RIP ye hatty

okay sometimes you just have to know when to say enoughs enough. i've effed this hat up too far beyond repair. let's just say it has served its purpose well as a practice hat! bah!




and then there was none...

in two parts

part 1
call me ancient. knitting is fun! the work week just started back up and my mind is wandering back to all the knits and purls that await me at home. i am working on a hat now and i can't wait to finish it. banda informed me last night that i'm doing the stockinette stitch wrong but i'm too far into the hat to stop and start over now. it will turn out fine... technically i've made my own pattern. woot! this is my practice hat anyhow, so it really doesn't matter. the next hat i'll make (correctly following the pattern) will be super cute! i can't wait to use the pretty yarn i bought at the meyer house in st. louis. i have been scouting out some local yarn stores in madison and am excited to check them out this weekend. joann fabrics works okay for some things since i'm just starting out but as i get better i know i'm going to be a yarn snob. acrylic - eegads!

okay, enough about knitting.

part 2
i always have a wavering feeling on new years eve. this year was no different. it is nothing i dwell on - just every year right around midnight i get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. the new year has come and gone though and i'm back to feeling optimistic. i have a lot to look forward to this year.

jenny and sean are planning a visit to madison this summer. hopefully we will be able to make it to the harry potter exhibition in chicago. i'm also counting down the days until harry potter 5 comes out which jenny and i have planned on meeting in st. louie for.

phantom of the opera is playing at the fox theatre in september. seany and i are planning on going and i'd love to take emily too. the only thing that would make this better is if it were les mis - but i do love me some phantom.

my daddys birthday is in february. it falls on a weekend so i'll be going to st. louis to celebrate! he's going to be 70 this year so i need to plan something special.

the presidential inauguration is in a few weeks! i can't wait.

we can't forget about new moon coming out in *hopefully* november. i sure hope the summer doesn't drag on... :)

i would lovelovelove to plan a trip to CT with jenny to see erin! we'll see how this pans out though ~ plane tickets sure are expensive.

my calendar is filling up quite nicely. i like to keep busy in the summer. the winter months are always filled with snow and ice and make it hard to travel. i end up sitting on my butt at home in layer upon layer of clothing waiting for the sun to come back out.

hopefully 2009 will be filled with a lot of good memories.

voila le scarfy!

knitting project number one = done and done!

my new appreciation

so yoga is hard work! and i'm not even talking about regular yoga. i'm doing poor mans yoga on the wii fit. what's pretty neat about it though is how you can see your center of balance while you're doing the pose. i'm in a constant struggle to maintain my pose, to keep my little red dot in the center of the bigger yellow blob, all while remembering to inhale and exhale deeply. i have a newly found respect for people who do yoga. it's incredibly hard to do correctly.

better yet - the wii fit also has hula hooping for cardio! let's jut say i make sure my curtains are closed before i attempt to hula hoop. i watched bryan do it the other night and almost died in a fit of laughter. it's definitely not for the weak hearted.

i'm really digging the fit and am excited to track my progress. what's even better is that i'm going to start my gym membership soon so i'll be feeling better in no time. i kid you not folks - i've gained 20 pounds since getting married. not cool. it's not even the weight that bothers me it's how i feel. i get winded walking up a flight of stairs and i'm constantly tired. let me make this clear though, this isn't my new years resolution. i don't really believe in resolutions stemming from the new year holiday. they're always so forced and un-followed through on.

i would just like to better myself. no more negative, only positive! i've already seen a huge improvement in myself within the past month or so just by weeding out all the negative energy around me. i'm ready to move on up... to the east side! ha.

this ones for da homies

so here i sit one day before christmas eve thinking about all the things to be thankful for - the spirit of christmas will do that to ya i guess.

there's one constant in my life and that's my friends. i couldn't ask for better. you know who you are. you're the ones who love me unconditionally just as i love you;

my best friend - you're my sister. i cannot explain in words what a feeling it is to know i can tell you absolutely anything without harboring any fear or self-doubt. i don't laugh nearly enough when you're not around. it still amazes me how even though we physically exist in different parts of the country i always feel like you're with me. (could be the texting, ay? :) i love you.

my childhood friend - you're my friend of make-believe who i can always spend hours talking about all the fun we had when we lived just down the street from each other, riding bikes and playing in the basement. you make me see more of myself; and i am incredibly lucky to have you just a few hours away. we need to take advantage of that fact more often. i love you.

my scientist - you've always been my other sister. this past year i'd like to think our friendship has grown even more (thank you googletalk!). you have no idea how many large bouts of laughter i've let out sitting in my lonely cubicle during the 5-day work week. your humor has yet to be matched and i love our lamo inside jokes. i love you - even if you're a scarf nazi.

my new friend - i say "new" because you are the only new person in my life i need. thank you for always watching out for me, picking me up on snowy days and always automatically disliking the people i dislike. you are a true friend through and through. my life in madison would be a mess without you in it. i love you.

my san franciscan - you are going to have no idea what this means but i'm going to make the analogy anyway. you're my jacob. i don't know how we went from bomb threats to this but you're one of my closest friends. thank you for always making my sides hurt from laughter and thank you for always loving me without reason. i love you.

word.

snowed-in!

it sure does seem like christmas is sneaking up on me. my dad was right when he said the older you get the faster the year goes by. it might be the result of my days all seeming the same. sometimes its hard to tell a monday from a friday. i'm not really complaining. i like knowing what to expect each day. i do miss back in the day when my waitressing schedule would be different every 2 weeks. i complained then too though. i think we always want what we don't have.

it looks like we're going to be snowed in tomorrow. while i would love to be without snow for the rest of my existence i do appreciate a snow day off work! it's the one upside of all the bad weather - that and the fact that i don't have to shovel anymore. shoveling + me = crabby. when bryan was in germany a few weeks ago it really showed me how helpless in the north i would be w/o him. if i were single i would definitely not live here. i like madison a lot more than i did at first and it does feel like home but i definitely don't see myself braving a solitary winter here.

the cold weather does at least force me to come to terms with being indoors. i don't typically enjoy a lot of physical outdoor activities but when the weather is nice i like to bounce around town - do some shopping and just drive around with the windows down. the snowy weather forces me to stay in and then i can actually focus on indoor stuff i enjoy like knitting and reading and snuggling with my cats. man, what an existence. :D

oh yeah ~ i finished all 4 of the twilight saga books. let me tell you how depressing it was to finish! i was dreading the ending not because of what could possibly happen at the end of the book but because i didn't want the story to end. i read all of midnight sun on stephenie meyer's website too. i wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was but it sucked me in even more than twilight! god bless a good book on a cold day. life doesn't get any better.

oh and PS

i started reading new moon last night. yeah. i'm not even half way thru the book yet and it's already a sob fest. good thing i stocked up on tissue. :)