New Year's Resolutions

ok so i really don't do new year's resolutions. but i did have a goal for the week long break i had between christmas and new year's... but didn't really accomplish anything i really wanted to. what i really ended up doing was sleeping. so here are what my goals were... which i will now call my new year's resolutions because i really do want to get them done.

1. finish the book i'm reading - well i read 200 pages, but i just kept falling asleep!
2. finish the most recent concert blogs or at least the ones from 2011 - yup, didn't do it at all
3. finally finish up the travel blog - yea that has been a goal for a while now - let's do this 2012!
4. workout - ok i do this most days, but took a break over the holidays and i'm starting back this sunday

there you have it. four failed goals will now become my resolutions. some of them for the second time. i'm gonna get it done, and if you read my blogs, you will be happy that i do it as well.

Best Of 2011

ok i know i have been awful about blogging lately, or over the past year and a half really, but here’s a shot to try and redeem myself as a blogger: best of 2011 music in my opinion. yes everyone does it. yes mine will include some of those same albums. But this is what I liked about music in 2011, in a bit of an order but really it is just how it came into my head and making sure that I had at least 10. these are just my opinions and not done with a particular genre in mind, and I know there are other way amazing albums out there, but I just wasn’t as in to them as I was these and the events that went along with them to make them more memorable to me. that being said…

10. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
i’ll start with fleet foxes since it’s one of the albums that I really liked yet still didn’t listen to the entire year. It was great inspiration and I really enjoyed seeing them live at ACL. great album, but I do have to be in more of a folk mood to listen.

9. The Antlers – Burst Apart
burst apart is one of those albums that could be a great soundtrack. That’s what I think of for when I listen to it. that it is the soundtrack to my day. seeing them at ACL during the day shows how great they can sound. the antlers are also one of the best twitter accounts out there for random thoughts on just about anything. the followers also get very involved and it’s always a good read.

8. Foster the People – Torches
ok if this album doesn’t want to make you get up and dance, there is something wrong with you. this is one album that spans across genres getting people happy. my favorites are houdini and waste, but there is honestly nothing bad on this album. i can’t wait to see what they come up with in the future, and of course, seeing them in concert this year was great.

7. Portugal. The Man – In the Mountain in the Cloud
i'm not really sure how i came about listening to this album, but I bought it and loved it. this didn’t take any time for me to love either. it was immediate for me. it’s upbeat electronic and feel good music. on top of loving this album, I enjoyed the show they had with lights galore. my favorite part about finding portugal. the man though: twitter. one of my favorite twitter accounts to follow for sure thanks to all of the instagram pics i see on an almost hourly basis. thanks for filling my time with beautiful music and fun photos throughout my days.

6. TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light
the album itself is great, but what made me love this most was the entirety of the album put into a compilation of music videos aired together as a total package. this made the experience of the album visual and audible. kudos to tv on the radio for making one of the best, longest, commercial free video hours on palladia i have ever been able to witness. plus the music just totally rocks.

5. Thursday – No Devolucion
thursday really started going towards a different sound with this album. of course i still liked it. this was much more experimental, yet you really have to assume that bands will evolve over time. i got a sneak peak at a few songs from streaming as well as some live at the 10 year anniversary tour of full collapse. the packaging and website just go to show that it wasn’t just about the music this time. it had a feel to the whole thing. unfortunately, while headlining for the album it was announced they will be on an indefinite hiatus and didn’t really end up with a headlining tour for the album after all since it was more of a goodbye tour. nonetheless, thursday left us with something to be remembered.

4. Arctic Monkeys – Suck It and See
it took me a little bit of time to get used to the slower sound arctic monkeys put out with suck it and see, but after a couple listens i had my favorites. the album is more singable than past hits. it has been in my car and on my ipod playing a lot since preparing for their concert as well as remembering it afterwards. If you want a review of that, you’ll have to read it from my shows i've seen blog. but overall a very played album for me this year.

3. The Strokes – Angles
welcome back, i missed you. really what else is there to say about the strokes album except why oh why did i not go to bonnaroo? seriously though, this was a great happy feel to the album and you could really tell that all band members were involved in writing it. i loved all the songs on this album the first time playing it through and have a complete void in my life having not seen the strokes live. i am kicking myself over not going to ACL in 2010 and not forcing people to go to bonnaroo with me this year. at least I was able to stream the strokes live on sunday from bonnaroo. that was a very exciting thing for me as they played many old songs as well as some of the favs from angles. but in reality, i really could listen to anything that comes out of julian casablancas mouth and love it.

2. Radiohead – The King of Limbs
i have been listening to radiohead since close to the beginning and their albums never cease to amaze me (after the initial shock of Kid A that is). TKOL was no exception, however only 8 tracks was slightly disappointing. i had preordered the newspaper album online getting the mp3 album for early download when it became available on the Friday after valentine’s day when it was announced, a month before expected. having done all of this and completely loving the album for what the 8 songs were worth listening to it in my car day in and day out, i was surprised to receive some free tracks for having pre-ordered for record store day. let’s follow up all of that with multiple television appearances to finally start to promote the album, and a palladia live session of the entire thing similar to what they did for In Rainbows. then I got to wait in anticipation for the tour dates to be announced. finally being part of the pre-sale on radiohead’s website for general admission will call tickets knowing that no scalpers would be involved in that portion of the sale. i had my tix by 7am ET instead of having to wait until the usual 10am sale time that most websites have. i will definitely continue to play this album over and over until march.

1. Bon Iver – Bon Iver
this album is definitely the top album of the year for me. it was pretty much stuck on repeat on my ipod for weeks. i could not. stop. listening. it is an amazing follow up to for emma forever with adding instruments. The culmination of the album was getting to see bon iver shortly after the album was released. seeing the entire band up there and the lighting to go with it, made listening to the it later seem feel like remembering one of the best moments of your life. that's really what music is to me anyway. a feeling that you feel when you hear a song or an album, and bon iver knows how to make you feel.

honorable mentions
The Black Keys – El Camino: this came out way too late in december to have a real impact on the year, but i do love some black keys and the singles have been out for at least a month having some impact. Psychic Babble – My Brother’s Ears My Sister’s Eyes: is also on my ipod upstairs with some constant play, it is definitely one to remember for the year, but didn’t make it to the top of my thoughts this round. Oh yea, let’s not forget Adele – 21 but i'm not going to be one of those people who puts it at number one since it wasn’t on constant repeat in my car or anything.

Facebook Married

wouldn’t it be funny if facebook initiated common law marriage? like if you were “in a relationship” with the same person officially on facebook for a certain amount of time, it just automatically updated it to be married. that would be silly and really interesting. then instead of common law, you’d just say i’m facebook married.

Couples

i have been neglecting my blogs a lot lately, but it’s mostly because I have been so busy. i have still not finished my paris trip, and i’ve now been to new york, so that needs to be added. i have also been to so many shows since the last post, but those take some time as well. so I have decided to write one here while I catch up on my others.

jimmy and i have always had single friends. it’s fun to hang out with our friends, and we have no problem having single friends, but we have really tried to have a few couples to hang out with as well. it’s just nice to have another couple to do couple things with. we don’t mind single friends, most of our friends are single, but it’s nice to not be the only couple. and it’s nice be on the same level as other couples as well.

first there was matt & jessica. we loved hanging out with them. they had been dating for a while, and they were each our friends prior to the relationship (long story, but it was a very fun coincidence). we were fine hanging out all together, or totally separate from the boys. then they moved to colorado, and we still went out there a few times to visit them as a couple. but now are no longer together.

we went to a barbecue a few months ago that had a lot of couples. in fact, i think that there were only 3 single people there. it was quite refreshing to be around a majority of couples. including us, i think there were 4 couples. we all got along so well, that the girls decided to have a girls night away from the boys. it sounded like a great start to coupledom! we even had a friend of someone join us and all 5 of us girls were in serious relationships. no one had been dating for less than 1.5 years, many closer to my 9 years than most. now, all but one of the girls and myself are no longer in those long term relationships. and these were kind of shocking breakups anyway. And the fact that that many have ended is very weird to me. i feel like we are the last one to survive.

now, we have been trying to find another great couple to hang out with. scott and tiffany seem to work out well so far. we are all georgia tech grads, and are cool to hang out together, alone, or just guys and girls. we even get along with all of their friends. we also all have season tickets to the football games together. they also have a lot of single friends, so i think that is also quite helpful. they are in the same type of situation that we are in. hopefully our new couple-relationship will work out well - wish us luck!

Moxie's Dragon

moxie gets a new toy every christmas. she has a number of toys we keep in a basket, and she takes care of them pretty well for a dog. her favorite toy is a stuffed pig. she usually wears it out between 8 - 12 months, so her usual christmas present is this pig. it all started on her first christmas when she shoved her head into the bag to pull out her first traditional pig toy. this year, however, we decided to change it up a bit. this always worries me because she is picky about her toys. she has a squirrel she has hardly touched, a duck and a frog that are still in good condition, multiple toy bones or actual bones that have lasted for years. the only one she likes is her pig.

so jimmy and i see this dragon at petsmart in october. he says, let's get it for her for christmas. so we buy it. in order to make sure the pig doesn't win the show, we replace it early. in fact, we give her a new pig that day. she was so happy to have the pig, it just reinforced the worry i had for her to not like her new dragon. but christmas morning comes, and she actually seems happy with her dragon. she actually seems to like it quite a bit. that and her pig are the only toys consistently out of her basket. i am so happy she got to have a new toy that isn't currently discontinued.

Moxie's first pig December 2003:

Moxie's Pig:

Moxie's Dragon:

Kitchen Update

i know it's been a while. i really don't have a lot to say lately, and not a lot of time to say it. i will say that our oven recently broke. it was difficult to live without it, but we are pretty capable of cooking on the stovetop, so we got by for a few weeks. we decided, however, that it was a necessity prior to thanksgiving. we had always told ourselves that when one of our appliances broke, we would replace it with something nice that we actually wanted. well we were definitely going to stick to that rule. after shopping around for ranges, we realized that we might as well spend the extra money to get all of the extras we wanted including an oval center burner and a double oven with convection cooking. we shopped around and wanted to make sure the rest of the appliances would easily coordinate with the gas range we decided to buy. we decided on frigidaire gallery in stainless steel.

well, we thought about how we'd feel having a kitchen that didn't match, and researched the costs, and decided to upgrade the whole kitchen while we were at it. best buy had a great deal going on, but lowe's had all of the items we wanted. so we decide to take the pricing from best buy to lowe's and got a price match with delivery. we buy it and await the call for the deliveries.

our refrigerator and oven arrive first on saturday. it was quite exciting being able to bake again. our dishwasher and microwave hood come in and are installed on tuesday. our refrigerator begins leaking water somewhere near the the filter. jimmy calls lowe's and they are going to send someone out on thursday. well on thursday, the fridge just stops working. lowe's sends a loaner after jimmy argues about how they need to provide some sort of refrigeration since it's not our fault that this one they delivered stopped working. our refrigerator is on backorder, so this is the best they can do. this fridge is smaller than our original. it takes up less of a footprint and is much shorter. it is a standard freezer on top fridge that doesn't even make ice. jimmy decides to call lowe's back friday morning. he tells them that this loaner fridge is unacceptable and by no means comparable to the brand new one we just purchased, and that we need our purchased version prior to thanksgiving. also, he says that even though ours is on backorder, there must be one available in the 17 metropolitan lowe's and they need to find one to get to us right away. they delivered it on saturday.

so please, enjoy the view of our somewhat new kitchen.

before:

after:

Sitting in Training

i get so annoyed in classes here at work. there are some people that are so knowledgeable i like to hear about what they know. then there are the ones that just don't know a thing. we have to go really slow for those slow learners. then, there are the ones that think they know everything but really don't. these people drive me crazy. quit yelling out your useless crap just because you like to hear your own smart comments. i want to leave the room to not have to witness you embarrass yourself to such an extreme.

i'm sure my extra stress right now does not help with this situation, but come on. i had to stop listening to the class and write this because i was so annoyed.