January This-And-Thats

Okay, time to dust the place and act alive around here.  At this time last year I had actually taken a bit of a time-out from blogging.  Before November of 2014 I had not posted less than 7 times a month in over 5 years of posting here.  It got to the point I just couldn't keep that up.  First, I realized the fact that I had never posted less than seven times a month and felt like I was forcing some posts just to keep the streak alive.  That was over a year ago and I'm a little more relaxed about posting now, obviously.

So now that I'm ready to type, I hope you're ready to read!

• Yes, I was sick for over a month.  I had bronchitis, got a little better around the new year to allow my wife to be sick for a few days, then I got sick again.  This time it was more sinus than lungs, but still with the damn headache.  I had not been sick like that in some time and I hope never again.
• The resurgence of my sickness may have been aided by the fact that winter decided to finally show up in full force.  First with a good layer of snow, then with the bitter cold of below zero (F) temperatures.  It is good for the natural order of things, but I'd be happy to skip it altogether.
• I have been on a bit of an early spring cleaning kick, getting rid of odd little things that I do not need, extra cardboard boxes, and just junk that we don't need to keep.  We have a pretty good pile for charity again but I still have to go through my clothes.  That's always been the hard part for me.  I think it is daunting because I don't want to have to try on a gazillion clothes to determine what stays and what goes, so it never gets done.  Maybe this spring will be different...
• We got a chest freezer last year, now it's time to fill it.  Kate has been cooking more things ahead of time and I have stocked up on freezer items when they are on sale, but now we will soon have about 250 pounds of meat to put in it.  I had talked with a friend about going in on a cow and it looks like that may happen soon.  We will be getting one quarter of a cow for roughly 3 dollars a pound - that's across the board for ground beef, steaks and roasts.  This should keep us in meat for a good amount of time - and ease my grocery shopping trips.
• Speaking of shopping, I bought the Amazon Fire TV Stick on a forty dollar whim.  It achieves my main purpose of being able to watch YouTube videos on the television and I am still figuring out the rest.  We don't watch a whole lot of TV other than house shows, Big Bang Theory reruns and, of course, my sports games.  But I can see how someone who is really into TV and movies would love this, there's almost anything you want to watch at your fingertips.  Even if we end up not using it for more than YouTube I'm still glad I got it - but again, I'm still figuring it out yet.

Tonight we are meeting half a dozen friends at Ella's Deli for dinner to celebrate my wife Kate's birthday this week.  It is close enough we could walk there but we have not been there for a couple years since we took our nephew James there for dinner.  She wanted ideas on where to go so I did a google search and started calling out names of restaurants and she fancied this one.  I'm glad she did, it is a fascinating place to visit.  They have fascinating stuff there everywhere you look, on the walls, ceiling, and even in the tables!  Check out their website here.  

Thanks for coming back though I've been away.  My stats have been nuts, one day this last week I got 4 hits and the next I got 37.  Crazy.  Average is probably 15 or so a day.  Now I think I better get the camera out so I don't forget it tonight and I should probably decide what I want from their extensive menu before we go.