w e n m e i: December 2005

We made it through another year! And boy, this was a busy one. New house, new dog, new job, new husband...could I have fit anymore in? Oh yeah, new haircut too. Let's see what I did, and what lessons I learned, this year:

January
I turned 32 and celebrated by eating all the sushi I could eat at Todai. Later in the month, Chris, Finn and I climbed Granite Mountain during a blizzard and I got separated from the group, lost in the blizzard, and frostbite on my fingertips. Since my trail was completely covered by the blizzard, I ended up sliding straight down the mountain to the treeline, where I found the trail (and Chris and Finn) again. I've never been so scared before (not even when I broke my back) and I've never been so relieved to see familiar faces.

Lesson Learned: NEVER separate from the group when hiking, especially if hiking an avalanche-prone mountain during a blizzard!

February
We bought a house! It's a beautiful 1910 craftsman bungalow in great condition. We were able to move right in without doing any work, which was one of Chris' requirements. We plan to do some renovations in the future, but it is just fine for us right now. Chris and I have our own spaces in the house (the "lady space" and the "man space"), and lucky for me, Chris was so excited about getting the whole (unfinished) basement as his man space that he didn't really notice that I was taking the sun-filled (and finished) upstairs room as my lady space.

Lesson Learned: When choosing your "space", if you don't plan to do much construction on your own, it's probably best to pick a space that's already been built.

March
Trisha, Rhona and I celebrated Trisha's 30th birthday in St. John. It was warm, watery, and wonderful. It was also a great way for me to end one life and start another -- I quit Accenture, went to the Virgin Islands, then started at Starbucks. I highly recommend it as a way to transition between jobs. Once I was nicely tanned and relaxed, I came back to rainy Seattle and started my new job as a business IT analyst for the Store Development group at Starbucks. Don't worry, the free soy gingerbread lattes keep me warm.

Lesson Learned: Accenture is good, Starbucks is better, St. John is best (at least for me).

April
Chris turned 30! His parents came to visit for his birthday and Kelly made her famous carrot cake. Chris doesn't normally like sweets, but he would eat an entire carrot cake by himself if he could get away with it. After Bob and Kelly headed back to Colorado, we celebrated Chris' birthday with friends at the Comedy Underground, followed by visits to a few local drinking establishments. We ended the night with Chinese food at the Honey Court, where we were once again impressed with the patience and friendliness of the staff at 3AM.

Lesson Learned: When Kelly makes her carrot cake, cut off a big slice and hide it before Chris gets to it or you won't get any for yourself. (I applied this lesson at our wedding in September.)

May
We got Cowboy! He was a cute little floppy-eared chunk of a puppy when we got him. He is a golden retriever / chow / shepherd mix and the german shepherd part become very apparent -- in the form of radar-like ears -- when he was about four months old. At 10 months old, he's over 70 pounds now but he still hasn't grown into his ears. He's very sweet and loving, but not very brave. Instead of "Go away!", his bark is more of the "Someone help me!" variety. Luckily, he still sounds big and protective, as long as he's not in the process of tucking his tail between his legs and running away.

Lesson Learned: Floppy-eared puppies don't always turn into floppy-eared dogs. But they are just as sweet, even if their ears can pick up radio stations in Japan.

June
We got engaged! We went on a hike to Serene Lake, and while I was taking pictures of the lake, I turned to find Chris on his knee, with a dozen (he called it a "12-pack") long-stemmed red roses and a ring in his hand. He asked, "Will you marry me?" and I immediately responded with, "Where did you get those roses?" Once I finally regained my composure and answered his question (I said yes), Cowboy celebrated by sliding off a 10 foot rock into the lake, thus taking his first swim.

Lesson Learned: Answer the question you are asked before you worry about nailing down the details like where the roses and ring came from. Also, keep Cowboy on a short leash because he apparently doesn't know better than to go over a cliff.

July
We spent the month enjoying the sun, making wedding plans, and playing with Cowboy. Sadly, my grandmother passed away a few days before her birthday, so I flew back to Pennsylvania to attend her funeral. When I was growing up, I used to fly from Germany to spend my summers with my Grandma -- I would follow her and her friends to church, their hair appointments, and all of those other wild and crazy things widows in their 70s do. I used to play my clarinet in her laundry room (I liked the way it sounded) and do headstands in her living room. She even gave me an old couch cushion to use so that I wouldn't hurt my head on her floor. She also taught me my first cheer, "Boom-a-lacka". I am sad that she is gone, but I am glad that she is at peace.

Lesson Learned: Tell your Grandma you love her as often as you can, because you never know when you won't be able to anymore.

August
We found out that we could get the Beaver Creek Chapel on September 17th, or we'd have to wait until next year for our wedding. We wanted a fall wedding and didn't really see any reason to wait a year, so we decided to go for it. We had a whole six weeks to plan, but that was plenty. We wanted a simple wedding, so we figured that we'd be forced to keep it simple if we didn't have enough time to arrange anything complex. Brendan also came out to visit during Seafair weekend and we watched the Blue Angels from kayaks on Lake Washington. At the end of the month, we went to the San Juan islands for Chris' company getaway.

Lesson Learned: It's not nice to make a novice kayaker paddle through the Montlake Cut during Seafair weekend. However, if said novice is a strong, healthy Colorado boy, he can handle it.

September
Whirlwind month! I started out with my version of a bachelorette party: 3 days of horseback riding and camping in the mountains near Wenatchee. Margaret, Meg, Shilpa and Sita joined me and we had a great time being cowgirls. The next weekend, Margaret threw me a lovely wine-tasting bridal shower and a few days later, Chris and I were on the road to Colorado with Cowboy in tow! The wedding was beautiful and everything went off without a hitch (well, WE got hitched, but that was supposed to happen). If you want more details (and pictures), check out our Wedding Page on MSN Spaces.

Lesson Learned: It doesn't take a lot of time to plan a really special and fun-filled wedding if you only focus on the important things.

October
We kicked off the month with a wedding celebration cruise aboard the Argosy Goodtime III. We had over 100 guests on board and managed to make it back to the dock without losing anyone. It was a great way to celebrate our marriage with our friends. We spent the rest of the month settling back into work and our regular lives, calling each other "husband" and "wife" at every opportunity because we couldn't get over the novelty of it. On Halloween, Chris got to wear his pleather pants and I got to wear my blue contacts when we dressed as a rock star and his groupie.

Lesson Learned: Kids don't trick-or-treat in the neighborhoods anymore -- apparently, the malls are safer and have better loot. So don't buy too much Halloween candy from Costco or you will still be eating it in December.

November
We had early snow in Washington, so we actually got up on the mountain a couple times this month! We skied at Crystal a few days and did some snowshoeing in the Cascades. I also got to see Super Diamond with Margaret and Meg (Chris refused to go) and I finally introduced Meg to that wonderful musical diversion known as The Sh*tkickers. They are Dudley Manlove Quartet's cowboy alter-ego, and they are just as much fun as DMQ themselves. We ended the month by hosting Thanksiving at our house. Meg, her mom, her sister Emily, and Cathy came over to enjoy the food and the Broncos game. Meg's mom made the mistake of cheering for the Cowboys at one point, but Chris got over it after he stormed upstairs and took a timeout.

Lesson Learned: Just because Chris likes the Sh*tkickers doesn't mean that he likes DMQ. However, he will still go to the shows because he is afraid that, given the opportunity, I will run off with the band. Yes, the whole band.

December
As often happens in the Northwest Pacific, all of our wonderful November snow melted away. The warmer weather also caused Cowboy to start losing his winter coat, so now it looks like it's snowing Cowboy-fur in our house. Chris vacuums about 20 times a day and I brush Cowboy almost as often. We still enjoyed our December, even without the snow. We kept trying to dress Cowboy up in Christmas attire, but he would have nothing to do with it. Chris and I sang in the OK Chorale, and we performed at the Figgy Pudding Caroling Competition, the Argosy Christmas Ship and the Greenlake Luminaries. Margaret and I got our pictures taken with Santa Claus. We all went to the DMQ holiday show. Chris and I went to Denver to spend a very warm and sunny Christmas with his family, and to top it off, we got to watch the Broncos crush the eeeeeeeevil Raiders on Christmas Eve.

Lesson Learned: Although Tux (Patrick & Kimberly's Aussie) will wear a Santa hat, and Meg and Jessie (Bob & Kelly's Shelties) will wear Christmas bells, Cowboy will not wear either unless you staple or superglue them to his head. This is theoretical, of course, but I can't imagine any other way of doing it.

I hope that you had a wonderful year, and cheers to more lessons learned in 2006!