Car Problems, Baseball, and a Cool Camera Feature

This has been a crazy weekend. It started after work Friday morning when I took my car into Firestone to get the AC fixed. That was my first mistake. They charged me $190 for an hour and a half of labor, $90 for a new ignition switch, and $90 for electric diagnostics. They also said my belts were deteriorating and also recommended changing my timing belt inside the engine. They said it would cost $1300 to replace it and $700 to replace my AC/heater console to fix the AC problem. Ummm, yeah...not going to happen. I took my car to another place and they quoted me about the same price. Not good news, especially with Bryan's wedding coming up in St. Louis and Dad and Jennifer are flying here so they could drive over there with me. I think it is time for a new car. I've been looking all day today, and found some cars I'm interested in, but I highly doubt that I will be able to buy a car before the wedding. I think that I will have to rent a car for the wedding and worry about the car after next week end.

Yesterday was "Mormon Night with the Rangers." Most of the local wards in the region went to the Ranger's game against the Toronto Blue Jays. Our ward payed for half the ticket and we had 39 from our ward who went and I took a co-worker and his girlfriend's son. However, my batteries for my camera hadn't been charged completely and so my camera didn't work. I was SOOOOOOO disappointed. It was such a blast and it was an awesome game.

In the 2nd , 3rd, and 4th innings, the Blue Jays scored 6 runs. Down by six, the Rangers had one man on base and then Josh Hamilton hits a home run over the wall scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the 4th. In the bottom of the 5th, 2 men on base, a single is hit but the 2 on base score. One left on base, a double is hit and one more run is made. Then one on base and a single for another run. Game is tied 6 to 6. Somewhere later in the game, an awesome play is made when Rangers catch a fly ball to left field and throw it home to get a 2nd out.

The game stays tied till the 9th inning when the Blue Jays score 2. Rangers are down, 6 to 8. They get up to bat, 2nd batter walks from 4 balls. The next batter hits a single. With 2 on base, a double is then hit. Rangers score and have a man on 3rd and on 1st. The pitcher then intentionally walks the next batter by throwing 4 balls. Three on base, the next batter hits a single, but 2 men score ending the game with Rangers winning 9 to 8.

It was a really exciting game and I feel horrible that my batteries weren't charged. At the time, I didn't know that and thought that the batteries weren't sufficient for the power needs of the camera. I only found out today that they just weren't charged enough when I put them in the charger. I did buy 2 rechargeable batteries today specially made for my camera for longer use, so when I go to the wedding and future events, I should have enough battery life to last.

I also played with my camera today (once I got the batteries fully charged) and discovered that I can take snapshots from videos I make. This means that I can get some really good pictures from any video I take. Unfortunately, it puts them all on a single picture in sequence, so for now, I have to edit each photo into its own picture. Here is the sequence I took from the video of Heidi at the carnival activity. It's more fun if you scroll fast to see the "flipbook" version of the move.

Enjoy.