Brrrrr!

So my work schedule this week is 2 days off (last weekend) work 2 days (Mon-Tues) 2 days off (Weds-Thurs) work 2 days (Fri-Sat) and then 1 day off (Sunday) before hopefully going back to our regularly scheduled Mon-Fri week.

Why? Because it's cold, really cold.

See that middle area at the top that reads Elkhart, that's where we are. The straight line that runs from the lake between all those counties, that's the state line for Michigan and Michigan has already declared a state of emergency. Those are the temps (wind chill/realfeel) for tomorrow (Wednesday).

I screencapped this about 15 minutes ago from this great weather app. If you love sarcasm, you have to download it (What The Forecast?), and yes, you can take it off NSFW if you don't like the language.

You can see it's sitting at 0° at the moment but you can also see where if feels like -21°. The real problem is that yesterday it got up into the 30's and was raining/snowing which made everything wet and now, the wind is freezing everything over.

School was cancelled Tuesday and Wednesday and I'm pretty sure they will probably get cancelled on Thursday as well. The majority of businesses including the city/state government building are closed the next 2 days. I'd have to say the majority of factories (which hardly ever close for weather) are already closed for the next couple of days. Indiana (northern at least) is pretty much shutting down. Even the USPS isn't delivering tomorrow.

For those animal lovers out there. The South Bend Animal Control went around yesterday leaving notes on peoples houses that keep their animals outside, I assume telling them that they need to bring them in today. Today, they are going back to those houses and if the dogs are outside, they are taking them away. They will have to pay fees and fines to get their dogs back. Not to mention, have to fix any repairs done to their fences to get the dogs out. Last check on their Facebook page was they had picked up dogs at 8 different locations. As far as I'm concerned, if they leave their pets outdoors, even in the summer, they shouldn't be dog owners.

So I guess I'll be around the house for a few days. Here's hoping the wife doesn't get me doing projects.

Slow Saturday

I feel like I should post something, I'm sure nobody is really waiting for anything but I hate neglecting the blog. My life pretty much consists of home and work.

Home life is pretty boring. Sam is driving now so I don't have to run her back and forth anymore. We've actually taken in a friend of hers who has just had a rough life. Her family just don't want to take care of her so she doesn't get anything she needs or help with getting to work or anything. We've taken her in which essentially means we've taken financial responsibility for her because in reality, that's all we've done. She wanted to move in because she knows living here, she has to keep up with school work and doesn't have the stress of dealing with all the crap at her place. We met with the guidance counselor and straightened some things at school and are trying to get her on track to graduate on time.

I guess I had something to say after all. I'm still keeping track of my walking on a map. I believe I'm in Idaho at the moment but it'll be awhile before I reach anything because there isn't much around.

Work life is pretty good. I enjoy most of my job. I finally got my lab built and have moved in so that's great. I've had some issues with some of my employees but to be honest, I'm not comfortable posting about work online. Anything can happen with the information and the company I work for is pretty huge and like I said, I enjoy my job so I don't want to jeopardize anything so I generally don't say anything.

So between my boring life at home and not wanting to post about work that pretty much leaves me with nothing to post about. So there you go.

I still post on My Sports Obsession fairly regularly but if you don't like sports cards, that means nothing to you. I also post almost daily on Last Song of the Day which if you like music, or even if you don't, you can check it out. I post the last song that I listened to off of my playlist that currently consists of 3,306 songs. It has pretty much everything on it. Rock, Country and 80's are the top 3 genres with songs posted so far so go check it out.

2018 Stats

Are we ready for another year of stats? Are you excited to know what I've been up to? I know, you don't care, but I do so let's get to it.

First off, let's give some links to previous years. I didn't post in 2015, which was when we moved in our house (the first of January) so I probably forgot all about it.

2017   -   2016   -   2014, part 1   -   2014, part 2   -   2013

As per the usual, let's start with where I've been eating. In the () is how many times the previous year.

• 1 Time - 5 Guys (4), Angler's (0), Bonnie Doon's (0), Buffalo Wild Wings (2), Calihan's (0), Chili's (0), Cock-A-Doodle Cafe (0), Cracker Barrel (1), Domino's (0), Fazoli's (2), Fudpucker's (0), Hardee's (0), Huddle House (0), IHOP (0), Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville (0), Joe's Crab Shack (0), Kilwin's (0), Panda Express (0), Schoops (0), Volcano's (1), Whataburger (0), Wings Ect (2)

5 Guys really surprises me, I love that place. You can see a lot of those I haven't eaten at before or at least in awhile. 10 of those places up there came the last week of December when I traveled to and from and spent 5 days in Florida.

• 2 Times - 7-Eleven (2), Between the Buns (2), Bravo Cafe (5), Dunkin Donuts (0), Pals (0), Pizza Hut (4), Rally's (3), Simonton Lake Drive In (0), Taqueria Tijuana II (0)

7-Eleven is a convenient store but I love their hot dogs. Bravo Cafe is down because they have new owners and we're not fans of some of the changes. Dunkin Donuts is brought into work because I couldn't tell you the last time I ate there. Same with the Taqueria Tijuana II, we order taco's from there at work.

• 3 Times - Bojangles (0), Chick-Fil-A (3), Gerace's Pizza (0), Hacienda Mexican Restaurant (2), Lux Cafe (1), Rise 'n Roll (2), Smith's Food Mart (3)

Bojangles is in Virginia and my wife eats there practically every day when we are there. Gerace's Pizza is the pizza work has brought in when they are really treating us. Lux Cafe is also a work related place we get for breakfast occasionally.

• 4 Times - Long John Silvers (5), Martin's Deli (2)

Martin's Deli is the local supermarket deli, they have the best fried chicken in the area.

• 5 Times - Dairy Queen (4), Flippin' Cow (4)

Flippin' Cow has the best burgers in town.

• 6 Times - Culver's (0), Little Caeser's Pizza (5), Steak 'n Shake (1)

Culver's is up last year because I grab lunch there at work occasionally.

• 7 Times - Mancino's (1), Subway (1)

Both of those places we just didn't eat there much the previous year but for different reasons. We love Mancino's grinders but we kind of forgot about it until late last year. Subway, I'm just now a huge fan of but my daughter started working there so we picked it up more often.

Up next are my top 7, all are in double digits for the year.

• 10 Times (10)

Last year was the same 10 times but if was in 5th place, this year they dropped to 7th.

• 13 Times (19)

Down a little bit from the previous year but we still love their sandwiches. If they delivered to us, it would probably be a lot more.

 

• 14 Times (Brunos 17, Arbys 7)

Bruno's is our go to pizza, they are the best around, and they deliver. A lot of the Arby's was a snack, they have the best Mozzarella sticks and they are next to Walgreens where my wife gets her meds.

• 19 Times (9)

Burger King was way up this year because they had a limited time burger that I loved and I was picking it up more often. While they have good burgers and they are fast food, our BK is very slow and they are more expensive than most fast food so we don't generally go there a lot.

The final 2 should be no surprise as they have been 1 and 2, in the same position, every time I've done this stats page.

• 24 Times (28)

Even though this is 2nd place, it is my favorite fast food restaurant. It used to be my wife's as well but they changed their chicken and now my wife doesn't want it as often so it has fallen off the last few years. From 2013-2015, this was in the 40's and 50's.

• 49 Times (32)

Oddly enough, this is probably our least favorite fast food, for anything other than breakfast. The exception of that rule is the 2 months of the year that the McRib is back. So take away breakfast and McRib and McDonalds would probably be less than 5, and those 5 would all be someone else's choice but we were hanging with them.

We were gradually getting our eating out down until the last couple of years now we're going up. There are probably 2 reasons for that. 1, my wife's pain leads to less time in the kitchen and she's had more pain this year and 2, we are able to afford it more than in the past which leads me to picking up snacks here and there after work.

Next up we'll check out my books. It was way down this year compared to the past. I only read on my breaks at work which is the reason it's way down. I only get a half hour worth of breaks all day.

I only read 18 books this past year. That may be a lot for some of you but like I said, it's down for me.

Ever since I kept track of my books, I've only read at work. 2013 was slow at my job, as you can tell. 2018 is the first full year at my new job so there you go.

You can follow the books I'm reading on Goodreads.

Once again, in the movies section, you won't see DVD's listed because we didn't watch any. They will be back on next years list because I've been getting behind on my movies and it's a lot cheaper to rent them than pay to stream them.

I watched 7 movies in the theaters this year. A Quiet Place, Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool 2, Tag, It, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Aquaman.

I watched 14 movies on TV, which means either on a network or on demand. I could list them all as well but I won't.

I also streamed 12 movies, which means online or a streaming service (Netflix, Hulu or Amazon).

I watched 34 total movies on the year. The ones listed above are only the ones that I had seen for the first time.

You can follow the movies I watch on LetterBox.

I watched 111 sporting events (games) this past year, either live or on TV.

I watched 22 football games.

I watched 35 basketball games.

I watched 54 baseball games.

I generally watch "my" teams. I don't really watch a ton of sports like some people do. I watch Michigan games in all 3 sports and the White Sox in baseball. There might be a few games here or there that weren't my normal teams but for the most part, that's what they are.

I need to change my header now that I don't use Fitbit. I'd prefer to use it but I can't wear it around my wrist at work and that's where I get more of my exercise/steps. So I've been using the Samsung app on my phone to keep it.

There, that's more accurate.

Top row is steps, bottom row is mileage. As you can see, I put a little bit more than the previous year. We'll see if I can keep that trend going up next year.

I only hit 10,000 steps or more 45 times this past year. I hit that mark 59 times last year and since I have more steps this year, that says that I'm getting more steps on the weekends then I used to so that's good as well.

You can follow my Samsung Health account here.

I did change my header photo for my drive section. It's the photo that Davco took when I purchased my new car. This year, I only kept track of the miles I put on in my car as opposed to any car that I drove. A little less stressful on keeping the stats. 

As you can tell, the difference in my jobs is making a huge difference in my mileage. 

My beverage consumption has increased as well this year. I'd say that's probably better except my water consumption went down and that's probably the only healthy thing I drink.

The Coke has gone up since I tend to drink one at home with most of my suppers now. The Gatorade/Powerade has gone up because I've been drinking it more on my way to and from work. Mountain Dew ICE, my brother wanted me to try it. It wasn't bad but I prefer regular Dew. I have OJ for my first break at work.

Last but not least, my music. Yep, I've been keeping track of that as well this past year.

I listened to 15,848 tracks last year.

My top 15 artists (because they are all in the triple digits) listened to.

• DC Talk (241)
• Petra (195)
• Michael W. Smith (180)
• Taylor Swift (152)
• Ed Sheeran (145)
• Keith Urban (142)
• Halestorm (121)
• Michael Jackson (118)
• Blake Shelton (117)
• the Beatles (110)
• Carrie Underwood (109)
• Russ Taff (107)
• Billy Joel (104)
• Pink (102)
• Eminem (100)

Those top 3 (Christian) artists are probably mainly because I have a ton of their songs on my playlist but that's because I really liked them back in the day. You can tell by the list that I listen to a lot of different stuff. You can check those out on Last Song of the Day or you can follow my playlist on Spotify.