The obligatory "catching up" post

It truly shocked me to see that I had not blogged since December 2010 (and that wasn't a real entry).  I blame Facebook.

Since my last real post, several things have happened.

Most importantly, my fifth daughter, Claire, was born in December 2010.

For those who followed my posts about marathon training, you should be pleased to learn that I did, indeed, complete the 2010 Dallas White Rock Marathon.  I also completed the 2011 Rock and the 2012 OKC Memorial Marathon.  I am currently training for the 2012 NYC ING Marathon in November.

I lost my job at the Dallas DA's Office at the end of 2010 and spent a few months trying to find a new job before deciding to open my own solo law practice.

My weight loss journey started back up again last fall.  During marathon training in 2010, I had lost 20 pounds.  When I took a few months off before kicking it back up in 2011, I had gained 10 of that back.  I thought I would be able to lose that 10 again just as easily as I had the year before, but it was not to be.  In fact, over the first 3 1/2 months of training last year, I gained 3 pounds to get back up to 250.  In September, I downloaded the MyFitnessPal app for my phone and started tracking my daily caloric intake and burn.  I got down as low as 193 in April.  Right now, I'm back up a little because I haven't been as diligent as I need to be.

So, what inspired my return to this corner of the blogosphere?  I was a Delegate to the 2012 Texas Republican Convention last week.  Although I am not particularly thrilled with who wound up as the GOP Presidential nominee this year (sorry to my Ron Paul supporting friends, it really is a done deal at this point), the convention (as tiring as it was) renewed my enthusiasm for politics.  Thus, you can expect a decidedly political focus going forward.  That's not to say that I won't mention other things, but politics will be the primary subject.

I cannot believe I've been gone this long

Wow!

Really a year and a half without a post.

Am thinking it is time to get serious about regular blogging.

Spam

All of a sudden, I am getting tons of Spam comments. I've had to turn on Comment Moderation. I hate to do it, but I see no other way.

Maybe I'll do a better job of blogging.

But I make no promises.

Reset

I had received over 18,000 hits here since I first started in July 2005, but I've reset my counter to reflect the new era.

Short Update

I'm still out here. Life has been hectic since November. No excuse for not at least posting a little now and then.

Work is work.

Family is fine.

Life is good.

I'll post more later after I get home from rehearsal.

Wonders never cease

Lo, and behold, they restored access to blogger at work. Just discovered this toward the end of my lunch hour.

Well, that went well

After that promise to start being more regular in blogging, I disappeared for a while again. Work has been nuts. We are short an attorney in our Division, so I've basically been doing the work of 2 people for about a month. We get our replacement on the 29th, and then once I get him trained, I can get back to only handling my duties.

Also, the powers that be at the office have once again blocked our access to much of the internet, so blogging on my lunch hour is much more difficult.

What's Going On?

I've been on a blog hiatus for a little while. No more.

We took a vacation to Half Moon Lake in Michigan a couple of weeks ago. Despite having no air conditioning in the lake house and no hot water the first night, it was an enjoyable time. I read 2 1/2 books and did very little else.

At work, there are some issues that have cropped up in the past week and a half, but I don't like to blog about work things, so lets just leave it at: I could use your prayers.

I'm rapidly approaching my 40th Birthday. If you haven't received an invitation to the party (some went out in the mail, some via Evite) and feel like you should, let me know. I tried to think of everybody, but I'm sure I inadvertently omitted some folks.

Worst Blogger Ever

That'd be me. I think of things I want to say, and then when I get to the computer, I forget them.

Testing Blogging via e-mail

I just noticed the option to upload blog posts via e-mail, so I'm testing it out.

Get Your Labels Here

I have decided that I have too many Labels for my posts, and I haven't even gone back and labeled all the archives. Thus, I am going to edit them and only keep broad categories.

The Return of The Calvinator

I've been on sort of an unannounced hiatus from my two blogs. No real reason.

That's all about to change.

I have been amazed that I've still been getting about 120 hits a week on here even though I haven't posted in awhile.

New posts coming Friday both here and on the Theatre blog.

At a Loss for Words

Well gang, I'm not bleeding in a ditch. I've just been busy and distracted. I also haven't had anything I particularly wanted to write about, so I have neglected this place. I'll try to be better.

Watching the world go by

How did I get here?

My brother said to me a few days ago that he was surprised it took me so long to start a blog. He said it was right up my alley.

So, why did I start one now?

No, it has nothing to do with the Presidential Election.

Really, it was nothing more than the fact that I finally got around to checking out the blog of a friend of mine, Babs. I was reading her blog, and I thought, what the heck! I can do that.

So, here I am.

Now, go read her blog, too. She's a great gal and a darn good actress/singer/dancer.

First Things

It seems to be obligatory in BlogLand for the first post to be a justification for why the writer should have others pay attention to him or her. Since the only folks who will read this will be either friends I've directed here, or people who hear about it because of some particular entry, I don't see the need for that exercise. To me, those entries are often disingenuous anyway. Blogs are not much more than a person's Journal that is made public. So, if you want to read what I have to say, that's just fine and dandy. If not, that's no skin off my nose.