2009 In Review

I’m a month late with this, but I noticed I was a month late last year and I thought I’d go with it.

I read 52 novels this past year. A lot of Janet Evanovich, some David Baldacci, Jim  what’s-his-name… he writes the Dresden Files stuff. I think this is the year I read the Alan Alda books. Others. (Butcher. Jim Butcher.)

I blogged less than I have in previous years.

I got married in June. I consistently say "June 22nd. I mean June 26th." It was June 26, but why can I say it first?

I called my wife by the wrong name once. Luckily, it was Jenna.

Per the blog statistic software I use my readership dropped by half from June to July. As much as I’d like to think this is related to the women of Vassar giving up on snaring me, due to my marriage, and moving on to another blog, I suspect the explanation lies elsewhere.

The new reader I picked up in White Rock was not enough to offset losing Vassar.

I flew more than any year before.

I think it was this year that Kazza pointed out it’s "Gunpowder, gelatine, dynamite with a laser beam," and not "Gunpowder turpentine…" as I’d thought. I’m listening to Killer Queen right now and I still don’t hear gelatine. Each time I listen to the song these days I wonder if Aussies and Brits hear "gelatine?" Both groups might say "gel-a-teen," whereas we’d say "gel-a-tin" (as God intended inasmuch as Jesus fed a huge mass of people with a two loaves of bread, a couple of fish and a single box of Jell-O brand gelatin (John 6:19), and be more inclined to hear gel-a-teen. But they also say, I think, "tur-pen-teen."  Turpentine makes more sense as it can be weaponized like gunpowder, dynamite and a laser beam while gelatin is a wiggly, colorful dessert (for which, per Bill Cosby, there is always room.) The lyric sheet says "gelatine." (When the song came out I puzzled over what tur-pen-teen was and it took a while to figure out it was the British mispronunciation of tur-pen-tyne.)

I rode my bicycle fewer than 500 miles. Part of it was having other things to do. Part of it was, and I know how this will sound, an uneasy feeling somebody was going to smash into me and I didn’t want to find myself in traction thinking "I should have followed my intuition."

I gained weight. I’m not sure how much. I can still see my toes and everything in-between.

I saw Robin Williams’ winky. Well, this was this past Saturday night — not last year –  in a movie I rented. I wanted a big finish.)

Wait… this isn’t the finish, I need some Goals.

I’m not going to try to read more. I expect to fall well short of 52 books this coming year. I read three in January which puts me on track for 36.

I will try to blog more.

I’ll send the gals at Vassar a note letting them know we can still be friends.

Jeez, would it be possible to ride my bike any less? I almost have to ride more. In the past I’ve always shot for, and fallen short of 3,000 miles. Let’s try for 1,500 this year (with an option to change it to kilometers).

I hope to drive across the country in a rental truck full of furniture and followed by a minivan full of Canadians. The original dream was to drive across Canada in the same configuration (I’ve already driven across the US… got the shirt… interacted with law enforcement), however, even with the tailwind one might expect to help a boxy rental truck get across Saskatchewan, gas would likely run more than double the cost in the US.

I’ll try to quit looking for the joke when Diane and her offspring say "zed." I work with a British person and when he says “zed” i know he means “zee.” When Canadians say it, I half think they’re making fun of something. (They say “gel-a-tin,” after all.) 

You’d think this would be the year I get to do some cycling in Canada.

I’ll drop the weight I gained. While I’d never gain weight simply to try to lose it, I’ve been curious about doing high intensity intervals of a form that I can tolerate and the results they might offer.

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• 2008 in Review
• The Blog is Four Today