January

In January of this year we suddenly decided that interest rates looked like they’d be rising sharply soon, and so we went one night to a seminar about buying a first house. We wound up being the only two people there. Two days later we went visiting homes in the area with the realtors who taught the seminar. The first house had a crappy basement. The next three had tiny kitchens. But the fifth one had a roomy kitchen, two fireplaces, a finished basement and an enormous shower with two showerheads. We fell swiftly in love with it, even though we had almost passed the house by because it was further north than we wanted to be. We made an offer that day, and within about a week the deal was sealed. We were on our way to purchasing our first house.

(The doors are different now, this is an old photo)

February

In February we took a trip to Chicago and moved into our new house!

March

In March Nathan traded in his BMW 1-series for a BMW Z4 M. He was a happy, happy boy. I was a stressed-out bride-to-be (but i don’t regret agreeing to let him make the switch. he really loves the car).

April

In April i had my bachelorette party. It was a blast! We went to Appare for dinner, had oreo balls at the house and then went to Uncle Buck’s for some dancing action. The ladies bought me drinks and i danced until i got all sweaty and gross. It was awesome.

May

In May we got married!!!

June

In June we went to Cancun for our honeymoon. After all that stress with the new house and the new car and planning the loveliest wedding, it was absolutely fantastic to just sit on the beach and do nothing.

July

In July Dustin visited before he went back down to Oklahoma to start his internship. We went to an Iowa Cubs game with Mom and i made the game seem pretty fascinating in comparison to my talk of the books i’d been reading.

August

In August i turned 26. My guy friends had a party for me at their place. We ate BLTs and stayed up late watching Twilight with the RiffTrax on, and then we went out to a park to watch the Perseids meteor shower. I had been warned that it was going to be crappy this year because of the full moon, but we went anyway and each of us saw at least a couple of shooting stars. I want to make this an annual birthday tradition, and hopefully the skies will be nice and dark for me in 2012.

September

In September we went to Iowa City for Nathan’s birthday. We got burgers and beers at The Vine and stayed at a weird little eco-friendly/vegetarian/salvaged-everything bed and breakfast. In the morning we went to Wilson’s orchard and picked apples for pies and apple dumplings.

October

In October we went to Grinnell to see Ume. The show was in the basement of a dormitory, and for a long time it didn’t look like anyone else was coming. North America opened with some spooky instrumental music, and then the college kids (who had all brought their own beverages) really started rocking out when Ume took the stage. It was a really good show, and it was free! I got Lauren’s autograph before we left.

November

In November we learned that my brother has cancer. It’s not really my place to talk about it much, but i can say that for a minute there i was truly scared and i thought that my extreme luck in life was about to run out. It turned out not to be quite as bad as some of us had feared, but still something that was very serious and needed to be dealt with as quickly as possible. My brother came and stayed with us over Thanksgiving and it was wonderful to see him. Shortly thereafter he began his treatment. So far he’s feeling extremely well despite everything, and we’re really hopeful that this will all pass without even being terribly difficult. I can’t express what a relief that is.

December

Earlier this month we went to California to celebrate my grandfather’s 90th birthday. It’s always nice to go down there, especially in the winter since it’s still warm enough to walk around in a light jacket. My grandparents seemed to be doing really well—even better than the last time i saw them, i think—but my great aunt did happen to be in the hospital with some grave-sounding infection. She’s 92, herself. I was glad to be able to go down there and see everyone, including my Dad and his wife.

So, that about wraps it up. What a year! One of the best possible things and one of the worst possible things happened in rapid succession. I still feel incredibly fortunate. I have a husband who is wonderful is so many ways, and a dear little house in which to live with him. I did not change jobs this year, which is a first for me. And my brother is going to be fine, which i’m eternally thankful for. It was a terrible thing that he got cancer, but i’m a lucky, lucky girl to have always had him in my life and to be able to continue on that way.

I don’t want to make any promises i can’t keep, but in 2012 i hope to be a little more social and a little more creative. I’m starting to miss my creative outlets, and i plan to take some classes and/or make some time to get back into making beautiful things. I’m not sure what yet, but hopefull you’ll see.

Last winter was actually a pretty content one for me. Having an SUV and big ol’ ear muffs and not paying too much attention to the bitchers all over Twitter kept me in really good spirits despite the crap that rained down on us for days on end. There was this day when i drove to work and everything was coated in a layer of frost and it was one of the prettiest things i think i’ve ever seen. Our downtown loft felt kinda like a warm cave—especially since we didn’t have to worry about paying for heating—and not having to shovel snow was a definite bonus. But the thin walls and high price eventually drove us to find a new place to stay.

In the spring we moved to our new house and i fell into a funk that lasted a couple of months. I had to stop paying attention to any and all news because hearing about the oil gushing mercilessly into the Gulf put a grimy layer of frosting on my not-so-happy cake. Luckily all of that junk passed and i had a very happy summer & fall planning the wedding details with Nathan and going to parties & shopping with my girls. My brother came to town for a couple of months and instilled in Nathan and me a humble appreciation for a really good IPA (i.e. beer). That was a very awesome way to spend the summer, if i do say so. We also took a trip to California to visit my dad’s family, including a handful of cousins who came to the U.S. from Belgium for three weeks to see the sights. It was a real treat to see them all again.

Come fall i’d been driving my stick-shift Honda almost every day for a year, and learning to drive it well taught me perseverance. I’ve gained a certain confidence that i might some day become good at other quotidian tasks, such as doing my hair, frying an egg or maintaining eye contact while speaking to people. When i lost my job in October, i was prepared to spend a couple of months doing very little and then go back to school to become a programmer, and i contemplated using my down time to practice playing guitar again. Okay—to be honest it was the hair thing that i was most looking forward to practicing, but—luckily i got a job as a web developer for August Home Publishing in November and was relieved of having to worry about what to do with my free time. ‘Cause when you work eight-to-five, you A. cook, B. clean up or C. watch movies when you aren’t at work. And on the weekends you sleep a lot and go out shopping/eating/hanging out with your friends. That’s just how it is. Well—for me, anyway.

My new job is awesome, and a major part of that may be that it’s just awesome to have a job. I was really lucky to get another job so quickly, and honestly if it wasn’t for the connections i’ve made via Twitter it wouldn’t have happened and i probably would’ve had to buy myself a new set of textbooks for Christmas. Thankfully, i have an income instead and i’m spending too much money on holiday steals and insurance premiums instead. The people i work with are awesome. The work i do can be challenging (which is great) and frustrating (which is not so great) at times, but it’s not a bad gig at all. The websites i work on have a LOT of potential, and i say that in the most loving possible way.

I’ve started working out again, thanks to the free gym access i get through work. And no, i’m not trying to lose weight for the wedding; i’m just fearful that with osteoporosis & heart disease running rampant in my family i’ll probably end up pretty miserable down the road if i don’t start taking preventative measures now. I’m getting married; that means i need to take care of myself, right? So i jog for 20 minutes twice a week and i’m going to work on finding ways to increase that and/or supplement it with some sort of weight-bearing exercise. I’m really afraid of building muscle, though. Especially in my legs. They tend to get muscular and i really don’t want them to be any bigger. But enough whining—i can already see the comments i’m going to get in response to that tangent.

I don’t really know how to segue into this topic, but a couple of people i knew from high school died this year and it’s been a really strange experience for me. The first was Tiffany Robb who frankly gave me more of a hard time in school than anyone else i can think of. She was my cheerleading captain freshman year and she was a big reason that i only lasted two seasons with it. When i heard that she had died i was creeped out by how little sadness i felt. But then i heard that she had been shot, and i just felt so angry knowing that her life had been stolen from her at such a young age. Whatever happened between the two of us back in high school is of so little significance compared to the fact that she’s been forcibly removed from the earth. It got me thinking about whether any of us is really entitled to life and for how long, and it made me wonder who would miss me and who wouldn’t if this happened to me and whether any of that really matters. And just on December 17th, Brittany Hall, who was a good friend of mine in high school, died of complications caused by her epilepsy. I had let her slip away from my life almost completely, except for a comment here and there on facebook. She was so passionate and unique and troubled and here again i’m angry that during her short life something of great importance was just stolen from her. But that’s probably not my place to really talk about. I know it’s natural and okay for people to drift apart after school, i’m just sorry that i never sat down to catch up with her over a cup of coffee or something. I wish i had heard her stories.

On a lighter note, i’m looking forward anxiously to what 2011 has in store. This is the year i get married. It’s something i’ve always secretly wanted but rarely dared to believe could actually happen for the right reasons. But here i am, and here we are, and i am so excited i can hardly breathe when i really think about it. The wedding is about five months away now, and i’m going to savor the days from here until then carefully, because the anticipation is so sweet. I’m definitely looking forward to actually being married to Nathan, but i’m also enjoying the planning and designing and choosing and checking items off the to-do list in good time. The day itself will be wonderful no matter what happens or what color the flowers end up being. And then there will be a honeymoon in Cancun. And then a long and happy life together. And i. Am so. Pumped.

In the personal realm of life, Nathan and i have been enjoying the season together quite a bit, despite having opted for Thai food and a zombie movie at home rather than a party on Beggars’ Night. We made a trek to Iowa City a few weekends ago and visited an orchard, picked up some seasonal microbrews, had dinner with Nina & Karl and went to a hookah bar after discovering that the band we had traveled to see had cancelled the show due to van troubles. At the orchard we picked a couple of ill-fated little pumpkins and enough apples for Nathan to double our current stockpile of delicious homemade pies.

The treasure was a small decorative gourd.

Day 2

Day 4

Day 6

Evidently the squirrels around here have a taste for pumpkin.

More recently, i walked the Race for the Cure with my mom, a thirteen-year cancer survivor. It was quite a sight to see a river of pink filling the streets of Des Moines and all the names written on their backs of survivors and victims alike. It wasn’t quite the feeling of accomplishment that i got two years ago when i ran/walked it, but it was definitely more of a sense of sisterhood. This time it was about relationships rather than endurance.

Autumn has been pretty kind to us this year; we haven’t seen a snowflake yet, but it is getting chillier as the days pass. Most of the leaves have fallen now. It’s time to pick up the pieces.

Our tree

For my birthday Nathan got me tickets to three different shows that happened here in Des Moines right around my birthday: Rooney, Phoenix and Tegan & Sara. Rooney was first, and it was a really fun little show in an intimate venue, and it was early in the day which turned out to be nice for us working types. Phoenix was the very next day, and their show was a little too loud and a little too packed and a little too blinding as far as the light show, but it was still fun.

Next came my actual b-day, which i spent trying on wedding dresses, watching Eat, Pray, Love and playing Apples to Apples with a handful of my lovely friends.

A few days later we saw Tegan & Sara, which was definitely an interesting show. They performed at Hoyt Sherman which is a really lovely old venue here in Des Moines. There was no opening band, and T&S played two sets: an acoustic set and one with the full band. During the first set they did some Q&A sessions which got to be a little long-winded, but they’re funny people so it was interesting to hear them talk about some adventures they’ve had both in the recording studio and on the road. We had to cut out of the second set a little early, but i still got to hear all of my favorite T&S songs.

Nathan’s gifts (comic books & concert tickets!)

Nathan made me tacos and fresh tortilla chips, french toast, and strawberry shortcake for my b-day. It was all AWESOME.

First thing i saw when i got to work Monday. Love it.

The day after Tegan & Sara, we went to the Iowa State Fair. If you haven’t been to our fair, it’s pretty much the best one in the country. And i say that because i think Martha Stewart said it, or something. It’s all about excess: who grows the fattest pig, the biggest pumpkin, the most enormous stalk of corn; how many calories can we pack into a single $6 fried-on-a-stick commodity; how many big ol’ corn-fed Iowans can you pack into a few hundred acres? I used to absolutely hate it and now i think it’s great fun.

I really wanted to steal a little chickie. They’re SO CUTE.

The calf looked a little sad.

Our famous Butter Cow. Life-size, all butter.

The biggest pumpkin weighed over 1,000 lbs.

So *that’s* why they call it eggplant.

That cabbage in the back was the size of a beach ball.

…And these were tiny! I like photographing produce…

“Star Boars” sand sculpture

Jabba

A sampling of the many, many pretty quilts

This year we ate: mini doughnuts, some rootbeer, a couple of exorbitantly priced brewskis, fried cheese curds (a must), i had 2/3 of a tenderloin (it took a while to find one that wasn’t the size of a dinner plate), and a turkey leg which we took home and made stock with. Have i mentioned that we’re getting really into the whole “domestic” thing?

Thank you, Jennifer!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

It was great to see everyone, but unfortunately all of the portraits that were taken are on other people’s cameras, so i can’t share them here.

Here are some photos that i took:

Grandpa’s Oranges

We stayed at my grandparents’ house, which is awesome because they make some really tasty European dishes and they insist on feeding their guests as much as possible. Every morning Grandpa makes fresh-squeezed orange juice from the tree in his own back yard. He explained to me that they have two different orange trees; one that produces fruit in the warmer months and one that prefers the cooler months, and this way he gets oranges all year long. If you’ve never squeezed an orange to make your own juice, you really must try it.

Weird flower-looking cactus things

We walked around the neighborhood and i photographed a bunch of the plants in people’s yards because they were just so weird. I told this to Jo and she didn’t understand what kind of world i was used to. I told her “leafy trees,” but i probably should have just said “corn.”

We drove out to the coast on day 2, and we of course experienced a lot of traffic despite having departed in the late morning. When we got there it was cloudy and breezy and cool, and thus i was cranky. When is it EVER not beautiful in California?! We got some In-N-Out burger and then decided to lay on the beach anyway until we could check into our hotel. Gradually it got sunnier, and when we retreated to the hotel we discovered that we had gotten burned something fierce. Tip for living: if you’re a pasty Iowan, don’t just sprawl out on the beach in the middle of the day for two hours and expect not to get roasted, no matter how cloudy you think it is.

This was the view from our hotel balcony. Did i say hotel? I meant resort. That was a surprise that came with several unexpected and incontestable fees. But what’s worse is that we were too sore to even take advantage of the amenities. We made it to Karl Strauss in Costa Mesa and the beer numbed our pain slightly, but we still turned in early and headed back inland right away the following morning.

Side note: it’s been two weeks now since we got burned and i’m still a little bit peely and itchy. I don’t even want to express what a humiliating, guilt-inducing and uncomfortable situation that was. But! We still had a really nice time in California. We wrapped up our trip by exploring the Huntington Library in Pasadena, which was huge and fascinating and could have occupied us for an extra day, easily.

Nathan getting a shot of Pinky. The original.

The bonsai trees were one of the most lovely & interesting things. How do they do that?

Saturday we celebrated my friend Calee‘s move back to Ames from Des Moines by hitting the town with her. We got barbecue at Uncle Wendel’s and then went to see the Des Moines Derby Dames‘ roller-derby bout. We lost to the Old Capital City Roller Girls, but it was a fun experience despite the fact that i had to sit on a concrete floor in my short skirt. Hopefully next time they’ll do it in a venue with more seating.

After that we headed to The Lift where i had a grand total of 3.25 drinks and ended up drunk enough to say quite a few silly things, but unfortunately not so wasted that i couldn’t remember them. That Bradie was trying to kill me. I don’t really want to talk about it except to say that i’m sorry if i offended anyone but i had a good time.

Yesterday evening we went over to my grandpa’s house where my mother had been seeing barred owls in the trees for the past few nights. At first we didn’t see them, but Mom was sure they were around because of the commotion from the smaller birds. Sure enough, we spotted one just as we were about to leave. There are four of them hanging around; two adults and two nearly-full-sized babies. We watched all four fly from branch to branch, saw them get pecked by the smaller birds, made noises at the juveniles who made noises back at us and bobbed their heads, and saw one adult feed her babies a small animal.

As it was getting dark, one of the younger owls perched on a post right in the backyard. I got about five paces away from it to try to take photos. It didn’t really work out because of the darkness, but it was amazing to just watch her calmly examine the ground for mice and occasionally swivel her head around to look at us.

This is how i wish my photos had turned out.

It’s been hot and humid here the past couple of days, and that will probably continue for the rest of the week. I’ve been working out several times a week in preparation for dress shopping, but i’m not sure how i’m going to run outside now. I don’t do hot & muggy.

*EDIT: Oh man, i forgot to write about our awesome waitress on Friday night! We went to a place called Paradise Pizza in WDM that we’d never been to, and we had a waitress who was probably just starting out. And had probably never been to a restaurant before. She brought us our beers with straws in them, and brought the check out to us before asking how the meal was or if we wanted any dessert. She wandered around looking bored when she wasn’t helping us. It was an all-around hilarious thing to see.

Moving was a pain, as moving always is. We got a key to the new place one week before we had to be out of the old place, and we spent that week packing, taking some boxes over to the new place and painting the bedroom from pink to light gray. Let me tell you, we are not expert painters. I think the last time i painted was about ten years ago and somehow i figured that experience was all i needed under my belt to painlessly paint a bedroom. I was wrong.

We used 2/3 of the gallon of white paint that the landlord gave us on the first coat and the room still looked patchy. So, i decided to buy another gallon, and i figured that changing the color slightly from white to light gray wouldn’t matter much. Wrong again! After the first coat of the gray paint, it still looked patchy. So we went at it again. And after the second coat, we had to go back and fill in what patches still remained. And then we took the tape off the edges, and the trim was messy. I am hiring a professional next time.

Moving the big stuff was easy because we had a team of four helpers and a u-haul. Thank God. Unpacking has taken a lot longer than i thought it would, but it feels awesome now and less than a month has passed. Yay! On with the show:

The house, with our two cars in the two-car garage!

Our kitchen which, sadly, lacks a dishwasher.

The living room/dining room

What it looks like from the other side. That mirror came with the place and is nailed into the wall, and that’s a gas fireplace below it.

The bedroom. Notice the paint job! I want to add a colorful quilt to break up all the gray.

I think we’re calling this room the den, maybe?

The bathroom. It got painted a light tan color before we moved in. Things to notice: green tiles, heat lamp, cedar ceiling.

Our crazy tub.

We have a weird semi-circular concrete patio thing in the back

And we’ve got a few little plants popping up in the back yard. Happy Spring!

There are more photos in my flickr photo set if that wasn’t enough for you. More details to come.

I’ve been running a little lately (on a treadmill – which i love because there are no hills, no chilly winds or sweltering sunshine and i don’t run long enough to get bored anyway). My normal clothes are starting to fit nicely again. I haven’t connected to Nike+ in a long time, so maybe i’ll do that and post a run soon. We’ve also been taking ballroom dancing classes, which are a lot of fun. Nathan is a natural.

We’ve been watching some classic Sci-Fi moves that i somehow missed, like The Terminator and Planet of the Apes. I love it. I’ve been reading about love & marriage, ’cause what could be happier? I’ve been listening to all sorts of music for free on lala.com, which i highly recommend. The snows have all but melted and we are all very grateful that spring is making its long-awaited arrival. Today is the first work day on Daylight Saving Time, though, which is always a little challenging.

Stay tuned – and in the meantime, check out my wedding inspiration blog if you haven’t already.

In early ’09 there was snow. And more snow. And then Nathan and i went to Chicago for Valentine’s day and stayed in a delightful little B&B for a couple of nights. I don’t know what it is about Chicago, but it’s just really fun to go there and stare up at the giant buildings and wander around lost and then stop by IKEA on the way home. Feeling romantic, we also stopped into a few stores in the Windy City’s Diamond District and ogled some sparklies while we were there. It was an indicator of things to come.

In March we moved into our lovely downtown loft. It was really awesome at first until we discovered more recently that 1200 square feet is a LOT to keep clean all the time and that being able to hear everything your neighbors yell at each other isn’t really all that fun. It’s been a nice setting for a few parties, but we don’t do that kind of thing terribly often, and even when we do it’s only a handful of people. We’re hoping to rent a house this spring, and hopefully not being able to hear our neighbors will be worth the effort required to keep the lawn mowed and the driveway shoveled.

In the spring Nathan and i started running together. It was a slow start for me again, but i eventually got back up to the three-mile marker again before deciding to take an extended break. It’s still extending, in fact. I got to a point where i could think about nothing but breathing and the pain i was in and that i needed to STOP every time i ran, and for the entire time that i was running. If i run again this year, i’m cranking my music UP and i’m not going to bother trying to breathe correctly. But, more likely, i’m going to get back into dancing instead. And Nathan will be joining me! We start in January, and hopefully it will help me to fit back into the jeans that have recently become too tight to wear.

In the summer a cute bird couple laid their eggs in our sad little garden box, and we watched their babies quickly grow up & fly away. We took a trip to Oregon on what was probably the hottest week there, ever, and enjoyed visiting Portland and my family despite the shroud of fog out on the coast.

Shortly after we returned my job petered out, and so i signed up for a couple of programming classes at DMACC and started the job hunt, bidding working from home a tearful goodbye. Javascript proved to be very intriguing, and programming logic came pretty easily to me. I only applied for about three jobs in all. One was located right across the street from where we live and dragged out their hiring process so long that by the time they finally rejected me, i had started my new job at Spindustry through Robert Half Technology. I learned recently that I ended up getting A’s in both of my DMACC classes (for whatever good that will do me) and that i get to keep my job at Spindustry! Beginning January 18th, i will no longer be a contractor through RHT, i will be a full-time Spindustry employee, and i couldn’t be happier.

This fall we got engaged, and i’m learning what it’s like to have a heart that is both peaceful and elated at the same time. I bought a 2004 Honda CR-V, and it is getting us safely through the mass amounts of snow that are falling upon Iowa this winter. I’m looking forward to starting to plan our wedding in the coming year (well, i’ve kinda started) and meeting the challenge of becoming even healthier. I have everything to be thankful for and everything to look forward to, and i’m sure 2010 is going to be a great adventure.

Three major life-changes have taken place since the last time i wrote. The first was a new job! I started work at Spindustry Interactive a little over three weeks ago. I’m still doing web design, and i actually have a full work load for the first time since college, and i really enjoy it. I won an award for fitting in right away, because on my first day the office prankster sent out an email to everyone and spelled my name wrong where he mentioned me in it. I hit reply-to-all and corrected him. They apparently loved that.

On my third day of work, Nathan surprised me when i got home with a note which he instructed me to read in private. The note was beautiful, and featured a series of little drawings. At the end it said “come find me,” and when i went to him he knelt down and asked me to marry him! Needless to say, I said yes. I cried and cried, and then we went out to a nice dinner and called our families to tell them the news.

So with a new job and a new jewel on my finger, i figured the only thing to do was buy a new car. A few months ago i sold my Saturn and bought Nathan’s Blazer for insurance purposes. The Blazer was great for plowing through the snow last winter, but the body was rusting badly and it needed at least one repair, so i decided to trade it in on a newer snow-worthy vehicle. I won’t go into the details of that story because car-buying proved to be quite a stressful process. Suffice it to say i have a new 2004 Honda CR-V and – yes, it’s a manual transmission.

Prior to my test-drive, i had driven manuals on all of two occasions, and both attempts had involved an abundance of tears and frustration. But, hey, everyone told me i’d learn to love it, so why not? Right??

I’ve been driving my Honda to and from work this week, and today was the first day that i managed not to kill it even one time. I have not been a quick learner with this. Digital stuff is easy to learn – Javascript? No problem! But physical things take a lot more practice.

Speaking of Javascript, i will still be taking classes on Monday and Tuesday evenings for five more weeks. If i take a class next semester it will only be one, because now that i’m working full-time, six hours of classes each week is cutting into my free time a little more than i’d like. Learning programming has been pretty fun, and i think next i need a refresher course in Flash (especially since i’m supposed to be the office Flash expert at Spindustry).

As beautiful and wonderful as last fall was, i think this one has definitely rivaled it. I had never heard of any such thing as “engaged bliss,” but i’ve discovered that it exists. Or maybe that’s just understood to be the state of being engaged. Everything is so lovely. I feel terribly fortunate.

I took photos of my nephew for his senior portraits a couple weeks ago, and i’m pretty happy with how they turned out. Here are a couple of my faves:

He’s good at being a model and striking different poses. No word yet on which shots are his faves, but you can go see the full set on flickr if you like.

I’m taking a pretty extended break from running… Not sure if i’ll get back into it at all, but fall is pretty much the perfect time for running, so we’ll see. I wish i could find something like dance-for-exercise around here, but it doesn’t really exist. Maybe swing would do.

This week i started two night classes at DMACC: programming logic and dynamic HTML. That means i’ll be learning really basic concepts for programming but no actual languages on the one hand, and mostly Javascript on the other. I’m heavily considering dropping the first class while i can still get my money back, but probably i should just do it and be done with it and it will be a good foundation for further programming knowledge. The Javascript class is going to be a lot of fun, i think. The classes are three hours each, two days a week, and DMACC is twenty minutes away, so the beginning of my week is pretty packed right now.

Nathan’s b-day is this month! For a few more days we’ll be the same age, and then he’ll surpass me in age and wisdom once again for eleven months to follow. Also, we will celebrate our one-year anniversary this month. Things just keep getting better.

Twenty-four has some pretty big shoes to fill, actually. Twenty-three was an awesome year for me: meeting the love of my life and spending many happy days hanging out with him, moving to our sweet loft downtown and getting to work from home. I’ll miss that last one a lot when it’s over.

In the last few months i realized that there are quite a few songs in my music library that mention being twenty-three. I tweeted about them yesterday, but i’m not sure anyone was paying attention, so here is the list:

Blink 182 – What’s My Age Again?

And that’s about the time she walked away from me
Nobody likes you when you’re twenty-three
And you still act like you’re in freshman year
What the hell is wrong with me?
My friends say i should act my age
What’s my age again?

Blitzen Trapper – Furr

On the day that I turned 23
I was curled up underneath a dogwood tree
When suddenly a girl
Her skin the color of a pearl
She wandered aimlessly, but she didn’t seem to see
She was listening for the angels just like me

Jimmy Eat World – 23

Amazing still it seems
I’ll be 23
I won’t always love what I’ll never have
I won’t always live in my regrets

Stars – Going Going Gone

Look good in that red dress
I bet the boyfriend’s happy
Your face is scarred with age
You’re twenty-three but, how can that be?
Still hooked on cellophane
Killing time with Gin and lime
Each second numbs the pain
Love’s just another rhyme.

Incubus – Pardon Me

A decade ago
I never thought I would be at twenty-three
on the verge of spontaneous combustion
Woe is me
But i guess that it comes with the territory
An ominous landscape of never-ending calamity

None of these lyrics really reflect my experience of being 23 (except maybe the gin and lime bit), but i’ve always thought it fun to listen to songs that mention the age i am currently. So, the search for songs about being 24 begins…

After a while we realized that the last baby was still sitting under the lettuce just beside the nest, looking up at his sibling and contemplating his first flight. I took one last photo of him, inadvertently encouraging him to join the others in leaving home forever. He flew directly to the firehouse rooftop with no trouble at all.

That was the last we saw of them. It’s been two days now, and we’re officially empty-nesters. Looking out at the garden box gives me a little pang of sadness every time. Nathan and i have been spending more time with each other now that there are no little ones around. Their nest is the same way they left it so far, but we’re contemplating converting the space into a bed for another basil plant. We’ve talked about taking up golf, and i plan to begin scrapbooking the memories as soon as we return from vacation in August.

They finally got cute. They’re about 2/3 the size of the adults already. When the parents are away they get up and hop just outside of the nest and flap their wings. If they see us coming, though, they pack themselves into the nest and become quiet and still. They’re so big that usually one is stuck directly underneath another one so that they can all fit in the nest.

Also, we ended up with five little eggies. I probably won’t be able to resist blogging about them growing up, so, i apologize to anyone who’s bored already.

In other news: I’m selling my car. Nathan’s workplace has kicked us out of their parking garage, so it’s time for me to get rid of my vehicle since i don’t really use it anymore anyway. If my boss moves me to an office i might have a problem on my hands, but for now this is my best option.

I’ve been having a good time celebrating Michael Jackson’s life by listening to his hits and watching the videos. I didn’t fully realize how much i like and remember his work until now. Figures, eh? I remember scaring my friends at slumber parties by telling them that Michael Jackson was outside the window, coming to get us. One of them contacted me about it yesterday, which made me laugh. Nobody can deny that he got pretty weird and a little frightening-looking over the decades, but i’ve always generally liked him and i’m grateful for what he gave to the world.

Jamie is in town right now, and Nina will be here later this week! Yippee!

So now she’s spending these ninety-plus-degree days sitting on her little eggies, poor thing. She looks hot today.

I had to take this shot from pretty far away indoors yesterday, since she flies away if we get too close. Feather Butt used to sit up on the fire station watching over her, but he seems content that everything is going alright now and doesn’t seem to be around most of the time. Slowly but surely, i think they’re getting used to the fact that they’ve built their abode very close to ours.

Two little sparrows decided to build their home in our garden box yesterday! I just can’t evict them, i think it’s so cute how they’re using our lettuce as a roof and everything. I even gave them some hair from my hairbrush and they used it in the nest!

That’s my pathetic little parsley plant next to it, by the way. I don’t actually have a green thumb, it’s all just a front.

This is the first real fruit from our little window box garden, although we’ve already taken a few leaves from the lettuce and basil plants for various meals. We’re pretty proud—we call the plants our babies.

Cherry tomatoes, romaine lettuce, thyme, parsley, oregano and basil.

Nathan built the window box and i chose the paint color. We planted the babies together and water them on days that nature doesn’t do so for us. We don’t have a proper watering can, so we use our cups instead.

I noticed today that our basil plant is blossoming. So pretty.