Failure

To anyone who may be reading...  I am calling defeat for 2010.  Conceding.  Giving it up.

As the name of my blog might hint, I am trying to cook 52 brand new meals in one year.  One year - not every year, just one bloody year.  Is that too hard?  Apparently it is.  I started this little endeavor in 2008 if memory serves, and each year I bump up against 20 and that is it.  This year, I will hit twenty-six.  So I guess that is progress. 

Please don't think that because I cannot do this, that I am a sylph-like rail, or that I have a whirlwind social life.  Neither is the case.  My excuse runs along the lines of "I don't plan very well, and I work just late enough that a grocery store run gets me home too late to actually feel like being creative."  I think planning is the more important part because if I just planned something easy I'd be able to do it.  Or maybe I am just lazy.  That is probably it, actually. 

I started the year so well!  I was just about on track until late April (suspiciously, the season when it's lighter later and things warm up...) and then I fell behind.  And more behind.  And then eye surgery.  Then some travel.  And more travel.  Wah wah wah. 

So here it is, December.  I have to write my Xmas cards, and go shopping, and do all those Xmasy things.  And the page will turn, and it will be January 1, again, and I will try yet again to hit 52.  Lest you think all is lost, there are some positives here.  I eat better than I did 3 years ago - this entire year I have had Kraft Mac and Cheese TWICE only.  Fresher foods, fewer searches for the can opener.  Oh wait, did you think I didn't cook at all?  No no no no no.  I just gravitate to the same things - easy things I've picked up over the past few years...  ah.  Maybe this was worth it after all. 

Here are some photos of what I DID do this year.  Enjoy.

January:  Nags Head

February: SNOW!

March:  Florida with family (parents, brother, niece/nephew)

April:  Meadowlark Gardens

May:  Learning how to sail using the old screwdriver/card/wine glass technique.  First and only lesson!

June:  They call him the Rap, Rap, Rap, Rap, Raptor!

July:  Swiss Bliss (also Italy).  AKA Dad hikes hard-core trails in Switzerland 4 months after a broken hip.  Mom poses at one of her favorite places on earth...

August:  I got a really bad jellyfish sting, and it turned into cellulitis.  It's too gross to show here, so, I will show you a photo of my new shoes instead.

September:  Visitied Mom and Dad over Labor Day weekend.  Kiddos are running across lawn.

October:  Visited Big Sur/Monterey Peninsula, also, hiked Machu Picchu (two photos here).

November:  Vienna

December:  Nothing online yet!  So here is a photo of us toasting Venice.