at least it's mine.

~stephen kellogg and the sixers

so, I'm not letting february creep in early. if I'm lucky it won't creep in at all! only time will tell on that one. and really, I realized that all I needed was a little perspective and a deep breath. :)

so, some fun things.

I own far far too many magazines--Scientific American, Real Simple, some old Cosmos and Glamours, Mary Engelbreit ones and sundry craft/knitting/crochet/quilting ones too. As I've yet to a) read them all or b) decide I am willing to part with them, they are cluttering up my space. I have my next project now--to sort and organize them. Other files can go in these too. But imagine--shelves of magazines or shelves of magazines hanging out in these guys, such as below? I realize it's more "stuff," but it makes my things appear more organized, not slouch, allows me to separate by magazine better AND it will look cute. Should you find any a) cheap and b) cute magazine/literature holders, please pass the info along to me! I'm thinking I'd prefer a pattern to plain, but we'll just see what pops up. The Container Store has some cool colors, but I don't want to shell out $10 a piece...and I need to go with something rather unassuming or the calm organization-ee feel will be taken away.

next, I want one of these. half of my concern about biking to work is the ride uphill on the way home. I know there are granny gears, but for real, it's a three mile hill with no breaks. in traffic. yeah. think I might need a leeeeetle help. 'course, there are other options too. it's always something I keep in the back of my mind--but this is the first option that doesn't involve gasoline.

and another thing on my list of "green" wants...more baggu bags. I got one for Christmas from Renee and it's super super super handy. and cute. And I really like it. It was actually disappointing to only be able to put SOME of my groceries in the reusable bag. I have other bags, but they're WAY bigger, and this one's ultra handy since it folds up compactly and can fit in your purse or back pocket or jacket pocket or whatever.

I bought a Christmas tree at Target. It was on clearance for $10. And here's how I picked it--one was pre-lit, one was not. You'd think that means I picked the pre-lit one, but no...the plan is to invest in LED lights next year (or maybe take advantage of the post-holiday sales), and use them to decorate my tree. I'm pretty excited about this--I haven't had a tree since Katie put one up in college and refused to let me help decorate it.

other things...perhaps I need a cactus? and I'm glad I only wash my whites in hot water--90% of the energy going into that washer is for heating that water, yikes!

and I think that these are fun. semi-useless and frivolous, but fun. they're coffee mugs, and they leave behind a cool design instead of a watermark. not that you want ANYTHING left on your table, and not that anyone needs these, but still. kind of neat, in an odd way. maybe something kitschy for a cute cafe? I dunno...

So last night, after I finally left work around 720 and got my stuff together, Matt and I had a late dinner of cheap Mexican food (and I had a margarita, which surely made my day not so icky) and went to Bub's, where he's now only four beers from finishing his card. We're both pretty excited about that. And we had fun talking--about wood floors and money and sports and commercials and movies we want to watch and my concerns about surgery and us. And we played the photo hunt game, and maxed at a score of 241000ish. :)

and tonight we're going to work on the puzzle, watch some of season 2 of big love and for the first time he's going to have my fried rice, which I base loosely off this recipe. (ps, the lady is right, you should TOTALLY try the peas in it) and I'm making chicken, trying a new recipe--this guy, but I've marinated the chicken in orange juice and soy sauce, and I'm adding a little ginger and maybe a dash of cayenne, and using boneless skinless chicken breasts. this will be delicious or a disaster. I'll let you know!