Tag: january

One Day More!

This January I challenged myself to two things: Yoga with Adrienne’s daily Dedicate practice and sober January. One more day and I’ve successfully completed both!

I must say, I am most surprised that I was able to do yoga daily but I just proved that it’s possible, even with my crazy work schedule! It just takes planning. Who knew? One day I was able to get up bright and early (4:30AM) to do yoga before going in for my 6:30AM shift, but all other early days I did yoga when I got home (after 7PM). Granted, as you can see by the calendar, her practice varies from 15 to 30 minutes, with tomorrow’s final Dedicate practice the longest of the month, but still. I did it.

And I printed off a February calendar where she gives suggestions of videos already available on YouTube to build a practice of Love. I’ll keep going and see if I can continue to work on this daily practice! Woot!

As for sober or dry January, no big deal. I think there was a grand total of two days that I wished for a glass of wine but I just made some yummy herbal tea or had sparkling water and moved on. It certainly saves money at restaurants if you don’t add the $7 wine or $10 cocktail to the receipt at the end!

What will February bring? Not binge drinking, certainly, but a few new cocktail lounges opened late 2018 that I can’t wait to try! Do you have any monthly challenges for February?

February Fairly Flew!

Time just keeps “March”ing on, doesn’t it?  Hard to believe we are moving into the end of the first quarter of 2015 – and creeping up on the 6 month anniversary of my wedding/birthday!

So far #marriedlife2015 is just grand.  We both work crazy hours at our job, which means we have random days off during the week and every other weekend off together.  We try to make the most of our time off.  In January, we had a daytrip to LaCrosse, WI where we met Chris’s friend from high school who is moving from Madison to Rhode Island in a few months.  We visited the Dahl Automotive Museum and Pearl Street Brewery, Buzzard Billy’s and the Starllte Lounge and then drove to the Ponderosa for movie time by the fireplace.

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Two weeks later we drove to Madison to see them before Tien moved mid-February.  We weren’t able to make the going away party, so had our own time with them, which was very fun.  Chris and I got there early and enjoyed a Restaurant Week restaurant, a Mustard Museum, and then we enjoyed a pub meal before retreating to their bar for darts and drinks.  Saturday we walked on State Street, went to the Madison Modern Museum of Art and then visited my old “haunts” – Ella’s Deli and Few Street!  Was quite a blast from the past.  My old stomping grounds revolved around a 4 year old, so they weren’t too exciting, but it was a great reminiscence.  We also had a delicious Vietnamese meal before we travelled back to Rochester.  It was a great weekend.  Next time we go there it will be to drop Chris off for his road trip to Rhode Island / New Hampshire with Tony!  Less than a month away!

Mom, Marissa, Gracie and I had a little daytrip to the Cities for Mom’s birthday in early February.  We went to Marissa’s apartment and said hello to the kitties, and then went to an art open house at Pam Weisdorf’s home  Afterwards we had a delicious hibachi meal and avoided all malls.  It was a nice little road trip!

In January, Chris’s new little granddaughter was born – Emilee Ashlyn.  What fun to hold a baby!  And what fun to witness Chris’s discomfort at the same.  He says he’s afraid he’ll drop her. She is a little peanut, but growing every day, as babies are supposed to do.  We took her big sister, Kaydee, to Soccer World one bitterly cold morning and played during their open gym time.  That was a hoot.  Fun to be inside, warm, and running around on fake grass.

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January and February means there is basketball almost every day of the week if you want.  It was fun to watch Rees, Gracie and Trajan play basketball.  And fun to witness Gunnar sign with SDSU for his collegiate football career. And I made it to section wrestling to see Trevor wrestle a few!  Phew, there is an abundance of sports in the winter!

February also means SocialICE – a yearly festival of the cold!  They moved it back a few weeks, so it coincided with Marissa’s birthday weekend.  They were hoping that it would be warmer, but it just wasn’t to be.  Chris and I went for about 45 minutes on Thursday night and it was sooo cold (-5).  Hot drinks were not hot, cold drinks were freezing – literally.  Chris had a beersicle.  We eventually moved inside for a cocktail at the Doggery.  Saturday we went back during the daylight with the kids, because the ice sculptures are really fun to see, but it got cold and windy and crowded fast, so we didn’t last long.  We celebrated Marissa’s birthday with the family tradition of pizza and ice cream cake!  Delicious…

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And the Oscars 2015 happened, as well!  I haven’t seen all the movies up for Best Picture, including the winner, but I did see a few.  I already loved The Grand Budapest Hotel and Boyhood.  I thought The Imitation Game was ok and American Sniper was very hard to watch.  I haven’t seen Birdman (the winner), Whiplash (looks painful), Selma or the Theory of Everything.  I have seen a few movies in the theatre in 2015 – Into the Woods (Rees’s “worst movie ever,” but I loved it!), The Imitation Game (just OK, not super-great), Paddington (sooooooo fun… used to LOVE Paddington!), and Still Alice (the book is SO much better – this is a watered down version, but with a great performance).

At home we’ve watched The Long Way Round series (documentary about a motorcycle trip around the world! Love it!  Ewan McGregor, so fun), The One I Love, The Wolf of Wall Street, They Came Together, The Hundred Foot Journey (nice little movie – I read the book!), The Edge of Tomorrow, and 84 Charing Cross Road (such a sweet story about this eccentric woman – so fun! Very true to the book!). 

And speaking of books, we had book club last week.  We read The Perfume Collector and had great fun planning our French food theme!  Lots of fromage, French Onion dip, potatoes au gratin, quiche and croissants.  Topped off by French silk pie!  What was the book about?  Hmmm…   It happened in France in the 50s and was about gifts and independence and the role of our senses.  I read it in December, so had trouble with the details but we had a good discussion anyway!

Other books I’ve read in 2015 include: The Beautiful Daughters (see review here – it is released soon!), Yes Please (audiobook read by the author, Amy Poehler!  Loved it!), The Supreme Macaroni Company (Adriana’s book continuing with Valentine’s life in NYC), and Apple of My Eye (sooooo good!  Helene Hanff is quite the character and brings NYC in the 70s to life!  Loved it!)

I can’t decide what to read next… so I’m catching up on magazines.  Looking forward to diving into that next good book, though!

Would love to hear what you’re reading, what you’re watching, what you’re doing, while waiting for spring weather to arrive! Comment below!

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. ~Hal Borland

New York City, January 2014

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One more trip to NYC is in the books, and the city never disappoints.  Nor does the company.  Troy and Luis make it so easy to be there.  I was barely recovered from the sleep deprivation before I started thinking about when I’d like to go back again!

And this time I had the pleasure of the company of my sister-in-law, as well!  We had delayed flights going to NYC and a cancelled flight home, but that only meant that we had a bonus day, with bonus walks, bonus time at Times Square, a bonus show, bonus girl-talk, and a bonus “order-in meal” for watching the Grammy’s!

We saw the new show , “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder,” which was such a hoot!  We had great seats (first row!) and we laughed as we watched the D’ysquith’s die one by one!  The man who played all the D’ysquiths was so impressive, as was the heir who was assisting them in their demise.  Very fun!

Saturday we saw “Cinderella” – the last weekend with the original cast!  It is a beautiful and magical show, and even with the knowledge that I should pay attention to certain things, I still couldn’t figure out the magic.  Very beautiful.

Saturday night we went to see a silly band who sang amazing mash-up songs in their underwear!  They’re called The Skivvies, and they had special guests come on stage and sing (also in their underwear) and it was so fun!  It was at 54 Below, which is a sort of underground Cabaret featuring a lot of Broadway performers on their nights off.  So glad we went…

Sunday morning American Airlines called and said that our flight out of Chicago was cancelled so we had an extra day in NYC!  We were able to get great tickets to see “Matilda” – and I liked it even better than the first time I saw it!  The new girl was amazing, the new Trunchbull was hilarious, and the oohs of the kids in the audience was great atmosphere!  It was just so fun!  Loved it so much!  So glad we got to stay and enjoy another day in NYC!

We also had so many treats while in NYC!  We went on a cupcake tour of the East Village (and Lower East Side), stopped at Magnolia Bakery, Pieface, and the Cake Boss Bakery.  Everywhere we went we had deliciousness and goodness.  Loved the tour with Adriana Trigiani Tours!

The pictures above are just a sampling.  I posted (way too many?) on Facebook and still have hundreds to look at.  I always love looking at the buildings – old and new – and the walks outside were very comfortable in the teens and twenty degree temperatures.  I’m not sure I’d travel in January again, unless I knew that I had time to spare for travel glitches, but I’m so glad that I went in January 2014.

 

First Monday in 2013!

2013
2013 Here We Come!

The New Year feel has settled in.  I think I’ve already gotten used to typing 2013 at work!  

So now it’s time to think about my 2nd quarter of 11 fun things to do and look forward to!
(I think it needs a new name! It’s so cumbersome! 44 Things Quarter 2?) 

My FALL list was not completed: I did NOT shop early for Christmas or play accordion weekly.  
But I don’t feel regrets or guilt about not accomplishing things…
it just means that other things popped up and pushed them out of the way!  

So my WINTER list of things to do or look forward to starts here: 

English: Persusasion (Jane Austen Novel). For ...
English: Persusasion (Jane Austen Novel). For Sir Elliot, baronnet, the hints of Mrs Sheppard, his agent, was very unwelcome. Français : Persuasion, dernier roman de Jane Austen. Sir Elliot n’apprécie pas les conseils d’économie de Mr Sheppard, son notaire (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

44 Things – Quarter 2 (Jan-Feb-Mar)

  1. A January mini-vacation at Deadra’s, including many movies and much wine!
  2. Read “Persuasion” by Jane Austen with Wallace’s readalong in January 
  3. START reading “Gone With the Wind” in February – it’s so large I’m not sure I can finish it in two months!  But it’s after “Persuasion”!
  4. “The Book of Mormon” with Deadra and John in February!
  5. Host a baby shower for a work colleague at my house on February 13!
  6. Gaelic Storm in March with Kristine!
  7. Social-ICE in February!
  8. Walk at least twice weekly and do yoga once weekly.
  9.  Spray Tan!  Get the look of a summer glow!
  10.  Pick a closet and clean it out OR
    watch all of the Oscar nominated movies (which would you rather do??)
  11.  Invigorate book club and plan ahead for the year

Well, that wasn’t what I thought it would be, but there you have it!  I am maybe forgetting some of the things that I know that I will be looking forward to!  Yikes… I started writing this down somewhere.  And I’m still kicking around a list of THINGS for 2013, sort of like last year’s list.  It may be an over-arching list, or maybe a theme word or statement for the year… still thinking about it on paper.  

How about you?  How do you feel about resolutions?  Would you rather pick a theme WORD or STATEMENT (ala Let ‘er Rip) than set goals?  Do you avoid these altogether?  

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