, you'd think I'd have given the camera a better one. But "Red Camera" just seemed to fit.)
I got really attached to Red Camera. It went with me to Disneyland the first time, and it continued to document all kind of glorious things like food challenges, the first picture with D-Rew, vampire baseball and my hair. Fast forward to this past August and Red Camera faithfully documented our honeymoon and came away from the sandy beaches unscathed.

Then, just a few days later, we went to Thanksgiving Point's Museum of Ancient Life, where I soon spotted a giant dinosaur bone. I pulled out Red Camera, turned it on and...what? The screen was just a messed up, static-y...thing. I couldn't see a thing out of it except for slight little bit in the very upper left corner. But when it was turned off, I could see this on the screen:
I have no idea what happened or when it happened, but it was tragic. Red Camera has no view finder so it was basically useless, although I did manage to take a few pictures now and then. It was always a surprise to see how they turned out on the computer. I e-mailed the local Nikon repair people and they estimated about $110 altogether (about 20 less than I paid for it). Heck no.

Anyway, so I pestered Drew a bit about Christmas presents, and just before Black Friday he told me to figure out what camera I wanted. So I researched for hours and got flustered and indecisive. Really I just wanted Red Camera because it's still new and it worked, aside from the screen. I finally googled the problem and LO, there are replacement screens! You just buy them! Like socks or sponges! Kind of. I found several on eBay for very reasonable prices, and one seller (a camera store) offered to install them for free. So I passed the information along and rubbed my hands with glee.

Tuesday was our four month anniversary and I got an early Christmas present. I couldn't take a picture of it because it was Red Camera, faithfully restored. Drew put in the screen himself and it is as good as new. This was the first picture I took.
It was thrilling to see it come up on the screen and hear the familiar whirring and beep. Ah. Then I took a picture of these, which came with Red Camera. Aren't they so lovely and festive and washed out in this picture?
And then we went to get pho, and it was so delicious. I think we get some just about every month. Good thing it's inexpensive and you get tons of it.
Well, I got pho and he got the sesame chicken. Look how cute.
So that is the story of Red Camera. It lives again, as good as new, thanks to some research from me and some stealthy repair work from the Mister. Score.