deblog

I was browsing through the news about stuff happening at CES and saw an article about car audio devices dropping CD players and focusing on USB devices/MP3 devices that you hook up… Great! Exactly the kind of thing I want… But you know what they need to add to the sleek little device – a place to hold the MP3 player… I suggest using the space that a tape used to take up and making that a square little shelf that would be the perfect size to lay the average MP3 player in – and it would be close to where it hooks up to the device, limiting the annoying cord clutter in the car! So just remember to thank me when you see this awesome idea in the future.

So the start of a new year… and yes the start of a decade, even though it’s not the decade most people think it is…. That one starts at the end of this year, but either way, it’s been 10 years since something.  10 years ago I was preparing to finish my senior year of high school. Looking forward to college, and looking forward to going to the same school as Jason for the first time ever.

For New Years Eve Rachel and I watched Glee most of the day at her house… Then I had to go do a little emergency babysitting because Kirsten accidentally cut her hand. So I got to give L a bath and put him to bed one more time in 2009, kinda nice. And Jason went with me since he picked me up from Rachel’s, and he got to play with the train table.

Everyone’s favorite 26lbs cat, Feeny, is taking this weekend to have an expensive 5 star vacation at the vet. He started throwing up the other day – then yesterday he was abnormally crabby and still throwing up a little. He was even crabby when I combed him which is very rare. So we decided bringing him to the vet then was cheaper than an emergency vet over the holiday weekend… and its good we did. He has crystals in his urine, very common for male cats… But he needs to be monitored over the weekend and then have his kidneys tested to be sure there was no damage… And then he may need a diet change from here on out, but we will see….

I didn’t make it until midnight in the central time zone, but I watched the ball drop in New York… Good enough for me. I go into 2010 hopeful. I am starting the 365 photo project again – I am hopeful I will finish it… 2010 may be a year with a lot of change – and I hope it will be good; for everyone.

Well I didn’t get as much reading done as I would like this year… but then – do I ever? I think I did a pretty good job of keeping track of what I read this year though… so this is my list.

1. Matters of Faith – Kristy Kiernan
2. Your Hear Belongs to Me – Dean Koontz
3. Plum Lucky – Janet Evanovich
4. Little Bee – Chris Cleave
5. Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List – Rachel Cohn
6. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist – Rachel Cohn
7. Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story – Carolyn Turgeon
8. Outlander – Diana Gabaldon
9. Loving Frank – Nancy Horan
10. In Hanuman’s Hands – Cheeni Rao
11. The Reader – Bernhard Schlink
12. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
13. Relentless – Dean Koontz
14. The Women – T.C. Boyle
15. Love or Something Like it – Deirdre Shaw
16. A Big Little Life – Dean Koontz
17. Say When – Elizabeth Berg
18. The Art of Racing in the Rain – Garth Stein
19. Full House – Janet Evanovich
20. Full Tilt – Janet Evanovich
21. Full Speed – Janet Evanovich
22. Full Blast – Janet Evanovich
23. Full Bloom – Janet Evanovich
24. Full Scoop – Janet Evanovich
25. Dragonfly in Amber – Diana Gabaldon
26. Breathless – Dean Koontz
27. The Girls from Ames – Jeffrey Zaslow
28. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
29. Through the Looking Glass – Lewiss Carroll

As far as a favorite I don’t think I could pick one… It was a good year for reading. I started the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon – they are long books 800-900 pages each… So far I am really enjoying the series but I try to squeeze a few small books in between each book…. I also REALLY love some of the dog books I read this year, The Art of Racing in the Rain and A Big Little Life are amazing and inspirational for anyone who has had a dog in their life… Also – I’m not as big of an Evanovich fan as it looks… I just can’t turn down books that are handed to me and I like to get them back to their owner ASAP. But her books really do make for some good light reading between some of the “heavier” books I’ve read this year.

Jason’s 28th birthday was the 27th… We ended up making it a two day event. His mom was leaving the morning of the 27th so we went to dinner, opened presents and had cake on the evening of the 26th. I got an awesome strawberries and cream cake from Yummy’s… It was yummy!

Then on Jason’s actual birthday we went to two movies that Jason wanted to see. Invictus and Sherlock Holmes. Both movies were very good… Much better than I was expecting. Invictus was inspirational and moving. I HIGHLY recommend this movie… Jason felt they tried to just throw some stuff in there at times but I really really enjoyed it… Sherlock was good; entertaining and funny… it was a really great way to spend the day.

We had a rather non-traditional but nice Christmas around the Verber household this year.

Let’s start off by saying I am notoriously not patient about gifts… giving or receiving.  Knowing this I had one of Jason’s bigger gifts sent to a friends house then I immediately wrapped it after I got it so I wouldn’t be tempted to give it to Jason early…. Jason also knowing this planned a gift for me that he gave to me early… I came home from a late night crop in the Quad Cities one night to find our house decorated with lights. I always admire decorated houses but Jason never seemed too interested, so it was a really special surprise that he took the time to go buy and put up lights on our house!

We also knew before Christmas that we might be having a solo Christmas… My parents are in Florida, Jason’s brother just moved to Texas… Our car doesn’t have many long journeys left in it… so a WI trip seemed like a waste, so we started looking forward to a low key Christmas at home… In fact by the 20th we still didn’t have the tree up.  Well it turned out that despite the threat of bad weather Jason’s mom would be able to join us, that was a nice surprise, and she made it down from WI on the 23rd.

My impatience with gift giving/receiving was really getting to me by the 23rd or sooner… So I pulled out the technicality that after the Christmas Vigil at church it is for all intents and purposes Christmas…. Even if we went to the earliest (5pm) service offered… So after Jason and I went to church on Christmas Eve we came home and had dinner, then drove around to see some Christmas lights, then came home to open presents.

Now the fun begins!  We decided to try to Skype with Aaron, Jason’s brother, so he could open presents with us and vice versa… So after the set up, which took way too long in my opinion we were set to go… Aaron sat on a chair across the room for us, which is ironic since Aaron doesn’t even have a chair in his new apartment yet… We took turns opening presents and had a great time.

So the loot: I got my christmas lights/decorations, awesome GPS for geocaching, some cash, some bread mixes, pancake mixes, Walden Farms products
Jason got: A Kindle, fog free shower mirror, a book, bread mixes, Walden Farm’s products, pancake mixes, Kindle reading stand, cash

Christmas Day was pretty low key, Jason made a turducken (Turkey, stuffed with duck, stuffed with chicken) since we had been interested in it since we heard about it on the food network one day… and we enjoyed rolls from Texas Roadhouse… It can’t get much better than that!