2013 Goals

It's been a while since I posted here, but I can type again, so there really isn't any excuse for it.  It's also been a while since I've set goals for the year.  At this point, I haven't been doing much of anything, so I kind of need get motivated.  Here's what I will try to stay busy with this year:

• Start reading again.  I used to read.  At some point, I got burned out a bit.  I think it was too many biographies in a row that did me in.  This year, I would like to read at least twelve books.  Not sure the genre, likely mixed, likely will include Star Wars and Doctor Who.  I've read a couple of books in the past couple of months, I need to post them here.
• Speaking of which, I would like to start posting regularly here again.  That surgery on my wrist kind of did me in a bit, I thought I was doing ok for a bit in the Fall.  When I post here regularly, I am generally able to do better writing at work as well, and I have plenty of things I need to write at work this year.
• Plant a garden, keep the yard watered, and keep things weeded and trimmed.  Last I bagged the better part of the whole thing, with so many trips across country.  The entire yard needs some attention at thing point, and I likely can use some time outside, really, even when it's hot out there.  I also need to clean out all the gutters and above the carport.
• Finish six projects.  I have some in the build phase, some in the design phase, and a couple that are just ideas.  Might as well get some of them done.  Some of them will help with getting the right arm strong again...
• Clean up the shed and the carport.  Plenty to do there, I wouldn't say lots at this point, it's not like it's an episode of Hoarders, but it needs to get cleaned up one of these days.
• Lose five pounds.  I have lost about 20 pounds over the past three years or so, but I have this thyroid doctor.  He's a retired Army doctor.  He recently said "You are as normal as I can make you.  You should still lose some weight."  I've been pretty stable for 18 months or so, at about 214, and my next appointment is in October, I'd like to not have any kind of lecture from a retired Army doctor.  Maybe five pounds would do it.
• Continue 'Free Form Friday'.  We've been a bit slow at the rotation in the past few months, but the kids seem to like it.
• Rebuild savings, and continue to be aggressive paying down debt.  Between my hand surgery and some major car repairs in the past two months, we are a bit tapped.  I've been keeping track of how we are doing on our debt load (I include our mortgage here), we've done pretty good lately.  I want to rebuilt some savings, and increase the debt reduction be doable, depending on what surprises we've got coming this year.  You never know.  We will need a new roof in a few years, I want to pay it down in cash.   Student loan is gone in March, and on we go.

Seems like not tons of stuff, but it's certainly more stuff than I've done in the past three months or so...

A revisiting of my goals for 2011

I haven't really focused on how I have been doing on my goals this year, I think as a result, I haven't done a very good job finishing any of them so far. Here is what I wanted to to, and how far I have gotten. They are still good goals, but unless I focus, I won't finish them this year. I might need a little inspiration on a couple of them. Here is what I wanted to do, and how I have done so far:

Do something significant I've never done before. I wanted to participate in a demolition derby, but I decided that I didn't want my thumbs broken in the derby. I also sold my old truck. It worked out anyway, since I was going to participate in the July 4th derby in Delta. (Noel was born on the 4th of July, I don't think Tara would have appreciated me doing that with her there to drive me to the hospital...) Now I am left without a good idea. Tara is taking a trip later in the year, and will be gone for three weeks. Does watching the kids for that long count? I'm not sure...

Go somewhere I have never been before. I generally stay in about a two mile radius of my house. I may be turning into a hermit. I went to Atlanta in May, but I've been there before. This one won't involve going anywhere too far away. I wonder if there is somewhere here in Utah I would want to visit.

Read twelve books. I have still not gotten back in the habit of reading like I used to yet. Having said that, I have read six books this year. This is a little surprising to me.

Do twelve small projects around the house. I haven't done too many house projects this year:

• I put a new front door on the house
  
• I put some 'dressers' in before the baby was born
  
• I made a swing for the tree in the front yard
  
• I did a big one a few houses down, that I'm gonna count...
• I fixed up the little baby crib for Noel
  

Now that I actually look at it, I'm at five. I'm actually a little surprised about this as well. Finishing the rest doesn't seem so hard, I have a few started already. I have to remember the 'before' picture, though. Half of them could easily be done outside, but I need to get out there and do them. It's kind of warm out there right now. Yes, I am whining...

Walk 200 miles. I have gotten in 49 tracked miles so far this year. Not great, but it's something. I am almost to the point that walking to my office from home doesn't trash my ankle for the rest of the day anymore. This is a good thing. 150 miles is 100 trips to my office, but I don't think there are that many work days left in the year, and I am not currently walking there every single day. This one can only be done if I focus.

Can anyone out there help me with a little motivation? Help would be appreciated...

A few goals

Last year, I ignored making goals with the turn of the year. On purpose. I don't know why, it just seemed like a good idea at the time. Kind of like majoring in Mathematics in college. The year before instead of making what I called goals, I created an 'unfinished project' list, some of which I never finished. I think it's finally time to get back to it. I've got some things I need to do around here, and need some motivation to get it done. Having said all that, here's the long awaited 2011 goal list:

1. Do something significant I've never done before. Right now I've got my sights on a demolition derby with the truck, but I don't have all the correct approvals in place yet. (More on that another time.)
2. Go somewhere I have never been before. You know, show up, look around, go home. Eat good food in between.
3. Read twelve books. I've got quite a list already, some of the books are really quite big. I need to get back into the habit again.
4. Do twelve small projects around the house. There are more than twelve available, no need to list them here. If I remember, I will try to take 'before' and 'after' pictures.
5. Walk 200 miles. Walking from my desk to the water fountain doesn't count. I figure the walk has to be at least a half mile to count it. Frankly, I'm not even sure I can do this in a year at this point. Every time I try to start walking regularly, I'm thwarted by my ankle. So far this year, I've racked up a grand total of 2.5 miles. At this rate, I'm gonna be a bit short, but then again, it's been cold and snowy as well. My progress can be followed at runkeeper.com
   

I think that's more than enough. We'll have to see what happens.

Reading

I haven't been doing a lot of reading lately, I don't know what the problem is. It's not for a lack of books. I think I am just lazy. Tara read 94 books last year. I read nine, which doesn't even sound all that big when you spell it out.

I'm not even sure what I want to read. I've got some books hear at home in a pile, there's one sitting in the truck, and I've got one sitting at my desk at work. But none of them are getting read. I guess I need some suggestions.

Tara suggests that I read "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", but that seems like a thinly veiled attempt at getting me to read a Jane Austin book. Anyone else got anything to recommend? I've read quite a few in the past, I even once had a page listing all the ones I could remember. Maybe I need to rebuild that web page. Maybe there will be something in there that triggers something. Maybe I should look through the ones documented here. I think I'm tired of biographies right now, unless someone has a compelling one to recommend.

Anyhow, last year I read 9 books, in 2008 I read 17, in 2007 I read 14 books. Nothing close to 94. Maybe this year I should set a goal to read 12 books. One a month. Otherwise, I can totally see myself not getting any reading at all in this year...

"Unfinished project" update

You may recall, I have a set of unfinished projects from the first of the year. In July I last talked about these projects. Tara would be front and center to explain that there should be about 20 different things on the list at this point, but it is time to report on what was there then.

1. Little path behind the house. Long done. Still looks good.
2. Garden wall. Also long done, which is good, because the stone manufacture place near us is going out of business. No more cheap stones.
3. Bedroom closet. Way long done.
4. My 200 puzzle suduko book. I finished this thing last night. There were 2 difficulty levels in this book, "Difficult" and "Beware! Very challenging" I ended up getting 79 of the 100 'difficult' puzzles done right. (I just moved on if I messed something up. Too much erasing otherwise.) I wondered a the time how much more difficult 'Beware! Very Challenging' was, figuring maybe it wouldn't be. {How do they figure the difficulty on sudoku puzzles, anyway? Do they have some dude in a little padded room, and time how long he takes to solve the thing? Is it a setting based on how many numbers are pre-populated? Do they use some sort of computer program to solve the puzzles and rank them?} Anyway, I figure that difficulty settings have some measure of error in rankings. How did I do on the "Beware! Very Challenging" puzzles? 79 out of 100. Exact same as the "Difficult" puzzles. What does that mean? Not much, really. Maybe I got better at sudoku somewhere along the way, and did just as well on the harder puzzles. Or maybe they are the same difficulty, and they just put different labels on them. Or maybe something else. The point is that it's not a scientific little test. And I'm done with sudoku. I retired last night. At least until they come out with the "Super Duper Mensa Man" difficulty. (I predict 79 out of 100 puzzles correct on that difficulty...)
   
5. Little closet behind the washer and dryer. Long gone. I consider the kitchen pantry a little victory over this thing. Much nicer.
6. Thing around the dishwasher. Strangely, with all the other work that got done on the house this summer, this is not done. And it needs to be lower about 2 inches to fit our new dishwasher. (Or I need to raise the dishwasher up...)
7. The shed. The shed was looking good earlier this year, but now it is full of junk collected from working on the house. I am ignoring it.
8. Mission journal. Not done. Not looked at this year at all. Not looking good.
9. Wii games. Still working on these, but not as much as I could be. Maybe I will do that now.
   

That's all for now.

Unfinished Project update

I finished one of the 'grand 2009 unfinished project list' items today. I got the little path behind the house finally cleaned up all the way. Having a big giant dumpster in the front of the house, and a neighbor willing to help went a long way in the right direction.

The path in January.

The path several months ago.

The path now. All cleaned up.


The bunny has a new home down at the end of the path. This is good, because it is now in an area more protected from the weather. If I could just get the back yard sprinklers to stop spraying it, we would be all set...

Goal update

Some updates on our goals. I tried doing the pictures side to side, but took them from the old post, and it is not really letting me change the orientation, so they look kind of weird:

• Reduce our family debt by 5 figures. We aren't going to be able to do this one this year. Next week we blow the thing out of the water, to get ready for putting on a second floor. We are still just a little over $19k now. Our new mortgage will come with a new lower interest rate, (currently sitting at 4.75%, I hope it drops again in the next couple of days before we lock in a rate, unless we already did without realizing it. The rate was 5% when we started the process 2 weeks ago.)
• Watch more baseball on TV. The World Baseball classic helped, I missed a bunch of those games. The final between Japan and Korea was quite a game. Adam and I tried watching a preseason game between the Cubs and Rockies this afternoon, but we both fell asleep in the middle.
  
• Finish some unfinished projects (Including some before and after shots):
  

The little path right behind the house. It may look like this is just a complete mess, but it is about half the mess that it was a week ago. I would have worked on this a little more today, but there was the nap I mentioned earlier...

The garden wall. This is done. I added some solar lights along the wall, they don't throw a lot of light, but what can I expect for $4 at Walmart? You can see the soaker hose down, just waiting for me to plant something that needs watering...

Our closet. Which looks a hundred times better that it did before. I kind of like having a light in the closet.

My 200 puzzle sudoku book. I have finished 110 so these so far, and I can see myself finishing sometime this summer.

Our little closet thing behind the washer and dryer. I wanted to put shelves in this thing, and maybe pull the door to Lily's room (Now Adam's room, by the way) out. I would have taken a new picture, I cleaned the thing out once, but new stuff is piled over there. The plans for the house has this becoming part fo the kitchen pantry and the door to the bedroom getting framed in.

That thing around the dishwasher. Two subtle changes - the top is finished, which a little strip in place and the cord has been rerouted. Now all I have to do is put in a piece of laminate on the side, and some sort of trim around the thing to finish it. I might just leave it until the other construction starts, so that we can see what things look like before finishing this off.

The shed, which looks nearly done, unless you open the doors and unleash the beast that needs to get cleaned up behind there.

The mission journal. Someday this will be done. (But not today...)

Wii games. I am about 90% through both Mario Kart and Star Wars. I have also been working on Super Paper Mario and Super Mario Galaxy... But I haven't worked that hard on any of them lately for some reason.

2009 Goal update

If you recall, I have 3 main goals this year:

• Reduce our debt by 5 figures
• Watch more baseball on TV
• Finish some unfinished projects around here

There hasn't been a lot of baseball on television so far this year. Spring Training is on right now, they have the World Baseball Classic in the middle of it, there are still 34 days until opening day. Last year I didn't purchase a MLB.com gameday audio package, but I think I might this year. One of the problems with last year was the fact that you have to run Windows to get it, and I run Linux on my laptop nearly all the time. Now we have a newer computer running Windows at home, and Tara bought a newer Ipod transmitter at the end of last year that you can also plug into your computer, and transmit things over the air. I could plug the thing in, start transmitting, and pick it up with my mp3 player. Geeky, I know, but I am what I am...

Reduce debt. We have reduced our debt by $19095.02 (approximately) this year so far. Now, I imagine we will backslide a bit, since I have a really big project in mind, if we can do it, but that is where we are at so far. If you don't count the minivan we sold in January, we are at $5095.02 for the year. That is still not anything to shake a stick at 2 paydays into the thing, but I am counting the minivan because that was quite the payment we were making on both vans together. It is nice ot have one of the payments gone...

Unfinished projects. I have 9 projects listed from the old entry. The projects, and their status, are:

1. Little path behind the house. I am very likely to start on this soon, since the yard waste pickup is supposed to start up again this week here. I should get this thing cleaned up before we do an appraisal on the house.
2. Garden wall. I carried something like 45 blocks out to the back yard last week. I very nearly went out there to work on it yesterday, but the girls were out there playing, and being kind of loud, so I worked on my house plans instead. This also needs to get finished pre-appraisal.
3. Our closet. Another pre-appraisal job. I asked my friend, who does construction and needs some work, to come over and help me get some of these indoor things done before we get the appraisal done. I figured it would get done faster, and motivate me to get the work done, so I hired him to help. I figure if I spent another $1000 on the house and surrounding area, (I don't really think it would be that much, I have quite a bit of the needed materials.) we would get more out of the appraisal than if the work was not done. I consider the closet a must complete. So is repainting Emma and Ruth's room. Lots of coloring on the walls.
4. Puzzle suduko book. I got to about 75 puzzles done when I lost my pencil. (Or it was stolen.) I have been working in pen since then, because I am too lazy to get another pencil. I end up stopped on each one about a third of the way through, because I have run out of obvious answers. It is a book of hard sodukos, after all. If they were easy enough to get done all in pen, I would have been done long ago.
5. Storage area by laundry room. This is also something that at this point would be taken care of if we end up doing the addition. Not worrying about it right now otherwise.
6. Thing around the dishwasher. Another pre-appraisal job. Waiting on Chad.
7. The shed. I finally have all the junk from Christmas gone. Now that everything is melted away, I can start cleaning up. I need to just start at one end and work my way the other direction. And get the rabbit out of there and back into the back yard.
8. Mission journal. 'nuff said.
9. 4 Wii games. Tara got me Super Mario Galaxy for Valentines Day. I have been working off and on with that one, mostly.
   

That's all of them. Nothing really completed, since I think we might backslide on the money one, and none of the projects have been completed, but that is how it goes, I guess. There has still be signifigant progress, I would say...

2009 goals

This year, the goals are simple:

• Reduce our family debt by 5 figures. It should be 5 figures lower than right now. I think it is doable, especially where our car and house payments are.
• Watch more baseball on TV
• Finish some unfinished projects:
  

The little path right behind the house. Sorry about the snow. You can't really see the problem with this little path.

The garden wall. Again with the snow.

Our closet.

My 200 puzzle sudoku book. I have only done 40 so far.

Our little closet thing behind the washer and dryer. This is really an unstarted unfinished project. I want to put shelves in. And maybe take the door to Lily's room out.

That thing around the dishwasher. No reason for this to be done.

The shed. It is in bad shape.

The mission journal. Someday this will be done.

Wii games. Not included here, Super Mario Galaxy, which we do not currently own. I am about 90% through both Mario Kart and Star Wars.

2008 Goal review

OK, here were the goals at the beginning of last year, and how I did with them:

1. Post a goal update to the blog at least twice a month. I guess I got worn out in the middle to end of October. I was doing well with this until then.
   
2. Don't let a post go by without some progress to report.
3. Stain the play set. I got this done in the Spring, and I have a t-shirt that looks pretty nasty as a result. I still sometimes wear the t-shirt...
   
4. Finish the retaining wall. I got oh so close on this one. I am about 5 feet away from being finished, I have all the stone I need to wrap this up in the back of the truck, but it snowed. And it snowed. And I am waiting for it to melt so I can finish up. By the way, I think it looks very nice now, and I added about 200 square feet to the garden. I am planting corn this year.
   
5. Finish the mission journal. I don't even think I opened the file at all.
   
6. Build a bunk bed for Emma and Ruth. I didn't get this done. I didn't even get this started.
   
7. Stay under the 210 weight. End of the year - 207. Put it in the books.
   
8. Go to the temple at least once a month. Through October, we were 8 out of 10. That was it for the year.
   
9. Take Tara somewhere for our 10th wedding anniversary. We had a really nice vacation to Florida.
   
10. Read 18 books. I read 17 books, only one in the last 2 months. Unless you count comic books.
    
11. Plant something other than tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans and peas. We also had green peppers, yellow squash, cilantro, and a couple of things that didn't actually grow.

I guess I did something this past year. Just nothing in the past 2 weeks.

October Goals

Here's a new set:

• Fix Emma's bed. They broke it a while back, sometimes she ends up sleeping at an angle if they have been crazy in there.
• Winterize the garden. Sometime this month, we will lose the tomato plants, that will be the end of it. I do have 3 spaghetti squash that are doing well and will be ready to be picked soon as well.
• Clean out the gutters. It has been a while since I have done this, the gutters over the carport need it pretty badly.
  
• Fix the truck - Go see if the block place has any over runs I can get. If so, work on the wall. OK, so at least fix the truck.
• Read 2 books. My yearlong goal is 18 books, I am at 16 books, so this would get me there...
  

September Goals - the final review

If you recall, there are only 4 goals:

1. Read 5 books. I finished 4 books. I have 2 books at least half done. Not 5 books, but close.
   
2. Sell the minivan. Drew is still working on selling his car. We will eventually be selling the minivan to him.
   
3. Finish a detailed design document at work. I think I finished this before we left. There wasn't any noise in my inbox about it when I got home, but you never know. We plan to do implementation in October regardless.
   
4. Enjoy our vacation. I enjoyed our vacation.

I guess 2 out of 4 isn't bad.

September goals - an update

If you recall, there are only 4 goals:

1. Read 5 books. I just finished one, I am half way through 2 others. Still very realistic to complete at this point.
2. Sell the minivan. Nothing doing on this front. At least not as of today.
3. Finish a detailed design document at work. So far, I have "finished" this thing 3 times in the last week. It might possibly really be actually finished as of today, I think.
4. Enjoy our vacation. 5 days left, then we leave. I think everything is lined up and ready to go. I reserved the rental car this week and both tickets to SeaWorld and Aquatica... I am not planning on taking my laptop on this trip.
   

September Goals

I'll keep it (sort of) simple for September, and post 4 goals:

1. Read 5 books. 3 of these are already in some form of being worked on. 3 of these, but not the same 3, are library books due back at the library fairly soon.
2. Sell the minivan. This one is not totally in my control. I'm tired of the extra car payment that I have been making, and wouldn't mind at all if I could stop.
3. Finish a detailed design paper at work. I've got a project that has been dragging on for about 10 months at work, the last 5 months or so have been my fault really. I did a proof of concept, and was supposed to write the detailed design after that, but other things kept getting in the way.
   
4. Enjoy our vacation. It should be fun.

That's it. It doesn't seem like a lot, but it really is quite a bit to tackle. I am sure the paper is 2 full weeks worth of work, the vacation is 10 days. If I do nothing this next month but get these done, I will not be upset at all...

2008 Goal Update

Tara is taking a nap. Adam is taking a nap. Not all the girls are asleep yet. (It is 10:45 at this point. I ended up turning out all the lights on one or two of them twice this weekend...) I am awake. I guess that means it's time for some blog updates.

1. Post a goal update to the blog at least twice a month. 11 updates - Right on schedule.
   
2. Don't let a post go by without some progress to report.
   
3. Stain the play set. Complete. Put it in the books
   
4. Finish the retaining wall. I have talked about this here this week. The Bishop's wife down the street may want us to go down and get her some tan bricks, so I will see if they have any more gray bricks for me, but I am not holding my breath. I really kind of like the way the wall is actually going to shape up now.
   
5. Finish the mission journal. No progress.
   
6. Build a bunk bed for Emma and Ruth. Late Spring. Maybe I should have bought wood instead of stone this past week. But I didn't.
   
7. Stay under the 210 weight. Current weight - 207. I've been eating a lot of junk food the past couple of days.
   
8. Go to the temple at least once a month. This has not happened yet this month.
   
9. Take Tara somewhere for our 10th wedding anniversary. Still looking for plane tickets to drop for September, but I've sunk $1000 into this trip to date...
   
10. Read 18 books. 11 books completed so far, I should finish another one very soon, since I need to read it for work to write a paper.
    
11. Plant something other than tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans and peas.

2008 Goal update

1. Post a goal update to the blog at least twice a month. 10 updates - Right on schedule.
   
2. Don't let a post go by without some progress to report. Progress here, and non-Progress. Not sure if it cancels itself out or not
   
3. Stain the play set. Complete. Put it in the books
   
4. Finish the retaining wall. I bought a bunch of stone of Friday afternoon, and extended the wall another 11 feet. The stone place doesn't have much overrun material left, so if I finish now it might cost me more. They charged me less than a couple of years ago, so maybe paying retail for some of it keeps the cost balanced, but I will likely just do what I can and come back another time for more stone. (The 50 cent price point is very, very nice.)
   
5. Finish the mission journal. No progress.
   
6. Build a bunk bed for Emma and Ruth. Late Spring. Maybe I should have bought wood instead of stone this past week. But I didn't.
   
7. Stay under the 210 weight. Current weight - 203.
   
8. Go to the temple at least once a month. I was thinking about this earlier in the week, but then I kind of lost a couple of days there. And now it's June. That's 2 months out of 5 that I didn't go.
   
9. Take Tara somewhere for our 10th wedding anniversary. Still looking for plane tickets to drop for September, but I've sunk $1000 into this trip to date...
   
10. Read 18 books. 10 books completed so far, things should pick up more now that the city library has started their summer reading program...
    
11. Plant something other than tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans and peas.
I replanted some seeds, but those didn't really start. If I see nothing coming up tomorrow, I will plant some inside to get some starters going. I'm talking Zucchini, Cucumbers, and Spagetti squash here, so it's not like we won't get production out of the plants at this point...

Less than really all that impressive goal update

1. Post a goal update to the blog at least twice a month. 9 updates - Right on schedule.
   
2. Don't let a post go by without some progress to report. Well, I'm not all that sure that this on actually counts all that much...
   
3. Stain the play set. Complete. Put it in the books
   
4. Finish the retaining wall. Sometime after I sell the Minivan
   
5. Finish the mission journal. No progress.
   
6. Build a bunk bed for Emma and Ruth. Late Spring. I think I need to start working on this once I empty the junk out of the bed of the truck. Emma has taken to lying down on the floor in Mary and Kate's room, which kind of bothers Ruth. Maybe a new bunk bed will help her stay in her room at night.
   
7. Stay under the 210 weight. Current weight - 203.
   
8. Go to the temple at least once a month. We have yet to make plans to go this month, I think we need to get on the ball here.
   
9. Take Tara somewhere for our 10th wedding anniversary. Still looking for plane tickets to drop for September, but I've sunk $1000 into this trip to date...
   
10. Read 18 books. 9 books completed so far, half way there.
    
11. Plant something other than tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans and peas.
I actually had to replant a couple of things yesterday, since plants had gotten eaten by that pheasant.

2008 Goal update

1. Post a goal update to the blog at least twice a month. 8 updates - Right on schedule.
   
2. Don't let a post go by without some progress to report.
   
3. Stain the play set. Complete. Put it in the books
   
4. Finish the retaining wall. Sometime after I sell the Minivan
   
5. Finish the mission journal. No progress.
   
6. Build a bunk bed for Emma and Ruth. Late Spring.
   
7. Stay under the 210 weight. Current weight - 204.
   
8. Go to the temple at least once a month. We went last week. The girls were on Spring Break, I had someone take my on-call for the day, Tara got a baby sitter, and we went. I took Tara to Olive Garden for lunch after. (3 visits in 4 months.)
   
9. Take Tara somewhere for our 10th wedding anniversary. We are going to Orlando in September. Tara and I plan to get there a couple of days early. Mom said she would come out to watch the kids.
   
10. Read 18 books. 9 books completed so far, half way there.
    
11. Plant something other than tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans and peas.
    

2008 Goal Update

1. Post a goal update to the blog at least twice a month. 7 updates - Right on schedule.
   
2. Don't let a post go by without some progress to report. This is the most productive of these this year by far. 5 books read and a play set stained.
   
3. Stain the play set. Complete. Put it in the books.
   
4. Finish the retaining wall. Sometime very soon. The block is $1.77 each at Home Depot, I need to go down to the place they make it at to see if they have any overruns. (Slightly defective pieces. Most of them look fine to me, but they can't deliver them to Home Depot if there is a ding in it somewhere.)
   
5. Finish the mission journal. No progress.
   
6. Build a bunk bed for Emma and Ruth. Late Spring.
   
7. Stay under the 210 weight. Current weight - 206. I only gained a couple of pounds with all that food I ate in NYC. I guess you really don't pack it on when you are eating Pho Bo.
8. Go to the temple at least once a month. We've gone twice this year so far. I didn't get there last month. I don't have Stake Presidency meeting this week, we are going to try to go during that time. Hopefully I can get rid of the allergy problems by then...
   
9. Take Tara somewhere for our 10th wedding anniversary. No trip picked or booked yet. We will likely go somewhere for a couple of days around the trip to visit with Rob, Jonathan, and Russ in Florida. I plan to book the house for that one in the next couple of days.
   
10. Read 18 books. 8 books completed so far, which gets me right back on track. I'm reading a book about Yankee Stadium right now, after that one I might need recommendations because I only have one other book lined up in the queue.
    
11. Plant something other than tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans and peas. Plants are starting to grow. I might have to put a couple of them out a little sooner than I would like. Mary brought a pumpkin plant home from school in a little cup, it's starting to go all over the place now and needs to get in the ground.
    

2008 Goal update

1. Post a goal update to the blog at least twice a month. 6 updates - Right on schedule.
   
2. Don't let a post go by without some progress to report. You be the judge.
3. Stain the play set. Sometime soon.
   
4. Finish the retaining wall. Sometime soon.
   
5. Finish the mission journal. No progress.
   
6. Build a bunk bed for Emma and Ruth. Late Spring.
   
7. Stay under the 210 weight. Current weight - 203.
8. Go to the temple at least once a month. We've gone twice this year so far. I didn't get there this month.
   
9. Take Tara somewhere for our 10th wedding anniversary. No trip picked or booked yet.
   
10. Read 18 books. 3 books completed so far, I've almost got another one finished, and expect to have a few done this next week.
    
11. Plant something other than tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans and peas. I have all that stuff I bought planted now, nothing poking out of the dirt yet...