January 30th, 2011: Snowshoeing the Fells – Nate talked me into buying snowshoes. Great fun when the stuff is deep, but suffice to say they have not be useful this winter.

January 31st, 2010: Found some leftover snow! – from Willard Woods in Lexington. They’ve since passed some ordinance to prevent anyone from having an off-leash dog here on the weekends (sorry critter, your presence inconveniences the 1%).

February 1st, 2009: Superbowl Funday! – From our similarly snow-free year in San Francisco, at Ocean Beach. They also have changed their off-leash ordinance to restrict access to a small section of the beach.

February 2nd, 2008: Masked Maija – From Suzanne’s birthday party four rounds ago. Pre-Isaac, pre-Eben, it’s strange to even think of it.

January 13th, 2007: Making a break for it! – This one precedes the blog, but a happy memory regardless, a trip to Vermont where Miss Maija broke her leash to play with this chocolate lab. This was also the trip that bunnyslope came from.

A solid and interesting weekend. Five weeks to New Orleans, and I feel ready to go tonight. Next Sunday in Cambridge is the Super Sunday 5, a little pre-marathon party around Kendall Sq. Then, Patriots.

Song of the week, back to another Bon Iver track that swirled up around mile 16 yesterday. It’s entirely possible I need some new music.

This photo pretty much sums up today, the last week for me.

So many things I’ve been meaning to finish that I can’t pull it together to get done.

I’m sorry if I haven’t returned your call or email. It’s not you – I haven’t called anyone back.

Vague objectives for 2012:

• Act purposefully.
• Take initiative for positive change.
• Follow through, finish what you start.
• Faster, move lightly.
• Find professional satisfaction, whatever the means.
• Simplify.

Specific resolutions for 2012:

• Be a better uncle. Be mentally present.
• Six times 26.2.
• One road race every month.
• PR in a half & full.
• Ragnar.
• More reading, less TV.
• Meet or exceed financial goals (finish EF, fund Roth & 25% progress towards house down payment).
• Learn to play guitar, at least one song well.
• Get a frigging tattoo already before someone else steps up to tell you it’s a bad idea.
• Put pieces in place for 2013.

Today marks the end of week 12 of 18 for training for New Orleans Marathon training, as well as week 1 of 18 for Green Bay (woo! for overlapping). This morning was also the Boston Prep 16 Miler in Derry, NH. I was (and I guess, am, or am trying to be) happy with my times today – despite a (“moderately challenging“) hilly course the first 13.1 was the fastest gun time (1:48:31) I’ve run in a half-marathon since… 2004? And my total 16 mile time was a PR (I have a local 16 mile route I run and my time today was ~2 minutes faster than my best there). Honestly the only thing that is bothering me is that I placed 47/50 in my age/sex division (M30-39) – this is disheartening. I know I really should be assessing myself against myself but it’s hard to look at the rest of the times and realize how slow I am in comparison with a competitive, motivated field.

But the Patriots won & are heading to the Super Bowl again so who am I to complain. All in all, all is well.

Song of the day is from Florence & the Machine – this came up randomly and kicked me across the last half mile.

Although this is a preparatory race for Boston I’m not going to be running the marathon here again this year. That said, my fellow Boston Prepper VK is. He is trying to raising some cash for the Boston Arts Academy if you’re looking for a good cause and/or a tax write-off. I’m going to be volunteering at the race so if you’re interested in joining our little group for that check out this page and register with group TeamHB (PIN: 19761980).

So – New Orleans. I’ve bit the bullet, booked my flight and hotel and now just need to find some sort of Sunday night tourist-type plan beyond the race to help justify the trip. It needs to fit into the realm of activities possible after running 4 hours (ie, nothing walking or standing) and in a best case scenario would involve a single impressive alligator or multiple smaller alligators. Ideas?

Run mix song of the week (please send new music):

I don’t usually talk about investing on this site but hope you can humor as I’m just thinking this through as the new year gets rolling.

Last January I decided to put some money into a modified Dogs of the Dow strategy (basically, it involves buying the 10 stocks with highest dividend yields in the Dow – you can see all 30 of the Dow components here). I previously had been holding two of the stocks (Intel & Verizon) and decided to buy five more (AT&T, Kraft, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Pfizer). I didn’t buy the three stocks with the lowest dividend yields (DuPont, McDonald’s and Chevron – McDonald’s went on to be the top Dow stock of 2011, up 31%). The seven stocks I did go into were up (for me) ~16% for the year (not counting dividends paid) which was decent compared to the Dow’s overall 2011 return of ~5% and the S&P500′s 0%.

This year I’ve decided to repeat the exercise, reducing my relatively overweight positions in Intel & Verizon and moving into DuPont and the two new members of the Dogs of the Dow, GE and Procter & Gamble. The whole plan is way less diversified than an index fund but in theory somewhat safer than blowing everything back into Apple.

The basics of the Bloody are tomato juice, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, black pepper, and vodka. Sea salt, Old Bay seasoning, curry powder, ketchup, capers, and pickling brine are excellent ways to step up your game, as is a squirt of Guinness. (Guinness is the morning-after beer of the cognoscenti; see also “Evelyn Waugh’s Noonday Reviver.”) I prefer V-8—not least because its presence invites playing the parlor game of naming the members of its vegetable octet —and I have dabbled with celery bitters, Heinz cocktail sauce, and anchovy paste. Don’t you know that you can put anything in a Bloody Mary?—browned shallots, broiled scallions, braised octopus, brain of veal …. Skimp on the vodka, but know your limits. For instance, the brand called Vodka City—distilled, perhaps even proudly, in Baltimore—proves perfectly effective on a chemical level but can be rather too morally debasing, in its cheapness, to serve as a spiritual pick-me-up. Nor does the plastic of its bottle offer much tactile pleasure. If you’re ordering a Bloody Mary in a restaurant, then Do request that it is made with well vodka but Don’t ask what brand that is.

So anyway, cheers to Baltimore’s Vodka City. That does sound like a promising mistake.