...for anything, really. I can still climb trees like the best of 'em (right).

I'm 32 years old and I still don't feel like a adult. Does everyone feel like this, or is it because I have no children to force me into an adult role?

Hmm.

It isn't that I'm not having fun, but I hope I am capable of taking up the reigns of responsibility when the time presents itself. That I may not be kind of scares me.

My day got off to a bad start when, while driving to work, a large van pulling a trailer decided to enter my line right next to me WHILE I WAS STILL IN IT. I'm pretty sure he didn't even look to see if anyone was there. I had to jerkily swerve into the next lane to avoid being hit. Then he had the nerve to grin smugly at me as he passed me. I'm not a honker, so it isn't my first instinct to honk at others' poor driving, but I wish I had thought to. When I got to work I was still a bit shaken.

After work I enjoyed some leftover tatertot hotdish while sitting in the evening sun and reading on the patio. I made the hotdish a few days ago after hearing some colleagues joking about it at work and thinking to myself, "You know, I've never actually made that (possibly not even eaten it). Let's see what it's like!" Although the warm sunshine was heavenly, I did drag myself off the chair afterward to weed the yard -- until the mosquitoes chased me back indoors. There are fewer dandelions in the yard now, though, so I think I'm winning.

I spent nearly four hours pulling dandelions this afternoon, and that was just the front yard. I wonder why they're worse this year than ever before.

If anyone has a hungry bunny, come get 'em, they're all yours.

I'm having a technologically challenging evening.

First, I bought a new pedometer. Turns out it DOESN'T WORK!

Second, my iPod crashed. It's stuck in pause mode, but no pressing of buttons (no, not even Play+Menu for 10 seconds) will reset it. I have to just sit here and wait for the battery to run out and hope that fixes it.

Third, crashed iPod caused my computer to grind to a halt.

Fourth, iTunes crashed while in the middle of downloading a CD. I tried to restart the program and suddenly "a file needed to run the program is missing." WTF? So I just reinstalled iTunes.


I'm just trying to get my gear in order and packed before I leave tomorrow morning. Calgon, take me away!

I ate too many dried apricots for dinner tonight. My stomach said WTF?! Urp.

Oh, something cool. I keep several change cups around the house to drop coins into when cleaning out pockets. This weekend we ran all of the contents through the coin sorter. I had $132 in change lying around! How about that?

Friday after work I went to the gym. I felt good and I just kept running, and running, and running. I stopped at 3.24 miles. The most I had previously done in one stretch was 2.5. I was so irritated, though, because I interrupted the run twice by clumsily pulling the E-stop by accident. TWICE! First there is confusion (why did my machine just wind to a grinding halt?), which is followed by starting everything up again, trying to regain my rhythm and trying to remember what time/distance I was at when everything went black. I was annoyed that it happened twice, but pleased at having (eventually) completed the distance for a 5k.

Saturday I was feeling bloated and ornery, so we ditched some hiking plans we'd made. I made corn chowdah for lunch, and it fit well in its role of Saturday comfort food. Played computer games and messed around with photos the rest of the day, then we did a beef and broccoli stir-fry in the evening.

Today was a day of productivity! First to Costco to stock up on 100-calorie snacks and other lunchbox fillers, then to IKEA for breakfast and to window shop some patio furniture. We agreed on what we would like and might come back to pick it up next weekend -- can't wait to SIT on my new patio! Then we drove way up to Monticello to Lake Maria State Park. Hiked the Hiking Club trail and found a geocache. Got home just in time to change for yoga at 4:30. Yoga kicked my ass, hope I can get out of bed tomorrow.

A few days ago (read: immediately following a big oven mess involving homemade pizza with way too much cheese on it) Jonas decided to run the self-cleaner on our oven for the first time. I'd never had an oven that was self-cleaning before, so this was cause for some minor excitement. What would happen?

Here's how it works: You remove everything from the oven (racks, etc.) and lock it. The self-clean mode takes about 4 hours and heats the oven up to a whopping 900°F!!! This has the effect of incinerating everything inside, and when it's complete all you're left with is a small amount of ash on the bottom of the oven that's easily wiped up with a paper towel.

How about that?

Some memorable moments in my 2007 include, in no particular order

* confirming the appearance of grey hairs (aieeeeee!)
* finding a geocache in each of Minnesota's 87 counties
* hosting 4 baby barn swallows in a nest above my front door
* building a brick patio
* seeing TMBG and The Killers (but not Muse *cry*) concerts
* spending a week in the Black Hills and experiencing some of the most amazing hikes of my life
* getting to meet up with a friend I hadn't seen in over a decade
* reading 63 (mostly) good books
* running 2 miles, perhaps for the first time ever

Seems like I should have more. After all, an entire year went by! Maybe I'll add to the list if I think of any.

I haven't posted much lately -- not because I've been too busy, but because I've been on a Baldur's Gate 2 binge. Hamsters and rangers everywhere, rejoice! In fact, I'm only writing this now because I'm stuck and can't get past this one room in a dungeon with undead, and I needed to stop and take a break or else throw a tantrum.

Last weekend I made banana bread, and it was warm and sweet and good. I ate the last of my loaf this morning and also had a slice of Jonas' loaf (with nuts). Mine was slightly on the dry side, and I wonder if that's because I left out the nuts called for in the recipe. They might help the moisture level with the oils they release when heated. If I make it again, I'll add more yogurt to compensate.

I'm addicted to Scrabulous. I thought I was doing well until Belegur slapped a 221-point play on my ass, but I haven't let that discourage me. :)

I've made somewhat productive use of my day off today, and have uploaded a photo set from my scrapbooking retreat in Wisconsin. Included are two group photos. Can't wait until next year!

One last thing, the best quote I've heard in a while: "Don't like gay marriage? Then don't get one." Haha!

Just sitting here scanning vacation pictures from last year so that I can use them scrapbooking. They take a while at 600 dpi, so I've been working on it off and on most of the day. Tuesday evening is the calendar workshop with Heidi, so I'd also better look through some pictures tonight and figure out what I am going to do for that.

I've spent most of the day cleaning and doing laundry -- not really how I'd planned to spend my only day off this weekend, but Jonas has come down with a cold and isn't able to be of much help in that department. I do have to say how nice it is nowadays to have my very own washer and dryer -- being able to put it in and take it out at my leisure, instead of racing to get there first when it's done before the next person decides to throw it all out onto the floor.

Last night we had Georgia's 60th birthday party at Peggy & Dave's. I stopped at Target to pick up the reprints I'd asked them to do of Georgia on the 4-wheeler, but inside the envelope is a note that the reprints required them to cut the negative, which they were not able to do without my permission. So they did nothing, and I had no pictures to bring. Couldn't they have called to ask me about it? Wasn't there a reason I had to fill out my phone number in the first place? Ah, well. I put in a new order and will just have to send them to her in the mail belatedly instead.

It started at 3:00pm, but since I had to work until 5:00 I didn't end up getting there until about 6:00 -- just as the lunar eclipse was starting. I've seen them a few times before, but it was fun to watch it progress as we all stood chatting outside around a bonfire. After a few hours I went home to Jonas, who hadn't gone along since he wasn't feeling well.

Hmm, I'm getting hungry. Might have to go see what we have downstairs for tonight. There are tortillas in the fridge, maybe some bean burritos are in order.

Brrr, it's gotten cold. And wet. And gloomy. There is nothing worse than cold rain. It'd be better if it were snow than freezing cold rain that chills straight to the bone. Just in time for the poor Halloween kiddies, too.

I'm stopping by Target later on to pick up some pumpkins. We have to at least have some pumpkins out tomorrow night, even if they don't end up getting carved. Our first Halloween in our own house! We bought a ton of candy, though I'm not entirely sure what to expect in terms of numbers of trick-or-treaters. This neighborhood seems to have tons of kids, though, so I wanted to make sure we had enough and didn't start out by being "the house that never has anything good!" Sometimes I really wish I could still go out trick-or-treating. More than the loot I brought home at the end of the night, I really enjoyed running around the neighborhood and wondering what each house might put in my bag. OK, so the loot was nice too.

I'm also putting in some negatives for reprints at Target for Aunt Georgia. She wanted copies of the pictures I took of her on the 4-wheeler when we were all visiting Anita in Wisconsin. I also need to start looking through pictures and choose what I want to use for the calendars I'm going to make for me and Jonas to take to work. I don't know if he will take his, but I'd really love it if he did. He's not really into displaying family pictures and stuff at his desk, but maybe he'll be more interested in a calendar. I'm going to keep it a secret for now.

Not much else ahead of me this evening. Jonas is planning to stay after work. I think I'll fry up some Boca Burgers for dinner.

Just two days until Simon & Garfunkel! Jonas is going to try to make reservations for dinner Monday night at someplace close by the Xcel Center so we can just walk to the concert after eating. I'm probably one of few 27-year-olds who's never been to a music concert. It seems weird, but the music I like has always been by artists who either have never toured (XTC), are dead (Freddie Mercury/Queen), or simply don't tour any longer.

It's been a relatively quiet day at work, despite the booksale going on in the meeting room. They are just about getting ready to wrap things up now, and are selling an entire grocery bag of books for $5.00. The Friends of the Library, who hold the sale, typically raise several thousand dollars at sales they organize twice a year. They then contribute funds for programming and various other things the library is not able to do on its county budget alone.

When I get off work Jonas should be waiting for me and we'll go have some delicious Punch Pizza -- YUM! I can never get enough of that place -- it's heavenly. Then we'll maybe see a movie or go bowling, but I'd almost rather go bowling tomorrow morning when it's just $0.99/game. Saturday nights are pretty expensive. I should call Kris and see if she and Ron would like to go sometime -- maybe Dad, too.

This morning I woke up around 5:30 and noticed Jonas still hadn't come to bed. So I got up and looked out the door -- the light was on in his computer room, but he wasn't there. i found him downstairs sound asleep on the sofa in the livingroom, so I shut off the TV and all the lights and said, "Come to bed." He woke up and obediently followed me back to bed. I don't know how he could fall into such a deep sleep on the couch -- it's not that comfortable!

I seriously need to do some grocery shopping this weekend and pick up general things so we'll have some supplies on hand (frozen, canned, etc.). Of course, stuff for lunches and breakfasts for the coming week is needed as well. I'd still love to try Simon Delivers sometime. Heidi's been getting it for a while now -- I should ask her how well she still likes it.

I've just written a few backdated entries, but I'm nowhere near caught up.

I've come down with a cold and have been sniffling and sneezing all day long, much to Jonas' delight as he cringes in fear of all the germs flying around. *wicked laugh*

Our sod is looking gorgeous (if gorgeous can be used to describe grass). It is still green, at least, so we must be doing something right! Jonas has pretty much taken on the responsibility of being the Sprinkler Man, although I've helped out a few times too. I hope it rains this weekend, because we're planning to get out of town for a few days and won't be able to water it until Sunday evening.

I have to get up early tomorrow and head to SL so I ought to head to bed pretty quick here. And besides, my nose is dripping, so I'm off in search of a tissue.

Ow, I've played games far too long today -- my mouse-arm is sore where it rests on the arm of the chair at my desk.

Well, I am all set for my little trip tomorrow. Before he left Jonas gave me his laptop to borrow so I can have all my previous data with me as I attempt my research. The one thing I am not looking forward to, however, is leaving town during rush hour. I'm planning to take back roads to get out of the cities, but I'm sure it will still be a pain.

The wind has really picked up and it's supposed to rain tonight. Maybe it will be stormy. OK, not much else going on to mention. Jonas still hasn't called, so I'm mildly annoyed. :/

Oh my gosh, I haven't written in ages. All I can do is throw up my hands and say, "I'm a busy homeowner now!"

Actually, I have some handwritten entries from a few days during the move when I had no Internet connection, and a few other entries I will probably backdate as well, just not tonight.

I worked until 9:00pm and now it's 10:00 and I'm only just now getting a chance to sit down. Now with the extra drive time (15-20 minutes, as opposed to 3 minutes before) Monday nights are well and truly shot. I pulled into the driveway about 9:30, made myself a salad with a breadstick and watched a Will & Grace rerun. Now I plan to play some Neverwinter Nights, but I couldn't go another day without posting an entry here, even if it is going to be brief.

Just two things I want to mention before I go:

My toenails are so pretty! This morning I painted them with a new polish I picked up at Target a few weeks ago. It's a sort of light blue-purple shade with sparkles. It's not something I would ever wear on my fingernails (not that I wear fingernail polish anyway), but it looks gorgeous on my toes with sandals. I'm not really into flashy, sparkly decorations (jewelry or otherwise), but this looks great. All day long at work I kept sneaking peeks at my feet so I could look at my toenails. Heehee. </nutty>

With Jonas in Sweden this week I decided to plan a little trip for myself as well. I'm going to drive down to Red Wing on Thursday night after work, stay the night, spend Friday doing local genealogical research, then come home that evening (I work on Saturday morning). As I came up with this idea, it occurred to me that this will be the first time I've ever gone "out of town" by myself. Every other trip I've ever made in my life has been with either family, friends or Jonas. I guess I've never had any reason to go off alone! Well, it's about time to see what it's like!

That's all, I need some aspirin for this headache if I'm going to be able to play NWN tonight.

After our banking adventures early in the day, we drove out to Rockford, where Becky, one of Jonas' co-workers, was having a crayfish party. They'd had three huge boxes of pre-cooked, pre-seasoned Cajun crayfish shipped up from New Orleans, and a lot of people brought other kinds of Cajun dishes to add to the menu. It was pretty fun to meet many of the co-workers and their wives, especially to be able to put names to the faces I've heard stories about. I did not eat any crayfish, but I have to say that Jonas certainly had his share! He must have eaten about forty. He said they weren't as good as the dill-soaked crayfish they make in Sweden, but they must have been at least somewhat acceptable! I've had crayfish just once, in Sweden, and one bite to try it was enough. It wasn't so much the taste as its appearance that I have a hard time stomaching. I like my food to NOT still look like a creature that used to be living.

Becky's parents were also in attendance, having brought along their team of draft mules and wagon, and so there were wagon rides around the neighborhood. The funny part was the reaction of the neighbors -- it wasn't exactly a rural neighborhood -- upon seeing a team of mules drawing a wooden wagon filled with partiers down their residential street. We just smiled and waved, and the mules left occasional deposits in the street.

We stayed at the party for about three hours or so, then said our goodbyes and thankyous and headed home. I did six loads of laundry late into the evening, thinking it may be possible to not do laundry again until we're moved into the house with our own brand spanking new washer and dryer. I also spent some time tidying up the place, and felt good. Jonas and I watched an episode of America's Test Kitchen, which was about guacamole, fajitas and margaritas. Once again we both felt inspired to cook, but a look at our sucky kitchen in this apartment squelched that fairly quickly. God, I can't wait to use my new, huge kitchen with more cupboards than I could ever fill, brand new appliances and my beautiful center island! Still 10 more days ...

The woodchuck that lives down the street has a girlfriend! Or something.

I hadn't seen him out munching in the grass for several days, and I was afraid he'd gotten hit by a car or something, but this morning when I went to work he was out there on the grass again -- and this time with a partner! I'll admit I don't really know the gender of either of the woodchucks, but I'd like to think they're a couple. :) I just hope they know enough to stay on one side of the road -- even if the grass does look greener on the other side.

We drove out to the house today, and boy does it feel like home. I can't describe it very well with words. It's just a feeling of, "Yeah, I could definitely live here." We'd heard so many horror stories of people's experiences with their builders, and so far for us everything's been a breeze. Rottlund is one of the largest builders in the state, so it's not surprising that they do have a reputation they must live up to. Some of our neighbors-to-be that we've spoken to have had random things go wrong during the building process, but everyone seems to think the company did a good job of communicating and being quick to mend the errors.

We're down to 12 days until closing. *barely suppressed squeal*

I was out at Hopkins this morning until noonish, before heading home to grab my lunch and finish out the day at EP. It was a fantastic day -- I was kept thoroughly busy. I still have a list of things I didn't get done, so I'll definitely have enough on my plate for tomorrow. My new desk is awesome, I think we lucked out somehow.

Natasha finishes up her Master's degree next week, and she has been bouncing off the walls. I don't know how she pulled it off -- working full time, attending school, and earlier this year buying a house and moving. So now she'll be eligible for "real" librarian positions (up until now she's been an "associate librarian"). I often wonder if I'll ever work up enough strength and motivation to go back to school. I know I've found my niche in the library itself, but I daydream sometimes about being on the librarian end of it instead of clerical/tech.

Last night I had the most awful night of sleep. Jonas called around 10pm and said he probably would be home in about two hours. Just around midnight I went to bed, making the decision to leave the air-conditioning in the bedroom on max because I thought Jonas would be home soon to turn it off. Really stupid idea. He ended up being delayed until 4am and I froze my ass off. I was shivering, drifting in and out of fitful sleep, too cold and not even conscious enough to get out of bed and turn it off. When Jonas came in I called through the bedroom door for him to bring me my snugglypants from the computer room and to turn off the a/c. Oh, my knight in shining armour! Unfortunately, I was still chilled and couldn't sleep for at least an hour and a half after that, and the alarm went off at 6:30. I was so tired and so pissed at the world! Tonight you can bet your ass I'm going to get more sleep.

... mosquitos.

Work uneventful. When I got home I did a few household chores to make myself feel productive -- brought all the aluminum cans down to the recycle bin in the garage and emptied the dishwasher. I nearly broke a sweat. :)

Jonas had gone to have a beer with some co-workers after work, but when he got home we headed off to Dad's place in Buffalo. We were going to chat with him about how much he wanted to help us out towards our down-payment. When we pulled up, I had the brilliant idea of setting up our tent in his backyard to air it out. (Tomorrow we're going to be tenting down in Wisconsin and our tent hasn't been aired out in about two years.) Brilliant. Really.

I think I lost a pint of blood to the mosquitos.

I was wearing spray, too, but I'm now covered with welts of various sizes, including one in the very corner of my eye. Lovely. After the airing-out, we never quite got the tent back into its bag. It was a "Screw this!" moment, and we just threw it halfway-rolled into the trunk of the car. We're just going to take it out again tomorrow anyway, so *shrug*.

Stopped for a late dinner at Noodles. I do love that place! Got myself some pasta fresca with feta on top (yum), and Jonas had Japanese pan noodles. A year or so ago there was a rumor that one was going to open up in EP, but I haven't heard anything since. Sure would be convenient, although not necessarily good for my wallet.

Ugg, I'm exhausted. Would it be terribly disgusting to go to bed without washing off all the mosquito spray I slathered on earlier? I'm just so tired ...

I don't recommend eating rice cakes at the keyboard -- it's worse than chips. Actually, though, I consider keyboards somewhat disposable. When mine gets good and gunked up after a year or so I just toss it and buy a new one. The $10-15 for a cheap keyboard is worth far more than not having to pry it open and clean it out. Sometimes I don't even want to know what's in there.

Threw in two loads of laundry right when I got home from work. They should be done in a few minutes.

Then, I have Big Plans.

I think I'm going to start going through things. Yes, sorting through closets and boxes nobody's looked in for years. I'm determined to have gone through EVERYTHING and discarded a significant chunk of my possessions by the time we move. I am an amazing packrat. For example, there are two boxes of crayons in one of my kitchen drawers. My reasoning goes something like this:

-- Ah, some crayons -- I'd better hold onto these, you never know when you'll need crayons!

-- Hmm, I'm 23 years old. I don't have any kids. Do I really need crayons? I should donate them somewhere. This nice Crayola 64-count box has never even been used!

-- Except it's been opened. They probably don't want it then. I'll just hang onto it until some needy kid comes along.

-- (3 years later) These crayons are still in the drawer?? I've got to get rid of them once and for all.

-- Well, now I'm closer to having kids myself. Maybe I should save the crayons for them?

-- Christ. How much does a box of crayons cost? $4? Surely I'll be able to afford a box of crayons when the time comes! Toss these!

It's very sad, but I think it's time to get rid of the crayons.

This morning Jonas went out to the house and met the guy from Convergent Media who is doing our computer wiring, security system, and full-house speakers. He said it was fun and went well. He had the guy put a set of speakers in the master bath so he can listen to NPR in the tub. Hah. His original idea was to wire cable in the bathroom so he could have a TV, but there I put my foot down. Music is OK, but I would be embarrassed to have a TV in the bathroom. That just seems wrong.

Tomorrow ought to be a snappy day. I head out to SL for 3 hours, then back to EP for lunch and our construction meeting, then back to work for at most 2-3 hours. It should fly by super-fast.

Off to delve into the mess ...

I get a big, fat star for today.

Yesterday I wrote up a to-do list for my day off, and so far I've done a pretty good job!

1. Activate credit cards that we received in the mail at least a month ago. [CHECK]

2. Write rent check (only 3 more months of those!). [Started to write the check, then remembered we told the office we no longer want the extra parking space in the garage. Called office, as I have yet to receive confirmation. Check-writing on hold until office confirms new rent amount.]

3. Call Dad re: Memorial Day. Are we going to the cemetery? What day? [Called, but got the answering machine. Will try again later.]

4. Scan and put new house pics on webpage. [CHECK]

5. Make dentist appts. for both of us. [CHECK]

6. Call Star Tribune and change subscription to Sundays only. [CHECK]

7. Clean and vacuum dining room and entry. [CHECK: I even did the kitchen and livingroom and changed the belt on the thing. It was squeaking. Changing the belt didn't particularly help, but I felt like I'd accomplished something anyway. *flex*]

8. Draw up a family tree source table. [Haven't done, but I only added it to the list this morning if I ran out of things to do. I'm OK with that. :)]

So, 7 of 8 completed or at least attempted. I'm feeling good! I don't regularly make lists like this, but there were so many things I wanted to get done today I thought I'd better jot them down or I'd forget. Jonas will be home from work soon, hope he notices! ;)