<p>2016 was super busy for me and I really am hoping that 2017 is not quite as busy.</p>
<p>I have set some goals for myself this year and am hoping to at least be able to make some progress on them.</p>
<h3>Continue to Get in Shape</h3>
<p>2016 was a year full of mixed results in my fitness goals. It was the first year since at least 2012 that I didn’t run a single race. No 5k, no half-marathon, no nothing. I was supposed to run a 15k and a 10 miler, but the weather was awful and rainy (I HATE the rain) both days so I just decided to forego the races. In terms of my weight and body fat percentage, I really didn’t make any progress with either, which was my own fault. I never really was able to get my meal plans working. I was able to increase my main lifts though so it wasn’t a horrible year.</p>
<p>I’m going to make a concerted effort to do better with my diet and of course continue to hit the gym and go for runs and bike rides. If I can really push myself to stick with my diet, I think I’ll do better this year. In terms of races, I’m probably going to aim for a couple 5k races and a half-marathon or two. I’d like to beat my 2:15 half marathon record. Maybe I’ll try to do the Philly Half-Marathon this year.</p>
<h3>Read More Books</h3>
<p>Last year I ended up subscribing to <em>The Economist</em> magazine. The magazine was a fantastic weekly source of news and what’s going on in the world, but its also time consuming to read. It kept my book reading time down and I’m hoping to get back into books. I’m currently on book 4 of <em>The Expanse</em> series by James SA Corey and I have to say it’s a fantastic series, and a good show (the few episodes I’ve seen). I still subscribe to <em>National Geographic</em>, and I haven’t completely ruled out resubscribing to <em>The Economist</em>, but for now, I think I want to stick with books. I recently put together around 30 books I want to read, with many more behind it. I would like to hit 25 books this year so we shall see.</p>
<h3>Enjoy the Great Outdoors</h3>
<p>Growing up, I was in Boy Scouts and made Eagle Scout as well. But having moved away from my scout troop for college and having settled a little too far to really stay involved in the troop, I haven’t spent much time hiking, camping, and enjoying the great outdoors. I’ve only gone on two hikes in the last 5-6 years. Once to the Pinnacle in Hamburg, PA, and the other to Ricketts Glen State Park near Wilkes Barre, PA. My trip up to Vermont in both July and October made me miss the outdoors so I’m hoping to be able to make it out this year to do more camping trips. I have a lot of the basic gear from my Scouting days so I might see if Lauren or someone else would want to go enjoy the great outdoors. I might look for a local Boy Scout Troop to volunteer with too.</p>
<h3>Get Back Into My Side Projects</h3>
<p>After college, I started developing OpenVoter as a side project, and while it might not have exactly taken off (not that I was hugely surprised), I really enjoyed being able to spend some of my time working on it. Since then, I haven’t done much outside of my blog and a few little things here and there. I have some ideas for some new projects, so I’d like to spend some time delving into the details and see which, if any I want to pursue. I might also delve more into Node.js and see if it makes sense to use that for anything.</p>
<h3>Write More</h3>
<p>I didn’t write that much at all last year which was kind of disappointing. That said, I’m hoping to to change that this year. If I can do one, maybe two posts a month, I think that will be good. I have some other things I might want to write as well so we’ll see how it goes this year.</p>
<h3>Become a Little More Involved with Politics</h3>
<p>I don’t really completely know how to word this one. Anyone who knows me or follows me on Twitter, knows that I definitely slant liberal and do not like the fact that Donald Trump won the presidency. I feel his election is problematic for a whole host of reasons that would be a post in and of itself. My goal this year is to get involved, at least at a local level and as Ghandi put it, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” I’ve made several calls to my representatives and senators to make my voice heard. I’ve never done that before. I sent the occasional email for some issues, but I’ve never been so angry and motivated to make sure my representatives know how I feel (respectfully of course). I’m not sure what that involvement will include at the moment, but I know someone in the local Democratic Party, so my plan is to talk to him and see what I can do.</p>
<h3>Disconnect a Little</h3>
<p>All too often, I pick up my phone and mindlessly browse Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or something else. My goal this year is to disconnect some. I deleted Facebook &amp; Reddit from my phone and will hopefully stick with that. I’ve toyed with the idea of deactivating my Facebook account, but for the time being, I think I’ll just stick to browsing it once in a while on my laptop, desktop or tablet. Essentially just get it off of the device in my pocket.</p>
<p>Suffice it to say, I’m going to try to be a little ambitious this year. I don’t know if I’ll be 100% successful in everything, but I figure if I can hit bits and pieces of each one, I’ll be happy.</p>


Goals for 2017

<p>2016 was a super busy year for me, and in some cases, probably a little too busy.</p>
<p>The year started off alright, enjoying the &quot;new house&quot; feeling, still thinking that hey, I&#39;m a homeowner now! (It&#39;s amazing that even a year after closing, it&#39;s still kind of hard to believe I own a home).</p>
<p>In January, we had our only significant snowfall of the year and season. And I have to say, it was a pretty sight, especially when I didn&#39;t have to clear the driveway. But I guess that&#39;s why I bought a snow blower.</p>
<PostImage src="/images/posts/2016-in-review/snow.jpg" alt="Snow" width={2400} height={1600} centered shadowed />

<p>In February, my wife and I discovered that our dining room had wood paneling behind the wallpaper which threw a wrench in our plans of taking down the wallpaper and painting plans. Our whole house was wallpapered, which isn&#39;t really our style, but taking down wallpaper, while a major pain in the ass, isn&#39;t exactly difficult. Painting would definitely give it a freshening up that isn&#39;t terribly expensive. All the other rooms look 100x better now than they did the day we closed on the house.</p>
<p>The dining room was an addition to the house I want to say in the 1970s sometime, and we knew the walls weren&#39;t plaster like the rest of the house (a simple knock on the wall told us that much). But we had (falsely) assumed that it was drywall underneath the wallpaper. Oh boy. Thinking about it, knowing we would have to do something, we decided we were going to tear down the wood paneling, and while we were at it, vault the ceiling. The dining room ceiling was no higher than 7 foot, so it felt cramped. If we were going to tear out the walls, we might as well raise the ceiling too.</p>
<p>In mid-March, the demolition began.</p>
<PostImage src="/images/posts/2016-in-review/diningroomdemo.jpg" alt="Dining Room Demolition" width={2400} height={1800} centered shadowed />

<p>To our surprise, the studs on the ceiling were these gorgeous reclaimed wood beams. (Ignore the nasty wiring, we ended up replacing all of it.)</p>
<PostImage src="/images/posts/2016-in-review/diningroombeams.jpg" alt="Dining Room Beams" width={2400} height={1800} centered shadowed />

<p>Needless to say, that completely changed our ideas for the final look of the room. The only thing we can figure is the previous owner built the addition with whatever materials he either had on him or could get cheapest. The next 9 months, pretty much right up to Christmas, was spent renovating the dining room. We had to re-stud the walls, run all new wire, insulate, drywall and spackle, paint, install trim, and more. It took MUCH longer than we anticipated, and there&#39;s still some finishing touches left to do, but the end result looks amazing.</p>
<PostImage src="/images/posts/2016-in-review/diningroomfinal.jpg" alt="Dining Room Final" width={2400} height={1800} centered shadowed />

<p>Over the summer, I also had the bright idea to play on 3 different hockey teams. I love playing hockey, but 3 teams was slightly excessive. As much as I love it, playing 3-4 times a week took its toll. This also didn&#39;t help with the home renovations either. I&#39;m back down to 2 teams, and it seems like the happy medium. Often times more than once per week, but not really more than twice.</p>
<p>In September, Lauren and I spent the week in Cape May, NJ. It was a nice, relaxing vacation. Not much to say about it other than it was relaxing and a beautiful week to be there. One nice part was that we discovered <a href="http://capemaybrewery.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cape May Brewing Company</a>. We spent an afternoon at their tasting room and ended up coming home with 2 growlers full of delicious beer.</p>
<p>Just under 2 weeks after getting back, Lauren and I went to Vermont for our anniversary. We had gone up to the Mount Snow area for my brother&#39;s wedding in July and while it was cloudy and rainy, it was definitely beautiful. We decided that it would be a great destination in the fall with the leaves changing. We ended up staying in a little AirBnB apartment in Wilmington, Vermont; a small little town with a lot of charm. It was absolutely gorgeous. We spent a few days just wandering around taking pictures (that I&#39;m still going through). We met up with some of our friends from Maine in Concord, New Hampshire one day. We also checked out several craft breweries. We visited:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://madisonbrewingco.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
    Madison Brewing Company in Bennington, Vermont
</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.elmcitybrewing.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
    Elm City Brewing in Keene, New Hampshire
</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.whetstonestation.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
    Whetstone Station in Brattleboro, Vermont
</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gildedotter.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
    Gilded Otter in New Paltz, New York
</a></li>
</ul>
<p>The only downside to where we were, was that many places seemed to close by 8 or 9 pm. But take that away, it was a great trip and I would totally go back again.</p>
<PostImage src="/images/posts/2016-in-review/vermont.jpg" alt="Wilmington Vermont" width={2400} height={1800} centered shadowed />

<p>In terms of my fitness goals, it was a mixed bag. I didn&#39;t really get anywhere on my weight or body fat percentage, but I was able to notable increase my strength. At the end of the year I had hit 200 lbs. on bench press, 305 lbs. on deadlifts, &amp; 245 lbs. on squats. In terms of running, I had started to get back into running after running the marathon in 2015, but it was also the first year in a while I didn&#39;t run a single race, 5k, half marathon or otherwise. I was supposed to run a 15k and Broad Street, but both days, the weather was crummy and while I wanted to run them, but rain makes me miserable and I guess I just didn&#39;t want it enough. I&#39;m hoping to run at least one half-marathon this year.</p>
<p>It was a good year. Too much to really hit everything in a single blog post, but I&#39;m looking forward to 2017.</p>


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