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Preparation: Mexican Chicken Soup

Sautée chopped onions, carrots, and celery. Add chicken broth. Cut corn tortilla's into small strips, add. Add chopped tomatoes. Add cooked, pulled chicken. Bring near to boil. Serve piping hot with a side of tortilla chips. Top with sour cream, scallions, grated cheese.

Thoughts: Adam made this soup when some of us got together for lunch on Saturday. Celery is bitter. More-so when you get an unexpected bite of nothing but celery. Texture is not exactly what I would call "pleasant." While I probably won't go out of my way to pick it out of food in the future (unless I get a taste and find it abhorrent), but you won't find me chowing down on celery and peaut butter or specifically requesting it.

One down, eleven to go!

To be clear, I don't make ("New Year's") resolutions. The difference between a resolution and a goal is that a resolution feels good to day, but a goal feels good to accomplish. Hence our race's dismal record with resolutions. The other thing about resolutions is that they are pretty much an all-or-nothing proposition, while you can — nay, should — feel good about mostly or even partially accomplishing a goal.

I've decided to set a few goals for 2009. Some will be easier than others, but hopefully they are all accomplishable for me this year.

1. Try 12 foods I've been irrationally scared to try. One a month, obviously. I've written about my food phobia in the past. I've only picked a few so far: Tomatoes, Broccoli, Pineapple, and Bananas. Tomatoes are grown locally and have a best season (late summer, according to Megan), while some of them will be available year round. We're almost half way through January, so I need to make my mind up on this month's contestant and get cookin. (See what I did there?)
2. I wanted to set a photography goal for the year too. I had started doing Project365 last year, but it proved to be more work than I have time for on most of my days. So I've decided to scale it back a bit and go back to doing Weekly Winners. If I can get something up at least 3 times a month for the rest of the year, I think I can call that success.
3. Get outdoors more. Wait, that sounds like a resolution. Go camping at least 4 times. Canoeing / Fishing at least a couple of times. At least one nice hiking day-trip. I'm way too pale.
4. Survive the first year of parenthood.

That doesn't sound like a lot now that I've written it out, but combined with my geeky goals, I think it will be an ambitious year.

It appears that I've been taking vacation from blogging as well as work. It wasn't a conscious decision I made, but it is what it is.

You were probably already aware that my Mom has been blogging for a while. But did you know that both my Dad and my brother Justin have started blogs as well? And both of them have been posting like crazy lately, so you can go stalk them instead of me if you like.

And if that's not enough for you, Zach (along with his brother Wyatt and some 3rd person whom I don't know) is blogging over at PB&J.

Here are a few pictures to tide you over.

Zoolander Face:

Dylan's first bottle:

Obligatory "reflection in ornament" shot, 2008:

Dylan hanging his first ornament:

I made cookies (almost) as big as my (really big) head:

Erin and Kaname:

Dylan, Zach, and Beth:

Kaname riding Ollie:

Green Eggs and Ham:

Dylan with his GranDad:

With Mommy:

Our Christmas card photo: