Got a new digital camera, here's some pics (DIAL-UP WARNING)

[no name no slogan]

Since the temp in St Paul, MN topped out around 75° this afternoon (and the stormclouds stayed south of us), I went for a walk around my neighborhood and tried out my new digital camera.

My neighborhood is most notable for being the birthplace and childhood home of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, who wrote "The Great Gatsby" and was a chronicaller of "The Lost Generation".

First, here's my cat, Edgar, stretched out on my lap this morning:


Here's Edgar's brother, Leo, being cute for the camera:


This is a statue in one of the several parks in my neighborhood:


This is the view from Summit Hill, which overlooks the Mississippi River and downtown St. Paul:


This is a view of the St. Paul Cathederal, looking east down Selby Ave:


Hope you like 'em.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Nice neighborhood you live in.

Years ago I used to hang out at the Commodore Hotel bar, soaking up the ambience.

[no name no slogan]

3. I'm hoping to buy something within the next year

There's a big condo glut in the Cathedral Hill/Summit Hill neighborhood, and it looks like its getting bigger. Stuff is sitting on the market for months at a time. IMHO it will probably continue for another year, so I'll bide my time and get something I really like. :D

[DS1]

2. I knew it

THere hasn't been a single "I just got a new digital camera" thread on DU which didn't immediately start with a cat picture :D


Not that I'm complaining to you, I'm just pointing it out because I find it so amusing.

[no name no slogan]

4. Heh. It was either them or my new shoes

I figured that cats would be more fun to look at than a pair of size 13 black dress shoes

[Deja Q]

7. Size 13?

:wow:

:rofl:

[no name no slogan]

9. HEY

be-haaaaave!

Or I'll get Sugar Smack to put the Sugar Smackdown on you :yoiks:

[Deja Q]

11. Fair enough, I'll behave.

O8)

Honest! Pinky-swear! O8)

[Sugar Smack]

35. That will happen again when I get a new camera. You're on to us!

:silly:

[DS1]

48. It just goes to show that our cats are truly part of our lives

:cry:

[Deja Q]

5. Nice smokestack!

:evilgrin:

[no name no slogan]

6. ...

:spray:

:rofl: you == evil

[Deja Q]

8. No, not evil...

Just misunderstood and only a teensy bit naughty, as I learned from the Paul Lynde School of Comedy.

[no name no slogan]

10. Do you ever notice

that Q looks like a young Paul Lynde, in the right light?

[Deja Q]

12. Not really, but I do like his hair...

Q's that is. :)

[no name no slogan]

15. Yeah, he does have wikkid-kewl hair

and it's strong enough to dent beer kegs, too, I'd bet

[Sugar Smack]

50. Oh, wotta shocker!

:rofl: It's you! ;-)

[Left Is Write]

13. You've given me the homesickness BAD.

I already had it (I generally get especially homesick about this time of year, planning for my vacation), but now I've just got heartache.

[no name no slogan]

14. I'm sorry...

:hug:

Be sure to let the MN contingent know when you come to visit. We'll have a meetup like you've never seen before!

[Left Is Write]

17. No need to be sorry...

I might be coming out twice, once at the end of July for my cousin's wedding, and once for our family vacation in August (gonna try to get to the fair, plus Burnsville High is having an all-school reunion to celebrate its 50th anniversary).

IF I come out in July for my cousin's wedding, I'll be coming alone, so that might be a good time for a meetup.

[no name no slogan]

25. July would be very cool

I might drag Sugar Smack up here in July too, just so she can see that the summers here are much nicer than the winters :o

[Left Is Write]

27. Yes, and then....

we'd get an unseasonably cold weekend, or it would storm every day! :D

Edited to add - if I do go to my cousin's wedding, she's planning on getting married on July 30, which is a Sunday, making Saturday night a good meetup time!

My husband would rather vacation in August and go to the Fair, but he has no problem with me attending the wedding if we can swing it.

[bridgit]

16. i like'em, come see mine...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=5036105&mesg_id=5036105 :hi:

[no name no slogan]

18. Cooooool....

but there's too many pictures of naked statues. I can see their b00bz.

And we all know that there are certain parts of the human body that are inherently evil.

[bridgit]

20. where's yer gurl, doing fine i hope...

:shrug:

[no name no slogan]

21. I talked to her earlier today...

I tried calling her about 1/2 hour ago, but got the machine. She must be out doing something.

I'm going to see her again in a couple of weeks-- which is part of the reason I bought the new camera. :D

[bridgit]

22. hm, tell i said "hi", good you guys are getting together = like that part

:thumbsup:

[no name no slogan]

24. I'll tell her, for sure

she may be coming back up here in the near future for an extended stay (I hope). It will give us a chance to "play house" and see how well we can live together. ;)

[bridgit]

28. coolness...

:-)

[Sugar Smack]

34. Hey bridgit! I just looked at your wonderful photos.

You are amazing. Thanks for showing us those!!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[bridgit]

38. SugarPieHoneyBunch, how you girl...

:bounce: :loveya:

[Sugar Smack]

39. Good! *sigh* I always love your pictures!

They beautify DU. How you girl?:D :toast: :bounce: :yourock: :applause: :loveya: :pals:

[bridgit]

40. we're hang'n today, just got back in yesterday, doing reports, strong...

arming people for the expenses back :rofl: cause Cambria is nice but expensive x(

[In_The_Wind]

19. Those pictures are amazing! Which camera are you using?

[no name no slogan]

23. It is a very cheap Kodak EasyShare C310

I picked it up for $79 at Best Buy yesterday. It's a 4 megapixel, with 24mb internal memory, and takes SD cards. I was going to go with a video camera, but the cheapest ones still use tape, and I wanted something with flash memory.

It replaces my seven-year-old Fujifilm DX-10, which was only 1.2 megapixels and had no internal memory and used SmartMedia cards.

[In_The_Wind]

26. Holy cow! I spent more than that developing film from my last trip!

:wow:

[no name no slogan]

29. Dayum...

that's a lot on developing!

I got a 512mb SD card, too, for $30 (holds around 450 pix), and a cardreader for another $30, so altogether it was still a good deal for under $200.

And compared to the cost of my first digital camera (the Fujifilm), it was a steal. :hi:

[In_The_Wind]

30. How difficult is it to use?

[no name no slogan]

31. VERY simple-- literally it's point and shoot

I'm a technoweenie, but I still don't like complicated gadgets. That was the main reason I bought this camera, really. Just turn it on, aim, zoom if you want to, and shoot. Picture.

Here's the product info from Kodak's web site. :hi:

[Sugar Smack]

32. Those are great!!!

No, seriously, I'm coming to see you again this summer. I know how excited you are about that camera. D asked me if I could hold off til November for getting a camera and I'm like, "Are you nuts, girl?" I could probably find one at this point for a hundred bucks! :D

[no name no slogan]

33. Hey baby!

I took a couple more photos on the way into work this morning, too. Another shot of the sunrise behind the cathedral and one of the state capitol building from downtown. I'll post those later when I'm home.

I think you'd really like summer here. My neighborhood is a lot more fun when it's sunny and warm. I also walked past a couple of Scott's houses yesterday and immediately thought of you. I'd like to get a few pictures of you in front of them, that might be kinda cool!

Can't wait to see you again, darlin' :*

[Sugar Smack]

36. I'm such a wimp. Remember when you had to uncurl

my fingers from around the coffee mug handle just cause I'd stood outside a few minutes?:rofl:

[no name no slogan]

37. You poor thing

Although you did look pretty cute in my parka, all bundled up like that!

It's funny, too, because that last week in November was the first week we had any winter weather of note. And December was really mild, too-- hardly any snow on the ground.

Can't wait to see you again. :loveya:

[Sugar Smack]

41. I cannot WAIT!!

I'm getting the travel bug!:loveya:

[no name no slogan]

44. Ooooo, the travel bug

Wow, we could REALLY go places with that-- if you know what I mean ;)

[Momgonepostal]

42. What a pretty place to live

Now you've got me looking up St Paul real estate. :-)

[no name no slogan]

43. I just moved to this side of the river last August

I lived most of my life in and around Minneapolis (St. Paul's bigger twin across the Mississippi). I've really fallen in love with my new neighborhood, and am very fortunate to live where I do.

Real estate is getting a little overpriced, but nothing like what it is on the west coast. I'm paying $630/mo for a 1BR/1BA 500 sq ft. apartment in a renovated, 100-year-old building, which is probably a little high for the neighborhood. You can still find some decent 2BR condos around here for $200-300k.

And St. Paul is very blue, too. IIRC it went about 80% for Kerry in 2004, if not more. We essentially only have one political party in town, with a liberal wing and a more liberal wing.

Too bad the winters are so harsh. :scared:

[Momgonepostal]

45. how much snow do you get?

I'm in a cheap part of CA (comparatively) but it still looks more pricey than some of the lower end stuff I'm seeing on Realtor.com.

[no name no slogan]

46. On average, between 4-6 feet per season

But not all at once. We usually get two or three blizzards a year, with about 10-18" of snow each one. Mostly it's just minor flurries with around 1-4" at a time. This past year, we had only two major snowfalls, both around 8-12" a shot.

The worst part is probably the cold: it's not unusual to have single-digit highs during January, and for the windchill to be -20°F. But when it's like that you just don't go outside, which leads to the ever-present "cabin fever" around March, where you will do almost anything to go outside again because you can't stand being cooped up any longer.

Thankfully the past few winters have been very mild, and this spring has been exceptionally mild. We usually don't get temps in the 70s until May. In fact, it's not unheard of to have a stray blizzard in April, either.

Almost forgot to mention: Garrison Kiellor lives in my neighborhood, too, a couple blocks away from where that cathedral picture was taken. :)

[Sugar Smack]

49. The only photo material we have around here is orange traffic pylons.

:grr: :nuke:

[no name no slogan]

53. That's okay-- I got pics to spare

I walked up to the state capitol building over lunch and took some neato-keen pictures. I'll post them when I get home. :loveya:

[Momgonepostal]

51. I have mixed feelings about the snow

I'm from CA, but have done some Utah winters. I loved the snow--at first--but it definitely got old after awhile. I can relate to the "cabin fever." Snow is certainly beautiful, much more than our winter fog season.

This is probably a dumb question, but are urban homeowners in St. Paul responsible for snow removal on the sidewalks in front of their own homes, or is that a city thing? I lived in apartments when I was in Utah so never had to shovel.

[no name no slogan]

54. You have to shovel your sidewalks

and also your alleys, too, but most homeowners form a club to pay for clearing the alleys. In Minneapolis the city clears the alleys, but you still have to shovel your own walk (or pay a neighbor kid to do it for you).

We also have something up here called "Snow Emergencies" where you are restricted from parking on certain streets so the plows can clear off the snow. They usually last 48 hours and only happen after big snowfalls. I think we had three this past season, and two of those happened within a week of each other. In fact, they probably should have cancelled the last one because much of the snow had melted by the time they came to plow it.

[Momgonepostal]

52. See, now I think this place rocks

http://realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListing.asp?snum=43&locallnk=yes&frm=bymap&mnbed=4&mnbath=2&mnprice=0&mxprice=99999999&pgnum=5&fid=so&stype=&mnsqft=&mls=xmls&areaid=25276&poe=realtor&ct=St+Paul&st=MN&sbint=&vtsort=&sorttype=&typ=1&x=53&y=11&sid=0679AEFF9711C&snumxlid=1057156923

[no name no slogan]

55. Not bad at all!

that's in the Frogtown neighborhood, which is a decent place to live. It has gotten better in the last decade, as they've cleaned up a lot of the illegal activity on University Ave (five blocks south of Thomas). IIRC the median house price here is about $200k, so that's about right.

In fact, the stretch of University between Dale and Lexington Aves has turned into St Paul's "Chinatown". There are a lot of SE Asian businesses along that stretch of University and it has many very cool shops and restaurants. We have a suprising number of SE Asians here, and have the largest population of Hmong in the US.

[Momgonepostal]

56. I live in a part of CA with lots of Hmong

And know several who have relatives in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. It seems like such a different climate that where they're originally from, it's hard to believe they'd stay, but they sure seem to. It's my understanding that the job market there is a lot better than here so I imagine that's a compelling reason.

[no name no slogan]

57. The job market, definitely

plus we have a fairly decent social safety net, too, despite twelve years of combined GOP/Jesse Ventura neglect. It's still affordable to live here, and there are a lot of decent-paying jobs, and the large community support system from previous immigrants

We also have a large Somali population, too-- 2nd largest in the nation, IIRC. I know darn well they're not here for our climate. :D

[kwassa]

47. We shopped real estate up and down Summit Ave

during final interviews for a job that didn't come through in St. Paul. We would have relocated to the Twin Cities from the East Coast. Throughly scoured the local areas.

It is a pretty area.

[no name no slogan]

58. I'm looking to buy a condo on the eastern part of Summit Ave

either this year or next, probably in one of those subdivided old mansions. I work downtown, so the location is perfect. I'm 15 minutes by bus, 10 by car, or 30 by foot from work.

The only bad part is Grand Old Days in June. Grand Ave (which runs parellel to Summit, one block south) is blocked off to vehical traffic, and they put on a huge block party catered by all the bars and restaurants. There's also live music. Unfortunately, it tends to get out of control, and turns into one giant drunken/public urination/parking fiasco. It's not uncommon to find some moran getting sick in/peeing in your bushes, and acting rude and obnoxious at all hours. Very annoying if you're a local and trying to live there.

Other than that, it's a great neighborhood, so you take the good with the bad. :D

[kwassa]

59. Downtown SP or Minneapolis?

I would think St. Paul would be less than fifteen minutes. I didn't know that those mansions had been divided into condos. I think the eastern part closest to downtown St. Paul would be the most interesting area.