Per my Holiday tradition, today I'll post my annual home-made Christmas card for the world (er, well, a tiny handful of the world...but that's ok).
So, without further adieu...2019! (note: I've now made my Christmas card every year starting in 1997 except for one...2008 was my only missed year).
Merry Christmas to the Asylum!
I look forward to your Xmas card/verse every year! Sorry that I've been absent much of the past couple months, just work stuff/stress. FB started working for me again so I got emails whenever you posted a photo of your recent Hawaii trip. I'm sooooooo envious! :) If you have time, maybe you can write up about your trip here? Would LOVE to read & see more photos!
ReplyDeleteWhat are your plans for Xmas & New Year's? I leave work in about 30 minutes & don't return till this Friday. Whoo-hoo! Of course, I thought I would be home on the farm with the family LAST year for two days & ended back at my house Xmas morning by 9:45 AM, soooo we'll see how it goes. :) :)
BTW, you all look great in the photos up above. Very tropical & happy!
Well, I have one more thing to do before I take off, so gotta go. Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS, Matt & Rae & all who stop by Inane Asylum2!
Hey Susie...I understand the mia thing...geez...I've been pretty much mia here on my own site this last year it seems! Anyway, glad u could stop by for a bit, always good to hear from you, and Rae, and Barbara...hope everybody is doing well.
ReplyDeleteI actually intended to do a Hawaii trip post BEFORE the holidays, but alas, it didn't happen. But I haven't forgotten about it, will do it for a New Years post I think...have a TON of pics I didn't put on FB. Staying home for Xmas, tho driving over to Vegas Thursday morning (like 4am departure) to take Dad out from his Assisted living place for the afternoon/evening. Then Friday morning I'm going for a road bike ride (w/ my gravel bike) in Red Rock Cyn Park just west of LV...never really made the opportunity to ride it before, and have had it on my to-ride-list for years. Now is the time...carpe diem and all that. Hope you can get some quality time w/ the family in...that's always important (tho from my reading between the lines there's some uhm, tension there??) I won't be seeing either of my brothers over the Holidays...big-bro is in Dallas seeing his son and grand-kids, and little-bro is home w/ his family in Houston. I am on vacation and don't go back to work until Jan 6th...woo-HOO! (cost me 3 days of vacation...last Friday, then Thurs/Fri next week). Still...16 days off for 3 days vacation...that's a good buy IMO!
Anyhoo...Susie & Rae, hope you both have a WONDERFUL Christmas and New Years! (Gosh...it's almost 2020! Still can't believe it!)
Happy New Year, Matt and SusieB, and Barbara if you are out there!
ReplyDeleteI hope you all had the Christmas that you hoped for!
As always I enjoyed your Christmas poem...
Resolution time (duh duh duuuhh…) I've been hitting the refined carbs pretty hard since Thanksgiving week, and I am feeling it! So I am resolving to cut it out! (not 100%, just back to a reasonable level - for my bod that is 2-3 times a week max.)
With my Medicare Advantage plan, I get a free gym membership, so I went and signed up. I had been running again, had just gotten to 3.25 miles, but mid-November suffered a strain or -itis of some kind in my hip. It is healed now, but boy it sure is hard to motivate myself when we have day after day of no sunshine! Even though it has been abnormally warm. So Resolution #2: take advantage of this benefit and get into running shape again - this year I won't have to be out on the track in the snow and sleet like I did last winter! I've not signed up for the Cap City Half Marathon (April) because I may have other plans - depends on my cousin actually following up to his proposed adventure...
Wishing a great year for us all!
Rae
Hey Rae, always nice to hear from you! It's been a very nice vacation (too short, only 16 days). Tomorrow (Friday) is technically the last day of 'vacation'...then it's the weekend and before I know what happened it will be Sunday evening, which is always depressing. Boy...I've GOT to retire soon...
ReplyDeleteGood to hear you are (were) running again...we've got to do something. I just know running is out for me...too many years of volleyball. I'm thankful that my knees are still good...a lot of guys I know are already getting them replaced. I can only chuckle at the 'carbs' thing...it's my superpower to not worry about such things. Is egg-nogg a carb? I was just doing the math...I think I'm on the last 1/2 gallon (will make a total of 3 gallons since we got back from Hawaii and officially started the "Holiday Season"...lights up, that sort of thing). Yeah...it's a great superpower for sure. I wouldn't sell it for a million bucks (seriously). But we've all got our crosses to bear...
I can't imagine how you can motivate yourself to go out running when it's not decent weather...I have that same problem getting out on the bike. And boy, once the time changes back in November, my after work rides dry up like water in the Mojave desert. It's just so easy to NOT ride when it's not somewhere in the very small 'temperate' range I live by. And wind...god knows how I hate the WIND, of which we have a lot here. But generally I'm just whining...for instance, I rode yesterday (New Years mt bike ride)...it was a bit chilly but over half the ride was short-sleeves. So yeah...I'm pretty lucky to live here considering how spoiled I am. It will be a different game in Richmond...(brrr...shiver). So not jazzed about that.
OK..enough on that...stay healthy and good luck on the proposed adventure (sounds like TRAVEL to me...do tell!) Jeannie and I are headed back to Oktoberfest in Munich late Sept this year...with a few days at each end in London...she is already making plans (just today got us signed up for a Buckingham Palace tour...apparently it's only open for tours about 2 months a year, so we were very lucky). Hope to do a Mt bike tomorrow, then a road ride on Saturday...and that will likely end my riding for this vacation. Then Sunday is chores and Monday, groan...back to work. Later gators! It's a new decade, and Happy New Year btw! Make of it what you will...hope it's a good one!
I love London - I've been there twice.
ReplyDeleteSo, my cuz is going to Istanbul to present a couple of lectures, and wants me to join him there, then travel to Lithuania to see the "old country" that our paternal family is from. (or, LT first, then Istanbul). Now he has floated this similar scenario a few times before but it hasn't panned out. He sounds quite committed this time, though, so I have started trying to figure out what I want to do. Since it is such a long flight just to get across the Atlantic, I am thinking of finding a package deal to go to somewhere else in Europe that I've always wanted to visit - Barcelona, maybe, Paris, Rome.... for several nights as that seems very cost effective - then a flight to Lithuania from one of those cities is not expensive, only about $150. Getting to Istanbul from Lithuania is not as easy though.
Since his lectures are the second week of April I (we) have to get cracking to nail this down. Tomorrow is supposed to be very cold and maybe still sleety, so I am going to devote the day to researching this. Travel has been in my retirement plans, but taking out a big chunk of money still makes me nervous! Especially as I am still helping out my daughter, and really should put some significant $$ into the house - the lone bath is showing its age (My house is nearly 80 years old, and I think the tub & tile was redone about 35-40 years ago. The tub is quite worn).
I know I will get cold feet at some point, but if I don't do it now, I might never...
Hey Rae...wow, Istanbul AND Lithuania! I hope it happens for you...how awesome! I figure it's a very large world out there, and I hope to see with my own eyes as much as possible before I'm done. Of course, like MOST people, money is the issue. And in the spring too...should be pretty great weather. I truly hope you can pull this off...it's a great opportunity if it doesn't tank. Can't wait to hear about it!! Time is short...get on it and make it happen! House repairs can wait...it's been 80 years, it will wait. I mean, do you REALLY need a tub?? (as a guy I can safely say NO).
ReplyDeleteI've been pretty much MIA the last few months...sorry about that. Right now I (we) are deep into mission preps...we fly on Mission next Monday and will be gone over 5 weeks...yep...this is gonna be a LONG one!
ReplyDeleteAnyway...how sad about Kobe...was watching some of the Pro Bowl yesterday when they announced it. WOW! His helo crash was just 2 hours south of me...really crazy stuff! They still don't have enough info to explain what happened...fog? It's a helicopter...if you can't see you hover, or go up, until you get info. It's not like a jet aircraft doing 500mph and gets off course and slams into a mountain-side...they were following the 101 and then veered off course (at a right angle) and held it for a bit until they slammed into the rising slope (the mountains were still ahead). I just don't get it...his helicopter was top notch, and I can only guess that he wouldn't hire just any pilot to fly him and family/friends around. So what the heck happened? No engine-failure/mayday message before the crash...they just crashed after that hard right turn away from their route. In the end no amount of info won't bring him or his family and friends back. 41 years old...how very sad (and his 13 year old daughter too)...along with another parent and their kid, and a few others AND the pilot. It's the kind of thing you don't expect to hear, and bam...there it is. Life happens fast. Just goes to show that you need to enjoy your time here on this big crazy blue ball, as you never know when that will dramatically change. RIP Kobe, and all the rest that were with him on that doomed flight.
oops...I think I meant the crash was after that hard LEFT turn...(was thinking north to south instead of vice-versa which was his direction of travel...I live north of the crash).
ReplyDelete