Suey

Aedan, Suey, and Nolan

One of the big events of last year was that Carol officially got her grandmother name.    Aedan calls her “Suey”.    Not that I ever got a vote on the subject, I like the name.    Grandmother names are important, and in a crowd, odds are; there will be only one Suey

The entomology of the name is pretty cool.   Carol’s middle name is Sue.  More importantly she likes to call all her female friends by their first name and then add Sue.   Therefore, history will show that she Sueys everyone’s name.  

40 Pounds

Today I had my annual physical.   Last year I got an “evil” letter from my Doctor.   I hang this letter on the refrigerator as a reminder to remain motivated to get to my ideal weight.

Nonetheless, I am 40 pounds lighter than I was at last year’s physical, but I am still "overweight".   I still have a ways to go to make it to my ideal weight of 186 pounds. But today I am much closer than I was last year.   It is going to be a long road, but I am going to stick with it.  

Eighty's music

I had a very good long weekend. Monday, I spent it riding the bike mowing the yard and cleaning the house. Well, my version of cleaning house anyway.  So while I was getting the house straightened up, I put it on the 80s station on my satellite radio.

Upon reflection, if you ask any of my roommates I had during the eighties,this was probably the first time I ever clean anything with that music in the background.

No more Blackberry

I have left the blackberry it has be replaced with  a Samsung Galaxy (tm) S II Skyrocket (tm).  I have enter the world of the Droid.

This was a huge move for me.  Upon receiving my first corporate BlackBerry in 2004, I quickly became a “crackberry” addict.  

I made the move for two major reasons. 

1)     We just don’t do email on our phones now.  The blackberry is an email machine.  I found that I needed more and more functions at my fingertips that the blackberry was not providing.  Most importantly syncing with all my family’s calendars.

2)    I could not join the Iphone cult.  Since the Iphone was introduced in 2007, I have spent quite a bit of time mocking the cult of the Iphone. 

January Century of the Month

The Fort Worth Bicycle Association in conjunction with Bicycles’ Incorporated, my bike shop, put on a monthly century ride.  I passed on the century, but did the 100k route.  When I leave from the house, I get 67 miles in, so it is a real good day.

What makes these rides special is that they seem to collect my cycling buddies from over the years.  Some I ride with on a regular basis, others not so much. This past Saturday it was a morning and ride of “Happy New Year!”, “What have you been up to?”, “Meet your goals from last year?” and “What are your plans for this year?”

The college boys set the pace and soon I was just riding with my normal gang.  Any time on the bike is always coveted, but January time is bonus.

Catching up

It will be easy to get my six blogs in this month.   Quite a bit went on in the past six months and I will slowly get to it.  The most important thing is that I had a great Christmas.  I told Carol and the beginning of the holiday season that I was going to make an effort to get into the Christmas Spirit.   I think I did a good job at that.   I must admit having a three year old and one year old to share the holidays with made it much easier.   When people at work ask me how my holidays went, I just show them the picture of Nolan I currently have on my phone.   It says it all.

Blogging about a Blog

I am a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions.   I like goals and encourage people to do follow through.  On that note, my son-in-law, set a goal for himself to post a picture a day on his photography blog.    Just like I attempt to write every day, as an aspiring photographer, he feels that a picture a day will help him improve.  So click on T2 Picture a day and follow his work!

New Year’s Resolutions

I have put quite a bit of thought in my New Year’s Resolutions this year.     I want to carry the momentum of 2011 into 2012.

1.  I want to get down to my ideal weight of 185 pounds.    This is going to be a challenge.  At my annual physical last January, I weighed 249 pounds.    I got my weight under 200 pounds in September, but have slipped backed due to the holidays.  I head back for my annual physical on January 19^th for my new benchmark weight, which I hope will be under 210 pounds.  (I am at 209 this morning)
2. Ride 5,000 miles on the bike.  This will include regular road riding and cycling commuting.  I will not count any miles I do on my rollers.   This is doable, but will require some focus; it will also assist in resolution #1.
3. Read some Mark Twain and his autobiography this year.  I have been reading some of his quotes and this one hit home “A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation” – Mark Twain.    I am trying to expand my adjective vocabulary and not rely on those colorful four letter words.
4.  Carol and I are going to find time to go for a walk three times a week.  We have done this in the past and we broke this very good habit.   We are going to make an effort to make it a habit again.

Happy New Year!

It has been a long time since I have blogged.   One of my resolutions is to get back into the swing of blogging on a regular basis.    My goal this year is at least six blog posts a month.  I have trimmed from a goal of eight, but want to be realistic.    I was surprised in the past six months how many of my friends commented on the lack of blog posts.