Weekly Catch-Up

True story!  This was posted the morning of the National Championship game.

Facebook is getting ridiculous with this.  I created lists a long time ago, before they started putting people in them automatically and everything was fine.  Then they have to change crap all the time.  And it’s all about getting money.  That Zuckenburg or whatever the hell is name is doesn’t have enough.  You’ve made enough to live the rest of your life in comfort, is it really necessary to get more.

If you read this blog, you already know about this.

My second ever e-card creation.  I got a bunch of likes and a couple of shares but what’s funny, is some of the likes I got were actually from Notre Dame fans.

I update my cover photo.  Does anyone recognize the movie?  Anyone?  I’ll give you a hint, the 2 actors above are George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino.  You got it, From Dusk Till Dawn.

I posted about this here.

You’ve also read about Cheri’s issues with her back so she is sleeping in her recliner in the living room because it hurts too much to lay on her hips.

Took Cheri to her doctor.  He’s prescribed some steroids to help along, let’s hope they do.

Samantha had a Girl Scouts function on Saturday so I kept the kids Friday night.  Samantha had mentioned earlier in the week that she wanted to go bowling so that’s what we did.  Besides, if it were up to Trevor, we’d all play with his lego’s.  First game was 236 (I was on fire), second game was a 140 (I sucked) but averaged out (188), it’s still higher than my last league average (175).  We bowled without bumpers so I could teach the kids how to actually bowl.

And the afore mentioned Girl scout activity.  Samantha worked a cookie booth at a local Lowe’s.

When I text and drive, I generally wait until I get to a stop sign or light before doing so, but since this idiot in front of me couldn’t even do the speed limit (40mph) on a road that most people don’t do less than (45-50mph) I decided to go ahead and do it anyways.

I went to pick Samantha up at basketball practice and everyone lines up to pick their kids up.  There is always some moron who just parks their car along the curb and leaves it there.  So when we get our kids, we all have to go around his stupid ass.  The parking lot starts 20 feet from the curb, is it really that hard to park your damn car.

After the last 2 tweets (you’ll notice there is only 10 minutes between them), my mom text me and told me her mom’s wisdom of the day (her words) “I think you need to relax and take life a little easier.  If you can’t control it then don’t let it bother you.”  Of course, I replied “Screw that.  Tell people to stay out of my way.”

I don’t care who you are, that’s just funny.

If you follow my @DailyJLaws13 twitter account, I usually tweet my locations as well as what I’m watching or reading.

I was excited about this, everyone suspected that Lewan was going pro.  I’m excited that this kid decided to finish his college career next year.

Took the kids to school, it was decent the day before this but notice the RealFeel temperature.  It was a lot colder than I was expecting when I stepped out.

I love greasy ass gas station food.  I don’t get to eat it very often.  Most gas stations don’t serve it anymore and rarely do I ever go into a convenient store anyways with pay at the pump.  But I happened to stop at Smith’s for gas and went in just for it.

The kids shoes at bowling were styling.  I posted this along with I’m surprised the hipster’s haven’t started wearing these and claimed the fashion for their own.

Always be on the lookout.

My mom claims I used to love this show, I don’t recall that but if she says so.

My favorite big city.

    

I love this.  So many big companies bow to a little negativity instead of standing up for what they believe in.  It doesn’t surprise me though, JC Penney is a huge supporter of the show Ellen.

Jay and Silent Bob, if you don’t know them, then it doesn’t matter.

  

  

  

Nothing better then when they make fun of their own career.

In the show, they opened a closet carefully, expecting something to jump out and found this, it was pretty funny.

  

  

Zombieland, I need to watch this again.  It’s been awhile.

Finished Grave Situation by Alex MacLean.  It was a good book and I enjoyed it which says a lot when it comes to a freebie I picked up for the Kindle.  Your basically following a cop trying to catch a killer in a small town where there have been very few murders in it’s history.  But as your reading about the killer, you find out there is someone else telling him what to do.  But you really see no link between what the cop has and the killer.  But further into the book, when you realize why he is cutting off body parts, you find out that he’s not even doing what he’s supposed to be doing.  So what I enjoyed about it, was the couple of good twists and that you don’t really know what was going on until the end.  It was well written and enjoyable.

I haven’t technically started my next book so I won’t show it yet.  Even though I know what it is.

I’ve listened to 684 tracks so far, 383 tracks left until the next random tourney.

• Worked out 4 days.
• Rode the stationary bike for 25 miles.
• Walked on the elliptical for 1,538 steps in 30 minutes.
• Did 4 sets of 10 reps at 50 lbs each (Seated Chest Press)
• Did 4 sets of 10 reps at 50 lbs each (Seated Buttrtfly Press)

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Unforgettable, Looper, Trouble with the Curve, You Me and Dupree

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The Mentalist, Ice Loves Coco, Switched at Birth, The Ellen Degeneres show

Betty White’s Off Their Rockers, Go On, Hot in Cleveland, Nashville

Star Trek, American Horror Story:  Asylum, the Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men

Grey’s Anatomy, Person of Interest, Impractical Jokers, Elementary

Malibu Country, Beyond Scared Straight, Last Man Standing, Teen Trouble

BCS BS – Basically a post dedicated to my hatred of Notre Dame.

Book Page – I didn’t have anything new for WWW Wednesdays but I did announce my new book page.

Spasms, High Blood Pressure and Star Trek – I talk about the health issues of Cheri and I and my new exercise routine.  Which may also include sitting on my ass and watching Star Trek.

I’m Pumping, Me Up – I talk about my new found exercise routine as well as give my weekly totals.  Also above.

I’m pumping, me up

In case you missed it, I started a little bit of a workout. I’ve completed my first week today.  There is a small workout facility next to the office at our apartments and I can access it while the office is open and they aren’t open tomorrow.  If I stick with this for a month or so, I may go get a key so I can get into it anytime but I know myself, and I want to stay with it for awhile and make sure it’s going to stick.  The plan is to work out on my days off.  I can’t work out on the days I work because one, I’m exhausted.  And two, the office is closed before I get home so I would have to get the key to do that.  So I decided to just do the off days.

They have a stationary bike, an elliptical machine, a treadmill and a home gym set up with all the weights.  Monday was my first day off and I rode the bike, Tuesday I did the bike again but added the elliptical. Wednesday I worked, Thursday I did the bike, elliptical and played around with the weights to see if I wanted to add those to my workout.  Friday, the kids and I were out most of the afternoon so I didn’t get the chance, but we did go bowling so that’s some exercise at least.  Today, I felt good once I started and did the biggest workout so far.

• Monday – biked 5 miles.
• Tuesday – biked 4 miles, walked 563 steps (10 minutes) on the elliptical.
• Thursday – biked 6 miles, walked 477 steps (10 minutes) on the elliptical.
• Saturday – biked 10 miles, walked 498 steps (10 minutes) on the elliptical.seated chest press 4 reps of 10, 50 lbs., butterfly press, 4 reps of 10, 50 lbs.

I know that 50 lbs looks weak, but I really have no upper body strength.  I’ve always had strong legs from all the basketball, baseball and some running when I was growing up.  I never really did anything for my upper body.  Plus, I really just didn’t have a clue where to start so I started at 50 lbs.  I haven’t worked out since high school which is over 20 years ago and I never liked it back then.  I think the reason’s I’m tolerating it now are fairly simple.

1. I’m fat – I’ve been fat for awhile now, but now my gut is getting in the way.  Clothes are getting tighter, it’s getting more difficult to tie my shoes. stairs kick my ass and my knees have been hurting.  Needless to say, I’ve been very disappointed in myself.
2. Blood Pressure – I’ve been borderline high blood pressure for years, I’m guessing with the additional weight I’ve put on, that I might be pushing that.  That’s why I started with the bike because I need to get my heart rate up to make the blood pressure go down.
3. I’m a loner – I don’t like people and this gym is seldom used.  So when I’m pushing my measly 50 lbs. in the air, I don’t have to worry about other people standing in the corner calling my a pussy.  Not that I care what they think, but I prefer to be left alone.
4. Music – I’m really into listening to my music on Spotify.  I’ve always been into music but I hate the radio (commercials, sometimes poor song choice), I’ve always made mixed tapes and cd’s but they only last up to 20 songs and then your listening to the same stuff again.  I tend to start knowing what song is next and I don’t like that.  So now that I’ve started using Spotify, I have a playlist of over 1000 songs (no repeating) and they are all songs I like (no sucky ass songs).  Working out gives me more chance to listen to my music.
5. Books – I’ve also gotten into reading a lot more.  But I don’t like to make time at home to read, I’d rather be watching TV or movies and being online in my down time.  Right now, I only read on my breaks at work so it takes awhile to get through even a smaller book.  While on the bike and the elliptical, I read (yes, while listening to music, I’m cool like that).

So there you see, I have other motives to keep me working out.  We’ll see if I stick to it or not.  Another problem that may be an issue, if you recall, we are trying to buy a house this summer.  If that happens, I lose my gym and will have to find something else.  Or maybe, pay for the key and come by after hours so nobody knows I’m using it.  Hmmm.

Spasms, High Blood Pressure and Star Trek

One of these things is not like the other!

Today hasn’t started well.  I woke up to Cheri not being in bed.  Her back was hurting so much last night that she had to go sleep on the recliner.  She was getting better day by day and then I went back to work yesterday, which left her having to get out of the apartment and take the kids to and from school.  Then this happened this morning.  I had to call in to work so I could drive the kids and help her out if she needs it.  I’m not worried about calling in being as I do it on average, less than once a year but it doesn’t help the paycheck any.  Especially now with it be 12 hours shorter instead of 8.  But we’ll make do.  I have the next 3 days off so hopefully she can recover by Monday.

It sucks seeing her like this.  She’ll just be sitting there and then she shouts out cuss words because she shifted herself a hair to the side and it put her in extreme pain.  It doesn’t look right seeing her use a walker or cane to get around.  Guess we’ll see how well she does for the next few days,  Right now she’s made it back into bed and is trying to get some sleep since sleeping in the recliner doesn’t exactly mean sleeping well.

She doesn’t want to be up anyways since I’ve just just started watching the original Star Trek TV series.  Yes, the ones that originally played in 1966, I think I’m going to watch them all (not today) then move on to the other series, the Animated Series (1973-1974), the Next Generation (1987-1994), Deep Space Nine (1993-1999), Star Trek Voyager (1995-2001) and Star Trek Enterprise (2001-2005).  I believe they are all on Netflix.  I still need to rewatch the last movie as well.  If you remember, I recorded a bunch of them on Christmas eve and watched them throughout the week.  But I still need to watch the prequel Star Trek movie or the 11th in the series (actually, I have to make Cheri watch it so she can be caught up).  Not that she wants to be caught up but I can’t have a wife who hasn’t seen the Star Trek movies.  That would just be wrong.

I do plan on continuing my workout today since I didn’t go to work.  What’s that?  You didn’t know I’ve started to work out, well then you obviously don’t follow me on Twitter.  The plan is to do a little workout on my days off, minus Sunday’s because the gym isn’t open.  Although, it’s not technically a gym, our apartment has a small room with some gym equipment.  It has a treadmill, stationary bike, elliptical machine and a weight set that has different types of benches to use (like the one pictured above).  On Monday I rode the bike for 5 miles, then on Tuesday I rode it for 4 miles and did 10 minutes on the elliptical.  Basically enough to get my fat ass off the couch.  They’ve been telling me for years that I need to walk everyday so I guess this is just as good.  They always tell me to get my heart rate up, it’ll probably help my borderline high blood pressure as well.  So he can stop his bitching too.

Book page

I’m not technically doing a WWW Wednesdays post today because if I answered the 3 questions, it would be the same post as last weeks because I haven’t finished the book I was reading.  I should tomorrow, but that’s a little late for a Wednesday.  I’m not linking up with them, but I put the button up there so feel free to click it and check out everybody else’s.

For my new readers who follow my books, I only read on my breaks at work and sometimes people talk to me and I get less reading done.  That’s kind of what happened this week.  Too much talking.  If this continues, I’ll have to put my headphones on and hopefully they’ll stop talking to me.

But one thing I did do with my books, is created a page with a listing of the books that I’ve read since I joined Goodreads back in May of last year.  I’ll try to keep it more up to date then I do my Track of the Day page.  Check it out, let me know what you think.

BCS BS

For those that don’t know, I live just outside of South Bend, Indiana.  Which is right next to Notre Dame, Indiana.  That’s right, they have their own zip code and post office.  Because they are special.  If you live in this area, 90% of the people love Notre Dame.  I think it’s because they can’t think for themselves and they are the local team.  Also, for those that don’t know, I am a Michigan fan.  Most of my clothes are Michigan,  I bet I’ve driven 2 1/2 hours (one way) to more Michigan games than 85% of these Notre Dame “fans”.  I go to 2-3 games in Ann Arbor a year, plus we make a family trip up before the season for Fan Appreciation Day or Youth Day where the kids can meet the players and get autographs, plus go down on the field.  I follow their basketball team all season and try to watch as many games as I can on TV.  And I try to follow their baseball team but that is a challenge as it doesn’t get much recognition here in the South Bends area.

I hate Notre Dame fans.  Not all, but most.  As I said above, most of my clothes are Michigan and I wear them proudly.  But it never fails, ever since they went undefeated this year, when I go out in the world, no matter where I go, someone walks by and says “Go Irish!”.  My typical response to them anymore is “Wow!  Shocker, a Notre Dame fan.” but as Cheri says, I say it rather rudely.  I’ve just gotten so fed up with their bullshit.  Everywhere you look around here is not only Notre Dame, but most likely Notre Dame football.  Front page of the paper is always ND.  Lead story on the news broadcasts is usually ND.  Did I tell you the call letters of our local NBC affiliate.  WNDU – That’s W Notre Dame University.  That’s right, the university owns the local TV/Radio station.  The university signed a huge multi-million dollar deal with NBC to broadcast their games.

I used to only hate the fans, but more and more, I’m starting to hate the university.  The last few years alone they have pissed me off because they put their football program above anything else.  Their star WR a few years back got a DUI, they suspended him from football, for a few months in the middle of summer.  Don’t worry ND fans, he played every game.  Michigan had a WR also get a DUI around the same time, you know what they did, they benched him for the year and when he got caught driving on a suspended license, thus breaking his probation, they kicked him off the team.  Did you hear about the ND players that raped a girl, she reported to campus security and they swept it under the rug.  Last I heard, the players name was ever released.  I’m sure you heard about the kid that got killed because the coaches sent him up in a scissors lift in 60 mph winds, it made national news.  Why did they send him up?  To record a football practice.

The university is all about their image and money.  Guess that makes sense since they are a catholic university.  They won’t join a conference because it cuts into their money and that way, they can keep making making their own schedule.  Oh wait, I’m sorry, they did join a conference this past year.  They joined the ACC (not known for their football), oh wait, that’s right, all sports programs joined EXCEPT the football program.  You know, because that’s where their money is at.

Why is all this coming up now?  Because last nights BCS game was a reminder of why I don’t like ND fans.  They truly believed that they belonged there.  I won’t even get into the reason that they were there, the BCS system.  But what I did enjoy last night during the game, was Twitter.  The ND haters were out in full force, don’t worry, I saved some for you.

If you like Notre Dame, more power to you.  But I don’t and I think you know why now.  I don’t hate ND because I’m a Michigan fan.  I hate Notre Dame because of Notre Dame and Notre Dame fans.  I’m proud of the way Michigan handles its students, can you Notre Dame fans say the same?

Weekly Catch-up

On my days off, if Cheri realizes I haven’t drank anything throughout the day, she’ll make me drink a glass of water before I’m “allowed” to drink anything else.  Unless I get pretty thirsty, I just don’t get up to get anything to drink.  I don’t know why I don’t, I really just don’t think about it.  And I definitely need to drink more water but sweet tea tastes so much better.

Cheri and I had a date night since we didn’t have the kids.  We went and saw “This is 40”, it was really funny if you don’t mind a little raunch in your humor.  Then we decided to go to Chili’s for supper, only problem was, once we ordered, I really started to feel nauseous and like I was going to throw up so we changed our order to go and headed home.  I was starting to feel a little better once we got to the car and by the time we got home, I was back to normal.  We reheated our steaks and ate.  Not sure what happened or why but I told Cheri that was my version of the 24 hr flu.  I like to tease her because I rarely ever get sick.  I told her that was my 24 hr flu and when I get sick for a day, that’s usually a 3 day illness for the regular folks.  I don’t think she was buying it, but she can’t disprove it either.

I have decided that I was going to tell Cheri that I love her more often.  When we were dating, I told her all the time.  But I’ve noticed I rarely say it to her.  Sure she hears it from me daily because she tells me all the time and I sometimes respond with an I love you too.  But I’m making a conscience effort to tell her more often out of the blue instead of just an automated response.

I had to post this for the couple of Cowboys fans on Facebook.  I tagged them so it would be on their walls as well.  I’m a dick like that.  The last time Michigan beat Notre Dame, I found a good Michigan photo and tagged all my Notre Dame people on my friends list so it would show up on their walls.  Told you I could be a dick.

I actually had 9 Tweets go out this week, but nothing that goes here.  Which means, they are listed elsewhere on this page.  I know a couple I tweeted my Facebook status’.

Good thing I posted a couple of pictures today, otherwise this section would be blank like the Twitter section.  I sent this out that I was representing the Colts at work today for the playoffs.

This was my favorite artist and album for years when I was growing up.  I have some of the songs on my Spotify playlists and one came up today.

Come on, how can you not laugh at the Big Bang Theory.

Finished Darkness Falls by Jessica Sorensen.  It’s more or less a vampire type of book with so much more.  Another race controls the humans in underground cities because the vampire’s rule the earth above.  Only the vampires or more like zombie vampires.  The main character could possibly be the one person to change the earth back to what it was.  I enjoyed this first book and even paid for the second of the series and will read it when it’s time comes up on the Kindle.

I started this book earlier in the week, I believe right now I’m just over half way.  It’s one of the few books I’ve read recently that doesn’t have a paranormal kind of theme to it.  I’ve enjoyed it so far and am looking forward to finding out why the serial killer is doing what he’s doing.

I’m not doing the tourney type thing right now, but I can tell you how many tracks I’ve listened to since I finished it.

I’ve listened to 431 tracks so far, 635 tracks left to listen to until the next random tourney.

I did make my playlists public, although most of them on my account are Cheri’s but I don’t know if there is a web address that takes you directly to it.  So you’ll just have to look for it.

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This is 40, A Walk to Remember

    

Romeo Must Die, Dawn of the Dead

WWW Wednesday – I like this weekly meme.  You answer 3 questions (What are you reading?  What did you just finish reading?  What are you reading next?)

Quarterly Stats, volume 2, issue 4 – My quarterly stats report of this blog.  I enjoy making these, not sure many of you really read them though.

One and Only Goal For 2013 – Just what it says, my only goal for this year is….read and find out.

MS Flair-Up – I go into all the latest issues that Cheri has been dealing with.in her latest flair up.  And is still dealing with as I type this up.

MS Flair Up

I haven’t done any updates on Cheri and her MS lately, mainly because she’s been ok with it.  If you know anything about MS, you can go a long time with no real problems and then symptoms hit for awhile, then go away.  These flair up’s can show up at any time and can last for long periods or short periods.  The only real symptom that she battles is the overheating anytime she does something but it isn’t a flair up because it really never goes away.  That’s something she has dealt with for years.  She also deals with weakness of muscles all the time to but she has learned her limits and (mostly) doesn’t push it.

A little late for Christmas

Until Thursday night.  As much as I would like to take credit for throwing out her back because it happened after sex, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t me.  Muscle spasm are also a big deal to MS patients.  And that is what she’s been dealing with since.  Since Thursday, she has barely been able to move.  She’s embarrassed by the fact that she has had to use her walker, cane and even her wheelchair just to get to the bathroom.  But I can tell you one thing, we are glad that we got those when we did because they have been a life savor for her this weekend.  She got the cane and walker through a MS site and qualified for them for free.  At the time, we were thinking she was years away from using them.  Guess not.  My mom purchased the wheelchair for her but we use that time to time now when we have to do a lot of walking so she’s no stranger to it.

Sort of like this, but without the basket band blue

She has compared the pain to labor pains if that tells you something.  She has even fallen and can’t get up (you know you read that in an old ladies voice) and has had a lot of crying.  Cheri deals with pain everyday of her life so if she is crying, she’s is in pain that the rest of us would just want death for relief.  And what made all this worse, after all the days off of work that I’ve had the last few weeks, it happens the day I have to go back.  So on Friday, she was home alone while dealing with all of this.  I wanted to leave work so bad but if I did, I lose all my holiday pay as well and we just couldn’t afford that.  So she took care of herself all day until I could get home.  She feels so weak right now but I know how strong she is.  I’m not sure how she did all this because when I got home and saw what she was going through, I felt horrible.  It literally took her 15 minutes to just get out of her recliner and over to the wheelchair so I could push her into the bathroom.

She called her doctor and he called her in some muscle relaxers which we are grateful that he trusts her enough to do that without seeing her.  It helps that his mother had MS so he’s got first hand experience with the disease.  I picked them up after multiple trips to Walgreen’s.  I went once, picked up all her meds, but apparently the one we really needed so I had to go back.  She has been on those for a little over a day now and is getting better.  She still has trouble getting up but she is moving better and walking better.  She is still using the walker because her legs give out on her while she’s walking but she’s definitely getting better.

One other thing that hasn’t gone away yet, is the extreme pain when she turns the wrong way.  Last night, she would out of the blue scream and smack me.  She thinks her body would just flinch a little bit just as she was drifting off and it would hurt like hell.  She still has the issue because she’ll be sitting in the recliner and all of the sudden scream out.  Usually scaring me as well.  But she is getting better.  We’ll see if tomorrow morning she can get out of bed without calling and waking up her daughter to come to her room and help her.  Because nobody wants to see a cranky teenager first thing in the morning.

As long as she continues to improve, she should be ok.  Hopefully by Wednesday.  I have Monday and Tuesday off so I’ll be able to take the kids to school but Wednesday is a different story.  Like I said, hopefully she’s better by Wednesday.

One and only goal for 2013

Welcome to my first real post of 2013.  I posted my stats page but I’d be surprised if anyone actually reads those.  This post won’t be about resolutions or the New Year in general because essentially, I don’t keep resolutions very well and have learned not to make them.  There are things I want to get better at but it has nothing to do with the new year, they are just changes that I need to make.  I probably only have 1 real goal for 2013 and that is to be in a house.  The sooner the better.

For those that don’t know our story, my wife (then girlfriend) lived in Virginia before moving up here.  When she moved up here, we moved into government housing because it was one of the few places that we could get a 4 bedroom apartment.  Plus between the 2 of us, we had 4 kids and I was the only one working so we needed the assistance.  Here we are, almost 3 years later, still in those apartments.  We are no longer receiving government aid and haven’t for awhile now so we aren’t staying here for the help, but more because we don’t want to make multiple moves.  So we decided to stay here until we found a permanent home.  We hate moving plus we have no desire to keep switching places with the kids.  They get enough of that from theEx, she has moved multiple times in the last couple of years.  The apartment is nice, don’t get me wrong.  They aren’t very old and we like the location but I send my kids to a different school district so that means we have to drive and pick them up from school.  Which is a pain in the ass, especially now that they are getting older and doing after school activities.  Samantha has been in basketball for the last month or so and it’s a pain because we pick Trevor up at 2:20 then go back at 3:30 to get Samantha after practice.  It would be nice to live in the same district so the kids could just ride the bus to and from.

When we moved in here, Cheri was already getting financial aid and my name wasn’t on it so they would only give us a 3 bedroom because it was her and her 2 kids.  It was fine once Skyler headed off to college because both kids got their own room, but now that she’s back, they have to share a room again and it sucks.  We don’t like making them share but we’re not going to let a daughter live on the streets either.

We went to a lender a few months ago to see what we could do.  His advice was to pay off 4 things still on my credit report.  2 of those theEx stuck me with because she never paid them.  Including a van repossessed after we split.  It was in my name so I have to pay it and I have been for the last couple of years.  But I set it up to only pay $25/week at the time because I was broke so it’ll take awhile to pay.  I’ve paid off the other 3 but am still working on the van.  He also said I need to establish more positive credit so I think I’m going to get a loan, pay off the van, and then pay off the loan.  Kind of a 2 birds with 1 stone kind of thing.

We are looking at a local school district that we want.  It’s not the kids current district but they’ve already got 6 cousins in this school district and they both play baseball/softball in the district so they already know some of the kids as well.  We are looking for at least a 3 bedroom house with a finished basement that Skyler can make a room for herself in or a 4 bedroom.  We want a ranch style house because the stairs here kick our ass, especially Cheri’s with all her medical issues.  If she’s having a flare up, the stairs really kick her ass.  We would like to have a basement (preferably finished) but it’s not a must if there is enough bedrooms.  Cheri would also like to have counter space in the kitchen, that’s really all we are looking for.

We will both be 40 by this summer and neither of us have ever owned a house.  I kind of feel like a failure because of that.  So my goal for 2013 is to provide a stable home for our kids.  A place where I know we’ll live for many years to come.

Quarterly Stats–volume 2, issue 4

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

The first 3 parts made up the first 19 months of the blog.  From now on, they will be quarterly posts so each will cover 3 months.

I should have waited one more page view so it was an even 15,600.  At the last stats post on November 7th, I was at 10,839 page views.  Which tells me that even though my page views have been up, most people are too lazy to click the Followers button because that number stayed the same.  I had 58 more posts in the last 3 months for a 19 post a month average.  Not too shabby, it was probably mostly gibberish but it’s my gibberish so it counts.  Let’s break down the last 3 months of 2012.

October was my most productive month ever on this blog with 24 posts out of 31 days.  That was pretty good for me considering I only average 10-12 a month for most of this blog’s existence.  I started to get into the habit of posting periodically even if I didn’t have much to say.  That’s why you only see one Randomness post, because I wasn’t combining them all and just doing some short posts.  Plus this month I took the time to think about some past stories that I thought I could tell.  Problem was, I don’t lead an exciting life and I ran out of the stories pretty quickly.  It was pretty fitting that the title that put me over 100,000 words was titled “The First of an Obsession”.  Even though it’s not about blogging, I’m pretty sure we can say blogging is an obsession as well.

October 2012 – 24 posts – 15,170 words

• average of 632 words per post.

Notice I didn’t put the pictures up there.  I have decided I didn’t care how many were posted anymore.  But I screen capped the image above just after October so they are still listed up there.  This was my most productive in total words with over 15,000 words, but it wasn’t my highest per post so it’s mainly high because there are more posts.  But 632 words per post is a great average that I’d like to keep.  My personal goal is 500 words per post every month.

November wasn’t quite as productive with only 18 posts but still averaged more than 1 every 2 days so I can’t complain about that.  A couple more Randomness posts and less small worded posts so you can see I just don’t always take the time to throw out a quicky.  I like to do the Randomness posts instead and do them when I have more time.

November 2012 – 18 posts – 12,125 words

• average of 674 words per post.

As you can see, I actually average more words this month then last month even though last month was more productive post wise.

My production went down a couple more of posts.  And that’s with going back to Weekly Catch-Ups and I had 5 of those this month.  I just wasn’t in the mood to post much, I’m actually still kind of in that mood but I’m trying to get some stuff out there.  I have ideas, just have to get my ass in gear.  You will notice I took off the picture numbers finally so you won’t have to deal with those anymore.

December 2012 – 16 posts – 11,984 words

• average of 749 words per post

Nice number for words per post, I even had 3 posts in a row at over 1,000.  I didn’t make it to 150,000 words by the end of the year, and at the rate I’ve been feeling about posting lately, it may take till February.  Let’s compare my yearly totals since this is the end of my fiscal year (don’t I sound smart).

Year 1 (2011, 11 months) – 22,689 words

Year 2 (2012) – 114,876 words

Yeah, I’m definitely getting a little more productive on my posts.  Little bit of difference between those numbers.  You can see that 2011 was only 11 months, that’s because I started this blog in February so that actually means I have an anniversary coming up.  I’ll have to think of something to do to celebrate.

WWW Wednesday

To play along, I’m supposed to answer 3 easy questions.

What are you currently reading?

Grave Situation by Alex Maclean

I haven’t actually started reading this but have it ready to go on my Kindle.

 

What did you recently finish reading?

Darkness Falls (Darkness Falls #1) by Jessica Sorensen

I downloaded the 2nd in the series if that tells you anything.  I enjoyed the first one, it was a unique story with Vampires as well as other beings and the one girl who is supposed to set the world back to the way it’s supposed to be.

 

What do you think you’ll read next?

In Search of Nectar by Kirkus Macgowan

It’s easy to figure out what I’m reading next because I’m OCD and I read them in order that I downloaded them.  I believe this book was written by a fellow blogger and I always try to pick up books of theirs as long as the cost isn’t too much.

 

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