I’ve lost track again. How hard could this be? Not very, I’m sure. I’ll do some research and update the all-important edition number. So without further ado, thirteen things keeping me so busy that… yeah, I know I’m such a bad, bad blogger!!

1. baseball — my son is on two teams and I hate missing games

2. work — yeah, I have a real job! and we’ve got this big project and, you know…

3. running — I’m up to five miles a day! and you know what, on Monday, the day of the Boston Marathon, I’m going to start on the treadmill at 10am and keep running until the winner finishes, some 2 1/4 hours later! I’ll be running my pace, not theirs, though!

4. lifting — why not mention this, too, since I’m not sure I’ve got thirteen things — doh! yes, four days a week I’m doing that.

5. spinning — I really do get really cranky if I don’t get my two spinning classes per week!

6. system management — you can write all the code you want but if the system isn’t running right, nobody can enjoy it!

7. my band — yes, I play bass in this band, Too Pretty For Prison — and we just got back from a world tour and boy are our arms tired!

8. organizing — you’re going to LYAO, but I’ve been trying to catalog every single thing in my house. I’m so tired of not knowing where anything is! so everything is going in a bin in my much tidier basement and I’ve got lists and… yeah, I know — nerd alert!

9. writing — no, not the actual writing, but taking every little thought for a story and writing it down in — yes, the same system I use for organizing my bins of clutter! one of these days I’m going to sit down and write the actual stories, I swear!

10. eating — ok, not eating all the time or I wouldn’t have lost 90 pounds, but thinking about eating is more like it, and what I can eat that’s healthy.

11. planning — I’ve got some big plans for some code I need to write that will make the links just fly off of the page! now if only I had some time to actually write the code!

12. planting — it’s that time of year! only four or five weeks more until we can put our veggie babies in the ground, but I built a good size plant light stand to get everything started… and this week is roto-tilling time!

13. and last but not least, I feel like I spend most of my free time tweaking this code I’ve been writing — it’s the tool that keeps my bins and thoughts and stories and everything organized — and no, it’s not ready to share yet, but it keeps me wicked wicked busy!

now if it could just keep me organized enough to know how many TT’s I’ve written! LOL!!

If I can think of thirteen things that are bugging the crap out of me, they’ll be a TT post. Otherwise, they’ll just be me ranting.

1. People that don’t cool down after their workout and worse, when they are all sweaty and they just towel off and don’t take a shower and go back to work.

2. People leaving their stuff all over the locker room while they work out instead of putting it in a locker.

3. People who repeat what I’ve just said, as if it was their very own idea.

4. The expression “do the needful.”

5. Not having a cell phone signal inside the building where I work.

6. Feeling like I have to put five bucks in the powerball pool every time the jackpot gets really big, even though I can’t really afford it.

7. Having to use a little adapter thingy to plug headphones into my phone/PDA.

8. License plates that just say the kind of car like “MY93BUICK.”

9. People saying “back-slash” when they just mean “slash.”

10. People sticking their noses where they don’t belong like in my business!

11. Really loud sneezes. OK, I’m reaching now.

12. People walking up to my office door, looking in, turning around, walking away. Yes, someone just did that!!

13. Oh yeah — that wordpress plugin that grabs your latest post — I will find a way to defeat it! :)

1. I’ve finally figured out my TT number… whew!
2. I’ve got two suits hanging in my closet.
3. The larger of the two I could wear after losing a few pounds.
4. You may recall the whole thing about wearing it to a funeral.
5. The smaller of the two suits is now too big for me!
6. I have another funeral to attend and… what will I wear??
7. With more pounds/inches to lose, clothing shopping is out.
8. I just bring a huge bag of stuff to the Salvation Army bin.
9. Some of it was brand new, most of it barely ever worn!
10. I said a good-bye to the old me as I pushed the bag inside.
11. It was a very short but meaningful ceremony.
12. It was an uncle of mine who passed away a few days ago.
13. He’s been dead to me for years — a very long story…

You know you can’t be doing too well on last year’s new years’ resolutions when you don’t even remember them… They do look a bit familiar, but OMG am I in for it!

So here are my grades for 2007.

1. Keep up the exercise regimen… A+ — and oh yeah, it shows!!

2. Drink more water… B? I drink a lot of herbal and decaf tea, does that count? I hope so!

3. Eat less… everything!… A+ and see #1

4. Don’t procrastinate so much… B-, only because it’s already nine days into the new year and I’m just wrapping up the old one.

5. Play my saxophone more often… F, I don’t think I blew a note all year.

6. Keep up the reading (books)… C, and I need to improve. but let’s make that a C+ because I did use my library card quite a bit.

7. Learn another language… F, no excuses.

8. Drink less soda… A- with less than one per day, I think I’m doing pretty well, and it’s all diet.

9. Turn in expenses more promptly… A, and it’s nice to get my money right away.

10. Stay on top of auto maintenance… A — I can’t think of any lingering car problems unsolved.

11. Be more creative with everything I do… B, because there is room for improvement.

12. Take more pictures during the year… B-, because there’s even more room for improvement here.

13. Be a better blog visitor… F, and how I suck at this, and I’m so sorry for that!

So let’s tally up my marks — my final grade is ::drum roll:: wow, a C or a C+, that’s awful! Can I make some progress before the next report cards? I sure will try! And that’s my one and only resolution for 2008 — that and keeping up the good grades. Wish me luck!!

My sister called me yesterday last week to ask if I was going to my class reunion. When she asked why not, I asked her which of a hundred reasons did she want to hear?

1. Other classes were invited to attend
2. That means my sister was going to be there
3. I can listen to music from 1982 whenever I want on XM.
4. I don’t remember much about high school at all.
5. What could I possibly have to talk about with people I haven’t seen in 25 years?
6. I’m really no good at making small talk.
7. And I don’t even consider myself much of a people person.
8. I can never, I mean never ever, remember anybody’s name.
9. It would be way to hard for me to pass up all of the crappetizers.
10. I’m afraid I’d say something about my secret blogging life.
11. I’m just not into showing off and bragging about stuff.
12. And I sure as hell don’t need to hear about other people’s fabulous lives.
13. If we were meant to live life in the rear view mirror, they wouldn’t call it “reverse”.

OK, so I guess it only feels like a hundred reasons. Only thirteen? I guess I’ll have to save this post for TT, then… so there you go!

A day late and how many dollars short? LOL, oh well!!

1. I’m so behind — it’s been three weeks since my last thirteen!

2. Sounds like I’m about to give my confession, doesn’t it?

3. Bless me, blogosphere, for I have shirked.

4. I’m kicking myself for not doing NaNoWriMo this month.

5. But you can see how much time I’ve got on my hands.

6. I’ve got a really great story just dying to get written.

7. But you see, I kind of want it to be well written.

8. Damn, I can’t even remember what I was going to call it.

9. I’m sure it will come back to me as soon as I hit Publish.

10. It’s on the tip of my tongue — the tips of my fingers, actually.

11. Yes, I remember now — the story is called “The Village”.

12. I could tell you what it’s about… but then I’d have to… you know.

13. Well would you look at this — my TT post has been sitting here in this window when I had to rush out of the office the other day… and it’s still here! LOL, I thought I’d posted it!

Thirteen things about Fall (and Winter) in New England.

1. The foliage is really beautiful right now.

2. The yellows are more brilliant than usual, I think.

3. Usually I like the reds and oranges better.

4. The yellows remind me of forsythia somehow.

5. And the next time we see forsythia… next spring!

6. Not that I would wish the fall and winter away.

7. That would violate one of my most important rules of life.

8. One of things I like best about fall… NO RAKING!

9. That’s right, I leave ‘em right where they fall.

10. The snow — well that’s another story altogether.

11. Our ATV has a snow plow for digging us out all winter.

12. And I don’t mind the little bit I have to do with a shovel.

13. But dammit, it’s only mid October and I’m cold already! :/

I’ve had quite the little blog vacation, haven’t I? Here are thirteen excuses for my absence from the blogosphere…

1. My dog ate my post.
2. I was locked in my closet all week.
3. I’ve been spending all my time at the gym.
4. I was pondering whether to run for Congress.
5. I was traveling and didn’t have Internet access.
6. I’ve been too weak from hunger to write anything.
7. I’ve been busy implementing new linky features.
8. Lori had me tied up to the universal machine.
9. I couldn’t remember my administrator password.
10. I ate a breakfast burrito and was too ashamed to post.
11. My computer crashed and lost all of my files.
12. I tripped over the spare leather in my belt.
13. I’ve been working on a super-secret new web app.

Only two of these are actually true. Can you guess which ones? Maybe I should have saved this post for tomorrow’s debut of Fibber McFriday — come on back and see what that’s about!! :)

Thirteen Numbersinspired by one of Mar’s comments last week — her question is #1, by the way 
1. Number of ice cubes in my whiskey: 2
2. Number of hours of TV I watch per week: 9.5
3. Number of miles each way in my daily commute: 21
4. Number of states I have visited: 29
5. Number of seconds between red buoys #6 and #8: 34.75
6. Number of minutes in my noon workout: 40
7. Number of pounds I’ve lost since mid-April: 51
8. Number of pounds I bench press most days: 90
9. Number of minutes spent on crosswords since last TT: 297
10. Number of posts in this here blog: 583
11. Number of items in my iTunes library: 707
12. Number of items in my iPhoto library: 1,471
13. Number of miles I’ve put on my car since last fall: 20,400

Let’s see if I can come up with thirteen things you don’t know already…

1. I find myself often going a couple days without eating any meat.
2. I love snow globes!
3. One of my computers has been shutting itself off for no reason.
4. I have three dogs.
5. As a general rule, as a concept, as a technology… I loathe e-mail.
6. I collect words.
7. One of my favorite technologies is bulletin boards.
8. I eat one cookie every day.
9. The whole web2.0 thing is one of the biggest scams going.
10. I have six DMV registrations.
11. The Red Sox will win the World Series again this year.
12. I’m a political moderate.
13. My sister just shocked the hell out of me by forwarding around a Snopes article I sent her in response to a stupid message she sent around last night.

How did I do? Did anybody already know any of this stuff?

1. I took the day off, but I’m working on ::wink::wink::
2. A few new things will be announced one of these days.
3. I’m running in a 5K road race this evening.
4. I haven’t run 5 actual kilometers in a long, long time!
5. Angel has been away but she’s coming home tonight.
6. I’ve been taking care of her dogs all week.
7. I just finished the NYT puzzle in under 30 minutes!
8. Not bad for a Thursday, if I do say so meself!
9. I’ve been trying to be a better blogger of late.
10. Not that there’s really any evidence here of that.
11. Wifey and I are going away for the weekend.
12. We’re taking the camper but that’s not really camping.
13. Just think of all the stories I’ll have to blog about!

1. I’m buying something from Craigslist today… so if you never hear from me again, just assume I was murdered.

2. If anything awful like that really did happen to me, it’s pretty unlikely you all would ever hear about it though.

3. I’m buying a computer, but I can’t decide whether to make it into a DVR or give it to my son for him to use.

4. I guess I’m leaning more toward the latter, which means I’ll need to buy another computer for the former.

5. If I can get my hands on a tuner card that will decode all of my cable channels, that is — it’s a prerequisite.

6. I need to start spending more time watching TV or I’m going to feel all my cable money is going to waste!

7. The big old monster TV my kids watch is broken and there’s no way I can get it fixed. They’re going to be sad.

8. I guess we’ll take the medium sized XBox TV and use it for show watching and find a little TV for game playing.

9. I don’t know how we’ll go on living.

10. My youngest daughter is becoming a flute prodigy.

11. I need to start working on my learning of the bagpipes, which I’ve started but which has gotten side tracked.

12. I have a whole mess of draft posts I’ve started but now they seem really dumb.

13. I think I should throw them away before I do something really crazy like post them!