Author: TechyDad

A Look Back At 2011

Life, TechyDad.com

2011Now that the new year is here, it’s time to look forward to the year ahead.  Of course, I never really got a chance to look back over the previous year.  So I’m figured I’d do that now.

2011 began with me resolving to finish what I started.  (Sadly, I wasn’t completely successful with this.)  I also began my yearly pledge to lose 20 pounds in 20 weeks.  Spoiler alert: I hit my goal and passed it.  Follow-up: I spent the rest of the year packing those 20 pounds back on.  And they brought some friends with them.  Going to need another one of these series this year also.

January also saw too much snow and ice, an EdenFantasys giveaway which had a record (for me) 116 entries (pssst…. Another one might be coming up soon), NHL expressing fear of dying, and me beginning my search for ideas for a trip for our upcoming 10th anniversary.

In February, we went to see the Albany Devils and NHL caught a hockey puck.  I also mentioned how I felt like I was repeating myself too often.  JSL engaged in some scientific inquiry and my boys and I got drawn into a guest post over at NoodleKnobs.

By March, I was ready for winter to be over.  Not only that, but I came down with a case of bloggy writer’s block. Luckily, a trip to Disney World for the Disney Social Media Moms conference was just the thing to cure both ills.  We went hunting for character autographs, saw some Disney Class in the form of Belle, found a lot of hidden Mickeys, got up close and personal with some butterflies, and saw some sand art get made.

April found me wondering how people handle stress.  We also took a semi-gross journey through the body and I mentioned how parenthood has shifted my concept of "gross".  As spring arrived, so did the birds and the bees (the latter of which were quite "busy").  I got to review the Green Lantern Colossal Cannon (great outdoors, a bit too much for an inside toy) and we celebrated Passover.  I also looked back on our Disney trip during April, including The Great Epcot Twitter Experiment, meeting Jen and John from CakeWrecks, getting jabbed in the arm by B for taking a certain photo on Small World, and riding Kilimanjaro Safari.

In May, spring flourished and we headed outdoors to review Aerobie Sprint Flying Rings and to have a Green Lantern Party.  On Mother’s Day, we went to see the circus.  When B went on a Mom Field Trip to see Rene Syler, I took the boys to Free Comic Day.  Sadly, May was also when B & I went public with a bullying incident that happened to NHL.  We wound up having to switch schools thanks to this.  On a bright note, JSL received a camera for his 4th birthday party, something he had been asking for for at least a month.  I also tried out a new grill only to fail before succeeding.  Finally, TwitPic changed their terms of service which some people thought might give them the right to sell people’s photos.  This led some folks to switch services, but I decided to go another route.  I set up my blog to receive photos from my phone, allowing me to "TwitPic" right to my blog.

As June rolled around, I reviewed the George Foreman Next Grilleration™ Removable Plate Grill.  We’re still using it to this day.  The boys and I also went on a photo shoot where we walked 100 steps from our front door and took 10 photos each.  We also made some smoothies and I donated blood.  Our tenth anniversary rolled around so we had a date night.  Finally, our plants were sprouting nicely, including plenty of peppermint.  (I have lots in the freezer to use during the winter.)

As July rolled around, we went cherry picking (we walked away with 45.2 pounds) and visited Niagara Falls.  I didn’t shy away from controversy when I pitted Nutella against Dark Chocolate peanut butter.  I talked about the Netflix Apocalypse and gave Netflix some tips to improve their service.  We also ended our long search for a tenth anniversary trip by making plans to go to DIsney World without the kids.  Right after we made those plans, though, our bedroom television decided to break requiring us to buy a new one.  Finally, I ruminated on the newly launched Google+,  I mentioned why it’s requirement to use real names (as opposed to pseudonyms like "TechyDad") might keep me away as well as how Google could fix the issue.  Later on, though, Google released Google+ Pages and I was able to make a TechyDad Google+ page.

August began with my birthday.  (Peanut Avacado Sushi is delicious!) The month also saw my boys (and my) Phineas and Ferb obsession hit overdrive with the Phineas and Ferb movie,  (I think we annoyed B a bit with the excited yelling during the Robot Riot sequence.)  NHL delved into Harry Potter and the Smurfs.  They also designed their own superheroes using Hero Machine.  Stress relating to our upcoming vacation and piling expenses took their toll.  NHL celebrated his eighth birthday and I moved our sites to a new server and host.  As August came to a close, we experienced an earthquake (well, some of us did – my office appears to be earthquake-proof) and a hurricane.  The latter forced us to cancel our 10th anniversary trip to Disney World.

In September, we recovered from some self-inflicted Hurricane Irene wounds.  I also gave a travelogue of the trip that Irene cancelled.  On the lighter side, we discussed why mommy was ‘broken’, I celebrated 3 years of blogging, avoided itch cream after some ninja mosquitos attacked, and talked like a pirate Disney-style.  Netflix reloaded after shooting themselves in the foot and shot themselves in the other foot.  We ate some apples and honey to celebrate Rosh Hashana.  In a display of spontaneity, B made last minutes plans to attend SheStreams, leaving the boys and I to have some adventures on our own.

October began with me taking animation lessons from JC Little (aka TheAnimatedWoman) and then giving those lessons to NHL.  Around Yom Kippur, a foolish PR vice-president challenged TheBloggess who demonstrated her relevancy.  After picking 39 pounds of apples, NHL and I went on a photo walk.  Netflix backed out of their splitting plan, but not before we ditched the DVD plans.  I introduced the other woman in our bed, had some trouble with proprietary plugs and irritating interfaces, and made Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream.  I also launched my super secret Twitter application Rout,  Finally, in time for Halloween, we were all turned into Zombies.  (Don’t worry, the zombification only lasted one day.  A case of the 24 hour zombie flu, if you will.)

The highlight of November was my release of my real Twitter Application: FollowerHQ.  I also had some more time with my boys when B went to a bridal shower.  This one didn’t go as smoothly, though.  I thought about how one should always speak up when confronted by bullying and had my parents visit.  (No, those two items are not related.)  Finally, I dealt with a deluge of spam.

As December arrived, and the year wound to a close, I re-introduced Rout.  This time, upgraded as PlusRout.  We also saw The Muppets and went to the New York State Museum.  I reviewed a magic set that NHL got as an early Chanukah present and NHL painted an Angry Bird.  I also decided to take some inspiration from the story of the Maccabees to stand up to someone who was (and continues to) harass bloggers and companies.  On the cooking front, I made a very tasty Spaghetti Squash sauté.  Finally, we did some bunk bed shopping.

This has been a very busy year and I can’t wait to see what 2012 has to bring.

How did last year go for you?

Aloha Friday: How Did Your New Year’s Resolutions Go?

Aloha Friday

Yesterday, I recounted how well I did with my New Year’s goals.  Short answer: Not that well on many, but very well on others.  Today, I want to know how you did.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: How well did you do on your New Year’s Resolutions/Goals?  Did you stick to them or were they tossed aside?

P.S. If you haven’t already, go visit FollowerHQ and let me know what you think of my Twitter application.

P.P.S. For a bit of fun, try my other Twitter Application, Rout. It’s a +F in Fun!

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #119

Finishing What I Start: The Final Report Card

Finish What I Start

At the beginning of the year, I gave myself the goal of completing 11 projects in 2011.  I called 2011 The Year of the Completed Project.  Even though there are still a couple of days left in the year, I figured I’d grade myself on my goals.  (F = Nothing done, D = Very little done, C = Some work done, B = A lot of work done, A = Project completed.

1. To Do List Sign – This seemed like an easy plan.  I already had a dry erase board.  All I needed were some hooks to hang i t up.  Easily done by January’s end, right?  Well, unfortunately, the dry erase board is still not up.  I couldn’t quite figure out where to hang it so it’d be visible to me but not a) look horrible on the wall or b) be in reach of the kids.  (Keeping a dry erase To Do list is no use if kids wind up erasing it.)  The boast still sits waiting to be hung and used.  Grade: F

2. Finish My “Packers” Story – This was meant to be finished in October.  I did get some writing done on it.  I now have a "future timeline" for the world mapping it out from the near-present day to the time that the story would take place.  I’ve further fleshed out the factions that would be in conflict in the story, along with their beliefs and motivations.  I also specified some of the individuals along with their motivations and secrets.  I even began writing some of the story.  It, however, remains unfinished.  Grade: B

3.  Math Board Game With NHL – This was to be completed in March.  No work was done on this though.  To be honest, I think he’s outgrown my original concept.  I’m wondering if the entire concept should be scrapped.  Perhaps I should redo it to be an introduction to role playing games where we make up and play monster cards.  We could use the cards we’ve already made and make more.  Still, since no progress was made, I’d give myself an F on this one.

4.  Upstairs Play Room – I actually finished this one (or very nearly did) and since we moved more of their toys up there it’s gotten a bit cluttered again.  Plus, it’s still not the most convenient place to go.  Despite all this, the boys like playing there.  I’d give this a B.

5.  Paint the Door – Didn’t do any of this.  F.

6. Paint the Ceiling – Nope.  Didn’t touch it at all.  Another F.

7. Shred, Shred, Shred – I didn’t shred all of our papers using our shredder, but I did find out about a public shredding day.  I brought a few boxes of papers there (including some stuff from the cleaning of the play room) and they shredded it for me.  We still have more to shred, but it’s just one box (not anywhere close to full) now, not multiple full boxes.  Grade: A

8. Repair Desktop PC – This one’s kind of a cheat.  The dead desktop PC has been moved to our attic, but it turns out that I didn’t need to fix it.  My parents had a space PC that they didn’t need and offered it to us.  I set it up and we now have the ability to do everything our old computer could do.  Well, except print.  It seems that our printer ran out of ink and is so old that they don’t make ink for it anymore.  However, since that wasn’t part of the initial goal, I’m still giving this one an A.

9. How It Works Blog Series – I didn’t do any work on this one.  F.

10. Kids Game Review Blog Series – No work done on this one either.   However, NHL’s turned into quite the gamer so perhaps this is something I could do in the future.  For now, though, it’s an F.

11. The PB Files – I never did any work on this either.  It’s an F for this as well.

All in all, that’s 2 A’s, 2 B’s, and 7 F’s.  Overall grade would be a D.  I didn’t even update my "Finish What I Started" series after awhile.  (Mainly because it would have been a very short blog post: "Still no progress.")

However, besides my 2 completed projects and 2 "significant progress" projects, I did quite a few big freelance projects.  These projects weren’t on my radar when I began the year.  In addition, I conceived of and programmed two Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Plus Rout.  Therefore, despite the incomplete projects, I’d definitely call this year a success.

Goal For 2012: A Little More Us Time

B, Eden Fantasys, Marriage

On Sunday, as part of our Lazy Day In, B and I stayed in our PJs all day.  Ok, I tossed some clothes on to get our traditional Chinese food Christmas dinner, but otherwise it was PJs for the whole day.

Towards the end of the day, before dinner was ordered, B and I decided that we should both take showers.  We had just washed and changed the sheets on all of our beds.  (Ok, so it wasn’t a completely lazy day.)  We figured we shouldn’t go to sleep that night without having showered.

As part of my day’s activities, I had resurrected an old laptop we had.  So the boys both had computers to play on.  They were both occupied so I dared to suggest we shower together.  It’s been awhile since we’ve done anything like this and it seemed like a golden opportunity.

B and I got ready.  We got into the shower and B adjusted the water temperature.  Then, as the temp was just right… NHL came walking into the bathroom.

Did I mention that we only have one bathroom on the ground floor?  There we were in the shower with NHL just inches from us on the other side of the curtain.  No, we weren’t engaged in any "activities", but it did mean that any hope of "activities" was rapidly dwindling.  NHL wasn’t rushing either, but decided to talk to B for a bit.

I kept quiet at first until B gave away that I was in there.  NHL was surprised but didn’t question why dad would get into the shower with mom.  He probably figured that we were saving water.  (Yeah, saving water.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!)

This seems to be a recurring theme in our lives.  I’ll admit, there are days when I miss our pre-kid years.  In those before-kid times, we could go out to a romantic dinner or just spend some quality time indoors on a whim.  Now, we need to plan when we can drop the kids off at B’s parents house and when we need to pick them up.  Spousal quality time seems all too lacking no matter how much we try to make it a priority.

Still, we’re not going to stop trying.  Having a child burst in on you when you’re having a quiet moment together is just one of the many challenges about being a parent.

Luckily, there are always ideas to be had at EdenFantasys. Perhaps we can take a few quiet moments, while the kids are otherwise occupied, and give each other a massage.  Or maybe we can find some "toys" to help add excitement when we would otherwise give in to exhaustion at the end of a long day.  If we’re running low on ideas ourselves, we can also head on over to EdenFantasys Forums to ask other people for ideas.  Yes, B and I are always on the hunt for ways to maximize our Us Time.

Disclaimer: This post was written as part of the EdenFantasys Ambassador program.  I received an EdenFantasys gift card, but the opinions expressed above are my own.

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