Abbie's Real Life Blog

Good lord, we had some spectacular July weather in these parts over the weekend.  It was sunny but cool and comfortable.  Of course, that meant that my ridiculously negative Facebook friends just had to complain about it being too cold to swim, but there is just no pleasing some people.  I mean, it was a fabulous weekend to go to the Boone County Fair, folks.  You don’t have to swim every day, or every weekend.  I like to swim too, and there will be plenty of opportunities left.  We still have the entire month of August left in this summer, and the first half of September will be hot as hell too.

Anyway, I did almost exactly what I intended to do this weekend.  On Saturday morning, I got up early and drove over to St. Louis for a Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and a run by my favorite antiques store (I bought a picture- paid far too much for it and later discovered that it weighs about fifteen pounds, but oh well).  I did it all and got home around 1:30pm… pretty good time.  When I got home, I cleaned out the freezer and fridge and scrubbed everything down, then cleaned out the ‘snack cabinet’ (where we have traditionally stored cookies and chips and trail mix and anything else snacky).  I threw out a lot of food, but I knew I would have to.

Tracy came into town and stayed over on Saturday night.  We later went to dinner with my sister and her notboyfriend and then on to see a late show of the Harry Potter movie.  (My verdict: it was better than the book, which is not saying much as Book 6 was by far my least favorite of the Harry Potter books.  When I first read it, I thought it was a total waste of time.  After I reread the whole series last summer, however, I thought was better in context, but still felt like Rowling was treading water.  I thought the movie was okay, overall.  Book 3 and Movie 3 remain the high water marks for the series.)

Tracy headed back to KC yesterday afternoon, after lunch at a Mexican place in town with my parents and sister.  And I did a fair amount of working on photos- enough to get through all my Netflix discs (I’m currently watching Northern Exposure, season 4).  Tonight I will finish off my wedding from last month, very exciting.

I did a post over at the photo blog last week, and I intend to do at least three new posts there this week (with more to come in the future, I expect).  I have been very negligent over there, but I realized that my exhibit photos point to that website and I could possibly make some sales if I set it up right.  I mean, on the last exhibit rotation, my photos did not have my website on them, and I sold two.  I’m not saying I will sell more, but it’s certainly not helping if I haven’t updated the blog in four months.

When I finish the photos tonight (and do a few for photo club tomorrow), I can work on some family photos that are past overdue and also start to focus on the house organization that I have been ignoring for a few weeks.  Yay!

To keep this from being an entirely Things I Did and Things I Plan To Do entry (there are far too many of these on this blog), here is a list of Things That I Bought That I Love:

• Scout’s Seat Saver:  So Tracy left and took her Suburu Forester with her, and I miss it.  (Yes, I miss her, too.)  My car is newer, and the back seat does not fold down (for whatever stupid reason), and the seats are dark navy blue, so every piece of dirt shows up on them.  Tracy never minded having dog hair everywhere, and I would borrow her car to haul mulch or furniture or whatever.  I dreaded this car access being stripped from me.  I thought about buying a beat-up truck or something, but I saw this months ago in the pages of the Duluth Trading Company catalog, which was at my parents’ house, and immediately I wanted it instead.  Then I thought, “I’m going to pay what for a blanket?”  And then finally, after weeks of hemming and hawing, I did buy it.  And I love it!  It easily installs over the headrests in the backseat of my car, protecting the dark upholstery from dog hair and mud (inevitable after trips to the dog park), and I even hauled mulch in it last week with minimal spillage.  Martha the dog does not love it, but she is used to it now.  I am glad I bought it, because blankets would not have protected the floor carpeting or kept her out of the front seat.  It is great.
• Bedside tables & lamps:  They’re all vintage, so I’m not actually pimping anything on this one.  But I have not had bedside tables or lamps since I was in high school, or possibly earlier, actually.  After I started collecting furniture in my own apartment in college, it was always something I intended to get, but matching the waterfall furniture in my bedroom proved challenging.  I just never got around to it.  This spring, I bought matching bedside tables and two huge matching vintage lamps, and I cannot believe that I did not do it earlier.  Not only do the lamps pull the whole room together, I love being able to read in bed and then just put the book aside and turn out the light, without getting up.  Just one of those things that makes you slap your forehead and go, “Duh!  Why didn’t this happen earlier?  Much, much earlier?”
• La Crosse Battery Charger and Eneloop Rechargeable Batteries:  I did a lot of research when I wanted to convert to rechargeable batteries again.  I had one of the earlier, first-or-second-generation chargers and some sets of batteries, but they weren’t exactly intended to last forever and certainly didn’t.  The La Crosse charger is intended to last awhile, and helps the batteries last longer too.  It allows you to set the charge time for the batteries (the slower the charge, the longer the battery life), and the Eneloop batteries are really the best rechargeables I’ve used.  They hold a charge much longer than some of the others I’ve used.
• Well, if we’re going to start on photography stuff (because that’s why I need a boatload of rechargeable batteries with a long charge life), the Better Bounce Card.  If you use an SLR with a speedlight, you should learn to bounce your flash and use a bounce card.  There’s one attached to your speedlight, but it’s not as great as using the ridiculously simple ABBC.  It works much better than most flash diffusers because it doesn’t eat light, plus it costs much less.  You could make one yourself, but I bought the one he sells because it comes with the custom-made rubber band.  I love it.  I use it every time I use my flash.

There was something else that I was thinking of the other day, something that I bought on a whim but I love it and wouldn’t part with it.  I can’t remember now.

Happy Moonday!