For my cake day, I couldn't think of anything else to post, so just a few random images from this year.

My wife and I moved to New Hampshire a little over a year ago. I’m so glad to be back in New England (and out of Texas). I was a little worried my wife wouldn’t be able to handle the cold. She'd never lived anywhere but Texas until now, but was eager to move north. She loves it here, but wants more snow. She jokes about moving to Canada.... at least I think she's joking.... I dunno, maybe someday.

I went to the Stellafane convention for the first time this year. Stellafane is the annual convention held by the Springfield Telescope Makers club. This year will be its 100th year, and I definitely plan to be there.

Me in front of the Stellafane clubhouse. The shade of pink on the clubhouse is a specific shade of pink known as Stellafane Pink.

My 2010 Ford Escape past 200k miles on the way home from Stellafane. I bought the car with 41k miles on it in 2011. Other than an air conditioning problem and a cooling fan that died, it's been an amazingly reliable vehicle. My wife and I might get something newer soon, but this old girl will probably be our backup vehicle for a while longer.

I earned my Stellafane Observing Olympics award. Every year they do an observing contest where individuals are given a list of objects to observe. This year's list was 25 objects (probably about the same most years). In order to earn the award pin, you had to observe at least 15. The objects can vary from nebulae, to star clusters, to galaxies, or even double stars. Some are pretty easy to see, but others can be extremely challenging. I missed the part in the instructions that said you only had to do 15, so I observed all 25. I was the first and one of the few to do so. This is now pinned to my new Stellafane hat along with my Binocular Messier pin from the Astronomical League.

I've been a red sox fan since about the time I was conceived. But I never got a chance to catch a game at Fenway until this year. As it turned out, we lucked out and were able to get to three games throughout the season. The Sox won 2 out of those 3 (f'ing yankees). I'm hoping to catch a few this year as well... but not expecting too much from my team.

My A1C has been a bit on the high side lately, so my doc told me to cut down on carbs. Sadly, those are some of my best friends.... particularly bread. So I developed a recipe for a low carb and high fiber bread. This was the first try. Other than forgetting the salt, it came out great. The next few tries weren't quite as good, I'm still tweaking the recipe.

I did my first dry-aging experiment. A company called UMAi makes these dry-aging bags that you can buy. You vacuum seal the meat into the bag and stick it in your fridge for however long. This was a 30 day dry-aged ribeye, and it came out great. Next time I think I'm going to go for a longer aging... if I can hold myself back!

My wife and I joined a maker club this year. We took a set of classes on how to use a lathe and in one of the classes we learned to make pens. This was my first. I've made about a half dozen since then and plan to make many more in the future.

This is Jasmine (front) and Trinity (behind her). My wife bought me a LuvSac Pillow Sac for my birthday, along with the ottoman and matching blanket (best blanket ever!). If you've never heard of LuvSac, they're kind-of like a bean-bag chair, but filled with the most amazingly comfortable foam. The covers vary, but many of them use this "phur" fake fur. This is "wombat phur." Its incredibly soft and you never want to get out of it.... and when I'm not in it, the cats love to colonize it.

This is Trinity (Trinny)'s favorite place to sleep since she was a tiny kitten. She's been commandeering my shoulder for 17 1/2 years now and no signs of giving it up anytime soon.

This is her second favorite place.... anywhere on top of my wife, particularly when she's on the LoveSac.

Our house's heating runs on propane, and prices have been running high. Last year we paid way too much, and this year was looking to be worse, so we took our neighbor's advice and got a pellet stove. I installed it myself and the total cost was well under $2,000. It may not pay itself off this year, but it will by the end of next winter without question. Pellets are about $300 a ton, and we're not even halfway through the first pallet. The nicest thing is that we can keep the house about as warm as we want and the cost isn't all that high. The main downside is that the heat has to spread through the house from the living room, and that can go a little slowly. Still, it's nice and toasty in the living room, and the flame in the front can be pretty.

Jasmine definitely approves. She and Trinny spend a lot of time on that ottoman.

Trinny approves too.... here she is laying back and enjoying the warmth on the couch.

And here she is looking down on and judging her subjects from above.

Last pic. We haven't had a lot of snow in NH since we moved here, but what we have has been pretty. This was last week, but, sadly, it's all melted away already.

I spent 8 years in Vermont before moving to Texas for a while. I'm so glad to be back in New England.
Time to pour another cup of coffee, grab a book, and sit in the chair by the pellet stove and enjoy this gray day.