Help Help! I'm Being Repressed!

Not really, but I do need some help, and this was the first thing that popped into my mind!

I have 2 questions for the internet community at large. One is more of a stickler, and the other is easy! Let's go for the toughie first.

1. There is a woman I work with who's brother is currently a patient at Dr. SOB's hospital. The good Dr. is in no way involved with his care, and therefore, is legally and ethically unable to provide information about said patient. However, work lady, who is a real sweetheart, wants Dr. to get her info. She even went as far as to request our home phone number from someone at work today (sidebar: I am at home with a nasty little cold today, but she probably would have asked me if I was there). She is a tough cookie, and may have difficulty taking 'no comment' for an answer. Any advice on how to deal with her?

2. I want a new digital camera before little Otto (that's his in utero nickname) comes to town. We've had a Kodak EasyShare for about 1.5 years now, and although I have been satisfied with it, I am ready for bigger and better things. Two fab ladies who's blogs I read (Heather and Melissa) both take fantastic pictures, and I thought that I would just figure out what kinds of cameras they were using and get one of those. Well, they must be rich or something because both of their cameras were more than $900. I'm looking more for something under $500. I would like to have more manual control over things, but also to have a good 'auto' setting, too so when Otto is doing something cute for 2.5 seconds, I can get a quick picture. I prefer getting personal recommendations to having an 18 year old high school senior at Best Buy sell me something. Any suggestions?

So I just signed up for 700 hours of 'baby shooting out of my crotch' and 'baby attached to the tit' classes. In addition, I'm also taking 'why does my baby look like an ugly old man?' and 'what should I do to make my baby keep breathing' classes. Translation: childbirth preparation, breastfeeding 101, infant care and characteristics, and infant/child CPR. January should be an interesting time. My shit will be totally freaking out. If I get an awesome new camera by that time, I'll have Dr. take a picture of me and I'll post it here, for your enjoyment!