1.Worms-- This year we became worm farmers. The fact that we raise worms in our basement has been a point of conversation several times with different people. One day I was eating lunch with several co-workers and our supervisor. The co-workers were sharing pictures and stories of their kids, grandkids, and pets. My supervisor asked me if we had any pets and I mentioned our worm farm-- I was the subject of office jokes that day. Our worms are named Dennis and are thriving in the basement. We actually "harvested" compost the other evening and there was a lot of worms and even more compost. They live off of our kitchen scraps and a large quantity of the local newspaper that has been shredded up.
2. Gardening-- In addition to the worms I had our inaugural year of gardening. Since we don't have any yard space all of the gardening was done in containers. The outdoor growing season went well and we tried several new recipes to use the piles of produce. We have expanded into using grow lights in the basement to grow salads and start seeds-- the jury is still out on the success of this project.
3. Mother Earth News Conference-- One of our shared interests as a couple is sustainability. We have watched documentaries, read books, and even attended a conference that was held locally. Right now our sustainability practices are limited to recycling and composting but we are dreaming about what we could do in the future. Some of our interests that we attended seminars on at the conference were gardening, energy efficiency, aquaponics, and sustainable home design.
4. Netflix-- As previously mentioned we enjoy a lot of documentaries. We both love learning new things and have watch documentaries on wine tasting, ballet, building Steinway pianos, and Lipizzaner horses. We have also watched several different TV series on Netflix as well. We finally got a TV at the end of the year so have upgraded from huddling around a laptop in the evening.
5. Spurs Basketball-- This one is Arthur's highlight of the year. San Antonio won the NBA Championship and he was a very happy man. Throughout the playoffs he was so excited to watch each game and the "poetry in motion" that is Spurs basketball.
6. Winter Olympics-- My sporting highlight of the year was the winter Olympics. We cuddled up in the basement and watched hours of figure skating, cross country skiing, bobsledding, etc. and marveled at these stellar athletes and what they could accomplish.
7. Triathlon-- We enjoyed watching some of our favorite sports on TV but even participated in some of our own. We trained and competed in our first triathlon. I had to work hard to refine my swimming skills and Arthur worked on his 5K. We met our goals as far as time and were just out of placing in our age groups. But we caught the triathlon bug and will try to compete this next summer as well.
8. Biking-- The leg of the triathlon that we enjoyed training for the most was biking. We got Arthur a bike this year and did several rides on the county roads in our area. We did a long organized ride which still makes my backside ache when I think about it-- our seats were not so plush. My new year resolution for 2014 was to ride 1200 miles on my bike-- equal to the distance around the perimeter of Kansas. I did finally met this goal on Dec. 29-- made it by the skin of my teeth.
9. Arkansas-- We took our belated honeymoon to Arkansas in May. They say Arkansas is one of the best kept secrets as far as states with natural beauty and we would agree with that. We visited an art gallery, a botanical garden, and Hot Springs National Park. We stayed at state parks in cabins which were wonderful. We did some kayaking and also hiked several miles throughout the trip and loved the scenery.
10. Colorado-- Our other trip was to Colorado to a family camp with my family. Arthur survived his first family vacation with the in-laws. There was more hiking on this trip as we took a day trip up to some mountain lakes that were gorgeous. We also took a jeep excursion to the Great Sand Dunes and explored the Dunes and a nearby waterfall.
11. RV Hall of Fame-- This probably goes more in the random category. I took a road trip with a few friends to a wedding in Indiana. One of the highlights was taking a picture by the RV Hall of Fame just because I love quirky things like that.
12. 1st Anniversary-- Speaking of weddings, a highlight was that we didn't get married or have to plan a wedding this year-- hooray. We did celebrate 1 year of marriage with stargazing and Italian food.
13. Art Class-- In the spring our weekly date nights included attending an intro to drawing class for adults put on by the art council in town. Arthur learned some of the basics of drawing and I fell in love with drawing which I hadn't done much since high school. We learned about lighting, perspective, shading, and shape. This background has come in handy when discussing and appreciating art work at some art museums we have gone to recently.
14. Woodworking-- We also got to learn some new skills when we built our new dining table as a family project. There were several weekends of sanding, construction, and staining. We have then used the table to host some gatherings so far and are looking forward to sharing more time with friends and family around our table.
So there you have it. Hopefully we have enough material next year to come up with "15 Top Plays". Omnia Vincit Amor.
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