I'll Add a Good Title Later...Maybe

Congratulate me: I have completed two more of my 12X2012 goals!! (link coming later)

• Finish my first year working at JoAnn's

Goal reached on September 20th.
It's been an interesting year, mostly good. Quite often I'm exhausted by the time I get home, occasionally people there (99% customers) make me mad, but I'm thankful for the money and the experiences this job has given me.

• Ride my green bike down the Hill of No Return/Great-Granddaddy of All Hills

Done. With my brother and three friends on...I think it was October 3rd.
The fields were gorgeous with the trees starting to change colours out there. The weather was in the low 70*s, which is perfect for biking in, if the sun is out.
We took about an hour and a half to go down, around a loop to the Big Hill, and then back home (I really should find out how many miles that was--once I do find out I'll let you know). There were cranes of some sort in a partially-harvested field of corn, and woolybear caterpillars, and a good stretch of road almost covered with run-over snakes. =( I was hoping for a live one in the midst of all that carnage, but there wasn't one. *sigh*
(I've always wanted to run across--or almost across and then stop before actually CROSSING it--a snake while out on a bike ride. So I can stop and go all Steve Irwin over it. ;)
It was a lovely bike trip, and I hope I have one more chance to go out on my lovely green bike before the weather turns nasty at the end of the week! (And yes, I used 'lovely' twice in the same sentence. Geddoverit.)

I'm on the library computer right now, so I'm running out of time tonight. I'll add pictures and links and such when I get home and an copy-and-paste them in. Can you imagine that? A computer with no copy-and-paste abilities? Sad, isn't it.

(I fixed all that now. :)

~Kiwi~

12X2012: Swimming

So, I had

• Go swimming once or twice.

on my 12X2012 list. Done. Once.

We went on our long bike ride, and were planning on going down the Hill of No Return. But, as the day was hot, and our other friends lived on this one road, we chose not to.*

We swung by their house, to kidnap the two girls, only to find that they had had their phone in hand, literally about to call us up! Talk about timing! They wanted us to go swimming with them in their pool at one o'clock. The three of us decided that was feasible. The two kidnapp-ees packed sandwiches and joined their three kidnappers as we cycled to the cemetery.

The day was lovely, and hot, but lovely all the same. The breeze was blowing, and we found ourselves a nice, grassy spot in the shade, on the outer fringes of the graveyard. (Yes, we were technically inside the fence, but a ways away from the nearest gravestone.) 

Luckily we had purchased two (itty-bitty) peaches apiece from the local farm market, so there were enough for all. And we had chips, and sandwiches, and veggies, and candy sticks. Plus KK ever-so-kindly bought me not one, but Two apple cider donuts. (for which I am VERY grateful. They were lovely.)

After the eating, we played one round of Dutch Blitz (I want to play more!) and parted ways. The kidnapp-ees back to their abode and the three of us to ours, so we could gather our swim gear.

Off to the pool we went, where I spent several hours splashing and floating, and actually became tan. I've been feeling so pale this year because I'm not outside nearly enough! But the 5.5 hours in the sun that day took care of any paleness I may have had. If I end up with skin cancer from too much exposure to the sun, at least it's well-gotten tan, not just lying-out-in-the-sun-to-tan tan! Haha.

So yes, that's what I've been up to. I don't know if I'll have much time for posting next week! I'm working every day but Wednesday, and boy, this'll be a nice check! ;) I don't care for long hours until after I'm done with them and I pick up my check. THEN I love them!

(The following pictures are from waaaaaay back at our old house. They're at least 3 years old. Back when we formed proper 'in order of age' stair steps!)

~Kiwi da TannedFruit~

*(or maybe we just took the wrong turn, and turned a road early, and didn't feel like going UP the H.o.N.R. just so we could go back DOWN it.)

Late-At-Night Post

I'm working on plans for another of my 12X2012 accomplishments.

• Take a bike trip to the Hill of No Return on my green bike.

Almost half of that has been accomplished. My bike is now fixed, all I need now is a free afternoon! Perhaps I should have said simply 'take a bike trip.' That is going to happen, Lord willing, Thursday morning/noon/afternoon. Two of my friends and I shall pack a picnic lunch, bike to the nearby farm market to purchase donuts and peaches and the like, then start pedaling down a back road or two. At the moment, the chosen destination is a cemetery a few miles away. We might stop and eat at a park between here and there, as others may not find our choice to lunch in a cemetery so...appetizing. Perhaps we won't stop there at all, maybe we'll just continue and find a brand new spot. =) I love not planning everything and getting to make choices on whims.
And I'm also curious, can anyone else see the picture in my last post, of the bike? It's disappeared.
Good night, my lovelies! ;)
~Kiwi~

12X2012: Bike

• Have my green bike fixed. Again.

First thing crossed off my list! Dad replaced the tire & inner tube last night, and I'm hoping to get a bit of riding in today before I go to work! The picture isn't of my bike, but it's one very similar. The most noticeable difference is that my bike is a girl's bike. And doesn't have reflectors. But it's the same colour/style.
I'm very close to my "Finish my first year at JoAnn Fabrics," only have three weeks and five days left until that one's crossed off as well. =)

~Kiwi~

Second post in a week! You guys are getting lucky!

So, I figured I'd do another post, since I felt like it. Maybe I'll mention my latest venture, something I should have included on my 12X2012 post. Ah, yes, the Unicycle.

Odd-looking device, isn't it? And quite difficult to balance on, let me tell you! I had Emmy on one side and KK on the other, and STILL couldn't quite balance. Because of the lack of balance, I now have a big ol' scrape on the inside of my knee from the tire rubbing.

But, since my first lesson, I'm a far more experienced unicycleist than most of you are. I think that when I complete one of my 12X2012 challenges, I'll replace it with 

• Learn to ride the unicycle without people propping me up.

~Kiwi~

12 X 2012

I feel like I should blog again, but I'm not sure of what to talk about.
How about a Twelve Things to Do by 2012 list?
Okay, I'll try that.

• Finish my first year at JoAnn Fabrics. (Already 10.5 months into that, but I'll put it on here anyway.)
• Have my green bike fixed. Again. (Popped a tire last fall and haven't gotten around to replacing it. Constantly wishing I had it to ride, though)
• Learn to ride the unicycle. (I had my very first lesson tonight, and I have to say it went...so-so. Did you know you can fall 360 directions off a unicycle? Yep, mhm, you can. And I have a tire-burn on the inside of my right knee.)
• Wean myself off Facebook for 1 day a week. Or maybe just check it once on that day. (that'll be my Blogging Only day, so I get some more posts up here!)
• Go to one or two more concerts. (Preferably 3. Downhere would be great, or I hear that Michael W. Smith is doing a FREEEEE one in Milwaukee in August! Maybe if I can't go to the family reunion that weekend, if my boss doesn't give me those days off, I'll rustle up a group to go there.)
• Take an art class maybe. That would mean buckling down and Actually Doing some Artwork, but I might be able to manage that. 
• Teach my brother math. (He's 4th grade, and Mom had me helping the past couple months with his math work, but then school kinda trickled off for the summer.)
• Make a snow sculpture like THIS one, only different.
• Start making small items to sell on Etsy, and have an Etsy shop set up by this time next year. (I know that's been my goal for a few years now, but maybe I'll actually do it this time?)
• Take a bike trip to the Hill of No Return on my green bike. (It's super-steep, and has railroad tracks and a near-right-angle turn at the bottom. How much more danger can this girl handle? Rhetorical question.)
• Plan my Twenty Trip. (When my sister & parents had to go to Las Vegas for her college course, they promised that they'd take each of the rest of us on a trip when we turned twenty. Well, guess how old I'll  be next March? Um, yeah, that's a bit scary....)
• Go swimming once or twice.

I might change it up some between now and 2012, but that's what I have right now. I challenge readers of this blog to do the same--find 12 things you want to do before twenty-twelve, and blog about them!

~Kiwi~