Tomorrow is my 30th birthday! Do you know what that means? That this is the last day of my 29th year, and hence the last blog entry! Honestly, I am tired of taking pictures every day, and have been waiting for this day for weeks, but now that its here I'm kind of sad. A lot of days I do nothing noteworthy, but some times cool stuff happens and its great to capture the moment. I looked through all of the previous posts tonight, and this has been a great year.

I've noticed that as a result of this project I take a lot more pictures of other stuff, not just myself. Which is a good thing, taking pictures is fun. Also, I would have given up on this project long ago were it not for all my friends and family members who read the blog and tell me they enjoy it. Thanks, everyone!

Tomorrow I will be 30, and all grown up. Do I look any older than I did on the first post? Thats ok, I'm expecting a lot more fun in my life to come. And maybe I can come up with some kind of new project to remember everything with.

Jon called me tonight and said that due to some logistical issues, he has to tell me what my birthday present will be rather than give it to me. Yes, my birthday is coming up! And he is getting me apple trees! I think espaliered apple trees will be very nice against the east wall of my house. Ever since I was a kid, I have wanted an espaliered tree, and apples will be a yummy addition to my garden. But I need to pick out which varieties I want, and we don't have a truck, so we might need delivery. Hence the logistical issues. But I'm still excited! Thank you, Jon!

The problem with February is that there is so much gardening that needs to be done and so few days that you can be outside doing it. Today started out nice, and Jon and I planted onions, garlic, shallots, and strawberries. It is pretty early for strawberries, but they are in a sheltered location, and I will cover them with a sheet at night to keep the frost off. We also spread mulch, trimmed hedges, and trimmed the tree in Jon's front yard.

For dinner we went to the Keg and used my free birthday coupon. My friend John was in town for a wedding, so we had dinner with him. It was fun, and yummy.

Part of the 2 Hands gardening group is that all of the members go to each others' homes and help install thier gardens. Today we are at Meredith's house, and we are planting grapes, blackberries, roses, asparagus, a peach tree, and a fig tree. We also covered her entire backyard with cardboard and mulch to kill all of the grass, and eventually her backyard will be nothing but garden. I'm not quite ready to go that far. I like having a yard, and want my garden to coexist with the grass.

I am about to take my first bite of a Fred's burger. Fred's recently won the title of Best Hamburger in the DFW metroplex, which is no small feat. We have a lot of amazing burger places around here. Fred's was also featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on the Food Network once, but I have not seen that episode. The place is rather small, and it was packed, so we got our food to go. We also had a movie to watch tonight, Moon.

It was indeed a very good burger. I think my vote for favorite has now come down to either Fred's or Tommy's. Its been a while since I've had a Tommy's burger, so I can't make a determination now.

I have been invaded by lady bugs. I guess if you're going to be infested by insects, lady bugs are a good one to have. I think they came in with the lemon tree, and have hatched. They are all over the sliding glass doors. I tried to get some of them outside, but they keep flying away from me.

Jon won 3rd place in the medium-spicy chili category! Hooray! Comments were that his chili had a nice flavor, that he did a good job with the blend of chili powder and cumin.

Tomorrow is the chili cookoff, so Jon made a lot of chili tonight. I helped out by chopping 4 onions, 4 peppers, and about 10 cloves of garlic. Its very yummy, and luckily there is enough to put into freezer bags. Yay.

I love footies, or slipper socks, if you want to call them that. They are much warmer than socks, and are easier to slip off once your toes do warm up. I go to bed with footies on most nights, sometimes even in the summer. These comfy fluffy ones were a gift from Jon.

I always try to unplug my vampire appliances. Sure, my cell phone charger probably doesn't pull much electricity when its not charging my phone, but every little bit helps. I hate wasting stuff, be it food or electricity or money. There does come a point where convenience trumps frugality though. I don't unplug my TV and cable box, and then have to mess with it reloading every time I want to watch something.

Going out to eat on Valentine's Day is craziness, so Jon and I always stay home. We make delicious, fancy meals all the time, so for Valentine's, we order pizza. Papa John's makes heart-shaped pizzas, and this is the second year we've ordered one. We spent the whole day laying around watching TV and doing nothing.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Its sunny and in the 50's today, so all of that snow is melting fast. Water is running seeping out of the ground and running into drainage ditches everywhere. The snow was fun while it lasted.

February 12-15 is the annual Great Backyard Bird Count, where the Ornithology Lab at Cornell asks everyone to count the birds they see in thier backyards, or towns, or wherever, and report it to them. Jon and I went to the park, and we saw tons of birds. Our final count was 30 robins, 2 cardinals, 1 blue jay, 3 mourning doves, 2 Carolina chickadees, 6 turkey vultures, 1 mockingbird, 1 yellow rumped warbler, 2 ruby crowned kinglets, 1 tufted titmouse, 8 cedar waxwings, 1 crow, 2 red tailed hawks, 2 black vultures, and 1 hairy woodpecker. I'd never seen a ruby crowned kinglet before, so that was very exciting.

Because of the snow, Jon gave me my Valentine's day gift today. He gave me a box of chocolates, 2 vases of beautiful flowers, and a potted orchid. I've always wanted an orchid. I only gave him a box of chocolates. We tried to go out to dinner, but every place was packed, so we just went to Quizno's. Somehow that was more romantic. We went to Marble Slab afterwards for dessert.

It has stopped snowing, but now my electricity is off. I heard the transformer blow last night, and tried to call and report it, but Oncor's stupid automated answering service couldn't figure out my location and hung up on me. The entire street is out, so eventually they will figure out the problem. I was going to build a fire and bundle up, but Jon offered to make me hot chocolate and let me curl up at his place. I bundled up and walked over, and it was great walking though the snow. Everything looks so beautiful and peaceful. If only I didn't have to work today, I would spend all day playing in the snow.

I woke up this morning to snow! Yay! I love snow. There was about an inch of snow when I went to work this morning, and it kept snowing all day. This 4" measurement was taken in my front yard around 5:30, but the snow wasn't done! Some places around here got a foot of snow!

It was wonderful snow too. It really wasn't that cold (for being below freezing and all) because there wasn't any wind. There was no ice, but the snow was very wet and heavy. Perfect for playing in. I saw tons of people outside making snowmen and snowballs. I saw four guys standing around a car on the side of the road, and thought that they had run off the road (the roads were rather slushy), but then I saw them pull a snowboard out of the trunk.

Lots of people were sledding, and I decided I wanted to go sledding too. I haven't gone since I was a kid, I really can't remember the last time. I dug my boogie board out of the garage and took it to the park. The hills there seem really steep when you're trying to ride a bike up them, but they weren't so steep when you're sliding down them on a sled. I had a blast though. It was wonderful.

I went running today!! Yay! This is the first time since my surgery, two months ago. It was freezing cold outside, so I just went to the gym and ran on the treadmill. I ran about 1.5 miles, but I walked a bit, so it took 20 minutes. I wanted to run more, but thought that since this was the first time I've done a high-impact exercise in two months, I might want to take it easy. I still need to be able to function tomorrow. I've missed running, and am glad to finally be able to do it again. My physical therapist, Marie, has started running recently, so we are going to run together. Fun!

This is my new pedometer. They give them to us at work as part of our new health insurance program. We can upload our steps each day to a website and track our healthy actions. We get points for walking so many steps, although I don't think we can redeem the points for anything. Its still fun to see how far you go in one day.

I have the ability to arch my eyebrows. I can actually do it on both the left and right sides. When I was a kid I saw it on TV and thought it was cool, so I spent 3 days using my finger to arch my eyebrow. Eventually the muscles on my face became capable of doing it, and now its something I do without thinking (or whenever I want to tease someone :) ). My parents thought it was really weird that I was working out my eyebrows, and they still think its weird that I can do it. Haha.

One of the grocery stores in town is changing locations, so they are trying to get rid of as much stuff as they can before they move. I've never seen a blowout sale on groceries. Jon and I decided to take a break from raking more compost to see if there was anything we wanted to buy. Bandages were on sale, so we stocked up our first aid kits. Spices were 40% off, so Jon bought all of the rare, expensive ones that we didn't have yet. They had a whole shelf of the soups that I like to pack in my lunch that were greatly discounted, so I took all of them. We got quite a few things, actually. I spent $80, but got nearly $40 in discounts. Pretty sweet.

Today was a busy day. This morning I joined the 2 Hands group, which is a community gardening group in town. This morning I worked in the community plot by spreading cardboard and mulch. This is the first time the group is planting in the plot (which is just an empty lot in the city that used to have a house on it), so we probably won't plant much on it, just work on making the soil healthy.

After that I went to Jon's house, where I had had four cubic yards of compost delivered. Jon and I both heard that spreading a thin layer of compost over your yard in late winter will improve your yard, so we're giving it a try. We raked compost all over his front yard, but still have plenty left for my yard and his backyard. Four cubic yards is a lot. The grass is supposed to be healthier, and need 70% less water, with this treatment. And its organic.

We had to stop raking compost early because we had a wedding to go to. The daughter of a guy we used to work with was getting married. The ceremony was outside, and it was kind of chilly, but the sky was sunny and blue and it was very pretty. The reception was nice too, with lots of good food. This is only the start of our wedding attendance this year. We also have weddings to go to in April, May, June, and November. I also know other people getting married, but I'm not going to their wedding. 2010 seems to be a popular year for marriage.

I finally got around to starting seeds for my garden. I started tomatoes, peppers, basil, dill, chives, tarragon, and parsley indoors. Outside in the garden I planted potatoes, peas, spinach, cabbage, and broccoli. I'm very excited, and hope they grow.

I think my rhubarb has died though. A couple of weeks ago we had some very cold temperatures, it didn't get above freezing for over 3 days. The rhubarb made it through that just fine though. I had piled up dried leaves around them for insulation, and covered them at night with overturned pots. The week after that it was in the 60's, and that was the week the rhubarb shriveled up and disappeared. What gives?

Tonight was my first night volunteering with VITA, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program sponsored by the IRS. I went to the Catholic Charity building downtown, and they set up a little office for me. I was there for 3 hours, and did 3 tax returns. It was very confusing, and I kept having to go ask the other woman all sorts of questions. I didn't have any problems with the taxes (except for one girl with a kid and tuition, it took 4 of us to decide what to do), but I didn't know the log-in name, what forms to keep for our records, what button to push for efile, etc. It was kind of disorganized. I thought it was pretty bad, but at the end of the night the other woman was amazed that I had done 3 returns in only 3 hours. So I guess it didn't go as bad as I thought. Good, because I'm scheduled to do this for another 5 weeks.

Cutting onions doesn't bother me (most of the time). Occasionally a really strong onion will make my eyes sting, but most of the time, I like the smell. Jon is very affected by the onion smell, so I usually take care of the task. Today Jon is making chili. In a few weeks we are having a chili cookoff at work, and he wants to be ready. I am making brownies, and I practiced with a yummy recipe last weekend.

The chili came out quite tasty. I like it.

I don't think Archie is sitting on me to show affection as much as to show her dominance over me. I am merely another piece of furniture for her. She's still cute and cuddly, and affectionate if the mood strikes her, so I will accept being her furniture.

I heard Punxatawny Phil saw his shadow today, so we have 6 more weeks of winter. Boo. Its been a very cold and wet winter. Happy Groundhog Day!

I managed to put my hair in a ponytail this morning for the first time since my surgery. Hooray! It was very painful though, reaching my arm up that high, and the pony tail is a little lopsided. But each time I do it, it will get better!

Remember when I gave blood earlier this week? I won the raffle from the blood drive!! I won two tickets to the Dallas Stars hockey game, as well as free popcorn, pretzels, nachos, and soda. Pretty cool. I've never been to a hockey game before, but sports are always fun to watch. The Stars lost 4-2, but it was still fun.

Jon and I have decided to educate ourselves by watching famous movies we haven't seen yet. We're starting with Lawrence of Arabia. Jon liked it, but I didn't get it. It was just some egotistical guy going bat-shit insane as he lead armies. Later I read some papers written on it, so maybe I understand it more. Lawrence saw a problem and wanted to fix it, he wanted to create something great (a united, self-ruling Arabia). He was very egotistical, and his ego was fed by early victories. But in the end he proved to be only human, like the rest of us, and failed. He did go bat-shit insane though. That part was obvious.

I am at a rodeo! A real, western rodeo! I've lived here for 7 years, and never been, and thought it might be something fun to do on a weekend. We saw bronc riding, calf roping, calf wrestling, barrel racing, and bull riding. It was pretty cool. I think my favorite was when they had 16 high school kids in the ring, and they let in 8 calves. If you cought a calf, you won a scholarship. One girl cornered a calf and grabed it around the neck, and as they struggled they butted heads. She fell to the ground, but would not give up the calf, even when it dragged her around. She got back on her feet, and wrestled the calf down, and the two of them went back and forth for a while. She finally got her rope around its neck and started to drag it to the center, but it dug in its hooves and would not go. There were some adults there to help, and so one guy pulled the calf's tail, and she pulled the rope around its neck. It was one stubborn calf, but they finally got it in. Good for her.

We also wandered through some of the animal buildings. Most of the cows were outside, even though it was in the 30's. The goats and sheep were inside, and they all had on little shirts to keep them warm. The sheep stunk the worst. I did not know sheep smelled that bad.

I made pea soup for dinner tonight. It was very simple, and turned out very tasty (and a pretty shade of green), but it also ended up all over the kitchen. After simmering the peas and garlic in chicken broth, I put it all in the food processor to make smooth and yummy. I did put my hand over the lid of the processor, but the stuff was hot. I yanked my hand away, and it all came spewing out. Guess I shouldn't be surprised, I hear pea soup has a history of projecting.

So this is the tale of the castaways,

They're here for a long, long time,

They'll have to make the best of things,

It's an uphill climb.

The first mate and the Skipper too,

Will do their very best,

To make the others comfortable,

In the tropic island nest.

No phone, no lights, no motor cars,

Not a single luxury,

Like Robinson Crusoe,

As primitive as can be.

There was blood donor marathon at work today. I always try to attend. This year they said my iron was very good, so why not give double red blood cells instead of whole blood? Sure, I thought, why not. A double red donation is when they take out 2 units of blood, filter out the red blood cells, and put the plasma and whatnot back into your body. Chemo patients need the red blood cells for their therapy.

The donation usually takes around 45 minutes, so I got comfy on my cot, and the nurse hooked up the machine with all of the tubes and bags required and ran the saline through them. Then she tried to stick me with the needle. I wasn't bothered by it, it didn't hurt, but she could not get my vein. I am a hard stick, but blood donation nurses are experienced with this kind of thing and can usually get me. Not this time though. She looked at my other arm, and decided she could get that vein, and asked if I'd like to try it. Sure.

Unfortunately, the "seal" had been broken on the first kit of tubes and bags, so she had to take them all out of the machine and set up a new kit. Then she tried to stick my right arm. No good. It took 3 nurses moving the needle around before they finally struck blood. But they said the needle didn't go in all the way, it was only on the side. They took out one unit of blood, but said that if they tried to put in the plasma, it would blow out the vein and cause a lot of bruising and pain in my arm. Yikes. So they turned the machine off after one unit came out. At least they did get one unit of red blood cells from me, so I wasn't a complete loss. The whole thing took two and a half hours though. I did eat four Oreos to keep my strength up.

The nurse said the needles for the regular blood donation are longer than the double red needles, so its probably easier to reach my deep little veins with them. Next time they ask, I should remind them that I'm only good for giving whole blood.

I never used to like root beer, but that was before I tried Henry Weinhard's root beer. It was created as an alternate to beer during Prohibition, and is bottled at the Miller plant in Fort Worth. It is delicious. Unfortunately, it is also hard to find. I get really excited every time I see it in a store. Yum yum. The cream soda is also very good.

I have a muddy knee. I found some blueberries that are good for growing in Texas at Lowes, so I bought two of them. I can't really use a shovel yet, so Jon was kind enough to dig the holes and help me plant them. I hope they grow.

Jon and I also spent nearly 7 hours today installing ceiling fans. We are not inexperienced with this kind of thing, but the fan just kept fighting us every step. We finally won though, and got the new fan with the remote installed in Jon's bedroom. We also finished installing a fan in my guest room.

We went over to some friends' for dinner, so that was a nice, relaxing way to get over the fan frustration.

I want to volunteer with VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) to prepare taxes for people. I really like doing taxes, always have, and I took the H&R Block class last year to prepare. So I signed up, and now I have to spend all day Saturday in the VITA training class. Bleh. One of my friends said that that's what I get for wanting to be nice. I'm glad I took the tax class, otherwise I would have been so lost. They gave us this bag full of tax books, and we only spent a few hours going over tax law, then did some practice returns online. I was the first one finished, and I got to leave two hours early. They also gave us pizza for lunch, so that was nice.

I slept late today, and then went to the gym to renew my membership and work out. I was the only non-retiree at the gym. I've often wondered if other people show up on days off, and I guess the answer is no. Its been quite a while since I've worked out, because I was sick, and the exercise made me feel awesome. Afterwards I got my car inspected, and found some detective novels at Half Price Books. Yay! I went to the nursery too, to get some blueberry bushes, but they were sold out. It was a beautiful day out, so I went for a walk in the park, since I'm not allowed to run. I saw a few runners, and I was jealous.

It is hard to put on a shirt when your arm doesn't move much. After surgery, the only shirts I could wear were either very big or very stretchy. I still have trouble getting shirts on and off, and every time I manage to get into a new shirt I am happy. Its like a sign of progress. I managed to wear this shirt today, and Marie, my physical therapist, said she had the same shirt.

The good thing about cooking a lot is that you accumulate a lot of ingredients. Jon and I are making teriyaki tuna steaks, and all I had to buy was the tuna.

My spice cabinet is very well stocked, although you won't find something like chives or rosemary or mint in it. Those are growing on the front porch! I do want to start picking the extra leaves and drying them, especially for annuals like basil.

This is a yummy Christmas cookie that I took from Jon. I'm not quite sure what it is, I think a graham cracker covered in chocolate. Apparently Jon loves them, and his mother gets them for him at Christmas. I love them too. Even though they are getting kind of old, they are still worth eating.

I stayed up late tonight to finish my book. When I get hooked into a novel, its so hard to put it down. I will read for hours to finish the book, and then digest it for the next few days. Sometimes I can't even decide if I liked the book until I think about it for a while, but I really liked this book, fun and pulpy. I'm going to have to find the others in the series.

I still have this nasty cold. I'm tired and stuffy, and just want to lay around. I don't even feel like getting on the computer. Its a good thing laying around is so nice.

When I'm laying around on my couch and I start watching TV at night, its so hard to turn it off and go to bed. I just get too lazy to get up and put on pajamas, take out my contacts, and brush and floss my teeth. I usually end up watching reruns of Law & Order, which makes all of the bumbs and noises in the night even scarier.

I knew this day would eventually come, and here it is. Jon and I tried a new recipe tonight (nothing normal, we are adventurous in the kitchen), and it turned out horribly. So far everything we've made has either been delicious or at least good, but this is terrible. We threw it away and went to Taco Bell.

So what is the food that beat us? Lentils. I've never tried lentils before, but Jon has, and has always found them disgusting. I was curious, so we made some red lentils with Indian spices. It is amazingly bland. Rather than being enhanced by (or overpowered by) the spices, the lentils just neutralize everything put into them. I'm willing to try and give lentils another chance one day, but Jon says he is done.

I have a cold, and it is a horrible one. I think I got it from a guy at work. I have been sneezing, snifflling, hot, tired, and achy. I did not stay home from work either though. I have models to finish for a presentation on Friday (Update: the presentation was postponed because a bigger issue came up. I should have stayed home.) I feel horrible. I spend most of the day doped up on Dayquill and hot tea. My Dayquill was wearing off as I left work today, and it felt like the drive home took forever. The drive was normal, no extra traffic, but I was so tired I just wanted to curl up and sleep.

I pulled my lemon tree inside for the winter. It's hardy to about 20 degrees, but I don't want to take any chances, and the temperature was below that for a few days. The tree is now covered in blossoms. They smell amazing. I wonder if i should pollinate them, since there are no bees in my house. The lemons I got last year were delicious, so I hope I get many more.

Karyn made some vegetable soup last week, and put it into freezer bags and shared it. Very nice of her. This is a much better dinner than a frozen pizza.

I saw a beautiful sunrise this morning on the way to work. There are rewards to getting up so early.

I have seeds for my garden. I'm very excited, and can't wait for planting time. These radish seeds may be the ones that I helped harvest last summer during the gardening classes I took. All of these seeds are heirlooms, so I can harvest seeds from the plants and use them next year. I'm going to try and see how that works. If nothing else, I'll get to try out some new varieties of veggies.

Did I mention the engagement party was in San Antonio? So now Jon and I are making the five hour drive back home. Its not a bad drive though, lots of hills and trees and livestock to look at.

Before we left San Antonio a bunch of us had lunch at Chester's. It was a very yummy hamburger. It was the only thing I ate all day, and I did not get hungry at all. I think there is some bowling alley around here, in Blanco maybe, that is supposed to have amazing pie. I think the next time we make this trip, we will have to find the pie place.

Our friends Dan and Katy had an engagement party tonight, which Jon and I attended. We were saying that we hadn't heard of engagement parties before, and weren't sure what it was about, but it was nice. All of their friends and family were there, and there were lots of yummy food and drinks. There were a few champagne toasts to the happy couple, and I even drank a few sips of champagne. I still do not like it though. I had fun at the party, and I'm glad we went. And congrats to Dan and Katy!

I had intentions of being productive today, but they did not happen. I was going to go to the nursery and buy seeds, but then I remembered that it is 25 degrees outside and the shop is outdoors. No one will be out there to sell seeds, even if it is the right time of year to start them (indoors). I did not do laundry, and I forgot to call and register for the wilderness first aid course. I did buy hooks to hang a picture in the living room. And I spent a lot of time working on the itenerary for Jon's and my Japan trip.

I like the sunny yellow tulips on my background. I have the same background at work. Its just so happy to see. My Mud Run nickname a few years ago was Tulip, although I don't know where that came from. Not from my backgrounds, I am sure.

Its cold outside. Very cold. I think its supposed to be 17 tonight, and crazy windy. Its not supposed to get above freezing at all, day or night, until saturday, and even then it will only be in the 30's. This may be nothing special for most people, but this is Texas, and its not normal at all.

I started reading the book Jon got me tonight. It's interesting, and I read an extra chapter after I had decided to go to bed. Its an old book, its out of print now. It smells like an old book. I love that smell.

My fish Caligula has died, for real this time. I came home once a year or so ago to find him floating upside down, but was too tired to throw him out. When I went to get his body the next day, he was swimming around. He was still upside down, but alive. Or at least undead. The petstore said he probably had a swim bladder infection and gave me some medicine. He eventually managed to swim around sideways, but he never was fully upright ever again.

This time he is really dead. His body was on the bottom of the bowl, upside down, and stayed that way for a day while I waited to make sure. It started to grow fuzz, which is a sure sign of death. I thought about putting him in the compost pile, but a burial at sea seemed appropriate. This is how I buried Nero, so its tradition. Good bye, Caligula.