Where to begin? It has been a while since I have had the time to sit down and write a blog entry. With the holidays and work, not to mention that I got Madden 2008 for Xbox over Christmas and have been playing that at night instead of poking around on the internet, I have had a lot of excuses.

Christmas went fairly well. It bit a little for me the way it worked out with vacation and the day of the week that Christmas was on this year. I chose to use all my vacation this last summer when we went to Greece. But that meant that I had to work the three days following Christmas when pretty much everyone else was able to take it off. So I did not really have a whole lot of time to spend with the family, and the time I did have, I was more tired than I would have liked. But despite that, it was good to see everyone all together. We did miss Sarah being there, but luckily we were able to chat with her on Skype on Christmas.

For New Year's, we went to the the Seymour Lake Lodge with our friends Bob and Lori. The Lodge did well that night, and had 3 different seatings and a special menu. The place seems to be taking off, so I am happy for Julie and Travis. We ate a good meal. I had the chicken cordon bleu, and the special Saganaki (fried cheese like we had in Greece) for an appetizer. There was also a grasshopper pie for dessert that was excellent. And free "champagne" for the holiday. We we stayed after dinner and hung out together until the ball dropped. We played our new Apples to Apples game that we got for Christmas.

We were smart and took our tree down last Saturday. We were supposed to go snowshoeing, but it got really warm that day and the snow melted too much. So since that was free, we took advantage and got rid of all the Christmas stuff. That made the day after New Year's much more pleasant because we didn't have to worry about taking down all that stuff and could relax.

We got a couple more big dumps of snow this week. The biggest was yesterday. It was the fluffy stuff and it has gotten cold outside. I went to snowblow yesterday morning and I noticed that it wasn't really working well. It was plowing the snow. So I looked in the front and noticed that one of the sides of the impeller was not turning. I had remembered that my Grandfather had told me that that had happened before and he had to bring it in to get fixed. He said that some pin had gotten sheared off. So I looked, and indeed the pin that attached it to the shaft had been sheared off, probably over the weekend when I used it with the frozen heavy stuff after the melt. It looked like something that I could fix myself, as it only needed a nut and a bolt. Well, I must be the only man in America that doesn't have a nut or bolt in his house. I had screws, nails, and everything else, but could not find a nut or a bolt. I finally found an inappropriate piece of hardware that worked temporarily, but I will not trust it for long. So when I went to work, I talked to some of the maintenance guys and they told me what to use. I got a nut and bolt out of a junk drawer there that should do the trick.

I had a $50 gift certificate from work that I had to use before the beginning of the year. I thought I could easily treat myself to something I wanted. So I went to the Pick and Shovel thinking that I could find something decent. I looked around for about and hour and couldn't find anything that I actually needed. There were a few things I wanted but either they would end up just sitting in storage in my basement, or cost too much and I didn't want to spend money. I almost got a small shop-vac, but I still didn't think that would be a good idea. I would rather have the bigger size one, which cost more that fifty bucks. So after that, I tried looking at Alexandra's to see if there was anything I wanted for the kitchen. It was the same story there. I already have everything I need, and the few things I was considering were too expensive. And I still didn't really need them. I am not one to buy things just for the sake of having them either. I ended up just using it at RJ's for groceries in the end.

My New Year's resolution is in full swing. Back on track with eating right and exercising. I have ballooned up to 217 pounds. My goal is to be under 200 by the end of February. This has gotten ridiculous and I can't afford to keep gaining weight. My mother is convinced that it is all portion control. I should be able to do okay starting off here because I won't be traveling any time soon. That is what usually derails my efforts.