Happy Pride

Pride weekend in Hillcrest/San Diego. Roughly 100,000 people show up for the parade/festival. The photo shows the celebration atop the Park Manor.

Overall gay pride in the hood is fun but sometimes it can feel like being a pair of brown shoes at a black tie event. This year I took a pass on most of the festivities as I was preoccupied with the Stitch n Pitch event.

Friday morning was the stuffing party at Padres corporate offices. Thanks to the efforts of some great volunteers we managed to stuff all the bags with the donated goodies in under two hours. Some of us then took a quick side trip into the stadium to check out the location where we'd be handing out the bags and teaching on Sunday.

Didn't get a lot of knitting done during the stuffing party but I did have knitting at hand for the walk home. I swung 'round the Field for a pint before walking home knitting as I went. Another 9.2 miles to runagogo round 3.

Considered making it down to the Shake's for Friday happy hour but decided that showering, knitting and resting the feet was a better choice.

Hunky chunky digital camera has been on the must upgrade list for sometime now.

I've researched, dithered and otherwise wrapped myself right round for far too long so this morning I just decided that I was in a compromise buying mode.

Pride is both a good time and a PITA. The street closures and never ending construction make the always tight parking situation worse. Residents without off street parking really suffer during the weekend. I'm lucky, reserved parking but alley access can be dicey when people park in the red zone.

I opted to just go the Costco route with a goal of a Nikon for under $300. I'm really considering splurging on a D40 or D40x to refresh my SLR skills without wasting film but not today. Today's goal is a camera that can slip in a pocket and take a quick snap on the fly.

I opted for the Coolpix S200 -- a compromise between the options offered, picked up a few more things, resisted the impulse buy and got in and out for under $300 and was on the way home before 13:00.

There was a Volvo blocking my ability to make a right turn into the alley so I had to turn around and try for a left turn. That effort was thwarted by a pedicab driver coping with his bike's locked steering in the alley opening. After he finally cleared the access, I was happy to see that no one had blocked the garage opening while I was out.

Charged the battery, read the quick start guide and decided to pick up a memory card for the camera. The Uptown Ritz camera was a zoo so I decided to add Horton Plaza to my Saturday route.

I got a bit of a scolding for being MIA at St Paul's Thrift lately. The guys usually need my help finishing/fixing their crossword puzzle efforts and I've been far too hit or miss to suit their purposes. I found a large hunky chucky ball of white cotton for a buck that was a perfect put up for tomorrow's teaching and I also splurged on someone's vintage UFO before leaving the hood behind for Horton Plaza.

The deal to myself was that if I was done in time to make The Field's Saturday all day happy hour I'd stop in for a pint and a chat and if not I'd drop 'round Costplus World Market for a forage. At Costplus, I spied some oversized totes that I hope will be in stock up in RB on Monday.

End of the day it was another 7.4 miles toward round 3 and a pretty successful test drive of the new camera. Both photos taken with the new camera.