Yawn. Just hanging out at the office on a Sunday.

Mom is doing okay in the nursing home. She gets visited a lot by my brothers and sisters. The head of maintenance, a guy who graduated the same year from high school I did and lived up the street from our family, came and fixed a few things that were wrong with the house.

I've disconnected my computer at home. It's too easy to get distracted by a constant internet connection, and I have a lot I want to work on. I think I'll leave it off for about a month this time. It's sort of boring without it, but I'm starting to put my free time to more effective usage.

I've now been dating the same woman for over a year. I think she is more into me than I am into her. She's a really great person though and has helped me a lot. She's two years younger than I am and is in pretty good shape. She works as the head of the IT department for a mid sized corporation, and has twice my salary. She has two dogs and two cats and owns a house. She likes hiking and cross country skiing with me. Both of us are from large families and we have similar senses of humor. Before seeing me, she had been in a 24 year relationship with a guy who had been abusive towards her for at least the last half of the relationship. For all my faults, I guess it would be hard for me not to be a step up from him.

I'll probably visit China this year. I'm looking for my passport and if I don't find it in the next week, I'll get a replacement. I've dated quite a few Chinese woman over the past decade, and it's prompted a strong interest in the nation. I'm not so much interested in China's history as China's nowstory. It seems like a fascinating place. I've been working halfassedly on learning Chinese for the past year and a half. Basically, I can count and say "hello" and "happy new year" and a few other things.

I've lost about 17 lbs since Halloween. I was starting to get up there a bit, so I'm about at the average weight I've been at since starting this blog. I'd like to lose another 20 lbs. My girlfriend has been helpful by drafting up a diet plan that I'm trying to stick to.

Most of the snow around here has melted in the last couple of days. Temperatures are due to drop though, and we should have some more snow by the weekend. Then I'll head north and into some hills and hopefully get a long Martin Luther King Day weekend to cross country ski.

That's all for now.