Project 365, day 31: One whole month of Project 365! Today we spent some time working and using the free wifi at one of our favorite hangouts, Cafe Diem. They always have some cool artwork hanging on the walls, and this is one example.

Project 365 Day 30: Getting an early start on taxes this year and we're looking forward to that mortgage interest deduction!

Project 365 Day 29: Behold! A snow-blower sitting in our garage that makes the machines we saw at Lowe's and Theisens while shopping around look like vacuum cleaners. Not too surprising that the retail selection was pretty picked over by this point in Iowa Snowpocalypse 2009/2010. Thanks to Amy's dad for working out a deal for us to take this off his hands (I believe he got to upgrade as well...).

Project 365 Day 28: A cool mural hanging on the wall in Parks library on the ISU campus where I spent some time working today. My Droid phone camera seems to be adding a soft glow to everything...

Project 365 Day 27: Soon-to-be-felted slippers Amy knitted for her father. And just in case you are not familiar with the felting process: no, Amy's dad is not Bigfoot; felting the slippers will cause them to shrink to about two-thirds their current size.

Project 365 Day 26: Another successful trip to the library, after making it to our first Annual Somerset Property Owners Association meeting.

Project 365 Day 25: The bed has arrived, thanks to the dependable deliverymen who drove up the treacherous snow-blinded stretch of I-35 from Des Moines to Ames.

Project 365 Day 24: The Marriott bed frame is ready for the Marriott boxspring and Marriott mattress to arrive on Marriott Monday, after which we will dream Marriott dreams!

Project 365 Day 23: This Avatar 3D movie ticket from tonight is presented in 2D in your web browser, but has been creased in the middle to provide a 3D effect, so you can get an idea of what the movie is like. In 3D.

Project 365 Day 22: Amy's new MacBook Pro, which she is allowing me to take through its paces. I love it/her.

Project 365 Day 21: Adam getting some work done in the Durham building on the ISU campus, looking out the window at the Hub/Caribou Coffee, with Morrill Hall in the background and Parks Library on the left.

Project 365 Day 20: Freezing rain, another reminder of Iowa's exotic winter experience.

Project 365 Day 19: Leaving the local Fareway grocery store on a chilly January night with deli meats in hand.

Project 365 Day 18: IKEA bookshelves assembled! They will soon be accompanied in the bedroom by a new Marriott bed, once the mattress and boxspring have arrived.

Project 365 Day 17: Enjoying a delicious lunch at the Fighting Burrito. We enjoyed many meals at California Tortilla in DC, and are happy to have our burrito fix covered in Ames.

Project 365 Day 16: Some tasty food from Wheatsfield: Crunchy Asian Salad, Stuffed Bell Pepper, and Sushi!

Project 365, Day 15: The backside of the scoreboard at Iowa State's football stadium, as we were driving back home from a great visit with some ISU dorm-mates we hadn't seen since 2005, John and Alex, and their significant others, all in town to help judge at the FIRST LEGO League competition being held on campus.

Project 365 Day 14: A nighttime shot of a local establishment we frequent often: the Ames Public Library.

Project 365 Day 13: With temperatures crawling above freezing today was finally time to take the car through the wash and clean off a few weeks of Iowa snow crud. Now the car must stay in the garage until March!

Project 365 Day 12: Christmas lights are still going strong and illuminating the massive pile of snow on our deck, which will hopefully begin melting Wednesday.

Project 365 Day 11: Happy hour at home!

Project 365 Day 10: Commemorating the first cookies baked in the house! We used some tasty local Do-Biz dough to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Project 365 Day 9: Adam is catching up on his stash of new CDs from Christmas, by which he means ripping them to his computer and deciding which albums currently on his 16GB iPod touch will be given the boot to make room for the new music. Always a difficult decision!

Project 365 Day 8: Part of our new bed has arrived, and FedEx even managed to find our house this time! The bed is from Marriott Hotels, and we are looking forward to the boxspring and mattress arriving later this month. We haven't slept on a more comfortable bed than those in the Marriott Downtown hotel in Philadelphia, which we visited a number of times while living in DC the past 4 years, so we figured why not make it our own bed.

Project 365 Day 7: Snow snow snow blowing snow and DRIFTS! This being the fourth time I have shoveled the driveway out by hand this winter, I have no doubt a snow blower is in our future. Thanks to the neighbor for using his blower to clear our sidewalk!

Project 365 Day 6: An awesome book in an awesome series of healthy cookbooks by Ellie Krieger. We're loving our kitchen space in the house and cooking more often at home with fresh food.

Project365 Day 5: Inside the Ames FedEx office to pick up a package because FedEx apparently thinks our address is an apartment building and they did not find an apartment number on the shipping label.

Attention FedEx: Our house is a house, please try driving a little further down the street.

Admittedly, the street numbers on our street are a bit wacky (they do not increase uniformly in one direction), and unfortunately there's an apartment building with the same number a few blocks away on a different street. But still, the company's main business is delivering packages to addresses, and there is this device called a GPS...

Project 365 Day 4: Our first live Christmas tree, a few days before it goes to Christmas tree Heaven.

Project365 Day 3 (posted just a few minutes after midnight on day 4...): Back home in Ames, shopping at Wheatsfield's, admiring the selection of scoop-your-own powders and spices.

Project 365 Day 2: Standing in line at IKEA with new furnishings for the house: bookshelves!

One of our New Year's Resolutions for 2010: Take and post one photo per day for a year, also known as Project 365, started by some other crazy folks out there on them internets. Amy mentioned the idea to me after she heard about it, and I agreed that it seemed like a neat way to have a snapshot of the happenings in our lives throughout the days of a year.

So, here's post number one, from the confines of our hotel room in downtown Minneapolis, MN. A fresh cup of hotel-provided coffee brewed in the hotel-provided coffee maker, necessary because it is friggin' cold outside! Negative 7 degrees Fahrenheit as I type this. But then again, it is Minneapolis in January, so I can't say we are surprised. We enjoyed ringing in the new year last night at the Varsity Theater with Mark Mallman in concert. In collaboration with the other opening acts he performed a fun rendition of The Cure's Friday I'm In Love, a nice surprise in place of the usual Auld Lang Syne.