Saturday, January 25, 2014

Saturday, January 04, 2014

Happy 2014!

Hey all! Just checking in. 2013 is now behind us and 2014 is upon us. You did all put up new calendars, right?

We had a fairly quiet Christmas, making the usual visits to Brad's dad's on Christmas Eve and to his sister's on Christmas Day for the big dinner. And we hosted our annual party on NYE for friends and neighbours. We had a few more people than expected, but there was lots of food and good cheer. The new year was rung in appropriately with bubbly around our cosy fire.

We've needed our fire recently as it has been cold, cold, COLD! And we've had plenty of snow as well. So far, it's been a very old fashioned Canadian winter. The snowbanks are already waist deep, which usually only happens in February or March! From a low of minus 28 C this morning we are going to a high of plus 10 C on Monday (with rain). Ugh. The countdown is now on to South Beach in the middle of next month! I really can't wait!

I finally today got a refill for my daily flip calendar for my office desk. As I was going over last year's after I replaced it, I noted that at this time last year, I was biking 27 km in 57 minutes on the stationary! Holy crap. Even I was impressed! I'm now struggling to do 37 minutes (around 16.5 km), which I've been doing perhaps twice a week. That is about to change! I'm going to start biking every other day and work my way back up to 57 minutes. A slouch no more! And my wishywashiness has certainly been reflected on the scales - I'm now about 15 lb. heavier than I was at this time last year. So, in addition to biking every other day, I'm also going to renew my membership at the pool and start swimming at least 3 times a week.

Brad also bought me a pair of snowshoes yesterday, and tomorrow we're going snowshoeing with our good friends Shaun and Mary. That should be a good workout in itself! I'll try to take some pics to share!

My other resolution is to buckle down with my Rosetta Stone Russian course and apply myself to learning more of that language. I'll also keep you posted on how that is going.

Anyway, enough babbling on. I wish you all a very happy new year that is blessed with good health, peace, and prosperity!

I leave you with a few pics taken on Christmas Day in our backyard. We've since received at least another foot and a half of snow!

С Новым Годом!