Friday Five

The Excuse

Starting out the year on a good note and posting on time.

The Week[s]

As I mentioned in my last five, I was signing off for the year. I spent very little time in front of the computer over those last two weeks and it was remarkable. To answer the common questions:

Yes, Christmas was very nice. Karin and I saw How The Grinch Stole Christmas at The Old Globe on Christmas Eve, which is a long running San Diego tradition. (The play just recently made it to Broadway for the Christmas season.) For Christmas Day we went over to Liam’s house for a very pleasant dinner.

New Year’s Eve was spent in Vegas. No, I’d rather not expound on that.

This week was spent in Dallas. I was attending a “boot camp”, which meant some late nights and as such I really didn’t get out of the hotel room much at night. I did still make it over to La Joya, my favorite restaurant over here, but beyond that it was mostly just staring at 4 walls.

The Restaurant

I’m going to go back a week for this – Mon Ami Gabi in the Paris hotel in Vegas. Outside of this place there is no patio dining on the strip. And this place is just perfect. First the location is right across the street from the Bellagio, which means you get to see the fountains while dining. The food is very good (I don’t know about great, but very very good), and for the location extremely reasonable. They’re a French steakhouse of sorts. Their normal steaks are flank steaks, but the filets they do are amazing. Next time you’re in Vegas I highly recommend stopping by here.

The Exercise

The biggest reason I’m keeping this section here is to motivate myself. I figure after typing out that I didn’t exercise enough times that I’ll eventually get up off my arse and get back into the gym.

The Travel Note

Many cities have passed ordinances that require a cabbie to have showered within the last decade or so. I can tell you I’m 100% in favor of these. Nothing makes the eyes water faster than opening a cab door and getting punched in the face by a combination of BO and Old Spice. Fortunately it was a relatively short cab ride.

The Five

As I mentioned last year, I’m really not one for New Year’s Resolutions. But, just for kicks and giggles, here’s 5 things I’d like to do more of in 2009 (not necessarily resolutions).

1. Lose 15 pounds. My main goal is to really get my weight to start with a 17 rather than a 18, but I’d like to sneak down a little further just to give myself a little more room.
2. Read more. I did pretty well (for me) this year. I am about 1/3 of the way through Bourne Supremacy[1] and have 2 books lined up that I’m really looking forward to reading.
3. Stay connected with the blog. I go in spurts here, and I’d like to be a tad more consistent. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what constitutes a “post worthy event”, but I still want to blog more.
4. I’d like to take a continuing education course – preferably a history or politics course.
5. Spend more time with friends. Being on the road constantly makes it very challenging to stay connected with friends, especially when I’m trying to balance time between friends and some alone time with Karin. But I think I can do a better job there and I want to.