year winds down, projects start up

it's started. toby received lots bike related goods for his bike project and he's eager to start the build. as i type, he's in the back room messing around with a headset of some sorts. zo and jim are coming round for new year's with more bike goodness for him. i bet this bike is done before feburary.

me, well, i'm trying to drink lots of water in hopes of surpressing some sinus pain, which you may recall the "doctors" say i have no problems with. i'm also knitting away at a match to my hat. toby liked mine so much, he wants one too!


tomorrow we're going to wake up as early as we can (as early as a saturday allows) and head to borough market. the earlier the better with this place as it gets crowded fast. i'm looking forward to a sausage roll breakfast and some cheese samples. i'll try to remember the camera and be one of those people who takes pictures of the dead hares on display. strangely, it's a lovely site.

year end stock...no wait, that's work and i dont' have to work today!

it's christmas eve and i'm enjoying a nice work free monday morning. it's time for me to catch up on all of those emails sitting in my hotmail inbox. (thank goodness the internet is working!).

my darling toby has to work today. poor guy. when we went to the states, we used up a lot of our holiday and then he started a new job mid-year, so he didn't have any extra days left. i think he's secretly going to like being at work by himself rocking out to deep purple. i'm going to go by and have lunch with him and try to convince him to leave early. (ha! i knew it. the boy just called and is indeed enjoying a little deep purple and is dancing around the office as i type!)

when i think about what's happened this year, i tend to shrug my shoulders and think "not much". but i suppose that really isn't true. i think that's why i like having my flickr account. i can look back at the year and remember why it was so special.

here are my happy highlights from last year's christmas tree:


1. visiting the states for 3 WHOLE WEEKS! that really was an incredible time. strangely enough, too short.
2. moving...even though we don't have the lovely walks to the hill anymore, i really do like our new home in cricklewood. and toby's pretty pleased to have a special "bike room"
3. we saw prince. and it was a purple-tastic time.
4.i knit my first sock AND i finally finished knitting that dang sweater for my mom after something like 5 years.
5. staying in a caravan for a weekend and not getting killed.

to this year's christmas tree



of course, lots more happened this year and even the little everyday things were great. i'm really thankful that my life is filled with so much goodness.

merry christmas!

toby writes...

another toby post folks.

he's decided to document his bike build project. please check out his
bike blog

other than that,life is carrying on nicely. we got a big, bushy christmas tree. we've been enjoying some cold, rainy weather. since toby's been busy with his bike build, i've been reading more. i'm currently reading poppy adam's first novel "the behaviour of moths" so far, i'm really enjoying. the narrator is an old lady, i can't remember the last book i read with the narrator and main characters over the age of 60.

toby's rocking it italian, 80s style

you know what wisconsin needs?

a wagamama's. seriously. it's a new kind of food that is simple and good. japanese nooodle food -- it's the new mexican really. i just got home from a nice dinner with sam. we both had some edadame (sp?) beans and the chicken katsu curry (71 for those in the know). toby got that last time and i really had wished i had, so i didn't even have to think when i got the menu. i feel so full now.

i'm also listening to a band called Letters, Letters which is pretty cool, interesting music. instead of popping the tv on as soon as i got in, i popped on the music. smart decision.

so, toby's surprise. well, i guess he's too busy to let us all know, but i can't wait any longer.

toby is indeed giving birth....to a bicycle. yup, he's building a bike from scratch and is currently busy making lots of lists of potential christmas presents.

the other weekend we went bricklane bikes (www.bricklanebikes.co.uk because i'm too lazy to turn this into a link right now) and we met a VERY helpful nice chick named feya, who not only wrote down an entire list of parts needed, but was willingly to sort of explain the process of building a bike. we left the shop with one 80s italian bike frame. white and purple. let's just say it's going to be a pretty awesome site once toby's through with it. the make is lissignoli, which i've been tying to find some information about on the internet, but having a really hard time. if anyone knows anything, please let me know. (and a little sidenote, there are lots of non-chain bicycle shops popping up in london lately. i think a few people might need to take a trip and visit them HINT HINT)



toby's taken more pictures and i don't know if he'd think this accurately showed the coolness, but i think it does the job nicely.

in the meantime, i've got to get back to my music-listening, knitting, reading, washing dishes and making lunches evening....

quick one.

this is a quick one to say that thanksgiving was most excellent. it had everything i wanted...food, home, family, friends, food, SNOW, dairy queen. it was very, very wonderful.

i'm slowly putting my pictures up and i think we're just about settled back into london life.

we had a bit of a rocky start back. toby took a spill on his bike (a car forced him to, don't worry, he's okay, but was a bit funny that day) and his bike is a bit out of commission until he gets a new wheel. we discovered that we had a new mouse friend in our home. i found out that i can't register for a doctor until i show them my passport, which i had to mail out earlier that day to get my name changed (nothing is EVER simple for me in this country. it's tough being an alien).

but, like i said, things are settling. toby's got some very exciting news, which he'll tell us all about soon. he's currently taking pictures.



we miss y'all already.