Still not smoking. 41 days!

Tuesday, Margaret and I started a diet.

I’m working on kicking my exercise program up a notch or three.

This is MY life and I’m taking over from all these bad things.

Next steps: more creativity, more focus, more fame. Success is a process.

Concrete steps: guitar lessons (got to play guitar to be famous), exercise/>lose exercise/>lose-weight-exercise/>weight/get in shape (got to be in shape to be famous)

Yes. I am crazy.

I quit smoking again! This time for good. I’m 4 days into it. I’m really looking forward to having fun and not worrying about whether I have smokes or when I’m going to smoke! Since I’ve been wanting to make a list of all the things I want to do in Sacramento anyway, I thought now would be the perfect time:

• Play golf!
• go to the zoo!
• Sutter’s Fort
• Biking!
• museums!
• performing arts stuff
• go to a minor league baseball game (Sacramento River Cats)
• go to a WNBA game (Sacramento Monarchs)

More later!

We moved! We now live in lovely Sacramento, California. Who am I even talking to?

If anyone does read this site…you might wonder why I post so infrequently. The reason, dear non-existant reader, is that I just plain and simple am spread way too thin on the web, writing and maintaining many many different personal-type sites that no one ever looks at. I’m thinking it may be time to consolidate and focus my energies on doing just one thing on the web that might actually be worthwhile. Now, I just need to figure out what that might be.

Our house is for sale as of Feb. 1. We’re excited to be moving the process forward, but at the same time, we’ve just started to feel like we’re a little bit connected to this house and to Austin. We have friends here now, and we really didn’t when we first started thinking about moving. We’ll be sad to leave, but we’ll be happy to get back to Cali…we really don’t belong in Texas. We watched Deliverance the other day. The trailer (it’s on the DVD) starts with something like “Four men from the suburbs decide to go canoeing out in the sticks.” I couldn’t help seeing the parallel with our story– “Two yankees suddenly decide that it would be fun to live in Texas”. Anyway…not to put down Texas, but–actually, yes–to put down Texas. I don’t need to make excuses. I’ll be glad happy to get out the confederacy.

Here are some random links:
Wil Wheaton’s website
Small Car Driving Radio
Where does cork come from?
What’s the deal with cinnamon?

Happy 2002. The official Minnick motto for this year is “No fucking around in 2002”. Margaret gets the credit for “penning” it. We’re very excited about this new year (and new motto).

We drove to Michigan for X-mas and New Years. Another great time. We spent plenty of quality time with the family, went to Henry Ford museum and Greenfield Village(I’m amazed at how cool that place is…I hadn’t been there in years), had a great dinner at my brothers, recorded some stuff, went to Greektown, and so much more.

On the way back to Austin, we stopped at Graceland and did the whole tour (the planes too!). On my first visit to Graceland with my sister Kathy, back in 1995, we were too poor to buy the “platinum” tickets, so we just did the mansion tour. Since then, it’s been a dream of mine to see the planes (there are two, the Lisa Marie, and Hound Dog 2. The Lisa Marie is the big, impressive one).

We spent New Years Eve at the Ramada Inn Airport in Memphis, spent an hour at the painful party in the hotel lounge (because it was too cold outside for us to want to do anything else), then woke up early on New Years Day and drove home. Good to be home, good to have a new year for not fucking around in.

I got a few new CDs with gift certificates that I got for my birthday:
The Legendary Marvin Pontiac. Pure genius.
The Wipeouters. Also amazing.

I’m noticing now that there’s a connection between these two selections, that also hooks up with the events of last weekend in a wierd way. I won’t spell it out, but if you understand, that’s good for you and you’ve gained about as much insite into the depths of my mind as I have.

Saturday (Nov. 3) was my 30th birthday! The weekend before, we had a party–complete with Karaoke machine and a man in an Ape suit with a Tu-tu. It was great. Certain dependable and good friends stuck around after the food was gone and the party really took off…everyone who was left (around 10 people) was singing at one point or another and there was way more than enough beer for all (we still have plenty left over).

Then, Margaret took me to New Orleans last weekend for my real birthday. That was also excellent. We took a riverboat tour/cruise, saw Galapagos 3D at the IMAX, drank lots, hung out at Coops Place (my new favorite place), sat by the pool, were annoyed by several employees of the hotel (who were clearly taking the whole “french” thing too far), and just generally had a good time. I love Margaret like crazy.

I also had my palm read, and Margaret and I both had our “cards” read. Both of these experieces reconfirmed my dis-belief in superstitious mumbo-jumbo. Only a small number of the things that either one said could remotely be considered to be accurate. Strangely, though, the card reading lady (I didn’t say Taro, because I don’t know how to spell it) kept saying that I’m searching for who I am…blah blah…which does seem to be an ongoing theme in my life. I don’t read too much into it…I’m still young–of course I have issues with wondering what I’m supposed to be doing and who I am. That’s nothing new. What I really want is to remake myself into something completely different (at least on the outside) every 6 months or so.

Turning 30 was great, and I’m very happy about it. I want to list all the people who I want to thank for making my birthday so good, but out of respect for their privacy I’ll refrain. Like I said before, no one reads this anyway. If you are reading this, you’re probably on the list I was going to make. Thanks!