I'll say it: I am a total snob when it comes to carnations. To me, they're the poor-man's roses. The floral world's red-headed stepchild. The only bloom appropriate enough to serve as the boutonniere on your uncle's powder-blue tuxedo from 1976. The one flower you'd secretly groan about to your girlfriends if you received it from your boyfriend (although I'd argue that mums would fall a close second). I don't like them--and I think they know it. And I believe they're trying to get back at me. I don't know if it's coincidence or not, but this week, I selected them for my One-Bouquet-a-Week Challenge (hey--I'm a carnation snob, but I am still open-minded). I bunched them together into smaller vases (I felt like that was the only way I could stomach them) and placed them around my studio. Fine. But I still don't love them; the red stems I bought seems so food-coloring-ish and artificial and uch. Nevertheless, I took a few photos of them with my big camera, and they turned out okay. Until I went to sync the camera with my computer. Now, I don't know what the carnations secretly whispered into my camera's ear, but my five-year-old iMac is suddenly not recognizing any device--my camera, my iPhone, my iPod, my etc.--and after several hours of consultations with the Apple helpline, the guys at the Apple Genius Bar on Fifth Avenue, the tech team at work, and my dear old dad, I think I have come to the realization that it's time to buy a new computer. So I'm looking this week at a MacBook Pro. And my savings account is looking at me and shaking its head. (P.S. I was at least able to take the above pic of the carnation photos I took on my camera using the email function on my iPhone. But don't think it was that easy.) It's a hefty price to pay for a little bias. But, at just $3.99, at least the carnations themselves were cheap (and by cheap I also mean "shoddy" and "of little account" and all those other negative Dictionary.com descriptions for "cheap.") (Yeah, I said it, carnations! C-H-E-A-P! So suck it!) (Okay, sorry. Please don't hurt my stuff again.)