2016 Stats

Another year has gone, another year that I gathered statistics. If you've followed this blog for awhile, you know I love stats and keep some of my own. Every year, I add a few, I subtract a few. Some I've kept since 2013, some have started since then. I don't think I did one of these post last year as we had just moved into our new house and had a lot going on.

I have kept where I've eaten since 2013 so you knew this stat was coming. We'll start with the few times and work up to the many times. In the () is the amount of times the year before.

• 1 time - Applebee's (1), Chubby Trout (0), Coney Express (0), Culver's (1), Dominos (1), Hacienda (2), Heinnies (0), Jade Garden (0), Mancino's (2), Red Lobster (1), Sailor's Pizza (0), Steak 'n Shake (2), Swingbellies (0), Volcano's (1)
• 2 times - Chik-Fil-A (3), Dairy Queen (4), Fazoli's (4), Long John Silvers (3), Martin's Deli (8), Nelsons (2), Smith's Food Mart (3), Subway (4)
• 3 times - 5 Guys (0), Bravo Cafe (2), Pizza Hut (9)
• 5 times - Little Ceasers (9)
• 8 times - Wendy's (8)

I don't know how great my record keeping up there is because it seems like I've eaten at some of these places more than it says. You'll notice all the pizza places (Dominos, Sailors, Pizza Hut, Little Ceasers) have all gone down, mainly because we started ordering one of the following all the time because we fell in love with it. Let's get to the top 5, only 1 is new to the top 5 and that would be the pizza place mentioned above.

                

• 10 times - Not much change in either of these from previous years. Arby's was 3rd last year but it's been ranked in the top 5 every year since I started keeping stats (2013). Burger King was in the top 5 every year but 2015 so it hasn't changed much either. Burger King was up more this year because I liked the A1 burger they had for a month. Most of those visits were during that month.

• 16 times - This would be where we get our pizza from most of the time now, although the one we order from doesn't have a bar. As far as I know it's carry out and delivery only. As you can tell since in the last 4 years we had only had it 7 times and then this past year we had it 16 times. This is the first time it's been ranked in top 5. The bad thing is the majority of those 16 times were in the last few months since we discovered it costs us about the same as other pizza places but we get more. So I expect it'll move up next year.

• 26 times - Taco Bell, once again (all 4 years), is in the number 2 spot but to be honest, in the last few months we hadn't really had it much at all. It was our go to place for a quick meal for years but for some reason this year, we have a grown a little tired of it. My wife says they've changed some of their ingredients, but I don't think that's why we haven't eaten there as often. The previous 3 years Taco Bell was in the 40-50 times range.

• 35 times - Once again, McDonalds is #1. It has been every year since I started keeping stats (2013). The sad thing is, we don't really like McDonalds. We both like their breakfast and I love the McRib, which is only there a couple of months a year. It's the breakfast that keeps this at the top of the list because it's our go to, grab a quick breakfast on our way somewhere.

All in all, our eating out has gone way down in. In 2013, we ate out 255 times. It's gone down every year and this past year it was at 151 times. My wife claims because now that we have a house, and it has room in the kitchen, she doesn't mind cooking as much.

As you should know, I use Goodreads to keep track of my reading. I still only read on my breaks at work so that hasn't changed.

As you can see above, I read 45 books although, technically, it was more than that because I read a couple of bundles which included multiple books but I added it on Goodreads as the bundle and it only counts it as 1. I'll remember that next year.

As you can see above, the average length of my books was 257 pages. Some were quick, short e-books, but the majority of them were full books. I joined a book challenge last year where you select how many books your going to read. I selected 40 so you know I reached it.

I selected 50 books for this years challenge, it is supposed to be a challenge right.

Here is my chart from the last few 5 years. 2012 is when I joined so it didn't count from the start of the year. 2013 is huge because I was able to read on the job so I was going through a book or 2 a week. Like I said before, I still only read on my breaks at work so around 55 minutes a work day.

• I watched 10 DVD's this year. They probably all came from Redbox but we don't generally rent movies much anymore. For awhile, I streamed them from a site which you rented them from but they changed the way the site worked so I don't even do that anymore.
• I streamed 25 movies this year. Most were from the previous mentioned site, I couldn't tell you if any were from Netflix because by the time they get there, I've already seen them and they never have anything worth watching.
• I watched 9 movies on TV. For the most part, those were probably days I sat around with nothing on and left it on a movie. It could include On Demand as well but I rarely look for anything there.
• I went to the theaters and watched 5 movies. I can probably name them all if I think about it. Captain America-Civil War, Suicide Squad, Star Trek-Beyond, Deadpool and Batman vs. Superman.

Sports (watched on TV or live)

• Baseball - 55 games (49). I'm sure almost all of these are Chicago White Sox games. Maybe a game or 2 of the Michigan team. I watch when they play them on the Big Ten Network but they rarely do.
• Basketball - 36 games (46). Most of these are the Michigan games but I watched quite a few Bulls games last year as well. Not many this season though so that number will probably drop.
• Football - 30 games (27). Most of these are Michigan games, probably a few Colts games and even some of the local high school games.
• Hockey - 1 game (2). That one game was a Michigan game on TV.
• Softball - 2 games (0). Those were both Michigan games as well. Like the baseball team, they don't play them on the Big Ten network very often.

Sports participated in

• Softball - 6 games (4). That's pretty much a whole season in the church league. Last year was only 4 because a couple got rained out.

That's all I have for this year. Obviously, I can go back and quote stats for all my blogs (and I have quite a few of them) but nobody cares about those. Not that anybody cares about these but they're there regardless.

Day #1 - Indiana

As you can tell, these will be a day behind in accordance to the date since I have to wait until midnight (or when I go to bed) to get my steps for the day.

Well, I got out yesterday and did a little walking. We are dog sitting so I took Milo for a walk. That always makes me feel awkward because I have to put my Fitbit on my opposite hand because I hold his leash with my right hand and it doesn't register my steps.

I need to get out and walk today soon because it's supposed to rain this afternoon. Tomorrow I go back to work so I'll get back to getting steps there. I walked 2.6 miles yesterday which wasn't real far, I basically made it into town and not much further. According to Google maps, this is where I stayed.

As you can see, there are a couple of vehicles there so I had to take out a few zombies. I used my gun but I decided I needed to find something quieter because now there are some zombies outside wanting in. I'll just ride them out until tomorrow. Hopefully, they'll be gone by then. I'm going to look for something here that I can use for a quieter weapon. I thought about using that truck but I think it's safer walking, engine noises attracts them. Walking, I can go my own pace and such. I'm in no hurry to get to SLC. Slow and steady wins the race.

They say you want a Resolution

Here we are, at a new year, with new resolutions. I don't make resolutions, never really have but there is one thing that I need to work on, my fat ass, or more, my fat gut. So, once again, I'm going to try to work out of some sort. I'm going to try to walk again. I've done that a few times here on this blog, and it never lasts. So this time, I'm going to make it a little more interesting. Something I do love, is maps. So my goal for this year, is to walk to Salt Lake City, UT from my home in Indiana. Why? Well, there's a rumor that a government has set up there and it is considered a safe zone. Why do I need a safe zone? Well, because I'm now in a zombie apocalypse. That would be something else I love, apocalyptic stories. I'm a huge the Walking Dead fan and I read apocalyptic thrillers all the time, about all I read anymore so I'm going to combine those things I love with something I hate, exercise.

I chose Salt Lake City because it's approximately 1,500 miles away which is an average of 8,000 steps a day for a year. I chose 8,000 because while I generally am close or over that on work days, it'll be the making that up on the non work days which will be more difficult. I plan on doing some walking on my work days when I get home to get over 10,000 steps a day. Which will make my weekends a little more relaxing. I still plan on walking on those days but not 10,000 steps. I learned last time, that is a lot of steps to be taken just on one walk.

I'll blog about it, I doubt every day, but maybe I'll throw in a story about something that happened that day during the zombie apocalypse, maybe not. I do plan on posting where I was sleeping that night, hence, the use of the maps.

Sure, I could change my diet, but I love food so I just don't see that happening. Although it's ironic that I'm sitting here eating M&M's while I type this out. I hate exercise and to be honest, I'm not sure what all I could do as far as lifting weights and such because of other issues. Hurt shoulder, bad knees, ect. With walking, I usually enjoy the time jamming out on my headphones and it generally takes less than an hour a day. I don't want to take to much time away from my sitting on my ass time. (Haha, but not really).

This may accomplish a couple of things.

1. It'll get my fat ass out there doing something to work off this gut.
2. It'll get me to blog more here. Maybe I should track how many words I post as well.
3. Let's face it, if I can lose some weight, my body would feel better.

So we'll see how far this goes, hopefully further than the last time I tried to exercise.

Random stuff for today

Update on cutting the cord (my last post)

We had decided to do it, we were going to stay with Xfinity for internet because let's face it, I have to have high speed and that is what they are best at. I have 4 people in this house, all with laptops and phones. I need high speed just to keep up with that demand let alone all the streaming (Netflix, Amazon) that goes on here. We were about to be done with our 7 day free trial on Sling TV and Hulu (BTW - I have Netflix (my moms account) and Amazon Prime (my daughters account) that I don't pay for) so my wife contacted Xfinity to cancel the cable and phone. She chatted with them on their site and when all was said and done, they lowered our cost of everything we have now for $123/month. That ends up being cheaper than what we were going to do because the internet was going to be $100, Sling TV was $20 (cheapest version) and Hulu was $13, all montly, for a total of $133/month. So we get that rate for a year and we'll either cut the cord next year or get another new low rate. So basically, we aren't cutting the cord. Which we're happy about, just because using a DVR is easier than trying to catch some shows live and trying to remember what all you need to catch up with on Hulu. Plus I'd have to remember the shows I can't watch with those 2 services and try to remember to catch the seasons when they get posted to Amazon or Netflix.

I do the Timehop thing on my phone and today had a few things that I thought were good enough to share.

A year ago today, I posted this on my personal Facebook.

It's funny because it's true. My stepdad does a lot of the work on the families cars because he's good with that stuff. I happen to be at his house when he was working on one of his vehicles and decided I needed to replace some of the duct tape holding my car together (it's old). I backed into somebody either last winter or the winter before, and my bumper (plastic) was hanging on the ground so I duct taped it up rather then spend a fortune on replace it all. I used black duct tape and it's only on one corner of the bumper so it's not that bad looking. The post is also funny because that's about the extent of my knowledge of cars as well.

5 years ago, I posted this post - Please teach your kids!

I was on my way home from picking up the kids from the Ex and was driving down a 2 lane road when I came upon a biker riding his bike in my lane. I slowed down so the car coming towards me got past so I could go around him in the other lane. Unbeknownst to me, he didn't know I was there and turned right in front of me as I was passing him. I made that post thinking he was just going to ride on the other side since there was no cars coming. I see kids doing that all the time, riding on both sides depending on the traffic. After I made that post, I found out he was an adult not a kid (I thought he was an older teenager) and I also found out he was actually turning down the street to the left and not just switching lanes. Either way, it wasn't a pleasant evening for either of us, or the kids.

I never heard anything about the rider, I heard him tell the ambulance that he never saw me and I know his head is what did the damage to my windshield (pictured above), it went clean all the way through before he rolled off my hood. He stood up afterwards so I assume it wasn't anything major.

7 years ago

That one was just funny, I love their croissanwiches, I hate the running to the bathroom afterwards.

This section will become a regular for however long I keep it as a regular. I'm going to repost all the funny stuff I post on my Random Thoughts Facebook page over here on Sundays, call it Sunday comics or funny's or something. Either way, here's your first dose. Feel free to join the FB page so you don't miss out when my lazy ass stops posting them here.

I also wanted to give a little plug over to my other blog - Last Song of the Day. If you like music, check it out. It gets a post a day on average.

That's all for today, a bunch of randomness I know, but I have to live up to the title of the blog. See you again, hopefully soon, but maybe not.