Happy New Year

Typically I am quite content spending New Years Eve watching a stroked out Dick Clark count down the final moments of the year.  However this year we are actually going to a party that one of our buddies in the running club is throwing.  It should be fun, I guess it’s good to get out on New Years at least once a decade.

So another year has flown by so you know what that means, it’s time to recap the year, see how I did in hitting the goals I had set and set some new ones for 2010.

Ok let me go down the 2009 goal list.

Replacing the counters – this is something that has been on the list since 2005 at least. YES they were finally replaced along with the sink.  The granite made a huge difference and we LOVE it.

Jumping out of a plane – no.  I still think about this on a pretty regular basis but keep failing to act.I might as well do it before Niribu hits.

Interior of the house painted – almost.  We painted the huge main living areas.  Adding color to the walls really changed the look of the house.  It makes us wonder why we waited 8 years to do it.  The only rooms with white walls at this point is our bedroom, our bathroom and the hobby room. 

Staying fit – well short of having my legs chopped off, this was a no brainer.  Although the 300 has taken a backseat in my fitness routine in 2009 I still have been working them in as I can.  All in all I had a much healthier 2009 than 2008.  My chronic shoulder pain got better and my knees have been much more reliable, allowing me to do more running in 2009 than I have in the past 3 or 4 years.

Happiness – that is a hard one to give a black or white answer to.  I think without a doubt that overall my level of contentment with my life was higher than some years prior.  However, there is still no way that anybody would use happy as the first adjective when describing me.  I don’t think you would find many agnostic, non-religious people that are super happy.  Not thinking that there is a pot of gold waiting once you kick the bucket can have a sobering effect on one’s outlook on things.

Camaro – nope it didn’t happen in 2009 but Ali is fully behind my purchase of one sometime in 2010.  Ironically the biggest roadblock to getting one is myself.  I refuse to spend the money until the Camry payments are over and done with.

Shake things up – I don’t quite remember what I had in mind when I set that goal last year. Whatever it was, I don’t think I accomplished that one.

Ok so let me look back at a few 2009 highlights.

January marked the culmination of a long year of politic discussion/arguments on the blog by me regarding the presidential race.  My guy, Obama actually pulled it off, becoming the first black president ever.  He ran on a platform of sweeping change in Washington.

The reality of what has happened in his first year in office has been less impressive than I would have hoped for.  Many of Obama’s initiatives have been run into a tar pit of bureaucracy, old timers and the republican propaganda machine.  As a result many compromises have been made that resulted in outcomes that are off the mark of what we hoped for doing the campaign.  

I’m disappointed that we are still mired in Iraq and Afghanistan with no hope of ever leaving and the health care plan that is awaiting confirmation is so riddled with holes it seems next to worthless.  The huge focus on pushing the bill through by a certain date instead of focusing on what is in there is disturbing.  It seems like Obama is coming to the rationalization that some change is better than no change at all.

In February we adopted our second dog, Sadie.  We were both quite concerned how Nicki would react to having to share everything after going through her first 6 years as a only dog.  I remember the first morning after we adopted her, she squatted next to the kitchen counter and let loose with a gallon of piss.  I recall thinking, “WTF have we done?”  We had Nicki trained to the point where we coexisted perfectly, why did we have to upset the apple cart?

Sadie also had quite a little destructive side, chewing up items as well as taking a liking to clawing at the wall.  We handled these issues as they came and over time they subsided thankfully.  At first Nicki seemed unhappy with our decision to bring her home a playmate that had no problems trying to jump ahead in line.  Eventually they seemed to work things out.  Sadie is pushy but when the rubber hits the road Nicki is still the queen of the house and Sadie will be submissive to her when Nicki gets pissed off.

Now, like most things, we wonder why we didn’t get Nicki a buddy sooner.  Her and Sadie have a great time playing with each other.  Having Sadie in the house with her extremely outgoing personality actually has helped Nicki be a bit less cautious around new people.  Sure she still barks but once she sees Sadie greeting the person happily, Nicki is more apt to let her guard down.  Sadie has had a nice health perk for Nicki as well as Nicki has lost 10 pounds trying to keep up with Sadie running around the house and yard.

With the addition of another pet in the house we also lost another pet in 2009, Spook.  In 2008 we had Buttons put to sleep after years of health problems related to her diabetes.  Spook, who was actually older had lived a pretty much problem free life health wise.  Well it all started going down hill this year.

It started with the cat not eating much for a long period of time.  I didn’t pay much attention to it at first but eventually I knew something had to be wrong.  We found out she had a broken front canine which was causing her pain while eating.  After having the tooth removed she improved for a little while before again getting worse.  For months and months we went through expensive vet visits, unpleasant attempts to give the cat medicine daily and trying all sorts of food items to encourage her to eat more.

As time progressed Spook had all sorts of physical problems going on.  First from not eating she was getting bone thin, she looked horrible.  Then she went through an episode where her hair was falling out.  She would pull clumps of hair out with her mouth and spit them out.  At times it looked like an animal was murdered on the carpet from the clumps of hair scattered about.  Then finally there was the ear thing.

Her left ear started to secrete some sort of bloody discharge.  She also started having problems with her balance and was carrying her head tilted to the left at all times.  The final and most disgusting issue was when the skin at the base of her left ear started to literally peel away.  We tried treating her with antibiotics for a solid two months straight as well as giving her stuff for her ear.  It just didn’t work.  As time progressed you could tell Spook just was not having fun anymore.  Her mouth no longer worked correctly and instead of being able to eat conventionally she had to scrape her face across the plate to push food into it.

Finally after hoping against hope for a recovery I decided it was time to put her down, something I dreaded doing based on what I went through having Buttons put to sleep.  The experience was no easier this time around as I cried like a baby as Spook took her last breaths. It sucked. It’s one of those moments you never forget, ever.

For the first time as an adult I don’t have a cat as a pet and to be honest I don’t think I ever will have a cat as a pet again.  Even though most of my interaction with Spook in recent years was just having her lay on my feet at the computer desk I still  felt horrible about putting her down. I still find myself looking down at my feet as I sit at the computer, awaiting Spook to take her position on top of them.

I had more skin cancer burned off in 2009.  I am scheduled to have one area that was already burned, cut out in a few weeks since the growth came back, yay.

 We had a decent amount of visitors in 2009.  Cheryl and Dave, my dad and step mom ( a couple times),  my brother Pat,  Ali’s brother and his family and Randall/Jeremy all paid us a visit one time or another during the year.

We made another trip out west to visit my dad/sister shortly before he moved back to PA in June.  It was the Ford party van’s last big trip for us.  The trip was a lot of fun and we got to take a different route which exposed us to all sorts of new places and things to see.  We really enjoy road trips with the dogs and we’re talking about doing another one this year.  

I became an uncle for the third time when my sister gave birth to Griffin back in March.  My siblings now have 3 kids between them.

We had planned to refinance our house in 2009 to take advantage of the low rates.  After months of waiting for the process to complete we were derailed at the last minutes by a low ball appraisal from some douche bag that used foreclosed homes as comps for our place. In the big picture we will be better served long term by just paying off the 15 year note we have on our house which now has less than 10 years to go.

I kept busy with various projects/repairs throughout the year.  I had a $5 fix on the washing machine which we thought was goner.  I also did some repairs on the water equipment which saved us some major dough.  Just recently I built an outdoor dog tile resting station (that they don’t use), a ramp for the new shed and a kick ass outdoor pull up and jumping station.

We had a couple big Craigslist transactions in 2009.  I both bought a new party van  and sold the old one on the site.  The new party van purchase had some drama when it turned out the seller was less than honest in his dealings with me but things worked out in the end without causing me much pain. 

I also found a used storage shed that ironically was being sold by a neighbor around the corner.  Getting the shed onto our property was a major pain in the ass.  That project unexpectedly lead into another project when we had to cut the fence to get the shed inside the fence line.  My dad helped me install a 12 foot gate at the point of the cut during their second 2009 visit.

I inherited my dad’s 1984 Moto Guzzi motorcycle in 2009.  I am still not licensed to ride it but will take care of that sometime in early 2010.  Mom is not happy with the idea of me on a bike. 

Mom had a rough 2009.  The shitty economy hit close to home when she lost her job in late May.  Mom has been on unemployment ever since and still has been unable to find something to fill the void.  Ali and I have done several things since the layoff to try to ease some financial burdens on mom. Hopefully in 2010 mom gets re-energized and finds herself gainfully employed to help both the state of her bank account and state of mind.

 I picked up a cheap road bike in 2009.  I figured biking was a nice low impact way to burn some calories.  In recent months the bike has been sitting unused.  I have had other exercise activities taking higher priority.

I had my typical rants in 2009.  Some of the subjects of my ire included Sirius, the Fort Lauderdale parking authority, vets that charge outrageous money for dental x-rays, Planet Fitness, Pure Fitness and of course Erwin Tonch.

I had a quick fun visit up to PA to see Troy in November.  We had a memorable visit to watch a Ravens game, ran a 5K and just generally had a good time.  I wish we got together more often.

 Athletically in 2009 I played very little volleyball, only two tournaments all year long.  Both outcomes were not good at all.  It seems like I can no longer not play for 6 months at a time and put out a respectable showing on the court.  I have been trying to run semi-regularly, completing a 4.25 mile treadmill run on my birthday, the longest I had run in several years.  My new pull up station has become a big part of my fitness routine.  One of the goals in 2010 is to be able to do a muscle up. 

Speaking of fitness.  Ali has made a dramatic return to running in 2009.  When we started running a few years back Ali had made a goal of running in a half marathon.  However knee problems cut that goal off at the knees and she had pretty much abandoned running altogether.  Well about mid-2009 she started picking it up again. 

It was a weird series of events that seemed to coincide to get her back into it hardcore.  I made some blog comment about how Ali USED to run that I think stuck in her craw a bit.  Then she had a falling out with the place she took ballet after they promised her certain things but delivered much less.  And finally she reconnected with a friend of ours that had recently taken running back up as well.  Ali started training regularly and soon started doing training runs with her friend and another friend of the friend.  Soon it became both a social and exercise event.  Ali looks forward to getting together with the girls for the runs.

At this point she is up to 9 miles which is just incredible.  I’m very proud of the dedication she has demonstrated, something that I always knew she had but something she is normally hesitant to embrace.  She is on track to run her first half marathon in mid-January, a fantastic accomplishment that I could only dream of myself.  My hat is off to her.

Ok enough about 2009, I’m sure I missed a few things but oh well.

Quickly some 2010 goals.

Finish painting the interior of the house.  – Should be easy compared to what we did in 2009.

Paint the exterior of the house. – The stucco has a lot of hairline cracks that I want to resolve by repainting the house with a rubberized exterior paint that is designed to fill cracks and stretch.

Screen in the front entrance – I want to enclose the front covered area of the house with screening.  Being able to open the front door and let the mild winter air flow through the house would be fantastic.

Replace the water equipment – we are sick of water that looks like piss.  It needs to get cleaned up this year.

Camaro – I hope by this time next year I will have a 6 speed, 426 HP monster lurking in the garage.

Muscle up – I want to be able to perform a muscle up in 2010.  It will happen because  my mind is set on it.  Tunnel vision is a powerful thing.

Road trip – I would like to see more things I haven’t seen before, it makes life feel more worthwhile when you are out there seeing and doing things you never did before.

State of mind – I’d like to keep working on my biggest detriment, my head.  Trying to keep positive and happy is a constant struggle for me. I think I am doing better overall but there is much more work to be done.

Kid – even though it has been totally dropped off the list in recent years.  Ali has been bringing the subject up on a pretty regular basis, mostly because her nieces are just so darn cute.  Ali craves that closeness to be in her life on a regular basis.  My feelings are the dogs fill that need.  We’ll need to talk it out for real, soon.  I’m not getting any younger. Ugh serious conversations are such a downer.

So that just about covers it.  I hope everyone enjoys their New Years celebration no matter how simple or extravagant they may be.  Enjoy it while we can, 2012 is coming.