2010 Recap

I kept a list of my 2010 plans on the fridge all year long and I think I did alright.  I didn't complete everything I had planned, but do plans ever turn out exactly as you expect?  Here's the recap from January 2010.

Continue to get in better shape:

• I definitely did this.  I didn't get quite as far as I'd hoped, but I finally got the Wii Fit to tell me that my weight was in the "normal" range.
• I did run a half marathon, which was awesome, and have continued to run.  My speed has increased so that I'm running 10k in under an hour.
• Throughout the winter, I've been running in the St. Louis Track Club's Frostbite Series of runs, which will get me up to a half marathon in late January.  I'm also registered for the Go! St. Louis Marathon in April!!
• I gave myself credit for the "do pull-ups" goal because I was doing them on the swing set while pushing the girls on the swings this summer.  I'm not proficient, but good enough for now.

Make the home office presentable again

• This summer, my sister and her family came to live with us for a while as they transitioned to being St. Louis residents.  The home office became my niece's room.  And I'm thrilled with how nice it looked when she moved in!  (In the end, she wanted to spend more time sleeping in her mom and dad's room, but it was still worth cleaning up.)

Improve financial management skills

• We've definitely been pretty good at maintaining our budget.  I think we missed one or two months, but we've done alright.
• We also restructured some of our debt and have been able to make great progress.  Close, but not quite a 50% reduction.

Improve work/life balance

• Work/life balance is always complicated for me.  With running during lunch at work and having lunches at home sometimes, I've definitely made progress.  I haven't taken off as many random "let's go do something fun" days.  There's progress to be made there.

Academic Avocation

• I started NaNoWriMo again, this year, with the best of intentions.  It didn't work out, though.  My wife wasn't doing it along with me and we had a lot of things going on.  Excuses, sure.  After a week, I decided that it just wasn't worth it this year.  Maybe next year.
• I also didn't submit any book proposals.  Oh well.

Other things I did accomplish this year:

• A five mile hike up in the Snow Range in Wyoming that was truly awesome!
• We're now expecting another child to join the family in March 2011.
• I joined a business intelligence workgroup as part of HIMSS, which may lead to contributing to a book.
• I volunteered to be a mentor for a Wash U engineering student.
• I grew a winter beard.