Entries from January 2010 ↓

i so bored i don’t even want to do this. this is the least motivated saturday night i’ve had in a long time.

A – AVAILABLE: right now, yes. but only if you tunnel me somewhere warm ’cause i don’t wanna go outside.

B – BIRTHDAY: friday, november 13, 1981.

C – CRUSHING ON: a tall, skinny boy.

D – DRINK YOU LAST HAD: i’m a wino.

E – EASIEST PERSON TO TALK TO: what am i talking about? i’ve got different folks for different thoughts.

F – FAVORITE SONG: all of ‘em.

G – GUMMY BEARS OR GUMMY WORMS: i got a sweet tooth, licorice drops and jelly rolls.

H – HOMETOWN: verm

I – IN LOVE WITH: wine.

J – JUGGLE: no

K – KILLED SOMEONE: just fish and plants (never on purpose, though)

L – LONGEST CAR RIDE: verm to greeley, colorado minneapolis to d.c.

M- MILKSHAKE FLAVOR: strawberry

N – NUMBER OF SIBLINGS: 1 sister, 1 brother

O – ONE WISH: motivation? ability to make a decision? time for bed?

P – PERSON YOU TALKED TO LAST: well i told the guy at the shoe store several times that i was just browsing, and before that i chatted with a woman at the gym about how handy the $1 reusable bags from target are (as i used mine to carry my shoes) but really before all that i was hanging out with jason, talking about people on the food channel and stuff

R – REASON TO SMILE: there’s a boy i like. my cats are cute. i have good friends.

S – SONG YOU LAST HEARD: i wasn’t listening

T – TIME YOU WOKE UP: 10:30 a.m.

U – UNDERWEAR COLOR: green.

W – WORST HABIT: picking at the ends of my nails absentmindedly.

X – X-RAYS YOU’VE HAD: teeth, ribs (i once bruised a rib while flying over the handlebars on my bike)

Y – YO-YOS: yes you are!

Z – ZODIAC SIGN: scorpio, hiss hiss

Somehow I convinced more people to go to the annual Saintly City Cat Show in St. Paul with me this year. Crystal, Jess, Bertine and I were geared up for a day full of fur, fun, and crazy cat ladies.

Here’s one:

I know you’re not supposed to go running around, petting all of the cats because they have special judging based on their coat and all, but these hostile signs really amused me all day. This was the best one because of the hearts.

Sometimes you’re allowed to pet the kittens that are for sale, but only if you’re really, truly interested. Even then, you have to use hand sanitizer first.

These tiny capes are awarded to two lucky house cats at the end of the weekend-long event. It’s fun to play dress up with animals!

Dear ma’am, your Scottish Fold is gigantic. And maybe a little crabby.

I’ve always been proud of how easily I can become someone’s biggest fan. This year I decided to take it up a notch and add in some crazy cat lady — I asked Walter Hutzler, cat show judge extraordinaire, to take a photo with me. He asked me who I was and I told him I didn’t have any cats for show, but I am a cat enthusiast (to say the least)!

I am so awesome.

I admit it: I love Abyssinians.

At the end of the day, King Boreas Rex LXXIX and Queen of the Snows came to cape the King and Queen of the house cats.

This is why it’s fun to put clothes on animals.

The King cat was apparently being too fussy to be caped, but he did think it was a good toy.

After the show, the gals and I went to Dixie’s on Grand for some delicious food. We were the only people in the restaurant because everyone else was at the bar watching some apparently very important football games.

Pattern: By Whitney Van Nes.
Made For: My coworker, Jen’s, first son: Lucas Thomas, born January 20, 2010.
Needle: US13 & US15
Yarn: Spud & Chloë “Outer” in soapstone, and S.R. Kertzer “Northern Worsted” in cool blue
Completed: January 7, 2010

Spud & Chloë yarn is so soft and wonderful — it was a delight to work with. I only knit a simple square with it, but at least it knit up quickly. Four skeins didn’t produce a very big body and the yarn cost more than I would’ve liked to spend. I found a cheaper, but still lovely, yarn from S.R. Kertzer for the border. This made it more affordable for me to double the number of rows in the border in order to give the blanket a little more width.

I was worried about creating the mitered corners, but they turned out very nicely! I also had to tackle picking up stitches around the whole edge of the blanket, and then again to “close” the border — thank goodness for crochet hooks.

I love the finished piece, and I hope Lucas does, too!

If you’re on Ravelry, you can view full details here. You can also view all of my photos here.

First Christmas

Due to a gigantic snow storm over the Christmas weekend, I spent my time being happily snowed in at home. I got home the Wednesday night before the holiday, and didn’t dig my car out ’til Sunday.

This is about half of the snow we got.

I probably should’ve tried to dig out a couple days earlier, but it was awfully nice being lazy.

Luckily Jason was willing to drive me around so we spent some time at his apartment (he has surround sound and satellite tv!), as well as an evening at Karyn and Bryan’s house.

Second Christmas

The following weekend, Jason and I drove down to Indianola on New Year’s Eve. We were spoiled by three days of sleeping in until 10 a.m. and having coffee ready for us when we woke up. Renee also made an endless supply of delicious food. It was a super weekend.

French toast and mimosas for brunch? Yes, please.

If I hadn’t let Nicholas and Alex take photos of me with my camera, this would’ve been the only real proof that I was there.

I think Logan found this Lego set – Lego Renee and a Lego chicken. Perfect (as Renee has chickens)!

We spent a lot of time playing Wii and card or board games in the evenings. I actually survived an entire game of Phase 10! Wine helps.

Third Christmas

And for weekend after that, I carpooled down to South Dakota with Karyn and Bryan to visit my own family.

My camera died when we reached the Sullivan Christmas party in Sioux Falls, so I took a bunch of photos with Karyn’s camera that I’m too lazy to post here.

It was Hannie’s first Christmas, of course, which is why she got so many more presents than the rest of us. (I kid!)

Ryan sent everyone their own Taiwanese banana case, which was pretty special.

Bryan knew these were SPAM, but he didn’t know which flavors! They came all the way from Hawaii.

I think I need to open this when I have friends around to help me drink it, in case it’s too weird.

That sushi pillow also came from Hawaii. I made a special trip to Honolulu’s Chinatown and sat on Waikiki beach with it all afternoon on my final day.

What a mess.

Kelsey and I have been friends since the 3rd grade and now she’s having a baby. Aren’t we somehow obligated to have babies at the same time so they can be BFFs, too? I am no where near ready for that, though. Oh, well.

Mom and Dad gave each other new toasters for Christmas. Dad hated their old toaster so much that he immediately threw it out… into a snow bank.

Karyn and I spent some time organizing and stuffing Ryan and Jane’s wedding invitations. Stamps and addresses were flying all over the room!

On our way back to Minneapolis, Karyn, Bryan, Hannie and I stopped at Grandma D’s house in Rock Rapids since we didn’t have a chance to see her in Sioux Falls. We had a delicious lunch, Hannie got some fun toys, and then we continued on our merry way.

That was the longest Christmas celebration ever!

I was going to fill out one of those surveys floating around the internet that asked about all the new and exciting and crazy things I did in 2009, but I’d rather just post the rest of my photos from the year because otherwise I’ll never get around to posting them!

I joined a group of my friends for “Sexy Dress-Up Day” — we ate brunch at Maria’s Cafe then went back to Ryan’s house for mimosas all afternoon.

I wore the new little black dress I bought as a birthday gift to myself and put on make-up — that never happens! It was an extra special day.

We like to take photos of ourselves and our friends, it’s no lie.

Later in the week, I stopped at Tiff’s apartment for a small birthday celebration for Warr.

Jazz hands!

I like this photo. I look sort of skinny. Maybe going to the gym has been helping my figure? I can’t tell anymore.

How you doin’?

Hey, we match!

Before the evening ended, Warr did an entire choreographed dance to Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” Color me impressed! I have no hope of ever having that sort of energy. ever. again.

And now it’s time for a few other, totally random photos.

At Club Jager:

Only one of us in this photo is not inebriated.

At Blue Nile:

At work, with my zany coworkers:

We took these photos on Kerri’s last day with us — seasonal and commemorative!

At Hannie’s house:

Jason and I hung out with Hannie while Karyn and Bryan took an hour or so to run errands together. We totally wore my little niece out and she gave me some very wonderful cuddles at the end of the evening.

And one more cute one (or cheesy one?) — me and Jason. Awww!

He’s pretty swell — and at the top of my list of new, exciting things that happened in 2009.

I’m looking forward to 2010 — I hope you’re all having an excellent new year so far!