First off, let me say, “Booyah!” Now that I let that out, let me continue.

I’m finally getting the new PC. My Dell Dimension 8400 is 6.5 years old, and it is reaching it’s last useful months left. I’ve survived one hard drive crash (and lost data), upgraded memory, and added an additional backup hard drive. In the end, it was time for a new PC. A quad-core PC.

I initially predicted in December 2010 that I would get a new desktop PC, and I thought I was so close in February 2011 that I even worked out the specifications. Unfortunately, reality set in, and we had other expenses come up that took priority. My dreams of a new PC were put on hold for the time-being.

Why am I so excited by a new PC? First off, if you have to ask that question, you don’t know me very well. Secondly, unlike many people, my desktop is the center of my digital world. I keep my digital media on it. I stream video from it. I sync my calendar and contact data to my phone from it. I do my video and photo editing on it. I watch the occasional movie on it. It’s the nexus. Using a PC that is huffing and puffing as your nexus ain’t that fun.

I flirted with buying an HP, but talked it over with my friend Plexy, and opted for spending the same amount of money on better parts, but which requires me to put it together. We worked up the specifications, and ordered the parts. They should be here by Friday, and I’m working with him on Saturday to put it together. Interestingly enough, the specifications are very similar to what I had planned back in February, apart from some minor updates:

• Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower case
• Intel i7-2600 3.4 GHz processor
• Corsair 8 GB Vengeance  DDR3 RAM
• Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD4-B3 LGA 1155 motherboard
• EVGA GeForce GTX 570 1280 MB graphics card
• Samsung Blu-ray player / DVD-W drive
• Creative 7.1 Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
• 2 TB Western Digital 7200 RPM HDD

Sometime in Q1 2012, I hope to pick up a new 24″ LCD/LED monitor, and a new desk. That should complete the home office refresh. I’ve got the 3-day weekend coming up for New Year’s, so I hope to finish the rest of the data transfer and complete the software installs during my free time. Very exciting. Well, for me, anyway.

Hi ho! It’s the end of the year, and time now to sit back and enjoy my summary of the highs, lows, and other thoughts about the past year. It’s certainly been a busy one. In my mind, I consider this the year I returned to being the hungry and lean person I always was. In the past few years, I got fat and complacent. This year? Smarter, faster, stronger. Read on, and I shall explain.

Life, Love, and Family

If I had to describe this year, one way would be to call it a busy one. Or chock-full. Or fun-filled adventure. And a return to basics. Yes, it’s a nuanced year. With the kids getting older, our schedules have changed. They have more extracurricular activities, we’re going out, etc, which means we are running around more often. Also, we’re going out more to visit friends, or having people over, seeing local musicals, or going to horse & farm shows. Where to begin? Let’s talk about how the family has changed dramatically this year.

She loves me

Time passes. Namita and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary this year. Eight years flew by, but we try to keep the spark in it with date nights and the occasional dinner or movie out sans kids. We also work hard to coordinate all of the comings and goings in the Ipe house. It’s been busy with her responsibilities at work, and running major events at church, but we do our best. I’m also 35 years old now. Eh, I’m getting thinner, faster, and stronger each day. Who cares if I’m getting greyer and balder? She still seems to love me after all these years, so I can’t understand it or complain about it.

Joshua likes Derrick Rose and the NBA

Josh is 6 years old now, and entered 1st grade this September, which means a full day with his teacher and classmates. I would say it’s going well, and we’re encouraging him to play with others and to enjoy school. Nowadays, every night we must ensure his homework is completed, which is an interesting feeling. Man, the kids really are growing up. Josh has also played in Spring, Summer, and Fall soccer leagues through our local police athletic league. He’s slowly improving and getting an understanding of sports. This year, he also expressed an interest in basketball, and we watched his favorite team, the Chicago Bulls, make it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. Btw, Derrick Rose is his favorite player. It was pretty fun to have him sitting next to me while we watched games together.

I have to admit she is Daddy's girl

Lily has changed quite a bit this year. She turned 3 years old in March, and is in preschool. In a process that has taken much longer than expected, Lily is officially potty-trained. This means that we eventually said goodbye to diapers and wipes, which was also one of major reasons that we shopped at the wholesale club. We did say hello to constant potty trips and, for a long transition period, many accidents due to misjudging when she really had to go. Lily is mostly okay with making it to the restroom in time, but we still force her to go when we either arrive or before we leave somewhere. Otherwise, Lily is Lily: a fun little girl with an outsized personality. Many a Facebook status update is about her.

The other big family news are the new additions to the family: we adopted two kittens from our local animal hospital in June. They are two brothers from an original litter of four, and the kids named them Scamper and Toasty. I admit they have unusual names, but that’s what happens when you let two impish children name your new pets. Both kittens are rapidly growing, and when they aren’t being annoying, they’re actually quite lovable. Yes, bushy tails and all.

Kitten #1

Kitten #2

We had a lot of guests come over to visit this year. Maybe it was a function of feeling more comfortable with the house looking more “lived in” or simply we had more free time, but we hosted what I would consider a high number of dinner parties, including a party for the kids’ birthdays, “Friendsgiving“, dinner parties for Nums’ coworkers/friends, and when we haven’t seen old friends in a long time. We also threw two big birthday parties for Joshua’s 6th birthday and Lily’s 3rd birthday. I’m still impressed by the cakes that my wife baked and decorated for both kids.

Getting in Shape and My Return to Cycling

The other big news is that after 6 years, I finally started to attack the weight. Harking back to my past yearly goals since 2005, I have repeatedly stated that I would finally lose the weight. Well, unfortunately, if you don’t have a feasible plan, it ain’t gonna happen. To break the cycle, I re-evaluated my plan. I quit the company gym (which had only limited hours), and I joined a Gold’s Gym in my town in February. I now could work out as late as 11pm, when all my evening activities were over, and my head was clear. I flirted with a low-carb diet for a few days, but changed to a more sustainable healthier diet which balances fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy, and meats. I also learned to watch my caloric intake, and eat smarter foods that didn’t contain empty calories. When you are calorie-counting, it’s important to understand what you are eating. I seem to float now in the mid-170s, so I’ve technically lost 30 lbs since February. I feel a lot better, and now I can run for 40 mins on the treadmill, and do 4 miles at a good running pace. This is certainly the best running I’ve ever done.

When I talk about returning to basics, and being lean and hungry, it means I want to get back to an earlier state. In 2004, I was younger, fitter, and my career was accelerating. Fast-forward to the beginning of 2011, and I was older, fatter, and unsure of why I was where I was career-wise. Bad situation folks, and you need to feel the courage to make a change.

At the MS Bike Ride 2011

An example of how I got back to “the old me” was my return to cycling in a major way. Last year, I did get back to riding after a long hiatus, but it wasn’t consistent. I did the MS “Coast the Coast” bike ride in 2010, but I consciously decided to tie this into my overall fitness regimen, with a key objective of dropping down to at least 190 by the end of May. I attended a free spin class at CentraState with some other members of the Team CentraState team from last year, and registered the same day for the 2011 May ride too. I started earlier on cycling, and attended a few training rides before the big charity ride. This year, I rode 85 miles for the first time with my new friend Jacqui, and I raised $1,050 with the help of family and friends. I also lost 14 lbs between Feb and May, which certainly helped on the long ride. I had hoped to ride the full century (100 miles), but my body was failing me by mile 80, and I limped to the finish line. Overall, it was a good experience. Unfortunately, my 2011 riding season was abruptly cut short just shy of 400 miles due to a season-ending accident. Ah yes, let’s segue to this year’s injuries, shall we?

Of course, having an active lifestyle opens the door to injuries if you aren’t careful. I experienced two completely unexpected ones:

• Back in February, I slipped and hyperextended my left knee while walking to catch the train in New Brunswick. That hurt for a long time, and I wore a knee brace for a while to help strengthen my knee. What was not helpful at the time was that I tried working out a week after the slip, which aggravated things. That put a delay into my workout routine.
• In September, I had the other big set of injuries. While I was cycling in Delaware and Maryland, I was inadvertently hit by a car. I twisted up my left knee (same knee again), my wrist, and somehow injured my coccyx tailbone. All in all, I consider myself extremely lucky, as it could have been much worse. At this point in time over three months, my tailbone still hurts, so I may have a few more months of recovery to go yet.

Now back to the good news. Despite not being 100%, my recovery does proceed albeit slowly. I did lose over 30 lbs this year, and I’ve stepped up my exercise routine at the gym. I’m working on building upper body strength, and I’ve recently been averaging 40 minutes and 4 miles on the treadmill, all running. Pretty good for a fellow who, years ago, used to only jog for 10 mins and called it a day.

Home Renovations

Following all of the major home interior work done last year, the house redecorating continued this year in full force. In the living room:

• We removed the fireplace
• Shifted our furniture around to make better use of the addition space & new layout.
• We had new carpet installed in the living room
• We have also purchased new bookcases, coffee & end tables, and even a neat bench with interior storage for our DVD/Blu-ray collection, as well as a basket for the children’s movies that go in one of the bookcases.
• I purchased two rear surround speakers and hung the them up on living room back wall to create a 7.1 home theater configuration. The jury is still out on how much it changes the sound stage in the room.
• I replaced and installed a new faucet in the powder room. Annoying, but I did some actual plumbing.
• We replaced our old hot water heater, which is only very exciting when you’re showering at 6am.
• I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the new microwave.
• Bought a new dining room and china cabinet.
• Replaced a failed condensate pump in the HVAC unit.
• Bought new bunk beds for the kids for Christmas, and rearranged their room.
• I don’t want to ignore the exterior work. We did a lot of gardening work this year. Creating an actual front lawn (with actual grass), new perennials, and other new flowers.

Toys "R" Us Times Square

Trips

• I had hoped that we could swing a few cool domestic trips, but our inability to win the lottery put a damper on those plans. Instead, we planned out a nice weeklong vacation at the end of August at the Bethany Beach area of Delaware. We rented a condo and stayed a week into Labor Day weekend. We primarily relaxed at the beach, at the pool, chilling out in the condo, and cooking up great meals.
• In November during a brief lull in the hectic Ipe schedule, we took an extended weekend family vacation in NYC. I’ve been planning on this for a while, so I’m glad we finally pulled the trigger. It was a nice time to unwind, plus introduce the kids to some of the sights.

Career

Part of that change was also re-evaluating my career. After 11 years, do I continue in the field of internal audit, or try something else? Stay at Citi, or move onto greener pastures? In the end, after many exploratory conversations with friends, family, and former colleagues, I decided to put a stake in the ground, and stay in the internal audit profession for now. I began interviewing in the summer, and eventually found a great opportunity at Prudential Financial. It has only been a month since I joined, but it has been a very good experience, and I like my new team. Of course it was difficult to leave Citi after 6+ years. I had thought I would want a longer career there, and I miss my old colleagues and the network I had developed, but I had to think of the long-term strategy. I didn’t see the upwards career path anymore, and too many changes coming on the horizon.

Favorite Moments

• Riding 85 miles for the first time in my life.
• Getting new cycling gear, like new pedals and new (sportier) helmet.
• Seeing the scale register 174 lbs for the first time since 2004.
• Seeing grass grow in our front lawn.

Worst Moments

• I don’t know…. probably getting hit by a car.

Other Stuff

• My niece Abby turned 1 years old, and was baptized. In addition, Namita and I were chosen to be her godparents. Never been a godparent before, but there is always a first time.
• My uncle (my father’s oldest brother) in India died. Coupled with another relative on my mother’s side who died from cancer this year, and it has me slightly unnerved and worried for my own parents’ health.
• New gadgets this year – the Tivo Premiere to replace our Verizon-supplied STB/DVR.
• Way back in Feb 2011, I mentioned that we would be getting a new desktop PC to replace our 6-year old workhorse. Well, it didn’t happen yet (tax bill, etc) but it recently went back on the radar. It may not be here yet, but the parts are ordered, and hope to start putting it together this Saturday. I figured I’d mention it anyway. It’s so close!
• My wife and I got into Fringe in a big way, and thanks to Amazon.com, we’re all caught up on seasons 1-3. The current season hasn’t been as strong, but I hope it picks up.
• New videogames – LittleBigPlanet 2 and Batman Arkham City. I’ve enjoyed both games, but I haven’t gotten very far in LBP 2, just because of work and lack of free time. As a testament to my lack of free time, I didn’t pick up Uncharted 3 on release date [the latest installment in one of my all-time favorite series], but Nums got it for me for Christmas instead. Love that woman!
• I saw a helluva lot of movies this year– 40 to be exact.
  • Best films I enjoyed: Up, Paul, No Country for Old Men, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Muppets, Captain America, The Hurt Locker, Heat. I saw many other decent films, but I won’t list them all here.
  • Worst films I had to sit & watch through: Immortals, Iron Man 2, the last of the Futurama films, Green Lantern, Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, Hot Tub Time Machine, The Hurricane.

Looking Ahead to 2012

Hmm, what can I predict is in store for 2012, except the Mayan apocalypse? This is always troublesome, as I frankly don’t accomplish much of the list. Still, I’m the dreamer. Without the dreams, how do you know what to at least try for?

• I plan to exceed and shine at my new job, and maybe lead an audit or two.
• I’m hoping to get the certification that shall not be named.
• While I’m glad that lost 30 lbs, the fitness journey isn’t over yet. I still have another 15-20 lbs to go. Also, I’m still working on building upper body muscle mass.
• I expect to ride the MS Bike ride again, and probably with CentraState again. However, Gold’s Gym has its own team, and I’m curious whether Prudential has one.
• I have no idea on trips for 2012. I do know my sister Julie has expressed interest in a joint trip.
• We’re AMNH members so naturally we’ll be hitting the museum and NYC a few more times. Heck, I wouldn’t mind another extended weekend in NYC either.
• We’re in the market for a new couch and loveseat. Our current slipcovered ones from circa 2003 is looking shabby. They were once the nicest pieces, but now are the shabbiest.
• I’m looking to redecorate the guest room and the basement.

I think that was a pretty good update. I count my blessings for the life I have (with all the ups and downs), for the wonderful family I have that make me smile every day, and the great friends I have to be there when we need some company.

How did we spend our Christmas Monday / Boxing Day? Relaxing at home. Nums and the kids watched lots of Christmas movies in the morning and the early afternoon. I remember napping for a bit with Nums in the afternoon. In the evening, I made a quick grocery run to pick up some supplies while Nums made a beef roast for dinner.

The 3-day weekend went awfully fast, and little too busy for my tastes. I hope New Year’s is a little quieter.

Chistmas morning came awfully fast, since I hadn’t had more than an hour of sleep. Someohow, I woke up. We opened presents, and then surprised the kids by taking them upstairs to see the new beds. They were pretty thrilled, video posted below.

Suprising the kids with their new bunk beds from Joel Ipe on Vimeo.

How did I do overall this month on Christmas presents? Pretty well, I think.

1. From the Secret Santa gift exchange last week, I got The Lion King 4-disc Blu-ray pack (with digital copy), and Captain America: The First Avenger on Blu-ray (and digital copy.) Both are really for the kids, but that’s still nice to not have to spend my own money on them.
2. From my sister and brother-in-law, Josh and I got tickets to see the Bull-Nets game @ Prudential Arena in Feb 2012. Looking forward to taking Josh to his first basketball game.
3. From my in-laws, I got…. money, that is going straight towards my new computer and desk and future iPad 3.
4. From my family, I got a “#1 Dad” ornament from Josh, and Nums got me a bathroom scale (yes, I wanted it), and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (which, yes, I definitely wanted.)
5. Josh also got the Lord of the Rings Extended Edition on blu-ray (with digital copies), and Cars 2 on blu-ray, so I think I get to share those with him. Lily got Beauty and the Best on blu-ray, but I think she can keep that for herself.

We went to church in the morning for services, and then spent the rest of the day at home relaxing. We also got to watch A Muppet Christmas Carol, which we recorded from Friday night.

It was IKEA field trip day, and Christmas Eve with my in-laws day.

Morning/Afternoon

The Ipes @ IKEA in Elizabeth, NJ

Now, I haven’t shopped at IKEA in years. I haven’t needed one of their Swedish-named, everything needs an Allen wrench, “How is that bookcase in such a little box?” products in a long time. I think the last item I was there, I went with my former roommate Doug to pick up a Swedish wardrobe for the apartment we shared.

This all comes back to the secret gift for the gifts. Yes, we got little gifts for them already, such as a Derrick Rose / Chicago Bulls jersey, toys, etc, but my wife dreamed up getting them bunk beds for their bedroom. The idea was that the kids would camp out Christmas Eve in the living room, we put the beds together Saturday night, and surprise them Christmas morning. Of course, we had to go to IKEA first to get two twin-sized foam mattresses, new bed linens, blankets, etc. We spent a nice day at IKEA perusing the wares, seeing all the stuff, and $563 later we got all of our needs. We also had a pretty nice lunch at IKEA — the food court is a lot better than I remember. They used to only have hot dogs and Swedish meatballs.

Trying out the beds at IKEA

[Side bar -- I've been on the hunt for a new, bigger, faster, stronger home office desk for nigh on three years now. I'm pleased to say I found it at IKEA. They have this VIka model where the customer can selec the table top and the legs, and put it together yourself. I found exactly what I wanted for about $130, so I expect to pick that up separately Q1 of 2012. Happy happy joy joy.]

Evening

Christmas Eve with the Davids

In the evening, we drove over to my in-laws for dinner and presents and all that. The in-laws were there, my sister-in-law and her family as there, etc. We had conversation, dinner, the kids ran around, and plenty more presents were opened.

Midnight-6:30am

And now commences the Great Bunk Bed Odyssey. The kids camped out as planned in the living room, but my wife fell asleep next to them. Okay, I get it, she’s pretty tired. So I guess I’m doing this myself. I still had the original mattress, box spring, and all the furniture in the room, so it was some tight quarters when trying to put two beds together. Still, I was prepared with all of my tools.

As usual these days, the almighty Allen wrench is the primary tool to screw everything together. I don’t know why, but it is. At around 3am, I needed to I woke up Nums, as I had the headboards and footboards together, as well as the first bed together. However, there was no more room until we could get the old bed out of there. Once we did that, I spent the next three hours getting the second bed together, putting the ladder together. I woke up Nums again around 5:30-6am to help me get the top bed lifted onto the bottom bunk. After 6 hours of Allen wrenching, my thumbs/hands were achy and nearly non-functional.

The new bunk beds for the kids

Why? Duh, some of the screws go in smoothly, while others need a lot of elbow grease to get them in. I overcame most of the hurdles, until I hit the last wrinkle — the holes between the ladder and the two bed frames didn’t line up, and not just a little. At least a good inch off. Argh. Well, what to do? I tried using smaller screws to fasten, instead of the large joint connectors provided to me, but they didn’t work.

Solution? I said “Screw it!” literally. I figured I’ll drill the requisite new holes, and use the same joint connectors. I didn’t what was wrong, but I didn’t care at 6:30am. Finally, the bed was done. I woke my wife up again, told her to finish with the bed mattresses and linens, etc, and I’m going to put my head down for a nap, and fell asleep briefly next to the kids on the living room floor.

Busy, busy day. I worked from home Friday in the morning, and we got a notification of early dismissal for 12 noon. That worked out great, because my sister and her family were coming over for the annual “Christmas Excellence” dinner that night. There was much vacuuming and dusting and cleaning up to do in preparation. “Cleaning up” also included getting the secret present for the kids out of the downstairs hallway, and into their room.

Fast-forward to the evening, and Christmas Excellence went off without a hitch. I made sliced meats, cheeses, and crackers for appetizers. Namita made a roast, stuffed, pork loin, and her patented carrot souffle, and green beans / potatoes / bacon / onions side dish. It was all delicious. For dessert, my sister brought over homemade cookies. We opened presents, and I hope everyone was satisfied with their gifts. If they weren’t, they aren’t saying.

Julie, Robbie, and Joshua @ Christmas Excellence

I don’t know why getting a family portrait can be such an ordeal. It should be a simple act of scheduling everyone, getting everyone together, and taking a good photo. Instead, twenty different variables come into play.

• Nobody is free on a single day.
• All of the good photographers are booked.
• Nobody likes where you did find a photographer.
• You have events scheduled before and after, and there’s a tight window.
• The kids are tired and/or cranky.
• Even though you know better, you keep going back to Sears out of desperation.
• The photographer is either incompetent or in a rush, they never tell you that the kids weren’t looking, someone blinked, or that you have lipstick on your teeth.

We’d gone to the Sears Portrait Studio at least three times, and I feel that we never learned our lesson. Inevitably, after paying all that money, it ends up with me paying for one 8×10, scanning it in, and Photoshopping the beejezus out of it to get it respectable. Then send it to Walgreens, and hope the Christmas cards come out well.

This year, no more dealing with lousy Sears. We scheduled an appt with Artist House down in Bellmywr, NJ, which we’ve seen often when going to visit my sister. I mean, there’re a professional photography studio. They have to be better, right?

Luckily everything worked out. After a busy morning of dance classes and soccer scrimmages on December 10th, we dressed up and drove down to south NJ for our photo sitting. Not only were we taking a family photo, we were meeting my sister and her family there. Why? We were also having a photo taken of Josh, Lily, and my niece Abigail.

I’m pleased to say that the photographer was very experienced and professional. He took the time to make sure our pictures came out well, instead of rushing us. He accurately judged when the kids were tired, and all of our photos came out very well.

We just got the photos back today, and they look very good. I had to drive down tonight to pick them up after work, but it was worth it. In my mind, we’ll certainly go back next year.

Family Portrait 2011

Lessons learned:

1. Small business owners can be 1000x better than a chain.
2. You get what you pay for.

Kids opening up their gifts

We had our Christmas party with friends on a busy Saturday evening. Luckily this time around, I wouldn’t have to cook anything like last time. I was DJ’ing, so I only had to collect some song requests, download them, and throw them on my iPod Touch. Of course, I had to help pick up gifts for Secret Santa, but my lovely wife took care of most of that. Hey, I gotta enjoy the perks of marrying a capable and thoughtful woman.

As I mentioned, we had much going on that day. Besides all the gift-wrapping, we had a morning service at the church celebrating the new ministry of our new Rector. After lunch, we rushed home to get ready. We got up to our friends Plexy & Sheba’s house, and we were thankfully neither the first nor the last guests to arrive.

Just to summarize the evening,

• Lots of appetizers, entrees, and desserts.
• Lots of drinks.
• Lots of presents to be opened for the adults and kids (Secret Santa.)
• A wild game of Pictionary.
• Mercifully, the karaoke machine wasn’t working.

Our first Christmas tree

In 2005 after Josh was born and we moved into our first house, we wanted to have our very first Christmas tree. We opted for a pre-lit artificial tree. It was fairly easy to set up, turn on, and get on with life. In subsequent years, the lights would stop working, and we would buy additional strings of lights. Last year, all of the lights failed, I took the time to remove each dead string, and we decorated the old fashioned way.

Earlier this month, I pulled the tree out of storage in our basement crawlspace, and discovered that our dear kittens (one of them at least) had “inappropriately eliminated” on the tree while it sat in pieces in the cardboard storage box over the summer. It may have been in the Fall, as they both reached their sexual maturity, and may have felt the need to spray. I have two knuckleheads for cats. I tried cleaning it, but to no avail, the smell was burned into the plastic faux pine needles. Out to the trash it went.

It took us a week or so, but we decided to try our hand at getting our first real Christmas tree. No, not a fake one. An honest-to-goodness actual tree, real pine needles and all. Monday, December 12th, we drove out to a nearby garden center, and bought ourselves a Frasier Fir tree and a tree stand. It’s been a few days, but the tree is up and now decorated. So far, it’s pretty nice, but I’m constantly vacuuming up the pine needles off the carpet.

BTW, the cats are ridiculous about having a tree in the house. Constantly eating the needles, drinking the water, knocking down ornaments, and climbing the tree. Argh. I know cats will be cats, but it’s a bit annoying at times.

Nicole & Nums

On Sunday night, We hosted dinner for Namita’s coworkers and their significant others. Nums was making a big South Indian spread of entrees, with some basic appetizers and desserts. As ususal, there was much preparation beforehand with an inadequate amount of time to prep the house, buy groceries, etc, but somehow we did it. We went shopping the night before to buy groceries, buy new plates, etc.

Um, not much to write about, because it was a dinner party. My wife made lemon rice, a coconut chicken curry, and a few other dishes that I can’t remember, but it was a 3-course meal. All in all, it went extremely well, and we kept the drinks flowing too.

Dinner party at our house