Seasonal Paradise

Sasha In Her New Tea-Party-Walker

Early Birthday

Sasha opened her first birthday presents today, a few weeks early. Mum gave her one of her home made teddy bears that she makes for charity.

Mini Motorcycling w/Nephew John

Mini Motorcycling w/Nephew Eddie

Family Dinner in Victoria

Irena and Sasha

Measuring Up To A Manatee

Boulder, Colorado Hiking

With Chad (Director, Blitzlocal), Gillian (President, SEOmoz), and Dennis (CEO, Blitzlocal).

Mountain Rescue

A dozen mountain rescuers came out to carry an older woman down the mountain who had broken her ankle. It was easy to twist an ankle on all the rocks.

Hiking In Boulder

Post Affiliate Conference

The calm after the storm, with Matt, Elena, and Marc Lesnick after a successful 1st Affiliate Conference in Denver.

Diet Update - end of month 1

No appreciable weight loss but I've successfully formed a new habit in keeping a log of my meals and exercise on this blog, as comments. So begins a new month.

It take 21 days to form a habit, apparently. So the next habit I'll re-form is daily exercise of half an hour a day. Up to two day slips allowed. Meaning, exercise can be skipped and carried forward up to two days. Also, I'm going vegetarian for month and quitting my morning honey-rich coffees, just to see how it feels. I'll report back in a month. Hopefully I'll be back down from 207 to 200 lbs In that time.

Kindle DX Review

The NY Times review of the Kindle DX griped about the weight of the Kindle DX being a bit heavy for long term reading. However it weighs nothing perched in it's jacket. See photo below. The Kindle DX stands quite happily on its own and is perfectly readable at 18 inches or so away.

The Kindle DX is worth the extra money just to be able to have the larger screen real estate in landscape mode, and have text large enough that I can stand it up and not hold it.

The single row of buttons is fine in the orientation shown. NY Times also griped about the elimination of the second row. I like the slightly more minimalist style, in favor of maximal viewing area.

The Kindle has quite simply, completely revolutionized my reading habits. I love this thing. I'm devouring books. Irena has one now an so does Richard, my nephew, who is an avid reader of biographies. So now we can share one library. The devices all synch up so we can pick up any device on the same account an pick up where we left off.

Now if only they just had a color version. I'd gladly dispense with my hard copy magazine subscriptions to be able to read them on a large screen color Kindle. Or perhaps Apple will beat Amazon to the punch on that one.

Lessons For Living Longer

Dan Buettner's featured in this months National Geographic Adventure issue. Dan is an endurance cyclist who has taken to living in parts of the world that have an uncanny number of centenarians. Okinawa, Sardinia, The Greek island of Ikaria, Costa Rica, California, are pretty good places to be if you want to extend your youth, and your life expectancy.

Apparently, booze is ok, in moderation. Pork is good, because pigs are close to humans genetically there may be proteins in the meat that help repair arterial damage. In short, his rules are... Move and stay active. Have a purpose in life. Take breaks. Don't overeat, eat till you're 80% full and then stop. Eat greens. Drink a glass of red wine a day, preferably Sardinian. Stay social and surround yourself with family, and people you love. Wise words. Noted.

I just picked up his book, The Blue Zones: Lessons for living longer from the people who've lived the longest.  It would be nice to have the wherewithall to be able to to converse with my great great grandkids, and be in good enough physical condition to not drool while talking with them.  

Its A Girl !

She'll be born November 8th or so. We went to Meet The Baby

in Brandon to find out if we were having a boy or a girl.

Victoria Brooks

Sonogram : Hello Sister!

Sasha meets her sister.

Mirrored Lake At Kildermorie In Scotland

Fishing In Scotland

First Time Shooting

Sasha's First Stand

Thoroughly Embarrassing Photo #1

I've tried a number of diets over the last three years and this is my last resort.  Stickk.com didn't work.  The 'Rule of two' diet didn't work for me.  Dietwars.com didn't work.  I'm beyond a 36" size trouser and 95kg/209lbs and in the worst cardiovascular health in my life.  Now I'm on the 'thoroughly embarrassing' diet.  The last resort.  Three rules only.
  
1. Stick a thoroughly embarrassing photo up on this blog each month.  
2. Enter in what I eat into the comments section.  Anything goes, I just need to write down what I eat.

3. Do something in the way of physical exercise every day.

Sasha Backpack

A Flower For My Girl

Test Ride

Trying out my schoolfriend Neil Bunn's chopper. He's customized this 30 year old air cooled in-line 550cc four banger.

Irenas First Hill

At the top of Irenas first hill, in the Wolds, on her first bike ride in England, on her first ride on her new bike, the first bike she's ever owned.

Sister Kay

Tormenting Sasha

Sasha Boxing Dad

Girls Talk

Cycling With Old Friends

Cycling with schoolfriends in England. Neil Bunn, Nich Clappison and Dave Bunn. Before they kicked my ass cycling in the Wolds in NE Lincolnshire.

Richard and Sasha

Best friends. Nephew Richard, with Sasha. Richard is nutso about Sasha. We've inspired him to have a family.

Petr

Martin, Irena's oldest sisters husband. Nephew Petr. Iveta, Irena's middle sister, and her husband, Mira.

Sasha and Aunt Linda

Sasha with my sister, Linda.

Evening Dress : Wedding Day

Wedding Day - April 25th, 2009

The 2nd most important and happiest day of our lives was April 25th, 2009 in Prague, our wedding day. The first was the day Sasha was born. Here we're driving to Louny for the reception.