Then it was Cordy's 4th birthday, wow she is 4. We had a pretty mellow family b-day for her and we went to SeaWorld, which is rather nice in the Fall as it is uncrowded. Her favorite part was the Shamu roller coaster, where they sang he Happy B-day and she is now tall enough to go. Of course now she wants to go on the other big roller coasters. We will probably have a joint b-day for her X and L sometime in January - wow, my Dad was right birthdays close to holidays must suck.
After that it was Thanksgiving, we had some friends come over and had a nice mellow day, with lots and lots of food, which we still have some of. I also got to talk to my family who implored me to post - especially pictures of the kids so I will try to get as much as that done as possible. Anyway, here is the resolution roundup for this month
1) Volunteer: I will probably give blood again this month - seems I'm very popular with the blood bank. When I have free time, which is rare I may seek other opportunities but I'm thinking that this is going on the back burner until the kids are a little older.
2) Pay down debt: This continues to go down in the right direction, although the more I pay off the more I don't like owing people money so next year, I hope to clear a few larger things off the plate.
3) Read four books a month: This month I was only able to get this through two books, the first was Zero History by William Gibson. Overall, I liked this book as it really has to do with guerrilla marketing and neo-branding, kind of an anti-hipster rant with a side of cyberpunk. The second book was A Bridge too Far by Cornelius Ryan, which was excellent. This book goes into painstaking detail about the Allied operation Market Garden during WWII. This was an amazing read as he describes the background, the planning, the results - which weren't so great, in 10 days the Allies had more causalities than Normandy - granted the 10,000 casualties for Normandy came from a single day. The most heart-breaking part of the story is the British 1st airborne who were almost completely wiped out as they were the farthest advanced of the three paratrooper divisions dropped - apparently someone forgot to mention right onto two German SS Panzer divisions. He really does a good job of putting a human face on the battle. Also, a movie starring nearly everyone - here is my favorite scene (it never happened, seems to be a mishmash of several things that occurred).
4) Publish: I still have the same four articles out this month, another one submitted. I have another pub that has gone to my mentor, and one that I am co-author that has been submitted. I also have a Genetic Analysis Workshop paper that will be completed and submitted this month, as well as a book chapter on Mennonite migration. So hopefully by the end of next month, I should have three more that will be ready to go next year.
5) Clean the Garage: The one safe grace of this is that most of the stuff cluttering my garage is X-mas stuff so that will start cluttering the house.
6) Get Maintenance done on the cars: Same as last month.
7) Catch up on a boatload of TV shows, mostly beginning with B: With football season, I haven't watched must else, I started watching Blue Mountain State - which may be the worst TV show ever made, imagine Porky's and Animal House rolled into a SuperBad sandwich and you will have an idea. Strangely addicting though.
8) Do a 365 walk project: I need to start this again, probably next year.
9) Learn to meditate: We watched the movie Eat Pray Love, the other day and I loved the part about meditating, it is so hard to learn to concentrate when you are taught to calm yourself and think about noting.
10) No computer after 6 pm: This one fall into the category of epic fail - may go to internet free Saturdays next year.
Anyway, that is all for this month, next month is full of b-days, and X-mas, as well as vacation for me at the end of the month.
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