flow

Wow it's been a while since my last update.  I haven't been terribly busy with work but I have been keeping busy with other stuff.  I did get one business trip to DC where I managed to make one outing to Ben's Chili Bowl, one of my favorite spots in DC to get a couple of chili half-smokes.  Oh so good, oh so bad.

Notwithstanding the indulgent eating that is de rigeur for the holidays, I've been trying to exercise more, ride my bike, take more walks and do more time on the elliptical.  It's helped me lose maybe 8-10 lbs.  I'm going to try and keep it up with a target of losing about 15 more.

Still getting a lot of use out of my new iPhone 5.  The camera on the iPhone is decent but not awesome.  I get a lot of lens flare or reflections but maybe that's just poor technique on my part.  Anyways I do find myself using it out of convenience a lot more than the Nikon DSLR now.  I've been snapping away lots of pics and even started doing little videos.  Nothing worthy of the cinema or anything but it's kind of neat being able to hold the camera in places you couldn't normally squeeze your head, like under the car.  I also finally made some use of the Kensington phone/iPod suction cup mount I bought a long while ago, and mounted it in the windshield. Holy crap maybe they don't make the one I have anymore but why is it $149 to buy it on Amazon??  Trust me I did not pay that much.     Kensington Dash Car Mount for iPhone and iPod

Since things have gotten pretty quiet at work, I decided to take an extended time off from the office... I basically told them, I'm taking December off, I will see you in January.  And then added a week in January to top it off.  I have 37 days off starting tomorrow, which sounds pretty epic.  Helps me burn off a big surplus of vacation days I had banked.

So what am I going to do with all that time?  Hopefully a lot.  I need to make a list so I can remember to do everything and set some goals, but generally... a bunch of car stuff.  Go driving.  Go for bike rides.  Go for hikes/walks/runs.  Take more photos.  Listen to music.  Watch movies.  Play games.  Go shoot my guns some more. Exercise and lose weight.  Eat some good food (but not too much).  Cook dinner for wifey.  Bake some pastries or cookies.  I suppose somewhere in there I will have to do some holiday shopping (gag).  Wow I have a lot to do!  But for now, I'm going to bed.  Tomorrow is the first day of my vacation.

UPDATE:  I've started a  new blog to specifically cover this 37-day vacation.  Check it out at 37DaysOff.

fusillade

All set up and waiting.

I woke up early this morning to get out to the local range to try and get some shooting in before it was time to head down to have lunch with my mom.  I was very anxious to put some rounds through my new SIG522 rifle now that I got the iron sights put in.  But when I headed up into the hills where the Chabot Gun Club is, the fog was incredibly thick.  Arriving right at the time they normally open, I was greeted with the sight of  a very quiet range.  They were holding all shooting until the fog cleared.  So I set up everything, even loaded my magazines and waited for the word.  An hour went by, and every time the fog cleared up a little, a few minutes later more fog rolled in.  Ughh.  Called my mom and pushed lunch back a little further.  Finally 2 hours of waiting paid off, the fog started to burn off and the sun peeked through the gloom.  Time to put up the targets and commence firing!

How did I do?

I was very happy with the results right off the bat.  I had the local gun shop Imbert & Smithers install the sights for me and it seems they did a bang-up job dialing them in.  Seemed perfect for the 25 yd distance I was shooting at today.  I didn't have to make any adjustments.  The SIG performed beautifully, made it so easy to nail the target.  Maybe 25 yds is too easy, next time I will have to move up to 50 yds and see if I can still keep it nice and tight.  Wish I had more fun time at the range, but I had to head back home and get ready for lunch with mom.