At a shop in Eastview Mall these dresses made of newspaper were a nice deviation from the normal window decorations.  They would be a neat addition to a wearable art show.

One of my standard stops on a long personal trip home is for new glasses and an eye exam.  This was the first time that I have had a retinal exam though.  Here are the images they took.

I salvaged this old door from the burn pile at the dump last summer. It could have become something like a tabletop if there was a place I could get custom-cut tempered glass here. Or if i was a great woodworker I might have followed through on Pepper’s idea. She suggested if it was turned on it’s side that the window openings and panels would make great areas for drawers for a dresser. But I know that’s beyond my abilities. So I pulled out the annoying bi-fold doors that enter the closet and put the old door in the opening. I had to narrow the doorway though (you can see the left side of the door had been trimmed) and I wanted the door to swing in and out so found a hinge system to do that. If the door swings in it comes really close to the light fixture. I don’t really mind that the door doesn’t fit perfectly. I’ll eventually put a coat of polyurethane on it to seal it so more paint doesn’t flake off. But it looks like i will first need to glue the door together so it doesn’t fall apart first!

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Pepper and I got a few people together for a three week version of the Game On Diet. We took two weeks off after the last one and will be wrapping up this one just before we go on a trip to D.C, Pennsylvania, and New York.

Here’s a look at how my weight has changed since January 10th.

You can see some good spikes in the two weeks off that I took. There is a definite downward trend. I realize that weight loss isn’t the best measure of fitness, but I found a goal I made two years ago (probably after stepping on the scale at 200 pounds) which was to lose 20 pounds. I’m now below that! Perhaps a better look would be to show the two games as lines on the same chart.

Both show that I was at 190 pounds less than two months ago and that I was at 175 this morning. Suddenly 170 pounds seems within reach. Which is really funny to think because I never really thought about getting below 180 until I started the diet.

If I were to get on a scale mid day with clothes on I’d probably weigh about 180 pounds. I know that within the year I have been on the same scale and seen 210. That’s 30 pounds that I have probably lost. I like to think I hid it well.

These habits are definitely forming. I like getting up at 5:30 to head to the gym (well, “like” might not be the best word). And I have managed to get good rest for two weeks now – not staying up late. I’m eating well and exercising enough. It hasn’t really taken too much time out of my schedule from before. We spend more time packing lunches and making food than before. We’re spending a little more money on food too. We seem to be stockpiling beer and wine! (I bottled a homebrew last week!)

This morning my body fat was at it’s lowest in two months also. I really might have to do some shopping for pants soon!

I intended to do a post about this in early January… oh well, here it is. The big news for the year was getting married and becoming a dad. I rang in 2010 with Pepper at Kito’s Kave and finished out the year in the same place although we were married and I was being paid to play music there as 2011 rolled around.

Travel – I did more travel this year than any other. Having over 10 years in at work gives me a good amount of leave time but I gouged it heavily. For three weeks in February and March I went to China where most of my time was spent in Shanghai for the Chinese New Year. We also went to Harbin and Kevin joined us there. Then in April I flew to Johannesburg, South Africa where I spent a day before meeting with Pepper and Jordan. We then flew on to Zimbabwe where we spent time with Brooke. We toured in Botswana and Zambia too. After our wedding, Pepper and I went to Cancun where we started a trip through the Yucatan, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. We spent time in Juneau and Seattle and also made two special trips to Seattle – one for a pumpkin beer festival and the other for Thanksgiving to spend the holiday with Pepper’s family. I also had work trips within the state to Juneau and Seward.

Projects – My pinball machine coffee table won a good prize at Instructables as did my write up of how to start a farmer’s market. Pepper turned our craftiness profitable by cranking out projects to sell at the market and at our Etsy shop.

Moon Lighting – My career as a DJ resumed. I’ve been hired to play at Kito’s on some weekend evenings. I operated the bike shop out of my house for the year. turnaround time was sometimes long on orders and repairs because of the chaos that was once my boiler room.

Finances – Too much travel, too expensive of a wedding, not enough income. 2011 has to get better there will be much less travel and way more work.

Home Improvements – Fusing Pepper’s household goods with mine we’ve done a lot of interior decorating to the house. She had a huge collection of framed art to work with. I did quite a bit of interior painting adding color to the bathroom, living room and bedroom. Jordan and I made good headway on a tree fort.