Weekly Weight (6/23)

262.5

Worse than I hoped, better than I expected or deserved. I am back from 16 days of military duty, which was done in fairly hot heat and humidity. I definitely wasn't walking as much as normal (not too much mind you, just less than normal and decreasing the hotter it got) and my workouts and diet took a significant hit (I got to the gym 3 times and ate out way too much). Stepping up the workouts as well as the steps (15000 a day from Sunday to Wednesday).

• Day 0
• 260.9
• Month 0 (May)
• 257.8 - 263.1
• Month 1 - Week 3 (June - now)
• 262.5

Looking forward to some good workouts, lots more walking and solid dietary (with some fasting.. this is made easier by the sheer effort it takes to get a 3yo and 10mo kid out the door in the morning.  If I tried to eat too I would be catastrophically late, I just make a cup of coffee and start moving) in the next week. Only complicated by the fact that I am single parenting for the next 10 days.

A Modest proposal for the President of United States

American Offices are dreadful places overall in Summer in the United States. American men are forced to wear outfits that do not conform to weather outside (and hence suffer on their commutes to and from work) and American women, who often do dress to the weather (at least during the Summer) are comfortable on their commute and many have to wear sweaters/jackets when indoors. It creates a lot strife in the Office and even causes some to cry "sexism." In general our European allies think we are a bit weird in our fierce AC obsession.

Japan should be our role model for this. In the wake of the loss of generation capacity due to the shutdown of nuclear reactors following the 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami, Japan doubled down on their previous "Cool Biz" campaigns with their "Super Cool Biz" campaign. Temperatures in offices were encouraged to raised and workers we asked to adapt (even their President threw in with it, wearing short sleeves in numerous public appearance). While I admit that I have ulterior motives since I often have to wear long sleeve button downs with ties at work, this really is something that we should consider.

As President, I would request that you implement some of the policies and actions that are similar to the Government of Japan's action. With Executive Orders alone you could order the entirety of the U.S. Government, some 2.7 million people (almost 2% of the entire US work force), to adopt a more reasonable approach to the AC dial and to the expected attire from the government employees (drop the suit, drop the tie... wear short sleeve shirts, either button up or polo's). Specify a new standard (75 degrees?  Maybe allow for a phased approach do that people don't go into shock over this and overreact?) and direct D/A heads to address appropriate business attire, at least from May to October. This would also be very consistent with your positions on Climate Change (since this has been proven to decrease energy consumption in Japan) and perhaps spark similar actions in State/Local governments as well as industry.

Now mind you, I am not saying turn it off. Buildings need ventilation and, in places like the Washington DC Area, humidity really is the worst consideration. I will hit you up in another 6 months to address the other "cool" thing Japan has tried to do, the "Warm Biz" concept.

Yeah, I petitioned the White House on this item.  To sign go to https://wh.gov/iHaWD

My Daughter Turns 3!

Sydney, you live in a magical age. Never will you have to worry about staring out the car windows with nothing to do and boredom is but fleeting moments from being fixed. I hope (and will try to help) you develop Daddy's love of reading in the face of so much other electronic stimulation.

3 years ago you entered my life (actually a bit more than that since the moment that the pregnancy test came back positive I was planning to meet you IRL (In Real Life... old people techie speak)). My life has been enriched by your (very) willful presence. You have a very strong personality and know what you like, and are not afraid to tell us what you don't like. This year (and the next) of your life will be fairly stable, a few trips, maybe a promotion to the next class in daycare, then life will come whirling at you. I am so happy to be there with you and help you (when you are willing to accept) along with each stage of your life.

You (and your brother, as well as your mother) are the center of my life. 

I apologize for the fact that for at least the next 8 years or so the odds are very likely I will not be there on the day of your birthday (side effect of Daddy being part of the Army National Guard, which always seems to have annual training right around your birthday). I was so excited that I was able to get a few minutes with you on your birthday this year!

May Reads

• Kill Switch (Joe Ledger #8) by Jonathan Maberry (Goodreads Author)

• Ever read a book that is part of a series that you are so excited about and enjoying so much that you had to push back and take deliberate action to read in smaller bites? Yeah, that was this book (given my druthers I would have zipped through this book but I decided to spread out my entertainment). The book starts slow with some pretty clear foreshadowing that like a lot of the Joe books everything isn't going to be all-right in the end and that the country as well as the main characters aren't going to get out of this un-scarred (happens in a lot of Jonathan Maberry's books). I am proud of my self control to have taken two whole weeks to listen to this book (and really, this is a series where I seriously recommend the audio book. Ray Porter, the narrator is awesome. Even Jonathan has admitted that now he hears his characters as though narrated by him, as he is writing new stuff! His skill at presenting these stories is a significant enhancer).
  
  As to the story? What if the lights went out? What if everything that runs on electricity other than the tiny bit used in brains/hearts stopped working? (side note, this is the basis on a global scale for at least one TV show and one really good book series) What else could you do to make that worse? Well if you read this book you can come up with some idea's. The Ledger series has been delving more into the paranormal (vs the Science gone bad from the first couple) the past book or so, and this keeps it up. I really cannot think of much more to say that doesn't potentially spoil the story.
  
  BTW, there is a great little scene in this book that is a treat if you have read some of Maberry's other series's (beyond the fact that those other story-lines all have similar characters and names in them).

• Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson (Mercy Thompson 0.1/0.6/0.8/1.5/4.5/5.5/7.4) by Patricia Briggs

So somehow this book ended up on my pile (Audiobook) and to pace myself with Kill Switch I decided to give it a try. Overall the stories stood up well even accounting for the fact that I am effectively unfamiliar with the Mercy Thompson world. It actually may motivate me to try at least first book of the main series. 

• Welcome Home / Go Away (Kris Longknife #9.5) by Mike Shepherd
• A short little palette cleanser from some of my recent books. This novella fills in a little of the backstory of the Kris Longknife series. Told from a different perspective than normal, mostly from her grandparents point of view (mostly General Trouble). It was interesting to see how the events of the latest book played out from another perspective. Nothing significant happens in this book but it was fun to spend a little more time in this world.
  
  
• Chains of Command (Frontlines #4) by Marko Kloos
• Another interesting continuation of the story of Andrew Grayson. Like the other books there is another fast forward that leads to rejoining Andrew and his wife a year after the events of the last book. Desperately rebuilding the military, Andrew has been co-opted to become a Drill Sergeant, pumping out new recruits into a military that is desperately short handed. But Andrew is not fated for that career for too long as his skills as a successful leader are again called for. Tasked to support a special team to go after the leadership of their confederation who fled just prior to battles of the last book, Andrew picks up a promotion (to the amusement of his wife) and is tasked to put together and lead a team to see if some of those ships that disappeared can be put retaken and put to use in their upcoming campaign to retake Mars.
  
• A Shrouded World - Whistlers (A Shrouded World #1) by Mark Tufo (Goodreads Author), John O'Brien
• So I am much more familiar with Mark Tufo's Michael Talbot character (I actually read the first book of John Obrien's Jack Walker series last month), but this seemed like a fun little collaboration between two characters (+ Trip from Talbot's world). Each of the characters got to interact with the other's main issue (Talbot's zombies and Jack's nighwalkers) and introduced a new bad guy to this world (the Whistlers). It took a little while for the characters to meet up finally, but it was worth it. I am looking forward to the next book to see what happened to this world.

• The Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent by Larry Correia
• So it was free. And I got a lot of enjoyment from it. So win for me. This short story/novella was offered free on Audible so I couldn't pass on a free story from one of my favorite authors. Goofy? Yep. Chock full of pop culture references? Check. Overall it feels like this was a collaboration of a bunch of drunks (I can see it now.... "hey! hey! Put in Chuck Norris"), but not just any drunks but a bunch of SF/Fantasy/Mil-SF Con drunks. This story made my run fly by.

May Shows

Still keeping up with

• The Flash
• Arrow
• Supergirl - Catching up on
• Babylon 5 - On Season 5 (of 5) - I feel like I may have not seen most of this. It was around here that I first started my post-college jobs
• Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt - Finally some quite time to watch with my wife
• Amazing Race - Though we just aren't digging this year (YouTube stars, of which I was aware of one and my wife zero..... way to make us feel old)
• iZombie
• Jane the Virgin
• Fear the Walking Dead
• Chelsea Handlers new Netflix show! Yeah, just a bit excited about it. Though the wife and I cannot watch it in the mornings anymore like we did when we just had our daughter, Sydney, at almost 3 she has a remarkable ability to soak up words.

Movies (yep, I see so few now, even on DVD. I used to see 1-2 movies in the theater every week!):

• The Martian - A nice adaption of the book. It was interesting to see where they cut out from the book. I am glad I "read" the book first.

What my Daughter is obsessed with:

• Octonauts - Cannot complain too much, at least there is some bit of learning/science involved.
• Team Umizoomi - Which I really like since it focuses a lot on shapes and colors.

What my Son is obsessed with:

• Anything his sister has
• Anything he can eat
• Trying to walk (and he may still make this benchmark this month)

Weekly Weight (5/26)

260.0

Course correcting back to the right direction. Stepping up the workouts as well as the steps (18919 a day from Sunday to Wednesday).

• Week 0
• 260.9
• Week 1-2
• 257.8-260.1
• Week 3 
• 263.1
• Week 4 (now)
• 260.0

Things are going to get weird (and I will skip two weeks in June as I will be off for my yearly military service obligation) for the next two couple of weeks.

Mortgages

Aka, why I will not be paying down my mortgage down (except to get to parity before I refinanced) anytime in the near future. Yep, I am addressing the holy war item of the personal finance world, "Should I pay down my mortgage?" In my case? No. *mostly

As a veteran (key since I have a 10% disability which allows for no cost refinancing) I have refi'd a number of times (and this is the third property that I have owned). I think I may be done for while now, since I am down to 3.25% APR. Now I love spreadsheets, so I spent quite some time crunching numbers. Because of the refinance I got back my escrow and skipped a payment, so I ended up with a fairly nice cash reserve (that I parked in a Betterment Safety Net account (40% stocks, 60% Bonds)) that I will slowly draw down over the next 4.5 years to get the principle down to the same amount I would have left on my old loan (and ends a month earlier than my previous loan). Did I mention that I really, really love using spreadsheets (and as a good husband I make sure that my wife has access to them and understands them)?

But then? I am going to stop (for a long time most likely). Why? Because mortgages are "good" debt. Right now even when I pull out the standard deduction and itemize, I come out ahead. And while the end result of an early paydown is nice (no payment other than insurance and Taxes!) you also have an asset that is mostly non-liquid (maybe a bit by HELOC, but those are tightening up like mortgages have) asset that, when you look at the historic return on property falls into the lowest category, below even bonds (note I said historically, this period seems to be an anomaly). I personally have set the goal of not letting my home equity represent more than 25% of my family's net worth (and at no point exceeding the amount I have in my cash/taxable accounts, like it does right now).

My "net" cost

• P+ I + T + Insurance (no PMI, as a VA loan there is no PMI, even if I didn't already have 20%+ equity)
• I + T is deductible (whatever your top marginal tax rate is, in my case that is ~33% for both Federal and State)
• So gross cost is P + (I+T) * 2/3 + Insurance (but wait, if you look at it as I see it)
• However, remember that P is increasing your share of the asset (increasing equity, lowering the overall loan... effectively an investment (a bad one, since in general property that you live in is among your worst asset classes historically)), so really, the big question is can you get similar housing for the cost of 2/3 * (I+T) + Insurance? In my area? You can probably hear my laughter from wherever you are reading this.

Now there are some additional costs. Maintenance is another factor (HVAC's die, Roof's rot, painting needs to occur) but relative to my mortgage payment (and like a good saver I even have a special account for home maintenance that I automatically stuff money into every month (I need to do more but what I have it at is barely twice the cost of the insurance... which is 1/60th of my payment)) it is fairly low. Because I have a townhouse there is an association fee (we have a shared garage so there is some value from that on top of landscaping and snow removal) and there is always the hidden risk of an assessment in the future.

On a final note there will be a point in the far (15-20 year range) that this situation changes. As your Interest component decreases there may come a point where the mortgage slips into the "bad" debt category, where the net cost makes a standard deduction viable again, which removes the tax advantage from the mortgage. And by that point, based on my portfolio it may make sense to start piling on to the mortgage again. 

Weekly Weight (5/20)

263.1

A little bit of concern but it has been a weird week (Drill this past weekend, where I passed my annual PT test (18:07 2 mile run, 60 push-ups in 2 minutes, 55 sit-ups in 2 minutes) and height and weight, then off to Florida to "vacation" with the kids/wife/parents (I had all the intentions of running every day, hitting the gym, etc. but those plans did not survive the enemy, I only got one run in and no other workouts, other than a lot of walking). With a 2 week trend I am a little annoyed (but I am doing a partial fast day today to set me back on the right course).

• Week 0
• 260.9
• Week 1
• 257.8
• Week 2 
• 260.1
• Week 3 (now)
• 263.1

I got a new Fitbit HR (to replace my Dead Basis Peak) so I am getting used to that again.

Betterment

So in addition to Personal Capital the other investing tool (other than my legacy accounts at USAA, which I have been reducing to limit my capitol gains exposure and to lower my overall cost (which I figured out from Personal Capital's Fee Analyzer and Investment Checkup ) is Betterment (https://www.betterment.com/) or better yet betterment.com/invite/danielbuchholz (since that is a win-win link, you get the cool features of Betterment for a 6 month for free, so do I (for a month), not that their fees are bad). Betterment is one of several "Robo-Investors" that have little to no personal contact, using questionnaires to determine what the ideal risk is for the investor and then giving them the tools to execute a portfolio based on that risk profile.

So there are always going to be people out there that will tell you that any fee's are bad and to avoid them at all cost, putting the entire sum into market tracking ETF (the current main love of most PF people is Vanguard, with their low entry cost, low fee on the ETF's). But I think that there are a few features of Betterment that offer some value to everyone but the most motivated investors:

• Tax Loss Harvesting:
• Betterment automatically will take advantage of market losses to sell assets that have lost money and buy and equivalent asset, allowing you to realize the loss
• https://www.betterment.com/tax-loss-harvesting/
• Automatic Re-balancing
• In addition to spreading your investment across multiple assets (to give you an acceptable level of diversification) they will also re-balance your portfolio if it strays significantly from your ideal ratio (if it hits more than a 3% aggregate difference). It will also invest any additional money you put in to bring the investment ratio back to your target. 
• https://www.betterment.com/portfolio/
• No transaction fee (but there is a cost)
• While they do charge a baseline fee (currently .35% for 0-10k, .25% for 10k-100k, and .15 for any amount above 100k) any additional costs for the features above (and for putting new funds in or pulling them out) is rolled into that baseline fee.
• https://www.betterment.com/pricing/

I think this Robo-Investor trend is pretty neat (I am a technologist after all) and it makes getting into investing a lot easier for the novices to journeyman level investors.

The one feature that is lacking and may cause me to defect to another Robo-investor is a lack lack of options for UGMA/UTMA (Uniform Gift/Transfer to Minors Act) to put my kids money in. I do use a 529 for my kids (my state plan allows for me to deduct from State taxes so that works for me) but outside of some initial large gifts to my kids that went into the 529, the rest goes into their personal account. But savings accounts are a joke so I have at least some of their money now as "sub" accounts on my Betterment account (another neat feature, you can create multiple investing goals, all with different target portfolios).

Weekly Weight (5/12)

260.1

Some may freak out (ZOMG, the scale must always be lower than the previous one). But as a trend line it is still going down and I feel comfortable with my general fitness (still getting stronger, Deadlift (3 sets x 6 for all of these) 270, Squat 235, Bench Press 250 and faster on my runs).

• Week 0
• 260.9
• Week 1
• 257.8
• Week 2 (now)
• 260.1

Next week may be bad (and a day late) as I have Drill this weekend and then a quick family trip until Thursday (so I also don't really see a fast day until maybe Friday of next week). But the trick is to eat as right as possible and get as much physical activity as possible.

Weekly Weight (5/5)

For transparency, and to keep me motivated, I am going to toss in a weekly weight report. Thursday is a good day to do it since I probably have been eating fairly clean (before heading into the weekend that offers more temptations).

So thanks to some fast days (Tuesday and Thursdays... they are more partial fast days since it simply means that I pretty much have nothing but coffee (with some cream) and some fish oil, though I will toss in some protein shakes if I am working out (with a little BCAA )) I am happy to see the lowest weight in 4 years (basically since I got back from Afghanistan in January 2012 I was 245lb, and by May 2012 I was 265 with a long upward climb until my embarrassment point of April 2015 where I tipped the scales at 287.5).

Last week (we will call that week 0) :

• 260.9

Thursday : (week 1)

• 257.8

TSP

(side note, been reading a lot of personal finance blogs in the past year or so every so often I am going to hit items like that in the future)

I am not a financial advisor so take this with a grain of salt, this is just my observations.

As a federal employee (times 2 actually, since I am federal civilian and a Army National Guard Officer) I get the opportunity to invest in the federal Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). On my civilian side it is a solid deal (considering that it is in addition to a defined benefits plan, FERS, that while nice isn't as nice as all the other other government employee programs (for some (good) reason state and local plans are the ones that really seem to create a lot of the controversy, because they were underfunded by their organizations and are insanely generous)).

Some basics. First off, for any federal civilian employee under FERS, if you are not contributing 5% of your salary, you are leaving money on the table (there is an automatic 1% contribution, but to get the full matching you really need to do 5%, which gets the other 4% matching fees into your account, where it can start doing some work for you.

Now the biggest complaint against TSP is the lack of fund selection, which is a fair complaint, since there are only 5 basic options (2 of which are effectively bond funds). Some of these complaints come from before 2001, since back then there were only 3 funds, the 2 bond funds and a general stock fund. But the 3 other options should give you a comprehensive risk exposure across a number of asset classes.  They are:

• C Fund - Mirrors the S&P 500. 

• S Fund - Mirrors the Dow Jones U.S. Completion Total Stock Market Index, a broad market index made up of stocks of U.S. companies not included in the S&P 500 Index.

• I Fund - Mirrors the MSCI EAFE (Europe, Australasia, Far East) Index.

• G Fund - The one controversial part of TSP and the frequent focus of legislation. If they ever change it to non-favorable terms (right now they get a weighted average of 4+ year returns of the Treasury notes, which means we are getting long term rates on a short term asset, which has attracted the attention of the Congress-critters)  I know I will be engaged in a rebalancing in that event.

• F Fund - Matches Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, which is more variable than the G Fund but often has a higher return. Less stable but more like regular bond funds.

There are also some "L" Funds that build a basket of the above items and are centered around when you expect to retire, basically slowly shaping your investments to be more conservative options the closer that date gets.

So overall, while solid it doesn't sound like the best deal (beyond of course putting in that minimal 5% to make sure you aren't leaving money behind). But the kicker comes when you look at fees. As of 2015 (https://www.tsp.gov/InvestmentFunds/FundsOverview/expenseRatio.html) the average expense ratio is .029%, which is the lowest among all my assets (and because just a little over 71% of my retirement assets, 55% of my total assets, it drags down my average to .05% in annual fees).

When I get a little older (maybe when I hit 50, 55) I may have to do some analysis of whether, from a tax perspective, it makes sense to explore the Roth TSP option.

BTW, one interesting feature. You can effectively make a loan to yourself (https://www.tsp.gov/PlanParticipation/LoansAndWithdrawals/loans/index.html) for up to $50,000. Other than a $50 cost, the interest rate you get is the effective rate of the G Fund. But the more interesting part is that any interest you pay is put into your account (so basically the marginal cost is keeping that amount loaned at a lower rate than it could  earn in the other funds).  

April "Reads"/Reads

Lots of driving for the Army leads to more "reading"of audio books:

• Joe Ledger: Special Ops (Joe Ledger #5.5) by Jonathan Maberry

• A great collection of short stories. The Joe Ledger world combines high tech, investigation, action and, yes, a little of the unexplained (in some ways this is the X-Files from operators perspective as opposed to a more passive special agent perspective). They fill in some of the backstories of specific books and/or characters. This was a excellent way to prepare for the release of the new book in the Joe Ledger series later this month. (5/5) 

• Do Unto Others (Freehold: Ripple Creek #2) by Michael Z. Williamson

• Bodyguards. You may ask yourself, what can be more boring that being a bodyguard. Well.. When you are the bodyguard for the only child (daughter) of the richest man in human space? Well, then things get complicated. Located in the Freehold universe (authoritarian Earth that embodies the nanny state, but also containing Freehold, libertarian paradise) this is the story of the Ripple Creek bodyguards (from the previous book, Better to beg Forgiveness) who have the difficult task of keeping this young woman alive. (4/5) 

• The Dark Between the Stars (Saga of Shadows #1) by Kevin J. Anderson

• Bringing back most of the surviving cast of the Saga of the Seven Suns, this book jumps 20 years into the future (so now the children of the main characters are involved as well). There is a new bad guy for the hero's to face, as well as some returning bad guys and some new allies. It will be interesting to see how the story continues to develop, as the scope of this story is pretty far reaching (which leads to some significant jumps in perspective). Overall a solid story. (3.5/5)
• Chaos (A New World #1) by John O'Brien

• It was an entertaining read. The world is going down due to a flue virus, and the vaccine turns out to be worse than the disease. My one big issue was that it seemed to easy for the main character, Jack. He flies an C-130, there just happens to be one with extra internal fuel tanks. The only person he encounters in the sky is his girlfriends brother? Yeah, I want to be this guys friend since he appears to be the luckiest guy alive (and of course his GF is one of the few survivors at the military base in Kuwait she is at). I will definitely read (listen to) the next book to see where this goes. (3/5)

Net Worth (aka, I love Personal Capital)

Coming in a close second for the title of most boring post, everyone really should know their net worth.

I admit I was lazy up until 2ish years ago. We had plenty of money coming in and being invested, but I wasn't really paying attention to where it was and how it was being invested. I played around with Mint, but that was really focused on budgeting. Then I discovered Personal Capital. It pulled everything together and let me see in one picture where our money was and what it was doing (or not doing as was my case).

Their advisor tools, available for free, are great for you to peer into your investments. One thing that really hit me was the Investment Checkup tool, which shows the pretty impressive amount of fees (and also showed me how how over-invested we were in a variety things (man, was I overweight in the Tech arena)) from my Mutual Funds. This has motived me to do a serious rebalancing of investments (though my biggest one, the Thrift Savings Plan, doesn't offer a lot of options to rebalance. This is mitigated by the impressively low fees (0.02%)), pulling out of a lot of mutual funds (particularly important to me now is the fact that those big distributions at the end of every year? not the best thing from a tax perspective).  It also let us see the most effective way to remove some "bad" (aka, non-deductable. Realistically the only "good" debt is mortgage interest, but there are some exceptions depending on income level) debt (though then I set up a plan to replace that money that was allocated to immediately remove that debt).


BTW, we are also clients of Personal Capital's wealth management, so if you are interested in that check out this link: https://goo.gl/HcAzbi  That and I have been flirting with Robo-Investors (Betterment) Give this link a try betterment.com/invite/danielbuchholz

Constant struggle

I am a big guy. Lately I have been having some success (over the past 6 months I have managed to shed 20+ pounds)...

So the picture on the left is depressing to me. I came back from Afghanistan nice and lean (245lbs, which is a good weight for me). Made for some pretty good wedding pictures, though even by that time I was inching back up.  But now through a combination of renewed commitment to working out, cutting back my soda consumption (and replacing it with coffee, which finally is palatable to me) less eating out (side effect of the budgets post) and a few things I have been trying (adding MSM to my diet, fish oil, less carbs, occasional (once or twice a week) fast (or partial fast) days, vinegar in water before every meal)) I have been able to slowly drag my ass back down to a more acceptable level. 

I like it and now if there are any trendable upticks (since the app I use, Withings, which is tied to my electronic scale will normalize the data set) I take strong action to get it back to normal. I am looking forward to start flirting with the 250 zone shortly (it shows up occasionally after a really good workout).

This post was somewhat inspired by buddy F, who has been tracking his efforts (our battles of the bulges) on his blog at: www.ahealthylife.me  I don't know about the 700 calorie a day thing though that he was doing for a while, that is crazy to me, but it did have some good effects on him.

Shows

It is ironic, given my site's name, that my consumption of "media" has taken a nosedive. I mostly blame it on the whole "being a responsible and caring parent" thing.

I mean, really, no one (I know there are exceptions) went to their grave going, "man, I wish I hadn't wasted so much time interacting with my children." BTW, this is my favorite recent picture... because, yes, that is the Medal of Honor hanging around my daughters neck (though she was probably more excited about the dog to her left). That is Army COL Crandall, MOH awardee (of "We were Soldiers" fame, he was the aviation guy who returned multiple times with supplies and to get the wounded)

But I still find some time to watch a few shows. Right now we seem to be in a new golden age for comic books, not just in the movies (everything from the Avengers to Superman seems to be doing well) but also on TV (and off TV, Netflix has been dropping some awesome stuff as well), which pretty much is taking up most of my viewing cycles. These are about the only shows that I am caught up on:

• Arrow - because the world seems to love moody rich people with no super-powers kick butt. And well.... Felicity....
• The Flash - much less moody and more bright, with bigger and more extreme bad guys.
• Supergirl - still on the edge on this show, not quite caught up on
• Walking Dead - smaller set and way more spoilers floating around
• Fear the Walking Dead - even though I find myself rooting for the zombies against these guys
• iZombie - pretty novel take on zombies and very different from other zombie shows
• Jane the Virgin - what can I say, it is entertaining and I watch it with my wife (interestingly the only one on this list that didn't derive from a comic book)
• some miscellaneous sitcoms (everything from 2 Broke Girls to Big Bang Theory)

Ironically since if I had to describe myself I would say that I was a Marvel Comics guy (vs a DC Comics guy) but overall the DC stuff has been producing a better/more watchable set of shows (I want to like Agents of SHIELD, but it doesn't have the same level of watchability that the DC set does.  Agent Carter is much more watchable (as well as the Netflix shows Daredevil and Jessica Jones) but is a much smaller commitment.

The only other thing I am really watching is a re-watch of Babylon 5, because I can have it on in the background and do other things while I go through the show. Somewhat dated but overall it held up well (JMS did a great job writing this show).

And of course I still make a pretty good dent in the reading pile (based on my other posts). 

Budgets

Aka, the most boring post I will make. But it really is important.

Sometimes it takes a shock to bring about change. A layoff and a new baby on the way can definitely shake one up. Luckily my wife is very organized and a hard worker, so she finally got a new job a month before the arrival of Sean.

But that still forced a re-evaluation of things. You need to make sure that money coming in isn't exceeded by money coming out. When you have 2 kids in daycare (at 16-17k per kid, the DC area costs are insanely high) lots of churn in the budget become important to analyze. Some things just plain old lose (eating out every day for lunch at 10-12 per day, per adult? That adds up quick when you look at it ($120 * 52 weeks = $6240)).  You can buy a lot of bread, lunch meats, and leftovers when you are talking about that much money.  As you narrow things down (there are lot of things you cannot directly control (child care, mortgage) and a lot you only have minor control on (electricity, water, food)) you can see if there are things can be either dropped or that you can get a better deal on (I was paying how much for web hosting?!).

The best side effect of a budget? It has helped both of our waistlines (we know women gain weight during pregnancy, but a little known psuedo-fact (because I said so) is that so do men). Collectively we have probably lost 40lbs+ in the past 6 months.

March "Reads"/Reads

Long books plus long runs seems to even's out my audiobook listening. 

Hell's Foundations Quiver (Safehold #8) by David Weber

• Long book, long series. I think things are slowly coming to a head. Weber's villians, in this case Clinton, are always appropriately hatable that you feel sorry for the people on their team. Almost. David Weber is wordy but the sheer concept of this story keeps me coming back, the combination of "older" tech being aided by futuristic capabilities to help the good guys win really does make this a fun series to read. 4/5 (AB)

Eruption (Supervolcano #1) by Harry Turtledove

• Disappointing. I have been a fan of Harry Turtledove for most of my life so I bought this on his name alone. And while the concept is interesting (The Yellowstone Supervolcano erupts!) it just doesn't feel like his other books. I get it, the idea is to abstract this massive, world changing event and put it up against a personal perspective of the people who are being affected. But this felt more like the disaster films I grew up on in the 80's and early 90's, right down to the corny characters. I don't think I can bring myself to get the next book of the series. I was bored. 2/5 (AB)

Terms of Enlistment  (Frontlines #1) by Marko Kloos

• Good start to a series. Overall this book entertained (always the highest praise from me). The near future looks somewhat bright (at least there is star travel, though Earth itself is looking pretty grim). Following the story of someone from the modern equivalent of the projects (and on the dole) who earned the right to enlist, it is always interesting to me as someone who went through basic training in the USA to compare. Nothing too egregious leapt out at me and the progress of Andrew to first the local Army and then eventually to the Navy was entertaining (I like how when he showed up on his first ship the XO accuses him of being a PX Ranger (bought some awards at the PX that he didn't earn), though I suspect any real XO worth his salt wouldn't have given him the the chance). Overall I was excited to get started on the next book. 4/5 (AB)

Watch on the Rhine (Posleen War: Sidestories #1) by John Ringo, Tom Kratman

• If there is ever a book I have read that most clearly got started over a few drinks, this book is it. I imagine it went something like: "I bet you I can write a story where the nominal good guys wear Sigruden (the Lightning bolt of the SS)" "Hah, good luck with that"  And with that we have this book, which started as a short story and became this full length novel. Where the fricking remainder of the SS is rejuvenated to help Germany fight off the oncoming Posleen horde. Now I share some convictions with the author, Tom Kratman, a retired US Army Officer, so the way that certain parts of Germany are handled came off quite satisfying to me, but overall, like all the Posleen (Legacy of the Aldentia) world this is a grim world. Overall it was a solid addition to the the universe that was created by John Ringo. 4/5 (DB)

Lines of Departure (Frontlines #2) by Marko Kloos

• Continuing a solid series. The storyline flashes forward 5 years to the re-enlistment of Andrew and his Girlfriend. The fight against the against the aliens is going not so well. Andrew has shifted from being a regular swabbie (after converting from being a regular grunt in the first book) to becoming a Combat Controller (basically a JTAC from my military experience. Still part of the space service but down in the mud coordinating air and space support). The best part of this was the humanizing of his relationship with Mother when he is down on leave, taking her out of the PRC and letting her experience some of the world around her). And after getting engaged to his girlfriend (and promising to be back in 6 months) he heads off to fight... not the aliens but the other part of humanity that has colonized deep space (Russian/China coalition). And then things get worse. Finally he is basically exiled (with a whole bunch of other people) onto some ice world.  And then things get worse again. 4/5 (AB)

Angles of Attack (Frontlines #3) by Marko Kloos

• Surviving the trials of the last book, Andrew is now stuck out on the ice world. With a ragtag group of ships from both sides they finally start working together against the enemy menace. After going back to Earth-space, coming back to the ice world and then finally returning to Earth (and linking up with his fiancee) things of course take another bad turn. Looking forward to the next book to see where things go from there. (4/5) AB

Rock and Roll Half Marathon

After a long break from 1/2 Marathons (I had been sticking with my 10 Milers) my siblings caused me to sign up for one. Interestingly I have sort of run this one before (during the short period it was the National Half Marathon). Overall I was quite pleased, finishing with a pace almost 1:30 per mile faster than my Army Ten Miler times in October 2015. Runmeter report of the race.

 Fat Fingered Shoe Shot. It amused me to find it on my phone.

 Pre-Race. There was some mockery since we too the photo in the porta-potty's direction, but unless you look really hard the geometry makes it hard to tell.

Requisite post race shot with medals. 

Overall the race was pretty solid. I even partook of some of the adult beverages offered along the course (beer, prosecco and a margarita shot). It was pretty and not too cold.

Continuing my trend of weird side effects from this particular race, I had several blisters on, of all places, both my hands after this race. Maybe it was some weird reaction to sweat and holding onto the race gummies for 2-3 miles in my hands? Though I will say that even though I am 7 years older from the last time, I look better in these pics than I did in 2009....

My one complaint? The spiffy new shirt I got for the race tore when I wore it later that day after a much deserved shower.

I am already signed up for the next one (they had a great deal right after the race to sign up for 50 dollars).

No really, I mean it

Please stay home if you want to vote for Trump...  For the love of God and this Country. 

Apparently the people in my hometown, the (only half-heartedly) People's Republic of Arlington, listened to the whole voting thing (I think a lot of Democrats crossed the line to have the chance to vote against Trump), but not enough people are listening.

I am voting for the Libertarian candidate if the Republican's cannot figure out a way to not nominate Trump (I admit to mocking the Democrat's "super-delegate" concept for being undemocratic (part of the reason that no one really expected Bernie to get nominated, when you are as plugged in and part of the system as Hillary is, that is a heck of a windmill to tilt to challenge her), but it is looking like a good idea now....). 

I just... can't..... vote for Trump or Hillary.