Just to be close for a moment

Friday, December 31, 2010

New Year 's Resolutions

I know what your all thinking....WHAT April has resolutions? She never has those! But yes, I have been thinking long and hard and have had these in my mind for a few weeks now. After a L O N G, trying, emotional, exciting 2010 we are ready for some great things to happen in 2011

1. I promise to BLOG at least once a week. Even if it might just be a photo update of the kids for Uncle Matt, I will still be a better contributor to our little life here :-)
2. Not sure if you have heard of the book "365 Make something every day and change your life" http://makesomething365.blogspot.com/p/about.html but I am going to make something crafty every week and keep a log about it. I have been very into sewing lately and making princess Ella hair things etc and decided that I LOVE to craft and create but I never made time to do it in the past and now with three darling children I need to make sure to I am focusing on myself a little. Maybe I will even post photos of what I do....if it looks good :-)
3. I am going to be better at filing paperwork. For too many years I would just grab a box, bag and throw EVERYTHING in it, no rhyme or reason and then every so often I would go through grab out what needed to be shredded and then shred for a week or so and want to kill myself. So the filing cabinet is organized, everything for 2010 and before is taken out and boxed up in order and I am ready to begin tomorrow...

Who else is going to share theirs??

Happy New Year 2011 (Year of the Rabbit)

To ring in the New Year, I had a dinner with a student, a fine meal of fermented (see: rotten!) skate. It's an amphibious creature that resembles a cross between a stingray and a squid. They let the flesh rot for a certain amount of time, (obviously the longer the rotting period, the more pungent the smell and taste.) and then viola, a plate of rotten fish meat. Delicious!

To be honest, I waved my white tissue of surrender only half jokingly after about 7 slices of it. The smell is like ammonia, and the taste is like, well..there is nothing quite like that...I could easily see why some people would gag, retch, or even throw up trying to eat it. So chewy it takes forever and a day to swallow it, and it has very soft 'cartilige'-like bones that you can chew and swallow. All in all...not high on my list for next year....

And as an added bonus...after eating that, Jihye had warned me I would stink and she wouldn't kiss me. Turns out both could be true..although she is a trooper about the smooching. (I did have to shower, brush, and gargle before she would kiss me without flinching though) I met Jihye at about 10:30pm and gave her my surprise for us. A special bottle of O-meh-rak. A fairly new traditional brandy flavored with roasted plums. At 40%, it packs quite an alcoholic kick. But the COOL thing about this drink is the packaging. It comes in an earthenware pot that we must crack with a hammer in order to get at the actual bottle of liquor. I will post a few photos showing the fun we had...

Funny also to note that Jihye tap-tap-tapped around the top while Captain America here was smash-smash-smashing all about the sides and trying to destroy the earthenware vessel. Funny cultural note that she was so precise while I thought Hulk would have been a good philosophy on how to open things....

Anyways...Happy New Years to all who may read this post, and may you and yours find simple bliss along your days....

Love you guys,

Heating Bill Update 2

Oct. '09 - 20 units of heat ...............................Oct. '10 - 0 units of heat
Nov. '09 - 155 units of heat.............................Nov. '10 - 0 units of heat
Dec. '09 - 116 units of heat..............................Dec. '10 - 0 units of heat
Jan. '10 - 73 units of heat
Feb. '10 - 35 units of heat
March '10 - 0 units of heat

Could I actually pitch a shut out?!?