Barbara B.'s Adventures: It's a beautiful day!

What a morning - it's one of these feel really good days! Fridays is my day off work (for now anyways), so I've been making it valuable 'me time'. My only commitment today was seeing the social worker first thing this morning. Everything is going very smoothly there, so I've 'graduated'. It's amazing what resources are actually out there when you just start talking to people. I commented that my healthy eating isn't quite as great when I'm at work (where there are improptu afternoon walks with friends to get an ice cream or another treat), so am thinking of seeing a nutritionist who can now analyze a weekly food record and tell me what else would have to go or what I need more off. Turns out that there's a nutritionist right there at the resource centre whom one can see, so I'll be making an appointment. There are also great evening workshops that one can attend on topics ranging from nutrition to detoxifying your home, finding your passion and really anything that affects us. I need to go back to classes; I need to be learning stuff :-).

Healthy living

After seeing Az. I stopped by the library and signed out a couple of books on healthy eating, as well as totally random CDs to listen to in my car. Then it was off to A&W for a bacon & eggs breakfast treat. They've become a bit of a tradition after being at a hospital early in the morning, and it's plain nice to be sitting somewhere on a weekday morning when one would normally be at work.

Then, instead of going home I went to MEC and the Camera Store and that's where the spending began (and the morning kept getting better and better). I didn't need anything from MEC, wanted to see if they have the blue Gatorade again, which they didn't. I really need to tell them to start stocking that stuff again; the other flavours just don't do. So, instead I got a new water bottle (my other one started leaking), drooled over a leak-proof thermos (but didn't buy it!), and then went upstairs to get a pair of Wigwam socks. This is where I came across the Outdoor Research Highpoint cap. There have been too many occasions where a toque seems too warm or where rain or sleet gets all over my glasses for me to pass this up. It doesn't look the greatest, or maybe it hasn't grown on me yet, but it's highly functional. The OR website seems to sum it up quite nicely:

If we only went outside on nice days, we wouldn’t get in nearly enough time doing what we love. On those frigid winter days when you feel the cold deep in your lungs but the pull to get outside is stronger, the Highpoint Cap™ keeps you covered. Flip-up earflaps let you adjust coverage depending on how much of a sweat you’re working up, so there’s no stopping you when adventure calls.

That's when I should have gone home, but I figured I'll browse through the Camera Store as well. The tripod I had debated before was out of stock, so I figured I'd see if I can get ideas from something else, or find something more within my price range. They had a Manfrotto 732CY with 484RC2 ball head. The compactness grabbed me, but I wasn't sure if it would be sturdy enough. Trying not to spend a fortune, I told everyone that asked me that I was just browsing today; in other words, please leave me alone. One guy came up to me and asked me what camera I have, so he brought it (with the lens) to try out. And I fell in love with the tripod. Turns out that the guy was the owner of the store and his sales tactic worked on me (nice going there!). This thing really is nifty though - 950g for the tripod with ballhead (would have been twice the weight for the CXPRO3 with 496RC2), and because it has four sesctions, it fold down quite short. So, I'm now a proud tripod owner. Maybe turning into a camera snob too, because how can you take proper photos without bracketing, without long exposures, and without a tripod? ;-)