It expired eventually and when wasn’t renewed back in June, I sat on my hands as the few companies it filtered through tried to sell it to me for a hundred bucks, fifty bucks…

Finally, it went up for sale at the open market price, $10, and Rob snapped it up for me one day when I’d all but forgotten about it.

Go ahead, type it into your browser.  You’ll get redirected to TheAmberShow.net!  After years and years, it’s MINE BITCHES!

Happy weekend indeed!

p.s. Where’s Earl?  It’s 1:30 pm and still looking gorgeous. I was honestly hoping for a gigantic rain storm so I could hunker down with some movies, popcorn, and beer. Should it start pouring, hurricane party at my house, ok?  I’ll make cookies, too.

A while ago, my friend Emily asked me to take some photos of her son Jack, to commemorate his turning two. I LOVED doing this shoot, even though, or maybe especially because, it required me to get literally down and dirty; Jack is short, and the playground was all mud and wood chips.

You can see a few more selections on my photography blog, over at AmberMarlow.com/Blog

The bags are, to quote my grandmother, “really something”. They’re camera bags, but they read like nice big purses so 1. you’re not lugging around an ugly camera bag to a party and 2. you’re not walking around, riding the subway, announcing to the world, “Yo! I have an expensive DSLR on me!”

For me, especially with my recent upgrade to a professional camera, it’s been a total game changer with the way I shoot. I don’t leave my camera home all the time because “it’s too heavy”. (The worst photo is the one you don’t take.)

Now, 90% of the time you see me, I’ve got my camera, big old flash and “a change of lenses” in my bag. It also fits all the other stuff I like to haul around: my wallet, gum, hand sanitizer, mini makeup kit, umbrella, pen, notebook, datebook, iPhone, headphones, bottle opener, business cards, wet wipes, bottle of water, bottle of ibuprofen, a light cardigan, a magazine and an extra pair of shoes… just in case. I don’t like to be unprepared, OK?! And yes, it all really fits in there.

I freakin’ love this bag. If you want to take a swing at winning the red Lola model, go over to Maggie’s blog and enter.

It gets better, too! Included in the bags was a Fuji Instax Mini camera and a pack of film, courtesy of Photojojo, and if you win, yours will ALSO have an Instax and some film inside.

Good luck, and have a wonderful weekend.

Oh. My. God.

I was doing SO WELL all week. SO WELL! And then Monday we went to this Italian restaurant, and I ate and ate and ate. And now I’m up on the scale. A lot. It’s my biggest gain EVER. I gained 3.2 pounds this week.

I didn’t even think that was physically possible! Esther, one of my Weight Watchers buddies, said it happens sometimes.

“But not to meeee!” I protested to the universe.

I’m so disappointed, not only because I gained a lot, but because this was going to be my 10 pound week. And now that 10 pound mark is further away, and my super cute “10 pounds and you can wear this new blouse” reward has to hang in my closet for a little longer.

Since I ate all that late Monday and weighed in Tuesday, I’m hoping it some of it was just the physical weight of the food in my person, since it hadn’t… I hadn’t… um… since it was still in there. (Sorry.)

I’m really bummed out and discouraged, and trying to remember that one off-course week does NOT mean I have to have four off-course weeks. Like eggs. Just because you drop one doesn’t mean you have to break the whole dozen.

Wish me luck for this week.

**

I didn’t take notes this week; it felt more like a “gather and chat” thing. I think from now on I’ll just write down helpful tidbits I get from other members instead of the meeting notes.

“Dontstaylong” the guy called out, and I immediately tweeted a hello to him. We’ve been following each other on Twitter and Tumblr ever since.

Cut to Saturday; Rob and I tagged along to a friend’s friend’s party.  Somewhere in the conversation this guy Davis turns to me and says, “Wait. What’s your Twitter handle?”

I told him, and he said, “I follow you! Two years ago I was at this thing with John Hodgman…”

And I lost my shit. Like, I literally squealed. And then I blurted out that I loved him. And then my hands got sweaty.

Rob wrinkled his brow. “Should I be worried?”  Maybe.

It was so cool to hang out with him!  By the end of the night we were hammered on Trader Joe’s beer and potato vodka (pro tip: don’t do this), but we still attempted to take a self-photo of ourselves for posterity.

Um… that’s the ceiling.

To quote Maggie: “These are my people, and I found them on the Internet.”

Apropos of nothing.

Yael had “Visit Stonehenge” on her Life List and did it! (I meant to post this ages ago!)

The photos are so dreamy. Congrats, Yael, on this awesome List item accomplishment!

Happy weekend you guys.

I can sum up this week in Weight Watchers with a haiku.

I ate tons of junk
But I’m down one point four pounds.
Whatever! Go me.

Grand total: 8.8 pounds. 1.2 until ten! Next week?  We’ll see.

Notes on the meeting after the jump.

Nutritionists know that there are foods that are more satisfying than others based on what they’re made of.  Most satisfying foods are protein, then fiber containing carbs followed by non-fiber containing carbs, then fat. Getting protein in can be difficult.  Meat is obvious but not easiest on the go or most preferred.

Good sources for non-meat protein: lentils (Trader Joes makes them in a steamer bag that goes in a microwave), tofu and soy in general, smart dogs, egg beaters and eggs, non-fat fage [Greek yogurt] (try it with honey, blueberries and/or slivered almonds), Weight Watchers smoothies (try with low-fat soy and a banana), fish and shelfish, quiona, cous-cous, polenta

Good recipes: food blogs, magazines, Mark Bittman’s column

Fiber-filled carbs: sopa noodles, brown rice, black beans, grapefruit (!), corn on the cob, air-popped popcorn

Did you know there is free* kayaking on the East River? I didn’t! It’s courtesy of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse. We stumbled across it on Sunday. I didn’t go – I’m not into unexpectedly getting my rear end sopping wet – but I’ll be back in a swimsuit. Matt, Nicole, Tracy, Jackie and Rob tried it out, though.

Even more fun, we came at the tail end when the volunteers were packing up for the day and they needed help paddling all the gear back to storage, so everyone got extra long rides.

And extra especially fun, we ran into Sarah Cooley who was one of the volunteers.

Go check it out! (They’re in the Brooklyn Bridge Park on Sundays, but Saturdays they’re over at Pier 1 in the new Brooklyn Bridge Park extension).

*They accept donations

These photos are totally unedited. I shot them through my hair in my backyard in the setting sun. My curls make a good filter.