Good night 2011

Well, another year has come and gone. Like many of you out there you are journalling, blogging, tweeting, face booking or just thinking in general about what this year has been and how next year will be bigger and  better. And I truly hope that it is.

I've been absent for a while. The desire to write has been gone for a while. Even though it felt so cathartic last year. So, maybe I'll make a little more effort this year, but I'm not committing to any regularity. Just when moved. :)

Earlier this month we celebrated our 18th anniversary. Yep. 18 years. We took a cruise with another couple of friends (who recently celebrated their 30th anniversary). This was a first cruise for all of us. We had a lot of fun together.

The first night we were at sea, on our way to Grand Cayman where we went snorkeling and swam with the stingrays. Then to Cozumel, where we just shopped and had fun at the port. Then off to Belize where we went to see the Mayan pyramids (INCREDIBLE!), then Honduras where we went zip lining. I need to stop and write about each of the adventures before I forget the details. It's all beginning to run together as it is. At least I have pictures. Now we are planning our next trip - UK in the spring. It's been a long time coming.

Christmas was spent with friends in the neighborhood. We started with champagne around noon, had fun visiting and then had a traditional English Christmas dinner. We played a really interesting game that was kind of like a white elephant. We all wore venetian masks, rolled the dice and for every 1 or 6 you took a gift from the table or someone else. At the end of 45 minutes we all opened our gifts to see what we had been "fighting" over. It was pretty funny.

Tonight we're doing "curry night" and ringing in the new year. I'm sure there will be stories to be told.

Well, it's 70 degrees and sunny. I'm thinking about going for a bike ride.

Happy New Year everyone!

End of January already...

Well we're one month into the new year already. It's happening fast. Although I'm not one for New Year's Resolutions (as I said earlier), it's still a time for new and renewed ideas.

I've started the year by finally signing up for guitar lessons. So far I've enjoyed it. I would be much farther along if I spent more time practicing. But life gets in the way. There are other things to do, dogs take care of, and work.

This year I'll also continue to work on my photography. I've gotten my feet pretty wet this past year, so it's time to expand a little bit on it and start to do something new with it. I'm a little tired of the standard landscape shots and candid pictures of the dogs. I'm inspired by all the artistic photography I see on Flickr (my favorite haunt lately).  So, we'll see how it goes.

Have you started anything new this year?

It's that time of year...

It's that time of year again when the entire world (it seems) starts to look back on the year and make promises for the coming year. There were a lot of bumps, scrapes, and all out crashes this past year, but somehow I manage to come out of it unscathed (knock on wood). So what will the next year be like?

I'm not one for New Year's Resolutions. In fact, there has been only one that I have ever stuck to. "I will never again make a New Year's Resolution." You've heard the expression, "avoid disappointment, aim low." That seems to have been my mantra lately. But I am starting to feel like it's time to do some thing.

I don't know what that "something" will be yet. Will the Costa Rica vacation finally happen? Will I finally sign up for lessons and learn how to play the guitar? Will I go back to school and complete my degree? Will I finally loose 40 pounds? I don't know yet. But those are all things rattling around in my brain. Who knows. Maybe all of the above. Maybe none. But one thing's for sure... I won't be making a list of promises come New Year's eve.