1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
   I got to see a little bit of California’s wine country! So lovely, I want to go back.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
   I don’t usually make real resolutions, but in 2012 I’m going to continue improving my domestic diva-ness: canning my own food and sewing my own quilt.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
   My friend, Erin, had her daughter, Lillian, last New Year’s Eve.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
   Jason’s uncle (aka Dad #2), Fred, passed away in August. My mom’s uncle, Roger, passed away in September.
5. What countries did you visit?
   I decided to stay in the US this year… (I should use my passport more.)
6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
   Paint on the walls in my home, a comfortable crafting room (“lady town”), and my dream bathroom. We have a lot of housework to do in 2012! (And thanks to my generous siblings, we have a very good head-start with our home improvement funds.)
7. What date(s) from 2011 will remain etched your memory, and why?
   Over the 4^th of July weekend I photographed a very lovely half-Indian, half-Scottish wedding. August 21^st was the day Uncle Fred lost his battle with cancer. July 29^th was the day Jason closed on the house. (There were a lot of good days mixed in with bad days this year.)
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
   Advancing my career as a web chick (aka web developer)!
9. What was your biggest failure?
   Not paying off more debt.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
    Excellent timing: I was diagnosed with an ear infection about two days prior to my insurance ending with my previous employer — and I would’ve had to wait another month for my insurance with my new employer to kick in!
11. What was the best thing you bought?
    Movers really helped me out mid-August (as did my fantastic brother-in-law).
12. Where did most of your money go?
    I’m honestly not sure — a lot of little things really add up, I guess.
13. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
    Moving into the house with the man I love! Also, becoming more of a domestic diva: cooking for Thanksgiving dinner with friends, canning, gardening (next year), knitting, and sewing.
14. What song(s) will always remind you of 2011?
    Cloud Cult’s “Running with the Wolves.”
15. Compared to this time last year, are you:
    • happier or sadder? Happier!
    • thinner or fatter? About the same, though my new employer feeds me a lot and I haven’t been walking or standing as much.
    • richer or poorer? A little bit richer, but still working on paying off that pile of debt!
16. What do you wish you’d done more of?
    Crafting, reading, hanging out with friends.
17. What do you wish you’d done less of?
    Wallowing in depression about money.
18. How will you be spending/did you spend Christmas?
    Over the last couple days, Jason and I were in South Dakota with my family. This afternoon we’re celebrating Bertine & Zach’s wedding. In another two weekends, we’ll be celebrating with Jason’s family in Iowa.
19. Did you fall in love in 2011?
    I fell more in love, if that’s even possible.
20. How many one-night stands?
    I try to stand at least once every night.
21. What was your favorite TV program?
    The Walking Dead. It makes me nervous and I can’t watch it without Jason being around, but it’s so well written and acted!
22. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
    I try not to use this word/feel this emotion.
23. What was the best book you read?
    The only book I read this year was The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom, but I did very much enjoy it.
24. What was/were your greatest musical discoveries?
    Florence + The Machine is probably my favorite from this year.
25. What did you want and get?
    For the last five months or so, I’ve been dying to trade in my Android for an iPhone, but it was never financially feasible. I was going to wait until next month to take the plunge, but my sweetie did some sneaking around and got me an iPhone for Christmas! I may or may not have cried (just a little bit). (Excitement, you know?) (Who am I kidding? I cry at everything.)
26. What was your favorite film of this year?
    Harry Potter!
27. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
    I turned 30 this past November. I had a couple friends visiting, Bridget and Lindy. We went to brunch at Fat Nat’s Eggs, visited the Museum of Russian Art and IKEA, then for dinner (with Jason and Kristi joining) we made Tater Tot Hot Dish and watched both of the final Harry Potter movies back-to-back. It was a great day!
28. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
    If our girl kitties would just (at least) tolerate each other.
29. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
    Too poor to shop for clothing, make do with what I have.
30. What kept you sane?
    Jason.
31. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
    I very much enjoyed watching Will & Kate’s Royal Wedding (and seeing what she wore and her jewelry and etc. etc. etc.)
32. What political issue stirred you the most?
    I don’t know, I’m not really very political (out loud, I guess).
33. Who did you miss?
    Friends from South Dakota (I didn’t make it home enough this year).
34. Who was the best new person you met?
    I met a lot of new people this year — my new team at work, friends’ friends, or people just passing through my life’s adventures.
35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:
    Just breathe. Everything will work out.
36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
    Then lights they fill the air, or were they always there?
    I finally see it. I finally see it.
    And I heard the captain say, I heard the captain say,
    “You’re always close to it, so very close to it.”
    There’s so much energy in us.

we had one full day to see as much of the national mall as we could, so we tried to get going as early as possible. our first order of business was moving to a hotel that we could afford in order to stay in dc for another night. but it was in a good place to start — embassy row near dupont circle.

jason and i took turns taking photos with my camera. so settle in, because i have plenty to share. (we walked for approximately 6 hours and estimate that we covered about 10 miles.)

we took a “wrong” turn down new hampshire and happened across this manhole cover dedicated to sonny bono. it was placed in front of a tiny patch of dirt that had one small bench. so random. but interesting and worth a photo anyway.

does he have two tickets to that thing that i love?

squirrel in the foreground was trying to find somewhere to bury his food.

again: sorta random.

not cherry blossoms — just really pretty.

our “wrong” turn down new hampshire brought us right past albert einstein, so we stopped to say hello.

i was most excited to finally see the lincoln memorial. i remember very little of my trip to dc in 2004, but i know i didn’t get to see the sights — lincoln, reflecting pool, and so on. i only recall walking past the white house and seeing the washington monument from a distance. and the capitol building.

we took a detour around the backside of the memorial, while we entertained the idea of walking across the potomac to see arlington national cemetery. (which we did not do.)

it was the saddest moment of the day when we discovered that the reflecting pool was under construction! and it has been since 2010. lame. how many other tourists’ photos have been ruined, i wonder?

but at least i got to see abe.

i love the scale of this photo. jason is 6’1″.

then we wandered to go see some war memorials. first: vietnam.

there were two books to help locate the names of lost loved ones on the walls of the memorial.

it was awesome to see all of the proud vets that were touring the memorials — of all ages. next we saw the korean war memorial.

thank you, veterans.

on to see martin luther king, jr.

across the water was another destination point: the jefferson memorial.

we ran into the franklin delano roosevelt memorial first. it’s quite the memorial — a whole timeline of his time in office!

jason thought i didn’t look poor enough to fit in with these guys. but i was starting to get a little hungry around this time…

clearly, jason was taking all of the photos in this memorial. (otherwise i’m never in the photos i have to share at the end of a trip.)

i’m still not sure what this is — it was on the columns lining a bridge we crossed to get to the jefferson memorial.

my feet were absolutely killing me by the time we got here so i was very happy to find an open bench for a moment. (this was about our halfway point.)

cherries!

despite my aching feet, we trudged on. i mean, what other choice did i have, really? we got back to the national mall and happened upon the washington monument. it’s amazingly large! and actually made me feel quite dizzy, looking up at the top of it with all of the puffy, white clouds passing by.

this is as close as we got to the capitol building. next time we visit dc, we are planning to see the eastern end of the national mall. and more museums! though this wasn’t the end of our day, i’m going to pause here for now (similar to how i wanted to just lay down and fall asleep on the grass of the mall)… more soon!

early last week, jason and i hopped on a flight to dc.

the first sight we saw was fort washington national park. kinda. (as pointed out by the dude in the seat behind us.) right on the potomac. then i think we saw georgetown, but i have no idea, really.

the first evening we were there, though, wasn’t for sightseeing. we were picked up at the airport by a private driver with a private car that had little, complementary bottles of water, fresh newspapers, and tons of extra leg room. we were promptly delivered to the ritz carlton, where the art utilizes very fancy apples (seemingly switched daily). the first thing we did in our super-duper fancy hotel room? we each took a nap.

after recharging our internal batteries, we geared up for a very fancy, formal night with jason’s employer, cigna, and his coworkers. we were attending his company’s annual employee appreciation/recognition event. after putting on our finest attire (jason bought a new suit for the occasion), we went downstairs and located the rest of jason’s team. we were served appetizers and were welcomed to an open bar while all of the invited employees gathered. around 7, the doors for the ceremony were opened and we found our assigned seats… and served a really delicious three-course dinner! so much food, but so so so yummy.

it was an excellent event — every team of employees from across the country had a special story of why they were “champions” of the company. it was inspiring. and i may have forced one woman to give me a hug. (her story? she helped a customer get out of the hospital and spend his/her final days at home, surrounded by family. it really struck a chord with me, considering the subject of my last post.)

after the event, we stayed in our fancy clothes and went out on the town with jason’s coworkers. tons of fun! to be perfectly honest, we had so much fun that the next morning, i woke up a little bit hungover — but so ready to do some sightseeing! after a somewhat low-energy breakfast (or was that just me?) with jason’s team, we set about the business of being tourists.

stay tuned…

i thought about a series of items and people repeatedly this weekend. one of the items was this blog.

i take all of these photos to share. so i post them on flickr. my flickr feeds to facebook now, and i post my photo-of-the-day to twitter. so i’m sharing photos and friends are seeing my photos, but what i really, really want is to share them here.

so i think i need to create another blog or two. one for my random everyday life things, one for my crazy adventures (i’m so far behind), and one for design and inspiration to be a designer (i got two new books this last week).

i’ve been looking to blogs like the pioneer woman or dooce for their set-up and how they manage things. i also read raymi and covet the simplicity of her posts and blog style (anything goes, post all photos, forget things/remember things, write like you’re gossiping with a friend). so i guess i’m conflicted on how i want to use this little pork chop cutlet of the web.

it’s somehow already autumn and for about a second a couple months ago i was full of motivation. then i went on vacation to new england. when i came back, i didn’t really want to be back. it was just so great going from town to town, stopping where we wanted and doing what we wanted and eating really great seafood. we got back to minneapolis and suddenly summer was over and the fun had stopped and my calendar was empty and i was broke and it was cold enough in my house that my cats are on me all of the time. in the span of my 6 vacation days, things in this fair city slowed to a seeming halt. (though work got busy, but that’s something else.)

i guess it’s becoming more and more okay that it’s autumn and soon it will be winter. this happens every year, i think. i complain about how it seems like other minnesotans forget how to drive in the snow (and rain, and at 8 a.m., and when the sun is shining, and when there’s a game…); i guess i forget how to keep up my spirits in the autumn?

luckily there are occasions such as happy hour (“happy tower” at parma 8200, though i’m not really sure why) and the minnesota renaissance festival to ease me through the transition.

also, the sky has been just incredibly lately. i spend too much time taking photos while i drive lately, maybe. i just can’t resistant purple and pink clouds!

so i spent friday night watching chick flicks and thinking about my blog and knitting. early the next morning, vani and i went to the renaissance festival. of the 40 years of renfest, i would guess i’ve gone to about 10 of those years? not all sequentially. i went once or twice as a pre/early-teen, then a couple times as a snotty high schooler, and a few times during my college years, then i’ve gone the last three or four years… so, it’s a place i enjoy, obviously.

always must have chicken and wild rice soup in a bread bowl. my own personal tradition. since i went with vani this year, i even got fresh ground pepper. (she carries it in her purse! because she’s a genius.)

vani played an olde strategy game while i photographed chess pieces.

we enjoyed a turkey leg. geez, that thing was massive. tasty, though.

and to offset the photo of vani digging into said turkey leg, here is a cute photo of her wearing a bodice from felix needleworthy. i always stop by the shop and say “hi” to estelle.

vilification tennis is hilarious. i introduced the show to vani as jason introduced it to me at last year’s fest.

this dude was making little glass critters.

we stopped by to ooh and aah at twig the fairy, but she was out and about. we borrowed her backdrop for a memory moment.

this dude again.

this camel is peeing. vani thought that if i tweeted that i was watching a camel pee it would be too much information, so i got the camera out instead. (?)

i bought a pretty gypsy-style bodice because i want to be a gypsy girl. i’ve got a whole lot of costume left to develop, though.

i didn’t see very many fairies this year. maybe it was too cold of a weekend? or maybe they were extra sneaky.

glass blowing! i had a prime seat.

i was all: how much?! but there was still a long, finishing process for the vase to go through. after we watched the demo, we went through the shop again with open eyes. all amazed at the beautiful. i wanted to buy something but anything i thought was worth buying and that i would use was well over $50. if i hadn’t bought the bodice, would i have bought some glass? hmm…

glass blowing demo was by david tate.

post-festival, i laid on my couch all night and watched john hughes movies. because that’s how i roll.

this morning i brought kristi to chez daniel to help me spend a groupon. i had read that the brunch was amazing, and i love a good brunch, so away we went. it was a weird little restaurant inside of hotel, so it was kind of hard to find at first. or maybe my hunger was blocking my direction skills. in any case, we got in, got seated, ordered coffee, and went to town on the buffet. all sorts of breakfast items, cheeses, pasta salads, plates upon plates of dessert, and a chocolate fountain! (i went in for a chocolate-dipped pineapple before bothering with anything else.) the mashed potatoes were among the most notable menu item.

afterwards we went to ikea, where i wanted everything. mostly i want a new desk and desk chair and an expedit shelf with boxes for organizing stuff. i didn’t buy anything though: i told myself i have to clean out that second bedroom that i keep closed and ignore before i can even think about buying furniture i probably don’t need at this point in my life.

those idea houses really are full of genius ideas.

parting, unrelated note: sometimes i look in the mirror and admire my hair. i haven’t dyed it in years; all of my highlights are natural. my color is my own. i look in the mirror and wonder how i got to be so blonde. am i having more fun? maybe.

man, i miss summer, though.

after my incident in the desert, i took a wrong turn (or, rather, missed the right turn) and ended up with a scenic drive down the strip in las vegas. not that i had any energy for it, but i took advantage of the situation by snapping photos when i was stopped. which was pretty often. traffic is pretty bad on the strip.

i didn’t start taking photos until i was way past the stratosphere, but i still had a glimpse in my side mirror.

anything i know about vegas, i learned from a movie.

i wonder how the osmonds feel about having their faces almost as tall as this building.

and, finally, i had returned to the security of a cell phone charger and a bed. later in the evening i joined coworkers at aureole before retiring for the evening.

we got to see someone – a “wine angel steward” – fetch a bottle of wine from about halfway up the column.

in the morning i joined a couple coworkers and rapid world cup fans down at the sports book. biggest. tv. ever.

he’s a german. totally awesome mullet. (and i think he was serious? i’m not, though.)

i went to happy hour at china grill a couple times. i was very pleased with their price for sushi.

elephants everywhere!

i also fell in love with the border grill. great chips and salsa and delicious margaritas! the ceviche was also really tasty after the day i spent walking the strip – really cooled me down.

oh, and the patio had a really great view over the pools.

how many photos is that so far? I guess let’s keep going, i’ve got a ridiculous amount more to share but the organization might be weird.

to do for next time: ride the roller coaster at new york new york.

another to do for someday: go to real new york.

i love a good lens flare!

mgm grand was the destination on the evening these photos were taken.

remember when david copperfield did those specials on tv before all sorts of other wacky magicians came along? i loved those shows, especially when you would get to “interact” with him during the card tricks made for viewers at home.

this photo was taken on my way back to mandalay bay. i skipped a whole bunch because the event at the mgm was the attendee appreciation party for cisco live, details of which i’m saving for another post. onward!

rumjungle. i shoulda gone back for more, but got distracted.

my coworkers and i made a special trip to paris.

we ate ridiculously well at mon ami gabi. steak roquefort: oh, my.

and, with the bellagio right across the street, we had to take in the fountains after dinner.

and now i need to take a break because i took about five million photos on my last day, which was entirely on my own. so! stay tuned.