You guys? It's already January 24. Holy cow, this month is zooming by! And I'm stuck underwater with all this work barely able to come up for air.... I can't believe how fast 2012 is going. I had two separate friends try to schedule lunch or happy hour with me today, and the earliest I could make it work was MID-FEBRUARY. That, my friends? That is total ridiculousness. I think my resolution next year will be something like: "Spend two days a week in your pajamas eating ice cream and catching up on pop culture." THAT sounds like a good plan to me.But on a different note, how much do you love my new desk calendar!? I am such a sucker for the letter press. If you would like one of your very own, you can get one here. You're welcome.

Man, this morning came early. I woke up at 5:45 and saw it was snowing pretty hard out. Knowing how traffic would be, I rushed out of the house in an attempt to beat rush hour, and lo and behold it worked! And I got to campus and it was dark and quiet and just me and the bunnies as I snapped this shot before sunrise. Pretty nice, eh?

There is nothing quite as sweet as returning from a few hours away to have your pups bolt out the door to greet you either on two or four legs, tails wagging and them circling and smelling -- just so happy you are back home. It never ceases to amaze me how excited the dogs are when we return home -- whether it be after 20 minutes or 9 hours. And frankly, I'm not even sure they can tell the difference.Today we had a few Christmas gifts left to exchange and then we hit up the movies for Mission Impossible 4. It was fine -- a good popcorn movie. I think my favorite part was at the beginning when I got to see a preview for ANOTHER upcoming Riggins movie. Battleship? Oh yes. I will be seeing that one. Er, probably with a bunch of girls though. Jamie's love of Riggins only goes so far...

More food! I know, I know. I'm kinda in a rut with photos lately. For whatever reason, it seems the blog has been the end-of-the-night "oh crap, I need to shoot something" project of late, which I hope to get back on track soon. Like as soon as I get all this teaching stuff figured out.Until then, let's pretend that this is an *award winning* photo of cheese, shall we?Tonight Mere had friends over for wine and cheese and snacks, and it was such a good time. I've run into a lot of friends lately at shows where we can't really talk because, well, um, it's too loud. And it was great to sit down tonight and catch up with old friends.Oh. And also? Did you see that Kansas v. Texas basketball game tonight? Because my-oh-my are the Jayhawks getting fun to watch again. Mmmmhmmmm.

Yum, right? Tonight was the Found event that Rivets and Roses sponsored, so I was hamming it up with wedding-industry folks all evening. That sounds worse than it was -- it was a super fun event full of couture dresses and paper art and free booze and, yes, cupcakes! Much more like an art opening instead of a "bridal fair."I had some very good friends there, and I met some amazing people as well. Like this woman Tara LaTour who designs the MOST AMAZING wedding dresses. Seriously, go click on that link. Her work blew me away.The worst decision of the evening might have been my footwear choice. Good thing I have a real gentleman at the other end of this couch working hard to get my feet right again. Man, my dogs are *barking*.

Oh good morning minus eleven degrees. Usually by the time you arrive here in Minnesota, we have snow on the ground. Ahem.Anyway, but look at this flower! It was in a *gorgeous* arrangement that Jamie sent to me congratulating me on my first day of teaching. HOW AWESOME IS MY MAN? Pretty damn awesome. Obviously.*These flowers are from my very favorite florist in town, Pazzobello. I would link to the website, but it is horrific. So just call them.

See this? It was shot around sunrise... when I arrived on campus today. You know it's too early to be driving into work when you can see the light display on the Target HQ building flashing on your way IN to work. Lord.After class, I worked over at vita.mn untili 8 pm. I was supposed to attend a cookie and beer exchange party tonight, but man, by the time I got home at 8:30, there was no way I could muster the energy. NEWS ALERT: I'M GETTING OLD.So now I'm in my jammies watching the newest JJ Abrams series on TV, hoping to crawl off to bed soon. At this rate, tomorrow you might get photos of knitting and cat figurines.

Well look at that! Today I got the newest copy of Minnesota Bride magazine in the mail, and it featured my first ever paid advertisement for Shuttersmack wedding photography!How exciting!Wait.Didn't I just blog a few weeks ago that I was now doing wedding photography for Rivets and Roses exclusively? Um, yes. Yes I did.See, the deadline to place this ad was back in November... and I knew I wanted to do more weddings in 2012, so I ordered up this ad. But then in December, I found out about the opportunity at Rivets and Roses, and it was too late to pull the ad. So wow, that's weird, right? Right... Ah well. It's still advertising I guess.