Out with the old... 2013
G'day all!
I remember years ago thinking how old I would be in the year 2000. It amazed me - I'd be quite old!
Well it is 2014 now and umm, I'm afraid to tell my younger self that I'm now even older. A whole 14 years older than I was in 2000. Am I any wiser? I'm not sure. I'm less ranty (believe it or not, especially if you drive with me in badly behaved traffic or when I'm uptight, like driving a whopping big moving truck (whopping big to me - a fourteen footer)) and more likely to bite my tongue instead of opening my big trap and saying something tactless/offensive. I am still happy to say the word toilet though.... I am definitely more wrinkly and somewhat more scarred. But I'm still here and that is what really counts.
So 2013, where did you go? People say that the years go faster as you get older and I'm quite frankly worried about that. It's starting to seem that all I need to do is turn around and a new year is upon me. Soon I'll be dizzy from the years whizzing by.
It's mostly been a fairly good year. There's been some ups and downs but we've got new friends, we've seen some amazing sights, we bought a house...
Hmm, let's do a recap of the highlights of the year. Links will be random! Formatting will be even more random - it turns out that most font features (headers, size, bold and italics randomly) don't work with my current font. YAY!
January 2013
We went to Portland, Oregon, on the train. We had a lovely sunny break there - Seattle had been wrapped in fog for nearly two weeks and after a while, fog gets dull. Very dull (just like it is outside at the moment). Anyway, Portland was delightful. We walked and walked and walked and walked and caught the light rail and visited Powell's and Knit Purl and a good time was had by all. But not at the restaurant we went to that had to be the only place in hippy granola crunchy Portland that didn't cater for gluten- and dairy-free people or vegetarians or vegans. I finished an Elfe.
February 2013
Apparently nothing happened in Feb except I knitted DH a hat and some socks and did some work. I do remember being rather excited at the evidence of Spring coming - the buds started swelling on various plants. We went to the flower and garden show downtown.
March 2013
Spring finally came. It couldn't come quickly enough for me. Plus I finished some socks for me me me! I worked, went to Emerald City Comicon (which was vaguely entertaining but I'm too far out of the comic loop now to realise any significance to most of it but the costumes were amusing!) and apparently did nothing else for the whole month. Oh, I did do one more thing - I made a quilt for my brother.
April 2013
Things really started hopping in April. We had a visit from a googly friend, Spring really started springing, we got to wear tshirts without jackets/jumpers for the first time in months, we went whale watching, and I went on a knitting retreat that was absolutely one of the top experiences of my life.
May 2013
I knitted myself a Norwegian Fana cardigan just in time for Syttende Mai (17 May, Norway's Constitution Day. It was a crazy undertaking - I left myself not very long to do it but I got it done in time, yay me! We went to San Juan Island and had a lovely time on island. We did a trip down the the Columbia River Gorge. I took lots too many pictures of flowers and went on a yarn crawl. The weather was unseasonably warm.
June 2013
June came too quickly and left rather quickly as well. My highlight from June, and one of the highlights of the year, was doing the Naked Bike Ride. I had never done anything like it before - I've never skinny dipped or done anything the slightest bit nuddy at all. I don't even like wearing bikinis - body issues, moi? I'm happy enough to show it off fully clothed - a layer of lycra is enough - but not bare flesh. We had a visitor. I did a bit of quilting and knitting for others. (I am ashamed to say the baby stuff didn't get sent - it is still waiting cos the first baby is a big lad and was too big for the vest by the time I thought to ask for the address...).
July 2013
July was berry season. I bought lots and lots and lots of berries. I made jam with some of the berries and froze the rest. Lots of berries. I've been eating the jam steadily and there are still lots of berries in the freezer. Maybe I should may some berry (bubbly!) pies. We went to a lovely wedding, truly lovely, had another visitor and we went up Mt Rainier twice. Have I ever mentioned how much I love Mt Rainier? No? Surely you jest! I also spent more than a week in tie dye - I have lots of it and now that I have a house, I can have even more of it! I can haz all teh colourz! YAY!
August 2013
August brought both fantastic and bad. We went back to Colorado (actually Wyoming but we got to stay in Colorado for a few nights). I always said I'd go back to Fort Collins one day, well that day was at the start of August. It was fantastic, and it also brought closure. I got to visit places that were (and remain) well loved, I got to watch the crawdads again in Spring Creek, I visited some old friends... saw old sights and took millions of photos (not quite but close). It was glorious. Later in the month, I managed to trip over a gap in the pavement and ripped my hands up brutally, somehow avoided getting them infected (big sigh of relief) and then I developed massive breathing problems and a really husky voice. I still managed to get some knitting and quilting done - I had to do something, anything to distract myself from my woes. We rode the Ducks for DH's birthday and I at least had a ball.
September 2013
I achieved glottal incompetence. Yay me! My breathing and voice issues were diagnosed - a paralysed vocal cord. Treatment? Wait and see. Boo hiss. My three year breast cancer check up came back clear, YAY! I couldn't do talk like a poirate day as my ARRRR!s sounded like ahhh!s, rather nancy-boy really. I knitted a lot - not being able to exercise much does that to you. We had visitors - some of my family visited. It was lovely to see them, pity about my voice and breathing issues. We went up Rainier again but I couldn't go far as I really really just could not get enough breath. I thought I'd die of a heart attack. We got told our rent was rising $500 a month. And the season turned autumnal - no long Indian summer this year!
October 2013
It was most definitely autumn. Pity about the short days and the increasing coolth because the rest was pretty good. More visitors! DH's parents came to visit. We started house hunting and talked to the credit union about house loans. We did a day trip to a most marvellous part of Washington state and then took our visitors to it and around in a loop through Winthrop and Leavenworth and across highway 2 and then went back again! Highway 20 is absolutely fantastic! We can't go up it now, not all the way across because it is winter and the road is closed until the melt starts and the ploughs can go up and clear it. My voice still wasn't good - it was better but not normal and I still couldn't walk and talk.
November 2013
My birthday. I actually managed to have a party! People even came to it! It was lovely! We did one last trip up Highway 20 and discovered a most amazing stink - in part the dyeing salmon and in part the unopened ranch dressing in some vegies I had bought to snack on. Autumn effectively finished, sneaking out in a series of dull grey days and I started work on the biggest quilt I've ever made. Oh and we bought a house. A little cute wee house.
December 2013
I finished my biggest quilt ever in time to submit it for the binary quilt challenge at my local guild. The big thing for the month though was moving! ARGH! Painting. ARGH! OMG, why do I do this to myself? Christmas was good but I ended up with a cold and that slowed things down a bit. Still, I did a slap up meal for nine people - roast pork and vegies, with lamingtons for afters - and we managed to fit them all into our little house and everyone went away with a full, happy belly so I consider that a WIN! And it snowed. Snowed! Here! So pretty for about three hours. Probably the perfect snow :-)
Wishing you all a fab 2014. May it be your best year yet.
anon!
I remember years ago thinking how old I would be in the year 2000. It amazed me - I'd be quite old!
Well it is 2014 now and umm, I'm afraid to tell my younger self that I'm now even older. A whole 14 years older than I was in 2000. Am I any wiser? I'm not sure. I'm less ranty (believe it or not, especially if you drive with me in badly behaved traffic or when I'm uptight, like driving a whopping big moving truck (whopping big to me - a fourteen footer)) and more likely to bite my tongue instead of opening my big trap and saying something tactless/offensive. I am still happy to say the word toilet though.... I am definitely more wrinkly and somewhat more scarred. But I'm still here and that is what really counts.
So 2013, where did you go? People say that the years go faster as you get older and I'm quite frankly worried about that. It's starting to seem that all I need to do is turn around and a new year is upon me. Soon I'll be dizzy from the years whizzing by.
It's mostly been a fairly good year. There's been some ups and downs but we've got new friends, we've seen some amazing sights, we bought a house...
Hmm, let's do a recap of the highlights of the year. Links will be random! Formatting will be even more random - it turns out that most font features (headers, size, bold and italics randomly) don't work with my current font. YAY!
January 2013
We went to Portland, Oregon, on the train. We had a lovely sunny break there - Seattle had been wrapped in fog for nearly two weeks and after a while, fog gets dull. Very dull (just like it is outside at the moment). Anyway, Portland was delightful. We walked and walked and walked and walked and caught the light rail and visited Powell's and Knit Purl and a good time was had by all. But not at the restaurant we went to that had to be the only place in hippy granola crunchy Portland that didn't cater for gluten- and dairy-free people or vegetarians or vegans. I finished an Elfe.
 |
| One of the many very cool bridges in Portland. |
February 2013
Apparently nothing happened in Feb except I knitted DH a hat and some socks and did some work. I do remember being rather excited at the evidence of Spring coming - the buds started swelling on various plants. We went to the flower and garden show downtown.
 |
| ZOMG! Crocuses! |
March 2013
Spring finally came. It couldn't come quickly enough for me. Plus I finished some socks for me me me! I worked, went to Emerald City Comicon (which was vaguely entertaining but I'm too far out of the comic loop now to realise any significance to most of it but the costumes were amusing!) and apparently did nothing else for the whole month. Oh, I did do one more thing - I made a quilt for my brother.
 |
| Quilt. Bright, non? |
 |
| Cherry blossoms! SPRING! Yay! (Umm. from April...) |
April 2013
Things really started hopping in April. We had a visit from a googly friend, Spring really started springing, we got to wear tshirts without jackets/jumpers for the first time in months, we went whale watching, and I went on a knitting retreat that was absolutely one of the top experiences of my life.
 |
| Lime Kiln lighthouse, San Juan Island |
 |
| Skagit Valley Tulip festival. Eye popping! |
May 2013
I knitted myself a Norwegian Fana cardigan just in time for Syttende Mai (17 May, Norway's Constitution Day. It was a crazy undertaking - I left myself not very long to do it but I got it done in time, yay me! We went to San Juan Island and had a lovely time on island. We did a trip down the the Columbia River Gorge. I took lots too many pictures of flowers and went on a yarn crawl. The weather was unseasonably warm.
 | ||
| Yay me! Less than a month to knit and it had to be cut to make it work! |
 |
| Columbia River from a big rock. |
June came too quickly and left rather quickly as well. My highlight from June, and one of the highlights of the year, was doing the Naked Bike Ride. I had never done anything like it before - I've never skinny dipped or done anything the slightest bit nuddy at all. I don't even like wearing bikinis - body issues, moi? I'm happy enough to show it off fully clothed - a layer of lycra is enough - but not bare flesh. We had a visitor. I did a bit of quilting and knitting for others. (I am ashamed to say the baby stuff didn't get sent - it is still waiting cos the first baby is a big lad and was too big for the vest by the time I thought to ask for the address...).
 |
| Not many clothes on this lot! |
 |
| Roses were fantastic this year :-0 |
July 2013
July was berry season. I bought lots and lots and lots of berries. I made jam with some of the berries and froze the rest. Lots of berries. I've been eating the jam steadily and there are still lots of berries in the freezer. Maybe I should may some berry (bubbly!) pies. We went to a lovely wedding, truly lovely, had another visitor and we went up Mt Rainier twice. Have I ever mentioned how much I love Mt Rainier? No? Surely you jest! I also spent more than a week in tie dye - I have lots of it and now that I have a house, I can have even more of it! I can haz all teh colourz! YAY!
 |
| A few berries. |
 |
| Nisqually Valley, Mt Rainier |
August 2013
August brought both fantastic and bad. We went back to Colorado (actually Wyoming but we got to stay in Colorado for a few nights). I always said I'd go back to Fort Collins one day, well that day was at the start of August. It was fantastic, and it also brought closure. I got to visit places that were (and remain) well loved, I got to watch the crawdads again in Spring Creek, I visited some old friends... saw old sights and took millions of photos (not quite but close). It was glorious. Later in the month, I managed to trip over a gap in the pavement and ripped my hands up brutally, somehow avoided getting them infected (big sigh of relief) and then I developed massive breathing problems and a really husky voice. I still managed to get some knitting and quilting done - I had to do something, anything to distract myself from my woes. We rode the Ducks for DH's birthday and I at least had a ball.
 |
| Test garden, Fort Collins |
 |
| Trail Ridge Road Rocky Mountain NP |
September 2013
I achieved glottal incompetence. Yay me! My breathing and voice issues were diagnosed - a paralysed vocal cord. Treatment? Wait and see. Boo hiss. My three year breast cancer check up came back clear, YAY! I couldn't do talk like a poirate day as my ARRRR!s sounded like ahhh!s, rather nancy-boy really. I knitted a lot - not being able to exercise much does that to you. We had visitors - some of my family visited. It was lovely to see them, pity about my voice and breathing issues. We went up Rainier again but I couldn't go far as I really really just could not get enough breath. I thought I'd die of a heart attack. We got told our rent was rising $500 a month. And the season turned autumnal - no long Indian summer this year!
 |
| Paradise Lodge plus Tatoosh Range. |
 |
| Family at the locks. |
October 2013
It was most definitely autumn. Pity about the short days and the increasing coolth because the rest was pretty good. More visitors! DH's parents came to visit. We started house hunting and talked to the credit union about house loans. We did a day trip to a most marvellous part of Washington state and then took our visitors to it and around in a loop through Winthrop and Leavenworth and across highway 2 and then went back again! Highway 20 is absolutely fantastic! We can't go up it now, not all the way across because it is winter and the road is closed until the melt starts and the ploughs can go up and clear it. My voice still wasn't good - it was better but not normal and I still couldn't walk and talk.
 |
| This un needs to be big! So glorious! |
 |
| Leavenworth |
November 2013
My birthday. I actually managed to have a party! People even came to it! It was lovely! We did one last trip up Highway 20 and discovered a most amazing stink - in part the dyeing salmon and in part the unopened ranch dressing in some vegies I had bought to snack on. Autumn effectively finished, sneaking out in a series of dull grey days and I started work on the biggest quilt I've ever made. Oh and we bought a house. A little cute wee house.
 |
| Have to have one sunset shot! |
 |
| ZOMG! KEYS! |
December 2013
I finished my biggest quilt ever in time to submit it for the binary quilt challenge at my local guild. The big thing for the month though was moving! ARGH! Painting. ARGH! OMG, why do I do this to myself? Christmas was good but I ended up with a cold and that slowed things down a bit. Still, I did a slap up meal for nine people - roast pork and vegies, with lamingtons for afters - and we managed to fit them all into our little house and everyone went away with a full, happy belly so I consider that a WIN! And it snowed. Snowed! Here! So pretty for about three hours. Probably the perfect snow :-)
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| Part of my biggest ever quilt. |
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| Snow on our deck! |
 |
| Last sunset of 2013. Tata! |
Wishing you all a fab 2014. May it be your best year yet.
anon!
Where doe the time go?? I remember thinking how very old I would be in the year 2000 too, and here I am as well, in spite of everything. Feeling lucky!!! Happy New Year in your New House. We wish you happiness, continuing good health and a lusty singing voice!!
ReplyDelete2013 was a great year for you especially seeing crocuses and a nudey bike ride!! and a new home! May 2014 be full of fun times, great things and lots of colour!.
ReplyDelete