Resolutions!

Here is where I'm at so far...

1. Journal: I have been writing in it, at least every other day
2. Another photo class: This is a fall '09 resolution!
3. No caffeine: Being good. Found three cherry diet cokes in the back of the hall closet (where we keep extra beverages) and let myself have one on Sunday (and THEN had five solid hours of productivity... ), so that was my once a month. Other than that, been completely off it! It was a little rough-going this morning when I was super tired and smelled someone else's French Vanilla Dunkin' Donuts though.
4. Buy a paper shredder: I forgot both times I went to Target this month. doh!
5. Website and cart for name frames: I figured out the cart stuff on paypal, and downloaded some templates for the actual website.
6. Quit candy: Going strong
7. Finish purple scarf: Finished knitting a whole skein of yarn! Just one more to go.

25 random things about me

I keep getting tagged in this "25 things about me" meme on Facebook, so I thought I would post it here instead of Facebook. Posting stuff like this on facebook bothers me for some reason.

1. It's very rare that I get through a day without putting my hair into a ponytail at some point. I will take it down and put it up a million times throughout the day. Once a friend sat behind me in a college class and told me after class "I mean, no offense. Don't get me wrong, it's nice hair. But you play with it more than ANYONE I have EVER seen."
2. I really really really want to go to BlogHer this year to meet a bunch of people whose blogs I read. But I will probably chicken out and not go. Because I don't actually know those people. And I feel kind of like a moron fangirl by going up to people whose blogs I read.
3. I quit caffeine a couple months ago because of my acid reflux, and really miss a warm cup of joe and a diet coke every now and again.
4. I love to read, and do so very fast.
5. I flip the bird to Worm's Way everytime we drive past it on the way to and from Bloomington. I did a group project for them once and it was the most awful ridiculous thing I ever did in college and I got a bad grade (for me, a low B).
6. I know an absurdly ridiculous amount of stuff about baby gear for someone who doesn't have a kid. It's all those blogs I read! At least it benefits my sister and friends sometimes.
7. I remember almost anything for a very long time if I see it in writing. In college I took copious notes but almost never referenced them. I do the same thing at work now.
8. I am really bad about calling people on the phone, unless it's for a specific reason (ie asking if someone is coming to event or making arrangements to meet up).
9. I know the caloric content of almost anything.
10. I have only had one traffic ticket my entire life: a moving violation for going the wrong way on a one-way street.
11. When my husband first saw me, I was wearing a red coat. I save that coat for special occasions and now just wear it on fancy date nights.
12. I thought my husband was a weirdo the first time I talked to him.
13. My nose runs ALL the time, almost. Especially when I run. Then it runs alot.
14. I worry about almost everything, and then try to plan obscenely far in advance to mitigate that worry.
15. I have a deep, mad love for Pequod's pizza and chicken/tofu pad thai
16. I am a pastor's kid.
17. I obsess over losing things (I look in my seat when I leave places and check that I have my wallet over and over), although I hardly ever lose/misplace anything for any period of time
18. I love hanging out with my family and look forward to any time I get with them.
19. I never wanted to get married or have kids until I met Hubs. I just thought that would never happen for me.
20. I bought a Wii fit and never did use it.
21. I feel like the housework and to-do lists just never end and wonder how everyone keeps up with it all. There is always something I feel like I missed no matter how much I do.
22. I have run two half marathons at the breakneck pace of 12 minute miles. Despite that, I am decidedly not a runner.
23. I think alot about my grandmother who passed away this summer, and what she would think of certain things.
24. I once had a bedroom that was cotton candy pink. Like, when I was 24 and lived with 3 friends from college. Pink is still my favorite color.
25. I am a compulsive putter-awayer. I will put my cell phone in my purse without realizing it, even if I meant to leave it out to keep an eye on it.

And then we almost got arrested...

Well, it's been a kind of crappy week in the Knowles household, and it started off on Monday night.

On the way home from puppy class, a light turned yellow and Mike started to throw on the brakes to stop, then realized that throwing on the brakes would slam Milly into the back of the seat (she was wet and dirty from prancing around in the snow, so we put her in the very back of the SUV). So he sped up to make the light. Only because he had slowed down before, the light was red when we went through it. Immediately, red and blue flashing lights lit up the night, and Mike sighed and said "Great. I don't have my ID on me either." I don't take my purse to puppy class, because I hate leaving it in the car (asking for a breakin!) and hate leaving it sitting out on the sidelines (I am just way too paranoid). So we had no ID on us at all. Then for some reason our insurance card was missing! So the police officer asked us to follow him to the station. AWESOME.

Once we got there, we were convinced our car would get towed and the officer already told us we would have to post bond. I didn't have my purse or phone and Mike has a new phone with almost no numbers in it, so I was convinced I was going to have to call my parents to get my brother's phone number to come bail us out (I have three numbers memorized: my dad's cell, my parent's home, and mike's cell). We didn't know how long we would be in the station so we took Milly in with us. And I think she saved us! The officer wrote us the two tickets he could have written out on the street and another notice that said basically we would have to pay $1K if Mike doesn't show up in court. Then they let us go home! We were there for less than a half hour which was awesome.

Obviously, we were really nice and polite and I'm sure they don't see that alot. The officer was laughing that night too, saying that some guy was getting arrested for threatening to blow up a bar after he got kicked out for being way too drunk. We saw the guy, too, and it looked like he had had better days.

So anyways, moral of the story: Dog gets us into trouble, Dog gets us out of trouble. The End

Hugs

DSC_0081.JPG, originally uploaded by agstratt.

Gracie loves hugs from Grandpa S

More Fort Wayne

DSC_0088.JPG, originally uploaded by agstratt.

Gracie and Grandpa Stratton make an important call. Grandpas are soooooo much fun!

Visit to Fort Wayne

DSC_0255.JPG, originally uploaded by agstratt.

Gracie loves her Grandpa Curley. He makes funny noises and tickles her!

Milly went to doggie daycare today and is very tired. She is super cute and cuddly!

Uh, anyone need an IT Auditor in Florida?

Yikes, dude! Yesterday the high was like 7 and Dog laid down in the alley and refused to walk. Mike said "She would have died there if I hadn't picked her up and carried her back to the condo!"

Yum

A good little recipe for acorn squash!

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=226448&package_id=238154

Milly

Jan 4, 2009, originally uploaded by agstratt.

Dog is sure making it hard to type on that laptop

Hair pretties

Jan 7, 2009, originally uploaded by agstratt.

Ahhh, my new pasttime, making little hair pretties for my niece and friends who have baby girls!

Statcounter troubles

So I logged onto StatCounter this morning to see my blog traffic and it said I had NO visitors since mid October... I was a bit confused, especially since at least Michelle commented on an entry or two and then realized I didn't insert the StatCounter code into my new design. Oops! I mean, it's not like I get a whole heck of a lot of traffic anyways, but it was weird to see NO visitors. At first, I was like "well, if no one is visiting, then I can start the Brutal Honesty portion of our show"... but then realized it had to be a mistake.

The mistake was mine, a technical miss on my part. At least I figured it out. Shows how often I log into StatCounter!

On a totally different subject, did anyone see this? I have been eagerly anticipating a Slingplayer client for my iPhone since I purchased it and am super freaking pumped. Hopefully it works well, and isn't super slow. Who knows, though? I guess the app would only be as good as your connection, so there would be limitations. But at least I could watch some shows on the iPhone through our Slingbox rather than buying anything I want to watch on itunes. That would save some bank. Each show is only 1.99 but that adds up.

More 2008 recap....

I am totally stealing this from Michelle... a summary of our 2008 travels.

January and February
Nowhere.... blessed nowhere

March
April went to Sydney, Australia for work

April
April went to London for work, and Mike tagged along
April went to visit Katie in Indy to help register for baby Gracie

May
To Evansille for April's sister Katie's graduation and baby shower
Logansport to visit Mike's family

June
Pokagan State Park in northern Indiana for Stratton Family Reunion
April's Evansville high school girlfriends all came to Chicago for big reunion!
Lake cottage with Underhills in Northern Indiana

July
Coldwater, Michigan for annual Duff lake weekend
Fort Wayne, Indiana for Grandmother's funeral
April visited Katie, Drew, and Gracie for a weekend


August
Wedding anniversary trip to Saugatuck, Michigan
Visit to Indy to see Katie, Drew, Gracie and observe Hot Box Pizza operations
Charleston to visit Dixon


September
Hilton Head for Peter and Kira's wedding
Merrillville for Justin and Kimmo's wedding
Evansville for April's high school reunion
April visited Dora at Cornell in Ithaca, NY

October
GACRT/Iowa game at IU (both Mike and April)
Homecoming at IU (only April)


November
Purdue for Old Oaken Bucket game
Evansville for Thanksgiving

December
April went to Vegas to run mini marathon
Mike went to Logansport to visit family
Then Indiana tour 2008 for Christmas: stops in Evansville, Indianapolis, Terre Haute, and Logansport

One more thing

on the resolution list.

I'd like to finish that purple scarf I've been knitting for two years!

Resolutions

I have been kicking around resolutions today. I want them to be important yet measureable...

1. My brother and his girlfriend got me this awesome journal, and I want to make sure I write in it each day. So that is the first resolution.
2. I would like to take the Digital 2 class at Chicago Photography Center (I took Digital one last year). I see this happening in the fall or late summer for me.
3. I want to keep up with my quitting caffeine and carbonation thing. I cheated a little over the holiday and my throat is paying for it. My one exception to this would be champagne, maybe once a month, and maybe one diet coke a month. But I am going to try and go without it totally.
4. Buy a paper shredder. I keep putting it off because it's SO not a fun purchase... this should be an easy one to check off the list.
5. Start the website and checkout abilities for the name frame business. I want to have this up and running by April.
6. Quit candy with Michelle. I would also like to lose some lbs and fit into my clothes a little better, but doubt putting that on the resolutions listing would do anything but make me feel bad. If it's measurable (lose 10 lbs), I don't think it's a good fitness goal. And if it's a good fitness goal (be stronger, pants fit better) then it's not measurable. Candy is a big weakness of mine and one reason why my pants don't fit well, so I'll make that a resolution and hope that helps the weight-loss effort.

Seriously, Tazo?

Tazo Tea instructions:

1. Bring some fresh, filtered water to a boil
2. For hot tea, place one Tazo filterbag in your cup, mug, or gourd
3. Pour 8 fl oz of water over the filterbag
4. Steep for 3 minutes while contemplating your favorite eternal mysteries.

Who writes this stuff?

Dog found her Howler

Dog found her Howler
Originally uploaded by agstratt

Check out Milly's new skillz

2009

This is the year that my husband and I both turn 30. How crazy is it that across the blogsophere I see people saying they can't believe they are 30, and only have one kid. They are onlly 30 and haven't done x.

Well, I am 30 and haven't done much of anything! surprising, I know!

I would like to count myself blessed though, because I love my life and those that are in it. I wonder what the future holds for us, and I think it'll be interesting.

Hello 2009 questionnaire

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before? Used my passport!
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I think I curse less. I certainly didn't go to the gym at least once a week but it probably evened out to at least that, because I trained and finished another mini-marathon
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Yes, my friend Tracy and sister Katie both had beautiful little girls
4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes, my beautiful and wonderful grandmother, Diana Stratton. I am glad that I got to tell her that we would name a little girl after her before she died. My life will never be the same after her passing.
5. What countries did you visit? Australia and London, UK
6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? I wish I had visited Portugal with Mike... I would also like much more satisfaction with myself in total than 2008
7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? August 11, 2008... our wedding anniversary and the babydog's birthday!
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Held my tongue WAY MORE than I thought possible
9. What was your biggest failure? Being a bad big sib to my mentee Gracie... I just have way too much to do
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Nope
11. What was the best thing you bought? Air conditioner, August 2008... Dog, November 2008
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? As always, my mom and dad
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Family not named to protect the not-so-innocent
14. Where did most of your money go? Various costs to be a grownup
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Many random roadtrips
16. What song will always remind you of 2008? Beyonce - Single Girls ...If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it.. My sister sang this to make my niece laugh and it cracked me up
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:a) happier or sadder? happier
b) thinner or fatter? oy, fatter fo sho
c) richer or poorer? richer, very very slightly
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? working out
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? worrying about the election
20. How did you spend Christmas? With my husband's family
21. Did you fall in love in 2008? yes, with my baby dog, Milly. I LOVE THAT DOG.
22. What was your favorite TV program? How I Met Your Mother
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Yup. Can't say who
24. What was the best book you read? Twilight books
25. What was your greatest musical discovery? Straight No Chaser and Chipmunks Christmas CDs
26. What did you want and get? Chef's knife and new vacuum
27. What did you want and not get? new carpet
28. What was your favorite film of this year? Zach and Miri make a Porno (HILARIOUS) and Twilight
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 29... and spent the day writhing in pain with sore tooth (later needed a root canal) in so much pain I cried myself to sleep and couldn't think straight.. Excellent birthday!!! At least I can say I had Chipotle for dinner that night. I love that place.
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Dog not crapping on the bathroom floor
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008? Expensive Jeans and Cheap Tops
32. What kept you sane? Hubs
33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Hmmm, Justin Timberlake, again
34. What political issue stirred you the most? The election
35. Who did you miss? My grandmother. I can't believe she's gone. I miss her so much.
36. Who was the best new person you met? My niece, Gracie. She is the best little booboohead I have ever met!
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008. To shut up and mock from afar.... I need to refine this even more in 2009, as I still don't shut up as much as I should!
38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Baseball season's underway
Better get ready for a brand new day...
Hey Chicago what do you say?
Cubs are gonna win today...

They're saying, "Go Cubs go, go Cubs go,
hey Chicago what do you say
Cubs are gonna win today"

Well, until at least the Cubs doo-dood the bed and got swept in the playoffs!!

Baby Gracie

DSC_0304.JPG, originally uploaded by agstratt.

Mike and I babysat for Baby Gracie yesterday. She was a doll, we had a great time. Check out her new little hairbow... and her eyes are so blue! The only downside was that I thought my arm was going to fall off after holding her/standing and rocking her to sleep.... I have a new respect for my sister's arm strength!