Pictures of Kristy

In November my older sister and I drove up to Seattle to see my younger sister who had a layover there on her way to Hawaii with friends. This post has been languishing in edit mode since then.

We left early to have some time to hang around before she arrived, but we spent a lot of time sitting in traffic so instead of getting a head start on shopping, we visited Gas Works Park. It's pretty cool. My dad lent me some of his lenses, his flash, and his tripod for the trip. His lenses won't auto focus with my camera, and I have absolutely no manual focus skill even with the little circle focus-assist thing, which my camera doesn't even have, so I quickly switched back to my own lens.

Kristy was a good subject, until our fingers felt like they were going to freeze off and we ran back to the car.

I didn't wait for her to finish her sentence

This one would have been good if her hair hadn't been in her eyes. I still need to get in the habit of taking as many shots as I can instead of taking just one and thinking I got it.

I obviously think she's beautiful.

Encouragement

So, last night I was tired. This is not unusual. Yet I decided I was going to get all the way through my workout in a positive mood, so we could make dinner and go to the grocery store without it all feeling like endless chores. I try to make an effort to be in a good mood in the evenings since sometimes I feel like all I do is work and prepare for work.

It's amazing what a difference attitude makes, but I had help. And I don't mean Aaron's always-chipper attitude, or his actual help with the chin-ups*... I finally saw a little muscle in my arms while doing the chin-ups.

our chin-up bar

I've been whining and complaining about my lack of progress, despite the push-ups getting noticeably easier and despite our progress through the levels of our workouts. I want visual, physical results. I want to be hotter.

Since I'm still not sure how to appease my digestive system, I was extra focused on getting some definition in my arms. I "used to" have muscular arms**. After (6?) weeks of workouts, when I flex, there's the tiniest hint of a muscle, but when I was supporting myself on the chin-up bar yesterday, I happened to glance at my arm and there was some serious muscle showing! And that enabled me to get through the rest of the night in a great mood. Vanity has its upsides.

3 weeks left to Hawaii. I'm getting ready.

 ready for hawaii

*Aaron lifts me up and I lower myself very slowly for each rep. That way I can do 3 sets of 6 reps. He thinks I could probably now do a bunch unassisted, but I feel he is hopelessly optimistic.

**I have been trying to eliminate the phrase "used to", i.e., I used to be able to do 30 -real- push-ups, I used to fit into these pants. What I "used to" do or have is irrelevant and also counter-productive.

The bacon chip

In the process of making bacon guacamole cheeseburgers, we discovered something wonderful: crispy bacon makes a great chip. I can now dive in to Girl Gone Primal's Dip-de-dip-dips.

A 365 photo project

Today's photo on Shuttercal:

I wanted to start a 365 project for the new year, but for some reason I didn't. Well, I've started one now. I am going to attempt to take pictures every day. Sometimes I am less than inspired when I get home from work. So my project is going to be modified to have a picture for each day, but not necessarily taken on that day.

To see the whole calendar, click on the photo or click here.