Day 9/365
I know, I need to take more pictures. I'm still trying to keep up my habit of posting daily! 
Today has been pretty relaxed. I was over at my friend J's house talking to his son about a movie that's coming out that I thought looked cool. It's John Carter, based on the John Carter of Mars books. First of all, I didn't realize that it was written around the turn of the century by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Secondly, I didn't realize it was so well written! I borrowed the book from J's son and devoured the first of three books.
His writing is timeless, you get drawn into the book immediately and it doesn't let you go. I thought I'd get discouraged by the futuristic stuff in the book turning out to be modern day cell phones, but he spends time fostering culture, and motive, and plot to such an extent that you feel for the characters and want some to succeed, and some to go down in flames.
Still nursing a bit of a sinus thing, coughing is producing...well, it's just gross, we'll leave it at that.
Haven't had much time or inclination to exercise, but I think I'm going to get Gillian to do some stuff with me tonight so we can get back on track. Had a good week, and nothing for 2 days, so I want to get back on track.
Treebeard is doing well. I've trimmed back some of the small offshoots I don't like the look of, and now that I'm done with Book 1 of John Carter, I am going to do some research on how to train it to grow in the direction I want it to. I need some supplies and some guidance, so I'll be posting that when I get it
A new friend: 2/365
So my wife is a lot more perceptive than I could ever have asked for. I've been trying to find something to help me turn my brain off. I work from home 4 days a week, and I've had some trouble turning off after I'm done, so I wanted to find a hobby. I went to the library recently to pick up something to read, and for once, didn't pick up a fantasy novel. I grabbed one on Tai Chi, and a pair of beginner Bonsai books.
I haven't touched the Tai Chi one, and picked up a few more on Bonsai, interested in the different varieties of tree, and how some are easier than others, and other things.
I wasn't even try to lay out a hint or anything, I'm just not that subtle. So the day before my birthday, my friend J comes over with his son to wish me a happy birthday, he was flying the next day and wanted to be there to wish me a happy birthday. I came downstairs, and he and my wife have a cheshire grin between them.
Funny thing is, I saw it at his house a week or so before and remarked on it. He gave me some kind of non-committal answer about it, and I forgot all about it.
So this is Treebeard, and you can see, he's pretty small That's Pluto, my cat from hell sniffing around him. It's a Mt. Fuji Serissa tree.
As you can see, it's roots are elevated from the soil, and you can really see through them. It's about 7 yrs old now, so it's a pretty sturdy tree already.
There are several trunks to play with, I'm going to go to a gardening center nearby to get some tools (and advice) on how to train it. IE: bending the branches to move them into a more separated structure.
The neat thing about this tree is the fact that it has multiple blooming periods, so there will be small white flowers on it during the year.
Right now, I'm just going to concentrate on trimming it back for now and watering it properly and we'll see what happens.
So here is my post for day 2 of this year of my life.
A new year: 1/365
Okay, so my 43rd birthday was yesterday, and I have been trying to get things moving in other aspects of my life besides work. I believe I have let it take over too much of my day, mostly because being at home, I can always do things because it's right there. I do love what I do, which is really nice, but I need to keep hours to work on what they should be utilized for - being with the kids, being with Fae, doing things that allow my brain to shut down for a while and just relax.
It's been a pretty stressful year, so I want to leave 42 behind me and chronicle 43 to see if I can keep something like a daily log going. I have several reasons for this, but in truth, I kind of like having a check on myself so I can list out accomplishments, failures, goals, and thoughts. I think emptying my head on a regular basis will help.
Hence, the 1/365 in the title. I'm going to try and do things on a daily basis, including pics, a post, and maybe even some other stuff. I don't know. I've seen a lot of blogs that take a pic a day and I always thought that was neat.
So what do I have planned? Hell, I don't know. But I'd like to keep this up as much as possible.
Latest Accomplishments: Gillian and I have been doing 'workouts' together on a nightly basis for about a week now. We didn't last night because we were out to dinner and Daddy ate too much We've been doing some form of kicking/punching because she found that hitting balloons around her room helped with her frustration levels. She's in 3 advanced classes, in band, and the school play. She's stressing a little bit and she liked the idea of hitting the hand pads I have from when I used to teach TaeKwon Do.
So I started her off slow - 5 minutes of punching, some sit ups, and pushups - and we progressed from there. We decided that we wanted to keep track of things, so I have an excel spreadsheet on my desktop at home. I looked last night, and I have done more pushups and situps in the last week than I did all last year. Made me want to do some this morning, but when I tried to do some situps, my abdomen say NO! Going to take it easy on the situps for another day or so, but I'm going to continue with the pushups and start doing the punching and kicking drills I used to teach before using the bags. I want to work on endurance (for both of us), as well as getting form a little cleaner. Kicks are a lot more effective if you're stance is proper.
I also got a bonsai tree for my birthday from Fae It's a flowering Serissa: http://www.bonsaiboy.com/catalog/product5829.html
It grows small white flowers several times during the year and it's cool as hell because the roots come above the soil. It's 7 yrs old and it's about the coolest thing I've gotten in a long time. Hopefully I won't kill it That's kind of another reason for the enhanced blog. I'd like to chronicle how I'm caring for the tree to be able to look back and see what I did and what I did wrong. Plus I'm hoping to be able to get advice on how to begin trimming, pruning, and training it. It's funny because I had gotten a bunch of books from the library to begin reading on it, I didn't realize Fae was planning it based on all of the books I had. I didn't realize but at one point, I had like 5 I was reading at the same time.
Anyway, here's to the first day of my new year. Here's to new beginnings. And here's to hopefully a nice start to improving my life, my outlook, and my sanity