I left the cabin today, so I had one last breakfast with the bears (salt and pepper shakers). When I was planning for my not-quite-a-week away at the cabin, I had a few things I wanted to get done while I was there, and I can say that I failed to do pretty much all of them. I didn't even do any drawing. I thought about it, but... nope.

I did play guitar almost every day. My dad has his acoustic up there, and for some reason having a guitar ten feet away is more tempting at the cabin than it is here at home. (There are actually two guitars sitting about six feet away from me right now.) I also wrote -- not much, but a bit. I haven't worked on any writing since my laptop died last summer, and I lost all the first-halves of novels that I've started (I always seem to get bored after the first half). I wasn't avoiding it out of grief or anything, but it was a nuisance to have lost the start of the one story I felt like working on.

I managed to do all the binding on my quilt, so that's finished now. I had done the machine sewing before I left, and I decided at the last minute to bring the quilt with me, which was a good decision. Watching TV in the evenings was perfect for boring sewing by hand. So that's three things I managed to do at the cabin that I hadn't planned on.

And I met up with a friend I hadn't seen in six years, so that's pretty great. And I went to one of the corner cafes in Sandstone and got a 'one cake, one egg' (blueberry and poached, respectively) with coffee for under $4. Oh, AND I found magnetic catches for my kitchen cupboards for 99 cents each at Ace Hardware. I installed them when I got back today (just on the doors whose hinges are broken), so now I don't have any wandering cupboard doors. And I saw a really good moon. And it was pretty (but cold).

So, yeah, I didn't get to any of the stuff I'd planned on doing, but it was still a pretty good stay at the cabin.

-- One of my favorite things to eat in the afternoon is yogurt, usually with cereal (and fruit). There are a lot of things I enjoy eating, but there's something about yogurt that makes me feel very peaceful afterwards. Maybe it's something about the dairy -- there's not a lot of other dairy that I eat (besides ice cream, which is so sugary it shouldn't count).

-- I don't have a TV, but I do have a big iMac, so if I'm at home, I usually watch something on Hulu in the evening. Pretty much all of the shows I like are on Hulu (with the exception of How I Met Your Mother, although I can watch that on the network's website), so I'm used to watching programs at least a day after they've aired. Even before I got rid of my TV, I'd lived with a digital recorder since 2005, so it's been a while since I had to worry about watching something when it aired. Since I'm at the cabin, which has normal (satellite) TV, I was able to watch Bones at 7:00 on Thursday. Oh my gosh, the pressure! I was convinced it would start before I could tune in, so I couldn't stop looking at the clock.

-- Another drawback to watching television like a normal human being is that you have to watch so many commercials! I'm used to seeing one ad during the commercial break, that's all. And, you guys, the McDonald's Big Mac snack wrap thing? That is one of the most disgusting ideas I've ever heard (as far as food goes). I don't eat at McDonald's (I hardly ever eat at fast food places, just because it's not my thing, but I very purposefully don't eat at McDonald's), but what other people do is their business. However, if you've had one of those wrap things -- especially if you ordered it thinking it was a 'snack' or some sort of healthy alternative -- well... I'm very disappointed in you. That might make me a huge snob, but at least I'm not a Big-Mac-wrap-eatin' snob. Shudder.

-- One of the neat things about cable satellite TV is that the cable networks syndicate shows. Three episodes of Bones in a row? Yes, please! Also, is That 70s Show ever going to seem less funny? I mean, a lot of Friends episodes seem a bit tired when I watch them now (maybe that's because I've seen them too many hundreds of times, though), but That 70s Show is holding up really well. Perhaps it's because it was 'dated' to begin with.

-- I met up with an 'old' friend today, somebody I studied in Scotland with. We were both super excited and had a great time reminiscing, and we realized that we'd never seen each other on American soil. There's something wonderful about getting together with somebody who shared such an important part of your life with you; I can tell my other friends stories from my time in Scotland, but none of them really knows what it was like. Too bad he lives in Duluth, which is about three hours from the Twin Cities, so I can't hang out with him as much as I'd like. We're going to try to go snow-shoeing sometime, though, if he can find show-shoes for me to borrow. That's the sort of thing they do up north.

Okay, I haven't really gotten into doing 'Things I Love Thursday', but I'm feeling the love today. So here are some thing I love right now, with a 'bein' up in Sandstone' theme.

-- Changing up my breakfast. Actually, for the most part, I'm very happy to eat the same thing(s) day after day, but it's nice to have a little variety when I'm away. This morning, I had a packet of instant oatmeal (already in the cabin cupboards) with some egg white cooked in (better than it sounds), frozen blueberries, and a blueberry yogurt. I mixed everything (oats+yogurt) together after I took the picture, which was strange, but delicious.

-- Minnesota stickers. Like the one on my journal this year. Actually, I liked that Sanibel sticker, too. I find most kind of kitschy state pride appealing, but I love Minnesota kitsch the best.

-- The tiny donuts that the IGA in Hinckley sells. See this photo. I stopped in today to get a donut exactly like that for my breakfast tomorrow. That's the sort of planning ahead I can get on board with.

-- The Hinckley thrift store is, on the whole, only average (although it's better than its nearest competitors). But they have a really good selection of sewing patterns, spanning many decades, and they always seem to be different when I visit. Oh, and they're only a quarter each. Today I got patterns for a '50s blouse, a '70s (I think; I haven't checked the date) dress, and a '70s/'80s knit-fabric hoodie. For 80 cents, including tax.

-- Being warm. The cabin actually gets TOO warm pretty quickly during the day, thanks to the sun (curse you, day star!). But I have a high threshold for being warm, thankfully. I laid on the sofa for a while this afternoon, after closing all the blinds, and I imagined it was the middle of the summer. Then I opened the blinds a bit and dozed in the sun until I had to get up and drink water, because I'd boiled my brains. So much better than constantly wishing I were warmer, though.

-- I love Richard Dawkins' writing. I know he can be a bit dogmatic in interviews (although I generally agree with him, so it's more the tension that makes me uncomfortable rather than his views), but I think he's pretty amazing at explaining complex ideas in writing and making them understandable. And funny. I keep finding passages that I want to share, except that they have nothing to do with anything; they just make me laugh. About DNA.

-- Ace Hardware. This is on my list of places to go before I head back to the cities (although there's an Ace just down the road from my house, too), because I might buy some roller catches to fix my kitchen cupboard doors whose hinges are busted. My dad used to talk about the hardware store being 'like Disneyworld' or 'a little girls' favorite place' (or some other outrageous hyperbole/blatant untruth), and I can kind of understand it now. Another quirk to chalk up to home ownership, perhaps.

It's time for What's Hot and What's Not: Cats + Cabin Edition!

What's Hot

-- Adaptable cats. While they didn't particularly enjoy the ride up to the cabin, the cats were happy enough once we got there. I didn't put Booty in the cat carrier on the way up, so he stayed busy watching the scenery speed by in the car. I'd rather have both cats in carriers, of course, but I only have one (carrier), and the arrangement this time was much less stressful for everybody than when I've put them together. Just because they like each other doesn't mean they want to be trapped together for an hour and a half! By the time we got to the cabin, Booty had tuckered himself out with all that being alert, so he went straight to sleep.

-- Amusingly clingy cats. Beany, on the other had, made sure to sniff everything in the cabin, and then she decided she needed affection. She followed me around and told me all about what was going on. She's usually only vocal when she's reacting to something (cat laughing) or asking for food; if Booty is trapped in a room, he'll cry until you let him out, but Beany will stay trapped, never making a peep. But today, not content with being cuddled in the living room, she would run to the bedroom and then cry until I came to find her and cuddle her in that room instead.

-- Multiple Heating Systems. The cabin was pretty cold when I got there, but there's both a forced air furnace and under-floor heating. I cranked both up, and it took only about an hour to warm up. Once the house is at the proper temperature, by the way, the furnace gets set low, and the floor heating is enough to keep it warm.

-- Projects. I've got several things to do while I'm at the cabin, and I'm looking forward to having a stretch of time (without constant internet access) to work on them. Of course, one of those projects is lying on the sofa and reading interesting books, so 'work' might not be the appropriate word.

What's Not

-- Annoyingly Clingy Cats. After about the first half hour of clingy-ness, I got bored with it. I eventually showed Beany how to make a cave in the blanket I'd put on the ground, and I came back into the room five minutes later to find her curled up in there. Thank goodness for distractions.

-- Too Much Caffeine. I'm at the supermarket, which has a little area with booths -- and wifi. I feel obligated to at least buy a cup of coffee while I use their internet, though, and it's gas station coffee. I would usually order a decaf if I were at a normal coffee shop, but decaf filter coffee that's been sitting in a pot for hours is almost guaranteed to be deadly. So I went with half-caf, but now my eyes are shaking a little bit.

-- Cold Feet. Literal cold feet, that is. Once my feet get chilly, it takes aaaages for them to warm up again. I'll have to rig up a foot warming system when I get back to the cabin. The classroom I was in last night for French was pretty cold, and it stuck with me right up until I went to bed (the heated mattress pad and flannel sheets can battle any kind of chill).

-- You might remember (although I hope you have more important things to store in your memory) that I was staying up until 1:00am most nights a while back. But then I went to Frankfurt, and the time changes reset everything, so it was more like 11:00pm for a while, then midnight, and I've been back to 1:00am for almost a week now. I don't really care when I go to bed (although I prefer staying up late to waking up too early), but I can't turn off the light even a minute before I'm ready to fall asleep, or I'll toss and turn. The strange thing is that, even if I wind up eating breakfast at 9:50 in the morning, I'll be hungry for lunch about an hour and a half later. I had a late-ish start today, so I had a slightly-smaller-than-usual breakfast. Waffles are good.

-- I had my first acting class last night, which was a lot of fun. And tonight was my second French lesson. Community ed is amazing. I'm also sort of impressed by how much easier it is to learn French at my current age than it was to start learning German at twelve years old. I'm sure a big part of it is having already learned a foreign language and being familiar with the process. But you're supposed to get worse with languages as you get older (and I'm sure there's a wall to hit somewhere here; it's hardly as though I've already conquered the French language). Maybe that year of Montessori kindergarten has just been lying dormant all these years, waiting.

-- Alex asked what sort of cereal was in my last post, and the answer is Honey Smacks. I was going to try making my own when I finished with my last box, but then I ran out of enthusiasm for that project. So more refined sugar it is. I only eat Smacks with yogurt (well, once I had some for dessert), because eating a bowl as actual cereal would just be a rush of sugar and then a big crash.

-- I suppose I had better pack for the cabin now. And fold all that laundry over there. And do the last of the dishes. And maybe tidy up a bit. Thank goodness it's only 11:30 at night -- plenty of time yet to be productive! Weird.

-- Beany must have the best life ever. She has a warm house to live in, gets to cuddle with her favorite person (me) even when it's inconvenient for that person, she has a ridiculous assortment of toys, she gets to go outside when it's nice (but doesn't have to sit out in the cold or worry about getting hit by cars), and she gets to lick out the bowl when I've finished with my yogurt. Yep. The best.

-- I'm excited to go to the cabin this week, even though it's going to be cold out (but I'll be indoors, so whatever). It's my mini holiday, except I plan on getting some work done, because I might as well. But I now have three books to read: Dawkins' latest, Proust Was a Neuroscientist, and Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia, which I just picked up from the library today (it was on hold for me). Reading!

-- I found out this afternoon that Elvis Costello will be appearing on the February 4th performance of Prairie Home Companion. They're screening it live at cinemas across the country (I think across the country), but I swooped in and got myself a fifth-row ticket for the actual performance. Hooray! I've come to the conclusion that, when going to shows you're really excited about, it's almost better to go solo, because you can get a better seat. I assume he (Elvis) will be playing some of his new bluegrassy stuff, since that fits in with the tone of PHC. I got that new album for Christmas and am loving it much more than I expected to.

-- Oh, I'm also hoping to do some drawing while I'm at the cabin. I'd love to do another downloadable something, like the paper house pack. Would you still be interested in paper houses, even now that the holiday season has passed? They wouldn't be wintery; I'd like to have one with a little garden, and perhaps a school house. Who doesn't like useless papercraft, right?

So, when Alex and Ann and I were having lunch on Saturday, they were complimenting my house for looking so good. And I'm not saying this to brag, but it's something that often comes up when I'm out with friends and some of them have been to my home while others have not. 'Anna's house is so cute!' I love hearing that, of course; I definitely won't deny it. I take a lot of pride in how I keep my house, and I also just enjoy the process of decorating. But at the same time, I can't help thinking, 'What's the big deal?'

I took the picture above when I was at my parents' this afternoon/evening for the Vikings game (sad face). I think this might explain my confusion at the fuss people make -- if you have a home, of course you decorate it. My parents' style (I would say my mom's, as I feel like she makes most of the executive decorating decisions, but I know my dad has opinions, too) isn't terribly similar to my own, but I still appreciate the put-togetherness of it. And I see things like the stack of books on the coffee table, and I only have to move my eyeballs to see the same thing in my own living room. (Somebody needs to organize those bookcases by color, though!)

Decorating is definitely a first-world concern, but I don't think it's only for people with huge disposable incomes. I bought most of my furniture shortly after moving in, and I certainly wouldn't be able to afford to do so now, but the bulk of the changes I've made in the look of my house over the past couple of years have been pretty cheap -- nothing much more expensive than a gallon of paint, say. I don't buy designer anything; I buy what I can afford and like, and then I work with it.

I feel like people who drool while reading design blogs while making no attempt to work with what they've got (or what they could get for cheap at the thrift store) are a lot like people who wish they could cook but never bother spending time in the kitchen. You have to learn what you like by trying things out, and I guess my point is that I had a leg-up in the whole process by growing up in houses where aesthetics were a consideration. Putting effort into having a nice home is just something I take for granted. How about you?

I spent a lot of time at home this week (or, rather, left the house even less than usual), so when it came time to get ready for a Friday-evening dinner gathering, I almost wished I could back out -- inertia. Luckily, I didn't (I'm not crazy, after all), and I had a really nice time with smart and funny people. And I got to make the rhubarb crisp pictured above. I had the rhubarb in the freezer (I can't remember if it was from the garden or the farmer's market), so I just used the really simple recipe from the old Betty Crocker cookbook (I wrote it down here). A winner.

And then, today, I had lunch with my friend Alex and new friend (I hope!) Ann, who came from the internet. Or somewhere around the Mall of America, but that's not really as funny. We met at the Seward Cafe, because that's one of my favorite places to eat, and I'm also a little bit bossy. (I am a little bit bossy, but actually I just have a shortlist of places I like to eat and will always suggest, in order to avoid the whole 'I don't know, what do YOU think' rigmarole.)

I had a buckwheat pancake with some 'deluxe' on top (plain yogurt and sliced fruit), and it was so good that I will show you this picture of it, even though it's a terrible photo. Alex commented that the pancake looked like something I would make at home, except I would have cut the slices of fruit more thinly and arranged then more carefully (I also would have alternated the fruits instead of grouping them). I am predictable.

You can see Alex's miso soup in the background, along with the tahini toast I said she should get (as a helpful suggestion, not in a... bossy way). Ann got Mexicali eggs, and everybody enjoyed their food and we sat and chatted and had a good time. Meeting new (awesome) people might be my current favorite past-time. It was particularly handy that Ann's been reading twelve22 for a while, so she sort of knew ahead of time what to expect (maybe? I might make her fill out a survey to find out how my projected blog persona compares to my actual self. I mean, I might ask her.) -- but meeting people in real life gives one the opportunity to tell the same (interesting! funny!) stories that one's friends have already heard repeatedly.

Anyway, it was good for my brain to have some social time the past two days (although I did have a really nice week, despite its relative solitude). I thought I'd be able to post pictures of my bedroom by this weekend, but I still haven't bound the quilt, because I get bored just thinking of hand stitching the binding. But perhaps I will bring that to my parents' tomorrow and finish it while we watch the Viking's game.

We were talking about my house at lunch today, and I said that I've been having 'nightmares' this past week about people coming over to visit. The house is so far from its norm, due to this whole overhaul process, and I haven't bothered to take my mop bucket downstairs (it's in the bathroom), because I keep meaning to try out the new floor polish I got (fancy!). See, I can't clean, because I have to clean first. Here's another item for my list of 'Things That Wouldn't Have Occurred If I Weren't a Home-Owner': dreaming that I'm wearing ice skates in the house and thinking, 'Oh, this can't be good for the hard wood floors!'

I don't want to give you review overload, but I realized that I've tried quite a few new-to-me products lately, and maybe you'd be interested to hear what I think. I'm always interested to hear what I think, after all.

There are a few mock meat products, as well as other items I've enjoyed lately. Click to the full post to read all my mini-reviews.

Quorn Turk'y Burgers -- (Pictured) I'd seen these around the blog world, but it wasn't until just the other day that I finally spotted them at a Whole Foods. I snapped them up! When I opened the box, I was disappointed by the size; they're thick, but not very big around, which made it tricky to eat as a burger. But the flavor was absolutely fabulous. It's not quite the same as the Quorn Turk'y Roast (it was even better, I thought), and the texture is much more 'juicy' than the roast, as well. I will give Quorn the benefit of the doubt and assume that making a bigger, flatter patty would result in a dryer burger. I will definitely continue to buy these, especially if they make their way to my mainstream supermarkets.

Uh oh, Wednesday snuck up on me. Usually I spend some time thinking about what's hot and what's not in advance, but I'm really going to have to wing it this week.

What's Hot

-- Finally (almost) finishing an on-going project. I started buying vintage pillowcases a while back, and I eventually decided I wanted to make a quilt with them. A year or two later, I started the patchwork, and now, about six months after that, I'm nearly done with all the quilting and everything. In addition to the pillowcases, I also used some handkerchiefs I got at an estate sale; that's where the little embroidery above came from.

-- Clever ideas. Instead of paying $6 for a little jar of Mod Podge (and having to truck back to Michaels to do so), I got a bottle of all-purpose white glue for about $1.30 and watered it down. So I was able to make my map canvas last night, and it was ready to hang this morning. The sheen of the dried glue is just perfect; I'm really happy with how it turned out.

-- Unconditionally loving cats. Forget dogs; Beany has got this down. She was a bit too full of beans this afternoon and kept messing up my carefully-laid-out quilt, so I locked her in the basement and proceeded to forget I'd done so. When I opened the door again, about an hour later, she was all, 'Hey! You let me out! You're the best!' She really only gets cross with me when I'm getting ready for bed or on my way out the door; she melodramatically runs to the opposite end of the house, because she just can't bear it. At least that's how I choose to interpret her behavior.

-- Community education. I'm super psyched about my French class, and acting starts next week (will I be any good at it? We'll find out!). I love that I can learn stuff for not very much money. I was thinking earlier today that free education is wasted on the young, but then I realized that's not really true at all... except in the sense that I appreciate being taught things more now than I did during those years of my life that were dedicated to getting an education.

What's Not

-- Hand tying a quilt without a thimble. I've never tried using a thimble, because it strikes me as fiddly and awkward, but I almost wished I could be bothered to go into the other room and get one today. There was a certain point where I decided to finish the job, even though my fingers were quite sore, because they were also a bit numb, and I knew they'd only hurt more if I stopped and started again later.

-- Envy. I hate that feeling of seeing what somebody else has or is doing and thinking, 'Why not meeeee?' It's sort of the same way that I despise competition. I'm happily doing my own thing over here, enjoying life; I don't need that feeling of wanting what somebody else has. Be gone, undesirable emotion!

-- My Barney Butter (ordered off Amazon.com) arrived Saturday afternoon, and I was away Sunday and Monday, so today was my first chance to have it for breakfast. It's so good. I've also been experimenting with adding egg white to my oat bran (I stir it in once the bran is almost done, then stir it over the heat, so it can cook). The egg flavor is definitely in there, but it makes it taste like French toast!

-- Speaking of French, today was my first French class through community ed. I studied German in school, of course, but the majority of my friends took French, and I've always wished I could speak that language better. I think I'm going to excel in this class, because French really plays to my strengths -- namely, my tendency to trail off when speaking out lou...

-- My new point-and-shoot camera (a birthday present) takes video, and today I uploaded about a minute of how Beany and I play. I've been trying to explain this particular 'game' to people lately, but I'm not sure it's always clear what a strange cat Beany can be. I like how Booty is in the background and wanders off at the beginning of the clip and then returns at the end. Continuity. And I think my favorite bit is Beany following me off at the end. The way she looks up at me to see what we're going to do next kills me.

-- When stores started having those self-service registers, I really resented them. I had worked at a little supermarket when I was in college, and there was no way I was going to scan my own groceries without getting paid for it. But my local grocery store installed four of these 'fast lane' registers, and I don't think I've used anything else since. I often just have to pick up a few items, and it really is so much faster to ring them up without having to wait in a line. Plus, I like doing things I'm good at, and I reckon I'm pretty good at scanning barcodes and keying in numbers -- I was professionally trained back in college, after all.

-- The Vikings were victorious yesterday, and I headed home from the cabin this morning. I got back around 1.00pm, after making a few stops, and managed to keep myself busy until the sun had gone down. I don't really like taking photos after dark and with lamps on, but this is what (part of) my living room looks like in the evening.

-- I stopped at an outlet center on my way home, and then I went to Subway for lunch. I am 99% sure that I have never, ever ordered food at a Subway (having not been to one since I was little and didn't do my own ordering). The feeling was very much the same as when I get confused and embarrassed at shops in Germany. I don't speak fast food!

-- I also went to Michael's (with a 40% off coupon) and bought a 36"x24" canvas, onto which I will Mod Podge my map of Canada (technically, it's a map of the highways of Canada and the northeast United States). A little jar of Mod Podge was $6, so I passed, knowing for sure that I already had at home either the exact same stuff or, at least, a bottle of white glue that I could water down. I'll let you guess which of those two I was able to find. Oh wait, there's a third option: neither. Arg.

-- So instead of Mod Podging, I finished piecing together the front and back of the new quilt for my bedroom. I was going to sandwich it all together tonight, but it's so big (a queen size) that I'll have to rearrange some furniture in the living room to be able to spread it out. Tomorrow. The cats are already SO EXCITED to help.

-- While I was away, it seems a new set of spammers found my blog. I moderate every comment, of course, so I just had to delete a bunch of pending comments instead of worrying that they'd already been published. What I find perplexing, though, is that 90% of the spam comments go into the normal 'pending' folder. Actual comments, however, almost always get filed away in the spam folder. And Movable Type doesn't (as far as I know) have a 'See What You're Doing? Now Do the Opposite' button. Oh, how I wish I had such a button for everyday life!

-- Also, an aside to my Twin Cities readers: I only heard from one person about getting together! Don't be scared! I was only kidding about needing you to protect me (I'm a pretty good scratcher).

Hello! I was just thinking I was about ready to settle into bed to read for a while (Richard Dawkin's The Greatest Show on Earth), and then I realized I hadn't done a post for today. And I had the photo and everything, so... okay.

The picture is of my lunch. I made Seitan Chorizo Crumbles the other day, and I think this is my favorite way to eat them -- with scrambled egg whites and a tortilla. Vital wheat gluten is amazing stuff. I still can never quite believe that it's possible to mix it with just a few other ingredients, and it becomes something delicious. I've never had real chorizo, but the fake version is definitely a good thing.

After assembling my new closet shelf yesterday, things started to fall into place with the Great Bedroom Reorganization of 2010. The clothes situation is taken care of now, and that was the big project for the room. I find it absolutely boggling that I -- a person who would definitely not be considered a clothes horse -- have so many clothes. I'll have to do a post about the bedroom once I've finished, and I'll explain how I've organized things, but I'll say right now that it seems as though there are entirely too many drawers and shelves of clothes for one person.

I think that once I've finished with my bedroom (which will still be a little while yet), I'll move on to the kitchen. I'm leaving the guest bedroom for last, as it's currently the catch-all room and is a disaster. And I'll tackle the basement in the summer, when it's more pleasant to be down there.

Well, I'm journeying up to Sandstone tomorrow to watch the football game (on TV, with my parents), so I hope you'll all have a nice rest of the weekend. And if you have Monday off, enjoy it!

Today was extremely full of good things. Here are some of them.

1. The peach jam I've been using was nice enough, but I was very happy to have a new jar of Mountain Fruit Co. raspberry jam for my English muffin today. (The table was also nice and tidy this morning, because I put all my necessary junk -- crosswords, journal, pen case, paper, etc -- in a basket, finally.)

2. I wore a dress I got on my birthday (it was $3 in Old Navy's clearance!). I obviously liked it enough to get it, but every time I had tried it on at home, I decided it wasn't what I wanted to wear out. But when I put it on today, it was suddenly super comfortable and pretty.

3. I went to the tax man. After two years of miserable tax appointments, I am very, very happy to say that I'll be getting a big refund this year! I practically went broke trying to pay my estimated taxes based on my 2008 income while earning significantly less in 2009 (not very clever, I know), but it was worth it to not have to OWE this year. Hello, savings account!

4. I treated my car to a celebratory car wash in honor of my tax refund. And not just the basic one, but The Works. With tri-color foam and everything. It was magical. I'm pretty sure everybody noticed how clean and shiny my car was on the drive home. It'll just take one more trip out in the slushy streets to get it dirty again, but it was nice to at least remove a layer of grime mid-winter.

5. I got a shelf to put in my bedroom closet, and it really helped me find a home for a lot of shirts. Organizing the bedroom still has a looong way to go, and it's like a ridiculous, nonsensical puzzle. I go through clothes, put them in piles, and some of them disappear into drawers. Then I go through everything again, put them in new piles, and more of them disappear. I don't have a clue as to what I'm doing, but it seems to be very methodical, and I'm liking the results.

6. Reading all the lovely delurking comments was excellent. I visited the sites of everybody who left a link. It was interesting to see what you guys all blog about -- lots of crafts and some foodie stuff. I'm not sure I would have been able to guess what the 'demographics' were for twelve22 in that regard; I used to be all about crafts and now... sort of a bit of everything. So, thanks to everybody who commented! Please do so again!

7. This isn't so much a good thing for today, but perhaps it could be a good thing of the future! It seems like there are at least a few fellow Minneapolitans (and St Paulites, hiss -- but this is for you, too) in this neighborhood of the blog world. I'm thinking of organizing a friendly get-together -- next week, maybe? -- either dinner one night or lunch next weekend. Local suburbanites welcome, as well. Drop me a line at anna.torborgATgmail.com. If it's a group thing, it's way less scary in a person-from-the-internet-is-going-to-kidnap-me way; we just have to make sure the goodies outnumber the baddies (and I can't run at the moment, so somebody will have to be prepared to protect me, if things get rough).

8. One last-y last good thing. I couple people mentioned my mug in last post's photo, and while it would be funnier for me if I made people continue guessing who was on it, I'll just say. It's a This American Life mug, which shows the succession of hosts into the future. It starts with Ira Glass (you can see it a bit better in this photo) and goes through various human hosts, a brief stint by a talking cat, and then a robot. You know, once humanity falls to our evil robot overlords. Best mug ever? Yeah.

Some lists for you today.

1. Food items that I wish I had a free, lifetime supply of (part of what could be a much longer list!):
-- Zevia sodas
-- perfect, tiny Honeycrisp apples
-- Whole Foods Soy Crispettes (cheddar)
-- Newman's dried mixed berries
-- Barney Butter
-- Mountain Fruit Co. jam
-- Yorkshire Gold tea
-- Nature's Path Pumpkin Flax Plus Granola

2. Recent occurrences that wouldn't have happened if I weren't a home-owner:
-- The new drawer organizer I bought fit perfectly in the space I had, and it made my day.
-- I listened to a friend's story about her broken oven, and when she apologized for being boring, I had to admit I found it all rather fascinating.
--I keep getting excited when I think of uses for my new vacuum: the mattresses! upholstery! the car!

3. Things I'm currently proud of:
-- I have my tax man appointment tomorrow and am 95% ready (have to double check my interest income).
-- I've been taking it easy with my injured ankle, even though it's tempting to test it, and I really want to get back to running.
-- I'm making progress with my big house overhaul, slow as it is, instead of just sitting around and wishing I'd start.
-- I'm blogging regularly.

4. Things I would like:
-- For Booty the Cat to magically gain three or four pounds.
-- For the world to just take a break from disasters for a while. It's too much. The reporting is heart-breaking.
-- For everybody reading this who has a blog to leave a comment, so I can check out your blogs, especially if you've never commented before. (You can comment if you don't have a blog, too.) Apparently today is National Delurking Day? I didn't realize that until I checked just now (but I think there are probably a few dozen 'official' delurking days).

P.S. -- I thawed out a piece of my birthday cake today. It froze amazingly well.

What? Wednesday again? Time for me to tell you what's hot and what's not.

What's Hot

-- Tofu. I would eat it more often, except I have to decide that it's what I want a couple of hours ahead of time, and I usually forget to do that. I think I could happily eat an entire block of tofu, cut into pieces, marinated, and sauteed. This is sort of a perfect meal -- just a few things I like, even thought they didn't have much to do with each other.

-- Finding things you'd thought you'd lost and/or forgotten about. I don't want to reveal exactly how many layers of cast-aside junk there was in my bedroom closet, but I've gone through it all now. And there were quite a few, 'Oh, that's where that's been!' moments.

-- The library. When is the library ever NOT hot, right? I don't use it as often as I should (mostly because I spend my working hours reading books), but there were a few things I wanted to read the other day, and I remember I could do so for free. Neat.

-- People who use their smarts and years of education to explain things in a comprehensible and interesting way. Most of the books I read in my free time would fall, I guess, into the pop-science (?) category. Right now, I'm reading Richard Dawkins' The Greatest Show on Earth, and I suddenly understood how carbon dating works -- no big deal. I'm currently waiting for Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia to arrive at my library for me; the brain + music is fascinating (check out Daniel J. Levitin's This Is Your Brain on Music).

What's Not

-- Dirty floors. I don't know exactly what happened over the past couple of weeks. Maybe I didn't dilute my old cleaner enough, or maybe a larger-than-normal amount of sidewalk salt got tracked into the house. But my floors were disgusting. It felt gross to walk through the house with socks on (I wouldn't want to imagine doing so barefoot). Not to worry, though -- I bought new (Method) floor cleaner, and they're far less horrifying now.

-- Using your powers for evil. I had an amazing English teacher in high school, and as a result, I scored really well on that whole... language-y portion of the SATs, thoroughly enjoyed getting my English degree, and am now a happy and successful person. But, as I was ruminating on nineteenth-century poets this evening, I remembered the way Walt Whitman had been introduced to me, when I was an impressionable sixteen year old. Said amazing English teacher apparently didn't rate old Walt, so his unit on Leaves of Grass (required) was rather skewed. Towards eye rolling. I later came to appreciate Whitman in college, but I still think back to high school and have decided it's a bit naughty to try to pass on your distaste for a poet like that.

-- Minnie spent the night here yesterday. I made her a squeaky pillow (I'd found a plastic squeaker in the hall closet when I cleaned it) and baked dog biscuits, so I think she had an alright time. I don't think I ever explained Minnie's departure, but my parents adopted her from me in February 2008. They already had a dog that Minnie loved, and she's really a dog's dog. And I'm a cat person. So everybody was/is happy in the end.

-- I went through the clothes in my closet this evening. Well, a first pass. I think I'm going to have to go back when I'm feeling a bit more brutal, because there were several items I know I should part with, but I'm just having doubts at the moment. Honestly, I'd rather store something in a plastic bin down in the basement than have that moment where I see something cute and think, 'Oh, I used to have a [shirt/skirt/etc] just like that! Darn.'

-- Getting back to Minnie, I thought it was pretty funny how the cats behaved while she was here. They're often quite skittish at my parents' house (although that could just be because Sasha, the other dog, barks and barks and barks), even though they're fine at the cabin, so I know they don't mind being somewhere new. So maybe it's just because they were on their home turf, or maybe they even remember when Minnie lived here, but it was just no big deal. We all sat on the sofa together. When I gave Minnie her canned dog food this morning, Booty really wanted some (the cats only get wet food after [my] dinner). So he just stuck his head in the same bowl. Those crazy animals.

-- And speaking of animals, there's a new Radio Lab here, about the minds of animals. And if you've never listened to Radio Lab, and you're the sort of person who likes interesting stuff (with a science-y flavor), check out all the episodes. I particularly like the ones about music, and my friend Alex likes the episode about death.

-- I realized that finishing my big house clean-up would be a great excuse to have a small party. Like a second house warming. And maybe I can put out some of the choicest pieces of culled junk for my friends to take (assuming I find anything that fits that category). And make a cake. Presumably, setting a date for such a party would give me a deadline for the overhaul, but I don't know that I'm THAT committed -- going through every room could take some time. It's so tiring making decisions about what to keep and what to discard; I have to take lots of breaks.

Well, I did it -- I finished sorting out the piano room this week. I chose it as a starting point because it seemed pretty straight-forward. Basically, the more storage a room has, the more of a hidden nightmare it is for me. And the piano room only has a closet and the cabinet (above), so I figured it couldn't be too bad. It wasn't, really, but it certainly did take some time.

My goal with the house overhaul is to feel, at the end, like I don't have extra clutter. Nothing stashed away to be dealt with later. I'm trying not to hold onto things just for the 'what if' factor (and... mostly succeeding). The piano room ('hall') closet was a good example of this -- previously, if something fit in there, I figured I might as well hang on to it.

No longer! I weeded out a few coats I'll never wear again, along with several cardigans. I went through some papers and marveled at the fact that I had deemed the show-floor tag from my coffee table worth hanging on to (more like it was easier to stash it than throw it). Stuff like that. And now I can actually see the floor of my hall closet, AND the door shuts. It's never latched (it's an old door), and the overflow of coats used to keep it propped open a few inches. Now that it's cleared out and I've got a shoe hanger on the back of the door (with hooks over the top of it), I can neatly wedge the door shut. I keep finding myself surprised by its shut-ness when I walk by.

The rest of the room didn't need much work. I bought some LP frames with birthday money and framed a few sleeves from Elvis Costello albums. Those are over the piano now, and I think they go nicely with the print I bought at the Gutenberg museum in Mainz. The only other piece of art on the walls is the letter-pressed sign I got at my very first Frankfurt Book Fair.

The rest of the (limited) wall space (it's a small room) is taken up by my bookcases. I originally bought that smaller case, the one under the window, intending to paint it white, for the cookbooks in the kitchen. Wait, no! I bought it for the piano room, but I didn't like it with the previous set up, so it just wound up in the kitchen. I was going to paint it white after that, though, but I'm glad I didn't, because it's back in the piano room, after all. It doesn't really go with the other furniture, but it does do the job of housing the rest of my books; there are hardly any now that aren't in the piano room (like... only a few dozen, plus all my cookbooks).

Oh, the little white bench to the right of the cabinet in the top photo? That's the cats' bathroom water plinth. I put it there months and months ago, when Booty had some stomach bug and was hanging out in the bathroom a lot (because it's a dark and cool room). I don't keep water in it all the time, but I occasionally fill it with tap water from the bathroom sink, and you'd think it was a hundred times better than the tap water I put in their usual water bowl (in the kitchen). I think it's just the novelty. If one cat hears the other drinking from the bathroom water bowl, she (or he) has to come running to get some for her- or himself. Cats, eh?

Anyway, my bedroom is this week's project. I'm willing to admit it might take longer than a week, although I did start going through my dresser a while ago. I'm going to try to be fairly merciless -- any clothing I don't love has to go. Eep.

So, I mentioned that I received two exciting packages on my birthday -- one was from Zevia, of course, and the other was from Newman's Own Organics. I was utterly blown away by the selection of products they sent me; there's so much that I couldn't possibly wait until I'd sampled it all to post a review, but I did want to give myself a bit of time to at least try several of the goodies.

I read a bit about the company when I was waiting for the package to arrive, and I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a more upstanding organization. I hadn't realized that Newman's Own Organics is actually an independent company from Newman's Own (who make the salad dressings, salsas, pizzas, etc). Newman's Own Organics was started by Nell, Paul's daughter, using her father's capital, and it quickly became successful, paying back the 'seed' money and then becoming independent in 2001. And the brand chooses its products based on personal preferences: chocolate and snack foods -- can't go wrong, eh? Of course, you don't need to know any of that to enjoy a Newman-O, but it's the sort of thing I find interesting.

Over all, I have been completely impressed with the Newman's Own Organics products. Because they make cookies and snacks that are similar to mainstream brands, it's easy to say, 'Oh, this is like a ____' when you try a Newman-O or a Fig Newman, etc. But in every case, Newman's clearly comes out on top. The quality is just so much finer -- it's like eating real food instead of food-like substances (uh, because you are). I've put all my individual product reviews in the extended portion of this post, so click through to see what I thought!

I slept a bit later than usual this morning, so it was almost ten by the time I finished eating breakfast. That was the only reason I had this bowl of Jumbo Rice Krispies, since they keep a person (me) full for only about an hour. They're sort of amazing, though. The flavor reminds me of Rice Krispie Treats cereal, which was my favorite sugar cereal before I became a vegetarian.

Anyway, today was a very errand-y day, including getting some responsible bank-business out of the way, picking up yet more groceries I forgot to get on my last two trips (and I still managed to forget something else!), and finally tackling my hall closet. It's really the piano room closet, but it's where I keep jackets, so that makes it more hall-y.

It's not a wide closet, but it's deep (the most impractical sort of storage), and I started by taking everything out. It was a disaster, and you can't even see everything in that photo. There was a huge pile of jackets and sweatshirts on the piano and a big box of Christmas stuff (which had been un-boxed before) off to the right. To be fair, though, the vacuum and the mop bucket were never in the closet.

I found lots of things I had forgotten I owned (slippers!) and a box of photos I hadn't seen in a while. Among the photos were ones I took right after I started using an SLR for the first time, and I really wasted a lot of film on bad photographs. I mean, not wasted, since it was part of the learning process, etc, etc. But, yeah -- a lot of wasted film.

There were also shots of my college friends and I; there's one in particular, of my friend literally rolling on the floor with laughter, which made me quite nostalgic. I remember telling myself, probably during my senior year of college, to enjoy the fact that all (most) of my friends lived within a mile radius of each other, because that would never be true again. I was so wise. And so not a good photographer.

I also made a bag of jackets and sweaters that I'm never going to wear again. And a pile of various odds and ends that I don't want. My plan for this big house decluttering is to create a garage sale's worth of stuff for this summer. Planning ahead. Because I apparently need this much lead time, since all of last summer whooshed by before I could get my act together and sort stuff out.

There's still a lot to rehome from what I pulled out of the closet, but it's not too bad. I boxed up all the Christmas decorations and related paraphernalia and brought that down to the basement, which freed up a lot of room. It's actually so organized and tidy in the closet now that I've instantly forgotten what used to live in there. I have to keep peeking in when I walk by, because I'm so pleased with how it looks.

I'll finish organizing the cabinet in the piano room tomorrow (really just sort out the drawer), because I said I'd be finished with that room this week. The scary part is that it really did take all week (or will have, once I'm done), and I chose the piano room to start with because it was supposed to be the easiest! Gulp.

-- I made bread yesterday, because I'd been thinking for days how good some toasted, homemade bread would be for breakfast. Last night, after finally doing what I needed to do to make that a reality (that is, having baked the bread), I realized I didn't want toast for breakfast. No way. I'm totally committed to oatbran and Ezekiel English muffins right now (not all in ONE breakfast, of course). So I had some toast for my afternoon snack instead. Problem solved.

-- Every few months, my next-door neighbor calls me to ask a question about the children's book she's written and is trying to get published (not by me). This is the only thing I can remember her ever calling about (which is fine), yet every time she says, 'Hi, it's your neighbor, _____,' I get that sudden called-to-the-principal's-office panic (not that I was ever called to the principal's office). What have I done? Did I shovel my part of the sidewalk the wrong way?

-- I've been trying to get several books ready for print, which means lots of time spent finishing off covers. I generally do just the front cover of a book ahead of time, for catalogues and such, and then do the full cover -- spine and back -- nearer to print time. So that's what I was doing. And as I finished with the third cover, I realized that all those current books are horror and/or fantasy. And I had a private cackle of glee, because how awesome is it that I design covers for those sorts of books?

-- I recently figured out how to make iTunes fetch album artwork (yeah, yeah, yeah -- I hadn't actually TRIED before), and I just used the little Apple remote to make my iMac play music, so now it's displaying the album cover. Classy. I haven't figured out, though, how to make my iPod sync up and fetch the new artwork, short of first deleting the music from the iPod and then reloading it (which would be a pain, since I don't have my entire library on the iPod).

-- Having the album artwork on my iPod is important, by the way, for when I'm at the gym. Because when I casually choose a new song as I run, I want people to glance over and think, 'Hey, she's listening to The Jam while she works out. She's so cool.' Then they will not notice my red face or judge the speed at which I'm running. Everybody wins. Especially The Jam.

-- I miss the gym and the rich fantasy life I have regarding what goes on in the minds of everybody there. Is my ankle better yet?

I missed a week (or more?) of What's Hot, What's Not, but I'm back on track now. Time for the first WH, WN of 2010!

What's Hot

-- (Scroll down and read my first 'What's Not', and then...) Discovering that one's photo is a top return in a simple Google image search. I wondered how somebody might have come across my peony photo if they didn't read my blog, so I tried searching for 'peonies' on Google Images. And what do you know -- my photo is number three!

-- American Elf. It's the comic I most look forward to seeing each day. I love how honest he is about being a dad, and I love how much he adores his wife.

-- My new steamer pot. I got it for Christmas and used it today to finally make seitan sausages -- I've been wanting to try that forever! I used this recipe, and it's very good. They're not as dense as store-bought veggie sausages, which is the one drawback. Flavour-wise, though, they're just right. I sliced one sausage up and sauteed it with some veggies for lunch. I think I'll have another with potatoes tomorrow, and they'd be good in a tomato-y vegetable soup, too.

-- I also made bread with a package of the Mehrkornbrot mix I brought back from Germany. I bought two packs in '08 and was sad once I'd used them up, so I stashed away several more this past year. Making bread from scratch is hardly any more work, but it's nice to have all the seeds already in the mix, you know? It said to bake for 45-60 Minuten, but I took it out after 40 Minuten, because it seemed done (it was), and I was hungry for my Abendessen. Bread for dinner!

What's Not

-- Finding one's photos floating around the internet, uncredited. I was over at Apartment Therapy, looking at some of the recent posts, and I when I saw this one, I had to click to read it in full, because that photo of peonies looked awfully familiar. AT linked to this blog post in way of a credit, which happened to not bother with crediting at all. I started to think I was going a bit loony, because I couldn't find the photo on my flickr, yet I KNEW those had been my pink peonies, my turquoise Ball jar, my table, and a glimpse of my aqua kitchen walls. I finally found the original post on twelve22, here. So... exciting to spot my photo on Apartment Therapy, but I don't understand why people use images without so much as a credit.

-- Bread for dinner. Okay, it was good while I was eating it, but I sort of regretted my decision half an hour later, when I was already hungry again. I guess bread (even with cream cheese and jam) isn't a square meal.

-- My kitchen floor. I swept and mopped it not so long ago, and it's already disgusting again. Between the mess that shoes track in (even, somehow, when I take them off at the door) and the general messiness of using a kitchen, the floor is hopeless.

-- The state of my house. I think I usually keep things fairly tidy around here, but the holidays + a sore ankle + trying to weed out the stuff I don't need = a chaotic house. Well, chaotic for me. I've been engaging in some 'relocation' of junk to the guest bedroom, which was already in a dire state, but I'd rather move everything there for now and tackle THAT project when I'm in the mood to do so. Later.

-- Sometimes I can't decide what to have for my afternoon snack, and when oatmeal pops into my mind, I think, 'Oh, can't have that -- that's what I had for breakfast.' It just seems wrong to eat the same thing twice in one day. Luckily, I did not have oatmeal for breakfast today! My snack oatmeal was particularly good, too. Yum.

-- My ankle is feeling a bit better today. It doesn't really hurt much anymore (although, that's exactly what I would have said a week ago, right before it got a lot worse), but it's still slightly swollen and feels a bit 'funny'. I was adding new songs to my 'running' playlist, which meant trying to imagine running, to see if each song was high-energy enough, and I could tell that my ankle wasn't up for even imaginary running. And that's the latest in AnkleWatch 2010.

-- I did some stuff with weights and my arms this morning, and I'm already starting to feel it. That's not so much down to my killer workout as it is to the feebleness of my arms. I wish I weren't so afraid of the great unknown that is the weight machine section of my gym. I miss the gym (not really). I miss running (yes, really). Sad face.

-- I tried sleeping with the wave sounds last night, and I'm not completely sold on it. The pros are that A) I don't have a fan blowing (at the wall, this time of year), which I'm sure kicks up dust that irritates the inside of my head and B) the clock radio is on my nightstand, which means I can turn the noise off when I wake up without having to get up first. So I can lie in bed until I'm ready to face the world. The main con is that there's a loose connection somewhere inside the clock radio, and you have to get it set up just right so that there won't be any static. And even then, I keep listening to hear if there's any trace of static... instead of falling asleep. I would say that I slept decently last night more in spite of the waves than thanks to them. But I'm going to give it another shot. And maybe try to fix the connection, at some point.

-- And finally, the Zevia soda winners! I used random.org to generate three numbers; the first was the 'grand prize' winner, and the second two were the... other winners. Annnnd, the winners were BreAnna, who will be getting an entire case of Zevia soda -- a four-pack of each amazing flavour; Dawn and Christine will each be getting a mixed six-pack, with one can of each variety. Winners, I've e-mailed you for details. Thanks to everybody who commented! I hope you can find Zevia wherever you are and give it a try. Seriously worth it!

Don't forget to comment on my Zevia post for a chance to win Zevia soda! I'll be picking the winners tonight!

Okay, I know I've talked about tiny houses before and even linked to some of these sites, but it's an on-going obsession. Every time I check out the Tiny House Blog, my eyes glaze over, and hours go missing as I start to dream about the perfect tiny house. (By the way, that's my garage in the picture, of course, but it'd be the perfect size for a tiny house.)

I wouldn't want to live full time, for the rest of my life, in anything under 1,000 square feet (my actual house is 1024 square feet, and it's just the right size for me, currently), but the idea of outfitting a little get-away is absolutely enticing. About eight or nine years ago, I went through my Kerouac phase, and I thought all I wanted in life was a shack out in the middle of nowhere. I've upgraded the dream substantially, but it's still there.

Here in Minnesota, the garden center Plants and Things (it's mostly 'things') has an incredible selection of little buildings (not the playhouses, but the fancy sheds with windows). When we visited the actual location, I had to look inside practically every potential tiny house, even though I couldn't afford any of them. Tumbleweed has house plans for sale, and the site is amazing. I love the natural wood interiors, although my own dream would be for one large (er, relatively large), open space (with a loft for sleeping and a private bathroom, of course), rather than some of the plans that have sectioned-off kitchens.

Here's another site with small home plans -- Country Plans. And if you happen to be looking for something established in Colorado, the Coyote Cottage is for sale.

I mainly think about having a get-away house up on my parents' property (out of sight of their cabin) -- something very basic but comfortable. I think it's a little bit like perfectly packing a suitcase (which I also enjoy); trying to figure out how to fit all the necessities (and deciding which things really ARE necessities) into a small floorplan is an interesting challenge.

A large part of the appeal is that I'd be living with just the things I need and love; there'd be no room for excess. Even in my roughly 1000 square feet (okay, with the same again in storage area, since all my boxes of junk are down in the basement), I find that I have so much more than I need. Vacations are a welcome break not only because I get to see the sights, but also because I'm forced to make do with just the basics. It's an appealing prospect for the kind of person who used to dream of living in a shack (in the middle of nowhere).

I was planning to have a super productive January, finishing up a bunch of work projects, organizing the house, doing lots of running, taking advantage of all the winter activities I've ignored in past years (like free ice skating in St Paul), and finally signing up for some community ed classes.

Well, the whole ankle thing has put the kibosh on running and skating in January, but I'm still good to go with everything else. I'm particularly determined to go through each room in my house and weed out what I don't need. My goal for this week is the piano room, pretty much just because it's the easiest place to start. There's just one closet that needs sorting and a small cabinet, which I went through tonight.

I also wound up tackling my bedroom tonight (but not its closet, which deserves a week of its own). It wasn't on the plan for this week, but when I was cleaning out the cabinet in the piano room, I found the clock radio in the photo above. It doesn't get great radio reception, which is why I'd stashed it away, but when I was looking it over tonight, I realized it makes sounds! Soothing, ridiculous nature sounds. One of choices is waves, and I'm going to give it a test run tonight.

See, because the cats are noisy at night (and because the neighbours sometimes shovel their path in the early morning hours), I've gotten used to sleeping with a very loud fan on. I like it. But nice, calmly crashing waves might be better. I could have lots of sitting-by-the-seaside dreams (but hopefully not being-pulled-out-with-the-tide dreams).

Anyway, to find a home for the new clock, I had to tidy up my nightstand, and then the rest of my bedroom looked really bad in comparison. (People seem to think my house is always clean, but my bedroom winds up being a very untidy dressing room that I just happen to sleep in, which isn't ideal.) So now, with a clean bedroom and the lulling sound of waves, I should be able to get a great night's sleep! Which means I'll wake up at 4:00am tomorrow morning. But at least I'll know why.

Well. It's 2010 now. Yup. I know it's official, because I started my new journal.

I began recording my days (and that's what my journal is -- just a record of what I've done on any given day) in 2008. That first year, I made a new little blank book for each month, but I used a Fabriano Artist's Journal last year, and I liked it so much that I decided to do the same for 2010. Last year, I had the olive green cover (and I put sticker from Florida on the back), but I went for red + a Minnesota sticker this year. Hometown pride, etc.

I had laid out a plan for how I was going to start the year off on the best possible foot, but then I went and hurt that foot. You'll remember that I landed wrong while walking through snow on Christmas Eve, but I thought I was just about healed up. It felt almost perfectly fine from Monday to Wedensday, then a little sore on Thursday, and from the moment I woke up on Friday, my ankle was killing me. It's been pretty bad (but slowly starting to be less painful) ever since then. I figured I'd just sprained it, but my aunt (a nurse) suspected an avulsion fracture, since there's a specific point of pain (and, I guess, since it got worse instead of better). Either way, I just have to take it easy, but none of my awesome January plans included taking it easy. Bah.

But I'm trying to look on the bright side. Since I can't go running, I can spend that time focusing on my upper body instead, and perhaps by the time my ankle is better, I'll have something resembling muscles in my arms (it seems unlikely, but I've heard that it happens). And everybody knows that extra chocolate helps tissues heal more quickly. I can dedicate myself to that.

So, despite a somewhat rocky start to 2010, I'm still thinking it will be a good year. Who could hate a new year, right?