I’m not usually one to make New Year resolutions. I just hate the idea of trying to choose to only make life changing decisions on one day of the year. This year though I have decided to set some goals. Not resolutions, but specific and trackable goals. More specifically things that I have some control over.
On to my list:
GOALS FOR 2009!
Hopefully I’ll take more than one class, but one would be enough for me to start. I’m not sure yet what kind of class I am going to take, but I’ve considered photography, wood working, writing, or something else creative. The catalog comes out in a few days, so I’ll get to decide then.
I’ve been intending to walk the 3-Day for about five years now. I got as far as raising half the money necessary to participate in the walk. Unfortunately, at that point, my fundraising hit a wall and I wasn’t able to walk. This year I am determined to do it.
I have no credit cards, but I have student loan debt and, because of my own stupidity last year, I owe the IRS a small amount. I’m going to work my ass off at getting atleast one of those debts cleared up in the next year.
If there were one thing in my life that I could change, it is that I would have learned to make lefse from my grandmother before she got sick. It breaks my heart that I didn’t. My uncle fell into a crazy period a few years back where he got pissed at the entire family and took anything he thought was of any valuable, financially or emotionally, from the house. He took grandma’s lefse griddle, potato ricer, rolling pin….the entire lefse set up. So, I’m going to need to purchase an entire new set, but it will be worth it. And I’m going to learn to do it with a photo of my grandma at my side the entire time.
This one shouldn’t be all that hard. I do this anyway. But there are times when I let myself slack off for a week or two. This year, I want to really make an effort at it. I’m also going to keep track of the titles. Don’t expect anything profound. I generally just read whatever is available to me at that moment, so it could be anything from Clay Aiken’s autobiography to the latest piece of chick lit.
I’ve been knitting for three years now. And I still SUCK. I’m getting better, but definitely not at the level of someone who has been knitting this long. I’m going to start working through atleast one challenging project a month. You can follow along at the link above, or you can always check me out on Ravelry.
I’ve recently rediscovered my love of cooking and baking. And with the delivery of my KitchenAid mixer for Christmas, I have a great excuse to do some baking!
There are already plans in the work for a cruise in December of next year. I’ll actually have to get a passport! The only time I have ever been out of this country was to go over the border into Mexico near Brownsville, Texas. We were on a mission with my great-uncle to get his same day dentures made for less then $300. We were successful, but I definitely don’t want that to be my only opporutnity to leave the country.
I stole this idea from someone else. But it was such a great idea, and I’m constantly trying to figure out “something to do”. Now I have a list.
- Live frugally and simply, Recycle/Reduce/Reuse, coupons, budget
This one is rather self-explanatory. I’ve been overwhelmed by material stuff in the last few years and I want to really focus on simplifying.
- Renew my commitment to my physical and mental health.
Also self-explanatory. I’m not going to make any specific goals on this one yet, but they’re coming.
- Collect and collate my recipe collection
I have too many recipes spread all over the place. Between websites, print outs, cook books, and random recipe cards, I most likley have nearly 100 different dishes floating around.
I think my plan is going to be to try and give a brief monthy blog update on my progress, since holding myself accountable requires constant reflection. So, you’ll be hearing more about my goals in a few weeks. Until then:
HAPPY NEW YEAR! May your 2009 bring everything you need into your world!
Posted by Amelia on Dec 26, 2008 in
Holidays 2008 I can’t even begin to talk about how completely spoiled we all were this year. We are so priviledged to live the life that we do. It’s amazing that we are all healthy and happy as it is, and then we get so many material things that we definitely do not need, but they really make our lives a whole lot easier.
The Boy™ spent his Christmas Eve here with W and I. I made a ham, and developed my very first glaze without a recipe.
8 oz of Coca Cola Classic
1/2 cup Karo corn syrup
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup brown sugar
2 Tbs dijon mustard
Bring to a boil and simmer until reduced by 1/4. Pour over ham when it is 3/4 done in the oven. Baste occasionally.
It was delicious and moist and fantastic. I’m pretty proud of myself. I think next year I’m going to go all maple syrup and no corn syrup. We’ll see.
After we ate, we sat down to open gifts. It was incredibly fun!
The Boy raked it in! He got:
- A black Nintendo DS Lite
- A black canvas case for said DS
- SEVEN games! I can’t even remember all of them, but they included Animal Crossing, Big Brain Academy, and Nintendogs. I think there was a Super Mario something or another in there as well.
- An electric can opener (So that he’d stop bitching about not being able to use the manual one)
- A t-shirt from ThinkGeek.com
- And a bunch of other stuff.
Santa brought him a 20 inch TV with a DVD player and VCR built in for his bedroom at the new house.
I got incredibly spoiled! My list included:
- A shiny, fancy, sexy as hell, white KitchenAid Mixer that I have wanted pretty much my entire adult life.
- Sock Monkey pajamas and a matching robe.
- An adorable handmade laptop sleeve from the Arriving In Style Etsy Shop
- A package of Reese’ Peanut Butter christmas trees. I love the holiday shape Reese’ SO much more then regular cups.
- A copy of Nightmare Before Christmas
- A coffee grinder and a pound of beans
- A set of 8 melamine nesting mixing bowls
- SO MUCH STUFF I CANNOT REMEMBER IT ALL! SPOILED!
W and I were on the exact same page when it came to some things. Like the absolutely adorable charm necklaces that we bought for each other. They are incredibly cute. We both ordered them from the HomeStudio Etsy Shop. I got her these three:
And she got me this one:
So, here’s the cute part of them. They’re decoupaged images on recycled scrabble pieces! So freaking cute. Flip them over the you can see which letter they used to be. I *love* them!
The Professor came over on Christmas morning and we had a delicious breakfast of ham and cheese quiche, and opened a few presents with him as well. He has great taste, that boy.
He gave us both awesome little things to use in the new house.
For me, a giant Devil Duck and for W, a miniature cowboy bowling bag:
Like I said, we all got pretty damned spoiled.
Posted by Amelia on Dec 25, 2008 in
Holidays 2008 So, W and I have been trying to think of SOMETHING to do today! We thought about going to the movies, but there were too many that we wanted to see! We literally had a list of like six or seven movies that were being released on Christmas Day that we were both interested in, as well as a few that one of us wanted to see but the other had no interest in. I decided that I’d search around for some unbiased opinions, because we all know the internet is full of people who want to share an opinion, including myself! I found a great site full of Movie Reviews! In fact, on top of having romance movie reviews, comedy movie reviews, action movie reviews, and any other genre you can think of, they also have reviews on music and video/computer games! Basically any kind of entertainment you can think of!
There’s also a really great community aspect to all of it, because it’s user run and user written. Each individual user can share their exact opinion, instead of relying on paid journalists to write reviews. In the past, I’ve been known to say that I only see movies in the theater if the critics have given it a horrible review, but I think with Ever Hype I might actually start listening to the reviewers. Perfect!
Posted by Amelia on Dec 23, 2008 in
Holidailies 2008,
Holidays 2008 I’m just not cut out for daily posting. Sorry to dash all of your expectations for an entertaining read for every day this month. *smile*
This last week was just absolutely draining. I had so much to do and it felt like so little time to do it. By the time I got home each night, the very last thing on my mind was writing a blog post. So, let’s see if I can do a little mini-recap of the days since I posted last.
Holidailies 15: Friday. After a long day of screwing around at home with The Boy™, we met up with W downtown for some holiday traditions.
We went and checked out the Macy’s Holiday Display, which was pretty, but incredibly crowded. Luckily we got there early, because when we were leaving an hour later the line went down a long hallway, down the elevators to the floor below, and then down another long hallway.
Afterward, we tried to watch the Holidazzle parade, but DAMN it was cold out and we only made it through about 15 minutes before the snot was litterally freezing to our faces.
Holidailies 16: Saturday. We had a monumental errand to run on Saturday and the roads were absolutely horrific. There was no way for us to avoid the errand, and so we spent almost three hours out in the snow and ice to achieve it.
Holidailies 17: Sunday. More errands and organizing and packing boxes. This idea of moving two weeks after Christmas? Yeah, it sucks. But we’ll get it done if it kills me.
Holidailies 18: Monday. I had an appointment for an intake evaluation at a local shrink’s office. Her office is in the same clinic as the local downtown free medical and dental clinic for the homeless. Nothing makes me more grateful for the priviledged life that I have then witnessing the challenges that some people experience for the simple “luxury” of medical care. These folks are recquired to be at the clinic when the doors open and sign in only to wait for their turn to be seen. When I was there at 10 o’clock there was a woman next to me with a sign in sheet that told her to expect to be seen by 4:15. She had been there since 8 a.m. She was talking to her kids about needing to get shots, so I can only guess that they were there for Well-Child Checkups. I simply cannot imagine how difficult it must be. Three children under five and an infant on her hip, she waited patiently in a clinic lobby for nearly 8 hours to ensure that her children had the immunizations that they needed. There was another man sitting in a chair across from me with a missing-tooth smile that he offered openly to the kids. He held his tooth in his hand and waited patiently. Yep, nothing to stimulate some good old fasioned gratefulness for what you have then to witness those who don’t.
I have always been a one dog kind of girl. Even when I lived with The Professor and we had three beasts, I always connected to just one. For the past two years, it has been my wonderful Kentucky. He’s such a big sweet lug. But since I moved in with W, I’ve really bonded with her dog, Riley.
Riley is really the exact opposite of Kentucky in personality. He’s mild and gentle to Kentucky’s rambunctious wildness. He’s a snuggler. Kentucky’s a kisser. He’s a toy lover while Kentucky is a toy killer. It’s really quite the combination. They are the best of friends and Riley is definitely becoming one of my top two favorite dogs in the whole world.
The ONLY problem I have with Riley is that he is a counter surfer. You absolutely, without a doubt cannot leave anything edible on any surface that he can reach or he will get it, tear it open, and eat it. He’s been known to pull a paper grocery sack off of the table, only because he wanted to see if possibly maybe there was anything that he could eat in it.
What in the world does this have to do with the holidays, and specifically my Holidailies post for the day? Well, today was the beginning of my holiday baking spree. And before I could leave the house to go pick up the forgotten ingredients at the grocery store, I had to figure out a way to keep Riley from eating the already purchased ingredients that were on the table.
This was my solution:
I was pretty convinced that this would be okay. These shelves are totally exposed, and we usually only use them for dishes, so it wasn’t like he would know there was food up there. We were leaving for dinner when W expressed some concern that he might get up there to steal the treats on the lower shelf. The lower shelf is FOUR feet from the floor, but she had no doubt in her mind that he might very well attempt it. I love the dog, but really? All of that work for a jar of Karo Syrup and a bag of powdered sugar? He was a good boy and didn’t do it, but now that she pointed it out, I’m sure I’m going to walk into the kitchen at any time to find his little white butt covered head to toe in stickiness and white powder with his standard “What? You ain’t never seen a powdered dog wig before?” look on his face.
Posted by Amelia on Dec 17, 2008 in
Holidailies 2008,
Holidays 2008 I have WAY too much to do before the damn holiday and only 7 days and 35 minutes remaining to do them in. So, I will use this post as a blatant misuse of internet reader time and write a to-do list.
- Pumpkin Pie *including roasting my own damn pumpkin
- Make some freaking cookies of SOME sort. EDIT: Peanut butter kiss, peanut brittle, and sugar cookies
- Gingerbread House
- Stocking stuffers
- Pick up W’s last gift
- Make The Professor’s last gift
- Buy a giant gift bag for The Boy’s big gift
- Shop with The Boy for his gift to W and The Professor
- Pick up the prints of picture of The Boy and find frames for various family members
- Clean the damn house so it’s ready for the holiday
- Do two major errands, Do One Major Errand
- Pick up an ugly christmas sweater for W to wear to work on Friday
- Help W shop for her work gift exchange
- Make peppermint bark for The Boy, since he asked specifically for that
- Go to the Holidazzle Parade
I think that’s it. I really do. But I’m exhausted and have no clue. It probably isn’t.
TOTAL COP OUT POST
Posted by Amelia on Dec 15, 2008 in
Holidailies 2008,
Holidays 2008 I decided earlier this year that other than W and The Boy, everything that I would give out as gifts for the holidays this year would be hand made. I’m tired of spending money that I don’t have on things that people don’t really need anyway. I would much rather spend money on craft supplies to make people lovely items that are thought out and needed, as well as lovingly crafted with my own very hands.
For the past week, I’ve been crafting like a crazy woman. Knitting primarily, but tomorrow I’ll be making a fleece blanket.
And today, I’m feeling it. I feel like I just want to be done! I want to knit something FUN! I want to knit something for ME! (Wow, that sounded selfish!) I just want to be able to vegetate in front of the television for a couple hours without having a craft project in my hands at the same time.
Okay. The bitching is over. I really do like making home made crafts, I think I just took on too much this year. And I’m not even half way done yet.
There are also plans in the works to create a gingerbread house with The Boy on Friday night after we see the Holidazzle Parade. I really want to try to see the Macy’s Minneapolis 46th Annual Animated Holiday Show and Santa Claus at Macy’s SantaLand, before the parade, even though in my mind it will *always* be the Dayton’s Holiday Display. I still hate Macy’s for buying them out. Hopefully Friday will consist of hot chocolate, animatronic elves, the pretty, pretty lighted costumes and floats of the parade, a couple of hours of getting hopped up on sugar and using frosting to glue candy to gingerbread with the best 11 year old boy in history.
I know that’s not much about TODAY’S holiday stuff, but there wasn’t much today. I was in bed most of the day trying to pull the iron pole that was lodged in my brain out, (or maybe just waiting for the Immitrex to kick this migraine’s ass).
When we took the dogs out last night, there was snow on the ground and everything was still pretty crisp, but this morning when we woke up, it was raining and most of the snow had begun to melt. Sad! December just doesn’t feel right without snow. Things were dirty and brown and just down right ugly out there.
I spent the day knitting and trying to put myself into a holiday mood with crafts, even if it was ick outside. I was willing it to be more wintery out and I think I may have saved Christmas! Really! Now this evening it looks like an absolute blizzard is forming outside. There is even frost forming on the windows. Horray. I’ll happily take this weather for three weeks. Then it all needs to go away so that we can get down to the moving!
Speaking of moving, we went out to W’s storage unit yesterday. Oh my. I always knew my girl had some pack rat tendencies, but this is out of control! She had an old box of Kleenex packed away in storage! She has a box that is nothing but Space Jam memorabilia! There was a box labeled “Stupid Old Roommates Bathroom Shit”, and indeed, it was the porcelain bathroom decor set that her old roommate had left behind YEARS ago. ARGH!
I’m a minimalist to a fault. I don’t hold on to things. I tend to throw stuff out that I end up needing again in six months, and sometimes end up spending hours digging for things that I have thrown away and forgotten about. It’s just a means of protecting myself from developing weird connections to things, but it sure does make life difficult sometimes.
She has vowed to make a trip out to the storage unit once a week between now and when we move, and I plan to hold her to it. There are good things about her pack rattiness though. She has an entertainment stand that will work perfectly in The Boy’s new bedroom, as well as a box fan that will come in handy this summer in the new duplex without central air. There were some old college dorm style milk crates that we originally talked about giving to The Boy, but I’ve realized they might be better used for yarn and fabric storage for myself. Yeah. So there are good things. There are bad things like the gazillion boxes that are going to end up piled in the living room as she sorts through them, but there are good things too.
Oh! And Happy Chanukah to everyone!
Posted by Amelia on Dec 13, 2008 in
Holidailies 2008,
Holidays 2008 We just returned from a trip to the infamous Red Dragon where the drinks are notoriously large and strrong, even if they are also extrordinarily expensive. I had a Georgia Peach, which consisted of peach schnaps, vodka, rum, and a bunch of other schtuff. Who knows. It was about 20 ounces of pure alcohol, literally. No juice in my drinks, thank you very much. We also had a Blonde Headed Slut shot and I had a beer, so to say the least, I’m a bit tipsy. Far too tipsy to give you anything too incredibly interesting or verbous, really.
Fun was had. Drinks were drank. Cream Cheese Wontons were consumed. It was a good night for socializing, but a bad night for blogging. That is all.
Today’s Holidailies’ prompt was something about sharing a favorite holiday tradition from your country or part of the world. I think American holiday traditions are all pretty well known, and my family…well my family is pretty generically American except for the food side of things.
A few years ago though my brother got tired of our holidays being completely aobut the presents. There were parts of the family that would show up right before dinner, eat, bitch that the dishes were taking too long becuase they wanted to get to the gift opening, open presents, and then leave. Literally as soon as the final piece of paper was unwrapped, they were putting on their jackets to get the heck outta Dodge. So, we started playing board games. But it was really difficult to find a board game that worked across all age groups. So, we decided to try a few good old fashioned party games. Initially the idea was to play Dirty Bingo. Basically, our Dirty Bingo is played like this:
- Each person brings a number of wrapped presents, generally no more than $20 for the whole lot.
- The presents are not labeled in any way.
- Place the presents in the center of the table.
- Two sets of dice are then sent around the room in bowls
- Each person rolls the dice when they come to them.
- When you get doubles, you choose one present.
- After all of the presents have been chosen, everyone unwraps them.
- Set a timer for 20 minutes (this time can be altered depending on the amount of people playing.
- The dice continue to go around, but this time when you get a double, you steal a present from someone else.
- Everyone keeps what they have when the timer goes off.
Now at first this was very fun. But after a couple of years, my relatives started getting cutthroat. Literally hoarding all of good gifts, hiding stuff under the table, taking Disney movies from kids to give to other child-relatives at other parties…..it was terrible.
Honestly, I think that was the downfall of our extended family holiday gatherings. Things had been getting tense and that was our last ditch effort to try to be a “family”. Dysfunction at its finest.
