Closing out January in pictures

I can't even believe we're already a month into 2019. I'm finally dating checks correctly, because yes, I still write checks each month along with hundreds of other senior citizens.

The resolutions (a few of which I may have previously shared) are sort of coming along...at a snail's pace:

1. I started training for my half marathon in March, and training was going fairly well...until my Achilles starting to flare up again. The all too, familiar, dreadful feeling emerged after a few challenging weeks of increasing miles and speed work. So I've already had to pull back on my admittedly at best, mediocre training plan. It may also mean that I have to delay my long awaited dream project as well, as it's contingent on my run health. I'm trying not to dwell on the disappointment of possibly losing a PR race opportunity and an event, since I'm otherwise pretty dandy. But I'm human, and the bitterness creeps in at times. Resolution status: TBD, but not looking so hot. :-(
2. My brother, sister in law and my nephews, alongside my dad (and occasionally...us) kicked some serious butt on their renovation project. Thanks to their hard work and many, many late nights, their renovation project is 95% done, which means I can huge a breathe sigh of relief. This was a huge source of my stress over the months of Nov/Dec, as I was doing a lot of preliminary project management/admin work. Resolution status: Accomplished!
3. I was supposed to reduce my workload at both jobs this month. One job increased, one job decreased. Resolution status: This one is a draw. 
4. Inspired by my experience of making mochi for the first time, I decided to try and make peanut butter mochi! I made a small batch of about a dozen. It was not pretty- most were misshapen, oversized, ugly on the bottom, a hair too mushy...but if you're a hungry, Asian butterball- still delicious! Resolution status: Plenty of room for improvement, but completed!
5. As Ry gets older, I have to make more of an effort to spend time with him. Last week, he biked, and I ran alongside him to town. We met Rich there for a ramen dinner. It's hard to tell in the picture below, but we were lit up like neon Christmas trees for visibility. Resolution status: Um, still needs a lot of work. One trip out together in the month of Jan. hardly qualifies me for Mother of the Year. :-|

Peanut butter mochi

We turned half the lights off at this point, but you can't miss us.

In other events this month:

Recently I went on a run on my favorite trail, which isn't particularly long or scenic, but it's the route along which I live, and although it's hilly, it's shaded here and there and filled with plenty of familiar faces. pups and other distractions like. I took a few pics of my favorite sights along the way:

Doesn't every gecko need a place to rest? This place often has water and food left for them. 

This person often leaves full racks of ripe bananas for passersby to help themselves. This one was filled about 75 yellow, ripe bananas a few days earlier, and was nearly picked clean! Glad no one took the whole thing (which has happened).

This is not the trail, but it's the kitchen drawer I always need to hit before I hit the trail for my bluetooth headset, fuel, safety vest/lights, salt, etc. A little Jo-CD looking, but y'know, it's cool...

A few days ago, Rich and Ry were invited by Keni and his friend Jason to join them on a fishing trip. Sadly, they were tossed around quite a bit out there. They were both green within minutes, despite a healthy dose of motion sickness medication. On the upside, they did get to watch the boys reel in a mahimahi!

The rest of this month looks to be fairly pleasant- dinner with friends tomorrow night, we celebrate my parent's anniversary (they celebrate #48 this year!) and hopefully we'll finish a couple of projects in the backyard this weekend (this is the stuff seniors live for). That and Early Bird specials.