January 2014 recap

Despite extremely cold temperatures, (the University of Minnesota canceled 1.5 days of classes!), the year has gotten off to a great start. It has become a tradition to spend New Year's Day with my friend, Amy. We have brunch and this year we created vision boards while watching Crazy, Stupid, Love and Pitch Perfect. 

January will always be a fun month for me because it's my birthday month and I pretend to be (or really am) a birthday princess. My co-workers helped make the day fun and we started with a sugar rush followed by a crash thanks to UDS donut delivery. The web team had lunch together at Haiku Japanese Bistro. Scott and I went to Pizza Nea for the first time and loved the food and the quite atmosphere of the restaurant. My parents were going to visit us to celebrate my birthday, my dad's birthday (February 15) and my parent's anniversary (February 5) but that has been delayed because of Scott's business travel to Georgia. He was there to experience the Snowpocalypse. 

Speaking of walking...

I made it to the gym 16 times! Proud of the fact that I was there more days than not. 
I wore my FitBit every day and I tried to walk a minimum of 10,000 steps. Some days I even walked around the house until I hit my goal. I do blame the Polar Vortex missing the goal some days. 
My month step total = 305,239 
Daily average = 9,846 (around 4 miles a day)
Day with most steps = January 29 with 18,559 steps 
Day with fewest steps = January 1 with 1,859 steps

To make up for all that moving, I did my share of sitting at movies:

American Hustle, Captain Phillips, 12 Years a Slave, Nebraska, and Blue Jasmine

Scroll through the rest of the post to see the collection of photos I took for the month. I met my goal of taking a photo every day. It has been fun trying to find subjects that in one way or another capture my day. 

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Favorite sweater, wool roving for craft day with Allie, favorite Christmas gift from Scott and Scott with Stewie and Louie.

View of downtown Minneapolis from Mayo Memorial Building, sunny lunch spot at the Campus Club, meditation space at the University of Minnesota, and view of Coffman Union from the bus shelter.

Migraine cure, Scott and I on a winter walk near Minnehaha Creek, tea date with Lisa Lukis and the details of my OGIO bag - a gift from Emily.

Punch Pizza lunch with Danielle, Campus Club lunch with Erin, McNamara Alumni Center during a snow storm, and Burton Hall.

Morning date with Liz and Vivian and afternoon with Barney the dog, neighbor snow people, Scott drinking a beer after walking uptown, snowy walk with Stewie followed by a movie.

Squirrel Appreciation Day, my birthday, a particularly sunny day, and my bathroom tile.

Solveig and Stewie, -18 degrees, moving snow, and colorful veggies at Kowalski's.

A home in my neighborhood looking wonderfully wintery, Johnston Hall and frost on glass in shape of an eye.