I can and will triumph over the winter doldrums

Dear James, Daniel and Emily,

Had a good weekend, despite a good portion of time spent in clean up and recovery from the pipe problems. But we had it all back together and looking decent, thanks to some hard work and team work, James even pitched in and did his part. Found my way to a couple of decent workouts, although not exactly what I would have liked. Had a good party, and good company to enjoy the big game, which was a good game, and a good way to end the season and my focus on sports.

Family

It was a nice, relatively relaxing weekend. Chose not to over reach on most projects. Actually got the kids to bed on time most nights, although Emily had another rough weekend. She just can't shake this cold and cough, although having night like last night where she just refused to go to be don't help her recover.

I had a nice dinner out with my buddy on Saturday. Celebrating his birthday. I ate too much, but it was a good time, talking family, politics, current events and giving tips on eating and training.

Sunday went smoothly, with a good selection of friends and family there to attend. We had a good spread of food, and while I did indulge myself it wasn't overwhelming. And it was a good game.

Training

Saturday I did my run at the Y, that new habit is proving to work quite well for me and the kids. My only challenge is eating a light meal prior to the run. Sunday I chose not to do a trail run, and instead waited to go to the Y, which proved a bit of a mistake, because I was clearly not the only one with that idea, the only machine I was able to get on was a recumbent bike. Which was a workout, but no where near the workout I would have liked.

Doing these runs at the Y are good, but I miss the surge I get from that early morning run, so I am more than ready for the weather to return to normalcy. Although that doesn't look to be the case this week. I am also looking to find some new things that I can do on my off days in the mornings to get my breath going, the push ups and sit ups are good, but I want to get the cardio some workout as well, partially for the calorie burn and partially for that morning surge.

Football

So the season is over. It was a decent season, lots of interesting narratives, and again there was no overwhelming favorite that just ran away with things or a blow out for the Super Bowl. Any more I am finding that if my team (and even then that's not a requirement) is not on top I prefer new blood and no overwhelming teams. I guess that's one of the reasons I like football, the mode of the league in recent years has been one of new blood, no overwhelming favorites and the championship teams have been by and large competitive.

Projects

So now we are on to the next phase in the basement, that is we figured out what to do and how to arrange things so they are functional for now. Now we have to negotiate with the insurance company and figure out what they will pay for, or at least how much they will give us, then we figure out from there what direction we want to go. We are actually in agreement that we would both want to make the living area nicer, and more suited for us to be down there so the whole family uses the basement, instead of it being the place we banish the children to.