last night

last night consisted of much wii-ing. there was some guitar hero world tour. some bowling. some tennis. it helped affirm my desire for a wii. i wonder how much spare change i'd have to have sitting around to feel like i could afford one without it being wasteful.

i ordered a fabulous ring at the lia sophia party last night. no, not the one i've been drooling over for the past two parties. i decided that one wasn't so appealing anymore. the one i got is the color of graphite with some small diamond-esque stones.

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'becca wants to do her taxes tonight.

travel talk

my passport arrived yesterday! i'm now officially able to take the ireland trip in march. less than two months! i can now start to get really excited about the whole thing. this is a different kind of travel for me. generally i go somewhere and figure if i can't see everything i want, i can just go back. but there's a small difference between flying back to san francisco and flying back to ireland, ya know?

i'm going to ireland!

speaking of travel, southwest sent me an e-mail this morning telling me i could still get away for valentine's day. ignoring the valentine's reference, i checked it out as i'm currently wanting to get away, and cheap airfare is conducive to that. would you believe chicago was not one of the selected airports for this sale? very, very strange. that rarely happens. i can't decide if they're against me, or just doing their part to make me save all my money for ireland.

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'becca is hoping for a quiet day at the office.

25 things

those of you who see my facebook page probably saw my recent note of 25 random things. i really think i could probably do one of these every three days, and never run out of random things. i'm not sure if that means i'm incredibly random or just good at list making.

i was given the lemonade award by patti.

Here are the rules for receiving the Lemonade Award:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
3. Link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

what's funny is that patti thanked me for the inspiration, and i'm going to turn around and thank her in return. bloggers that i find inspirational:

1. patti at circle everything.
2. christine at maganda.
3. elena at french toast girl.
4. jenny at ljcfyi.
5. mike at life in heaven.


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'becca has never been good at following all the rules.

missing details

i've vaguely mentioned the trip to louisville last week, but not given any detail. not that you asked for the details, but i'm going to give them to you anyway. ;)

i left work early on wednesday, and beth & i drove down to louisville. we made it to mel & dan's around 11pm and stayed about 15 hours. we had breakfast at lynn's paradise cafe on thursday morning, followed by shopping at some of the fabulous li'l shops. if you saw my silver necklace friday or saturday, that was my birthday gift to myself - courtesy of the trip to louisville. it was much too quick of a trip, but completely worth it. almost every time i visit louisville i say to myself, "self, you should move here & do something completely different with your life."


tonight, as i expected, i got much better photos out of my big camera than i did out of my little one. this one, however, makes me pretty happy. granted, i had to photoshop it to get any detail at all. but it makes me think of a poorly made horror movie on old grainy film.

i love when photoshop is used as a verb.

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'becca had every intention of being in bed two hours ago.

monday night

we went out for dinner tonight after work. the original plan was to go to chela's ... but they're closed on mondays. so we went to the hi-fi roadhouse instead. they're where the zuni's was in highland - across the street from the town club restaurant. very good food. a little pricey, perhaps, but good portions & it really was tasty. they serve their bread with jalapeno butter. i'm pretty sure the jalapenos were candied, as the butter was rather sweet. it was good. and we all needed a night out. mondays can really take it out of a person, ya know?

i think tomorrow night i'll work on my journal for the year. i figure i'll make it myself & bind it with my machine downstairs. that way i can have a separate section for each goal and one for general journaling. and if i need to tweak it at the end (take pages out of section 12, add more to section 23, etc.), i can easily do it.

erin left some great feedback on the list. i especially like her idea for #22 - a scarf exchange between the two of us. you're on, darlin'! any specific colors you want? something light weight since it doesn't really get cold in texas?

laure: the game of partini consists of coasters that each have a different category on them. you pick a coaster & then do whatever activity is involved with that category. for example, in the category "pencil head" one person from each team is drawing on top of their heads. someone else is reading them the directions, such as "draw the outline of a house." once they've both done that, they get the next directions, such as "draw a ladder leaning against the side of the house." at the end, they get points for however many items in their picture match up with the scoring guidelines. the team of the drawer with the highest points gets to keep the coaster. the first team to get five coasters wins.

laure: earl is my stomach.

jonathan: we could definitely work out a good time for the party/game night so you could come. that would be most excellent!

malissa/holly/erin: definitely you can be involved in the traveling journal! and, erin, i LOVE your idea for it ... but i wonder if it would be brash of me to ask people to write about me?

laure: yeah, reading another book for january might be wise. i'm only through chapter two on the manifesto. :)

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'becca should have gone straight to bed.

surprise party!

my mother is amazing. let's just get that out in the open to begin with: my mom is amazing. and my sister is wonderful. and my friends are fantastic. and if i knew enough adjectives to describe them all, this post would go on forever.

i met my mom for lunch saturday. she asked me to be at her house by 12:30, and we started driving west. she was going on about how she wanted to take me to this place in homewood, but it didn't open until 3, and there was this little place in beecher, and she hoped my dad didn't get her lost taking the back roads. and we turn at this one corner and she says, "did i even say happy birthday, yet? happy birthday!" and i as i'm turning to her to say thank you, i realize we're turning into a parking lot that's filled with my friends' cars and there's a happy birthday banner on the door. and i almost started to cry.

my bunco girls were there; my girls night girls were there; my game night girls were there; marlana came up from indianapolis; malissa drove up from louisville even though i was just at her house two days before ... overwhelming. seriously. it was fabulous.

i don't have the group pictures on my camera, but i'll post 'em when i get 'em from joanie. i do have photos of the game playing, however, as after we had a delicious lunch (i think the goal was to fit as many of my favorite foods as possible onto two tables) we jumped into a game of partini. never played? it's a very good time.




yes, becca and chrissy were drawing on their heads. seriously, it's a fun game. and thanks to my generous friends, i know have the original game & both expansion packs. :)

i was taken completely by surprise. you are all so fantastic.

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'becca had an amazing birthday weekend.

The List: version 3.0

if you're not familiar with my list making, let me explain. on my birthday, i publish a list of goals equal in number to my age. today i turn 30, so this year's list has 30 goals. i've done this each year since 27. if you're interested: the 27 project and the great 28. the year before 30 was just summed up yesterday - you can scroll down to see that one.

here, in no particular order, are my goals for the year.

1. host a party. my initial thought was to make this a 'pumpkin slaughter' party, but we'll see where the year takes it.

2. attend a series of cubs games. for example, when the cubs play in denver i want to go to denver & attend every game. combining my need for travel & my love of baseball? fabulous!

3. organize my recipes. i currently have a stack of recipes i've either printed or cut out. i want to get a good binder system going. or maybe recipe software for the laptop, but i think i'm too messy of a cook for that. :)

4. take a trip with marlana for our 30th birthdays. most of you know this is already in the works, but it still belongs on the list. we decided a good 6 months ago that we wanted to take a trip for our birthdays - and at that point, it was added to the list. just because the list isn't being published until after the tickets were bought doesn't negate its validity. plus, it's one i know i'll accomplish. ;)

5. on time bloodwork & med refill. this sounds so easy, doesn't it? but for whatever reason, i stink at this. this year, i will take it seriously. and, since i switched insurance plans, i'll need to do it soon.

6. secret. i may, at some point, reveal this one. i may not.

7. use my dehydrator. i've got a fabulous dehydrator in my attic that's never been out of its box. i need to make some jerky. or fruit leather. or something.

8. finish catch 22. i've started this book at least a six times. i will start it again, and i will finish it.

9. carry the french fry embargo through the end of april (with an exception for ireland). may 1, 2009 will mark one year without eating deep-fried french fries. i will make this goal. i'm giving myself the exception for ireland because i may simply need to taste an irish french fry to feel i've experienced everything i can in the country. i don't know that i'll make use of the exception, but i'm giving it to myself in case i want it.

10. blog 260 times. that averages out to 5 times per week, yet allows me to have quiet weeks balanced out with talkative weeks. plus, since blogger counts my posts, it will be very easy to track.

11. hang out with dave. look, dave, you made the list! now we need to make plans.

12. secret. this one will be revealed, but not until the final wrap-up of v3.0.

13. photograph the alphabet. i think this will be a lot of fun. it's different than my normal photo goal of taking a certain number of pictures. this one will take a little more searching, a little more observation. more of a quest than a marathon.

14. blog the tasting of a variety of cheeses. that's right, this is the year of the cheese, people! and you're gonna hear all about every one that i try. :)

15. add three bloody games to my game closet. i currently have two bloody games (zombie fluxx & killer bunnies), but i definitely need more. and having the games is only worth so much, so ...

16. host a bloody game night. i'm gonna invite you over to play the bloody games with me!

17. send Christmas cards. i love getting Christmas cards, so i think it's only fair that i send them, too.

18. finish watching all the movies alan alda appears in that are available from netflix. this is a carry over from last year. as i said in my tyb30 wrap-up, "i will watch the ones i haven't seen before, but i will NOT re-watch Purlie Victorious. his accent was horrible." there are 23 currently available.

19. take a trip to colorado. and i will indulge at a cupcakery while i'm there!

20. plant some vegetables. i'm thinking i want to try some lettuces. and i may go on a serious hunt for a quick growing thorn bush to keep the neighbor kids from squeezing through the fence. what? that's not a vegetable? hmmm ...

21. take a trip by myself. i don't know where i'll go, but i want even a quick weekend away by myself.

22. crochet a scarf. this sounds like a silly goal considering last year's scarf marathon, but i have a fun plan in mind for this.

23. eat pizza in 10 different towns/cities. doesn't this sound fun? i don't think i could accomplish this as a big road trip, eating only pizza for 10 meals straight. i'm pretty sure if i did that earl would either kill me or move out. but i can totally see me using this as an excuse for a quick trip somewhere. "what? this weekend? well, i'm driving to toledo for pizza. wanna join me?"

24. make a muffuletta. that's right, i'm going to make my own. i'm mostly excited about the olive salad.

25. journal my 30th year. sure, i journal it through this blog ... but i want to have a handmade journal, too. something i can hold & flip through and chuckle at when i'm 60.

26. attempt a traveling journal. i've played with this idea for a few years. i think it would be a lot of fun to have a journal that gets mailed from person to person. each person who gets it fills up a page or two & then sends it on. i think it should have a theme. maybe a photo journal! when you get it, you add a photo from that day, maybe write a little something if you want, and then pass it along. i think it would be fun.

27. participate in illustration friday six times. this one is going to be a challenge, but it will be fun. i may even share the illustrations with you.

28. finish a quilt for myself. i have three quilts for myself in progress. surely i can finish one of them, right?

29. customize the recycled table in the living room. this would be the table i salvaged from the dumpster at work this year. i've got some ideas, now i just need to execute one of them.

30. work on the california photo book. i don't have a single photo from my california road trip of 2006 printed out. that needs to change.

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'becca says, "30? bring it on!"

tyb30 - final count

the year before 30 ends today! it's been a good year. i'm happy with where i am right now. and i didn't do too badly on the goals, either. :)

1: take 2900 photos. done, thanks to a couple of fabulous vacations! 3673 photos taken. i went through and chose my 29 favorites from the year. my guess is that if i looked at the all photos in a year, my favorites would change. but right now, here are the 29 i chose.


2: visit two places i've never been before. done! i was able to visit a lot of new places this year. i was in both pittsburgh and milwaukee twice for cubs games; michigan for a work event (i'd never been to michigan. seriously); i made it to south dakota twice to visit lynn; and the rockstar tour took me through wyoming, new mexico, oklahoma and arkansas on the way to yet another cubs game in cincinnati. my current where i've been map of the mainland looks like this now:



3: finish two quilts. three done! i made a quilt for alicia's birthday (left photo), finished up a quilt for holly & wayne (center photo) and used the scraps from alicia's to make a baby quilt (right photo) for a silent auction at work.



4: make/recycle/customize a table for the living room. done! i salvaged a table from the dumpster at work. i have more work to do on the table - but as it is, it's recycled.


5: avoid deep-fried vegetables. done! the french fry embargo officially started may 1. i've had potato chips a few times, but i'm comfortable with that. i'm almost nine months without deep-fried potatoes!


6: watch the entire 'friends' series. done! i'm actually on season nine for the third time in the last 9 months. go ahead; judge me. i don't mind. :)


7: send out Christmas cards. done! my Christmas cards were sent out in plenty of time.


8: tackle another month of 1000 photographs. done! accomplished in july - 1,029 photos. you can see them all here on my flickr account.


9: put together the fortune journal. done! and i'm quite pleased with the outcome.



10: surprise! done & i love it! i turned one of my living room walls into a huge piece of black/white photographic artwork. 166 of my photos, floor to ceiling, corner to corner. they start small on the left side of the wall (4.5" x 3") and get bigger with each column of photos (ending at 24" x 16"). i love this wall.



11: send a piece of real mail each month. done! i had hoped that sending real mail would generate real mail in return. i don't know if the relationship is true, but i did, indeed, send & receive real mail each month. i like real mail. you should keep sending it to me. :)


12: watch all of Alan Alda's movies available from netflix. i'm conceding defeat on this one and contemplating carrying it over to next year. although i will word it differently next year. i will watch the ones i haven't seen before, but i will NOT re-watch Purlie Victorious. his accent was horrible.


13: try a muffuletta from at least two restaurants other than three floyd's. done! this one was a last-minute victory, but a victory nonetheless. i had the muffuletta at bazbeaux (left photo) and at cafe lou lou (right photo). they were very different. bazbeaux's was much spicier. it had a spicy olive relish and pepperoni. it was kicky enough that it actually burned the roof of my mouth - not from temperature, but from spices. cafe lou lou's was much calmer with a mild green olive relish and no pepperoni. it had a fancier bread - some sort of herbed foccacia, i think - and that was quite tasty. overall, i liked the one at bazbeaux better. and i'd like to go back to bazbeaux & try their pizza. it looked delicious!



14: host a ladies' night at the new house. done! my ladies got together for a li'l halloween party.



15: get my own place. done!


16: plantumentary. done! my original idea was to show a good 4 or 5 months in the life of my plant ... but instead, you get 47 days. it's definitely better than nothing, right?



17: get my blog archives under control with yearly headers. done!


18: don't plug in my tv until goal #3 is accomplished. done! and now i've rearranged my living room so it doesn't look like a tv even belongs there, anymore.


19: try to grow some vegetables. done! it was a very small harvest, but the three tomatoes i ate were quite tasty. :)


20: read a book. done! i read'persepolis' and started catch 22, again. plus i'm reading life in heaven as it's being written. and laure & i are reading jesus wants to save christians together.


21: put up a Christmas tree. done! well, the little one is completely done. the big one could use some finishing touches - but it was up for Christmas. :)


22: get my nose pierced. done!


23: update my portfolio. done! yes, i'll continue to add to it and possibly make some tweaks ... but it's updated.


24: screen print a t-shirt. yeah, not so much. i have some ideas, but not the dedication to actually do it.


25: bike ten miles. i didn't ride my bike a single time this summer. sad, isn't it? i WALKED on the bike trail, but i didn't ride my bike on it.


26: create artwork for the office. i thought about trying to wiggle out of this one on a technicality ... but no matter how i word it, i never created artwork specifically for the office. i've worked on some ideas, but i can't decide what kind of feel i want the room to have. so creating artwork has been tricky. i'm actually tempted to paint it white. crazy, huh?


27: go two weeks without obvious processed sugars. done! january 5 through january 18. then, on january 19, i broke my sugar fast with a piece of chocolate birthday cake with chocolate ganache between the layers & chocolate buttercream on top. yumm-o. my current goal is to limit my sugar intake to very small amounts on an infrequent basis.


28: Christmas surprise. i could probably pretend this was alluding to one of the gifts that got made, but it wasn't. i was hoping to get something done that just didn't happen. maybe next year.


29: have breakfast at lynn's paradise cafe. done! another last-minute victory, but so worth it. i spent wednesday night with dan & malissa, and we had breakfast together thursday morning. it was fabulous. the food was excellent, as always, but the time with dan & malissa? that was the fabulous part. they're good people; yes, they are.

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'becca still has some question marks in her new list - any last-minute suggestions?

i'm awake

so long as i'm awake, i figure i might as well be productive. is blogging productive? more productive than lying in bed awake, i suppose.

i wonder if the late-night alertness is related to today's sugar intake. but seriously? i had that little piece of cake & small scoop of ice cream five hours ago. surely it's out of my system by now.

i'm convinced it's not because i'm super excited about the meeting at work tomorrow. not that i'm dreading it either, but c'mon ... how exciting can a 9 a.m. meeting be? did you hear that, meeting? i'm practically daring you to be exciting.

with less than a week til my birthday, i'm working on next year's list of goals. i thought about "grow the johnny depp dvd collection", but that's just acquiring more stuff. i don't really need more stuff.

i did reactivate my netflix account tonight. i know, i didn't watch movies enough to make it worthwhile. but they fixed their "watch instantly" feature so it plays nicely with macs now ... so that will help. i've re-listed all the alan alda movies i haven't seen (and most of the ones i have), so i'm carrying that goal over to next year.

speaking of movies, i should take "the haunting" back to malissa. and not think about the movie while i'm lying in bed later trying to fall asleep. :)

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'becca is contemplating a quilting goal for next year.

t minus 27 minutes

my two week sugar fast ends tonight. i plan to celebrate with a piece of homemade chocolate cake with homemade chocolate buttercream frosting tomorrow night. we'll be celebrating my sister's birthday, and it would be rude not to indulge. :)

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'becca wonders how long it would take people to realize she's not in the office tomorrow.

one hour

i finished getting the blog archives sorted out. everything is now nicely packaged by year, and i should never have to do it again.

so my sofa broke today, while i was cleaning the living room. i'm not quite sure which part broke or how broke it is, but it is definitely broken. instead of focusing on the details of the break, though, i just went ahead & finished cleaning the living room. i even vacuumed the sofa cushions. just because it's broken doesn't mean it shouldn't be clean. :)

hey patti - did you know there were three dozen monster cans in that bag? i finally got around to washing them all out today. they sat in my trunk for a very long time - and then on my living room floor for a couple of weeks. they're clean now, but seriously 36 cans. yay! now i really need to figure out my plan for using them.

i need to leave in an hour for the bunco planning session. guess i should get into the shower, eh?

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'becca has a list of things to take with her tonight.

friday night

i'm having a lazy friday. lazy as in i've been in my 'jamas since about 7:30, with no regrets for not meeting the boys at floyd's tonight. i almost turned right on calumet to go ... and then realized it was going to be a total boys' club, and i just wasn't feeling up to it.

i have spent some time moving the 2007 posts into the 2007 archive. less than 40 posts left to move! woo! the worst part about moving them? i'm also copying over the comments. and every comment gets e-mailed to me. so i log into my e-mail and it says i have 62 new messages - but 58 of them are the comments. sure, i could turn off the e-mail notification while i'm moving the comments ... but ... wait, why don't i do that?

i made some address labels tonight. they printed a little wonky, and the right-most column is missing the last number of my zip code. normally i'd reprint them, but i had exactly one sheet of labels; they were from a sample pack i had lying around.

actually, not really lying around ... i totally organized my paper stash last weekend. it's now all nicely arranged on the shelf on top of the bookcase in the closet. hang on, i'll show you proof ...



see, not lying around. nicely arranged.

yes, i'm a nerd. :)

the other four e-mails (what, you didn't expect me to come back to that?) were facebook notifications. i really appreciate those e-mails when i'm at work, but when i'm at home & logged into facebook? they get a little redundant. how many times do i need to read the same comment from fred telling me i'm almost old?

speaking of, have you bought my birthday present, yet? you've only got a week. and it should be a really nice present. ;)

i'm stepping my heat back down one degree at a time. i turned it up last night because i just couldn't break the chill. so instead of turning it down all at once, each time the furnace turns off i turn it down one degree. i'm thinking this way i won't hardly notice it.

if i'm looking at everything correctly, i posted 177 times in 2004, only 93 times in 2005, 99 times in 2006, 174 times in 2007 and 252 times in 2008. any guesses on what we'll hit in 2009?

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'becca needs to buy a battery for her kitchen clock.

baby, it's cold outside

i broke out the scarf collection last night. tonight on my way home from work the thermometer registered -11. that's cold. luckily i wearing my muppet-skin scarf (on the far left), and it's nice and toasty. :)

i'm working on picking my 29 favorite photos from this year. i currently have it narrowed down to 55. not bad, right? considering i've taken over 3000 photos, i think i'm doing pretty well.

i made a bracelet the other night out of a measuring tape. i think it's cute. now i just need to find the right outfit to wear it with.

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'becca is thankful for heat.

ten days!

that's right. you have just ten days to buy me something fun for my birthday! :)

i came across an e-mail tonight, and it seems like a fitting time to post it. it was titled "10 things to do before you turn 30" - and no, it's not a list i made myself. but then i decided i didn't like the list. i've only accomplished 3 or 4 of things on it, and since i refuse to believe that makes my 20's unfulfilled i decided the list was wrong. :)

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'becca really was going to start chapter two tonight, but she got all sidetracked.

connected, realiably.

my dad came over tonight & fixed my phone line. he's the best. :)

in the process of fixing the line we disconnected half of the jacks in the house ... but the half that work are the important ones, and that's all that matters. it still remains true that my dad's the best.

and just in time so i can do all my renewals from home. my domain name is expiring in a week - i've decided i'm going to keep it. mostly because i don't want the hassle of moving my files to another server or losing them completely. i need to sign up for flickr, too. i thought about ditching them when they decided to do away with my free pro account ... but in the end, it's a good deal. and, again, i don't really want to move my photos. they're already so nicely packaged into sets, why disturb them?

tomorrow night i'm going to a lia sophia party, and, believe this or not, i'm actually hoping it does NOT get snowed out. i know, i know ... 'becca doesn't like those home parties where people want you to come over & buy stuff, right? but i've been eying this one ring for several months, and i'm finally going to buy it. it's cute & orange & makes me happy.

other things that make me happy:
- working internet & phone line!
- Christmas cards that were signed "CBH" & now hang in my office.
- photos of the golden gate bridge.
- glass beads.
- good friends.
- comfy quilts.

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'becca wants her passport so she can get really excited about this trip!

i'm weak

so my internet hasn't work all week. and that's okay - i've been able to find other ways to occupy myself. (sorry, laure, but i didn't occupy myself with the manifesto enough ... i still have a few pages to read. tomorrow, honest.) but i came home tonight, and it's working. midnight, when i should be going to bed so i can be focused at work tomorrow ... and my internet decides to work. sure, i could ignore the green light of magic, right? nope. i'm weak. here i am, updating the 'blog, playing scrabble on facebook and catching up on my e-mails. lucky you. ;)

jen: yup, i have winter dishes. :) actually, what i have is a random conglomeration of fiesta ware - i started collecting it years ago. well, i have no need to keep it all in the easy-reach cabinet all the time. so a good chunk of it stays in the over-the-fridge-hard-to-reach cabinet. i just swap out which ones i use by the seasons. :)

malissa: madison greene WOULD totally play an instrument like that! *sigh* i miss madison greene.

laure: of course your vote counts! just not as much as mine. ;) i'll be publishing the list, i'm sure. i enjoy it too much not to share it.

part of me thinks that instead of getting the phone line fixed, i should just cancel my internet. but i'm pretty sure that part of me is crazy, so i'm not listening to her. :)

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'becca just yawned. again.

really?

according to the advertisement above my e-mail this morning, graphic designers can do handstands. i'm seriously going to have to work on that skill this year.

i started the manifesto last night. manifesto? that's how i shall be referencing the book laure & i are reading this month. the long name is "jesus wants to save christians: a manifesto for the church in exile". i shall call it "the manifesto" from here on out. i'm about halfway through the first chapter. i think i'll be going back and re-reading each chapter upon completion. laure told me that this fellow writes the way he speaks, which is interesting as i can HEAR it being SAID to me more than i'm reading words on a page.

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'becca has both cameras with her & wants to go use them.

winter dishes

i'm taking down Christmas today. slowly. i feel i should maximize the time my internet works, so i'm going back & forth between facebook, general web surfing and de-Christmasing. oh, and laundry. it never hurts to have clean underwear. :)

today went better than yesterday, thanks largely to the help of a couple of co-workers. i get stuck between killing myself to get everything done in a timely manner and taking an attitude of "well, what did they expect to have happen?" i'm working on finding the middle ground.

today is day two of avoiding obvious processed sugars. after lunch today i very much wanted some chocolate. i'm glad there was none readily available to tempt me. i think part of my de-Christmasing will be tossing out the last of the Christmas-colored m&ms in the living room. it's too easy to just grab a handful without thinking.

my fingers are cold.

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'becca is itching to do some cleaning.

sparkler art

i should have used my sparklers one at a time to draw letters, but instead i lit all four of them at the same time for a more dramatic approach. now i want to buy more sparklers just to photograph them.

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'becca wishes she had more fun things going on in her mind than work.

short-lived magic

my magic dsl connection isn't so magic anymore. i got home last night, and it wasn't working at all. it wasn't working when i first checked it this morning, though it worked for about five minutes before i left for the office. then it stopped again. looks like i'll have to make that call after all. nuts.

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'becca is on her way to chili's. she does love chili's.

alicia's Christmas present

have you patronized the store Monarch in schererville? it's a great little shop filled with all kinds of unique items. my pop-cap bracelet is from monarch. they actually sell a variety of pop-cap items. and when i saw one that looked like a great noise maker, i decided to make one for alicia for Christmas.



doesn't it look fun? it makes a great rattling noise as you shake the caps back and forth on the wire. i suppose after awhile it could get a little annoying, but what good toy doesn't get annoying? it was easy to make, and it goes well with her other musical instruments. hard telling if she really appreciated it when she opened it - but c'mon. it was Christmas morning and she's 3 (and a half!). she had lots of gift-opening to do, i certainly didn't expect her to stop and really play with it. after all, there was an actual walking pony under the tree. ;)



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'becca is heading to bed.

ice storm photos

here are a few more photos from the ice storm. the first one's taken in my backyard; the others were taken in winfield, on the way to molly bea's with the girls.







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'becca is loving having her internet connection back.

happily confused

i don't understand this - but i'm totally blogging from home right now. last sunday evening, my phone line went completely dead. with that, i lost my dsl connection. all week my modem has been trying to get a dsl connection to no avail. tonight? tonight i'm shutting down my computer to go watch 'donnie darko' on my laptop, and i realize the modem has a steady dsl light. so, of course, i restart my machine to test it. and, sure enough, i've got an internet connection. what?

as a side note, my cordless phone still reads "no line" on the display.

my space bar is very clicky tonight.

would you believe me if i said i started my Christmas cards tonight?

we did, indeed, crack open Killer Bunnies last night. once we got the hang of it, we enjoyed it a lot. definitely a good game to have around. now i just need to round up some folks to play with me. who wouldn't want to play a game where you're trying to kill off the other players' bunnies as they're trying to kill off yours?

after every sentence i'm looking at my modem, fulling expecting it to realize it's currently performing a magic act.

i think i need to take down my Christmas decorations. i swapped my dishes for the winter colors. i'll share a photo of that soon. actually, i've got several sets of photos i can share once i download them to the computer.

so in my internet-less week, i started going through my photos from this year and picking my favorites. one of my goals was to take 2900 photos, and it was suggested that i pick my 29 favorites of those. i started the process, and i'm thinking it's going to get tricky. do i pick the 29 that are the best photographs in terms of style, composition and execution? or do i end up with some that are favorites because of sentimental value and their marking the passage of time?

i also got my 2009 calendar bound & hung. and it's only the third day of january - go me! :)

i also did some work on my list for next year. i've thought about not publishing the list, but rather revealing it as things are accomplished. i've also thought about not sharing it at all until the end. but we'll see. i don't have all thirty goals hammered out, yet, but a few are definite. in fact, this evening i spent a couple of hours working on one of them.

i wonder if i should finish accomplishing my 29 list before working on my 30 list? :)

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'becca will be returning your movie on monday. :)

whoa ... 2009?

hey - i think my blog's publishing properly again! yay!

i'm not promising to publish every day in january. mostly because i didn't post yesterday. ;) but i did get the missing december posts to publish - they're in the 2008 archives over there on the right. unfortunately, i haven't gotten all the 2007 posts moved to their respective archive, so the 2008 link has a good chunk of 2007, too. it'll happen in time. hopefully in the next 22 days so i can mark that goal off my list.

speaking of lists, only 22 days until i need my 30 list made! yikes! 22 days until i turn 30. joe's convinced i will, at some point, freak out over this. we'll see. so far i'm still caught up on the fact it's 2009. it feels like the past year went by so crazily fast. a lot has changed in the past year.

we had day 1 of our two-day basketball event yesterday. it went well, but felt bittersweet. i miss my old team, now scattered across the country doing their own things.

i came into work this morning to a box from amazon - the killer bunnies made it! we'll be cracking that box open tonight & figuring out all the rules. i should have ordered it a week ago so we would've had more time to play it before jonathan & laure go home. but hey, i'll take one night. zombie fluxx should be here soon. possibly this afternoon, but probably not until monday. how could i pass up a version of a recommended game that include zombies? :)

alright, i've been in the office for an hour now. i suppose i should officially "clock in" and start working. having no internet at home during a week when i'm working events in the evening works out well. :)

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'becca wishes you a happy 2009! that's right - the whole year!