2009 has been equal parts awesome and awful. I can’t remember any other, aside from perhaps 2006 (sick, but met the Chop) and 2003 (my Nana died/my sister got divorced, but moved to the East Coast), where there was such an equal amount of good and bad.

January
We elected a new president, and although it hasn’t been all roses, I’m still glad he’s it.
We started planning the wedding and getting pressure for our “no gift” policy. Sigh. And I lit our oven on fire.

February
We picked our wedding spot, caterers and photographer—and they all turned out to be absolutely perfect.
A dear friend lost her husband.

March
We went on vacation in Ireland, which was amazing. Even though I have a little bitterness about not moving there, lol.
My dryer crapped out, three of our favorite restaurants closed and, oh yeah, that 15% pay cut. Damn the recession.

April
We went and saw David Sedaris, the world was introduced to Susan Boyle and the Chop and I decided to start house hunting.
I had to go to Vegas for our conference; we put an offer on a house that turned out to be the lemon of the century (hello $30k in fixes)… and so we pulled out.

May
Went to a very entertaining wedding of a good friend—and on the same day, found the house we would buy.
We house-hunted every weekend.

June
Bought our house, switched states and marked four years of blogging.
Moved out of my favorite place and left my home of four years.

July
Quit one job and got another. Kept the other job as a client for more money and less pain—win, win.
The dog decided to inaugurate the house by using the basement as her personal toilet—very. bad.

August
Oh god, the wedding planning. And the DMV. And the lack of air conditioning. August was rough.

September
Convinced my parents I should be able to wear red at my wedding. Built the wedding website.
Wedding planning. Hell. Went dress shopping. Double hell. Worked like a dog.

October
Went to TX, where my awesome godmother made my VERY RED dress!
Worked like a dog. Went to ME with my mom and sister—where we fought constantly. Tried to convince Chop that we should elope already goddamnit.

November
Went back to WA for a bridal shower, where my awesome cousin surprised me, which was lovely. My family came for Thanksgiving, which was also surprisingly lovely.
Counted down to the wedding, with all the insanity and annoyances that came with it. Worked like a dog.

December
Got MARRIED—now I get to wear an additional shiny, shiny ring. Went to MN for Christmas and had so much fun. Am planning to spend New Year’s happily ensconced at home, with my husband.
Went through so much insanity during the week of the wedding—and the wedding. Dealt with every possible crisis that could come up. Am still exhausted from the entire year.

Very happily got married, which made the entire year worth it.
Isn’t my husband the cutest?

Well the Chop and I took the plunge on Friday. :) The wedding was crazy (we didn’t go to bed till 4AM) but awesome and we really enjoyed the party. There was major drama (uh, almost-sex in the steam room—not us—and crazy dynamics of family), but all in all we had a good time.

Plus, hi, super shiny new ring!! :D

Today marked four years since I started this blog, and my first day as a homeowner.

In those four years, I’ve:

moved four times.
graduated college.
quit one job and started another.
started my own business.
fallen in love.
gotten engaged.
become part-owner of a crazy dog.
been dangerously ill.
gone through 2 1/2 laptops.
bought a house.

It’s nice to look back and have a record of at least a portion of my life. I’m planning to blog more regularly now that the stress of this year is mellowing into only wedding stress, but we’ll see how that goes.

Thanks for being along for the ride. :)

So the Chop proposed Friday night (and yes, I said yes, lol), and while normally I’d be happy as a clam, my parents were not as enthused as I would’ve preferred

Instead, my parents gave me a bit of grief because the Chop didn’t ask permission for my hand—I should note that I find this practice archaic and told him he didn’t have too, and in fact, I’d prefer if he didn’t. Unfortunately do to that, my parents were, according to them, “very surprised.” Which I also find odd, as we’ve been dating for two years and have mentioned several times we planned to marry.

Whatever. Friends, my cousin and his relatives were very happy and congratulatory, so I am holding on to that, and ignoring the less-than-heartfelt congrats from the parents. Figures anyway, lol.

It’s verrrrrry shiny… :) That solves a lot of problems, lol.

Alright, I found this via the Very Good Taste blog and it’s really entertaining. He put together a list of 100 food items every omnivore should try, and it’s a little scary how many creepy things I’ve tried—61/100 on this list.

Instructions
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare — no way in hell
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses — extremely stinky cheese, gag
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper — i’d like to keep my mouth not on fire
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi — bleh
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects — only if I was stranded on a desert island.
43. Phaal — see #26
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini — gag
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads — so many no ways, no hows, nu uhs
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian — cannot get past the smell
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis — double gag
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill — so disgusting
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish — dirty water fish, bleh
95. Mole poblano — amazingly, you can do something bad with chocolate
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

The house is clean, the tree is up and we are totally settled in the new place.

Not the best picture, lol, but that’s the tree, in front of the fireplace.

Here’s the new place.

Before the tree…

View into the kitchen

And where I am sitting right now

I don’t have any good upstairs pictures yet, and the office was a mess when I was taking pictures, full of Christmas boxes and wrapping paper, lol. And the kitchen is messy too, LOL. OK, we’re still cleaning.

We’re on day two of the move and almost everything is done. My parents are awesome and the Porkchop’s friend who came up from CT is possibly the most necessary mover-helper ever. The guy can move, that is all I have to say.

The PC and my dad are sitting in the new living room, getting ready to watch a movie and my mom, who doesn’t know how to stop (lol), is “finishing what she started.”

The new house is really incredible and I’ll post pics soon.

Now I am going to sit down and drink more vodka.

I’m 25 today… a quarter of a century… a third of the way to the grave… and totally able to rent a car without an age penalty.

I have finally achieved adulthood.

Good times. ;)

And it’s inevitable.. attaining perfection is a crowded road.

We heard back from the owners of the great house.

Apparently they’ve had “overwhelming” interest and they’ve “narrowed it down to just a few folks.” We’re “very high” on their list, so basically it’s just a waiting game.

I’m not at all surprised, although I was hoping everyone else would be awful and we would be the best and they’d call us today and say, “It’s yours.”

But I live in a fantasy world, with cotton candy meals and unicorns. It’s nice there. You don’t have to wait. Ever.