It is so good to return to a clean house, it smells clean, you are the 1st to use the whatever cleaning liquid smelling bathroom, the 1st to use the once again full pile of clean dishes.
give or take 3 minutes later..
after crumbs from the bread magically reached the floor, the egg salad spilled a bit somewhere, fish sticks scent overtakes the cleaning fluids, a coat is hung not so straight on the chair and an almost empty water glass stands on the table.
don't you hate being the person who comes in to a not so clean house? (that will be all in the next hour or so)
lets start with the promises from last year, get the bad stuff out of the way.
weight, i was doing great till i was forced to sit at home and allow my evil lazy size to take over- by July i was 15 lbs down by December- I gained it all + 15 interest (or more...) scary. for me , having nothing to do was always the worst, and those months with too much nothing to do cost me alot.
well since then... doing much better, lost 10, so over all last year ended poorly but on the right path again. should i even say the goal for next year? well lets... lose 33 lbs by this time next year and find a miraculous way of keeping it down.
Russian, while eating in those months i was making progress with Rosetta stone, till I began studding for the GMAT. over all, failed on my 2nd major goal, i cant hear the separate words when the family speaks so i dot get it, why isn't it easy as french? no re-goal for next year.
Learn to ski- major bust, seems to get worse and worse, not identical but still painful in snow boarding as well. in the next year i intend to find an ocean and try water ski\ wake board which, both sports i was a natural in.
so, started with 0/3 lets move on to something more positive, travel
definitely a great year for that- 7 new European countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) , 2 African countries ( Kenya and Tanzania) for a total of 53!, just before my 35th birthday - not bad... it will be harder from now on, not many areas of small countries in the same area (except west Africa , but not intending to go there any time soon). in the states, my count is 41 after adding Maine, Kentucky , Wisconsin, Vermont and lastly, S. Dakota, with this rate I will reach full coverage within 2 years , only If i find a reason to get to Alabama (somehow Hawaii seems more reachable than Alabama). I almost forgot to add Quebec as the 5th Canadian state (out of 10)
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Favorite place this year was Norway, far ahead of the rest with great activities: high waves rafting, hole diving(1st time), bridge jumping(1st time), river sliding(1st time), glacier walking(1st time), kayaking, hiking, and other activities this year such as biking, snow tubing (1st time), cross bow shooting (and hitting the target), regular bow shooing (not bad shooting), frozen lake walking(st time), snow shoeing (1st time)
also some other activities such as tree digging, lawn mowing, flower planting, bird feeding
the bird of the year must be the sea gull, also appears as seagul, seagal and others in previous blogs. i definitely took one too many shots of it in Norway.
Lost items this year- an almost brand new SLR camera :( one smart phone - not a bad year over all on items lost department.
Movie of the year- incredibly loud and extremely close
Play of the year (have I seen only 2? shame!!! too little to choose the best of)
Song of the year, you know i probably have not heard a new song all year! i listen to audio books all the time, and when i am not, its 80 music! well one new song recently from the movie music and lyrics which is stuck in my head for the last week- "pop, goes my heart" not a real song though. best audio book has got to be the hollows series- the main character is a witch... its kind of a kick as bounty hunter with a demonic twist.
food- well we did have a lot of quantity , not sure about the quality... remembered places are the Lido and the other place (forgot the name) i liked better in Riga of all places with the strawberry kefir.
new foods this year other then the Kefir includes pees! asparagus (rarely) , beaver tail (kind of a creppe pitta), SmorBrod (open faced bread), Labane (well, only a specific one at a specific place), rice pudding. I did try other things which are variations of things previously eaten, so do not recall them. i even caught my self eating things this year with mushrooms and tomatoes- I caught my self quickly and let it go before my certain mushroom death! not sure how i survived the mushrooms from a can.
now btw my main dish is cereal with granola....so far it works.
regular books- I have read quite a few this year, and i don't recall any standing out, I just checked the shelf and i choose not to choose, no one deserves a recommendation( note to self, get better books).
I passed the GMAT with decent results, not amazing, i got a serious brain freeze on the math section, but I got the result I needed and I re-enrolled in MBA and so far doing great. 101 in finance out of 103, bonus question) and 92 in ethics, the highest in the class. I was never an A student till now, is the level easier?, am i more mature?, do i study better?, probably a combination of all 3 , how ever average results are much higher here, so I say easier is a big factor.
#1 (new)show- Modern family without a doubt followed by the amazing race, which i so badly want to take a part in...still can't- soon i will be a permanent permanent resident but its not enough, need a citizenship...maybe in 2 years..
let me think, if i am not mistaken, i have just completed an major injury free year, not a trivial thing for me, well I get cramps in every leg muscle i have every time i play something, but nothing major which is great. I am more cautious and stop when i even smell an injury coming (but I did limp not long ago with some Achilles pains, but nothing thorn or pulled). I started playing tennis once a week, tomorrow i am playing Raquette ball , I tried disk golf this year, ultimate frees-bee is coming up as well as more biking and volley ball- and If i stay uninjured i will have a great summer.
I started but have not yet completed a 1000 piece puzzle, i am 2/3 of the way through, still suspecting that some pieces were lost in the move.
this year in the yard we had our 1st bunny visit, gave birth and disappeared in 4 days with the young ones.. not sure where they have gone.
a major event this year was the job change of course, after a year and a half of debating myself, i finally decided to leave only having the company close before I could transition out as intended. true at the time I have no idea what to do next (and still don't). so i spent few months at home , giving some support to our former customers till Philips came along and gave me a place to go where the kitchen is not so close... with better pay , better everything but the plus for me, is not having to work weekends and late evenings, I think i was seriously burned out, the vacations came in an excellent time.
I made my 1st cake this year (and my 1st dolphin cake as well, even though it looked like a shark). I also made my 1st bed from scratch (well if you can call some screws, boards and a set of instructions scratch) and the bed still stands... one week later!!
I gave some private tutoring this year, hoping I thought something, not really sure if I did (my tutery may read this... who reads so much... and may tell me)
High points- top of galdepiggen (highest peak in northern Europe and Norway).
Interesting points and events
Mt Rushmore, devils tower, Niagara falls, Stockholm as a whole, mt molden, Viking festival, molitai, dancing with the Masai, watching a lion kill! , having the entire city of new York come out on my birthday (happened to be an a holiday , the holiday was the secondary reason), my first organised surprise party
I am proud for organizing 3 amazing races events in Cleveland- not with a Million dollar prize but still fun activities- this is a goal I set my self and I accomplished it .- I was thinking about doing a survivor in the summer...
oh I had a teaching activity in Lag ba-omer acting as Emperor Hadrian.... need an idea for this year
I did my 1st halo-ween- came as "prepared for winter", lucky that i did, winter heard me and stayed away. the spring has come early and the flowery trees are in full bloom, well before the other types of trees so it may be a nice spring.
Did i miss anything? I must have forgotten a few categories - so lets move to next year
I will lose weight.... and reach my goal, remain an A student (another exam next week) , take a solo flight, reach 3-4 more states (west Virginia is probably next), another Canadian state perhaps? run the Cleveland tower, get to the ground hog days celebration, get back in shape, and start running (no more half marathon, don't worry, just 5Ks) , finish this and the next puzzle, do another amazing race type activity- find another extreme activity, reach New Orleans (new city, not a new state), bike my 1st race (not planning to win, just to finish). new countries , at least one is the the early stages of planning, need to add more, not sure where or when. watch a tennis tournament perhaps.
what else, only time will tell (and blogs will tell about them), hope to have a great year.
cheers
p.s happy birthday Rita.
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