Woke up to single digits this morning. Nice bright sunshine, but cold, really cold. Only consolation is it didn’t get below zero.

Not a great night for sleeping, stomach trouble, hot, cold,  diarrhea… wonderful. Maybe a nap this morning is in line.

The nap helped, but it was a real slow day.  Played a little guitar and watched TV.  Not very exciting.

Tim and Jen finally beat Judy and me in the Scrabble word game.  Judy was very gracious and sent them an instant message suggesting the win was a gift to keep them from feeling bad.

Tim and Jen had a great time at Pili’s and there is a chance that they may all come here for next Christmas. Wouldn’t that be something.

Looks beautiful outside, but it’s cold.  A little dusting of snow overnight. Even though its cold, a hike will be good.

The hike was nice, but the sun keeps going behind the clouds. There was a guy with a Norwegian Elkhound reminded me of Eileen’s dog Heather.  That dog loved the cold, she would go out on the coldest day and curl up for a nap.  Not exactly my idea of fun.

Went to El Toro’s for Britt’s birthday dinner/lunch.  This was my first trip to the El Toro in Bellbrook.  They are all a little different, but the same.  They sang what I suppose was Happy birthday to her in Spanish. THat was fun.

It’s getting colder and windier.  Will be a little cool for my hike tomorrow morning.

Worked on the guitar and piano for a while. Someday I will get the hang of them… maybe. The dulcimer might be the ticket if the videos I watched are any indication.

NCIS marathon.

Everything is starting a little slow this morning.  Late night, last night wildness staying up to midnight… wow. I guess I will always be a morning person.

Tim and Jen went to LA to visit Pili. They were going to stay up all night and go to the Rose Parade.  Sounds fun… if I were a little younger.

Tin and Christie had us over for for a traditional New Year’s pork and kraut dinner. Christie put on a great spread. Tim told a couple of good cop stories. Kelley’s little boy Noah is getting big.  For 16 months he is really moving around. They have nice new house. Tim will have a good time upgrading the yard to his standards. He says no pond, too much work.

Ohio State beat Oregon in the Rose Bowl 26-17.  They did a nice job controlling Oregon’s offense. If Ohio State could have converted its field goals to touchdowns it could have been a laugher.

UC a bust in the Sugar Bowl 51-24 versus Florida.  It would have been nice if they had kept it close, then they could have avoided the Big East can’t play with the big boys.

UD didn’t play well against a ranked team.  New Mexico only beat them by 2, but according to the paper New Mexico was never really in trouble at the end. Until UD develops better play to get the ball inside or their outside guys get more consistent the big games will probably continue to get away.

I am ending the year with a new experience.  Judy is bound and determined that I need to experience  a massage, so today I am going to finally use the gift certificate I received for Christmas last year.

The massage was nice, but I am basically a cheapskate and I am not likely pay to have someone give me a massage. For me to go again it needed to be a cathartic experience, it wasn’t, so this is probably a first and last for me.

Worked on the guitar and piano this morning.  Starting to get the idea on how to change cords, but i have a long way to go.

The weather today is a little warmer, in the high thirty’s.  There was a little snow overnight, but the rain has started.  Hopefully it will clean away all the snow so I won’t have to shovel the little that feel.  The snow must go because the next few days the highs are only supposed to be in the twenties. Don’t want ice on the driveway.

With the rain probably no hike today.

Took it easy today watched a bunch of football.  Air Force destroyed Houston and Navy blitzed Missouri.  A good day for the Academies.

Went to church at St Anthony, it was crowded.  I don’t think they were expecting the crowd, they didn’t have enough hosts.  The deacon had a bad day, got his sleeve caught  on a wine glass and over it went.

Bought a dulcimer after watching some videos on U-Tube.  Looks pretty simple.  It will be a nice diversion form piano and guitar.  For someone that did almost no music as a kid I hope I didn’t bit off more than I can chew.  Looking forward to it getting here.

Judy and I watched All About Steve the new Sandra Bullock movie.  Turned out better than expected.  Funny and a message that said it’s okay to be different.

Watching a Burn Notice marathon waiting for the New Year. We are not the most exciting, but this is okay. It’s nice just hanging out.

Looks like a nice morning the sun is shining, a little cool, but sun is good.

Heading out for a hike with Greg, should be good.

Nice hike, but the sun went away.  Looks like it will be cloudy the rest of the day.

Worked on the guitar a little more.  It is going to take me awhile to get my fingers moving the right way and to get them accustomed to putting pressure on the strings… ouch!

Also banged on the piano for awhile.  Starting to get a better feel for the keyboard. No one will confuse me with a great concert pianist though.

Watched Bowling Greene loose to Idaho 43-42 on a two point conversion with 4 seconds left. Idaho scored to put themselves in position for the win with a 30 second drive.  If either team could play defense…

Tim is kicking my butt on the Scrabble board.  Judy got home from her girls weekend in Detroit. I will let her see if she has better luck.  I have been getting mostly vowels.