December

December? Oh my.

Wow – time to wrap up the year, and I’m utterly at loose ends with various projects. I’ve been working steadily on knitting projects, and organizing the house, two areas where we’ve made some pretty big gains. We’re steadily getting through the mounds of papers that need to be filed or thrown out, with the help of our organization lady. The room is becoming what we want it to be – a guest room where people can visit from out of town, and a crafting room where we can sit and work on craft projects. Don’t get me wrong – it still needs LOTS of work – there are still tons of boxes to go through and purge, and we’re in danger of acquiring new crap to replace all the old, but it’s starting to look more like what it should look like.

The knitting is fun and very relaxing. I’m concerned though, about what I really want to do with it. It’s enjoyable to make things for people, but it’s not exactly a lever that will move the world.
We’ve spend all the weekends of November bagging leaves for the most part (we really grabbed a lot of time back by paying someone to pick them up last year!) which is really satisfying, until the next round of them fall off the trees. We currently need to redo the backyard. I’m completely frustrated by how much time and energy this takes, and we don’t even have that many trees; they’re mostly from the neighbors.

I’ve lost complete track of what I’ve read and am woefully behind on photo editing.

I attempted a brief stint at NaNoWriMo but gave up after a few days. That seems to happen at the utterly wrong time of year for me. Why don’t they do it in March? Except that’s about the time I’m driving hard to get a painting project done somewhere in the house though; last year in March I was painting the staircase room I’m in now. But the writing – it’s so hard to do, and my life is too chaotic to achieve it, I think.

And web projects. Boy oh boy. I’ve been neglecting this blog, and my photoblog, and several other domains to remain nameless.

I think I need to make different use of my time at times. I’m frustrated with how little time I have to accomplish things I think are important, and how much time we spend doing stuff that doesn’t move us forward. I’m frustrated by the sheer number of projects we have that remain unfinished, as well.

Continue ReadingDecember? Oh my.

Weekend Update 2006-12-11

Stephanie and I had our first real social event Saturday night, and things went really well. It’s always a challenge to figure out the logistics (have a peek here to find the solution) of socializing in a new place – what rooms will people hang out in? How do people move around the house? How do we greet people, grab their coats, offer them a drink, and make sure all the food is out and ready? What the heck are the cats doing?
We only a had a few minor mishaps – me pouring boiling punch on my hand while serving, I completely forgot to take pictures – but in all it was pretty comfortable. I don’t think we have a big enough living room to really host watching Christmas specials well, but not many people have a living room that big. Otherwise, though, I think our house really allows people to move around and socialize well, and we coordinated socializing with hostessing tasks pretty well. I learned a lot about what to do and what not to — I think I have some much better ideas about food prep for future parties that will allow us more time to socialize with guests. It always sucks when someone gets stuck in the kitchen.
In general, Stephanie and I have some smaller gatherings planned for the future, which will be great for really getting to talk to our friends. We want to have some people over for dinner, and we want to resume having regular game nights. And I can’t wait until we have a front porch/back deck party in the spring or summer — our house will really rock for that, because our front porch is huge.
Sunday we had a really casual, lazy day for the first time in months. I read a lot, Stephanie skated, we took the dog for a walk, and played with the cats. It was great, and very relaxing. I really love our house.

Continue ReadingWeekend Update 2006-12-11

Holiday recap

Between the weekend before Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, my girlfriend Stephanie and I:

1) decorated my house and put up my tree, then did the same at Stephanie’s house.

2) Attended Six family Christmases involving 3 road trips (my Grandma’s in Iowa, my mom, my dad, Stephanie’s mom, Stephanie’s Dad and Stephanie’s friend Michelle’s family Christmas)

3) introduced Stephanie to all of my family, and Stephanie introduced me to all of her family (which involved drawing up family trees to keep track of everyone)

4) Attended twelve parties between the two of us (Dan & Doug’s tree decorating party, Mittie’s birthday, Jane Rae’s birthday, Elizabeth’s birthday, Rachel’s baby shower, Jen’s Christmas party, Stephanie’s work Christmas party, John’s skating party, my thanksgiving at work, Stephanie’s thanksgiving at work, my Christmas gift exchange at work, Dan and Doug’s New Year’s Eve Party)

5) Threw a Christmas party, where we watched Christmas specials and drank egg nog and ate cookies

6) Had Christmas dinner with Stephanie’s friend Erin

7) Had my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and Dad and step mom visit to see my house

8) Missed two Christmas parties (Jennifer’s Christmas party and Michelle’s Christmas party)

9) shopped and wrapped gifts for everyone, baked holiday cookies, and sent out around 90 holiday cards

10) Attended Elizabeth’s mom’s funeral visitation

11) had two photo shoots for the Nuvo article

12) Had my furnace break down and repaired, and Stephanie’s roof repaired and front door repaired

13) Had Stephanie’s car broken into and the window repaired, had my gas tank tampered with, had one flat tire on Stephanie’s car, had the CV joint replaced on her car.

14) Loaned Stephanie’s car to her friend Jan

15) Went to Stephanie’s State Skating Competition

16) Were snowed in with a foot of snow, then had sub-zero temperatures

It’s been a hectic holiday season, to say the least. Although it was fun for the most part, I’m very glad it’s over.

Continue ReadingHoliday recap

Weekend Update 2002-12-17

The weekend was fun — Kathy took me on a date to the Morris-Butler House for the Victorian Xmas Celebration — it was cool. The have people in period clothes singing Christmas carols, and you see what dinner would have been like, and then they do a reading of “Twas the Night Before Xmas.” You get to make a traditional victorian Xmas ornament, and help bake some sugar cookies on the authentic stove, then you go to the outside stove for some hot apple cider that was really really good, so I had seconds. The house is nice, and it’s nice to know they’re still working on restoring it. I don’t feel so bad about mine, then. 🙂 It was really nice to spend time with her, too.
I also when to Xmas at my Dad’s house on Sunday, which was also cool. I got a flannel shirt (!) a sweater, a home repair book, a perennials book (which is fantastic!) and some moola. And Spike got a present of some doggie treats from Bruiser, my Dad and stepmom’s dog.

Continue ReadingWeekend Update 2002-12-17