Gran Torino, and getting older

So, you may have noticed that I haven't been blogging as much. More or less since August, every time I've thought about blogging, I've thought: "I should do something business development related instead. I can blog later." The result is that I've been terribly inconsistent with the blogging, but the tutoring business is growing 110% year over year 4 months into year 2. Given the small base, that's not worth a ticker-tape parade, but in the worst economy since the Great Depression, I'll take it.

I'm not typically one for new year's resolutions, but this year I decided that the goal would be to "be more effective." I've quanitfied that by saying:

- work out 2x/wk
- get 30 min of cardio 4x/wk
- read 30 min/day 6x/wk
- cook one new recipe 1x/wk
- do 30 min of bus dev 5x/wk
- do 30 min of tutoring prep 5x/wk

The goal is to hit each of those weekly goals 45 out of the 52 weeks this year. I'm off to a shaky start, but just having the goals explicit (and having a spreadsheet to track it all in), has made me do more of all those things than I would have done otherwise. As of this morning, I'm adding:

- do 1 blog entry per week

Since I'm stuck here at work every Saturday morning (waking up at 7am on Saturdays SUCKS, btw) proctoring practice tests, saturday mornings are going to be blogtime. And so I begin today.

Keiko came out for NYE. I hung out with Laszlo and GA and Li and Em while I was waiting for Keiko to land, so I got to watch East Coast NYE on TV. Keiko landed at 1030pm, so we just went back to the beachhouse. We had been kicking around the idea of sitting on a blanket on the beach and drinking champagne there, but it was chilly and damp, so we listened to the waves crashing from the deck and drank the champagne there. It was nice- extremely mellow. We were in bed by 130am. But I figure last year we did the NYC party-until-4am thing so it all averages out.

Keiko wanted to see Gran Torino, so we went while she was here. It was quite good, and would lend itself to a drinking game whereby you have to take a drink every time there's a racial slur uttered. When the movie is over, you can play the get-my-stomach-pumped game; I swear every racial slur I've ever heard is uttered in that movie at least 3 times. Clint Eastwood does a good job of playing a cranky old man, but it's not clear that much actual acting was involved.

We saw it with Joel and Karen. As we were leaving, the following exchange occurred:

Me: "I thought it was pretty good. What did you guys think?"

Karen: "I really liked it!"

Joel: "Enh, it was OK I guess."

Keiko: "Clint Eastwood wears the same sweatpants you do baby, he just wears them pulled up a little higher."

(pause)

Me: "He wears them pulled up a LOT higher, thank you very much, and now I can never wear sweatpants ever again. I hope you're satisfied."

Keiko: "I love you babe."

Me: (grrrrr)

OK, granted, I got those sweatpants in high school, which means they're from the mid-eighties, and the elastic is worn, so I do have to wear them a little ligher than normal to keep them from falling off, but goddammit, I AM NOT A CRANKY CURMUDGEON WITH PANTS PULLED UP TO MY RIBCAGE!

hmph.