2010 The Year in Pictures

As we rev up for the New Year, I always like to put together a photo montage of my 2010 timeline.  I print out the photos and include them in my last newsletter of the year which I sent out right around New Years.  If you would enjoy reading a copy of that newsletter, you can download it here (pdf).

The reason that I enjoy putting these photo timelines together is that its so easy to forget some of the most special moments from the past 12 months.  365 days is a long time and when I sit down to put the pictures in chronological order I have a lot of “oh yeah” moments and “that was this year?” recollections.

In any event, if you click on the picture collage below it will take you to my photostream in Flickr

Even for someone who loves football of all varieties, 4 straight days of non-stop college and NFL football is about all that I can handle.  I suppose I could have taken a half day break here and there, but where’s the fun in that.  It was a wild weekend of comebacks and overtime thrillers. 

I enjoyed my time away from work over the holiday but Im ready to get back into the swing of things tomorrow. 

I had a list of things that I wanted to accomplish over the long weekend, including:

Assemble and decorate the living room Christmas tree (below) - check

Put up the lights on the outside of the house - check

Get a workout in in attempts to counterbalance increased caloric intake - check

Finish putting up the hardware and curtains in Madeline’s bedroom - check

Make a big dent in my Christmas shopping (with a few clicks of the mouse.  I love Amazon.com.  I dont want or need to spend hours outside in the freezing cold at 3am to find the deals.) - check

Finish the book that I have been reading on and off for months now (State of the Union - Brad Thor) - checkish … a few more pages to read tonight.

All in all, it was a pretty productive weekend, though having the equivalent of three Saturdays and a Sunday was a bit of an advantage.  I could handle a 5 day weekend every so often.

The day after Thanksgiving not only ushered in much colder temperatures (sleet overnight) but also the fall to winter transition inside the France house.  Kristin’s tradition on the day after Thanksgiving is to watch her “Christmas” movies and put up decorations.  However, as she is 8 months pregnant (today), her capacity to do much of anything at this point is pretty limited.  As a result there is no shortage of honey-dos on my list these days.  But I’m happy to help.  I know that though I might be doing the heavy lifting in the literal sense, shes doing the real work.   Today, I was tasked with getting out all of bins of Christmas stuff and putting up the Christmas tree.  So, I spent most of my morning getting that done.  At half time of the Auburn/Alabama game, I ventured outside to start the exterior lights and decorations.  I got most of the entryway stuff done and Ill try to knock out the rest of the light tomorrow. 

A few pictures from our Chicago Trip in early September

So its now late October and looking at this blog, I realize that I havent posted anything in a couple of months.  Before that, it was probably a month or two as well.  

Blogging is a discipline for sure.  Its like working out.  The longer you go without doing it, the easier it is to neglect and the harder it is to get back into shape.  Its not from lack of desire to do so, it just becomes (more often than not) one of those things that I hope to get to but rarely do.  I don’t make it a priority but I want to get better at that.  I really do enjoy recording my thoughts and being able to look back on them in retrospect. 

Despite my inability to keep this blog current, I have been keeping a personal (and more private) journal for just about one year now and today I took some time to read through my late October posts from 2009 to see where I was and how things measure it.  

This blog is linked to a number of my websites and social media profiles, yet it has remained dormant.  So, I vow to become more committed to regular entries here.

Catching up … 

About a month ago, we decided to finally move forward with our patio project in the back yard.  Kristin and I have been discussing extending our dinky concrete patio for a while and we finally pulled the trigger.   They just finished up last week and now Im in the process of landscaping the new flower beds to make the project complete.  It is coming along nicely and Ill post before and after pictures when it is done.

About 7 weeks ago, Kristin and I took a vacation to Chicago.  We had a blast and the pictures are posted on my Flickr stream.  

We’ve reached the part of the year when the real estate market begins to slow down a little bit.  While I am still busy daily with work, I am more focused on long term projects, planning and education.  I’m currently in the process of converting my website (Better Austin Living dot Com) from Typepad format to Wordpress format.   It’s been a long process but much easier than actually creating it in the first place because the majority of the content was already in place.  I’m pleased with it. 

I’m coaching Fall baseball and while our season is coming to an end in the next 3 weeks, it has kept me quite busy over the past 2.5 months.  

As far as my P90X pursuit was/is concerned, I pretty much stuck with it up through week 10 (of 12).  I did not follow the routine religiously and took a week off here and there.  However, the past 2 weeks or so I have gotten side tracked and fallen into the trap of not working out.   So, I cannot say that I made it through the entire program.  The results that I saw were encouraging nonetheless.  

I actually think I’m going to start over again today.  However, instead of going with the “classic” program, I’m going to do the “lean” program which is slightly more cardio and core focused than muscle focused.  In a strange way, Im actually looking forward to getting back on that program.  I’m not going to force myself to grind six days a week but I do believe I can commit to 4.  Ill most likely lift twice a week, do one cardio session and then Kenpo X on the weekend.   We’ll see …

The Fountains at the Bellagio to Lord of the Dance.  It was an extremely windy day and when we first arrived they were not doing the fountain show because of the wind effect. Luckily on our way back out of the casino the wind had died down and we stayed for a couple of shows.  Here is video of one of them. 

Today will be the fourth Spring since I ended my baseball career.  Four full years.  On one hand that is hard to believe since for every Spring from age 5 to age 26 I was on a baseball diamond.  On the other hand it seems like its been longer than that.  I feel like I dont have that connection that I once had.  I have moved on to different endeavors. 

Still, sitting here watching the Opening Day day games brings it all back a little bit.  There is still something very special about opening day of the baseball season.  Granted, now that I am coaching, opening day was a month ago for me but this is the real deal.  This is a full slate of day games.  Every team is 0-0.  Everyone has some hope.  No one knows how the season is really going to go.  There is a nervousness, an uncertainty and an optimism that anything is possible.  

I’m thankful to have the flexibility to be able to work with the games on in the background.  From time to time Ill give the TV a glance and grin a little bit.  I know that baseball will take on a whole new meaning for me if I am given the opportunity to teach the game to my son some day.  I’m looking forward to that possibility. 

Thank You for all of the Happy Birthday Wishes!