Here’s wishing the diehards who occasionally stop by here a Happy and Prosperous 2013.

As noted in the last post(s), real life sort of took precedence over internet life in 2012, especially when it comes to blogging. Obviously, it’s been pretty quiet here, but we have also taken a needed break from blogHOUSTON (which should return sometime in 2013 with a new WordPress install – hoping for earlier than later, but, we’ll see. Maybe even a FEW more posts here, but no promises)…

2012 turned out to be quite the travel and social year.

Float Trip 2012 saw new faces (which should return for next year) along with the usual diehard crew, and we spent quality time with family and friends (and wine, LOL) throughout the year. Xmas 2012 was also quite the blowout — I think we’re still recovering. :O So much social time cut into the time we used to spend geeking around on the ‘net, which is probably a healthy development overall. Zooming around in aluminum tubes at 30,000+ feet also soaked up some time…

Some travel writer somewhere once said that if you chase good fares, you’ll wind up seeing some pretty interesting places, and so finding nice fares remains an obsession. Add following my friend Stephan’s advice that all these miles accumulated in one’s loyalty program of choice (United’s MileagePlus in my case) should be cashed in for at least one luxury trip per year, and it was a great travel year. Highlights included:

• A $325 roundtrip to Brussels on Air Canada, which involved weather delays on the outbound (we watched a pretty snowstorm from the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge in Montreal’s airport, and we eventually pushed out after a few hours of delay), a mechanical on the return, and all sorts of fun things that eventually resulted in some proactive rerouting (and Y fares to BRU, boosting the mileage earnings on my ridiculously cheap fare). People complain all the time about airlines, and there is a lot to complain about, but there are also ways to work things in your favor (most of which involve BEING NICE to the front line agents, and having backup options in mind for when you actually get in front of an agent who can help you during irregular operations). I probably ought to post more about those experiences, hmm? In Brussels, this guy made us two nice meals at his quaintish restaurant.
• Relatively cheap fares to Madrid (a new destination for us, which I liked and Callie was kind of “meh” about) and London (always a good trip – we visited the Camden Lock area this time, which was a first and kinda fun).
• Reward travel in International First to my favorite islands, and back in Business. Since Lufthansa has now restricted reward availability in First considerably, I decided to jump on the seats when they came open several days before our trip — and it worked out well, since we arrived at a remote stand and enjoyed limo service from the tarmac to the terminal. I probably won’t blow the additional miles again anytime soon, but the first class treatment (not to mention Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal in FRA) is fun. The islands, by the way, were THRIVING. The mainland — every bit as depressed as one might expect, given the news reports, sadly so. Quite the contrast between the two.
• Return trips to Alaska (never gets old, even though a marine wildlife excursion in the bay in early May is QUITE chilly *brrr*) and New Hampshire (food run to Maine, also never gets old), plus a trip to Rhode Island (first trip – we discovered the winery in Newport puts out a decent little Cab Franc).
• With a little help from PQMs via a legacy CO credit card, I made Plat for the first time at the very end of the year. We’ll see if the benefits make it worth pursuing next year.

Travel lowlights, unfortunately, included more delays, schedule changes, cancellations, refunds, and time spent on the phone with agents in one year than I’ve experienced in any previous year of flying (and maybe cumulatively — it was pretty bad). I was also 0/2 trying to fly United’s new 787 Dreamliner (once because of a schedule change, once because of a mechanical). I will say that United agents were very helpful in accommodating my requests to reschedule or cancel/refund, and we were lucky in that we were never stranded for any real period or put in a situation without good options. The merger is proving more of a challenge than I think many of the former Continental execs expected, but I’m still fairly optimistic that they’ll eventually work out the kinks. Here’s hoping the new United will continue to have a very good rewards program as well (which is a key source of my loyalty).

Callie is well, loved ones have (mostly) been healthy this year, Kiwi is trucking along, and we added a new dog to the mix (Jefe, an energetic chihuahua mix who wound up in our yard over one stormy night and was never claimed). So overall, I think we put 2012 in the win column.

Really, I wasn’t kidding in the last post about the likelihood of 2012 posting being limited, huh?

Most anyone who follows this blog is surely following me on facebook or twitter, right? And doesn’t that mean this media form known as personal blogging is surely as deprecated as HTML 4.0? And I’m not going to get started on the state of indie political blogging these days (another time, perhaps in person over wine, but let’s just say that way too many bloggers seem to think it’s great to turn over THEIR space and name to being unpaid dupes for political candidates and/or parties).

Well, whatever.

The urge strikes to put out a little update on things, so here’s a quick rundown of 2012 stuff we’ve been doing:

• Still getting in lots of people time. Home-ownership and the patio from which this blog post is being composed tonight have made me much more social (not media, but the real thing). It doesn’t hurt that we’re blessed with some great neighbors who have become good friends. There is now a tiki torch in our driveway to signify when we’re carrying on and neighbors should come join us on the patio. This is fun, I think. Your mileage may vary.
• Additional home/patio enhancements…. We put XBMC on an old laptop, only to figure out the poor machine really couldn’t carry the load. So we upgraded to this little guy, and added some speakers on the patio. It’s not my friend John’s badass system, but it serves our more modest needs (movie/music server) quite well. Being able to control the sounds on the patio with my rooted Atrix (running CyanogenMod) is sweet.
• Mr. Tom Hanna moving to town, and even staying with us for a little while, has also been a most welcome development. As one gets older, the value of old friends becomes greater. Even if I don’t always stay in touch like I should.
• We’ve flown around 37,000 miles so far this year, fairly cheaply. Some have been mileage runs. Trips to Madrid and Brussels were fun trips also flown for mileage. Facebook/twitter/flickr followers have seen a bit about these trips (which probably would have gotten posts here once upon a time). Mileage trips to Alaska and Manchester on tap for later in the year. A Delta trip to Montana looms. A biz class reward trip to Guess Where is on tap. And I need to book us another 2000 miles or so on United/Star for gold purposes…. Fun stuff! Even though the customer service experience gets worse all the time, I never tire of the air travel experience (especially airports — love them).
• Less biking and hiking than I’d like so far this year. Boo. But Alaska and Montana should help with the hiking, perhaps. And so too should…
• Dropping around 20 pounds from a recent (unfortunate) high about a year ago. What can I say, the diet slipped a bit in the year after my mom’s passing, and I know better (I can’t handle bad carbs and starches — it’s sure, fast weight gain). Back now on a pretty strict ketogenic diet, and recommending that folks read this guy and this guy. They are pretty sharp. Thank goodness wine (preferably French, or old world at least) is carb friendly, although I need to limit it to weekends for weight purposes.
• And now that I’m back down to my fighting weight (and still losing), it’s time to start thinking about… getting back to lightweight backpacking. I miss hammock weekends in the Ouachitas. Both the physical challenge and the beauty/solitude of the place. Maybe a trip this fall, definitely activity next spring.
• Slippage on blogHOUSTON. We’ve done the thing a long time now, and I’m thinking a little break is in order for a software update, a mental refresh, etc. Then we’ll get back after it. With the right energy. Maybe some new contributors (anybody interested? Party/Candidate-bloggers need not apply. Resistance may be futile, but hey).
• My first passover Seder! And no, not the Hittner political event (I won’t ever see an invite to something like that! LOL), but a genuine thing put on by lovely people. Really cool.

That’s the quick rundown of 2012, so far. Orthodox Easter is this weekend, and we’re hosting (after the smashing success that was Xmas). Weather should allow for plenty of patio/outdoor time, and a mix of white and red wine to go with the traditional Greek Easter foods and family. The wine should help both go down a little better!

The Float Trip is not far off, either. If you’re reading this and haven’t committed to joining our annual gathering of friends and family, well, it might just be time to give that some thought, hmm?

So, put another year in the books.

Since this is a not-quite-yet-abandoned personal blog that’s sometimes also about politics, that requires some sort of personal statement, right?

Damned if I know what that is, except blogging has kind of jumped the shark, hasn’t it?

I had thought the blogging impulse would come back this year, but instead … it was a lot more interesting spending time with actual people (social instead of media?). Grilling (with neighbors and friends). Wine (with neighbors and friends). Travel (50,000 paid miles, another 12k of reward travel, and aiming for roughly the same in 2012). Face-to-face interaction of all sorts. And my nose in the Kindle more (but in the woods much less, which is not so good). And yeah, a bit of social media (okay, probably too much time on twitter) and some home improvement. There’s your 2011. With plenty of (parentheticals)! Woo! (By the way, Parentheticals wouldn’t be a bad blog/tumblr name, wonder if it’s taken?)

Here’s wishing a Happy and Fulfilling 2012 to the folks who may still be following the little blog. I won’t promise there will be lots of blog posts in 2012, but maybe we’ll have the chance to grab a beer or sip some wine or share a campfire or… well, you get the idea. Hope to see ya around!

Hello all,

The blog has been “back” in terms of the slightly updated appearance and totally new WordPress backend* for a few days now. But I wanted the top post to remain a tribute to my mom through 2010.

To be completely honest, I haven’t been that motivated to post anything to the personal blog until recently anyway. Of course, my mom loved the stuff here (probably the personal and travel stuff a lot more than the political), and losing that audience really kind of sapped the motivation (and the heart, and, well, you know) for quite a while.

Quite a lot has happened since 11 July 2010, some of it documented on twitter/facebook/flickr/diigo/elsewhere. I don’t intend to rehash it (it’s 2011 now, onward!), but there have been some really good times — travel, friends, family, wine, Kindle (!), grilling, backyard, etc — mixed in with those moments of just aching that my favorite reader will no longer be eagerly checking out my little pixel patterns almost as quickly as I could arrange them. Life’s oscillations, hmm?

Anyway, Happy 2011 everyone. I think it’s going to be a really great year.

* We went through a short period on the Expression Engine blog platform. And then they went and revamped everything and introduced an expensive, screwy pricing structure that makes NO SENSE to me (ultimately designed to make the thing exclusively a commercial tool instead of one for hobbysts, I guess). So I gave in and went with WordPress. Old entries and comments have been imported from Expression Engine and Nucleus, mostly successfully it seems.

Louise Whited passed away on Sunday, July 11 2010 at Jane Phillips Medical Center in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Louise was born in Pawhuska, Oklahoma on May 28, 1943 to Joe Smith and Mary Katherine “Mitzi” Smith.

As a young woman, Louise enjoyed exploring new places, and spent time working in both Denver and the Grand Canyon areas. She later returned to Pawhuska, where she worked for some years at the Manhattan Cafe and Duncan Hotel restaurant. She married her husband of 42 years, Frank Whited, on March 20, 1968 in Honolulu, Hawaii. After a short time in Orange, Texas, they returned to Pawhuska, where she devoted herself to family. In recent years, she worked as an Avon representative and also was active on the internet.

Louise is survived by her husband Frank, son Kevin and his wife Callie, sister Sabra Trochta, brother Charles R. “Chuck” Smith, and numerous nephews and nieces. She was preceded in passing by sister Sandra Jackson and brother Joe “Brownie” Smith. She was a devoted daughter, wife, mother, sister, aunt, and friend.

Funeral services will be held Thursday, July 15 at 10 AM in the McCartney’s Johnson Funeral Home chapel. Longtime family friend Rev. Lottie Adams Ozbun will officiate. Interment will be in the Pawhuska City Cemetery.

Photo of the gas cap from our Ford Fusion rental (a below average compact class car) in Alaska:

I’m thinking Ford might like that one back about now.