Michael & Liz are Bloggable

4 years in a row of resolutions, that's kinda awesome. It's time to make some pledges to accomplish some new resolutions. Here are the links from the previous years:

• 2010 New Year's Resolutions
• 2009 New Year's Resolutions
• 2008 New Year's Resolutions

Last year I went 2 for 3. Not too shabby. Here is a review of last year's resolutions:

1. No carbonated soda. This was pretty easy except for 2 occasions. During the Blue Ridge Relay, having to be awake in the middle of the night, it was tough not taking some soda to stay awake. The other time was during the cruise when I really wanted to stay awake and party. It was tempting to get some caffeine but I resisted. Liz succeeded on this too and was not as tempted. She really enjoys not having soda.
2. Learn everything I possibly can about staining and finishing wood. To be honest, I've thrown in the towel on wood projects for a while because I'm tired of building crap with just a jigsaw and circular saw. There are so many flaws in woodworking when you use such imprecise tools. It won't be until I get a table saw and miter saw that I'll be able to create some cool stuff, and those two things are just not high on our purchase list. 
3. Lose 26 pounds. I did it between January and June. It was pretty easy to lose, really tough to maintain. I maintained for about a month or two and then just let it slip away. 

So it's a new year and new resolutions for 2011. Here they are:

1. Operation Reese Cup. 
2. Complete 4 house projects on our list. Today Liz and I made a pretty long list of improvements we want to make to the house. That list is very bottom heavy. The top is pretty easy stuff and the bottom is extremely expensive stuff. Might as well get started now. The top of the list contains the following: 
• Sweet Room Makeover (new TV, rearrange furniture, new TV stand. this will be paid for in a pretty sweet way. I'll blog about that later. )
• Re-do landscaping (some new bushes and plants and stuff), finish deck (staining, deck post tops)
• Expand attic (lay more floorboard to make it bigger)
• Install hanging garage shelves to increase storage
• Wainscot and paint the second bedroom, make it livable.
From there the list of house improvements starts to get pretty expensive so we'll start with those.
3. No carbonated soda  with a very important Blue Ridge Relay addendum. It is OK to have soda if I plan to be awake between the hours of 2AM and 5AM. This is to make sure if I run the race again that I have the opportunity to stay awake. 

Well this year is special because Liz will be writing down some resolutions of her own. She'll be writing the next post.