38. That much closer to 40.

Today's my birthday. I'm torn between heading out to the park with a notepad in hand to sit and contemplate this past year and what I want to accomplish this year, or playing Mechwarrior II until I puke. Honestly, it's a toss-up at this point. I'll probably do both.

I've always loved having a Halloween birthday. I have great memories of the birthday parties my parents threw for me back in Angleton, where we'd invite my whole elementary school class, everyone would dress up, and we'd play games and cause trouble. That was a ton of fun! My 40th birthday will be on a Friday night...maybe we can do that again. ;-) It's always fun to have Frankenstein, Dracula, and other costumed ghouls involved in a competitive sack race!

Remember the old bow and arrow sets with the suction cups on the arrows? One year, Mom attached balloons to the wall in our 'toy room', and stuck nails into the suction cups so we could pop the balloons...that was cool! Maybe we can use throwing knives next time...

In looking at this past year, I'm pretty pleased in many areas. My school is doing well, we've got a fabulous group of assistant instructors and a great family atmosphere of which I'm very proud. Our Monkey is doing well in his new kindergarten. My fabulous wife's new job has finally taken a turn for the better after a rough start, and she's also lost over 30 pounds since the summer. All in all, it's been a pretty decent year.

As I get closer to 40, the value of discipline becomes more and more apparent. I can't eat like I did when I was younger...if I eat junk, I feel junky almost immediately. If I don't train, I lose speed, strength, and stamina right away. If I don't exercise my brain, I suddenly can't remember where my pants are...and I'm wearing them. So it seems that I'll focus this year on maintaining the habits necessary to keep me healthy, strong, and moving in a positive direction. And maybe set some goals in which I can become emotionally involved. Training just for training is great, but I want to accomplish something this year...I just don't know what, yet.

So today, I think I'll play, contemplate, teach class (only the early one), train, eat a fabulous pho lunch, and then we'll take Monkey out to Trick or Treat somewhere...just another birthday for me.

It's Tuesday...just Tuesday.

Monkey came home with a bit of a fever yesterday, so he's home 'recuperating' today. By 'recuperating', I mean playing video games with me, watching American Gladiators and Pokemon, and general hanging out. He's not had any fever today, but there's that pesky 24 hour rule at school, so he's home.

Lots has happened since I last blogged...there was the Florida trip (where I learned how to replace a toilet), an early Halloween party(I was one of the 300 Spartans), UFC night (poor Rich Franklin)...that kind of thing.

Honestly, I don't have much to blog about just now, but I have the time, so here I am. An old friend of mine from high school should be coming by to see us this evening, and I'm looking forward to that...I haven't seen Saldivar for nearly a decade. When we talk, we're always discussing the merits of burpees and kettlebell swings...I'm hoping he'll stay for the grappling class tonight!

So...does anyone else out there still have a ridiculous crush on some singer from their youth? I joke about Kelly Clarkson all the time (I'm just SURE that she wants me to spank her), and Olivia Newton-John is still a total sweetheart, but I'm stuck on Cathy Dennis. She's a British singer/songwriter that rose to popularity in the early 90's with some great dance tunes, and has spent most of the intervening years writing catchy tunes for other female singers. And I can't get her outta my head (which is also one of the songs she wrote for Kylie Minogue). I mean, it's just silly. She's not even performing anymore, for goodness sake! Even so, if Ms. Dennis showed up somewhere I happened to be, I think I'd suddenly do an Oscar-worthy imitation of the village idiot, and would probably trip over my own two feet if I tried to talk to her. It's just ridiculous.

Ah well...a dear friend told me that, as long as I wasn't missing work to sit around and watch her videos, I'm probably fine. Really.

Since Monkey's having fun watching something or other, and the laundry is in progress, I'm going to do some burpees. Have a fabulous day, everyone.