I thought I would assess how I did on my goals from last year and see where life is going.

• Gain 23 pounds – Well I actually lost three pounds, but gaining the weight was not really my goal. I seriously feel I eat better and exercise regularly now. I have been eating out less and choosing what I actually eat much better. I still bike commute (even in the cold December rain), take longer rides on weekends, and started lifting weights. Progress.
• Net Worth – I tried to increase my net worth by 126% or something like that. It was a weird number because it actually represented a major milestone. Six months ago, I said this was going to be a challenge to actually meet. Well, some serious cost cutting and readjustments made it possible to get to 147%. I hit my goal in late October. I will call this a win.
• Do Not Buy a House – A win.

I guess I will call the year the goals basically achieved. That is enough looking back. Let us see where we are going. I think I will go into more detail than I have in the past too.

• Health
  • Run – After ten years of not running, I want to start again. This is actually a big deal since my running career in high school ended so poorly. I love running, but it has taken me this long to get over it. I do not have a plan for tacking this goal yet, but it will happen.
  • Gain 15 Pounds – Yes, much different than last year’s 23 pounds. The thought here is still eat better and exercise but I would like to take that to the next level to place something tangible behind the exercise part. Like running the ‘how’ will be determined over the next couple days. Mostly it will come down to running, biking, lifting weights, and eating better.
• Household
  • Buy a Car – This has been my desire for a couple years now. I think in June I will be ready to pull that trigger. On a plus side, I will probably get a bigger car to help haul peoples and gear to the various activities I want to do.
  • Buy a Home? – Yep still in the air. Last year, I wanted to wait to save for a down payment and get those prices down. I have been doing some casual research over the last couple months. There are a lot of options out there in the area I am looking. In the event I do not get a home, I will probably migrate the down payment into paying down student loans. Time will tell here.
• Activities
  • Climb Two Mountains – I am thinking Mt. St. Helens and South Sister. Both of these are basically day hikes to the summit. Good starter mountains.
  • Go XC Skiing – Never been. Sounds fun. I actually have a trip planned for a couple weeks. Checking off should come soon.
  • Build a Snow Cave – Alright, I plan to sleep in it too. I need some warmer clothes.
  • Race a Half Marathon – I have always wanted to run a marathon but am not in shape to do it. For this year, I plan to exercise enough that I could run a half marathon (13.1 miles). This will be my longest race ever, and for all those who know how I run, I will not be running just to finish.
  • Ride a Century – That means ride my bike 100 miles in a day. The most I have ever done was about 60. This does not need to be one of those organized 100 mile tours, but just a couple of peoples going on a really long ride.
  • Summer Backpacking – My snow cave adventure in a couple weeks will first real backpacking (and snowshoeing). I would like to do a longer (in distance and overnights) this summer.

I kept a couple things off the list (work, financial, etc) as this is not my official list, but it should keep me busy. Maybe if you are lucky, I will actually take the time to post updates throughout the year. Anybody want to join on any of the adventures?

As is my tradition, I thought I would review my progress at my 2010 goals.

• Gain Weight … Err, Eat Better and Exercise – As of this morning, I have lost four pounds. My progress to actually gain weight has been a roller coaster. I was up about ten pounds pretty quickly. When I started biking, I lost 15 pounds in three weeks. I have gained that back in my leg mostly. I probably wont fight to get to my, now, 27 pounds by the end of the year. I will keep trying though.

  My real goal of eating better and exercise is working though. I virtually bike everywhere. I lift weights. I could be better at this though. I eat like crazy. Without being anal, I have almost cut red meat, pop, and candy out of my diet.

  I feel great. I think there are two times in my life I have been in better shape. The first was late in my high school running career (about 16-7 years old) when I was running 60 miles a week. The second was my last summer working construction (20 years old). I was lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling, jack hammering, etc 30-50 pounds for 60 hours a week.

• Updated Net Worth – I am a little behind the original 126.3158%. I have a 55% change thus far which puts me at 110% by the end of the year. I had a couple large purchases which impacted the progress – bike, rain gear, and Wisconsin trip. I might be able to cut some costs in the last half of the year to catch up.
• No House – I have not bought a house, but I did move to NE Portland. Double win. I do want to own a home but still do not know if Portland is where that will be.

The rest of my life is going well. I am still working at Conducive Technology and our FlightStats project is growing like crazy. I still have the life goal to start my own company and Conducive is teaching me some powerful knowledge which will pay off one day. Unless a business opportunity comes a knocking, I plan to stay where I am.

Now I have mooched off a couple people from time-to-time to avoid riding home at 4:00 a.m. or the monsoon that was May in PDX. I, like most people, am far from perfect.

The car took a couple cranks today, but mostly had no issues starting. For a 14 years old, this car is lasting quite nicely. GM might take note of how it used to make cars.

How did I celebrate my re-entry into the car world? Apartment hunting, purchasing bike parts (ironical), sitting in traffic (woohoo), and grocery shopping. (For all those would be no-car-peoples out there, grocery shopping is a pain without a car.)

No, I am not going to now stop biking. I will be riding to work tomorrow – rain or shine. Pattern continues. I will probably only drive to errands.

I actually have not felt this great, physically, in years. About seven years. Exercise rocks. With exercise comes, eating to keep up. For those of you who thought I ate a ton before, now I eat double that, making grocery shopping even that much harder.

Hopefully, I will be moving to PDX at the end of this month.

I had just a moment a couple weeks back. This time a song caused it. When it came on my Pandora station, I literally stopped working and could not focus again for about a half hour. Since this day, I have had the song on repeat.

The song: Where have I been all my Life from George Strait.

You can listen below:

God bless.

If you are uneducated in this realm of spirituallity, they sell Dutch Tacos. Imagine all your breakfast rolled up in a waffle taco.

Today, I had the ham & cheese. Ham, cheese, and, well, waffle.

If that is not Heavenly, there is no hope for you.

I bought a bike and started bike commuting. I might be the only person dumb enough to take a bike from Vancouver to downtown Portland, but I have never been much for fitting in. Actually, I do not ride the entire 11 miles. I grab the Yellow Line in North Portland.

I get a Tri-met pass for work, so minus the cost of the bike, my commute is now free. Woohoo.

Going over the Interstate Bridge in the rain, wind, and dark is less than my favorite activity in the world. Otherwise, I enjoy my commute better than sitting in traffic.

Next step, move back to Portland.

Conditions reminded me of late March. Old, packed snow. Lines were very short, we never had to wait more than 15 seconds.

How about some stats?

• About three hours – just after 6:00-9:00.
• 15-20 runs.
• $15. Meadows has super special deals after 6:00 or something.
• Five crashes including the two below.
• One yard sale. Skies off, 20 feet apart and 30 feet behind me. Poles off. Boats unbuckled. Snow in pants. Six inch wide, three feet long, and four inch deep hole, 15 feet behind me.
• One failed lift entrance. Some snowboarder tried to join James and I on the four person lift. He took about three of the spots. My attempt to give him more room failed when I noticed the lift railing between my legs. Adjusting back found myself face first in the snow under the lift. Stupid snowboarders.

A good night, a good night.

It all started the weekend before last. I wanted to go night skiing sometime during the week at Mt Hood. After attempting to recruit ski buddies, I found the lifts were closed except on Friday and Saturday due to lack of snow and insanely warm weather for mid-January. Turns out, some lifts were open later in the week, but I had already ditched hopes. Fail one.

For several months a friend from the college dorms was planning a XC skiing trip. I was ready to go this last Saturday, but it turns out it was 40 and raining. Not too fun. Fail two.

After seeing the lifts open later last week, I attempted to reorganize another trip. I got to work early this morning, so I could leave at 3:00. After meeting my ski buddies for the day, we made our way to the mountain. If the foreshadowing did not give it away yet… Closed. All three places. Fail three.

What does a guy have to do to get a little ski around here?

Today, four of us hiked Cape Horn on the Washington side of the Gorge. About a seven mile hike. I would definitely suggest it. There are a ton of viewpoints over the river. Easy to moderate hike. Shocking, I gave up watching the Packers to go socialize. Odd, I know.

Tonight I am pooped, so baseball playoffs and then bed time.

After sitting in bed wide awake for an hour this morning, I said screw it and got up. I thought I was going to handle the time change just fine until this happened after coming home, but I guess there were a few bumps. Then again, loosing three hours of sleep is not a big deal, given it is almost 3:00 pm in Amsterdam.

I am actually quite impressed with my productivity. In the last hour and a half, I have gone through more than 400 emails I missed while being away from work for two weeks. I have also done some catch up on some of the feeds I regularly read. All in all, a good morning thus far.

Hey, look. The sun came up.