20100219

Well, didn't I just say yesterday I was thinking of cutting back on caffeine? Uf-dah! not yesterday! Thus, it was not a good night of sleep. Today has had a slow start. Hans notified me that we potentially have some new business coming our way on 2 fronts, so that is good news but even more work to contend with! I'm just trying to get it all done, falling slowly further behind. It may be time to cut back at MRN soon!

I finally had an interchange via email regarding the solon, iowa cedar lane property. I'm not certain that the seller understands real estate contracts, seems to keep dodging whether he would consider one or not. I fear at the list price he's now down to, though, that this place is going to slip by me--not much I can do about it, as my cedar crest property and NOT having closed on taylor ranch property keep me from proceeding down the traditional financing road which I'm certain is what this seller and any sellser would prefer to be selling into this market. I'm not sure how this situation will proceed, I really like the house and really want to lease with mandatory purchase it, but perhaps it's not in the cards.

Taking a day off from swimming yesterday really was nice, I was able to cruise today and finally ramped up to my goal of 2 hour swims (6.0km). I literally wasn't even remotely tired after the swim and would have gone for my first 10km today. However, I needed to get back to work. I also blew away my weight goal today, as I hit 184.5 pounds!!! Given that i weighed 178 pounds when I was 17 at High School Graduation, I'd say I'm pretty much there on the weight loss front. Incidentally, I also hit 178 pounds again when I graduated from college in 1994, but that was out of being dirt-poor my last semester of school... I have a long way to go though body composition-wise and all of this swimming has made my torso "look strange" to me--I look like an amateur swimmer now. I want to clear up what people describe as a "swimmers build"--I think most competitive swimming athletes (certainly the sprinters) have swimmer builds, I don't think most recreational long distance swimmers have that build. I really need to start mixing it up activity-wise, I want to do more cycling and I may now need to add in some weight lifting or at least some kind of toning/building up again but I need to add those things in conjunction with making progress on my Mm swim this year [today Results (33 Found | 24768 Total kcal | 140.28 Total km]

Enrique informed me that my taylor ranch property in Albuquerque is going to close NEXT WEEK!!! This is awesome news! It saves me 1 month of mortgage that I was expecting to have to pay, the inspection found the typical $500 worth of minor repairs that I of course got socked with, but at this point who cares. I'm finally going to be rid of that bad chapter in real estate from my life forever! :)

News from gma K today was ok. She has some congestion that they are concerned about, but was up walking several times today. She is really sore, and in a lot of pain even with the meds, moving her around is very difficult.

I got to talk briefly to my friend Kelly in Cleveland today! Yay! I miss her so much, miss working with her and her awesomeness! :) I wish I could convince her how nice Iowa City is and we could so find a great job for her here with my company or at UIowa, but she's happy to be living and working at home in Cleveland, reported by FORBES magazine to be the most miserable place in the US to live right now. :(

Well, it's snowing tonight, I am camped out by the fireplace, working and relaxing to music, with a beagle nearby. Life is pretty good. I gone out several times now just to pause and reflect beneath the stand of cedars at the front of my house.

Perhaps some snowshoeing tomorrow? I hope so? I'm certainly going to swim in the morning and go from there...