Death of a camera (updated)

I'll call him "Snappy" for lack of a better name for my camera. (Here's the update) *Snappy was a Canon PowerShot A95, 5.0 mega pixels, with 3x optical zoom, and used a standard compact flash card. He had lots of controls and I could flip out and rotate my screen. I'd take a picture and show him to you, but I can't. lol* Here is our history together.

Snappy and I met when a strange man in a brown UPS van dropped him off on my doorstep (sounds like the stork) on my birthday, August 9th, 2005. I gently removed him from his basket (insert cardboard box) and tried to figure out how to make Snappy happy (insert take pictures).

Alas, V wanted to play with Snappy too. I was not at home and Dad was supposed to be watching V and my little bundle (less then 1 week with us) and she dropped Snappy and bent his nose (insert lens which was out at the time). Jonathan fixed it (insert yanked really hard), but Snappy never made pictures as happily again.

Fast forward to last year. Snappy and the kids and I walked to homeschool PE (it was a nice day and only 10 blocks). We stopped at the gas station and I bought an OJ and set it in the bag under the stroller, with Snappy. The OJ wasn't very nice (much like the football player) except he just leaked all over Snappy. My lens was sticky, but that was about it.

Recently Snappy has been a bit short (insert runs down my batteries too quickly) and I suspected he wasn't well. I was going to send him to the doctor (insert Cannon Repair, b/c I had the extended warranty-which I never buy, but had this time). Unfortunately I didn't.

Monday, September 3, 2007 Snappy finally snapped and decided to die. I have called the doctor (insert Cannon) to see if they can play God and resurrect Snappy. I have put him in a coffin (insert card board box) and I am hoping for a miracle (a cheap miracle).

If Snappy can't be resurrected does anyone have any camera advice (other then don't let anyone else touch it and keep food, beverages, heat and cold away from it). I'm searching more for the new purchase variety (but I'm cheap-in the shopping sense-and will buy reasonable used or refurbished). I am hunting in the $150-$300 range, but I would like to stay in the $150-$225 range if possible (unless you know of something REALLY cool). I want good pictures and FAST. Snappy was a little slow on the take. I've always like Canon, but I'll be honest Snappy sucked (and I'm not sure if it was Snappy or the initial accidents). I do like the cameras that take compact flash (b/c I have a 1 GB card), but I'll take whatever. I'd also like a camera that does it's own photo editing, adds my make-up and shaves off the last 8 lbs from my last pregnancy and makes me look as young as I did when I got married (hey a girl can dream).