2013 Year in Review

So, what all did I get accomplished in 2013? Let’s start by looking at my goals for last year.

These are really more goals than resolutions; they are things I’d like to make priorities to focus my energy and money on. If I don’t get them done, it’s cool; this is a big pile of ambitious. But these are all areas I want to make progress in for the coming year.

750 words a day – more days of the week than not – not even close, but I did do a reasonable amount of writing.
Finish novel – nope. Although now I think this is a good thing. I have a renewed sense of ideas for it.
Start new novelI’m close to finishing this new novel, and I’m actually pretty thrilled with how it’s going. I need to finish up here in January and start showing it to people to get feedback and ideas.

[various work-related goals; not shared here] – I’m really happy with work, suffice it to say.

Get insulation done – We were cautious about major house expenditures due to Stephanie’s job, but this will happen in 2014, for sure.
Get siding fixed – ditto.
Get house painted – ditto.
Get guest room organized – this one I’m disappointed in. It really needs to be done.
Get bed frame for our bed – we did. It’s nice.

Save 10,000 dollarsAbove and beyond what we put away for retirement. We’ve done pretty well at this one, even with Stephanie not working for part of the year. I don’t know that we did $10,000 but we were close.
Get a new computer Really? I did that this year? Seems like I’ve had it forever. I love it.

Get split down to 2:00:00 – that was really unlikely.
Get an ergDone. Very nice to have at home, too.
learn sculling – yeah, I don’t know. I was very frustrated with rowing this year for several reasons.

Read more books I own – I read 36 books last year, so I think I did pretty well. Many of them were graphic novels, but some of them were some heavy-hitters.
Buy new books on e-reader – eh. Changed my mind on this one. I’d rather read a book than an ebook.
Read first Proust book – Nope. Definitely this year.

Knit pillows – I did a large amount of knitting this year, but didn’t get around to pillows. We helped with two different cool yarn-bombing projects that were very fun.
Knit hats – follow design – did lots of hats this year.
Learn color work – also a non-starter in 2013, although I hope to do a small project in 2014.

Photo scanning & organizing – This is a rather herculean task that I don’t know if I’ll ever get to.
Design 20 new shirts – I definitely accomplished this one.

Overall, my goal was to create as much or more than I consume, and I did a good job of advancing my agenda there through a variety of different outlets, both personal and at work. I don’t know that the create/consume balance was equal but each year I’ve gotten closer, so I’m happy to have at least advanced that agenda.

We’ve had an up-and-down year emotionally. Stephanie’s job hunt was hard on her, as you might expect. She did ultimately find a job that she’s quite happy with. It comes with a lengthy commute that isn’t ideal, but we’ve managed to adjust our schedule to make that easier, and I’ve taken on more of the food preparation to make it easier on her. I haven’t quite hit my stride in the cooking department, but we’re managing.

Our cat Lucy died this year. We don’t know what was wrong. She had just had a vet visit and while they thought something in her blood work was off, they didn’t indicate it was life-threatening. It’s strange not seeing her and we miss her all the time.

Lucy
Lucy

Spike continues to hold on, despite his heart problems. At the beginning of the year he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and we began giving him medication. We didn’t expect him to make it through the year, but he has, and he seems to be doing pretty well. Unfortunately, it’s a looming issue that we know it won’t last, and my best little man will not be here at this time next year.

We also found out that Stephanie’s mom has cancer, and is very ill. That has been very difficult. For privacy’s sake I don’t want to say more, but this fall has been rather hard and I don’t expect the coming year to be easier.

On the bright side, we have a new niece this year. My older brother and his wife had a baby girl named Corbyn. That brings the tally of nieces and nephews up to eight, which is awesome. I think babies are intended to give us hope that the world doesn’t become more terrible and frightening as we get older. That sort of works. Mostly.

We also took a road trip for a family wedding in New Jersey, which was nice because we got to spend time with some of Stephanie’s family that we haven’t seen since we got married. At the end of the year I tend to think about people and connections more than accomplishments so those are the activities that I cherish.

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My Coat of Arms, drawn by me at age 11

This is my coat of arms, that I drew when I was 11 and I was in love with Princess Diana and all things British, so I read books on heraldry and ignored most of what I learned and drew some badass unicorn horns and swords and arrows. And some gender ambiguous people hanging out, chilling.

My Coat of Arms

Kate Middleton had to make up her own coat of arms now that she’s a princess, and she put some acorns on it. That is not very badass.

28S-WILLS KATE COAT OF ARMS

Continue ReadingMy Coat of Arms, drawn by me at age 11

Road Trip: New Jersey

We have a number of weddings to attend this fall, and the first is Stephanie’s cousin Alex’s, which is taking place in New Jersey. This road trip we’ll be seeing the other half of Stephanie’s family; we saw most of her mom’s family last fall.

Lance ready to road trip
Lance is ready to roadtrip.

First Road Stop - new shades
The ear pieces from my shades were making my head hurt, so I got this new pair.

Lance gets new shades, too.
Lance took my old sunglasses.

My Orange Crush
Stephanie Driving

Monkey demands shades too
Hector needed shades, too.

POTUS roadtrip entourage
The rest of the entourage poses for picks.

Pennsylvania Turnpike
Pennsylvania Turnpike Memoribilia

Supreme Court Justice Supreme
Ruth Bader Ginsburg enjoys her notoriety.

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Reasons not to stretch

From the NY Times phys Ed blog:

Now, two new studies are giving us additional reasons not to stretch.

One, a study being published this month in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, concluded that if you stretch before you lift weights, you may find yourself feeling weaker and wobblier than you expect during your workout. Those findings join those of another new study from Croatia, a bogglingly comprehensive re-analysis of data from earlier experiments that was published in The Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports. Together, the studies augment a growing scientific consensus that pre-exercise stretching is generally unnecessary and likely counterproductive.

Many issues related to exercise and stretching have remained unresolved. In particular, it is unclear to what extent, precisely, subsequent workouts are changed when you stretch beforehand, as well as whether all types of physical activity are similarly affected.

This was about stretching before a workout. I read the article wondering what they thought about stretching after, but they didn’t mention it. They do say that this is just about ‘static stretching’ and not about warming up with jogging or other exercises that mimic the motions that you’ll be doing in the workout itself.

A better choice, he continued, is to warm-up dynamically, by moving the muscles that will be called upon in your workout. Jumping jacks and toy-soldier-like high leg kicks, for instance, prepare muscles for additional exercise better than stretching. As an unscientific side benefit, they can also be fun.

Continue ReadingReasons not to stretch

The Oxford Cambridge Boat Race 2013

The Boat Race

The Boat Race” is this weekend on Sunday, and we’ll be watching at a pub before joining the rest of the family for Easter dinner.

Helpful summary from wikipedia:

The Boat Race is an annual rowing race between the Oxford University Boat Club and the Cambridge University Boat Club, rowed between competing eights on the River Thames in London, England. It is also known as the University Boat Race and the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, from 2010–2012 for sponsorship reasons as the Xchanging Boat Race, and from 2013 as the BNY Mellon Boat Race. It usually takes place on the last Saturday of March or the first Saturday of April.

The first race was in 1829 and the event has been held annually since 1856, except during World War I and World War II. The course covers a 4.2-mile (6.8 km) stretch of the Thames in West London, from Putney to Mortlake. Members of both teams are traditionally known as blues and each boat as a “Blue Boat”, with Cambridge in light blue and Oxford dark blue. As of 2012 Cambridge have won the race 81 times and Oxford 76 times, with one dead heat.

The race is a well-established and popular fixture in the British sporting calendar. In 2010 an estimated quarter of a million people watched the race live from the banks of the river and millions on television.

Oxford Vs. Cambridge Rowers

If you have Universal Sports on your cable network provider, you can watch it too, or apparently you can watch it online.

Vintage Cambridge Rower

Vintage Oxford Rower


UPDATE: Oxford won this year.

Continue ReadingThe Oxford Cambridge Boat Race 2013

New Year’s Resolutions – 2013

These are really more goals than resolutions; they are things I’d like to make priorities to focus my energy and money on. If I don’t get them done, it’s cool; this is a big pile of ambitious. But these are all areas I want to make progress in for the coming year.

750 words a day – more days of the week than not
Finish novel
Start new novel

[various work-related goals; not shared here]

Get insulation done
Get siding fixed
Get house painted
Get guest room organized
Get bed frame for our bed

Save 10,000 dollars
Get a new computer

Get split down to 2:00:00
Get an erg
learn sculling

Read more books I own
Buy new books on e-reader
Read first Proust book

Knit pillows
Knit hats – follow design
Learn color work

Photo scanning & organizing
Design 20 new shirts

Continue ReadingNew Year’s Resolutions – 2013

Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina

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After our corn maze excursion, we visited Stephanie’s grandparent’s gravesite at Arlington Cemetery. And we rounded out the rest of our vacation with visits to Stephanie’s cousin in Philadelphia, one of Stephanie’s childhood friends in Lynchburg, Virginia, and then a visit with our friends Lisa and Jason in Durham. We also met for dinner with my old friend Dennis and his husband Jeff in DC. I took quite a few sight-seeing photos, but in general I steer clear of taking or posting photos of other people’s kids for privacy’s sake. I got to drive by Boathouse Row in Philadelphia, which was cool. I definitely want to go back and stop at some point.

Durham is always a treat to visit. Lots of cool culture stuff going on there, so we have plenty to do, and we visited their Life + Science Museum to go on the “Dinosaur Walk” which is a nice landscaped garden pathway with dinosaur sculptures. Very fun.

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Washington DC

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Decisions, decisions.

We’re in the DC area for several days to visit Stephanie’s family. Today we’re doing some sightseeing.

UPDATE: We spent the afternoon in the national gallery.

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The Biglin Brothers Racing, 1872. Thomas Eakins.

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Oarsmen at Chatou, 1879. Auguste Renoir.

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The Capitol, Washington, DC

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I’m Being Recruited by the Department Grumps – Manage Your Career – The Chronicle of Higher Education

I’m Being Recruited by the Department Grumps found at: Manage Your Career – The Chronicle of Higher Education

I worry that I’m the Department Grump. I don’t want to be that guy. If I am that guy, I need to stop being that guy, and right now.

Continue ReadingI’m Being Recruited by the Department Grumps – Manage Your Career – The Chronicle of Higher Education