Tomorrow the new year will officially start. At least in the normal sense. I will get up in the morning, outfit myself in my corporate battle gear, grab a coffee to nourish me as I march into battle, and head out the door to conquer code. There will be no bloodshed, but sometimes it feels like it. As much as that sounds like I’m not looking forward to getting back to things, I do. I’ve had a nice 16 day vacation and now it’s time to see what we can do in 2010.

There are a lot of irons in the fire. Some will have to go, and some will need stoking. Heidi is a lot more involved in these projects this year as well. It’s going to be a great year for our collaborative efforts I think. We make a great team with things like this.

So far the diet is going well. It’s a little painful and annoying, but not too much. This is the pace I want to keep and maybe this will allow me to make an actual lifestyle change. The main theme of the diet seems to be cutting back sugars and serving sizes. Makes a whole lot of sense to me. Hopefully soon I will be skinnier, feel better about myself, have more energy, and just generally look better…

We’re starting the year off right. We eliminated our car problems, are getting in shape, have brand new OSes on our workstations and media center, organized our garage, and have our eyes on the ball.

Bring it 2010, we’re ready to kick your ass into 2011. ;)

Here it is again. The new year. It’s going to be the best one yet, right? I’m so tired of saying that every year… I always say, “man… at least next year will be better…” I want to say it one last time… So here we go: This year is going to be awesome!!

Ok, I said it. Now how do I make that happen? I have a list of things I want to make happen, but the trick is to hold myself accountable.

One of the things that this blog is going to help me with is creativity. I feel like my creativity is tapped, and this blog has always been a creative outlet for me. Nothing groundbreaking by any stretch, but it should serve as a mental exercise, and I think that is as important as the physical exercises we do…

Which brings me to another accountability. I just weighed in. ;) 211 lbs, and 30.6 BF. Holy cheese and crackers, Batman! I found a neat idea at One Man’s Blog that I’m gonna participate in. Today is day one of the HealthyChallenge! Let’s do this! Time to bring those numbers down!

So, for accountability’s sake, here’s the two most important things for 2010.

1) Get healthy. Bring my weight down to the 170′s and bring my fat content down to the teens (is that possible?).

2) Get creative again! My mind feels paralyzed lately. Like someone has filled my head with mental concrete, and I can’t move. I need to shake that funk off and get back in the game!

What are your goals and resolutions? What are you going to do going forward this year?

Winter is here, and so is our seasonal sickness. My family is not made for the winter season, I’ve concluded, which sucks because we want to move somewhere that has four seasons!

Rhys’ ear infections came back. Looks like one of his ear tubes has already fallen out. The other tube is still in place, but the infections still got him. He’s very much like his mom and likes to be out and about. Being couped up at the house doesn’t sit well with him. In addition to that, he’s dealing with some sort of heart problem. He complains of “vibrations” in his chest. Most of the time the go away in seconds, and never more than a minute or two. Problem with that is being able to “see” what’s going on when it happens. His EKG is fine and shows no obviously major issues, so that is good. But, he has been prescribed a heart monitor so that we can record his heart most of the day and hopefully capture one of these events.

Both Heidi and I have been struggling with colds and stomach bugs off an on for a week or two now. Nothing real serious, but it’s making us feel like shit.

What else is news? Little man’s birthday is coming up. Gonna be the big SIXXX! Amazing how quick they grow up… :(

So, I recently bought a new car. I should say I FINALLY bought a new car. This time around we opted for somewhere in between our last purchase methodology.

Two purchases back, we decided to get “awesome” cars, but get them used so we could get them cheap. We’d fix them up and bring them back to life we thought. I bought a ’85 Chevy Corvette. Heidi got a ’89 Jaguar Vanden Plas. Both of these vehicles were our “dream cars”. In reality, these cars SUCKED ass since they were so old. I know, it’s a shocker. We dumped so much money into these things it wasn’t even funny.

The last purchase we made, we opted to go the economical, responsible, and reliable route. We both purchased ’01 Hyundai Elantra GTs. They were reliable. They had 10 year warranties. They were brand spanking new! They were paid off! We paid cash on the barrel for those bad boys. It was fun! We felt like we were the smartest people on the planet. In reality this wasn’t a terrible choice, but it wasn’t the best either. At least for me, I didn’t “like” my car. I just knew it was “smart”. Anyway, I beat the shit out of my car. In it’s defense it handled it pretty well. But, we learned that warranties are only as valuable as the company that backs them. Jim Click here in Tucson SUCKS. Take that to the bank, Jimmy!

Paying cash spoiled us. No car payments for 8 years, and the only way out of those cars was to take on a car payment. When repairs for those cars started amounting to $8,000 a year, we thought it would be a good idea to look at new vehicles. In fact, our mechanics sat us down and said, “Dude… Get rid of those cars. We feel bad taking all this money from you.” That was a pretty good red flag for us to go check it out.

We took our beaters down to Car Max. Heidi drove off with an ’08 Ford Focus, and I drove off in an ’05 Mazda RX-8. Slightly used, but in great shape. We both LOVE our cars for different reasons now. And the car payments are cheaper than the repairs on the older cars we had. Win Win, baby!

The holidays are upon us. That’s good, right? I’m finding myself a bit depressed tonight… I’m not sure why, but that’s pretty typical of me around this time of year. So, this year, I’m not going to let the crappy, seasonal depression and gloomy bullshit get a grip on me. First and most important reason is that I have plenty to be thankful for and happy about. I think this blog will be a perfect place for me to remind myself of all the good things going on. I’m going to try to stop in here every other day or three during the holidays and write about good things.

Let’s see! I have a ton to be thankful for, no doubt. I’m gonna pick a few to remind myself about today.

My family. I have a wonderful support system in my family. “Family” is defined by common goals, shared experiences, and commitment in addition to the obvious blood related definitions. I’m thankful that I’ve been lucky enough to have such a wonderful family. You all know who you are. I’m thankful that I’ve been able to share my life with such wonderful people who seek to build me up and who will always be there when I need someone.

Good employment. We are in tough economic times right now all over the world, and I am one of the lucky ones to still have employment. I have friends who are not employed right now, and friends who’s job takes them to foreign countries where their lives are threatened each day. Things could definitely be much worse, and I know it.

Are you feeling the holiday blues creeping up on you? Try to think of something positive, and write it down. :) It just might help. This post is already helping me feel better. :)

Happy Holidays!!

Today I left the house while my son was crying because he missed me. Nothing really stops you in your tracks like that. I had to step back and assess what’s going on in my life. I’m very busy with my moonlighting (more on that in another post) these days and since there are only 24 hours in the day, something has to give. Lately it’s been sleep and family time.

So, I made Wednesdays the official day of play. My son nodded that this was a good thing but the tears were still there. I’m not one to give him whatever he wants, but I think one devoted day amongst the other days, where he gets maybe an hour of daddy time lately, maybe is not too much to give. We’ve also been doing this thing where we go to the park on Saturday mornings. He gets to ride his bike, Heidi gets to walk, and I get to study. It’s getting a bit cold here lately, so not sure how much longer this will last.

That’s all for now. I just wanted to vent a little about how much I miss my family. I work so much because I love them so much, but it’s a bit of a catch 22.