did i mention i broke my camera?

It's been quite the sore subject around here, because I generally like to fancy myself NOT AN ASS.  However, I do have the occasional moment, which this time involved a backpack, my dSLR, and a water bottle I've had for years that had apparently cracked.
 
Twenty ounces did it in.

Because of the health situation around here lately, I have had neither the time nor energy to look into getting the thing fixed.  But yesterday, after HB had not touched me for 48.3 minutes, I decided the time had come.  I called Sony, makers of my beloved.  I told the customer service guy I thought the battery had shorted.  He kept me on the phone for an hour, telling me every third minute that this was going really quickly and we'd be done soon (pointer:  don't do that, customer service guy!  it's really annoying! and you are slower than molasses!), and finally I had all my info.  

But I really didn't want to send my battery and charger in to Sony for a few weeks, and then have them send it back and tell me to send in my beloved for a few weeks...because of this mathematical equation:

FEW WEEKS + FEW WEEKS = NEW BABY IS HERE

And really?  You need to have a camera in the house to capture all the beautiful moments of bringing home a new baby...the dark circles that encompass the entire face, the haven't-showered-in-a-week hair, the sweet pictures of the older children poking the baby's eyes out and jumping on his chest... There's so much you need to preserve for blackmail posterity.

Oh, and Sony needed a copy of the receipt.  And while I thought I had put the receipt in the camera box with all the camera paperwork?  It seems I had not.  No receipt.

So we drove to the big city to the most reliable camera shop EVAH, Continental Camera, and those nice guys put my battery through a battery of tests and determined that it was Beloved Camera with the issues.  The Continental Camera guys offered to send my camera to Sony, but it was going to be crazy expensive... deposits, shipping, cost of repair... it was a little daunting.

Mer.

But then-- in a fit of brilliance-- I called Best Buy to ask if they could reprint a receipt from last May.  And in a fit of brilliance?  The nice Geek Squad Boy said they could!  And they DID!  And in another fit of brilliance?  The Geek asked me why I needed my receipt.  I told him the camera wasn't working, and I needed to send it to Sony.  

THEN THE GEEK TOLD ME I PURCHASED THE GO- AHEAD- ABUSE- THE- CAMERA- WE'LL- FIX- IT- WARRANTY!!!!!!!!

All I had to do was drive over there and drop it off.  

And I will have my beloved returned to me by next weekend.  And it will be repaired.  Or brand new.  And it will be free.

And I have two years and two months left on my amazing $45 warranty.

The End.