Back when I played WoW (World of Warcraft), you could type in /played and see how much time you'd spent in game. It was always bittersweet because I spent SO MUCH TIME playing WoW, but also, I spent SO MUCH TIME playing WoW... not necessarily living in the real world. In that vein, I wish I could do a /played for Blogger to see how much time I've spent writing blogs. Weeks and months of my life posting on a consistent schedule for my own brain cleaning and for some moderate entertainment for those who were interested... and now, I'm out here living life and scrolling through instagram and barely even posting anymore. I've become the lurker I never anticipated. I thought I'd always be sharing. But these days, I'm looking more and more inward as I get older (and wiser?).
I don't hate it, but as I've said before, I miss this space; this comfort, this feeling of home and of my place.
And now that I'm done being nostalgic, let's get on to the annual review. 2 parts because apparently there were too many photos. YOLO.
2023 started with street art scoot-scootin.
When we bought this house in 2020, we had feelings about the garage. In 2022, we had the sewer debacle... but during that time, our garage was leaking. We were low on funds (re: sewer line woes), so there wasn't much we could do about it, other than hope if the garage roof collapsed, homeowner's insurance would be there for us. The real kicker though was when the leak dripped some sort of glue on Willow (my car) that I scratched up my paint to get off with my vigorous rubbing. I called some people and got some estimates to fix the "leak".. from $10k to $40k.. it was not a happy time.
But finally, in January 2023, we got the garage roof fixed (hooray for being repaid for the sewer repairs!). We were all surprised to discover that janky ass garage roof was: 4 inches of concrete, a layer of corrugated metal, plenty of rebar rods for reinforcement, some layers of plywood, and whatever else.. It was 9 trips to the dump, at a ton each, so about 18,000 pounds (or 8000 kilograms) of material was removed from the garage for the roof to be replaced. But the new roof has been perfect and we're both relieved that the garage is more structurally sound without 9 tons of weight just hovering over our vehicles and motorcycles.
The dogs provided emotional support along the way.
I had a drastic hair change and I was very worried when I first thought to cut my hair off, but every day since has been a delight of having short hair and not pulling long hairs off of my clothes/out of my crevices... and having blue hair again. Blue hair is joy.
Emotional support through cuteness.
FEBRUARY
We got a little snow in Feb, right in time as an early birthday present for me.
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| Snow must be taken advantage of! |
My birthday came with a flurry of workouts (gym, pool, dog walk) and treats.
The day after my birthday, I celebrated by running 18 miles on the coldest day of the year. HIGHLY recommend hour trail events. I selected the 5 hour event to do as many laps as I wanted. It was awesome.
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| Krispy Kreme for race fuel and for the volunteers! |
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| Fun surprise: unexpectedly running into your people at a race! |
After the race, I went home to shower and we headed to Baltimore for my fried oreo birthday dinner with friends.
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| Fried oreos are lyfe. |
Emotional support cuteness.
When you don't usually plan valentine's day celebrations, but your teams are playing each other, you do the spontaneous thing: go to a hockey game!
Instead of valentine's day, we usually do a joint birthday celebration thing. This year, we went to Philadelphia for the weekend. Teh German had never been and it had been many years since I'd visited, so it was time.
Teh German bought me "flowers" for valentine's day: Lego flowers! They are awesome and we put them together, together, which always makes for a fun date night.
MARCH
More hair adventures in March!
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| Going full blue. |
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| My favorite tree bloomed! |
The cherry blossoms went into peak bloom before the Cherry Blossom Festival/run, so I took advantage of my office proximity for an after-work run over to the Basin to tourist it up! No ragrats.
For Christmas 2022, Teh German bought me Rise (hydroponic) Garden and we started to enjoy the fruits of that gift!
House wise, I finally talked Teh German into adding some shelves to our closet so we could have more room for
activities clothes. It was a labor of love because the walls are janky af in this house and several of the shelf clips were pulled from the wall from the pressure of the shelf. Thankfully, Teh German had some tricks up his sleeve and he won in the end, but he was not happy about it. I was super happy with the final result!
Emotional support cuteness:
APRIL
The first weekend of April was the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler. Kathrine Switzer was a featured speaker and it was awesome to get to hear her talk.
For a week, Teh Sister and fam came to live with us while they waited on their NOVA house to be ready for move in. Lots of Teh Niece time and learning about baby routines with Alexa.
The end of the month picked up with a weekend in NC for the Tarheel Double Down Challenge (4 miles + 10 miles) and a visit to Infinity Acres with a new friend, Teh Ultra Vet!
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| I got to hold a baby wallaby. |
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| And feed the zebra-horse. |
I didn't get to participate in the Infinity Acres 5k since I had to be in Chapel Hill for my race, but I did walk the course with Teh Ultra Vet as she measured the course, so I was there in spirit.
I had anxiety about the Tarheel race. This was my first 10 miler back in 2015 and I remember it being hard... and this time I was doing the challenge and I had to finish the 4 miler in a specific time window to be allowed to start my 10 miler. I managed, but self-inflicted stress, yo. The course was better than I remembered.. although the challenge hill no longer had a mat at the bottom since it was no longer a challenge. Nevertheless, the halfway Krispy Kreme doughnuts were the fuel I needed to finish chugging up that sucker.
After the race was brunch with Teh Advising Sister and an internet stranger. After, I headed to NC State to take some ironic medal photos with NC State things of my UNC medals.
On my way home from NC, I made a stop by Teh Sister's for Niece snugs and Niecedawg and Nephdawg snugs.
And after a brief recovery, we headed to Vegas for Teh PT Wife's 40th bday celebration!
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| When you are twinning with Chucky... |
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| And you're twinning with the sidewalk! |
There was lots of drinking and catching up and exploring and we had such a blast.. and then our flight out of Vegas got canceled and it was a VERY stressful 24 hours trying to get home. We did eventually make it, but Lawdt, I was tired of adventures.
MAY
May was full of being outside!
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| Trail running with Teh Ultra Vet! |
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| Trail walking with a motorcycle friend! |
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| Family photos! |
After a 2022 hiatus, we headed down to Lusby, MD for the Greyt Expectations annual picnic.
We invited some new vehicles into the family! Teh German bought a OneWheel, named Wheelbört. I bought a scooter because I don't have the life skillz to ride a OneWheel (although I did try).
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| And now we go on adventures together, since I don't have ride my bicycle and keep up. |
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| More family adventure walks. |
JUNE
June started out with Teh Bestie's holy grail race: Navy Nautical 10 Miler in Memphis, TN. Let me just reiterated that it was JUNE in TENNESSEE. It was melty outside. But we managed.
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| After a Cookout snack, we walked to Arkansas. |
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That walk was to prepare for our BBQ food tour in Memphis.
HIGHLY recommend a food tour if you are in Memphis. |
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Do NOT recommend trying Absinthe.
Especially if you do not like licorice. |
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| We made sure to hit up Graceland to check off the Elvis box. |
FYI: 10 nautical miles (the distance of the race) is approximately 11.5 miles in real people distance.
After years of hating the washer and dryer that came with the house, I bought a new (smart with AI!) washer and dryer. The washer is stupid, the auto detergent/softener dispenser is fantastic, and the touch panel is my least favorite thing. Do not recommend. I do love that they stack though!
I don't know why there isn't a photo, but the same day as the washer/dryer deliver was also the day we had a new deck built at the backdoor. All of this chaos was the day before Mama G arrived in MD. Much stress, yall.
With the German visitor, they did some Baltimore touring on their own, but we accompanied them to the Naval Academy for a tour, hit up Annapolis for lunch at Chick and Ruth's, Arlington National Cemetery, and the Air and Space Museum. I had to work, so I missed out on the tour of the Capitol.
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| Chinatown! |
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When you're supposed to be a professional..
but you can't resist selfies with statues in new places. |
(Part 2)
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