Out With the Old, In With the New

Dec. 31, 2012

We're about to head out for the evening and don't know when I'll be back, so here's the last photo of 2012.

Out with the old, in with the new.

Ok, I lied. I can't end on that. Here are a few of my favorites from a few of the trips we took:

Christianstad, St. Croix

Frederikstad, St. Croix

Cabo San Lucas, Baja Mexico

Cabo San Lucas, Baja Mexico

Tracy Arm, Sawyer Glacier, Alaska

Hoonah, Alaska

Somewhere north of Anchorage, Alaska

Homer, Alaska

Sitka, Alaska

Gainesville, Florida

Bye.

Penultimate Post :)

Year in Review

Everybody does these, right? :)

Ok, so this was a fun resolution. I like taking photos anyway, and it gave me yet another reason to do so. This project also got me to go out to see and do more things--sometimes things I would never bother to do otherwise, like going to the Arts Festivals in both Gainesville and Atlanta, or the Gator Gauntlet. Also as my physical health improved I was able to do more, which helped.

I'm basically a pretty boring person blessed enough to have the opportunity to do and see some amazing stuff this year. St. Croix, Cabo San Lucas, Alaska...it was a lot of fun, if also a bit painful at times :) I also have the fortune to live in a very beautiful area of the country, so having a day where nothing else was planned and I was feeling able meant I had many choices of locales to just go and look.

There's also the once-again-proven cliche that there is beauty all around you--you just have to open your eyes and see it. I took a lot of photos this year simply noticing something right in front of me I'd seen a hundred times before and never thought twice. One of my friends said she liked the day where the picture was of a glass of water, because we in the United States often take it for granted and it was a good reminder to be thankful. In the past I've jokingly answered "How are you?" with "Well, I woke up and had hot water. I'm two-for-two.". I still say that, but I'm joking less and truly just happy about it more :)

I did much better at taking the photos every day than I did at blogging about them. I think I missed about five days' photos total, due to feeling crappy or just plain forgetfulness on a stay-at-home day. The blog was a good idea, and I enjoy it as well but it's easier to slip behind a day or two or 30. I was struggling to catch up on about five weeks of photos once December hit, as my friends very gently pointed out and motivated me to get up-to-date. Thanks guys! One benefit of falling behind periodically is that if some criminal is following my blog to see when I'll be out of town, they will be completely stymied by my inconsistency! :)

After the St. Croix trip I changed how I was making entries. I stuck strictly to one per day after that (oops, upon further review I still cheated and did some multi-photo days) and made a separate entry for each day. I find it amusing that my 366 days of photos don't have 366 entries, but whatever :)

It was very difficult on some days to pick one and only one photo. There are some that I really liked but didn't make the cut, as a different photo more precisely captured the feel of the entire day. I started reviewing everything to choose maybe a top 10 or so, but it's difficult to do even that. If I cut out all the travel, I have a better shot at finishing this today.

Allison with her funky gum. This was on Valentine's Day, which ended up with a funnier story still involving Allison ;)

Seth and I "hiding" Easter eggs at Trinity Methodist. They had so many eggs we ran out of hiding spots and started strewing them about the lawn. Then that got boring so we started making mosaic pictures and spelling out messages. Seth is writing "Happy Easter"!

Storm clouds on Lake Santa Fe. Even with bad luck on the boat, we've never had a non-gorgeous day on this lake.

Our friends Howard and Eve at the Arts Festival.

Seen on my hike on May 5. Sure it's graffiti, but it's pretty cool-looking graffiti.

The day I figured out how to download a photo from someone else's Facebook page. Surprise, Zach! He and his girlfriend were at an anime convention.

(Just to clarify--that is not his girlfriend ;)  )

We had brunch with Roanne and Larry on Mother's Day. Later on that day Mike took me to the Straight No Chaser concert, which made the photo-of-the-day, but I like this one of family too :)

Another photo of the church chancel, this time on Pentacost. I love that banner!

Adventure Runners in the Gator Gauntlet coming out of crawling under the low wire and about the hurdle the fire pit. Admittedly, a fairly dead fire pit, but it probably wouldn't feel good to step in it all the same.

Another view of the flooding at Devil's Millhopper State Park.

These seats were so good!

My missing 9-11 photo, because I just couldn't post something frivolous.

These are exercise balls in one of the rooms upstairs at GHFC. I was doing something on the floor and this was my view.

At the pro tennis tournament at Jonesville Tennis Club. These two teenagers were battling each other. It was a long, drawn-out match.

This was the coach of the shooting team from Evans H.S. He served in the military as a postal carrier in Afghanistan. I'm so glad he came back safely--that job sounded pretty dangerous. He said they were often the ones that had to drive over roads that weren't completely secure and you never knew if an IED was waiting.

Outside Las Margaritas, I just liked how these shadows looked.

Another shot of the Payne's Prairie sunrise. That was such a beautiful morning :)

Corey in his commander's helmet at Mike's Mini Meet in Oct.

I'm a sucker for silhouettes. This was our first all-cast rehearsal for the Boar's Head Festival and we were lined up for the procession.

Looking up at our flag on Veterans' Day.

One of the soldiers helping out on the route of the Fisher House 5k on Nov. 12.

Saying goodbye to Zach and Des at the airport

Dress rehearsal for Boar's Head with full makeup. I had to constantly remind myself not to wipe my face :(

My BattleTech decor :)  I like this display for the tealight candle spots it has on top. I got the small gravel and shells at a crafts store. After months of it being like that, one day I decided it needed something else. These figures are clickables from the BattleTech game Mike and the boys used to play. I have a character in an online game called 3K which is loosely based on BattleTech so when they stopped using the figures I grabbed them to decorate my desk. Now a few of them grace the rocky battlefield which is our hallway bathroom :)

Another shot of Griffis Lumber. The sky was so blue!

Stille Nacht!

Ok, I really must stop this. There were literally hundreds of other photos I wanted to include here and I've been compiling this post for over 5 hours!

To sum up, a lot happened this year and it was fun photo-documenting it all. I'm glad others are enjoying my blog. People have asked me if I'm going to continue it or not. I'm not sure. Probably not the daily photo thing anyway. I feel like leaving this as a stand-alone thing--a year in my life, without too many messy details.

My resolution for 2013 is to learn Hebrew, so maybe I'll blog about that from time to time on another page. Stay tuned :)

I do still have one last day to record--today. Not sure I'll get it in before midnight. We'll just have to see :)

Happy New Year everyone!

Penultimate Day

Dec. 30, 2012

We're in a frenzy of organizing again, with the end of the year upon us and tax season right around the corner. Mike needed a new roll of tape for his label maker so we went to Office Depot. While there he also got a new shredder. We tend to kill shredders and after talking to a very helpful man there, we now know why. It's not just that you can only run it for a few minutes before it needs to cool down; it's that if you run it too hot, the rollers actually expand with the heat and will never again fit the right way (if they don't completely jam and refuse to move).

In the checkout line they had a bin of Christmas cards on sale for $2 a box. That's a great price, so I picked up two boxes. When the checkout clerk saw them she said something like "Oh, cards for next year's Christmas I guess." I felt like being a smart-aleck so I said "No, we observe Kyrgyzstani Christmas. It's in March. That's a more historically accurate time of year for Christmas." She might have believed me for a few seconds, but Seth was laughing so I think she caught on ;)

Ok, I actually said "Kurgistani" but felt obligated to look up the correct spelling.

Mike once had this comedy podcast he listened to that had an awesome song about Kyrgyzstan and various pronunciations newscasters used. We listened to it a few times before he erased it, but I wish we could find it again.

What Is the Probability of Kids Doing Math Practice?

Dec. 29, 2012

Pretty darn high actually!

Seth coaches his school's statistics team and I think he's enjoying that more than competing in his own calculus division. His idea of a good time is to do extra practice, so he invited the team of six over for a practice session. Some of them kept talking about it as a party and he kept correcting them, "No, it's a practice". We did get them some Subway sandwiches, and it was a relaxed setting, but he had them do a bunch of rounds of testing, with time limits and all.

2/3 of them showed up over break to do math. Awesome :)

He did tell them if they finished his stack of questions they would play board games :) They managed to get through all the problems with a little over an hour before their parents were coming to collect them, so they played Settlers of Catan.

Christmas In Alaska In Florida

Dec. 28, 2012

This is the ornament I've mentioned a few times on this blog. I bought it in Ketchikan, Alaska at a store called "Christmas In Alaska". I could have spent hours in there, but luckily for my dad, the ship's departure schedule kept me from dawdling too much. I chose this one because I knew I wouldn't break it during my trip. The store offered to ship it back home, but it would have cost three times as much as the ornament to do that *laugh*.

Flatland

Dec. 27, 2012

I have one of those dashboard lights that comes on if your tire pressure is low. I looked and saw that one was a little low and mentioned it to Mike. He has an air compressor now so he blasted some air into the tire--problem solved. Or so I thought.

The dashboard light remained on, but that had happened in the past with other things; if the dealer doesn't fix the issue and go into the computer to turn off the light, the light stays on (sometimes). I didn't think too much of it.

Well, this night we went out for dinner kind of far from home. We were low on gas but Mike wanted to eat first, so we went to the restaurant, ate, then got back in the car to find a gas station. It was cold (for Florida), so when the car didn't feel right I wasn't too worried. When I drove out of the parking lot though and the car was fwumping* I knew it wasn't good. Mike told me to pull off the road. Luckily we were along Butler Plaza which is a long string of stores and parking lots. I turned off the main road and into a parking spot. Sure enough, one of the back tires was completely flat.

At least we had a spare and the tools to swap the tires, and a handy teenager to do most of the heavy lifting ;)

Seth had plenty of practice too--he had to swap all 4 tires on his car a few months ago.

I had the tire patched the next day. There was a nail in it--not a roofing nail, surprisingly.

*fwumping is the sound a flat tire makes when you're stupidly driving on it.

Floor Model

Dec. 26, 2012

Over the years our stockings have been in variety of places. This year I used the floor in front of the mini-tree and hearth.

Someday I'd like to have a mantle with some nice weighted Christmassy hooks. I used to have the hooks (and a nice spot to put them) but I guess they didn't make the move from California because I haven't seen them in years.

Noel

Dec. 25, 2012

Mike went golfing with his crew and I got some serious Netflix watching done--apparently before the big Noflix that swept the country ;)  Then we shared Christmas dinner with our neighbors. We're again thankful for our many blessings.

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Dec. 24, 2012

I love Christmas Eve (and Christmas Eve Day). When I was a kid our family tradition was to go to church in the evening and then open presents and drink egg nog when we got home. I've continued that with my family.

My favorite moment is always singing "Silent Night" during the candlelighting, especially when the organ stops playing and the congregation sings. Double bonus at this year's service--one verse a capella, one verse in German :)  Happy Birthday Jesus!

Back at home, we opened gifts and I was surprised with a team effort from Mike and Seth. They both worked on fixing my old child-sized rocking chair! I've had this as long as I can remember, but it broke in the move from California to Florida. Mike held on to it all this time and was able to repair it this year :)

Altared States

Dec. 23, 2012

The church chancel looks so pretty. I love the candle banners.

O Tannenbaum

Dec. 22, 2012

I finally got around to decorating our Christmas tree. I love going through all the ornaments every year and revisiting the ones the kids chose, and especially the ones they made.

About five years ago (when we had real trees, before we were all allergic to them) our tree was off-balance and fell, breaking many of the ornaments. I miss those, but I'm glad that some of the other fragile ones did not break. When Seth was in first grade he made two ornaments out of this cinnamon-scented dough:  a heart, and a gingerbread man. Those are so brittle that every year I unwrap them I expect to find pieces. So far so good though :)

Tee-bowing

Dec. 21, 2012

Yes, it's the end of the world and we were on the golf course ;) Mike wanted to golf and I needed some fresh air and exercise. It was a balmy 49 degrees when we started and warmed all the way up to 52--I wore my Alaska gear. Other than that it was a beautiful day and we had a good time. 

Mike is a little irked about the golf rule change on putters, but can still use his current one for a while. He says he'll get a new putter this spring and worry about practicing with it at that point.

Eye'd Love to See You Sometime

Dec. 20, 2012

Poor Seth can't see the 3-D effect in movies. Mike had heard that this was a newly noticed thing now that there are a lot of 3-D movies and tvs, so he wanted Seth to get checked at the eye doctor. Seth went in for an exam, but they only found a very small uncorrectable pull. Their suggestion: don't pay more money for 3-D movies at the theater and stick with 2-D.

Lumbering Along

Dec. 19, 2012

The roofers were at the house and making a lot of noise so we headed out to do something--anything. Mike wanted to look at some wood at Griffis Lumber. I knew I had seen this place in the past but couldn't remember exactly where they were located, so we ended up having our first experience with the new (bad) Apple maps app which kept sending us back and forth on 441, but never far enough north to see the sign. Mike finally looked up the address online and we entered that into the car's GPS *laugh*  Ain't technology grand? :)

Once we went far enough north we saw the big sign and found the place easily. I loved the look of it and when Mike went to look at pieces of wood I walked around taking photos.

The Game is Afoot!

Dec. 18, 2012

I met with my friends for lunch again today and we exchanged Christmas gifts. Penny gave each of us these cool magnifying glasses. They have some weight to them and make you feel like going out and deducing things elementarily with Emma Watson...or something. :)

This is Just Not Right

Dec. 17, 2012

I don't like transvestite Pooh-Bear :(  Why is Pooh wearing a black bikini? Why? WHY? (And I don't care that it's probably supposed to be a black t-shirt and shorts that are too small for him--it looks like a frackin bikini).

I do love me some Tigger and Eeyore though :)

I did find some things I liked as well. I am limited to one Christmas tree ornament per year (that I buy for myself) because otherwise we would have been drowning in Christmas ornaments by 1992. I already picked out an ornament for myself in Alaska, but I was shopping for one for Mike. He likes moose, so I try to find those for him. The only moose ornament at the Hallmark store this year was the Moose Mug from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which I've never seen. It was kind of cute though, so I got it.

Farther down the row of displayed ornaments was a Walter Payton one. Zach had picked a Jerry Rice one years ago, and I would love to have Walter Payton...but that darned limit. Well, I did the next best thing and gave one to each of my brothers :)