Christmas Outtakes

I didn’t make it into the darkroom last night. I didn’t even come close. I fell asleep in the library with a photography magazine in my hands. Out by 9:30. This is getting really pathetic.
I wonder if I’m catching up on all the sleep I missed in two years of school. Or maybe it’s the weather and the fact that it’s dark by 2 p.m.
But I promised some images, so here are the outtakes from our Christmas card photo shoot. Keep in mind that for most of these, my “assistant” was dozing in an armchair behind me. I’m going to have to cut his salary or dock his pay or something. Because while he snoozed, this is what I was dealing with:
Everything ground to a halt here when Zoe decided that she wanted to get her camera and make her own pictures. Given her vantage point, her shots are mainly of M conked out in the chair behind me. Come to think of it, one of those might have been good on the Christmas card, too.
I was trying to adjust lighting here, and instructed Zo to close her eyes so she wouldn’t get flashed over and over again. Poor Hoot, though, has no eyelids and took it direct. Nice catchlights in Hoot’s eyes, though.

This last one isn’t so much an outtake as Zoe turning into the art director and demanding that Hoot have his own Christmas shot. I suppose Hoot with Rudolph is the equivalent of Zoe sitting on Santa’s lap.

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Tuesday news (or lack thereof)

I’m getting used to this no-school thing. I had some wine with dinner the other night. Last night I had a Sol with my quesadilla at Hacienda, then fell asleep on the couch before 9 p.m. I’m exercising every day, and my house is getting cleaned out. Tonight I plan to spend many hours goofing around in Photoshop. A girl could get used to this kind of life.

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A new exercise routine?

It’s easy to see how I could put my shirt on backwards when it’s 5:10 in the morning and I’m keeping the room completely dark so as not to awaken my blissfully sleeping husband (I’m a good wife like that). What’s not easy to see is how I can not realize that I’ve done that until I’m on the treadmill, at the gym, and just starting to run.

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Think…then speak

I’m tired this morning. I think I stayed up too late last night, which at 11 p.m. is late for me these days. I have been rather enjoying the luxury of going to bed at a reasonable hour, or even early (one night it was before 9) without worrying that I’m missing an opportunity to get homework done. Early to bed equals early to rise, so I’ve reinstated my gym routine and am now happily (and sleepily) rolling out of bed at 5:10 a.m. to pull on work-out clothes before bundling up to freeze in the car for two miles. When the weather breaks I may try riding my bike up there, but no way am I climbing on that thing when it’s four degrees.

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Go Conan

Not that it means anything to anyone, but I feel compelled to voice my support for Conan O’Brien, current host of The Tonight Show on NBC. The guy is getting royally boofed by his network, and worse, it’s all public.

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Tonight’s goal: sloth

Five days into 2010 and I am loving this new year. Sunday I renewed my gym membership, and Monday morning I hit the treadmill. My cardiovascular stamina is non-existent, but that’s to be expected after two years of the sitting-on-my-ass exercise routine. Two miles yesterday morning, two more today. Mentally, I fell back into the gym like not a day had passed, which was something I had worried about. I mean, a lot changes in your brain in two years. What if I didn’t like it anymore? Turns out I still adore it, and realized again just how much I had missed it. My gym did get new treadmills, though, which have been a pain to figure out. First, they have fancy schmancy touch screens that you actually have to read just to turn the damn thing on and get moving. Second, they no longer have little fans on either side of the display, which doesn’t sound like much but which feels good when one is dripping in sweat. Minor hindrances in my quest to reclaim my body.

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Happy New Year!

It turns out that Dick Clark isn’t the only person who can have a rockin’ New Year’s Eve. The cousins all gathered around the television last night to play Rock Band, and let me tell ya, we are a bunch of pretty talented people.

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We’re boring, and we love it

Okay, so I said I’d be back to regular blogging now that we’re done with our MBAs, but I didn’t count on Christmas sucking up every bit of spare time. Today was the first day in weeks that was awesome in its completely boring routine. Got up, went to work for awhile, went to lunch with M and Zozer, worked some more, came home and went to look at Christmas lights before dinner with the extended fam (shout out to the Floridians for coming to the Lou!).

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