2011 Holiday Newsletter

So, you know how people send out annual newsletters about their families to brag shamlessly keep interested parties in the loop on the year's happenings? Well, I didn't get my shit together in time decided not to do one to mail out to people this year, so, instead, I'm going to shove this one down your throat give you the information by blogging one.

2011 Chris-Ryan-Coltrane Holiday Newsletter

Dearest Random Person I Sort-of Know Friend or Family Member,

Ah, what a year it's been! 2011 has been full of laziness activity in the Chris-Ryan-Coltrane household, most of which has revolved around drinking things like playing music, sailing, kayaking, board games, and hanging out with our lazy wonderful friends.

The beginning of the year saw Ryan finally getting hired for a new job after quitting on a stupid whim leaving her old job due to wanting a new boss direction. She is now drunkenly happily coming up on her 1-year anniversary with Greenlight Biofuels, a renewable energy company.

For Chris, the beginning of the year mostly revolved around drinking heavily making and putting out the Rock River Gypsies (our band) debut album because the rest of the band is full of lazy incompetents and, well, someone had to do it. He spent a lot of time in a druken haze in the studio, and he made sure the CD Release Party in March went off without a train wreck hitch. Now here's the part where we will shamelessly self-promote ourselves, so Here is our website, where you can check out our shows and buy buy buy buy buy listen to our CD: http://www.rockrivergypsies.com/.

Coltrane had a wonderful first part of the year as well, and he basically just ate food and sat some and then shit some continues to enjoy running around the house. He is a very well-behaved Xbox-eating little bunny.

Spring and Summer saw a drunken trip to Florida, an inebriated trip to the Outer Banks, and lots of band gigs none of which we remember. Chris learned to fall down eat sand surf. We bought a piece of crap sailboat. Ryan got vertigo and convinced herself she had a brain tumor and developed a sun allergy and convinced herself she had lupus. Chris and Ryan made pasta from scratch while drinking heavily. The whole family (minus Coltrane) got kicked out of a restaurant for being drunk and unruly no good reason.

This Fall and (and now, almost) Winter have been mostly boring busy. Chris took the boat out multiple times and, irresponsibly, broke it. Coltrane developed a problem with a goopy eyeball and no one knows why and Ryan was convinced he was going to die. Chris continues to soberly teach guitar lessons to his students.

So that's a year's worth of news in the Chris Ryan Coltrane household. Happy Holidays everyone!

Giving Thanks

I went out with a friend of mine for a beer the other night, and she told me all about the boy she has a crush on. She's at that point where everything is new and exciting and unknown and possibly a bit confusing, and where her heart rate is probably faster than usual whenever the object of her affection is near.

Oh, how I love hearing the juicy details of these kinds of experiences! You know, the "well, then what did he say?" and "has he kissed you?" and "what's he look like?" stuff. Maybe it's because I have a serious lack of girl-time in my life, and my friend's stories make me feel super-girly and giggly. Or maybe it's because Chris and I have been together for over 6 years, and I find it fun to hear about the beginning part of a crush or a relationship, which I don't plan on experiencing again.

Either way, I very much enjoy listening to my friend talk about what her crush said and what does that mean and all that (and I'm just happy that she's happy!). And she often asks what I think about this or about that, perhaps because she wants an outside opinion, but also perhaps because I've been in a successful relationship for a while. Though I always assure her that success comes from a hell of a lot of work. 

And whenever I tell her what I think about something relationship-related, I find myself recounting my own experiences with Chris as examples (because that's all I really know). And when I do that, even when I'm talking about something that was or has been particularly difficult, I always leave the conversation feeling extraordinarily grateful for the fact that I have Chris in my life.

We have been through a lot together. Really, we have grown up together. We met when we were 18; whipper snappers we were! He is my best friend, and I don't envy what or who the people around me have compared to what and who I have.



Spring break of freshman year of college, 2005. See? Whipper snappers!

So, in the spirit of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, I'd like to say that I'm thankful for Chris. I'm thankful for who he is, and I'm thankful for who I am because of him. I'm thankful for the things I've learned from him, and I'm thankful for the things we've learned together. I'm thankful that I get to see him and talk to him everyday. I'm thankful to have such a wonderful partner in crime.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! What are you thankful for?

What's Your Favorite Position?

Get your minds out of the gutter. This post is about bunnies!

Bunnies sit/lie in all sorts of different positions. It's quite amusing, really. With rabbits, the harder it would be to get up and run from a position, the more relaxed they are (makes sense!). Some of these have been given names by the "Bunny People," others have been given names by yours truly or by my family/friends. So, what's your favorite position?

Not sure what this is actually called... Chris dubbed it The Ballerina

This is called The Flop or The Dead Bunny Flop. This is one the "Bunny People" named. This is what happy, relaxed buns do!

The Flop II

Chris calls this one Loaf Bun, my sister calls it Blob Bunny.

This is Basic Bun.

When buns do this, it's called Presenting. It means they would like you to pet them.

Super Bun!

Super Bun II

This is called a Half Flop.

Sphinx Bun.

This is called Lamb Chop (This actually isn't the best picture of this, but I couldn't find a better one!). He puts his feet off to an angle.

This is sorta better, but not really.

Perhaps this post was an excuse to post pictures of Coltrane. Perhaps it was an excuse for me to click through the all of the (hundreds of) photos I have taken of Da Bun over the past few years. Anyways, most people don't really know how awesome and interesting and fun rabbits can be, and I consider it one of my life missions to spread the word.

A November Stroll

I have been wanting to go on a hike with my camera for over three months now, I think. Our summer weekends got eaten up by gigs, travel, bad weather, and then, when our sailboat was finally ready for the sea, with sailing. And maybe it was good we didn't go when it was hot and humid (Virginia can be unrelenting weather-wise in the summer). So, yesterday, Chris and I went on a 3.5 mile hike around a local reservoir (we had done this hike only once before, right when we moved to town), and the leaves were gorgeous, and the weather was perfect. So I snapped about a hundred pictures. Here are some of the better ones:

Sign at the trailhead.

The trail.

Pretty tree!

Fuschia leaf.

My sister, who is a much better photographer than me, told me that good photos feature interesting angles. I thought this fallen tree might fit that criteria...

Winter is coming...

And now, a series of pictures of Chris balancing on things...

Blanket of color.

The reservoir.

We came upon a series of trees that seemed to have lost their lives to beavers. What a way to go...

Staircase.

The trail takes you across the dam... here's the resevoir from the dam.

The sun was obviously in our faces... this is the same picture we took on this same hike like three years ago!

A picture Chris took of me... no making fun of the backwards baseball cap please! I wore it that way so I could snap pictures easily.

Oh no, which way?

The old dam house, which is now falling to pieces.

An abandoned farmhouse at the end of the trail.

I really liked this tree.

I hope you all had lovely weekends and got to enjoy the weather!

Honesty is the Best Policy

I mentioned a little while back that Chris and I met a friend of ours in Fredericksburg at the Capital Ale House for a drink (or three) and lunch. Well, we had a really nice bartender who helped us find drinks that we would like off the gigantic menu, and who was just plain pleasant. He told us all about their upcoming Oktoberfest extravaganza and also walked us through the food menu.

Anyways, around the time were all finishing the last round, another bartender asked us if we needed anything. We told him that we'd just like the checks, please, split up individually. He went over to the computer screen and ran the bills and brought them back to us. Well, we all noticed that none of our last beers were on the checks, so we brought this to the bartenders' attention. The guy who had initially been helping said he hadn't put the drink orders into the computer yet, and thanked us for our honesty.

Then, he gave us presents:

See? Honesty is the best policy! If not in principle then, by god, for the free loot!

Happiness Is(n't) a Warm Gun

Last weekend, Chris and I met a couple that we are good friends with at a shooting range (yes, you read that correctly). The occasion was a birthday celebration. The birthday boy (our good friend) enjoys shooting handguns (apparently he and his dad used to go shooting together), so his girlfriend (also our good friend) set up an afternoon at the range for his special day (which I thought was incredibly nice of her! If Chris had asked for a day at the shooting range for his birthday, I would have been like, "ok, that's nice, wouldn't you rather go sailing instead?" to distract him from wanting to shoot guns). So, like I said, we met our friends for a friendly afternoon of friendly shooting. Happy Birthday- BANG! See? Friendly.

Chris was extremely excited to go. He brought his shotgun, which he rarely gets to use. I, on the other hand, was pretty nervous. I have shot a shotgun a couple times, and I didn't like it. In fact, here's a picture of me shooting a gun for the first time ever (can you tell I was nervous?):

You don't wanna mess with these kids...

Anyways, I've mentioned before how well I do with unexpected loud noises, and well, a shooting range just isn't the place for a person who jumps ten feet when their fuzzy pet rabbit manages to sneak up on them (true story). We got there, rented our guns (weird), bought our ammo, and then were outfitted with safety goggles and headphones that are supposed to block out a good deal of the noise. Well, mine didn't really fit my head very well, and they blocked out nothing. So, when we first walked into the dark, cold, scary warehouse that is the shooting range, I was immediately clinging to the ceiling that I had jumped up to (after gasp!ing), and trying to cover my ears.

So, both of us girls went out and demanded ear plugs, of which they were out. So, the man gave us their much nicer headphones, which actually sat on my head correctly. Why wasn't I given those right off the bat? It's a mystery. Anyways, that helped immensely, though, I still jumped every time an unexpected loud noise occurred, which was often. Mainly it was when someone was shooting a gun of the large variety.

Also, as I mentioned above, the warehouse was dark and cold, so I had to wear my winter coat and gloves the whole time. Ryan+Cold=Frowny Face.

The first gun we rented was a .22 revolver. Apparently this is a "sissy" gun. So, I shot that one (yes, I learned to load and shoot a gun all by myself) several times. At a Nazi Zombie target. I HATE Nazi Zombies! So yeah, a .22 kind of goes "Piff!" instead of "Bang!" which is what I really liked about it. And that was the only gun I shot. The birthday boy got a Walther PPK, a .38 (I think), a .45, and some giant revolver handgun with a frickin' scope on it.

Me shooting the .22 revolver

Chris bought some slugs for his shotgun (they don't let you shoot shot at a shooting range... ha, say that five times fast), which was kicking like a bull at a rodeo (ok, I recognize how lame that metaphor is, but I'm leaving it there). So I didn't get near that. I value my shoulders, thank you. Chris is a pretty good shot, and I think he had a great time.

Chris shooting the shotgun

Anyways, the point of all this is that we kicked that Nazi Zombie's Nazi Zombie ass! And that's all that really matters.

Ah, Nazi Zombie!

So, I've now had a new experience, though it was one I will probably not go out of my way to try again. I was much happier having lunch and drinking a beer at a bar (where the heat was turned on) afterwards.

But, if a Nazi Zombie trys some shit with me, you better believe I'll shoot him: Piff! You're dead.

On a Budget

You guys, I have been spending WAY too much money lately. Some of it is due to unexpected expenses (like trying to get my poor bunny's goopy eyeball fixed), some of it is because I tend to justify buying "extras" when I'm stressed/depressed (which has been a lot lately), and still more is because I'm lazy (but you already knew that).

So, it's time to buckle down: It's time, my friends, to come up with a budget. And then, once that task has been completed, I have the difficult follow-up task of actually sticking to that budget!

Besides identifying all of my fixed expenses, I need to figure out what stupid crap I'm spending the rest of my money on. And then I need to eliminate those things from my life. Here's what I've come up with so far:

-Lattes: Good lord, I LOVE a good latte... but they're $3-4, and that shit adds up.

-Good beer and wine: I have, unfortunately, reached that point where the nasty cheap stuff doesn't tempt me much anymore. If I'm going to sit down and have a glass, I'd like to enjoy it. But, buying a six pack that costs $9 once-a-week and then buying the occasional nice bottle of wine that costs $10+... well, that shit adds up.

-Meals out: Chris and I enjoy going out to breakfast (for awhile we were going once a week), and it's not hard to convince me to go out to dinner. When I'm at work, it's really easy to justify getting a sandwich or salad or slice of pizza from a local business for lunch. That's just laziness; it takes like 2 minutes to make a stupid sandwich at home! Anyways, I'lls I'm sayin' is, is that shit adds up.

So, the second part of all this, as evidenced above, is that I've been a little unhealthy lately. I've been eating and drinking poorly, as well as not putting exercise high on my list of priorites. That shit's gotta stop.

The solution here, I think, is to start planning meals in advance and to shop for cheap-but-healthy things. Chris went ahead and got us a Sam's Club membership, so that we can buy some of our staples in BULK. Things are cheaper in the long run when you buy them in BULK.

What are you doing to keep yourself financially healthy?