Hello Again

Hello Again – It’s been a while since I have posted.  This year has been absolutely insane.  My wife and I purchased a home.  It’s a great home but needs some cosmetics inside which we have been working on.  Who installed wallpaper recently?  The previous owners of this home.  I thought wallpaper went out of style in the 90's but I guess I was wrong.  There's even wallpaper on some of the ceilings.  In addition, work has been crazy for both of us. 

At my job we are working on a new $50+ million software/hardware installation that is on time and on budget but has had a lot of challenges which require constant re-adjustment.  

My 101 in 1,001 goals list is getting smaller although only slightly.  This year I hit my net worth Goal and my retirement savings goal, mostly due to the solid stock market since Trump got elected.  Say what you want about him, the markets are great right now.  I'm not sure it's all due to the Trump factor but I'll take it.

I bought something that I normally wouldn’t buy and that something was a house, or a game camera.  Take your pick.  So far, my game camera is yielding many results, mostly of deer, but the occasional fox as well.  

I hit my salary goal, and I even cooked a few dinners for my wife.  We purchased a new charcoal grill which is a great excuse to cook dinner.  I normally wouldn't have purchased a charcoal grill but after having gas grills die on me repeatedly, I figured I couldn't go wrong with charcoal.  It also tastes better and the entire grilling process is much more fun.  New grills come with new challenges and new recipes to try.

Lastly, to fuel my alcoholism, I grew some hops.  One of my 4 hops plants actually produced some hop cones.  It is typical to not get hop cones until year 2 I am happy that I was able to produce some hops.  I also learned 10 new drinks this year. 

I hope to blog a bit more although with things the way they are, I really have to carve out time to do it. 

How to Work From Home with a Child and Still be Productive

Last night it snowed.  When I woke up, there was an entire inch on the ground, and it was still snowing.  It’s now 3PM and I have 4 inches.  School miraculously was cancelled for my son today which meant we either had to scramble to find a daycare, I could work from home for the day, or my wife could cancel all her clients and stay home.  We opted for me to stay home.  I can still be quite productive due to some tricks I have learned over the past few years of being a parent.  I hope my wife never reads this post.

First, the normal 8 hour day, will need to be longer due to the breaks within the day.  The way I figure it, work accounts for 8.5 hours which includes two 15 minute breaks and one 30 minute break for lunch(unpaid).  This essentially means I need to work for 7.5 hours to feel like working from home was productive.  7.5 hours broken up into chunks isn’t so bad.

5:30 – 6:00 Eat Breakfast, take a shower, get dressed.

6:00 – 7:30 – Do work, check e-mail, get the daily reporting out while my wife is still home and I can concentrate = 1.5 Hours

7:30 – 8:00 – Feed my son, make coffee.

8:00 – 9:30 – Son watches TV and keeps himself occupied while I get some more work done = 1.5 Hours

9:30 – 9:45 – Snack time, talk about the animals that were just on TV.

9:45 – 10:30 – Son colors while I get more work done = .75 hours

10:30 – 11:30 – Give my son his I-pad to play games while I take a conference call = 1 Hour

11:30 – 12:15 – Forget to take I-pad away, and get extra work done = .75 hours

12:15 – 12:45 – Make lunch for both of us and eat together, trying to break up his day and mine.

12:45 – 2:00 – Check e-mails, get more work done while Max watches the tube… it is a snow day = 1.25 Hours.

2:00 – 2:30 – Play fight on the bed, talk about school, read a book

2:30 – 3:00 – Sneak away to get some more work done = .5 hours.

3:00 – 3:45 – Son asks for the I-pad, I say no and we fight until we agree to play connect 4.

3:45 – 4:15 – Work while my son colors again = .5 hours

All this in total = 7.75 hours which is more than the minimum which I’m sure makes up for the few extra distractions that did not happen today. 

The day needs to be broken up for the kids to make it work.  Too much of one thing does not make the day go quickly.

You need quiet time for the important stuff and an I-pad is great for that.

I probably worked more today than I normally would at work because I don’t have people stopping by my office to chit chat and I can just focus on work.

Maybe I’ll shoot for one day a week working from home when my son isn’t around.  Imagine how productive I will be.

Untappd App Review

So I do not review App's often, in fact this is my first app review ever.  I cannot help it though given how much I love this new app "Untappd".

I love beer.  All kinds of beer.  Red's, Browns, Blacks, Porters, Stouts, IPA's, Lagers, etc.  I love them all.  I even like Ginger beer.  Untappd allows you to log your beers and it keeps track of each unique beer you try and your rating of it.  Many times, I will be at my local beer store and forget what I have already tried and whether or not I actually liked it or not.  Untappd allows me to see if I liked the particular beer I wanted to buy or not and it shows me what my friends and others think of the drink in question. You can post photos, follow breweries or taverns and it really is the kind of App that makes my life easier.  No more forgetting which beers I don't like.  I can log it and forget it and if I ever think it is in question, check my app.  I haven't found a beer that was not logged in the system yet.  The database in comprehensive and easy to use.

I'm hoping they make one for liquor as I certainly love my bourbon and whiskey too.

Small Apartment Living

The real estate market where I live is 100% flat lined since November.  We had a feeling it would and figured it would pick up a little bit in January which to date, we haven’t seen.  Our realtor is telling us that we will be lucky to see any decent listings before March. 

We moved into this apartment in September thinking we would find something but after 2 months of searching in the fall, the market settled and we haven’t been able to get out of this tiny apartment.  We made the best of it over the holidays by buying a small apartment tree and some new decorations and we really did have a good Christmas.

Now that we are two weeks into the New Year, we are itching to get out of here and get a new place.  We check the listings at least once a day, but most days, we check them twice just hoping something new will come on the market.  To date… no dice.  Not one single 3 bedroom home has come on the market. 

On the plus side, I cleaned the entire place in under an hour today; vacuum, sweep, mop, bathrooms, dusting, all of it.  I even did a bunch of dishes and got some laundry in.  Maybe small apartment living isn’t so bad.  

Time to Bite the Bullet

My wife and I sold the house and moved into a very small apartment about 4 months ago in hopes of it being short term while we search for a new house.  90% of everything that we own has been sitting in a storage unit.  We never thought we would be in the apartment longer than two to three months.  Now, winter is here, and we are all antsy, wanting to be more active and get outside to enjoy the winter. 

I have set a personal goal for myself this year to hike 150 miles.  In order to do that, I’m going to need to get out there NOW.  Without all of my gear readily accessible, it seems impossible that I can even get out there at all let alone with my family on some smaller snowshoe excursions. 

Today, I am going to do it.  I am going to order my new snowshoes.  I was able to find my warm clothing and winter shell as well as my pack, poles and first aid kit.  Once I purchase snowshoes, I can at least do some lower elevation hikes below tree line and feel comfortable that I will be safe.  

My old pair were MSR Denali Evo Ascents and they are nearly 10 years old.  They are still serviceable however a new pair is likely warranted for high peaks anyway where the old pair is ready to break at any time.  I’ll continue to use the old pair at low elevation/low risk hikes but on high risk hikes, the new pair is necessary. 

I’ve made up my mind to purchase a pair of MSR Lightning Ascents.  They are as technical as a snowshoes gets and should last a while.  I’m even going to purchase them at LL Bean to ensure a guarantee should anything ever happen to them.

My plan is to hike about 6 miles in January so I’ve got to get rolling.  

Month	Miles
January	6
February	8
March	11
April	12
May	15
June	16
July	20
August	20
September	15
October	13
November	8
December	6
Total	150

Bullet Journal's Don't Have to be Complicated

So back in August, I came across the idea of the Bullet Journal.  If you want to see a complicated and very pretty one, look literally anywhere else on the internet and you can find one.  If you want to see one that is simple but effective, mine’s the way to go.  Where it is a new year, I sprung for a Moleskin size A5ish dotted hardcover journal.  I have one pen that I use with it that seems to work well enough for my needs.  It’s a Black Signo Uniball 207. 

As with most Bullet Journals, page 1 for me is the Key.  Instead of having dozens of symbols though, I have 5.  I have a square for tasks that are incomplete.  I fill in the square for complete tasks.  I have a dash for Notes and important items.  I X out any item that is cancelled and any item I move to the next month has an arrow to the right noting Migration.  Simple yet effective. 

Page 2 is the index.  It’s titled Index with a line under it.  Underneath that are the titles of pages and their page number.  I left page 3 intentionally blank should the Index run that far over for some reason. 

Page 4-5 I track my 101/1001 completion. 

Page 6-7 I track my savings amount for a Whitewater Rafting setup. 

Page 8 = Gift List

Page 9 = Stuff I want

Page 10 = Potential Goals for the Future

Page 11 = Health Dates of next appointments

Page 12 = Tracking my 150 miles hiked in 2017 goal

Page 13 = Birthdays and Anniversary List

I then have about 19 pages for work tracking things like Safety, Open Positions etc.

Page 32 starts January with a basic calendar.  I have January written at the top with 1 – 31 written on the left along with an SMTWTFSS where applicable to the left of the date.  Dates I have appointments I fill in to the right of the date.

Page 33 is my “Boss List” where I keep a running list of things I need to bring to my boss or inform her about.  It’s literally blank right now which I love.

Page 34 is my habit tracker.  I don’t track very much.  Playing Guitar, 2 Liters of water, brushing, flossing etc. 

Page 35 at the top is a Waiting On list where I write down items I am waiting on from other people.  At the bottom are items to explore in the future.  I’m always coming up with ideas which are brilliant; I swear they are and I want to keep track of them.

Page 36 is my ToDo list migrated from the previous month. 

Page 37 starts January 1.  I write the projected high temp for the day and the weather.  For example, today it says: 8 January  22 degrees  SUNNY

At the end of every month, I start fresh with a new Monthly Calendar and every month takes usually just less than 20 pages.  My ToDo list is migrated and I can literally forget everything from the previous month as anything I need to operate is in my new Month.

I’ve been doing this since August and have finally found my rhythm with it.  At first, I started with all different kinds of colors of pens and symbols and I ended up ditching nearly all of them. 

Keep It Simple Stupid

Avoiding New Years Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions just do not work.  Why would they.  Like I'm magically going to change my entire life because the earth traveled around the sun one more time!  Resolutions are by nature never followed because what we set are expectations, not resolutions.  We set an ideal without direction.  If you want to get somewhere, you need a map and compass.  If someone told you today to go to Fenway Park in Boston, how would you get there?  You would look up directions.  Resolutions are directions to an ideal, not the ideal. 

“Resolve” per www.google.com means "Decide firmly on a course of action." To resolve something, you have to set in motion a plan.  You have to create a course of action.  Simply saying "I'm going to lose 30 pounds" does not set anything in motion.  If you stated you are going to go to the gym three times per week and eat a diet consisting of lean protein, fruits, nuts, vegetables, and other whole foods only, then you have set a course of action.  You have set a direction on how to get there.  

Set more resolutions and less ideals and you will be well on your way to hitting your goals.

2017 is here

So I completed 13 months (398) days of the 101 in 1,001 days challenge and so far, I have completed 45 goals.  The goals are harder to complete now for the most part.

In the last week though, I did complete two goals.

1.  I stuck to a budget for all of 2016.  I did wander off and on budget but by year end, we were on track and were under budget by all measures.
2.  On January 5th, I watched Reds (1981).  It's the last of the 5 movies nominated for best picture in 1982 so I effectively watched all the movies from the year I was born.  I have mixed reviews about the movies.  Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Arc is by far my favorite and does not compare to the rest.

For 2017, my plan is to complete roughly 33 goals.  This will put me at day 762 with 78 goals complete.  Many of the other goals will not be 100% complete until the last day of the challenge or near the end of the challenge.

Overall though, 40% of the way through and I am on track and happy with my progress.