Yeah, I’m struggling with stuff to write about. I mean, it’s not for a lack of things to do, but a lack of things to write about.
I mean, I’m sure part of it is that I’m pretty busy. My daughter has had two birthday parties in the past two weeks, and each weekend has been spent cleaning, cooking, running around getting things set up, helping the wife.
I suppose I could write about that, because after all, I was duly impressed with her ability to put together a great party. Once again, we chose Pepper Geddings for my daughter’s birthday party, and once again, they were fantastic. For those of you who aren’t from Myrtle Beach, Pepper Geddings is the Myrtle Beach Recreation Center. Indoor pool, gymnasium, basketball courts, etc, and they have a couple of rooms set aside for parties. They have a great program over there for the kids that includes games & activities, swimming, and use of the facilities. They really have a great crew there that leads the kids in a handful of games. Duck Duck Goose, Red Light Green Light, and a bunch of other little fun games that they enjoy. The “theme” of her party was “Scooby Doo” so they played games like, “Scooby Says” and I think instead of “Duck, Duck, Goose” it was “Scooby, Scooby, Shaggy”. Fun stuff. We got her a Pinata, which was a first for me, and just let me say… I’m not sure I’d wanna give a wild gang of 5 year-olds bats again anytime soon. That was a scary couple of minutes for the guy holding the Pinata (me) lemme tell ya. Anyway, the wife did a spectacular job getting both parties off the ground and I was really proud of her. She’s a great mommy (and a terrific wife!).
I’ve also slowly been putting together a replacement for my entertainment system that culminated in the last week. I began by replacing my older Denon receiver with a newer, 7.1, HDMI 1.4 2011 model. As soon as I started down that road though, I realized how out of date my 7 year old HDTV was (DVI… no HDMI) and that led me to the realization that I was probably better off replacing my TV and taking advantage of pre-Superbowl sales. Of course, over the holidays, I added a PS3 to the mix, so once I realized I was moving an almost completely HDMI-based entertainment system (The Xbox360 is still the last holdout… component AV + Optical audio. It’s an older 360 so it’s pre-HD needing the HD kit add-on) I really had no choice. So I spent most of the last week or so migrating over my Harmony remote, setting up the PS3, dialing in the receiver, and enjoying my first taste of pure 1080p Blu-Ray goodness.
My, that’s a pretty picture.
While all of this is going on, I’ve been working really hard to get my legs back, and honestly, that’s been the biggest challenge of all. I spent most of… okay, ALL of… the holidays eating, not riding, and basically relaxing and while the desire was always there, the legs were a bit lacking. I started off the beginning of January throwing in some intervals, but quickly realized that I needed a good, solid base of miles before I could begin pushing it that hard. I went back to the drawing board and began slowly adding mileage every day until I was putting in a solid effort of 15 miles a day on the rollers. 15 miles a day at about 20 miles an hour for 45 minutes is a damn good start to the year. This weekend I dropped an effortless 30 miles and the only thing that got me was the wind and the temperature. If I had layered a little bit more I could’ve easily thrown another ten miles or so at it, but by the time I got 15 miles out, my fingers were numb and my legs were aching from the wind. The Conway Area Bike Ride is in about three weeks and that’s really the first ride of the year. I don’t think I’ll have any problem being in good enough shape to tackle the 63 mile ride, so I’m just gonna stick with the routine and build a good base of miles before the ride.
So that’s really it. I think there’s a lot going on, just not a lot to write about. I think as it gets warmer, and as things calm down around the house, I’ll have more opportunities to wax poetic on various topics. I’m having a good time with CSS3/HTML5 (or really at this point, just “HTML“) and Dreamweaver, so I expect I’ll have a lot more to say on those topics in the coming weeks, as well as a couple of other huge, life changing things that I don’t wanna spoil. Suffice to say, I don’t think the beginning of 2011 in any way portends the remainder of the year… heh, heh, heh (that’s my evil laugh).
Cheers!
