Well, a week late on my annual blog post for my New Year's resolutions.  The
nice thing about my blog, I can go back in time and see what I really did want
to do last year.  Well, let's see how I did?  First goal, bench reps of 235,
not even close.  Ended up cutting way back on my lifting and bringing in a
couple nights of cardio routines.  Which brings me to goal 2, get to 190, and
considering I'm down to 170 right now, I think is a rousing success.  Next
goal, be able to jog 3 miles.  I can sort of do that on the right night (30
min at 6 mph), but some nights my legs don't want to do that.  So, a partial
win there.  Next up, 2x a week abs class.  Yeah, I'm pretty regular about
hitting the class 2x a week, although some nights I run late due to work and
miss a class.  Calling that a success as well.  Next one, get a date.  Does
some kind-of dates count?  As for the next one about girlfriend, yeah, well,
let's move on.  Make it to D.C., uh, next?  Build the kingdom?  I hope I did a
little bit there.  And for the last one, more blogging.  I was pretty good for
about half the year, then kindof tailed off to the end.  I guess when you
don't have much to say and no one to read what you say, what's the point?

So now, let's get on with this year's resolutions.  Get back to where I was
with strength before massive diet/cardio routines withered me down.  Not that
I'm complaining about the weight loss, far from it really.  I just want to get
back to where I was.  As for weight loss, I want to lose a few more inches
around the waist while putting on some muscle mass.  Basically, the weight
number is fine, just make my BMI number a bit better.  Barring that, losing 10
more pounds wouldn't hurt either.  Still want to get to D.C. some day.  Also,
the date/girlfriend goal is back once again.    Guess I don't have any new
goals in mind these days.  Just need to finish up the several that I have
open.

Just looking back on the year, I got to enjoy one last year of farming with
Dad before his retirement in '07.  I bought a house, which I had not even
contemplated doing this time last year.    I managed to lose 35 pounds of me
and pretty much keep them off.  Put many, many hours into work, which I
suppose isn't something to be greatly honored by, but in some way I am.  I'm
just a workhorse, born and bred.  Oooh, just thought of a new resolution,
force myself to be more social/extroverted in spite of myself.  I am finding
myself more and more withdrawn from the world, and I had better halt the
trend.

As for my X-mas break, it went fairly well.  I managed to do most of my
shopping and an impromptu eye check-up in a couple hours at Wal-mart on a
Thur. afternoon.  On Friday, I did some shopping with a couple friends.  And
since I had everything I wanted to purchase for X-mas, all I ended up buying
was 50 deer slugs for next year's deer hunting season.  This made one of my
buds jealous that all I did was buy something for myself and he had to spend
tons of money on others.  Sat. I was home on the farm and I started splitting
the firewood for next winter already.  X-mas, the folks and I went to mass a
Basillica in Dyersville, and then over to my brother's place for the
get-together.  I ended up with a nice new grill from my folks for my new
place, and several house-type gifts as well.  The rest of the week turned
quite warm and pleasant, and by Friday, I finished up the last of the wood
splitting for next year's supply for the folks.  New Year's weekend turned
wet, and I ended up staying away from any New Year's eve festivities, chosing
to stay on the farm.  Since I didn't have to come back to work till Wed. of
this week, I didn't come back to town till Tues.  I had Dad bring back my new
bookcase that I had him build for me.  Oh my goodness, it is so cool to have
my own bookcase along one wall in the spare bedroom.  I can finally unpack
those boxes of books I have been storing for all of these years.  The house is
finally starting to feel like a home!  Tues. evening I went out and finally
got a new PS2 bought.  Amazingly, those PS2's were still nearly sold out in my
area!  Guess I'm not the only one not ready to drop 500+ for a PS3 yet.  I'm
finally back to playing X-men Legends 1, only about a dozen other games in my
collection that have to be played.  Whee!  Oh crud, I am so not going to make
this "be social" resolution am I?!?  Disgaea 1 (make those high levels) and
start Disgaea 2, and Final Fantasy 12, oh drooool.  Yeah, I'm so never going
to get a date at this rate.

And before I forget, happy birthday Boot on the 6th!  

Ugh, next week the new year's resolutioners will be crowding the gym at night.
 On the plus side, I enjoy my walk to and from work in the mornings, then
again, the weather is still pretty nice for this time of the year.  So far, no
snow on the ground yet.  If this is global warming, hooray!  Keep it coming,
screw you, you hippies!  Ah well, work calls.  Tonight's blog entry brought to
you by "Take It Off" The Donnas