irresolute

I really dislike New Year's resolutions. Maybe since I associate them with falling off after 6 weeks, I don't think they're useful or effective. I always think, "Oh, well that's something the person won't really keep up through March," or that they only half-heartedly want to accomplish it. On the other hand, I don't necessarily think that about goals. I feel a person can set a goal and they have a fairly good chance of achieving it. It's the same thing, just a different word, so I don't know why I have those connotations. Increasingly, I feel the need to reassess and set new goals at year end, which is deliberately something I really didn't do before. Blame it on some type A personality shit.

Last year, I wanted to cook two new recipes a month and learn how to cartwheel. Trying two new recipes a month was pretty successful - here's a catalogue of some recipes I've tried this year and enjoyed. I have some new ones in my recipe folder too. I'm not making an intentional goal to try new recipes this year since I feel it's stuck with me pretty well and I have lots of inspiration to try new recipes. Don't they say it takes 6 weeks for something to become a habit? Well, I think I've got this down. In fact, tonight I'm making roasted butternut squash and bacon pasta.

Cartwheeling? Nope. Still don't know how.

I've got a few I've been kicking around for this next year:

• 100 books in 2012. I kicked 75 books in 2011's ass (currently on number 102 for 2011) and I think I can do it again next year.
• 3 half marathons - Green Bay in May, Red, White and Boom in July, and one more in the fall. I wanted to do two last year and only did one, mostly for financial reasons.
• Cut out meat one day a week, for health and environmental reasons. Probably Mondays.
  
• Progress on our net worth, specifically through building savings and paying down our smaller debts. I know goals are more likely to be accomplished if there's a specific, measurable goal, but we haven't sat down and figured that out yet. But those are the things I think we can hit, based on some initial calculations.

Good? All right. Bacher out.

a letter i wrote

Dear [Reverend 1] and [Reverend 2];

Please remove my name from the membership roll.

I feel the need to explain my decision as [church] had been a formative place in my youth. The Methodist Church's stance on gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people is completely at odds with my understanding of the world and God's involvement and love of humanity.

The God I know does not want people to completely shut off an important aspect of one's self simply because of whom they love. If we are to be full people, engaged in the community around us, we must be true to ourselves and embrace and love ourselves. By proxy, the institution of the church should accept and welcome the community as full people, some of whom may love people of the same gender.

If we are created in God's image and loved as such, then GLBTQ individuals are created in God's image and loved by God as well. While the Methodist Church finds homosexuality to be incompatible with Christ's teachings, I find the alienation, exclusion and disdain of GLBTQ individuals to be incompatible with Christ's teachings.

The Methodist Church is sorrowfully behind on accepting GLBTQ populations and it's embarrassing to hear that the WI Conference took 4 days to discussion to agree to begin a dialogue on the topic.

Thank you for your stewardship of a church I once called home; however, I cannot be a member of an organization that blatantly discriminates against a class of people and is blind to Jesus' call to welcome and love all people.

Thank you.

P.S. Jesus practiced radical inclusion. I hope you can do the same as a reconciling church.

more sam

What a silly dog.

Then we decided to watch a video:



I am easily amused.

this is my dog

Dinnertime.

Setting up the Christmas tree.

Sam hides out behind the tv.



Sam is a careful listener.

The end.

the monies

So... I turned into a budgeting/financial crazy person today.

I finished breaking down our spending for November compared to our budget, budgeted our Christmas presents, switched the autopay of the remaining bills over to our new credit union, cleaned up my Bank folder on my computer, and made a net worth spreadsheet (including columns to update next year). My spreadsheets are all quite pretty, if I do say so myself. The contents are a little rougher (hello, giant negative net worth), but I suppose in order to get ahead, you have to figure out where you are first.

Don't worry. I resisted color-coding the spreadsheets. Still, I am all over this shit.

Also, Sam is sleeping on the couch next to me and his face and legs are twitching and spasming like he's a robot.

babies and stuff

A note to the world:

Many people I know are pregnant or have birthed. That's awesome. Babies are cool. I'm especially looking forward to my new nephew, Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All Mason Badass Bacher and have grown fond of watching videos of Hattie (one of the Lincoln Roberts-Days) do things like roll over and be bounced around to silly noises.

However, I am totally content with a gentleman and a dog. We do pretty well, the three of us.

Not that anyone asked... just that babies seem to be all around and in people these days, and they seem super excited about it, whereas I am super excited about the homemade sesame chicken I made for dinner tonight.

That is all.

Book update:
I did get a Kindle. It is awesome. In fact, it increases marital hand-holding a significant percent as now I can lie in bed, hold the Kindle with one hand and hold Andrew's hand with the other. No more rationed hand-holding! I am also at book #95 for the year and 100 looks to be very good. I may even shoot for 104 - an average of 2 books per week.

Purging update:
I'm 95% done with the original purging plan. I used the last bottle this week - buffalo sauce that I poured over chicken wings in the crockpot. I have one bar of soap left, which will probably be opened this weekend. Still working on the tea lights though... there were a lot of those.

All right. Sesame chicken time. Bacher out.