My Fuzzies

M took these pictures of my cats this past weekend and I had to share them because they are so good.  The cats sit and lay on a couch pillow that we set up just under the lamp shade because they love the warmth of the lamp.  And because the lighting is so good there, it was easy to capture these pictures.  Without further ado, here are my fuzzy babies, Fuzzer and Powder.

New Year's Resolutions

Are you the type of person who makes resolutions each new year or you think they're silly because no one ever can stick to them?  I am a new year's resolutions girl, but I'm not sure I like the word resolution.  That doesn't mean that I always succeed with them but I like to do them because I like the mindset I have when there are goals I want to accomplish.  I also like to see them written down right in front of my face.

Here are some of my New Year's Resolutions for this year.  Some are more serious than others and if I don't accomplish everything on this list, I'm not going to be hurt about it.

• Be healthy.  This is my resolution every day and I'm always conscious about it, whether I am living healthy or not on that very day.  This is a big generalization so here are some examples of what I'd like to do within this resolution.

1. Eat less processed foods
2. Cook and eat more at home
3. Get more calcium
4. Eat organic when I feel necessary and can afford it
5. Exercise more
6. Meditate

• Floss my teeth.  I had this as a resolution two years ago and I did fantastic and then I stopped doing it regularly.  I've picked this habit up again late this year but I still want to try and do it every time I brush my teeth.  I don't know why so many people can't stick to flossing their teeth.  Do you floss?  Actually I know why it's not just an easy task.  It's because I had braces and I still have a permanent retainer cemented to the bottom front six teeth and in order to floss those teeth, I have to use a plastic thingamajig that threads the floss and then you feed it through your bottom front teeth and then floss underneath the retainer. Not a big deal but just one extra step when it's already hard enough to pull out the floss.  I must floss somewhat often though because my cat is conditioned to the sound of me pulling out the floss.  He comes right up onto the bathroom sink and watches me floss because afterwards he knows he gets to play with the floss.  

• Write hand written notes and letters.  The art and appeal of sitting down and actually writing a note or letter and sending/giving it to someone is disappearing. Maybe you'll be one of the people I send letters to this year.  I'll probably go to a store like Bibelot, Electric Fetus or Patina and pick up some unique or eclectic note cards or stationary.  I hate even responding to emails or texts but I think I can do this one.

• Get a facial.  I've never had one and have always wanted one and I will buy myself one because I feel like I deserve it. I also want to get two pedicures this year and get my eyebrows waxed more often, at least four times this year and hopefully I can just pluck in between visits and be consistent instead of having eyebrows that resemble caterpillars. 

• Buy fresh flowers.  I read a blog of a girl who made a resolution last year to purchase fresh flowers on a weekly basis.  She accomplished her goal except for a couple of weeks throughout the year.  I would not be able to have such pretty bouquets of flowers at my house because my cats are too curious and then either eat and chew on the flowers or just knock down the vase so it will have to be at my desk at work. I'd like to do this at least once a month.

• Continually organizing the house and personal items. I'm good at this but I think I still have way too much stuff.  I don't want to go as far as committing to be a minimalist but I think I want to steer towards that idea.  M and I were successful already this year by going through one of our rooms in the house and going through some of M's old clothing and items.  In just an hour's worth of time, we were able to fill three large lawn bags full of clothes and items which two of the bags we brought to the Goodwill on New Year's Day and one of the bags is going to Plato's closet to drop off and try and get some money for all the name brand clothes M had.  We're both excited to go through the rest of the house in the same manner and get rid of stuff we don't use or need.  I did get a good start on my own items last year by putting them in my sister's garage sale.  I now know that I do not miss any of that stuff, nor am I afraid to hold onto stuff just for the sake of keeping it.  We probably sound like hoarders or pack rats but we're really not.  I'm a very organized person and M just isn't good at getting rid of stuff because he doesn't make it a priority.  

• Read more books.  I enjoy reading but I don't do enough research to find out who's a good author or what books are popular right now.  I would like to read some of the classic books as I can't even think of one classic book I've read in my life.  I've read mostly non-fiction over the last handful of years and I want to stray away from that and read more fiction. 

• Blog more.  I enjoy blogging but I don't always have the time.  I want my blog to not only document my life and the daily activities but I also want to write more and discuss topics and just write about things...and hopefully you'll comment on those things.

• Focus on debt.  I have debt like most people but I would like to focus on it more.  I had made some good headway with paying down some credit cards in 2010 but I had some unexpected out of pocket medical bills this summer as well as some car trouble so it negated some of my financial progress. I will do a 2011 budget and stick to it the best I can. 

• Be the best person I can be. I don't know how many of you consider yourself a good person but I consider myself to be a very good person.  I volunteer my time and money to different causes, I donate blood regularly, I'm a good friend, sister, daughter, employee and partner but there is always room for improvement for all of us.  We can all be better and we should strive to do so. 

Resolutions don't have to unrealistic or extreme but if you want to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, do it! And don't let anyone discourage you from doing so. Resolutions are supposed to be serious and fun at the same time.  Did you make any New Year's Resolutions this year?

Happy 2011!

Happy New Year!  How did you ring in 2011?  I hate to keep saying that I'm sick but I still am so that took a toll on our New Year's Eve activities somewhat.  All week I just kept saying that I just hope I'm better so I can enjoy a nice New Year's Eve at home with my honeybear.  And Friday was the best day I've had in a week, however I was far from being 100%.

I had to work during the day but M had the day off so he went grocery shopping for some food for the night.  M rarely shops for both of us and I left it completely up to him to get what he wanted and everything he picked out was perfect to celebrate.  He bought a bunch of appetizer-type foods and we just cooked and ate them as we felt hungry throughout the night.

Our evening started around 6:30 pm when we started to clean up the house, especially the disaster of a kitchen we had.  Because I was sick all week and did nothing, all the baking and food prep I did for Christmas still had it's presence in the form of massive amounts of dirty dishes.  After about an hour and a half in the kitchen, it looked great. M tidied up the living room and back room and helped me with the kitchen too.  All while we were cleaning, we were listening to music, a playlist that M made for us.

The playlist M made for us to listen to that night consisted of about 135 songs, all of which we downloaded in 2010.  We are music freaks so downloading at least 1200 songs a year is commonplace.  M prepares a playlist each month of roughly 100 songs and we listen to it collectively and individually for the whole month before moving onto the next month's round of music.  So M took our favorite 10 or so songs from each month, which at times was a daunting task and made a best of 2010 playlist that we listened to non-stop from 6:30 pm to almost 2 am.  I was hoping to just stay up until midnight so I was happy that we were able to finish it from beginning to end and reminisce about the songs he choose.  Many times our memories take us to a certain place in time when we have the most distinct memory of a certain song, whether it be on our Florida trip last January/February, in Duluth in June for the MS150 or just a specific place on the St. Croix river we remember being at when we heard that song.

While we listened, we ate, talked, laughed, cried (ok, I did), drank orange juice, split a Miller Lite, watched Dick Clark's Rockin' NYE with the sound off and rang in 2011 germ-free style with a fist bump and a hug.

2010 in review was a good year in some aspects and not-so-good in others.  The good was that we attended multiple weddings for our families, celebrated life with a new nephew that was born in addition to three more second cousins, no deaths in our families, went to Florida on vacation, started a new position at work, having a wonderful partner and being healthy enough to enjoy life in general.  The bad was being too busy to fit in our annual canoe trip, the Vikings, cancelling our annual Vikings road game to Boston, and some private matters M and I and some of our family members have had to deal with since September and will be dealing with heavily in 2011.

I was going to list some resolutions within this post but I feel like I want to do it in a separate writing so that will be soon.

I hope you all had a fantastic New Year's Eve celebration and started 2011 on the right foot.

Christmas

On Christmas Eve, a total of 34 people were at my parent's house to celebrate both Christmas and my Gramma's birthday.  It was a lot of people for a somewhat small area and there were lots of kids running around all over the house but it was fun and we are definitely growing as a family.  Just since the July 2010, my grandparents have become great grandparents three times.  There are 9 cousins on this side of the family including myself and collectively they have 8 kids with another one on the way next August, which my cousin Ryan (female) is having.  Up until Christmas Eve, I hadn't seen Ryan in person for at least 10 years (but it could be longer) so it was nice to see her again, even though we are friends on Facebook so I'm not completely in the dark about her life.  My cousin David was also in town from San Diego, where he lives and is a Marine and just got engaged.  It was the first time all of us cousins had been together in a very, very long time. We range from age 12 to 35.

New Jammies

My parent's beautiful 9 foot Christmas tree

Christmas Day was much more low-key and at my sister's house in South St. Paul.  It was just my immediate family with Tom, Michael and nephews.  We had appetizer-type foods as well as leftovers from Christmas Eve.  We also had lots of desserts.  We opened presents one by one and it took a long time but I like doing that way with my family.  We had a good time but the night ended before 10 for some and around 10:30 pm for others.  We had planned to play games but mostly everyone was tired and exhausted.  This is also when I started to get a sore throat and became full-blown sick the next day.  I'm still fighting this cold hard 6 days later. 

The desserts Jamie and I made

My Santa and Reindeer truffles

Jamie's Santa and Snowman cupcakes

My cornflake Christmas Trees and Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Jamie's cookie plate

Michael's Christmas Ale

I truly had a wonderful Christmas.  I feel lucky that I was able to spend it with the people I love most. I also loved giving my presents to everyone.  I also received some very nice gifts from everyone.  I hope you all had a nice Christmas and I am wishing you a very Happy New Year. 

Minnesota Vikings vs. Chicago Bears- TCF Stadium

So it's been a while since I've last written.  I have a terrible cold and want to cut my head off to make myself feel better but instead I'm trying to catch up on here and write about all the things I've done in the last 10 days or so. Not really the way I wanted to end my blog for 2010.  And if my 2010 posts spill into 2011, so what.

On Monday, December 20th, I got to experience professional outdoor football in Minnesota.  It was the first time it had happened in the state in 29 years, exactly to the day.  Because of the Metrodome collapse, the Vikings played the Bears just down the street from the Dome, at TCF Bank Stadium on the University of Minnesota campus.  When this was first announced, I was excited to experience outdoor football.  It was the logistics and media that scared me and made me nervous.  With a capacity of 50,000 seats at TCF and more than 64,000 seats in the Dome, there should have been trouble.  It was announced that Vikings ticket holders would have a general admission tickets, either in the upper or lower level, depending on where your seats were in the Dome.  Parking was supposed to be an issue also, with less parking lots or ramps around to accommodate everyone.  But the logistics of everything wasn't an issue at all.  It was just the game that turned out horribly.

M and I parked with no problem at 2 pm in a lot right next to the stadium.  While it was snowing heavily, we walked a couple of blocks to Leaning Tower of Pizza to eat lunch and fill ourselves up for the night.  We spent about an hour and 20 minutes there before walking back to the stadium to get into line and wait for the gates to open between 5 and 5:30 pm.  This was the worst part.  We waited in line for 2 hours.  We weren't cold as we were prepared.  It wasn't as cold as it was supposed to be, maybe 25 degrees.  The snow sure can accumulate on you though when you just stand there for a long time.  I estimate that we were about 50th in line in a line that went back to the parking lot where our car was.  It didn't take too terribly long to get through the gates with a pat down, scanning of the tickets and a wrist band that indicated what level you were on.  We got into the stadium and headed to the upper level where we easily found two seats in row 7 on the 40 yard line.  It was 5:30 pm.  Now it was time to sit and wait another 2 hours until the game started.  It was definitely more interesting sitting and watching old footage of the Vikings on the video screen and just looking at the place in amazement than waiting outside at the gates.  Everyone around us was very friendly and I don't think that there was anyone there who didn't want to be.  Everyone was excited to experience this.  As the time passed and it got closer to game time, the seats were filling up but there were plenty of seats still available, roughly 10.000.  I think the weather deterred a lot of people as well as the people who didn't want to be out in the elements, just chose to get a refund instead, which was an option.

It was very surreal to see the Vikings out on the field once the game started.  Favre was not expected to play so it was a bonus to see that he was going to start.  He started alright and finished almost as quickly as he suffered a concussion early on in the game.  And that's when our third string quarterback Joe Webb stepped in.  When the Vikings got a touchdown, the fans would throw snow up into the air.  It was fun to see that happening all over the stadium.

To commemorate the 50th season of the Minnesota Vikings, they announced the 50 greatest Vikings players of all-time.  Most of them were there, which was historic to be a part of.  There were many loud cheers but I think Cris Carter had the loudest cheers from the stands.  When Daunte Culpepper's name was called, the players right next to him, Robert Smith, Cris Carter and John Randle all started doing his "touchdown roll" and everyone started cheering so Daunte did the roll too and the crowd loved it. Coach Bud Grant came out last and the players picked him up and carried him back off the field.

There wasn't many highlights to the game so there's not much to talk about other than we got beat badly, 40-14.  We ended up leaving with about 10 minutes left of the 4th quarter.  At this point we knew we could not come back and getting back to our house with minimal traffic seemed more important.  We got out of there pretty easily considering the amount of snow that had fallen.

The experience was fantastic.  I loved being outdoors and watching football, especially since it was the last home game of the year.  But there's a catch to that.  I only wanted to do it once.  I don't want to do it again.  I don't want an outdoor stadium.  Or actually, I'll take a retractable roof and watch outdoors when it's nice out, but not in the winter.  It was a novelty.  A one time thing...for me.

At Leaning Tower of Pizza

Waiting in line--It's still light out

Waiting in line---Now it's dark

The Skol Line entertaining us while we waited

Bud Grant

Dinner, Movie and Brunch

To end a bad week last week, we went out with Tanya and Chris and met them at J. Cousineau's in Maple Grove. On our way there, M and I were in the car talking about the name of the place we were going and we were calling it Jacques Cousteau's and laughing. I'm almost positive it's not that funny communicated to you in this post. None of us had been there before but because Tanya had to work in the morning, we thought we'd keep it close to their area.  It was just your average, everyday bar, but it was so much fun to get together with them again because with everyone's schedule, the visits have been few and far between.  We ate a variety of foods and had a little to drink and laughed a lot. We ended the night around midnight. It was a fun time, T&C!

On Saturday, M and I went to Fleet Farm so we could buy some hand and foot warmers for a big outdoor outing we had coming up on Monday.  Hmmm, any guesses about what I'll be writing about next?  We stocked up on all the warmers but not before taking this picture of M in the store. 

We headed home for almost an hour before going back out to Rosedale Center where the movie theater is.  That area is so packed and you can never find a parking spot on a normal day so I wasn't looking forward to heading into the area on the Saturday before Christmas.  We finally found a spot before driving around a little bit.  We bought our tickets and headed in to see 127 Hours. The movie is based on a true story of Aron Rolston and his ability to stay alive and survive after a canyoneering accident which left him trapped for how many hours?  You guessed it, 127 hours.  M read Rolston's autobiography Between a Rock and a Hard Place in 2004 and said the movie was pretty accurate based on the book.  The movie was very good and I loved the cinematography and would definitely recommend for you to see it.  Here is the trailer:

On Sunday morning, we met our friends Greg and Anna for brunch at Pizza Luce in St. Paul.  Both M and I hadn't eaten there for brunch before but they had a menu you could order from versus a buffet and even better, $1 mimosa's.  I had the Eggs Benedict and was kinda nervous when I saw the eggs.  They were almost like whipped cream texture but turned out to be very good.  M has known Greg since they were teenagers, however I had only met Anna once before.  While our brunch was brief, we made plans to go bowling with them sometime this winter.  I had to run a couple of last minute Christmas errands but after that, it was a relaxing day in front of the TV watching football all.day.long.

It was a great weekend!

Don't the eggs look like whipped cream?

A Bad Week in Review

Last week was a very long week and one that was less than ordinary for me.  My life is pretty consistent from day to day, week to week, year to year so when I do get some out of the out of the ordinary situations, it's exhausts me.  Here's some of my low lights of the week:

• I normally drive back and forth to work almost 250 miles a week, which is roughly 25 miles each way.  Because of all the snow we've had lately and the bad traffic/drivers because of it, I spent over 9 hours to drive 250 miles this week, which the majority of my drive is highway/freeway. I spent over 3 hours alone on Monday. Hey, I guess I didn't drive quite 250 miles, more like 230 miles.  More on that later.
• Have you ever been lying in bed and you feel like something is crawling on you?  You quickly wisp away whatever you think it is and turn on the light.  I've done this many times and realizing it's nothing.   I sleep in a bed that no matter how hard I try, I cannot get rid of all the cat hair on it and it ends up tickling my face or body or just ends up in my eyes in the morning. On Wednesday, I felt a tickle on my chin.  I wiped that feeling away and turned on the light opening up the sheets and comforter.  Nothing.  After shaking the blankets a little bit, I found a lady bug....or Asian Beetle or whatever they are called. So I did have that thing crawling on my chin!  It grossed me out but it DEFINITELY could have been a worse bug or (gulp).... an arachnid.
• On my way to work on Thursday, less than two miles from work, my battery light and brake light came on at the same time.  I Googled it when I got to work as well as checking my manual in my car and it sounded like it could be my alternator.  I went out to check it at lunch and drive it about two miles and the lights were on but it seemed ok.  I left work and hopped on Highway 62 when my lights started to dim.  Uh-oh, I was losing power and I was stuck right in the middle of a busy highway in the left lane.  After about a mile or two, I lost power completely and was forced to coast to the left side of the highway, not a safe place to be anyways, let alone super rush hour traffic and on a shoulder that was less than a true shoulder as there was tons of snow on the side.  I panicked and called Michael first to let him know what happened and to come out and find me and then called my insurance company for roadside assistance.  After spending what seemed like an eternity on the phone with them, they said someone would come out and get me in about an hour.  Grrrr....about 40 minutes into my wait in a cold, heatless car on the side of the road, the highway helper truck came up and asked me if I needed help.  I told him I had assistance on the way but he waited there until the tow truck came since he told me I was in an unsafe area with all of the traffic.  Michael came and I warmed up in his car and shortly after the tow truck came from Bobby and Steve's in Eden Prairie came and towed me back to their shop.  Because I had no say in who towed me (the insurance company set it up) I felt as though I had no choice to go with them to diagnose my car and find out what was wrong.  I left their shop with a loaner car which was a Dodge Grand Caravan that was less than perfect but got me from Point A to Point B.  We got home at 9:15 pm and Bobby's and Steve's called and said it was my alternator that went out.  I asked them how much it would cost and with parts and labor it would be just over $500. I told them I would call them back and I Googled the part and I could find it new for $200 or remanufactured for an average of $160.  I called them back asking if I could buy the part and they could do the labor and he said yes but they didn't guarantee the work and there would be no warranty. I am already skeptical of mechanics so I did not like that idea.  I told him of the price of a remanufactured part I found on Google and told him of the new part for $200 and asked if he could match it.  He said he would give it to me for $225.  I was ok with that and let him proceed with the work and my car would be done the next day.  I picked up my car on Friday on my lunch break and paid $419 for the part and labor.  After leaving and looking at my invoice/receipt, I see the following verbiage..."Alternator- Remfd- Standard".  Ok, so the dude asshole mislead me on the phone the night before telling me he would give me a new alternator for $225, when in fact he gave me a remanufactured alternator for that price.  I didn't call them back to bitch about it, despite how much it pissed me off.  I let it roll off my shoulders and instead decided to blog about it.  I've used Bobby and Steve's before, the Bloomington location and I was not happy with their service either so I'm telling you to not to use their services and tell all your friends about it too.  

My loaner car. It actually looks better than it really was.

• On my way back from picking up my car on Friday on my lunch break, I had to grab some food for the sake of time so I stopped at Wendy's for chili and a baked potato....a baked potato that had a really nice long, black hair in it.  Aauugghh.

So that was my week.  Things definitely could have been worse but cumulatively, it was all very draining.  We did go out on Friday night with Tanya and Chris which made my week a little brighter but I'll write about that another time.

This week has already been a lot better.  How can it not be? It's Christmas week!  Until next time...