End-of-2022 recap
Sunday, April 16th, 2023 07:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chanaleh
Heyyy, friends.
Here are some more things that happened in 2022. (Some of these were covered in my midyear update in early August, which I thought meant I was doing tolerably well at writing more than one entry per calendar year. However, when I started drafting this update in January 2023, I then let it languish unfinished until April, so... fresh start.)
For the record, I used to be super good with tagging all the livejournal usernames, but now that I've completely lost track of who ported their accounts over to Dreamwidth and whether they have the same or different usernames... it's a lost cause. If I mentioned you, and you comment here, I will update. :-}
PETS:
- We acquired one dog, Tucker, a shepherd/mastiff mix (born February 18, 2022, arrived to us April 8 at age 7 weeks). But then we lost the other (Koko, German shepherd, aged 11+ years) in early December. Net change for 2022: 0 dogs. But note that Tucker is now well over 100 lbs at 1 year and change, so net change for 2022 could be expressed as +10-20 pounds of dog.
- Also acquired: a betta fish (Jacquie) in February 2022.
TRAVEL:
- Over Labor Day weekend, Aria and I attended Worldcon 2022, which is to say, Chicon 8 at the Hyatt Regency on Wacker Drive. Mr. Y had intended to go but backed out at the last minute for reasons I will not go into here, so it was me solo-parenting the con, which made it a very different experience than any other I might have had. In decades But we got to spend a fair amount of time with mbarr and crewgrrl and their J and taylweaver and Merav and saw a number of other people that it was a treat to see.
- In October, I got to make a solo weekend trip to Boston, for the first time since 2014 (so only 8 years I guess), to attend ablock's 50th birthday party. It was kind of my own 50th birthday treat too, appropriately enough, since we didn't do much out of the ordinary to celebrate that 2 weeks prior. Due to the vagaries of hosting and scheduling, I spent less time than I would have wished hanging out with Pup, but got more good time with jweiss and awhyzip (who graciously put me up). I also cut my airport timing too close on Saturday morning and missed my flight, and though I was able to jump on the next one an hour later, it meant I missed my chance to swing through kiddush at Tremont St. But overall the whole experience was delightful and something I would like to do again in 2023 and/or 2024 - preferably with Aria in tow, a few additional days, and a rental car. Apologies to all the folks I missed on this run.
- This wasn't really travel but it kind of felt like it: On December 27 I went to Ariela H's wedding in Skokie and saw a bunch of my same Worldcon family, and a few other friends who it turns out now live in Chicago and I should try to see them sometime.
HEALTH:
- I got my first colonoscopy done August 24; they removed a few polyps (benign) and I have to repeat in 5 years. Also diagnosed early-stage diverticulitis, so I have been trying to step up my fiber intake since then. (NP at follow-up: "Oh, and you have internal hemorrhoids." Me: "THANKS I KNOW.")
- Insomnia is noticeably better since I discovered Advil PM. However, on the flip side, I don't get as much done at home in the mornings if I'm no longer waking up at 4 or 5am. Sigh!
HOUSE:
We did get the long-awaited new garage door installed November 29. Concomitantly, due to lots of work from Mr. Y., the garage is now in a condition where we can actually open the door and park a car in it. (Technically it's a two-car garage, but parking BOTH cars in it is an unrealistic goal. One car is pretty awesome. No one believed it could be done! This is the first time in his entire 50+ years in this house that anyone has done it!)
CREATIVE:
- My Etsy shop filled 237 orders in 2022, for a lifetime total of 819 since I launched in 2014.
- The synagogue's sisterhood gift shop is carrying an assortment of my art prints and greeting cards, which is fun.
- I also typeset one book (From Here: Lessons in Love & Loss from 9/11 by Felice Zaslow, referred to me by the yoga ladies whose book I did last year), and designed one ketubah (for Sarah A., an old friendquaintance from Tremont St.).
GOALS FOR 2023 - CREATIVE:
- Complete the freelance website project that I've been noodling on for like a year now
- Rebuild the synagogue website (ditto)
- Build out my own updated website and finally cancel the old one
- Get the Etsy shop to a point where all the designs in my library are actually listed for sale. I finished and printed a lot of new stuff for the Jewish Festival last summer but there are at least a dozen pieces that have never made it to Etsy. No one can buy them if I don't post!
GOALS FOR 2023 - HEALTH:
- Eat two cups of vegetables, comprising 2 or more different vegetables, every day.
- Go back to the gym. I would like to say "regularly" but let's face it, even ONE TIME would be an accomplishment. Last year I signed us up for a Marketplace health plan that includes "dental, vision and fitness" since we both clearly needed the first two, but we never got around to activating the gym memberships that come with the third one.
- Develop a walking habit, now that the weather is warming up.
GOALS PIPE DREAMS - HOUSE (mostly not likely to be accomplished in 2023 but I'm still thinking about them):
- Replace the gutters
- Replace the dining room seating (counter height parsons chairs and dining benches, all sadly wearing out) and the living room couch.
- Replace at least one of our cars, and repair the other sufficiently to keep it on the road until such time as my mom can no longer see to drive and bequeathes us her Chevy Equinox.
- More basement renovations such as replace the drop ceiling tiles and the refrigerator behind thewet bar kitchenette. Mr. Y is working on this gradually.
- Replace the driveway.
- Someday, I would love to clean out the storage room in the back of the garage and set up a proper framing/shipping studio area, so that I am not running all over the house once a week gathering all my tools to the kitchen table to fill my orders.
Here are some more things that happened in 2022. (Some of these were covered in my midyear update in early August, which I thought meant I was doing tolerably well at writing more than one entry per calendar year. However, when I started drafting this update in January 2023, I then let it languish unfinished until April, so... fresh start.)
For the record, I used to be super good with tagging all the livejournal usernames, but now that I've completely lost track of who ported their accounts over to Dreamwidth and whether they have the same or different usernames... it's a lost cause. If I mentioned you, and you comment here, I will update. :-}
PETS:
- We acquired one dog, Tucker, a shepherd/mastiff mix (born February 18, 2022, arrived to us April 8 at age 7 weeks). But then we lost the other (Koko, German shepherd, aged 11+ years) in early December. Net change for 2022: 0 dogs. But note that Tucker is now well over 100 lbs at 1 year and change, so net change for 2022 could be expressed as +10-20 pounds of dog.
- Also acquired: a betta fish (Jacquie) in February 2022.
TRAVEL:
- Over Labor Day weekend, Aria and I attended Worldcon 2022, which is to say, Chicon 8 at the Hyatt Regency on Wacker Drive. Mr. Y had intended to go but backed out at the last minute for reasons I will not go into here, so it was me solo-parenting the con, which made it a very different experience than any other I might have had. In decades But we got to spend a fair amount of time with mbarr and crewgrrl and their J and taylweaver and Merav and saw a number of other people that it was a treat to see.
- In October, I got to make a solo weekend trip to Boston, for the first time since 2014 (so only 8 years I guess), to attend ablock's 50th birthday party. It was kind of my own 50th birthday treat too, appropriately enough, since we didn't do much out of the ordinary to celebrate that 2 weeks prior. Due to the vagaries of hosting and scheduling, I spent less time than I would have wished hanging out with Pup, but got more good time with jweiss and awhyzip (who graciously put me up). I also cut my airport timing too close on Saturday morning and missed my flight, and though I was able to jump on the next one an hour later, it meant I missed my chance to swing through kiddush at Tremont St. But overall the whole experience was delightful and something I would like to do again in 2023 and/or 2024 - preferably with Aria in tow, a few additional days, and a rental car. Apologies to all the folks I missed on this run.
- This wasn't really travel but it kind of felt like it: On December 27 I went to Ariela H's wedding in Skokie and saw a bunch of my same Worldcon family, and a few other friends who it turns out now live in Chicago and I should try to see them sometime.
HEALTH:
- I got my first colonoscopy done August 24; they removed a few polyps (benign) and I have to repeat in 5 years. Also diagnosed early-stage diverticulitis, so I have been trying to step up my fiber intake since then. (NP at follow-up: "Oh, and you have internal hemorrhoids." Me: "THANKS I KNOW.")
- Insomnia is noticeably better since I discovered Advil PM. However, on the flip side, I don't get as much done at home in the mornings if I'm no longer waking up at 4 or 5am. Sigh!
HOUSE:
We did get the long-awaited new garage door installed November 29. Concomitantly, due to lots of work from Mr. Y., the garage is now in a condition where we can actually open the door and park a car in it. (Technically it's a two-car garage, but parking BOTH cars in it is an unrealistic goal. One car is pretty awesome. No one believed it could be done! This is the first time in his entire 50+ years in this house that anyone has done it!)
CREATIVE:
- My Etsy shop filled 237 orders in 2022, for a lifetime total of 819 since I launched in 2014.
- The synagogue's sisterhood gift shop is carrying an assortment of my art prints and greeting cards, which is fun.
- I also typeset one book (From Here: Lessons in Love & Loss from 9/11 by Felice Zaslow, referred to me by the yoga ladies whose book I did last year), and designed one ketubah (for Sarah A., an old friendquaintance from Tremont St.).
GOALS FOR 2023 - CREATIVE:
- Complete the freelance website project that I've been noodling on for like a year now
- Rebuild the synagogue website (ditto)
- Build out my own updated website and finally cancel the old one
- Get the Etsy shop to a point where all the designs in my library are actually listed for sale. I finished and printed a lot of new stuff for the Jewish Festival last summer but there are at least a dozen pieces that have never made it to Etsy. No one can buy them if I don't post!
GOALS FOR 2023 - HEALTH:
- Eat two cups of vegetables, comprising 2 or more different vegetables, every day.
- Go back to the gym. I would like to say "regularly" but let's face it, even ONE TIME would be an accomplishment. Last year I signed us up for a Marketplace health plan that includes "dental, vision and fitness" since we both clearly needed the first two, but we never got around to activating the gym memberships that come with the third one.
- Develop a walking habit, now that the weather is warming up.
- Replace the gutters
- Replace the dining room seating (counter height parsons chairs and dining benches, all sadly wearing out) and the living room couch.
- Replace at least one of our cars, and repair the other sufficiently to keep it on the road until such time as my mom can no longer see to drive and bequeathes us her Chevy Equinox.
- More basement renovations such as replace the drop ceiling tiles and the refrigerator behind the
- Replace the driveway.
- Someday, I would love to clean out the storage room in the back of the garage and set up a proper framing/shipping studio area, so that I am not running all over the house once a week gathering all my tools to the kitchen table to fill my orders.
no subject
Date: Monday, April 24th, 2023 10:56 pm (UTC)As for dining room seating - are the chairs and benches not reliable, or is it the upholstery wearing out? Because if it's the latter, it's a reasonably easy DIY project to redo those using a staple gun (reasonably easy = even I have managed this), with new fabric and padding.
no subject
Date: Tuesday, April 25th, 2023 01:08 pm (UTC)