Archive for November, 2009

What a wonderful Thanksgiving we had, I actually think it was one of the best we have had in many years.  We have many blessings to be thankful this year, and we try to never forget that.

Now that the last of the leftovers are gone, we have moved straight into getting ready for the holidays.

Since John has been so cool about me going to WDW next week for DAP with Lisa, I will lose 5 days at home getting ready so I really focused on getting ahead of things this past weekend.  We headed to Best Buy for Black Friday specials again this year. We were in line by 3:30 am I believe it was (yawn) and then when done there we were off to JC Penney for a few things on the list and and then home for a nap .

That was really it for Friday but Saturday we really got it going, we were up early again and straight to the mall and a few other stores and when we were done 6 hours later we were about 90% finished with the Christmas shopping.  After a very quick dinner of leftovers of course, I started wrapping and am proud to say that everything purchased so far is wrapped and ready for the tree.

Speaking of the Christmas tree, that is up as well.  After a little drama on my part, (poor John, I am so picky about the branches), everything worked out well and it was soon up and decorated.  See:

After helping me get those branches perfect, John jumped in and finished off the inside decorations so I am happy to say we are farther along than we have ever been and it is starting to look a lot like Christmas at my house.  Pictures will come later, we are trying to get the 20 paaws to pose by the tree.  So far not so good on that haha.

Hope you had a wonderful holiday as well.  take care!

So even though I have a great video camera, I’ve been eying the Flip Video HD for months.  I really love to record events on video and the idea that I can carry this in my bag all the time has been a real reason for wanting it.

I have read all the reviews and most give it 4 out of 5 stars which I think is more than acceptable and finally the newest software version makes it totally mac compatible so I had put the item on my Christmas want list but then saw it was on sale from $199 to $179 at Best Buy.  Not that big a savings as that is usually the sales price but I also had a $20 cash off coupon from my Best Buy credit card and I also had a 12% off one item coupon that has come in the mail making the camera bringing the price to $141.  I mentioned it to John and he said if I wanted it to get it as I wouldn’t find a better price, so off to Best Buy I went and I am now the proud owner of the Flip Video Ultra HD.

Some on the DIS Boards have asked about the video quality so here are 3 quick videos to show what it can do.

The dogs playing outside.
Colors on the dogs are crystal clear and perfectly duplicated from those in real life. At the end you hear the sound quality (thanks to Riley).

Pan of our backyard which details the fall colors on the trees and the green in the grass. Again perfect match.  The sun is shining very bright over the yard and trees at the end of the video thus the glare.

Last is Piper eating in the kitchen.  The only light coming into the kitchen is from the kitchen door to Pipers right and far across the room, window light from the dining room

All in all I am so far pleased with the results.  The camera doesn’t have image stabilization so you have to learn to hold it still, I am still working on that but other than that its a perfect pocket video recorder.

We’ve been back for two weeks now from the cruise and how I wish we could go back sooner than Dec 2010.  Life has returned to its crazy, fast pace state and we are starting to think about the holidays.  That has happened way too fast for me.. So much to do..

I’ve also been busy working on my trip report as well as starting to edit photos and upload them and I have already added 13 videos to our video gallery.  You can find all these things on the link to the right.