Tuesday Tidbits

• I moved my long run to Monday again.  I think I'll just move it to Monday permanently.  I have a recovery week so my long run was only 4 miles.  It was a pretty good run that went by fast.

• Fall volleyball started last night.  We got absolutely creamed but it was a lot of fun and a very good workout!  My calves are pretty sore today so I don't feel guilty about taking a rest day.

• I spent some time figuring out my calendar for the next few months.  After seeing how busy I will be, I have new found motivation to get everything in order around here in hopes of making it through the month unscathed.  

• I watched Hope Floats last night.  Well, part of it.  I fell asleep shortly after Birdie's mother dies because I buried my head under the pillow waiting for it to be over.  At some point during the night I turned the television off.  Or Brinkley did.  I don't remember turning it off.

• While putzing around cleaning and what not, I've been enjoying some The West Wing, Season Five.  And it's oh so good.  I usually lean towards the first few seasons, but there are hidden gems in the later years too.  

• I spent a little bit of time organizing some scrapbook stuff.  I've said it a million times before and I'll say it again, I'm unbelievably behind on scrapbooking.  I have lots of events to catch up with hundreds upon hundreds of photos.  I think I may lock myself in a room for a week or more sometime next Spring and see how much I can accomplish.  Or maybe I should start hoping for a HUGE snowstorm this Winter that will keep me snowed in.

• I packed a box today.  Taped, labelled, and not to be opened until it's in a house.  It's a start.

Thursday night fun

I was productive when I got home tonight. While Brinkley guarded my cross stitching and gave me dirty looks for focusing my attention elsewhere...


I peeled, chopped, and diced about 30 pears for the crockpot. I'm making pear butter!! For now it will just heat and reduce. By morning I should be able to add sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I'm crossing my fingers it turns out delicious!!

Tuesday Tidbits

My lack of posting lately means this installment of Tuesday Tidbits will probably be pretty long.

• I've stuck to my half marathon training plan.  I've moved a few long runs from Sunday to Monday, but I've gotten everything in each week.  I think moving the long run to Monday may be the better option because my Sundays seem to stack up with plans quicker than other days.

• I had a six mile long run yesterday.  It was much easier than I expected it to me.  All mental.  Physically I could have kept running and running.  I've been listening to podcasts to distract me and it seems to really be helping.  I thought people talking would be a little too mundane and monotone to keep me at my normal pace but the few that I listen to are doing the trick.  My problem is that I've listened to them all and need to find new ones.  Or maybe a book on tape??

• I had the opportunity to get a behind the scenes look at the new museum being built in town.  It's huge and will be amazing when it's done.  It kind of made me sad seeing the new archives research room though.  It's amazing.  But I'm pretty sure the hours game and no benefits thing would have continued.  Departments only miraculously have money for a full position when the right person comes along and I wasn't that person.  While I miss the History realm, I know I made a good decision in the move I made.  Maybe someday when I'm retired, I can volunteer at an archive to get my fix again.

• I asked one of my cousins to be a model for me so that I could work on getting senior picture type photos for my online portfolio.  I've always love taking baseball pictures.  Way back in college I took some of my brother for an assignment.  That was back in the day of film and darkroom processing.  This time I had the luxury of digital and took advantage of endless possibilities! 

  

• I've made multiple batches of Brinkley food over the weekend.  I'm hoping to be set for a few weeks.  Maybe the next time I need to make some, I'll do a HUGE batch of two recipes so that we're set well into Fall or even Winter.  With training, fall volleyball, overtime work shenanigans, and me trying to catch any photo gig I can, preparing his food in a huge batch may be the best way to save me some time during the week.

• I finally finished reading Heat Rises that I started a few weeks.  I read about 90% of it and then just kind of forgot about it.  It was a good book but apparently not enough to keep me reading to the very end.  I finished it last night.  One thing about crime/suspense books that drives me mad is that there is never a way to truly investigate as you go and try to figure out the killer.  The whole thing wraps up in the last 10 pages being unravelled with information that was never revealed through the story.  It was still a good book though.  It's cool to see the connection between the book characters and the tv show.  Speaking of, Castle Season 5 starts September 24th!!!  Five weeks!  

• This afternoon I went on a blitz of errands.  Old dry cleaner stop, new dry cleaner stop, recycling drop off, one vet for cat food, another vet to weigh Brinkley Miles, and a trip to Safeway for bread.  I also headed out to Mom and Dad's house to wash the '67 Impala.  It was filthy!!  After washing it, I took it for a cruise out to my childhood home to pick some apples and pears from the fruit trees before my parents close their real estate sell in a few days.

• I loved driving the '67.  It's so quiet and the AM station comes in great!!  Once I got parked, I put a car cover on it to hopefully keep it a little cleaner until we can improve it's accommodations.

• I have a big box of pears and apples to hopefully turn into pear butter sometime this week.  And I still have a lot of chicken to use up in Brinkley recipes.  It's going to be a busy week full of lots of dishes around here.  Oh boy, my favorite.  

• I've been watching Gilmore Girls Season One on and off throughout the weekend.  I started at episode one and now I have the urge to just keep watching marathon style until I get through the whole series.  Although, I probably consume more coffee while watching this show.  It's not-so-subliminal coffee shout-outs always make me crave more coffee.

• Is it possible to teach yourself cross stitch??  I'm going to give it a try.  While going through random stuff in the garage last week I came across a little starter kit thing I bought a few years back.  At first it looked like a foreign language but I think I've figured it out.  I need to wash my pieces beforehand according to the instructions so I haven't officially begun.  But once I do, I'm sure I'll share my failure.  HA! 

Back to Work Wednesday

On par with every other weekend, my last one flew right by.  It started off with a quick trip to Sterling to see Dierks Bentley in concert and to visit some friends.  It was a great concert and we had a ton of fun just hanging out before and afterwards.

We ended up pitching a tent in our friend's backyard.  It wasn't half bad actually.  We slept great until the sun came up and made the tent into a little oven very quickly.

Due to the lack of sleep two nights in a row, I pushed back my long run until Monday of this week.  Four miles was scheduled and four miles was conquered.  It was a really good run!  I'm glad I held off a day.


This morning Brink and I ran two miles.  My legs felt great!!  I'm holding out hope that the feeling sticks around for a few months.  I started taking a multi-vitamin with calcium so hopefully I can head off any stress fractures.

Tomorrow is cross training.  Brent fixed my stationary recumbent bike so I think I'll break it in the morning... after sleeping in a little bit.  It was an early morning with a trip to DIA for Brent so I'll take any "extra" sleep I can squeeze in.

Hopefully I'll get to posting some pics soon.  Mom, Moxon, and I went to the county fair a week or so ago.  And Brent and I took cruise up the canyon.  If I can get them uploaded, I'll post some soon.

I managed to set-up another senior picture gig thanks to a recommendation from my last senior photo gig!  I'm excited to head back to Red Rocks.  I'm going to get there a little earlier for the next shoot and explore some.  I think there is some great potential there.

Random note ... I tried dropping off two disposable underwater cameras to get developed.  Target is discontinuing their film service.  And Sam's doesn't offer it.  This may be trickier than I thought.  Note to self: avoid using film.  That's very, very sad.

I'm also hoping to get some more time to play with Lightroom soon.  I'd like to shoot in RAW and see what kind of a difference it makes.  And I want to work on a watermark as well.  So much to do and not enough time.

Other things I'd like to work on in the next few weeks... starting to pack some of the most useless stuff I have.  I'm either going to put it in the garage sale box or pack it permanently until we're in a house.  Maybe I can fool myself into thinking it will actually happen if everything is packed and ready to move when the time finally comes.  Somedays it feels like never.

For now though, I think I'm off to bed.  I've had enough fun for one day.

Bring on the medal!

Run Disney finally revealed the new medal for the 2013 Walt Disney World Half Marathon!!  I love it! And it's way different from my first medal!!  I can't wait to be done and have that thing hanging around my neck!!

I've got a three mile run in the morning.  I'm doing the lake route.  It's a true Friday for me so that should give me extra motivation in the morning.

In photo news, I'm setting up a photo session with a cousin for the 19th.  I may get another senior photo gig in Denver.  And I'm still brainstorming up ideas for Moxon's back to school photos.  I need to get out this upcoming weekend and play with my new lens some more.  I also want to try shooting in RAW format and playing with it in Lightroom.  Lots and lots to do.

I've also signed up for additional overtime shenanigans at work so fall is looking to be busy, busy.  It's a good thing I have half marathon training to keep me active or I'd likely easily slip into sloth mode!!

Week 1

I survived my first week of half marathon training.  It was a fairly easy week so I won't throw myself too big of a party.  I ran a total of nine miles.  I think my favorite part was having two whole rest days that I could enjoy guilt free.

And I really like not having to think about what distance I'll be running for the day or talk myself in to doing something.  I just have to look at the day on the calendar and it's already decided for me.

I'm sure I'll feel differently about having days planned for me by the middle of November and the distances creep higher and higher.  For now, I'll just be proud of surviving week one without making any alterations to the schedule!

This morning is a cross-training morning.  I guess I'll go get my sweat on!

Coffee ramblings

Currently sitting at the computer sucking down coffee in hopes that I'll wake up from haze I'm in.  Such heavy eyelids this morning.

After running 4 miles on Sunday, I enjoyed my two days off of running immensely.  It was nice not to have to wake up at the crack of dawn in order to fit in a run.  Monday was a rest day.  Yesterday was a cross-training day, which included swimming!!

After swimming, we headed off on errands.  Errands included ice cream in Old Town!!  I should have gone with one scoop.  It did constitute lunch though.


We went to Old Town so I could pick up this beauty!  My operating system is officially upgraded!!  I notice very little difference but whatever.  It did allow me to download Lightroom 4 from the comfort of my pajamas though!!


Lightroom 4 is going to take some learning.  It's nothing like Photoshop.  My initial thoughts are that it's iPhoto on crack with better organization tools.

I'm trying to get fired up for my three mile run this morning.  3 miles is easy right?  It's shorter than 4 or 5.  Should be an easy one.  Yup.  Easy.  It's my lack of hydration and sleep that makes me dread it.

20,000 Photos

I currently have 20,000 photos backed up on my external hard drive.  I have about 10,000 backed up on SmugMug.  I don't know why I have such a horrible time deleting mediocre pictures.  Or staying organized to the point of knowing exactly what is where.  I'm still double checking that certain large photo groups are backed up on SmugMug before I delete them from my computer.

Once I get this figured out, I will be golden from here on out.  One thing is for sure, I'm done using iPhoto.  It only makes it difficult in the end to organize and back-up.  Yes, it looks pretty, but I think functionally, it just doesn't cut it for me.

What I will do from now on...

• DELETE crappy, unusable, no-way in heck will I ever print these photos!!
• Put photos immediately into the correct folder Year/Month/Event.  It's not that dang hard.  I just need to stop being so lazy about it.
• Backup the photographs after editing onto the external hard drive and then to SmugMug.
• DELETE photos from my computer hard drive as soon as I'm done with them.  The computer is not for storing.  It's for working.

All I can say is that I'm sure thankful for the digital age.  I'd be monumentally broke if I were still using film cameras.  

HBO: The Newsroom

I've heard about this show.  It's from the genius that is Aaron Sorkin.  The problem is...I don't have HBO.  And it's KILLING me.  How much does HBO cost?  Is it bad that I'm already planning on buying this show on DVD.  I'm that confident in my love for all that Sorkin creates.  Television at its smartest is worth every penny.


HBO: The Newsroom: About:

'via Blog this'

Amanda | Red Rocks Senior Photos

Last week I went to Red Rocks Park in Morrison, Colorado to shoot some senior pictures for Amanda.  It was my first trip to Red Rocks so I didn't know what to expect for lighting or background.  I think overall, considering I haven't done a portrait session in about two years and we were pushing mid-day lighting, we did a pretty good job!!  These are just a few of my favorites.

THIS

THIS is why I've always loved Aaron Sorkin.  Whomever created this video is an absolute genius!!  LOVE it!

Evening rambles

Half marathon training started Wednesday!!  I really didn't want to run this morning but not wanting to fall of the plan so early got my rear in gear and out the door.  Brink and I tackled the lake route.  It was a decent run with the temps creeping up towards the end.  I'm thankful tomorrow is a rest day.  I'm looking forward to sleeping in a little bit before going to work.

I signed up for extra work shenanigans Sunday so I'll have to fit in my four mile run early in the morning.  I figured signing up would be one sure way of getting my run done before the heat shoots up.  We'll see how that strategy treats me.

I haven't been doing much this week other than cleaning up the mess that it is my computer.  Moving files, deleting files, backing up files.  Now I'm tackling the photo files.  My ultimate goal is to get everything organized and backed-up so that I can upgrade my operating system to the latest and greatest.  The only reason I'm doing this is because I need to in order to get Adobe Lightroom.  And I really, really, REALLY want Adobe Lightroom.  It's great motivation to get something done that's been lurking for years.