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another year, another list

another year, another list

i don’t know if i should continue with these “resolutions” or not. revisiting them is always fun at the end of the year, but do they actually hold some level of accountability? i’m not sure. well, we’ll do it for 2024 i guess.

hey! it’s the 20th (TWENTIETH) year of blogging! wow. ok, well that occasion warrants a list. what’s going on in 2024?

  1. read more books. or just continue to read books. i hit an all-time high this year for books read, though i would guess it doesn’t hold a candle to 15-year-old kate who read every single extra moment of the day. as an adult, i’ll take 72 books in a year! aside from quantifying, it’s just a good idea to keep reading.
  2. keep on traveling! i hit that one last year, and there are plans to do more this year. i have a work conference and liz’s 40th birthday trip (delayed) that are already in the works. who knows what else???
  3. keep on running. we are doing a destination ragnar this year over to michigan during the solstice. that should be fun and a new experience. we’ll see how it compares to wisconsin trail!
  4. i may try to do the yoga every day again. it’s a worthwhile endeavor, and i notice when i don’t do it everyday. additionally, i need to start more weight training, so i want to try to do that every other day (maybe on the off day of running). i have a 15-lb kettlebell i’ve been using with youtube vids, but if anyone has recommendations for something else, i’ll take it.
  5. do something with nate. i don’t think we did much this year aside from him taking a week off over thanksgiving. i’ll have to think of something!

that’s a decent list of “resolutions” – i wonder if i make them pretty and print them out if i would be more mindful? i mean, most of them are things i’m already doing, but it’s nice to see them.

anyway, happy 2024.

WHOOPS year in review!

WHOOPS year in review!

i somehow thought i had more time, i guess, and did not do my year in review yesterday! it was on my mind, cuz i did my books of the year, but apparently my mind had a different idea.

so, let’s review 2023.

  1. i am not going to list take more pictures in my to-do list anymore. or maybe i need to reframe what i consider pictures. i take a ton of pics on my phone, so maybe i need to stop thinking i need to get out the fancy cam. the best camera you have is the one you have with you.

    this was a good plan because i did not take more pics on my big camera. i went places and deliberately chose not to bring my big camera because it was too much. i DID go out and take pics of the northern lights with my cam. so that’s something? anyway, i like the idea of letting this one go.
  2. travel! i will hit the nail on the head with this one – i already have a trip planned for next week to orlando with my sisters. there will also be a week at the lake and hopefully something else! i want to get to a few more state parks this summer, too.

    got this one in! we did go to orlando, which was super fun. we ended up going to disney, universal, the ocean, some went to disney again, and we all went to universal again.

    then two months later, i went BACK to orlando for a work conference and went back to universal. what a time to be alive.

    i did go camping a couple times over the summer – i went to whitewater in SE MN and then i went up to savanna portage west of duluth for some outdoor time and some hiking. and of course the week on the lake for the derry reunion.

    then in october, i went to palm springs for another work conference, and after it was over, i drove to the coast so i could spend a night in dana point (where lesley fightmaster lived), look at the ocean, and then drive down to san diego to fly out.

    then in november, i went BACK to california with megan to fulfill my dream of going to yosemite national park – which was awesome! 5 stars, would recommend yosemite. we should’ve stayed one more day.

    i think i nailed this one.
  3. figure out what to do my my yoga teacher certification. i don’t know if i start a youtube channel, talk to some studios in the area, or just start yoga in the park and see who shows up? we’ll see what i’m compelled to do.

    well, so far all i’ve done is do some yoga at work for various events. i do it about once a month and it’s super easy. it’s something, though.
  4. meditate more. when i was doing it regularly for my class, it was really easy to do it anytime, but that slipped away and i’d like to get back into doing it more regularly.

    i forgot about this one! i do try to pay attention more and to be more present. and i did meditate occasionally. but it’d be good to do it more.
  5. keep on running. i’ve been slacking the past couple months, and i have to get back into it to get going for the earth day half in april. real training starts in february! and i don’t know if we’re doing ragnar this year 🙁 we may be trying something else, but the ragnar experience has declined. booo.

    ugh, so i have kept on running, but i have been slacking even more. the earth day half was terrible again, weather wise. the granddad half looked to be an opportunity to redeem ourselves, but injury held us back. and i didn’t do any other races. and i have REALLY been slacking since the beginning of october when i had a cold. time to kick it into gear.
  6. just keep looking for opportunities. resolutions are bunk, as are to-do lists. (hold-up: lists aren’t bunk.) keep your eyes open and see what’s out there.

    to-do lists are NOT bunk. but really, just see what’s up and what you can do to make it better and keep on keepin on.
books of 2023

books of 2023

ah yes, the time of the year when we round up our favorites into a nice little list. it may seem cliche, but i really like it! and how better to embrace my nerdiness than with my top books of the year.

first of all, i have to say that this past year was the year i’ve read the most books and pages in my goodreads challenge. so that means that my list of recommended 5-star books this year is long!

carrie soto is back – taylor jenkins reid

at this point, i will read anything written by TJR. even her early books, which are not as good (IMO) as her more recent, i still enjoyed. anyway, my review for this book was that only she could get me to read 350 pages about a tennis star. her way with words and storytelling just wins me over every time i pick up a book of hers. this is a stand-alone story, but it’s set in the same world as malibu rising, daisy jones, and the 7 husbands of evelyn hugo. well, each of those are their own stand-alone story, but they each reference characters from the others.

sea of tranquility – emily st. john mandel

this is a gorgeous little book about the circular, mind-boggling nature of time travel that starts in the forests of canada in the 1800s and goes to the moon in the future.

mandel’s prior book, station eleven, was also a 5-star read for me, so as soon as i saw this was released, i had to pick it up to read. it does not disappoint! it’s a calm sort of mystery and concludes with such satisfaction. time is a construct!

the house in the cerulean sea – tj klune

every now and then, you just need a little grown-up fairy tale to give you a rush of happiness, and klune tends to be able to do this with everything he writes. this is my second book of his i’ve read, and when i say grown-up fairy tale, i mean that it’s fantastical and whimsical in a thick book with small type. we follow the story of linus as he finds out that there’s more to life than the city and a neatly organized collection of records.

such a happy, fun read to page through when you feel like you need a little pick-me-up.

the invisible life of addie larue – VE schwab

another time-drifting story in my 5-star pile this year. we follow addie’s life over hundreds of years as she figures out how she can make a mark because no one remembers her the day after they meet her (she made an unfortunate deal when young). then she meets someone who does remember her! we get flashbacks to her past life as she wandered the world interspersed with the current plot of how does this person remember her? in the end, all the questions are answered.

fire keeper’s daughter – angeline boulley

BOOK OF THE YEAR.

and it takes a lot to beat taylor jenkins reid. i LOVED this book. it addresses so much about life as an american indian in sault ste. marie in michigan.. it’s set in 2008 and follows daunis, a biracial 18-year-old, whose life is derailed by a murder and all the events that follow. from murder, to drug use, to traditions, to feeling like an outsider, to misogyny, this book is FANTASTIC. it’s dense, for a YA novel, but i could not put it down.

if you want to read more native authors, this is a great place to start.

warrior girl unearthed – angeline boulley

boulley’s “sequel” to fire keeper’s daughter, warrior girl unearthed is also an excellent read (tho not my book of the year quality) that follows daunis’ niece perry in a more present day time. we watch perry as she learns about her ancestors and artifacts, and how she tries to get back what is rightfully her tribe’s. reading this and learning more about how much of natives’ property is still in museums and especially personal collections just makes me so angry at people. and i’m going to try to be very particular about what museums i visit going forward.

ink blood sister scribe – emma torzs

oh, would you like a little witchy mystery book with enchanted magical books, family secrets, rich housebound dudes, and creepy old men who use a femur as a piece of a frame for a portrait? this book is for you!

i really dove into the fantasy genre again this year, what with reading fourth wing and addie larue, which was really weird after taking a very long break to ready contemporary, sci-fi, and post-apocalyptic books for many many years. ink blood sister scribe is one of the best ones i read this year!

from the viewpoint of two sisters and the housebound richie rich, we figure out how things wind together while the secrets unravel.

braiding sweetgrass – robin wall kimmerer

i attribute my high book read rate this year to reading a lot more fiction than i normally do, as when i read books to learn, i don’t generally champ at the bit to get home to read. but, this book i wanted to drag out. i read braiding sweetgrass in bed before i went to sleep, one essay at a time.

kimmerer’s lyrical writing really makes the wisdom and knowledge of the natural world come alive and really drives home how we are not so much stewards of the earth but one of and with the earth and all its inhabitants. this is the second book this year where i read about the mass extinction that’s happening right now among bugs and amphibians (have you noticed as much bug splatter on your windshield?), but in such a way that you want nothing more than for humans to sit in communion with nature and the wild. because we are nature and the wild. big recommend on this one if you’re up for essays about science, nature, and american indian knowledge.


the end!

is it christmas?

is it christmas?

not feeling like christmas? yeah, me neither. the weather is just terrible for that good ol’ christmas feeling. it’s march-like, and since covid, who even knows what year it is.

so i’ve been watching almost nothing but christmas movies, and none of the hallmark variety. the tree is up, the decor is out, i’ve made some christmas cookies. i even have a new cat.

poor ralf finally kicked it. but welcome willow, who seems to be channeling chasey in her grumpiness. and her smartness. this cat is almost always up to no good.

and stan just wants to be friends, of course.

a late travelblog

a late travelblog

i don’t know if i’ve ever traveled as an adult just to visit a national park. well, that happened about a week ago! yosemite national park has been on my list for a while, and megan and i headed out to california to check it out.

we left late morning from MSP and landed about 1:30 in san francisco. after getting our car, we checked out a sourdough bread place, then the beach, then we were able to get into our airbnb, which i think was either in an asian district, or there are so many people of asian descent in sanfran that it stood out to me. we had supper at a vietnamese restaurant with some amazing pho!

the next day we headed over to yosemite, which is about a 4-hour drive from sanfran. we stopped at a super cute cafe for breakfast first, where i had a bagel smothered in cream cheese, avocado, and bacon. delish! then onward to inland!

on the way we stopped at a roadside fruit stand, which has plenty of fruit, pies, poinsettias, jam, pumpkins, and was a good way to distract from the acres of almond farms we were driving past.

the trip into the mountains was harrowing. we were on the outside lane of a two-lane road on the side of a mountain that just got higher and higher and higher, and let me tell you, i was about ready to quit. but we made it through and up and then into the mountains! and then…

there it is – el capitan. you can’t describe the immensity or capture it in a pic. it’s just ginormous.

we ended up staying in curry village, which is comprised of some lodges, cafes, and a bunch of white canvas square-frame tents. i had the foresight to spring for the heated tent, which was a good thing because it got cold at night!

the first full day in yosemite it rained. it was pretty terrible outside, so we checked out the gift shops and museums, as well as watched the informational video about how the park was formed. we tried to go on a bus tour, but after getting the runaround about 10 times, it was full. boo!

the next day, however, was pretty awesome. the above pic was the view from the walkway that led from our tent to the lodge. that morning, we were on a mission to be able to get to the base of yosemite. after a failed first attempt, the second did the trick.

there was a lot of hiking over big rocks and tricky maneuvers, but thanks to the hiking poles i had the foresight to bring, we got to the base!

that rock is sheer. i don’t know how people climb it! then we headed to the mist trail/john muir trail, where we climbed up and up and up and up along a paved path to check out a waterfall. there was a lot of uphill and it was not fun. but the views were great when we got up there, and good news – it was all downhill from there.

then on monday, we packed up early and left yosemite valley. we took a different route home, which was much less harrowing, and we got to the airport around 2:30, took off a half hour late due to medical, and then we got to MSP about 10:30. it was a short trip, but it was a good one! also, highly recommend yosemite.

ummm…kablpomo??

ummm…kablpomo??

obviously kate’s blog posting month is not happening this year. but that’s ok. i get my writing time in at work these days!

so, a few updates on what’s been going on at casa de kate and nate.

well, casa de nate is him working 10-hr shifts cuz he can’t say no. BUT he has the week of thanksgiving off, so that’s great. for him

cuz i’m headed to yosemite national park next thursday-monday! megan and i are finally going on a trip together, something she’s been trying to get me to do for years. so i’m hoping you’ll be able to get some travelblog posts out of me those days. we’re flying into san fran early thursday afternoon, spending the night there, then yosemite on friday, saturday, and sunday night. flying back monday, at which point i will be executing super secret plan that i’m not going to disclose just in case.

meanwhile, nate will be hanging with the cats at home. i’m coming back on tuesday, and then thursday will be thanskgiving already???? like, i know time flies and all that arrow nonsense, but holeeeee mackerel.

my goal is to get a costco rotisserie chicken this year. last year they didn’t get their chicken shipment, which blows.

oh! and i got a new ear piercing – my conch on my right side. i’ve been eyeing that one for a while, and while it hurt like a banshee scream doing it, the healing process has been SUPER AWESOME. if you want a quick healing piercing, that’s the one to get.

anyway. kate out.

ralf in peace

ralf in peace

we had to take ralf in last week to get put down 🙁 he had not been doing well for a while, but the past week he’d been getting worse and worse. he was having trouble staying upright and was very lethargic.

🙁

this guy was just a weirdo from start to end! the first week he was with us, he would jump up into the basement rafters in our st joe house. then he became super chonker. and let me tell you, chasey HAAAAAATED ralf. hated him! she would fly across the room just to swat him in the face! so that poor dude would eat all the food just in case she would come around and attack him.

after chasey left for the big catbox in hell, cuz you know that’s where she went, ralf slimmed down considerably and was so much less stressed. at least the last 6 years of his life were chasey-free so he could enjoy them a bit more.

it certainly didn’t calm his other anxieties down! he was ALWAYS underfoot. he always wanted fresh, cold water. and he never shut up about it.

ralf was never really my cat except at the beginning. nate didn’t want a third cat and was irritated when i brough ralf home, but it didn’t take long for that grey guy to weasel into nate’s heart. (not that it takes much for any cat to do that.) ralf was definitely nate’s cat.

it took a couple days for nate to admit that we needed to take ralf to the vet, and he was just a mess, understandably so. when we came back to the house, the weekend was quiet and melancholy. sophie kept looking around for ralf, and both cats were abnormally calm and lethargic. but in the past couple days, stan’s gotten his zoomie crazy time back, and sophie has been chattering away more often. nate’s already looked at the humane society website.

RIP ralf – you were certainly a weirdo. i hope you don’t have to share a catbox with chasey.

the weird room

the weird room

i finally bit the bullet and packed up my desk. i haven’t used my desktop mac very much at all lately, especially since covid. i need to use my laptop to use any sort of adobe software these days, and since i’m not even taking many pictures anymore, it’s kind of useless to take up that much real estate in the weird room for something i use 3 times a year.

now i’m waiting on a new filing cabinet that matches our other furniture and will hopefully be easier to move than our current one. THEN i’m going to find a comfy round reading chair over veterans day sales (hopefully). THEN i’m going to clear off my corner shelves and put books up. THEN i will be on my way to a library-esque vibe in that corner!

(i did ask nate if he wanted to move his desk over there, but he wasn’t too keen on being over there during the summer months with the sun shining in the window.)

PS!

PS!

ALL THREE CATS are now using the litter robot! (which we have nicknamed poopbot.)

this thing has made my life infinitely easier. worth it!

fall and fall and fall and fall

fall and fall and fall and fall

i don’t know if i haven’t been paying attention for 43 falls or if this one has just been a bit different, but i feel like this autumnal season is longer than normal. usually i expect fall to last the first two weeks or so in october but it’s been much longer this year, at least to me.

it seemed to start earlier in september, and then hit its peak right as october started, but then it’s hit its second peak just this past week, and now i’m in second fall? real fall? there are some trees that have lost their leaves, but when first fall hit, there were still a lot of green trees hanging out. so i’m not sure what is happening. i read that draught and also the smoke from the wildfires can cause distress for trees and prompt them to enter dormancy earlier. maybe some trees are just more sensitive to that?

either way, it seems like it’s been an extra long fall this year, and this weekend it’ll be winter *eyeroll* with snow on the way. huzzah.