4: Book

(Anna Inghardt, via Decor8)

What book - fiction or non - touched you? Where were you when you read it? Have you bought and given away multiple copies?

I'm almost ashamed to admit I haven't read a lot of books this year. At the beginning of the year I really got in to the Sword of Truth series and read some personal finance books like Your Money or Your Life, but I think I've read some great books at the end of this year as well. I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows which was a great book about post-WWII life on Guernsey Island, as well as a glimpse into the occupation of the channel islands during the war.

I also read Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, a humorous look at the apocalypse. An angel and a demon who actually enjoy earth and don't want it to be over have to find the misplaced Antichrist, stop the four horsemen and overall stop the end of the world.

Lucky number 13!

I'd like to interrupt your regular broadcasting to inform the world that I actually won a contest! I hardly ever win anything... Yay!

I won the Prismera Design Giveaway on Modish by commenting and having my comment number randomly selected... and that was number 13! I always knew I liked it... :)

At any rate, I love love love the necklace and had contemplated just buying one from Prismera Design, but unfortunately can't be spending really any money at all on jewelry. I've been looking for something I can wear all the time, and I believe this piece to be just that. Happy Friday to me!

3: Article

(Source)

What's an article that you read that blew you away? That you shared with all your friends. That you Delicious'd and reference throughout the year.

Hmmm... this is a tough one. The best article I read all year? I don't know about article in a newspaper/magazine/etc, but I'm fairly certain if it was a blog post it came from Get Rich Slowly. I might not access the same post all the time, but I have read every single article, shared a considerable amount with friends and go back to them over and over again.

2: Restaurant

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Share the best restaurant experience you had this year. Who was there? What made it amazing? What taste stands out in your mind?

This is a tough one, because obviously I've eaten at quite a few restaurants this year! One that sticks out in my mind is when the bakers from the coffeeshop went to this place on S. Main called Grub. They had awesome punch and vegetarian food!

What made this night so memorable is that it had just snowed recently and since Vancouver isn't used to getting snowed on, everything shut down! I waited for a bus for almost an hour and was late. I wore my snow boots and ran around trying to get there. Luckily, I wrote down the address wrong and arrived at my destination about 20 blocks before I was anticipating.

It was a great night with all the bakers and I ended up spending the night with one of them because I couldn't get home and had to be at work at 5:15!

1: Trip

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What was the best trip of 2009?

For me, 2009 was full of amazing trips. In February, my mom and I embarked on a 2,600 mile road trip from Vancouver, BC down through Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona and New Mexico before arriving back in Texas. We saw two national parks (Giant Sequoia and the Grand Canyon) and I completed two items on my life list (#64 and #26). It was definitely one of the greatest adventures.

Prior to that great journey, I had flown to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and there I took a 43 hour train ride to Churchill, on the Southern bank of Hudson Bay. In Churchill, it was -20 degrees celsius--by far the coldest weather I've ever been in-- and was the farthest north I've made it so far. At 58N, the town of about 100 is located on the Artic Tundra and can only be reached by rail or air. In the fall you can see polar bears and in the summer beluga whales.

I didn't get to see either, but I got to knock 3 items of my life list (#24, #36, and #63). Dogsledding across the tundra/borealis forest was an incredible experience. I got to see an inukshuk on the shore of the Bay and on the last night the sky was full of dancing Aurora Borealis. We made friends with the locals, attending a "meat draw" with some local researchers and drinking tea with the owners of the only true B&B in town and our dog sledders, where we met Isobel, the blind sled dog.

I'm thrilled I took the chance to go up there, because I doubt I will have the opportunity to again. With global warming, the winter is shorter, the polar bears are hungrier and the entire town's livlihood is threatened.

Best of 2009 Blog Challenge

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In an effort to step up my blogging as I've been slacking lately, I am going to participate in Gwen Bell's Best of 2009 blog challenge.

Since I'm a couple days behind, I'll do them sporadically... some days there may be none, some days there may be three, each in a different post. It's finally occured to me that I'm in the last month of a decade. The last decade that ended, I was an eighth grader and more concerned over what Y2K meant and how soon Christmas break would be coming than anything else.

So here's to a fun beginning of all things 2009!

Yoga

Been a rough few weeks as far as yoga goes, but planning to go to yoga tonight just in time for the holidays. Making the long drive tomorrow night and have much to do tonight to get ready!