Best & Worst of 2010

Best family outing - toss up between Yellowstone and Goblin Valley/Little Wildhorse Canyon/Calf Creek Falls trips. Best family adventure year yet, and those outings were easily the overall highlights of the year.

Most fun races - in order of rank: CX races, Adventure race, then 12 hours of Mesa Verde.

Best performance - I didn't have one that went well enough to qualify - but Annie's Mtn bike leg at the adventure race and her cyclocross season most certainly do.

Most painful mistake/lesson - Eating a stupid lite breakfast (as in 1 pack of instant cream of wheat stupid)at Park City Point to Point and getting into a fuel hole too deep to get out of early in the day. Lesson - by the time it hit me and I realized the problem, it was too late to get it fixed. Better to stay well ahead/overdo it on the fueling, than risk getting anywhere near a deficit. Close second is thinking I could run a half marathon on the back end of a half iron man distance tri more or less cold turkey and be ok. This actually hurt worse than the PCP2P situation, but the suffering lasted only about an hour vs. a whole bunch more than an hour at the bike race.

Favorite race - Iron Horse Classic

Favorite new race - had to create a seperate category as favorite race was a draw between the Iron Horse and the Moab Adventure Race with Annie, so we'll call the Moab Adventure Race the favorite new race due mainly to partnering up with my wife for it. 12 hours of Mesa Verde get's honorable mention for favorite new race in 2010.

Monopoly Adventures:

First year I've indulged in what we'll call borderline fanatical behavior - Did some sniffing around about good, stable, and promising places to live and give my kids a good launching pad into their adult lives in a favorable environment to reap what they choose to sow......... outside the US. I'll call this fanatical behavior because I'm a fairly optimistic guy, and think we've got a good chance of things working out ok here in the good ol' US of A - but... certain views and attitudes that seem to have come to the surface during this cycle in numbers I was nieve to bothered me enough that we started to think as deep as plan E and plan F and put some non-local locales on a short list of places that might be favorable in case the preferred place we've planted roots for said lauch pad becomes a less favorable option at some point. No, I'm not calling for John Galt to come and get me and the clan, and that's why we'll call this fanatical behavior, but if it reached that, I've got specific dirt, in a specific valley well clear of the blast zone on the radar.

Top biz enjoyment - seeing some of the high pucker factor decisions made back at the real scary part of this cycle working out ok. These were all relatively small in regards to capital outlay, but did it's intended job of limiting/eliminating damage taken during the initial violence in which the bottom fell out of everything back in 08', so far at least... with an emphasis on so far...

Top biz frustration - aside from going through the weird burnout/funk that seemed to hit 85% of the workforce - mine was spending a significant amount of time doing DD on potential business acquisitions (non bank related) only to not find the right one to pull the trigger on. Not certain that I wasn't just a little late to the game and maybe missed a period of once in a lifetime type opportunities in this regard - but not certain all the opportunities have been missed yet either. Have a few friends who swung at a few pitches we saw and hope they prove me to be a little gunshy, and that they hit it out of the park. Continuing to keep the ear to the tracks in this regard, but maybe not as intensly in the new year as we think we can get back to growing the biz I babysit at the bank, which makes the day job a little more stimulating and fun than the mind numbing water treading it's been through this recession. Close second here is the larger(relative term)investment in the commercial RE project that still looks to be a ways out from getting unsideways. Still thinking we may be able to make it work out real well, but the holding period is, and will continue to be for a while, longer than I'd prefer. Also dealing with some misjudgements on some competencies I thought we had in the group/management that have taken more time/attention than the passive investor position I intended my role to be. Valuable learning going on though, but it's the kind a guy bitches about until your done with it.

Overall the year felt more exhausting than I think it actually was, which I'll attribute primarily to that weird workforce funk I mentioned - weird in that during a period where a guy was happy to have a job, there sure were a lot of us who went through a phase of hating them. And aside from the abnormal amount of time spent in the burnout cave, have to call it a fine year of health and happiness, one we'll look back on as a good one.

Best & Worst of 08'

Random highlights from 08' - This post will likely have several additions in the future as I remember funny or important stuff from the year.

Best performing investment - Health Savings Account, by a bunch. How ridiculous is that - but simple principal preservation win's big in 08'. If they'd raise the maximum contribution I'd dump more here. Cash flows from real estate holdings also held up fine, but did not keep pace with the paper loss of values.
Worst performing investment - Anything within earshot of the markets. I got absolutley killed here.

Jason's favorite new hobby - Cyclocross
Annie's favorite new hobby - Triathlon

Biggest Gut check:
Jason - continuing to dump precious capital into this market
Annie - putting her face in the water long enough to complete the swim legs of her triathlon events
Kylie - Muttin Bustin
Chesney - Muttin Bustin
Brock - No sense of fear yet, a prerequisite for a gut check. Maybe next year - hopefully.

Favorite race:
Jason - Xterra Tahoe
Annie - Spudman
Kylie - Xterra Ogden
Chesney - Xterra Ogden

Best race performance:
Jason - Xterra Tahoe
Annie - Spudman

Worst race performance:
Jason - Icup Solitude - DNF due to flat's
Annie - Daily race between Annie and the kids to see if they can make messes faster than she can clean up after them. 08' results - kids 350, Annie/Jason 15.

Most painful crash - Draper Cross practice
Most dramatic crash - Draper Cross practice
Most comical crash - Draper Cross practice
Most embarassing crash - Draper Cross practice
Yep - that one pretty much stole the show in the crash category.

Best race series/promoters -The Xterra crew

Best family trip - Tahoe

Sign our kids are growing up fast - Kylie reading Brock bedtime stories

Best new local fast food joint - Five Guys Burgers and Fry's

Most times we shoveled or plowed the snow accumulating in the driveway in one day - 4.

Times we lost one of the kids in a store - 2. Times they intentionally lost themselves by hiding from us - 2. Times they got a butt kicking for it - 2.

Favorite time with the kids - Friday night slumber parties with mom and dad - kids pick the movie and cook the popcorn.

Favorite time with Annie - aside from the obvious, picking up new hobbies together, and all the comedy we get for free with being parents.