New Year–2014 Review, part 1

If you’ve read this blog, then you know I keep stats throughout the year. All you have to do is go back and read my 2013 review about this time last year.  I’m now 41 years old, been married to Cheri for over 4 years now after our whirlwind romance way back in 2009. Chris is now 21, working and living on his own. Skyler will be turning 20 in the spring and is still doing well in college, also working and living on her own. Samantha is in her first year of Junior High, which means it’s all about her friends and not her grades. Trevor is in 4th grade and is still all about the grades, he is our straight A student. There’s a brief look at the family as of now.

I only had 2 goals for 2013 and I only accomplished 1. My 2 goals were a new house and a new job. I left my old job in March or April so I got that one out of the way fairly early which also affected the second one, getting the house. Getting a house got delayed at the beginning of the year so I said screw it, I’ll get a new job and put the house on hold until the summer but just before we were about to get into a new house, I got laid off from that job. So my only goal for this year is a carry over from last year. As of now, we are waiting until we get taxes back and then we’ll start looking again. Hopefully by summer we can move in to a place. If not, it’ll carry over until next year. I believe I’ve been trying since 2012 so I’m not expecting much.

Let’s get to the stats, that’s why I’m here. Last year I only kept restaurants eaten at, I kept a lot more this year but we’ll start there.

• 1 time – 5 Guys, Beef O’Grady’'s, Cici’s Pizza, Cracker Barrel, Dutch Essenhouse, the Golden Egg, Hardees Heinnies, Nelson’s Port-A-Pit, Papa Vino’s, Red Robin, Salsa’s, Scottie’s Brewhouse, Simonton Lake Drive-Thru, TGI Fridays and Uptown Kitchen.
• 2 times – Applebees, Bravo Café, Culvers, Hacienda, Sonic and Wendy’s.
• 3 times – Fazolis, Smith’s Food Mart and Volcano’s.
• 4 times – 7/11.
• 5 times – Chik-Fil-A, Dairy Queen, Little Ceaser’s, Long John Silvers and Steak N Shake.
• 6 times – Mancino’s and Subway
• 9 times – Martin’s Deli

35 different restaurants listed up there. Some surprises as in I thought we ate there more often. Such as Heinnies (bar/restaurant, we love their burgers) and Bravo Café (I love their gyro’s and we both love their breakfast). Smith’s Food Mart is a convenient store but they sell your typical gas station food and 7/11 is on there because we love their hot dogs. Martin’s Deli is our local grocery store’s café who have the best fried chicken we’ve ever had. Mancino’s was in double digits and in the top 5 last year but I picked it up a lot after work because it was right down the road and I don’t work there anymore.

Let’s get down to the top 6, all these had at least double digit visits.

• 10 times – It’s funny how this restaurant has been around since we were kids (my wife worked there in high school) and last year we never had it but this year we had it 10 times. I had never actually eaten here until Cheri took me, now it’s one of our favorites. We’d probably eat here even more often if there wasn’t only 1 local location.

• 11 times – Tied for 4th, last year’s rank was #3 (18 times). We both love the beef ‘n cheddars and would probably eat here more if it wasn’t so expensive. It’s also 11 times because it’s on the corner between Martin’s (grocery) and Walgreens Pharmacy which we visit frequently. I ate here more the previous year because I got on a Ruben kick for awhile.

• 11 times – Tied for 4th with Arby’s, last year’s rank was #4 (14 times). We both love their original chicken sandwich’s. That’s pretty much the only time we go here is if one of us is craving those and usually when they are 2 for $4.

• 12 times – This is a surprise for 3rd place, last year was unranked (5 times). We are not huge fans of Pizza Hut (although we do like their new pan crust). If we want pizza, we generally prefer other places so why is this ranked so high? They deliver. This is our go to, last second, Cheri doesn’t feel like cooking and I don’t feel like leaving, place.

• 54 times – Once again, Taco Bell comes in at #2, last year’s rank was #2 (41 times), This is technically our #1 favorite place to eat but once again, ends up in #2. We even ate here 13 more times this year than last year. They even put one in right next door that I walk to now and it still ended up at #2.

• 58 times – Once again, McDonalds comes in at #1, the same as last year (65 times). If we love Taco Bell so much more than McDonalds, why does it keep coming in at #1? One reason, one word, breakfast. McDonalds is our go to breakfast when we eat out, because if we’re out, we’re usually on our way somewhere so we need something quick, or one of us hits a drive-thru to take it home. We just don’t go to a sit down restaurant often for breakfast. We probably only had something other than breakfast 10 or 15 times.

What else did I keep track of this year? Plenty. How about books.

As you all should know, I keep track of my books on Goodreads and they do a nice little thing at the end of the year where you can see all your stats for that and previous years.

Out of the 26 books I read this year, I only ranked 4 with 5 stars but I also only ranked 1 with 2 stars or less so that makes a pretty decent year of reading. 2 of the 5 star books were from the Hollows series by Kim Harrison which I love and of course, ended this year as well. Those were also the only 2 books that I paid for, all the rest were freebies.  How did this year compare to others you ask? Let’s take a look.

2012 is inaccurate because I didn’t start using Goodreads until the very end of April. I read a lot less this year because I only read at work and I switched jobs. My previous job I read up on the line anytime I had time where as my job now, I only read on my breaks. I essentially went from reading 7 or 8 books a month to 1 or 2 a month. Big time difference.

The Goodreads site even shows how many pages you’ve read all year long. Doesn’t really mean anything but it’s still cool to see.

You know with all the music I listen to that I’m going to keep track of something music related. Because I’m not a huge fan of Spotify’s random play (I have over 2000 songs on my playlist, I shouldn”t hear any repeats for a long time but I’ll get a couple a day), I create a new playlist with all the songs on my playlist and then throw anything I really like a couple of times on one list and then mix them myself and put them all on one list and start from the top and work my way down. So it’s not hard to keep track of how many songs I’ve listened to on Spotify. I do keep track of songs not on my playlist such as when my wife uses it in her car or sometimes on the rare occasion, I’ll let Samantha play her list but that number is an estimate. I don’t actually sit and count them.

Songs on my playlist Anything & Everything – 2175.

How many songs I listened to off of that playlist in 2014 – 8427 tracks.

How many songs I listened to off of other playlists in 2014 -  approximately 321.

Music is another thing I don’t get to partake in as often as I did at my previous job. At my previous job I listened to my Spotify all day long (12 hr days) except when I was on breaks (yes, I listened to it while reading). Now, I pretty much only listen to it when I’m in my car and the rare occasion when I’m home alone or the wife is sleeping. So I’m pretty sure that number will go way down next year as well.

I also kept track of how many movies I seen this year. Not each title or anything but how many and how. Let’s see what I got.

• I rented 45 movies on DVD – the Majority of these are from Redbox but some probably came from Netflix as well. We usually get the TV series from Netflix that we can’t stream so we don’t get too many movies from there.
• I streamed 4 movies – Yeah, only 4. Those were all probably from Netflix which we generally stream TV shows. Let’s face it, Netflix sucks when it comes to good new movies. I’m not much for rewatching movies I’ve seen before.
• I watched 35 movies on TV – Technically, I watched the streaming ones on TV but this category is movies I catch on TV or ones I watch on Demand. I only count movies where I watch start to finish so if I started watching something half way through, it didn’t get counted.
• I went to 5 movies in the theaters – We don’t go to the movies to often, way to expensive. I can tell you what all 5 movies were and where I saw them. 3 of them were at the $1 theater, 1 was matinee price at a regular theater (which is still expensive) and the last one I had a gift card so the kids got in free. The movies were Captain America: the Winter Soldier (3 times), The Guardians of the Galaxy and Night at the Museum 3. I didn’t keep track of the titles, I just remember those.

I also kept track of how many (and what) sports I watched and played throughout the year. I didn’t keep track of the teams but I could tell you what the majority was because I generally watch my teams and that’s it. Very rarely do I sit down and just watch any game, other than the Super Bowl.

Sports watched (live or TV)

• Baseball – 19 games, all were White Sox games but 1. I think I caught a Michigan (NCAA) game on TV once as well. Only 1 of those was live as I took the kids to their first White Sox game.
• Basketball – 44 games, all those games were split between Michigan (NCAA) and the Bulls. 1 of those was live as I went to a Michigan game.
• Football – 22 games, all those games were split between Michigan (NCAA) and the Colts and I probably watched the Super Bowl for 1 game. I went to 1 Michigan game live.
• Hockey – 1 game, I’m not really into watching hockey but I got invited to a Notre Dame (NCAA) hockey game and went. I love hockey live, just not a huge fan of watching it on TV.

Sports participated in

• Basketball – 2 times, I did manage to get my fat ass out and play basketball twice with a group of guys this year. I would love to do this more often but getting enough guys together is usually the problem.
• Golf – 9 times, the majority of that was towards the beginning of summer when I worked with my brother, we would go after work. I haven’t gone since I switched jobs again.

That’s all I have for today, but don’t worry, that’s not all the stats I keep, but since this post is already over 2000 words, I better save the other stuff for another time. It’s all blog and internet related. Until then, A, B, C ya.