I haven’t written a blog since 9/11 and even that one was a little brief. (grin) September was a very exciting month for Carrie and I. We had a number of social events that were exciting. Just flipping through the photos I took reminds me what a great month it has been. We got out a lot more than usual this month and have enjoyed it greatly. From nights out with friends, to visiting the Baker Arboretum & home of Mr. baker, to attending a concert by Orchestra Kentucky with dinner (Salmon with Lobster Sauce)… in a barn no less. It’s been a wonderful September.

Carrie celebrated another birthday this month too. She (we) got new furniture for the living room as well as two large paintings by Misha Ambrosia. We attended a benefit and art auction where I was encouraged to bid on a really nice southwestern style paining called "My Favorite Things." I told Misha that I wanted the sister painting (same size and style) to go with it and she sold me that one as well.

Dave, Jen and Jesse also came over for Carries birthday and we had a great time on the porch. Dave and Jen prepared a wonderful meal which included "flat iron steak" which is now one of my favorites. I can’t wait to experiment with that.

Then last week, we entered "press week" where Carrie and I hold up in the office until the magazine is done. With almost 90 sponsors, more than 48 writers and 84 pages, this is by far our largest ever! Sunday was the biggest day for layout, though yesterday morning was quite busy as we made final edits and put the calendar items in the layout… 1,096 individual events sorted by week, day and hour. What’s interesting is putting the calendar in the magazine used to take us 5 hours… with some automation scripts I’ve written as well as some major changes to the work flow, we were able to do it in 1 hour and 38 minutes. SWEET!

We were supposed to go to a big event at the baseball stadium on Thursday night but we worked too late and were wiped out when we were done. We did make time on Saturday night to attend Orchestra Kentucky’s "Tinseltown at Shakertown." We had a table at the concert and they served food from the Brickyard of Franklin. It was supposed to be an outdoor event but looming bad weather moved into the refurbished Shaker Museum barn. It was cozy to say the least, but it was awesome just the same.

I haven’t been doing so well going to the gym lately. Actually, I was going real good until I tried to start lifting again. I worked my chest and arms way too intensely and was so sore for three days that I could not even lift my coffee cup. I had over worked my triceps, biceps and pecs so bad that the pain kept me up at night. I got a really good massage from Melissa the following Friday which helped me recover. Then last week, I was so busy with the new larger magazine that I bowed out of Kung Fu all week. It has been so long since I have been that Sifu Sam didn’t even plan to be there today and as I was driving there he admonished me in a text message to communicate a little better. I will. I wasn’t feeling well so I used the "excuse" to turn around and come back to the office.

Fitness update: I stepped on the scale this morning expecting to be disappointed. I had lost 20 pounds since June and since I have not worked out in two weeks, have been eating very rich foods and have been stagnate at my office desk, I really expected to have gained some of that weight back. Well, quite the opposite, I tipped the scale to 238 lbs, the lightest I have been in a number of years. We even celebrated the completion of the magazine last night with large Rib Eye steaks, Artichoke (w/butter) and I even indulged in some ice cream. The only thing I can attribute the lack of weight gain is that my fitness level over all has improved (even my Massage Therapist noted yesterday that she could see better muscle tone and less fat) and I have been trying to eat smaller meals more often. For example, every day last week I had an egg sandwich with two eggs, hash browns, cheese and bacon. Then every couple of hours I would have one hardboiled egg or a single all beef hotdog (w/bun). This is in contrast to eating two egg sandwiches in the morning then not eating most of the day until late when the hunger inspired me to make a big dinner and then go to bed. So I think that the 4 months of regular workouts coupled with the change in diet have resulted in the loss of weight, better muscle tone and ability to keep the weight off. Now, to kick it up a notch, start lifting to increase my metabolism more and move some of this weight from fat to muscle. I would not be surprised if I got back up to 260, but I want to do it with a 35 inch waist. Speaking of which, I do believe that I am back down to a 40" waist just due to the fact that my fat-boy belts are too big and I fit better in my old pants. WOOT!

So here I am at the office with not much to do. Well, sure I could start updating the online ads and magazine web page. I could also work on a new feature for the SOKY web site as well as another communications application I’ve wanted to finish. But instead, I’ve surfed browsed the news sites, checked my Face Book and other pages and am writing a long overdue blog. I guess I should go ahead and redirect the dot org version to this one since I’ve received a couple of comments encouraging me to blog more often from that domain.

So there you have it, I’ll edit this post a little later adding some pictures from the past few weeks. Thanks for reading.

Carrie and I getting ready to go out... somewhere... can't remember.

Carrie and I getting ready to go to the Baker Arboretum

Misha Ambrosia and Carrie Francis

Me holding Jerry Baker's Emmy (Notice, no finger prints grin)

Carrie and I getting ready to go to the PTK benefit and Art Auction

Carrie's Butterfly that just came out of its cacoon thanks Cynthia

I’ve been blogging for many years and my activities have been sporadic at best lately for a number of reasons. I closed my two main blogs mostly for privacy reasons – especially as it relates to my business and strategy.

I blog privately for the most part now. Just like the previous post, I’ve been "journaling" my weekly activities when I can. I find it very useful to write a daily summary of my activities as well as a weekly overview including missed and achieved goals. The funny thing is, when I’m done writing it, I look at it and think, who would even be interested in this stuff anyway. I have chosen to just save them on my hard drive.

There are many kinds of blogs out there, most are useful only to the owner and maybe a few close friends, others provide commentary or information about different subjects, current events or just a place for people to show the world just how much smarter they are than the rest of the world. I’ve never been much of a self promoter; I prefer to be the guy in the background, present but not the focus of attention.

My most successful blog was SOKY.biz which was a blog about More...

I finally took the time and deployed a new blogging system! I really wanted one that would allow me to categorize my blogs and give me more control. No, it's not the fanciest layout in the world, but it suits my needs and my compulsion to share. I hope to blog more useful "stuff" now that I can organize it.