I found my season...

...for running outside. Since the Turkey Trot, I've been inspired to run outside. In general, I'm trying to get into shape because I'm tired of being squishy. One part of achieving that goal is running outside. I've only done it twice now (both times on the weekend so I can run in daylight), and I really like it. I think winter is my season for running outdoors.

This morning was cold, but it was the perfect temperature. I was wearing a hat and didn't overheat. Major accomplishment for me! Another major bonus: not many people out there on the sidewalks. Makes it all the better :)

Hosting Thanksgiving

We finally hosted Thanksgiving! We had my parents down (the first time Mom didn't have to make a Thanksgiving meal), Chris's parents, Kimmi and, visiting from PA, Cheryl and Jabbour. I'm all the more glad we got the table we did - it expanded enough to fit everyone comfortably in the dining room. We rearranged some of the furniture since I have a thing for buffets :) We moved the black buffet out into the porch, which opened up a lot of space.

I had been thinking about the meal for a few weeks, planned it all out, and then Chris and I went shopping. We ended up getting an almost 22-pound turkey and I've never cooked a turkey before. I can say I started out being a bit nervous, but I am grateful for all the advice people gave and for the research I did on the Internet beforehand on how to dress it. Don't worry - I didn't dress it up in a suit and tie.

I made stuffing (my favorite part of Thanksgiving), fruit salad, pumpkin pies, cranberry sauce, and apple cider. Chris and Kim steamed green beans and mashed potatoes. Also, I was going to make dinner rolls, but I forgot to read the bread machine instructions ahead of time so I didn't realize it would take the machine almost 2 hours to make the dough...oops :) Chris saved the day by running out to Breadsmith to buy some.

I finally pulled out my grandparents' china and it was beautiful!

I am extremely happy with how everything turned out, and am forever grateful for all the help everyone gave. Chris was awesome and Kim was crucial for cleanup (thank you for jumping in!). Thank you again to everyone in the family! Glad you could be part of this Thanksgiving!

Turkey Trot

I ran my first 5k yesterday thanks to Kimmi! A while ago, she suggested that we as a family do the Minneapolis Turkey Trot, a 5k fun run the morning on Thanksgiving. I secretly have always wanted to do a 5k, but never went through with it.

It was absolutely beautiful yesterday morning! There were a host of interesting costumes (including dogs in costumes which is almost always fun). The best part was Kim ran with me the whole way, thereby distracting me. Had she not done that, I likely wouldn't have run the whole thing (my mind gets in the way).

Afterwards, I felt fantastic and didn't test my stomach's capacity even though there was lots of good food for Thanksgiving.

Thanks for the great suggestion and all the support Kimmi!

Since my last post...

The month of September was absolutely awful at work. I worked a ridiculous amount of hours for about five-six weeks. I hope we never have to repeat that process again. Anyway, things have quieted down and I am grateful.

I got a load of plants from my mom a couple of weeks ago. Come spring, I should have lots more color in the flower beds, including the one out front that was essentially all green. I keep telling myself I need to think about the planters that are still out on the deck, but still haven't taken care of them. It looks like fall is here to stay, although our maple tree didn't get the memo. The leaves are still green while the ash trees turned bright yellow about three weeks ago or so and have dropped all their leaves. Interesting.

Banjo's doing well (he's currently sleeping under a blanket, otherwise he'd say 'hi'). He's enjoying sleeping on the bed from time to time as the weather's been getting cooler. I've been enjoying pulling out my fingerless mittens again and bundling up. Call me crazy (yeah, I heard the chorus of you doing just that). Don't know that I'm ready for winter yet though. Because of work, I feel like I lost a significant chunk of summer. My body hasn't caught up to reality.

Exciting conclusion of the potato experiment

This past weekend, I finally harvested the potatoes. I know how much the anticipation was building since May :)

I let the vines dry out:

I attempted to tip over the very heavy garbage can without destroying my back, which wasn't as bad as I was expecting. As you can see, there were some potatoes peeking out right away:


I dug through the dirt and kept finding more and more. The final harvest wasn't very many of large size, but there were plenty of potatoes there. I'm looking forward to tasting these little morsels and I'm looking forward to trying it out again next year! Here's Banjo inspecting the feast to come:

Nearing the end of summer

I'm guessing I'm not the only one that's thinking how quickly the summer has flown by. Normally I'm super excited about these next few weeks (cooler temps), but this year, the budget work schedule got pushed back a month. We were supposed to be done August 15, but now it's September 12. That wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that Chris has a work trip planned immediately after we head out to Portland/Seattle for a friends' wedding and visiting other friends (which I'm really excited about, but can't believe it has come up so fast!). During the crunch time, we tend to work a lot of overtime. It's usually fine because Chris can usually take care of Banjo. It's going to be extra difficult this year. I'm hoping I can ask one of my neighbors to be on standby to take care of Banjo in the evenings. Everything will work out, but it would have been so nice to be done with the crunch time by the time we headed out to Portland.

The potatoes are nearly ready. The stalks are drying out, which means I'll be able to see if there's a harvest soon. I am thinking I'll dump the garbage can over next weekend (I'll let you know how the experiment went). The cilantro my mom gave me went to seed and dried out. I didn't realize it, but it's an annual. I've collected the seeds and hope I can get some cilantro plants growing again next year. I have more Egyptian Walking Onions started from the small bulbs it shot out. For now, they will continue to be housed in containers, but I hope to plant them in the raised beds we'll make.

My columbine went to seed a long time ago and about a week ago, I started seeing small, green plants growing all around them. I was worried it was clover, but when I looked closer, I saw that it was probably a hundred baby columbines! I'm still surprised at how well those plants do in their current location against the garage. I'll have to expand that bed out to accommodate all the growth!

Two of my other butterfly weed plants are blooming (the first one fell victim to a critter - a few days after they started blooming, something ate the flowers!). I'm excited to see if the plants continue to spread in that bed. I have to add compost this fall to see if I can get the coneflowers and bee balm (if it comes back) to bloom the appropriate colors. I realized something in the soil was missing when the coneflower, which should be purplish-pink, bloomed a faint pink. Hopefully the compost will straighten that out. The butterfly weed is a brilliant orange, so it must like really poor soil.

North shore trip

While family friends from PA came to visit, we met them up at Grand Marais for an overnight/sightseeing trip. Grand Marais is beautiful and they have amazing donuts (great way to start out the day!).

We started off by heading even further north to High Falls on the Pigeon River, immediately south of the Canadian border. The water at each site we stopped at was high, making each set of falls that much more impressive.

Next it was back to Grand Marais for a bit. I ventured out to Artists Point.


We then started our way back south with several stops along the way. The first was Temperance River. It was dizzying watching the water swirl. The way the water has carved the rock is incredible!

You could have seen where Temperance spilled out into Lake Superior, but Chris got in the way.

Next it was Caribou Falls off the Superior Hiking Trail. The falls are really high up, but I couldn't stop laughing at the stairway down. You will notice how it just stops.

Then onto Palisade Head. Chris showed me some of the routes he's climbed before and it got me itching to climb High Voltage.

The final sightseeing stop was the Split Rock Lighthouse. I clearly haven't been there for a long time because there is now a huge visitors center. I thought I remembered basically walking up to the lighthouse. It's kind of like what happened to Gooseberry Falls.

It was a fun trip, and I went further north and saw many beautiful sights I've never seen before. I would love to go back and do some hiking and climbing up there.

Teddy Roosevelt National Park

We went to Theodore Roosevelt National Park for a long weekend in the middle of June. This is one of the least visited national parks and looked amazing (plus it has lots of prairie dogs!). We camped in one of the total of 14 sites available - there are more, but they hadn't finished clearing the silt/mud from them yet! It was incredibly beautiful and we've already listed all the hikes we have yet on a future trip.

Here was the entrance to our campsite in the North Unit - the water had been about a quarter way up the sandbags.

After setting up our tent, we headed out.

I of course immediately found the trails where all the prairie dog towns were and we hiked that one first :)

On the way back to the trailhead, we ran into a buffalo. Luckily there was another couple there already watching it. Had they not been there, we would have turned the corner and potentially startled it. That may not have been the best start to the vacation.

That night, it rained about 3/4" in an hour. We had a moat around our tent! That next morning, we put on our gaiters and headed out on the trails. We were warned about the wet clay soil (it expands to about 3 times, and all that additional water makes it extremely slippery). I loved it! I have to admit I was a bit worried when we initially headed out for fear it would rain again while we were on the trail, making conditions even worse, but I'm glad we stuck with it.

Not long after starting the trail, Chris slipped. I wish it had been funny to see, but it just looked painful! It was comically slow though and you'll notice the slip marks all the way down. The amazing part about it (besides Chris not getting hurt) was that the face appeared to be rock, but turned out to essentially be soil. Fascinating stuff!



We also drove up to some of the scenic areas of the park (ones we couldn't hike to).

It was a beautiful park and I highly recommend it! If you're interested in seeing fewer people and more prairie dogs, go to the North Unit. The South Unit is the one right off of I94 and was more touristy. We did get to see the wild horses out there though.

As a final thought, here are the prairie dogs doing their bark. I couldn't help feeling like I was seeing miniature Banjos when I was out there (although these guys were much quieter!):

Garden pictures

Here are some pictures from the garden - enjoy!

The herb garden is exploding! I've had to cut it back several times already and it's due again:
The coneflowers are starting to open up. They should turn a purple color soon:
The potatoes have also exploded! I'm very encouraged by the experiment so far.
The stellas that replaced the grape vine are now all in bloom and looking beautiful:
The day lilies are close to blooming for that one fleeting day:
The succulents I've replanted are growing lots of new plants too:

Happy (belated) anniversary

Our one-year anniversary came and went. It's fun to think about how much fun it was to celebrate our Anniversary 0 with many of you last year. One of the fun parts of Anniversary 1 was opening the note cards from the wedding. Thank you for all the wonderful (and sometimes completely silly) notes!

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity - Chris and I went camping and hiking at Teddy Roosevelt National Park over a long weekend (pictures coming soon). This past weekend, we drove up to Grand Marais to meet up with family friends in town from PA. And almost every night in between has been filled with friends and/or family. It has been a lot of fun!

I'm very much looking forward to the three-day weekend. Lots to do around the house (everything that's been piling up over the past few weeks) and lots of relaxing to catch up on. I will post photos of all the plants soonish. My potatoes-in-a-trash-can experiment is going much better than I ever imagined: the plants are about a foot above the top of the can already and growing strong!

Stuff's a growin'

I can't believe it, but the potatoes are already sprouting leaves! Plus the strawberry plants are already throwing off runners. It's been less than a week! Guess we all love a little sunshine :)

Adding to the garden

I've been doing lots of stuff in the yard the past few weeks. This past weekend, we went up North to get some ticks, but mostly to see my parents. It was a very relaxing time and I got more plants from my mom to add to the garden. I went on a planting spree on Monday, even though it was incredibly humid. I was too excited about the plants to wait!

The columbine is doing excellent against the garage (it's one of the kinds of plants I planted last May).

Between the columbine and the day lilies, I planted the clump of tiger lilies I got from my mom. I can't wait until they bloom!

My parents also got us a planter for the deck. Chris got another one right away. The planter from my parents is now filled with strawberry plants, and Chris wants more! He's a strawberry addict. It will be fun to see the berries develop and see if/how much they spread. It was amazing that the bees found the flowers almost right after we put it out on the deck.

In the other planter, I planted the two herb plants I've had going for quite a while and the other herbs I got from Mom. We have oregano, cilantro, chives, rosemary and parsley. Chris used the parsley almost right away in a dish he made for supper. I'm really excited about seeing the chives bloom too.


And finally, my experiment. A year or so ago, I got the book Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Places by Gayla Trail. She is great at explaining how easy it is to grow lots of different types of fruits and vegetables. The one I'm trying out is growing potatoes in a garbage can. Just so happens I had a garbage can with holes in it lying around the garage recently (it was used as a compost bin before and we recently got one of the big bins). And then I was reading through Grow Great Grub this spring looking for more information and there it was: Trashy Potatoes.

You fill the can with about 6" of dirt, then plant the seed potatoes. Mom gave me seed potatoes too! They were pretty far along as you can see from the pictures. After the sprouts get 8" tall, you are supposed to cover them up about 2/3 of the way, and keep repeating the process, hilling the potatoes as they come up. At some point, there will be lots of greenery and flowers and when those die, the potatoes should be ready.

One thing that could happen since I'm using a metal can is that the potatoes could get cooked. We'll see though. I think it will be ok because the metal can will not be exposed in the hot afternoon sun, but the greenery will.

I will keep you updated!

Beautiful days = yard work

In celebration of nice weather, I got to spend the bulk of the day outside. It has been so perfect out today! I finally dug out all of the red lava rock from the back of the house, which I'll be replacing with mulch; I cleaned and organized the garage; I completed the border around the bed against the garage; and mowed the yard. Busy day, and very rewarding.

I put out the freshly painted rain barrel the other day. It looks so much better! I'm really looking forward to seeing how well the new compost bin works too. I basically have it full already.

All the plants are doing really well, except for those in the native bed I planted next to the deck. They started coming up before the frost, then died and are now barely starting to come back up again. I'm excited for the bee balm again and I'm anxious to see if the butterfly weed and coneflower have any flowers this year.

Here are some of the latest pictures, including one of Banjo playing with Duckie (that damn duck!):

Spring projects

Even though it feels like the day went by in a blur, I actually feel like I've accomplished something. This is fantastic news for me since I was sick for about a week-and-a-half. I was completely drained of energy and got tired walking around my house. Luckily work was a little bit slower than it has been the past couple of months, so I was able to scrap by.

Today I played with spray paint. This is my first attempt at using it and I am even more impressed with those that create the graffiti works of art (not so much for those that just tag stuff). I am painting the re-purposed Smurf-blue rain barrel I bought/made last year beige. I think the neighbors will be pleased since they had to look at it through their patio window all summer. The first coat is on and looking much more neutral.

The other exciting thing was we picked up a compost bin. We've had one made out of a metal trash can for 2-3 years now, but I failed to think of how I would not only turn the compost at the bottom of the bin, but how I would get compost out of it. I'm super excited about this new compost bin because it's much larger, has an open bottom and it has a slot at the bottom to turn over the compost and to scoop out the finished compost.

It's been really fun seeing all the plants coming up. The day lilies in back are really tall now, as are the columbine I planted last spring. The lilacs have buds all over and the lilies of the valley are finally starting to poke up. The rhubarb out front is growing a lot and the hostas are starting to peak up out of the ground. I'm hoping the nice weather sticks around a while.

Hello muscles I haven't used all winter

I did the bulk of the spring clean-up yesterday in anticipation of the crazy thunderstorm that I slept through last night. I left quite a few leaves on the ground before the first snow last year out of laziness and lots of leaves in the flower beds out of planning, which meant I had plenty to clean up. Last year, I cleared out the flower beds too late - everything was a few inches tall which meant I had to be extra careful not to rip out the fragile plants.

Given all the bending over, picking leaves up, raking, hauling, etc, my muscles decided to revolt this morning. I groaned getting out of bed. The back of my legs are killing me and I'm walking like a zombie (luckily I don't have the urge to eat brains). I've been taking Ibuprofen, stretching, and had Chris make me a protein shake in order to start combating the soreness. I'm really nervous for tomorrow morning (it's always worse the second day for me at least).

All the pain is totally worth it. Not only is it great to uncover all the little plants that are growing like mad, I am getting inspired about all the garden plans I thought I was going to work on over the winter. Good weekend!

Spring arrives!

I am so excited! Banjo and I went for a long walk today, and afterward, I chased him around the yard a bit. While playing, I noticed some green starting to appear: the day lilies are starting to come up! Then I looked a bit closer and noticed the honeysuckle are starting to come up too! After that, I started noticing little plants all over the place!

The funny thing is there is still some snow in the backyard (where the sun doesn't hit). It's looking out of place though, which brightens my day :) I'm planning on starting the spring clean-up this weekend. There's plenty to do because it seems to me I got a bit lazy with raking towards the end of fall last year, so there are plenty of leaves to rake up. I'm most excited about uncovering the flower beds! Banjo's excited about everything - he loves the warmer weather. He started just sitting outside for the fun of it.

Ecstatic for spring

I am getting more and more anxious to get working out in the yard. The bulk of the snow is now gone, which is fantastic, but I have been ready to start working on the yard for the past month. Come on spring!

In the meantime, I've been knitting lots of baby stuff. I just finished a baby blanket for my friend/coworker. I didn't expect it to be so large and of course it took me almost a month to knit. I put the finishing touches on last night, and her baby shower is this morning. Cutting it a bit close, I know.

Now that I have that done, I have to finish Chris's socks that I started way back when. I am ready for a small break from knitting though. I really want to work on the yard!

Emotional journey

After Chris and I got married last June, I decided I wanted to learn to let go of the various emotional barriers I've built throughout my life. I wanted to fully embrace being a woman, which meant fully accepting my body and my emotions. When I was in high school, I wanted nothing more than to be accepted as "one of the guys." I suppressed a lot of those "girly" feelings teenager girls/young women tend to have. For quite a while, including throughout college, I pretended not to be affected by the difficult or emotionally painful things that happened. I wanted to be strong, but it turns out I didn't understand the definition of strong. What I ended up doing was building a number of emotional walls in order to prevent any pain reaching me. In some cases, I buried the pain so deep that it's taken until now to fully surface it and work through it. This contributed to my bad habit of having good friends for a while and losing touch very quickly afterward - it was a way to forget, to not be reminded of whatever emotional event happened. I found myself doing this even in grad school, pushing away a close friend because being around her reminded me of things that happened in our broader circle of friends.

I knew I didn't want to continue to this pattern. I wanted to build life-long friendships, to grow together. This is something Chris has taught me. When Chris and I started dating, I realized it was ok to be who I really was, that what happened in my past doesn't dictate what happens in my present and future. I learned I can grow from these experiences rather that continuing to hide behind these walls. Sounds easy, but I'm still working it.

In order to continue my journey, I got the book Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Christiane Northrup. She walks through creating physical and emotional health from the feminine perspective. Her writing felt like a guide for me to find my own path. A lot of what she wrote spoke to me on a very deep level. It's been a similar experience to when I was visiting a counselor in undergrad, only this time, it has left me feeling more connected not just to myself, but to the female experience. I just finished the book this morning and feel inspired by all of the women who've worked through their own walls and experiences.

How to take care of succulents

Hello to all who took home one of the centerpieces from our wedding! I have received a number of questions from you about how to take care of succulents. I honestly had no bloody clue - this was the first time I'd ever had succulents! One thing that's happened to at least a couple of people that I know of is the plant grew really tall with the leaves spaced far apart and has now fallen over. Case in point:

What to do??? I started researching online. Apparently the reason the plant does this is because it's not getting enough light (hard to believe in a place like Minnesota). This is your opportunity to create more plants! I found a great how-to guide on Instructables.com with pictures on how to create more plants and what the plants will look like. I've already created a plant from a leaf off my succulent, which was really cool to see it grow. One thing I did differently: I stuck the leaf in dirt soon after breaking it off the original plant instead of drying it out for three days. It took a while to start growing because of the low winter light, but it was really fun to see it grow!

One other important tip that I just learned: if your succulents leaves are turning yellow and drying up, try watering it less. I thought before that that's just what these plants did, but I was apparently wrong and am guilty of this too. To show you how little water these plants need, I only watered my hens and chicks twice this entire winter!

Good luck and let me know how things are growing!

Back from the Land of Warmth

We're back! Banjo couldn't be more excited :) I haven't seen him run around our room that many times before - lots of excitement to burn off!

We had a great time, due to Klink and Klinkette (thank you!!!). They showed us all around Lake Jackson, including the beach, alligators, and crazy Mardi Gras people in Galveston. Luckily, all of those things were not in the same location.

We went to Brazos Bend State Park on Saturday to see some alligators. I've never been anywhere that big flesh-eating mammals were not behind some kind of enclosure! Thrilling and kind of terrifying at the same time! The alligators really didn't move, so I shouldn't have been nervous, but I've seen how fast they can move from watching Nature. Good thing was they were trying to soak up whatever warmth they could get through the clouds, and the largest one was very far away. Very cool sights.

We went to the Mardi Gras parade in Galveston. It was so foggy that condensation collected in our hair when we were walking along the beach beforehand! We were in the prime area to see the fireworks, but we could barely see them because of the fog. I've never seen anything like it! It was actually pretty cool to see the way the colors lit up the sky. The parade was very fun and included the Budweiser clydesdales! Those are some massive horses!

We hung out at the beach on Sunday. Luckily the fog was somewhat diminished so we could see the waves coming in. Even though it was cloudy, I managed to get a little bit of sunburn (oops). It was fun to see their dog Walter chasing balls into the ocean. Made me wonder what Banjo would think of the ocean...

I didn't eat anything too adventurous, although I ate fried crab in the shape of the crab. A bit off-putting. (I originally accidentally said clam...don't know why) I resisted the donut french toast (I felt like continuing to live).

Overall, it was great to get away. Makes me want to be able to take longer trips and especially makes me want to explore some more parks.

Off to 70 degrees...

We're off to Texas! We leave in about 20 minutes and I'm finally getting excited. I've been feeling more stressed out than anything. The rule of the universe seems to be that everything piles up immediately before a trip and this experience was no exception. Work was crazy the last few days and it felt like the week FLEW by at home too.

Banjo's in Farmington, and it was extremely difficult for me to leave him. I was crying on the way back home, which was unexpected. I felt bad because he had a stressful week and then I left him at Grandma and Grandpa's (thank you for watching him!). I know he'll be fine, but it's more that I miss him. We haven't even left yet!

I'm looking forward to starting a new book and starting another sock pattern (for myself this time). I'm most looking forward to visiting the Klinks!

What an adventure!

This weekend, we drove up to my parents' house to celebrate my mom's birthday (even though she said she tries to forget about it). We were aware that a storm would be passing through on Sunday when we were headed back, but we thought it would be something we could handle. The storm wasn't the problem as you will soon learn.

Sunday early afternoon: we decide to hit the road and hopefully get home before dark. If it was as bad as they said, we figured we should leave sooner rather than later. We head out and see nothing until about Princeton. Before that was a lot of wind, but nothing else. Once Princeton hit, it got slowly worse and still little accumulation.

We got as far as about Coon Rapids on Highway 10 when it happened: our car stalled while going 60 mph and wouldn't restart. That's something we didn't plan on! Chris was driving and got us to the shoulder quickly (luckily there was a downward slope) and we both thought SHIT. We figured it would take forever to get a tow because of the weather, and were trying to mentally prepare ourselves. Luckily Chris has AAA and we got a tow within 20-30 minutes of when we called it in. Chris and I got to ride in the truck, but Banjo had to stay in the car. We were both nervous about that, but he did ok.

Then came the next challenge: since we were getting it towed to our mechanic, how were we going to get home? The towing company tried to call us a cab, but they were going to 4 1/2 hours! We could walk home faster! Luckily we have amazing friends (thank you Kris!!!) that picked us up and drove us home.

Yesterday could have been so much worse, and luckily it wasn't. Thanks to everyone for your support! Today we're hoping the mechanic is open so they will hopefully be able to find something wrong with the car.

Knitting away

In these cold winter days, I've been knitting. Shocker. My latest project is making socks that are both comfortable and fit Christopher's unique feet. He has skinny legs, then huge arches, then average feet. This makes the gusset decrease very interesting and very unique.

For those wondering what the hell a gusset is, I found this picture from About.com that color-codes the different parts of the socks - the purple part is the gusset. In the socks for Chris, instead of the even line you see, his is a jagged line and fits his feet quite well.

As I mentioned, I knit Chris a pair of socks for Christmas. While they mostly fit, they were really tight over his arch and they were too thick of yarn of it to be comfortable. I am determined to make him a pair of socks that he really likes.

I have sock yarn that I made my first pair of socks with. I am knitting with size 0 needles, and for anyone out there that's a knitter, you can appreciate how small that it. I'm apparently really hard on small knitting needles. When I knit that first pair of socks ever, I was using size 2 wood double point needles. I snapped a needle in half very early on. Oops. This time I'm knitting with a metal circular needle, and while I haven't broken anything in half, I have managed to separate the metal needle tip from the plastic cable. Go me. I should really glue it back together, but I know I'm going to forget about it and I'll remember each time I knit with those needles.

So far I've only had to rip out portions of the gusset twice. I've had Chris try on his socks numerous times to make sure everything fits correctly. The good thing is once I figure everything out, I will have a pattern for future reference.

I've also been thinking about different patterns I can use to knit through my stash of yarn. The stash is slowly getting smaller, but I would like to get down to the point where all the yarn fits in the buffet.

Other than knitting, I've started work on landscape plans for the house. I took pictures last summer of various areas of the house that I want to work on. My mom has told me before how much fun it is to look through gardening magazines in the dead of winter. I have lots of specific plans for the backyard. I started work back there last year and want to build on that. What I'd eventually like the front yard to be nothing but garden. That will take some time though and lots more planning.

Another fun weekend

It seems as though we've been getting together with friends more often lately. I suppose most people are getting tired of being cooped up by the cold and need some kind of escape. I celebrated with at a friends' baby shower (co-ed showers are quite fun) and we got to see our long-lost and often inappropriate friends that moved out of state a while ago. It was great fun!

I am slowly working through my large stash of yarn. I want to get it down a lot before I buy more without having a project in mind. I have amassed quite a collection of remainders, leftovers from projects past. The small bits come in quite handy from time to time, but an entire drawer is filled with them and I am bound to create more! In the back of my mind, I keep mulling over the idea of trying to knit another sweater for myself (preferably one that would actually fit me!). I have a particular pattern in mind and have enough yarn to make it. I've just wanted to work through more of my non-dedicated stash first. Of course, there is lots of baby stuff to work on since so many of our friends are pregnant. I have had lots of fun planning and creating. Here's my latest creation: Mango the Giraffe

Productive weekend

I was finally gripped by motivation to do some cleaning and organizing recently. I don't make resolutions, but the after-holidays period tends to be one in which you pack away any decorations you put out and life gets back to normal.

I actually had the motivation to clean today, not just guilt about not having done it for a bit. It was a refreshing change of pace. I did those weird little projects that I'd been thinking about for a while and just hadn't done. Example: the fan cover in the bathroom. It has been plastered with dust and grime for months and today I actually cleaned it. It looks so nice! Then I made the mistake of looking at the bottom of the bathtub. That cleaning will have to wait.

Chris and I started talking about plans we have for the basement. We're thinking grander thoughts than simply a random collection of stuff. It might actually be a usable space at some point.

It feels good to get some projects done at home because work is going to be a bit strange soon. My boss's boss is going to be taking on the responsibilities of another division director as he transitions to a new position. I'm hopeful that everything will work out just fine and that there won't be any major major hiccups, but who knows. What I'm really hoping for is a state budget that doesn't involve cuts to cities larger than what we predicted. If it's not larger, we won't have to go through yet another revised budget process this spring.

2010 was quite the year, filled fun memories and new last names. Happy belated new year to all!