Abbie's Real Life Blog

After weeks and weeks of inactivity, I posted over at my photo blog.  

Like I said there, it’s not like I’m not doing photo stuff, but I just haven’t had any actual shoots in the past couple of months.  However, I have been working on photos and spending hours on a better backup system for my RAW and PSD and JPG files… such a pain in the ass, that part.  It’s not easy to do at all.  And I’m not paying for Lightroom.  Way too expensive, and I tried the 1.0 version when they had it in beta and I was not a fan.  I know a lot of people are big fans, but not here.

In addition to the photo stuff, I set up a website for the Jeff City Photo Club a couple of weeks ago.  I’m throwing this link up just for Google Indexing so that it will start to appear when anyone types JEFFERSON CITY PHOTO CLUB or CAMERA CLUB or CENTRAL MISSOURI or MID MISSOURI.  Then Google will point them to the new website over there.

So that’s what I’ve been working on lately.

I went back to the gym yesterday after a week off for illness.  In addition, did you know that I have been meticulously counting calories for several weeks now?  I have never done that before, but a friend of my sister’s pointed me towards The Daily Plate, which is run by Livestrong.  It really works, once you get the hang of it.  It can be a pain in the ass if you’re vegetarian or vegan, and you eat a lot of substitutes, because sometimes I eat big greasy hamburgers at Bennigan’s but with a black bean Boca patty instead of the beef part, and without the bacon, and this kind of substitution nutrition information is not out there on the web.  I just have to try to get as close as possible.  

Anyway, although I am attempting to lose weight using its ‘calorie goal’ functions, I often eat more calories than I am supposed to eat, and I’m okay with that.  Because while I may not be hitting its goals for me, I am definitely monitoring my food intake way more than I used to, and I know that I am eating fewer calories on a daily basis.  Whether it’s enough to lose a couple of pounds, I don’t know.  Anyway, it’s kind of a clunky little site, but so far I’ve stuck to it for more than three weeks, and I’ve been completely honest with it, down to the exact number of Hershey kisses I’ve consumed.  (Hey, we’re still munching on Christmas candy around here.)  I’m proud of myself.

In other news, I’m making a concerted effort to read books.  I’m supposed to get through three by the end of March, and although I did make that goal for last quarter, I also flew around in planes and sat around in airports a whole lot during that time, and I always read more when I’m flying.  We are supposed to go to Orlando next weekend, and back to DC at the end of March, but I need to start setting aside time to read on weeknights and weekends, if just to get my eyes away from all the screens (computer, computer, and more computer, and also television) in my life.  So I’m still halfway through Blue Highways, and about a quarter of the way through Portnoy’s Complaint, and I have a couple waiting on deck for when I’m done with these.

And all this is what the weekend will be: photos, backups, getting some images ready for next week’s club meeting, calorie counting, and book reading.  Tonight I think I’m going to go pick up some chocolate-covered strawberries (hey, they’re strawberries!  healthy-ish!) but that will probably be the highlight.

Oh, wait, except that I’m going to a movie trivia night on Friday!  I am excited about that!  My mom and I went last year, and had a great time, and of course our team won.  We’re going again, but I don’t have as high of hopes for victory.  We’ll see how we do!