We survived! Hooray.

Now that the world hasn't ended and the holiday madness is starting to subdue, it's time to recap the last 3 months... 

Find free fun - other than teaching English once a week, which is still really fun: check, sort of.  Walks around town are fun.  Photo walks, always fun. 

with my ragtop down so my hair can blow

Not entirely free but most definitely fun: Laurelthirst free music (free if you don't buy a drink or tip the band, but not supporting the pub or the band is lame).  Game night sponsored by Goodwill (chess and 1987's National Geographic are our recent faves, approximately $3 each). 

so, it is down to you

and it is down to me

 also a fave

(but only when I win)

Those are not "free" per se.  Free is nerdy and/or wanderlust and/or local historical DVDs from the library, and OPB - none of which involve getting out and about, or any interaction whatsoever, really.  So, yeah... more to explore in this "free fun" arena.

Branch out on gluten free baking: ehhh.  I made none of the aforementioned recipes, but I did make these (with peppermint extract and candy cane topping, probably should've left both out), and some things from this (transformed into GF goodness when needed), and the aforementioned maple almond butter sandwich cookies.  But rest assured.  I am going to make this soon.  And these.  Maybe.

and we did make this delicious ginormous 

gluten free peppermint ho ho

Finish Wildwood: check!  I SAID, CHECK!!  Yes, I am quite excited about this accomplishment.  After several hundred pages of PhD-level vocabulary, enough references to 12-year-olds doing yoga/meditation to last a lifetime, and constantly getting "Bandit Queen" stuck in my head, I was ready to call it quits. But all of the sudden there was a rabbit using a colander as a helmet which was AWESOME so I plowed onward. I can see how others might love it, and it did make me want to listen to all the albums again.  But I think I'll skip Volume II for now.

Anything on The List. Nothing this quarter but something is coming soon.  A new transmission means that selling my car and therefore, #12, likely looms in my 2013 future.

Speaking of...here's what is in store for January:

• New soup recipe every week:  I love soup.  Really, really love soup.  Soup like this, and this.  Looking forward to three months of delicious soup.  And a lot of lentils, apparently.  

the first "this"

(with fritos)

• Spring cleaning: time to pare down.  Significantly.
• Shamrock Run 2013... Q: what's 9 miles after 13.1?  A: cake.
• And yeah, learn how to drive a stick shift well.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And here... we... go!