So I know I'm crazy...

If you know me, you know I like beer. In recent years, I've made the transition from drinking beer in quantity (hello, college!) to drinking quality beer. I try to be a beer nerd rather than a beer snob, but I've been accused of both. And that's OK with me.

So this year, I've decided to do something productive with my drinking. It's not quite a New Year's Resolution, but more of a goal: I'm going to try to drink 366 beers this year.

Why? Well, to paraphrase what Sir Edmund Hillary said of Everest, "Because they're there."



So here are my self-made rules for this project. First, I can count each different beer only once. That is, I can have any given kind of beer more than once, but it only counts once toward the project. Second, It has to be more than just a taste--it has to be at least 10 ounces to count toward the total. Third, I'm not going to be obsessive about this. It is supposed to be fun...for me, that is. I'm going to keep a tally of the beers I drink, including the name, style, ABV, and origin of the beer. Oh yeah, Sambo challenged me to include in my efforts a beer from every state. So I may need help in finding beer from some of the more remote states!

Six days in, I've had 9 beers, from 5 states and one foreign country. I think I'll enjoy this journey. But who knows? I may get burned out on beer...but I'll have fun finding out!

Resolutions...

Each year, most of us make the same resolutions...eat less, exercise more, help the world, save more money, etc. As part of our New Year's resolutions, and in our own efforts to be more budget-minded and watch our spending, Ames and I decided it was time to start really teaching our kids about money. So on the first day of this new year we sat down with the kids for a little heart to heart. Among other things, we established a new chore system, new expectations regarding those chores, and new allowances....whew! Since I have been falsely accused, on many occasions, including being ratted out to Santa himself, of not paying allowances (even tho part of the deal is doing your chores without complaining), I decided that this would be one of my new year goals, to make sure I followed thru on paying my kids for their efforts. I'm proud to say that last Sunday, after the first full week, all four kids did their part, and we were able to (and remembered to) give them their first allowance under the new system!! Way to go AJWS!

Now, all this "newness" led to a need to reorganize the children's banks, i.e. find them and find the money that was supposed to be in them. As it turns out, our kids were loaded! They had money stashed all over the place!! Gold coins here and there from the tooth fairy, baggies of coins from Big Mike, and various and sundry bits of cash from...well, I'm not sure. So, we counted, organized (into the give, save, spend categories) and decided to set some goals. Annie, Jack and Will each gave me "seed" money for a real savings account which they are all excited to open later this week. On top of that, Annie is well on her way to a savings goal for an IPod. Jack hasn't decided yet where his savings will go, but a Nintendo DS is looking very attractive. Will has his sights set on some new clothes for John his elephant to be purchased at Build-A-Bear. Not bad. All in all, I'd say the four of them were pretty excited once all was said and done. And, they were very motivated to not only keep earning (good for me) but to keep better track of their money from now on (always good).

But what about Sam's goals you might be wondering. Interesting. Now Sammy, who is only 4, has lost no teeth, has never earned allowance even back in the days when I was supposedly paying it, somehow has amassed a small fortune of $26.44!! None of us are quite sure how this happened, but we cracked open his piggy, and there it was. Sam considers himself the luckiest boy in the world, but not for the reasons you might think. Even though he apparently has a magic piggy bank that mints money (could be the only thing that can help our new president out of this mess), that is not why he is so excited....no, no. Sam is excited because he has decided he is lucky. And when you see him, he will tell you without hesitation, "I am a lucky boy." And when you ask him why, he'll tell you, "because I have a Chuck E. Cheezits penny." He is lucky because he is the only one who in all the counting and reconciling, plotting and planning, has found real treasure....a Chuck E. Cheese coin in his bank...a priceless commodity. So, in these rough times, when we all are looking for a little financial security, making resolutions about saving and budgets, and hoping for our future, it's nice to know some things remain steady and certain. You can rest assured that even in our current economy, the future of Chuck E. Cheezits is secure, thanks to Lucky Sam and him money-making piggy bank!

More on the Rocket Resolution

So a few days ago I teased with announcing my grand new year's Rocket Resolution of doing 100 pushups per day for 2009. Brief update: I've "successfully" done 400 pushups (total) in the first 4 days of the year. So long as you're quantifying "success" in terms of pain.

The real purpose of this post is to give the back story for the inspiration for this resolution. So subject to future factual correction, here goes: We have a friend whose father is a Marine veteran (ooh-rah). Several years after passing his 50th birthday, he (the father, or "Rocket") decided that he would do 100 pushups a day, and he kept very meticulous records of his progress. After getting into his program, he added rules for special days: extra pushups for anniversaries, birthdays of family members, etc. In about 1997, he realized that if he upped his total to 400 per day, he could hit 1,000,000--that's one million pushups--by the turn of the millennium. So he did.

In any event, by the end of 2007, Rocket had pumped out over 1.7 million pushups. (Just ask and he'll give you the exact total!) Somehow, I've known Rocket for over 4 years and I just heard about his pushups last month. So I decided that I'd emulate Rocket in 2009 with 100 pushups a day. I have no intention of making this list, I do want to see if I can do it. My own personal quest, as it were. And I've roped Kyle in to keep me accountable. I'll do my best to update my daily, monthly and yearly progress in the box over on the right. And as I said a few days ago, your positive reinforcement is appreciated!