Grandpa’s Sausage
Jan 7th
My grandpa makes this breakfast sausage, and it is delicious. Moist, and flavorful, and not greasy! Ryan and I were lucky and scored a few packages of it. Usually we save it for when we have company, but we were having breakfast for dinner, and it sounded like a good idea. It was a great idea. Yum…
Goal: make dinner 2 nights per week.
Dinner: Grandpa’s sausage; scrambled eggs with leftover onion, tomato, broccoli and cheese; and toast.
Verdict: Delicious!
What I got for Christmas
Jan 7th
Everyone is doing these great posts about their favorite Christmas gifts, and asking what everyone else got. I thought I would join in the fun! This was a really great year for me; everything I got is something I can use/wanted. And there was a funny story about one of my gifts that I’ll get to later.
First, Ryan and I got a Wii Fit.
It hasn’t been taken out of the box yet because we need to take down our tree first, and that hasn’t happened. This weekend, I think.
We also got a PS3 Move controller and game. It is mega-fun. You can play volleyball! Without killing your knees!
Also, I got a rice cooker/steamer. No photo of that one. We made rice with stir-fried veggies and baked fish tonight for dinner. It was delicious (and healthy!!).
I also got this game:
I don’t think I have laughed so hard in a long time. We played with Ryan’s family when they were up here the weekend before Christmas (I got it from his sister). It’s like a cross between the game Telephone and Pictionary. Its even more fun if you can’t draw. You should try it out. Seriously. Also, added bonus; you don’t have to keep score, and it’s still tons of fun!
Ryan got me a cookie scoop
And an SD card for my phone (which it then turned out already had an SD card, so the new one went to the camcorder).
I also got the newest Stephen King book
A cover for my Nook
And a warm fleece blanket that I’m using right now. But it also works to cuddle up and read.
I think there was some other stuff I got; some pieces of jewelry (a necklace and a bracelet), and a gift card to Maurices (my dad gets my sisters & I one of those every year, and then we go shopping together. I love it). Oh, and some gloves. I had asked for some of these,
and my mom thought she found them on Amazon. She ordered a pair, but when they came there were a dozen pairs of gloves, and they were more like these.
Not exactly what she expected, I don’t think. Needless to say, everyone ended up with a pair of work gloves, instead of me ending up with gloves to use with my phone. Oh well! It makes a good story, anyway.
So, like I said; I got some terrific gifts this year. All things that I will put to good use, for sure. What did you get for Christmas?
Photo credits: all except Nook cover and Dots Gloves are from Amazon. Nook cover photo from Barnes & Noble, and Dots Gloves photo from their website.
Cutting the (cable) cord
Jan 5th
Ryan and I have talked at length about getting rid of cable. We hate how much it costs (we get internet for free from his work, and we don’t have a house phone, so we pay the unbundled prices), and we are not totally pleased with the service. It cuts out sometimes, or is jerky, and makes it hard to follow shows. That doesn’t happen a lot, but it doesn’t take much to get annoyed when you are paying a (discounted!) rate of $75/month.
Our big hold up has always been sports. Ryan is a Twins fan, and we both like the Vikings. Unfortunately, up here in Duluth, FSN is the only network that carries Twins games, and that’s only available with cable (or sattelite). He’s looked into MLB.com and their season pass, but they black out all the games that are broadcast “locally,” and Duluth counts as local to the Twin Cities (and Milwaukee apparently; I’d like to see someone make THAT commute!). So, he can’t get the games over the internet either. Another thing that gave us pause was Jeopardy. You can laugh, but we like the show, and you can not find it online. From the research I’ve done it appears that the problem is one part syndication and one part licensing of the media they use in the episodes. Either way, we aren’t home when it’s on.
The other day, though, I was thinking about it because we had to cancel a service that we had a “free trial” that had expired, and suggested that we get rid of cable on a trial basis, just for a couple months. It’s not baseball season, so Ryan’s not missing any Twins games, and we are in between regular TV seasons. It seemed like the perfect time to do it. So we did. I unhooked it the next morning, and Ryan dropped our cable box off at Charter yesterday (they weren’t open on Friday when I went by).
So far, we haven’t really noticed. We’ve been making use of the 30 day free trial of Hulu Plus ($8/month if we continue it), and we have Netflix (which I don’t count toward the monthly cost since we would have it anyway). I got Ryan an adapter for the Logitech Harmony remote we have so that he can use it with the PS3, so we don’t have to use a game controller to do everything. We’ve been watching episodes of Monk and Minute to Win It.
We have been doing some research about what other people do to make up for not having cable; we don’t have a new tv, so we need either a converter box or tivo if we want to watch anything over the air. I’m not sure, but I think we would lean toward Tivo, even though it’s another up-front purchase and monthly cost. We just like DVR too much, and with how our lives are right now we don’t ever get to sit down and watch an entire show at once; much less watch the whole thing while it’s actually on the air.
I’ll periodically update you with how things are going, and in return you should let me know if you have any questions about our method for still getting to watch tv (so far it involves a PS3, Hulu/Hulu Plus, Netflix, and Playon. And possibly Vudu).
Just a reminder
Jan 4th
Please, please carry some sort of contact information with you that is valid and would reach someone other than yourself in case of an emergency. I just got a call (at work) from a hospital trying to locate the family of one of their patients who is in critical condition. They found our business card in his wallet, and have been trying to call anyone whose card he has. What a frightening position to be in; sick, in the hospital, unable to communicate, and with no family around because the hospital doesn’t know who to contact.
To Dos
Jan 3rd
Jennie from She Loves Purple has done a list like this the past couple years, and it has inspired me. It’s part resolution and part to-dos that I should have done a long time ago (*cough*anythingtodowithourwedding*cough*). So, to help hold me accountable, here is my list of things I would like to accomplish in 2011. I’ll be adding it to the side bar and crossing things off as I get them accomplished (getting rid of cable is already done, for instance).
1. Make dinner 2 nights per week
2. Finish James’s baby book
3. Own a pair of comfortable dress boots
4. Read 25 books
5. Take a week of vacation in the summer and visit my family
6. Try a new ingredient once a month
7. Organize my recipe collection
8. Develop a more efficient workspace at my office
9. Own investment jeans
10. Go to 3 local museums
11. Organize a group camping trip
12. Learn how to run
13. See a concert
14. Try out four new restaurants
15. Acknowledge the birthdays of every person on my list
16. Make something for James using some of his old clothes
17. Watch James take his first steps/say his first real words
18. Put pictures in all the frames in our apartment
19. Buy a cake from a local bakery
20. Go to a band concert at UMD
21. Exercise more
22. See my sister graduate college
23. Cut back on sweets
24. Get rid of cable
25. Finish our wedding scrapbook project
26. Start purchasing Christmas gifts in March at the latest
27. Create a weekly menu, and stick to it!
28. Meet someone in real life that I’ve only known on the internet
29. Get my hair cut and style it more often
30. Host a party
31. Go to church at least once per month, and make a donation each time
32. Send thank-you notes for all gifts
33. Make ice cream
34. Encourage Ryan to get his first Cisco certification
35. Try a new food
36. Hang out with Alyson for an entire weekend
37. Make more of an effort to dress up for work
38. Make a lunch (not frozen) 2 days per week
39. Take a community ed class
40. Make something in our dutch oven that requires using it in the oven
41. Go to bed before eleven more often
42. Go to a Farmer’s Market and buy something 3 times this summer
43. Call my parents and sisters every other week just to check in
44. Make: caramel rolls from scratch (get the recipe from my grandma)
45. Bring James on his first trip to Canada
46. Learn to drive a stick
47. Print out photos from our wedding and put them in an album
48. Make breakfast more often on the weekends
49. Keep the apartment cleaner than past years
50. Buy a good area rug for the living room
51. Make a general doctor’s appointment to get my cholesterol, blood pressure, etc., checked out
52. Take more pictures and put some in albums
53. Clean the basement and organize all our stuff down there
54. Organize my jewelry
55. Buy more bins for storage and put seasonal clothes away
56. Donate all unused clothing/toys to Goodwill/Salvation Army
My sister started a blog
Dec 30th
And she (and her kids) are hilarious. Check it out.
I’m so glad she’s blogging. Now we can keep track of all the ridiculous things that her kids say. ;-)
It was a good one, that’s for sure.
Dec 29th
1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before? Had a baby, got 2 1/2 months off work to stay home, went on a cruise (it appears I forgot to go back and actually blog about the cruise. Whoops!).
2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I’m not really one to make resolutions, although I might make a list of things I want to accomplish a la Jennie at She Likes Purple.
3. Did anyone close to you have a child? Yes, yes they did! We had a baby, my best friend from high school had a baby, 3 of our college friend couples had babies, and a friend from my hometown just had a baby a couple weeks ago. I might be forgetting someone in there, but I don’t think so. There were a LOT of babies this year!
4. Did anyone close to you die? No, thankfully! Let’s keep up that streak, please.
5. Where did you travel? Miami; Georgetown, Cayman Islands; Cozumel, Mexico (and the Caribbean in general). It was great. We also did our usual travelling around the state of MN and we took a trip to Wausau, WI to visit friends.
6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010? Like everyone else, I would like a winning lottery ticket. There is something else I would like, but I’m not comfortable discussing it on here at this point. You’ll have to wait and see if it materializes.
7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory? February 24th, for sure.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Being a better mother than I thought I would be. At least so far.
9. What was your biggest failure? Keeping on top of things I should remember.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I think I would count my c-section as an injury. It definitely sucked recovering from it. Also, I had the cold from hell this fall (turned into bronchitis, lucky me!).
11. What was the best thing you bought? Our dishwasher, which is still not in use, but I’m still counting it, because the anticipation of having it is almost as awesome as being able to use it.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Ryan’s, for sure. It’s been so fun for me to see him as a dad, and he puts up with my complete lack of memory very well. Also, I think James deserves a round of applause for being such a terrific baby.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Various people; the news media, many of the players & the coach for the Vikings, my own at times.
14. Where did most of your money go? Daycare and rent.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? James, mostly. I was pretty excited about our cruise, but I’m almost constantly excited about the new things my son is learning daily. I love his laugh and his smile, and the way he crawls after me down the hallway. His “faux-hawk” is great, and his blue eyes are gorgeous. The way he can repeat actions or sounds, and how he shuffles around the furniture and walls, squealing with glee. His “kisses,” and the way he laughs when I say “Momma, momomomomom” to him (he still won’t say that back). I get excited about all of it.
16. What song will always remind you of 2010? I don’t know. I’ve been listening to a variety of music. Maybe the Friends theme song, since we watched an entire season of Friends while in the hospital after James was born.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer? Happier (I’m no longer pregnant, and I have an adorable baby!), thinner and probably poorer but it’s definitely worth it.
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Take pictures. Write things down when they happen. Visit my sisters.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Being crabby/naggy toward Ryan. Wasting time online instead of sleeping in the evenings.
20. How did you spend Christmas? At my parents’ house up North, with a side trip to my mom’s parents’ house for Christmas Day (all of her 7 siblings were home).
21. Did you fall in love in 2010? Definitely.
22. What was your favorite TV program? Glee and Raising Hope.
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I don’t think so.
24. What was the best book you read? The Hunger Games trilogy was amazing.
25. What was your greatest musical discovery? I don’t really have one. I had a rediscovery of my love of The Arrogant Worms, though.
26. What did you want and get? A good and adorable baby, a Nook and a Wii Fit. I’m pretty spoiled.
28. What did you want and not get? That darn winning lottery ticket.
29. What was your favorite film of this year? The only one I can remember seeing is How to Tame Your Dragon. I don’t even know if that came out this year or last. There are films I really want to see…does that count?
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 30. We went out for dinner with friends to a newish place in town; Clyde Iron Works restaurant. It was great.
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Our own house, with a large kitchen, dining room and family room, and plenty of bedrooms so that people could stay with us.
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? I wore clothes. That’s about it…the mostly didn’t fit well, they were mostly poor quality, and mostly I didn’t care whether they had spit up or banana on them.
33. What kept you sane? Baby smiles/laughter. Ryan. Nights spent hanging out with friends. Restaurants, so that we didn’t have to do the dishes.
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Meh.
35. What political issue stirred you the most? DADT being repealed. Finally.
36. Who did you miss? My family.
37. Who was the best new person you met? James. He was literally a new person! Although our friends’ babies follow pretty closely behind.
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010. It’s ok if your apartment doesn’t get cleaned every night. It’s more important to spend time with your husband and son.
Remember the time Becky cheated at Sequence & ruined Christmas?
Dec 21st
There is a running joke in our family that I cheated at Sequence (the game) and ruined Christmas. It started several years ago when I was visiting my aunt & uncle in Chicago, and has been expanded into “Remember the time [fill in the blank person] [fill in the blank action] and ruined [fill in the blank holiday or activity]?” So, for example; “Remember the time Becky spilled her drink and ruined the garage party?” Of course they are usually funnier than that, but you get the point.
Today, I was reading Hyperbole and a Half (one of my favorite blogs), and just about burst out laughing at my desk. The title of her post? “The Year Kenny Loggins Ruined Christmas.” The entry is hysterical, even without the personal history, but that inside joke just pushed it over the edge for me. I’m still giggling about it now.
Other things I’ve read/seen recently that are worth mentioning:
The Bloggess made me cry, and not from laughing this time. This is amazing, and definitely fits the “true meaning of Christmas.” Read it with tissues handy. It’s good if you need a boost in the belief in the good of humanity.
My friend Adrienne has been great about sending funny videos lately. First this one (and the other videos like it are funny too. A good time waster, looking through them), and then this one.
Oh, and this makes me really happy:
He's so cute.
I was holding him during “quiet time” before bed tonight, and as he was laying in my arms looking at me he would just start giggling for no reason. If I looked at him he started all over again. I wasn’t making any faces or noises or tickling him or anything; apparently I’m just funny looking. It was definitely the bright moment in my week so far. That and the foot of snow we got last night. Although hearing that I don’t need anything other than a cleaning after not having been to the dentist in about 8 years (I moved, then my dentist retired, then I was uninsured and then I was lazy) was good too.
More techno-babble
Dec 21st
The aforementioned maintenance is done. I even managed to do it without any down-time (i think).
Techno-babble
Dec 19th
I’m sorry to have substitute out our usual fare for a techy post. Today I’m writing to let you know that I will be doing some maintenance to the behind the scenes parts of totallyserial.com. Over the course of the next few days you may find that you get an error of the “page cannot be displayed” variety or perhaps an odd advertising page for our domain registrar will rear its ugly head. Rest assured that we will be back online very soon.
