Happy New Year! 2011 Review

Hard to believe another year has come and gone, but it's now 2012.  So I guess I have to get used to writing "12" and not "11" on my checks.  :)

2011 was a pretty good year, all things considered.  No major trauma that I can remember, and it had a couple of milestones.

Here goes:

January

Bill bought a couple of power tools.  That can be scary!

I had a cold.  Seems to be my thing for January because I have one now, in Jan. 2012!

I crocheted a lot.  And discovered that my alpaca yarn made me itch.  But since it's usually mixed with wool, as I discovered later on, I don't think it was the alpaca but was probably the wool mixed in.

I finally finished the blanket I started for Bill, it was made with scrap pieces of yarn and I'm happy with it.

We came very close to a head-on accident, in the dark one morning, when somebody crossed into our lane and was speeding.  I nearly hit a fence way off the side of the road trying to get out of his way and he still only missed us by inches.

We had a little snow.

February

This was the cold month!  We had a major blizzard and were essentially housebound for over a week.  There were a couple of breaks where we could get out, but we spent a lot of time home and were pretty stir crazy by the time the weather cleared up.  I still have the scar on my chin from when the car rolled backwards in the driveway and the door hit me.  I crocheted so much during that time that I was actually tired of it, and that is saying something!

I finally finished the quilt I started for Otter when she was in kindergarten!

Otter's Happy Accident with the picante/spaghetti sauce.  It was fun.

The tulips started coming up.

March

The redbud tree started budding out.

The bluebonnet that just showed up started to bud  as well.

We saw the movie Rango.  Which was fantastic!

Bill sold two pachinko machines on eBay.  They sold really well.

March is International Crochet Month, which I participated in every chance I got. :)

The country of Japan was rocked by a huge earthquake and tsunami.

The power steering leak in my car was discovered.

Otter saw her allergy/asthma doctor and he was amazed at how well she's doing.

The last Borders store in our area closed.  That was a bad thing.

Otter had an existential crises.  Her graduation stuff arrived!

Blockbuster closed, we bought a lot f dvd's.

A certain favorite Otter of ours turned 19!

April

The a/c drain in the garage clogged up.  Which caused a big mess, and we had to move more pachinko machines out of the way than I can count!

I had my worst hot flash to date.  I hope I don't have another one llike it.

April means spring storms and we had a couple.

Otter had what we suspected was strep throat, but it turned out to be "just" a virus.

The bluebonnet had a second bloom.  Then some heathen stole it right out of our yard!

May

After 10 years, vengence/justice was served!

Our PayPal account was hacked.  We caught it and the bank filled out the paperwork to freeze the account so no money would be transferred, but then the bank let it go anyway and they learned just how fun RHTW* is to deal with.  She got results, and the bank refunded us the money.  PayPal eventually got their act together, but it was a nightmare dealing with it.

Otter took me to the zoo for Mother's Day. It was really nice.

A wren started a nest in the planter that was Mom's and I have it on my front porch.

I made my soap pump from a mason jar, it's on the craft blog. It turned out well.

Otter was recognized at Church as a graduate.

Bill learned how to make molds & cast pieces in plastic for the pachinko machines.

The Big Thing happed on the 19th - OTTER GRADUATED!  She worked very hard to get to this point and we are so proud of her.

Nana came to visit!

I found another bluebonnet and promptly transplanted it.

Joplin had a major tornado, F5 and many, many deaths.  They are stil recovering.

We had a couple of close calls ourselves.

The last day of high school!  Otter celebrated with donut holes for breakfast.

We finally convinced Bill that he needed his own cell phone.

June

The baby birds on the front porch (4) flew off.  It was so much fun, we hope that we get another bird family to "raise". And the nest was built with lots of yarn scraps!

Otter picked up her diploma!

Spring Stoms continued, but June was a better month than May as far as storms go. We had a lot of rain, which was an issue at the time but also something we looked back on fondly later on in the summer!

Billyboy turned 50.

Bill finished up the 4 adirondack chairs for the back deck.  We enjoyed them a lot, until it got too hot to even breathe!

Discovered that the peace lily plant I've had since 2001 (Mom's funeral) actually knew how to bloom. I didn't think it was a blooming plant, but then it surprised me and started blooming.  A lot!

Found a coach purse at Goodwill!

We spent the last week of June on vacation, we stayed home but had a couple of our rambling trips.

July

Bill and Otter managed to use up most of the fireworks that Bill's had stored for several years.

It was H.O.T.

Robin built a nest in the redbud.

We saw the last Harry Potter movie and it was very good.

Fenton announced that they are closing. :(

Otter enrolled at college!

Otter had to get a filling.  The first one she's ever needed, 19 years without a cavity is pretty good. The dentist also officially decided that her wisdom teeth would need to come out. That was not a surprise, we'd been watching them for a while.

August

Otter had a really strange job interview at Build-a-Bear. The actually told her that their part-time job was more important than college!

Still H.O.T.  We hit records!

All the little robins flew off.

Sales tax free weekend!  We shopped.  A lot.

I crocheted the first sock monkey hat.  It was fun.

Bill replaced the brakes in my car.

We were without our internet for a few days, it was an area-wide outage.

The a/c in the car started acting up.  Again.

Somebody poured coke on Bill's car when I was driving it one day.  I know who did it, and they were in a truck with ou stickers all over the place.  So we're pretty sure it was because of the TEXAS Longhorns emblem we have.

The weather finally started cooling off.  A Little.  High 90's as opposed to low 100's.

Otter's oral surgery, the two lower wisdom teeth came out.  She was not a happy camper!

Otter started college 4 days after the wisdom teeth surgery.  That was a Big Day!

5.8 earthquake in Washington DC.  Odd place for one, we thought.  But we discovered a couple of months later that they were happening in odd places all over!

September

It got H.O.T. again!

We got flu shots.  As early as we can each year.

Lovely Neighbor started calling the cops on our dogs.  Even when they weren't barking!  Even when she was out in her back yard talking loudly, probably to make them bark.

Mailed off my scarves/hats for Troops.  I can't remember the exact name of the group that I mailed them to, but they were received and I got a very nice letter back.

The Future Librarian lost her library card and had to get a new one.  Anybody besides me see the irony in that?

10 years since our national nightmare.  But Justice was served in May.

One of my crowns came off but it was a tooth that needed a filling, so the dentist did the filling and then we able to replace the crown which bought me a few more years before I have to replace it.

The weather got better, cooler and we actually had some 50's mornings!

But we did have some rough weather mid-month.

Racoon tracks on the hood of the El Camino!

Got the car aligned and bought tires.  Also got the power steering leak fixed.  Froggy, I put an easter egg in the blog about being able to ramble farther and you missed it!  Because this is when we decided to go Home for Christmas. :)

It was also when RHTW* was officially introduced to the car mechanic place we were using.

October

A certain football game was in early October.  We got tailgated a lot in the days leading up to it and honked at a few times.  Which usually caused us to flash the Hook 'Em sign.

RHTW* made a couple of trips back to the mechanic.  They do not like her!  And She doesn't care.

28th anniversary of when we met!

Bill had an upper respiratory infection and bronchitis.

I had a sinus infection.

Otter's Adventures in Plantar's Warts started this month!  And it continued until December, so she was not a happy camper for a while.  I don't blame her, by the way.

Bill bought firewood.

November

Guess who took the car back to the mechanic?  RHTW* in full flow and with both barrels loaded, that's who. :)  They got more than one visit this month.  And no more after that.

Otter enrolled for the second semester at college.

It got Bouncy!  5.6.

Thanksgiving, we ate too much but it was a nice day.  It was a quiet day.

Frasier had an expensive snack, in the form of a library book.

Chevy became our official mechanic, and we're happy with them.

We finally got the tulips planted!

December

It was an interesting month, among other things there was an itrude on Otter's college campus.  It turned out to be minor, someone trying to run from the cops instead of pulling over when they wanted him to and he attempted to hide by leaving his car in the parking lot and running into the school library.  Where he was caught promptly!  But it was kind of nerve-wracking.

Bill had to get a filling.  And he nearly had to get a route canal.  Which may still be in his future.

Otter's first semester of college ended.  The finals were not hard, and she passed everything.

We went to TEXAS for Christmas!

I celebrated my 50th birthday with puffy tacos in San Antonio.

I'm half way done with the afghan I started in November of 2010.  I hope to finish it sometime in 2012. :)

We saw JediMom on our way to San Antonio.

The dogs got a vacation at the same time that we did.

We made the trip back to OK in record time.

It was a good year and an interesting one.  A lot of things happened and most of them were actually good.  We're looking forward to 2012.  And no, we don't expect the world to end on 12/21/12!  Although that is the day my notary commission expires. :)

*RHTW  See my many posts with the label Red Hair.  It's self-explanatory!