thursday 12.31.09

new years eve! playing a drinking game with shannon, fred, and todd. getting ready to head on over to steph & carson’s with nick, brendon, jay to meet erin (fisk!!) and stacy (sorry for inviting all my friends to your party, s&c). then heading off to the barrymore to see shoeless perform, and meet up with my emmy!! in town from nyc!! what a way to ring in 2010.


-bkh

wednesday 12.30.09

at home relaxing. watching something with fred & shannon. winter-proofing my boots. waste of time. didn’t work. RIP those brown suede boots. boo.


-bkh

tuesday 12.29.09

driving home. stayed at work a bit later since i rushed out on a frantic note to make it to my forgotten barriques shift the day before. ran by target. picked up a basket to hold my new record collection.


-bkh

monday 12.28.09

and back to madison i got. back in the swing of life at barriques. (kinda. i didn’t know i was supposed to be working! first time i missed jotting down a shift!) making some post-holiday drinks (though still full of mint mochas and more) for the west-side madison folks. doing dishes. with heidi.


-bkh

sunday 12.27.09

just stepping out of the shower. back in maple grove still. work’s going to be a blast tomorrow after that 4-5 hour drive, i bet.


-bkh

saturday 12.26.09

immediate family christmas dinner. a wonderful evening, with good food drink and people. out at ocean aire in minneapolis. having an impossibly long dinner (is this what they do in europe) with ma pa bro and sis. drinks, appetizers, wine, dinner, drinks, dessert, coffee. we retired back to the house and treated my parents to all 600 or so pictures from our trip. what a fantastic night!


-bkh

friday 12.25.09

christmas day! spent the snowy day at aunt mona and uncle mike’s place in chaska. back home, using the pa’s espresso machine to fire myself up a shot to go in the espresso martini he doesn’t know he’s making me yet. but i am sure it will be delicious. i drink and eat so well at home.


-bkh

thursday 12.24.09

christmas eve! i love christmas eve! with the anderson (my ma) side of the fam. in my family room, with uncle tim cheering a cheer of christmas happiness and wine. booting up my computer to show the fam some key picture from me and the bro’s trip overseas.


-bkh

wednesday 12.23.09

i’m home! with my girls! my MG7 (well, MG6 since we are sans sarah this evening). eating a delicious dinner made by ann at her and michelle’s place. shallon telling her ‘best thing of 2009’. we all shared, in turn, our happiest memories of 2009. and this moment was definitely high on the list for me. the pre-christmas eve snow storm cut out evening a bit short, but we certainly packed all our happiness in the brief time together!


-bkh

tuesday 12.22.09

with becky! and lina! in the dells having dinner at the moosejaw of something like that with them and their friend rasa and her two cute-a-roo twin babies. pit stop on my drive back to minneapolis for the holiday weekend. my lovely notebook/journal and herbs seeds gift from the ladies. catching-up in person the first time since my departure from london in august. how lucky am i to have such good friends around these holiday seasons.


-bkh

monday 12.21.09

at the claddagh – with jen! jen middleton back in madison (middleton)! having a drink and appetizers with my dear friend. exchanging christmas gifts (good thing i wrapped hers) and looking at my euro trip pictures. what a good friend to look at picture after picture of my month of fun. we’re only on london right now, so we have a waaaays to go, ms. middleton! lucky for him, ryan monte left before getting stuck in my euro-picture trap.


-bkh

sunday 12.20.09

wrapping christmas gifts in the living room. being ‘green’ and cheap and using copies of ‘the isthmus’ – weekly madison newspaper – to wrap all my gifts. jen middleton’s gift is getting wrapped in front of some boring football game fred’s watching. trying my darndest to keep liza from running all over my precious and carefully chosen gifts.


-bkh

saturday 12.19.09

jackie’s in town! sitting right next to me at sushi happy hour. out with schrvyer and shaina. pre-drinking games and ‘houses in motion show’ at the high noon. clearly starting the night out with a volcano (ryan’s favorite) drink at ginza. thankfully they didn’t try (key word being try) to refuse him service this time.


-bkh

thursday 12.18.09

‘santaland diaries’! at the bartell theater. going to watch the david Sedaris play about a disgruntled mall elf. out with liz, harvey, steph, carson, schryver, kara. little did we know how ‘lucky’ we would be front row with the surly cast members! luckily we were fresh off of happy hour with some additional folks, including perket (!!!!) in town with his landlady from london.


-bkh

thursday 12.17.09

driving. somewhere.


-bkh

wednesday 12.16.09

walking upstairs. one of many walks upstairs everyday. i seem to forget things up or down regularly. the stairs are unusually empty. with only one notebook waiting for someone to claim it and take it to his/her room. must be fred’s.


-bkh

monday 12.15.09

cooking dinner. scallops (on sale at sentry!) and broccoli with quinoa. had my first ever massage. at inner fire yoga. all geared up to have a nice evening – massage, cooking, relaxing. and then my car battery died. less than peaceful evening, turns out. car problems make me nervous and tense. good thing my insurance company paid for my massage, right?


-bkh

sunday 12.14.09

monday off from barriques. weird… was supposed to go to a uwmf work meeting on the updates to the pap and mammography guidelines. but it got cancelled, so i had some extra time on my hands. what did i do? i cleaned the living room. swept, picked things up, dusted (thanks for the crocheted rag, mom) while ‘six feet under’ was playing. i was going to vacuum, but ryan got home and we walked to video station with liza. and rented a movie we both had forgotten we had already seen. suppose that’s what happens when you live with nick for a while and regularly have double-feature nights. you forget all the movies you only half-watched.


-bkh

sunday 12.13.09

bela fleck holiday show! watching some of the best musicians in the world play some holiday and some non-holiday tunes at the orpheum with brendon, ryan, and shaina. this isn’t what the show looked like. but it’d be a bit rude to take a picture, now wouldn’t it? (and they don’t allow flash cameras.) show good, i bought my dad a cd. brendon and i got dinner pre-show at the afghan restaurant on state street. turns out i like afghan food – who woulda known?


-bkh

saturday 12.12.09

night at home. watching ‘weeds’. got addicted. to the show. spent the afternoon with liz at ‘the christmas carol’ at the overture. took two or three times longer than usual to get back from the east side. madison seems to have a snow removal problem this winter. cooked dinner and settled in for an evening in the big green chair.


-bkh

friday 12.11.09

having some hot chocolate & peppermint schnapps in my coffee mug (i made it myself!) around the house. i got hooked on the drink with the new snow and the snow day. mm-mmm. getting ready to head to steph & carson’s for a fancy wine and cheese night, and the alchemy, with ryan.


-bkh

thursday 12.10.09

sitting at home. icing my knee. i’ve hurt this knee no fewer than three significant times in my life. the third being recently on the ice walking into my house. tripping and falling with all my stuff. strike against you, winter. reading through my mail in front of msnbc. postcard in the mailbox from alli – ‘she like imaginary men the best of all.’ thanks, darling.


-bkh

monday 12.09.09

snow day, snow day! happy snow day!! madison, wi received a gift of 19 inches of snow tuesday night/wednesday morning. the city (and state) shut down. my office and coffee shop were closed. so, no work for this gal, or ryan, or fred, or shannon. so what did we do? we shoveled. and drank. nothing quite like hot apple bourbon cider and peppermint schnapps hot chocolate on a snow day. headed on over to the willy/atwood area to kara’s and play some circle of death with kara stacy and cody later in the eve. good day. thanks mother nature! snow days should be mandatory.


-bkh