So here we are, almost one month into the swear jar and the total stands at $66.00. So approximately a swear a day in January. I wouldnt say I have curbed my swearing at all, i just mumble it more regularly or wait until i get in my car to let loose a tirade of foul verbage that would make small children weep and nuns faint. 
Regardless, I have paid up when i have owed, prompted or otherwise. The best and also most annoying is after a 'slip up' the angelic voices of my children singing out 'Dad, thats 2 bucks' or ' Lets hear the clink of that twonie Dad' which in the moment makes we want to swear more, but I have to hold it in for fear of owing more money.
As the total climbs in the jar, the jokes have started to increase also, in regards to what purchase will be made, beginning with a night out for the family, to a trip to Disneyland. 
What a memory that would be hey, we went to Disneyland because my dad couldnt stop calling the the dog a 'dickhead fuckface'.
Pretty sure that isnt how my parents got us to Disneyland but its a different time.
Coming to work is my swearing oasis now. I can sit in my office and quietly swear to myself over various emails, swear along with my colleagues in meetings, or fellow gym goers on lunch breaks at the pool. 
Aside from my swearing struggles, last week was a great week for workouts, they went like dis:
Monday: off
Tuesday: 750m + 500m swim
Wednesday: 5km run + weights session with the boy
Thursday: 1500m swim + 5km run
Friday: weights session with the boy
Saturday: 5km run + 13mile ride
Sunday: off

Even though i had a decent week, and was really pumped to get my running up to 3 times a week, I have decided to forego #cigarSundays until I can get back to getting in all 3 of the triathlon disciplines 3 times a week. So 3 swims, 3 bikes, 3 runs.
Distances can vary but I want to start getting back into stride soon. So it may be a couple of weeks before i can get my body moving that much, plus the 2-3 workouts the boy needs to get in will all add to the challenge. But I am looking forward to trying.

I am going back to myFitness pal in February. I am still struggling with managing my calories, and at least with the new iPhone it should sync everything up the way my Blackberry never could. Lastly I am in the process of cutting pop and coffee out for a while. In my research on 'sour belly' that i had a week or so ago, those two fellas are major contributors to that ailment, and I never ever want to get that again so I am going to give my belly a break for a bit. I know I will never cut them completely but have started lowing my intake considerably from what I was consuming the last month or so, so we shall see. 

I really miss them both, especially the coffee before my workouts and the pop as my afternoon pick me up. #sadface

On the up side though i am really pumped to see my running come back over the last couple weeks, not burning up the treadmill yet, but one step at a time. Also some of the 'new me, new year' crowd are starting to die off at the gym as the parking lot is increasingly less empty, so the gym/pool is less clogged with hangarounders, and chatters. If you are still making your workouts count, much congrats to you and keep er going!
​Sean "BigBoyRunning" Ryan

Two snow storms, a nasty bout of sour belly, but low and behold all the workouts for the week were completed. I havent really wanted to give to much thought to the little 'tweek' in my knee from a couple of weeks ago, but I have not been able to really put a run in on it since then. Even with a brace on it didnt feel right so I was focusing on biking, swimming and some weights with the boy, doing some hill walking on the treadmill, but this week it felt like I could start a little running on it again.
Not that I have any grace when I "run" anyway, but now, trying to be gentle on my knee, I must have looked like a defective terminator after its legs have been crushed still trying to chase after Sarah Connor.  People would walk by and look at me in horror and sorrow all rolled into one. 
Regardless, I started to do some short runs mixed with some walking on various inclines a couple of times last week and it didnt feel awful on the knee. Its crazy how quick a lack of running can completely derail 3 good weeks of running. I blame snow. DAMN YOU SNOW!!!
So the week went like dis:
Monday: off
Tuesday: Weights/Cardio with the boy ( upto 8 min per cardio machine!) + 750m swim and 500m kicking
Wednesday: 14mile bike + 1.5mile walk/run
Thursday: Weights/Cardio with the boy + 1000m swim and 250m kicking
Friday: off
Saturday: 11mile bike ride + 2.5mile walk/run
Sunday: shoveling
So the boy only got in two workouts last week, hoping he can get back to 3 this week, but trying not to push it.
Okay, so had a little melt down type rant on facebook early last week around parking on campus primarily, but secondarily about the January resolution crowd invading the work out spaces I use both at good life and the swimming pool.
I want to clarify, my distain should have gone towards people who are acting the part of gym goer and lane swimmer rather then painting the whole group of new years resolutioners with the same brush. So sorry to those of you that have used the new years resolution to get out and get active, you get a hearty way to go from me, and keep it up!
Now to those of you, whether you are new to the gym or pool, stop playing at using the equipment or lanes and either get after it, or get out of the way.
If you find yourself at a designated lane swim and you are spending more time chatting or standing around in the water, you have two choices, move to the enlarged lane for those types of activities or go to the non-lane swim pool times. Recreation Swim comes to mind as an option for you. This allows you to float and splash and frolic around the pool at your leisure. Lane swim is for swimming lengths, thats all. Water running - enlarged lane. Frolicing - enlarged lane. Having a float - Enlarged Lane. If you are new to swimming lengths, welcome, good luck, and pick a lane rope and stick close to it. If you swim in the middle of a shared lane you are going to get run over and no one wants that. #helpfulhint
To those at the gym under the same philosophy of just sort of wandering around, occasionally picking up something and putting it down, or using various benches for a sit, stop it.
Try the library maybe, they have things you can lift and places for a sit. This isnt as predominate a problem as the pool lane thing, but holy crap it can be annoying to watch this play acting unfold. I want to get all Mickey from Rocky on these people. #unleashthechickens
Okay, well, i dont know if I actually helped explain my point of view or pissed more people off, but there you have it.
On the more positive side of things, friend of the show, Dave Zinck has committed to doing the Epic swim again this year in Dartmouth, and this year we are going to get a freaking medal for our efforts. Unbeknownst to us last year, you have to complete a run and a swim to get a medal and be considered "Epic", doing a 5km swim did not qualify for their standards of "Epic". So we are going to do the 5km run in the morning and the 5km swim in the afternoon. So "Epic" Dartmouth, those medals better be pretty spectacular!
Sean "Cranky" "BigBoyRunning" Ryan

This week another great lady has passed on to become another guardian angel for those of us still in the here and now. My wife's last grandparent passed away this week, leaving behind grief and sadness but also an incredible amount of humorous stories, loving memories and a family that will deeply miss her.
Her last few months were not awesome in terms of her health, and without going into detail, when someone is suffering that much there is some comfort in them passing on so that they are no longer in pain anymore, but when it is a mother, or grandmother that really only just takes the edge off the sadness. 
For me I will remember her as 'crazy nan'. She was the one that could get away with saying anything, doing anything, and had a blast doing it. My favorite stories about her are the ones in which when traveling places, either near or far, if she liked something in her hotel room or on the table, it would most certainly find its way into her purse and then into her home.
I have a bit of a streak like this in regards to beer and rocks glasses, so i appreciated her views on liberation of these items when asked by a family member ' nan, where did you get this'. The reaction was typically the same, a body shaking laugh and then a matter of fact explanation on how this item came into her possession. 
The best story was how on a trip down south she fell enamoured with the door knobs of her hotel room and decided that she just had to have them. I would have loved to have been on the cleaning staff that day, going to open the door and no door knobs left. Hilarious.
The first time i met her early on in our dating relationship she had just power walked down to my wife's parents house and was wearing 80's style spandex bike shorts with a neon pink racing stripe up the side. She could have given to flying frigs about what anyone thought of her fashion choices and was quick to say so.
So traveling into the church for her funeral, I couldnt help but notice that the renovation to the entrance to the church had now left the bathroom door to resemble a port a pottie style door with all the appropriate gender symbols and the shape, facing and boarder to resemble a port a pottie door. I couldnt help but giggle, thinking that if ' crazy nan' was beside me and i pointed it out, I would have gotten a great laugh out of her. 
The service is always tough for people to get through, there is such a finality to it. But I kept thinking of her sense of humour and while I will miss that, it lives on through my wife and our daughter. 
While the week ended with a funeral, the week in terms of work outs went very well.
Monday: Weights with the boy + 500m warm up swim + 750m swim
Tuesday: 250m warm up swim + 1500m swim
Wednesday: Weights with the boy + 14km bike ride
Thursday: 2000m swim
Friday: off
Saturday: off
Sunday: 10km ride + 2 mile run
As usual food is a struggle, if i ever get a handle on it ill be dangerous, but there is a new week around the corner, so we will see how that goes, i remain hopeful.
This has been a pretty heavy year for us in terms of family deaths, so it has been tough to remain upbeat, i carry all the departed with me in everything I do, so here's hoping to that little to none gets added for the rest of 2016.
Sean "BigBoyRunning" Ryan

So, pretty proud of my self actually, the holidays are over and my overdoing it with food days are way less then past years. Did I indulge in snacks and things that are "bad" for me, heck yes! I ate a nerf football sized donair on one occasion and I dont think i even breathed the entire time. I dumbied a whole bag of doritos in a 24 hour period and had a pop with actual sugar in it, not the fake sugar I have grown to hate, but actual real live sugar. #glorious Again not proud of these moments, but usually it is a fleet of large bags of chips and way more greasy meats, so this year is going in the win column.
Not only that but really kept up with the work outs over the two weeks of holidays and my new gym wing man did too. It is been so awesome to watch him start to really enjoy the process of cardio and weights. I am totally still on him about trying not to jack the weight higher on every single machine, but he is starting to get better with form, and when he slips and i start to open my mouth, he is quick to shoot me that pre-teen glare that I know will get refined in the next few years. 
But aside from those instances things are going great!
Last week went like this:
Monday: 500m hard kicking and arms + 750m swim
Tuesday: Weights + 2000m swim
Wednesday: 14km bike + 2000m swim
Thursday: off
Friday: off
Saturday: Weights + 10km bike
Sunday: off
So not a bad week at all. In the workouts anyway. In the world, well that is a different nut. As I have said before, but will say again because 2 out of my 7 readers may not know, I am not good in crowds. Especially crowds of people I dont know. I can manage myself without barking or peeing on things, but i generally avoid situations where I am put into new groups of people with out having a good relationship with at least one person or sub-group. Im shy I guess is a shorter way to say that.
Anyway my wife is the opposite. She loves to meet new people and talk to strangers, I attribute that to her growing up in a very small town where her family was about 1/3 of that town. Needless to say, I usually feel like I am holding her back  because when we get invited places, if i dont know at least 2 people I am usually a no. 
So this holiday, we were invited over to our neighbours, she caught me because I met them both a couple times already so there were the two people that I know, so checklist complete. Sigh.
So off we went, now I am not going to get to heavy handed with this, but I was being a brat pretty much until we walked in the door, i may even stomped the "snow" off my boots extra hard right before we went in. I will neither confirm or deny that.
Now dont get me wrong, our neighbours are very friendly, and it was kind of them to invite us over in the first place, but geez I was stressed out. We get in and get settled, I was quick to get the dip and snack plate I made set up, and deposit the bottle of wine we brought on the impromptu bar that was set up in the kitchen. I quickly spotted one of the two people I knew and sat relatively close to him at the table. Now across from me was a very nice man, he was holding court at the table before I got there, and continued to hold court once i sat down. About the same time i sat down, he turned to me and said ' how much do you weight? ' 
Um what? I stammered.
Your weight, how much?
Uh, I dont know, I dont really weight myself.
Ahh common you gotta know abouts, how much is it?
Why?
Well i got a bet going with this guy here that I only out weigh you by 15 pounds, so about how much do you weigh?
Inside my head: WTF!!! Be polite, beeeeee polite....
Well the last time i weighted myself I was around 290, but I would say 290-300, somewhere in there.
Oh, okay, thanks.
I can feel my wife, who is sitting beside me, shrink, because she knows how weird this exchange is and how off I now am because of it.
Well, I say, did you win the bet?
No, I had you way heavier then that.
Head: WHAT!!! You DICK!
Oh. Okay.
He then launches into about an hour and a half one sided trivia battle with himself on the greatest sitcom ever......Three's Company.
Now I enjoyed Three's Company in my day, i am sure 3 of the 7 of you reading this have no idea there was even a show called Three's Company, but it was a typical 70's sit com. It did showcase John Ritter, god rest his soul, who was a great comedic actor, and was very skilled at improv and physical comedy, and also the great Don Knotts. So i do know of the show, i remember it being one of the only shows on CBC that I actually liked.
So i liked the show. This dude loved it.
Now i can appreciate memorizing lines from shows that you felt a connection to, or knowing some trivia about that show.
But when you ask a trivia type question dont answer it yourself before the person you are asking even has a chance to think about the question. Hour and a Half.
Our host tried to change the subject to movies.
Well you know who was in movies, many of the actors from Three's Company. Hour and a Half. 
My wife tried to change the subject to sports.
Well remember the episode about the football game. Hour and a Half.
I must have noded, smiled, uh-huhed, and no reallied, myself enough to my wife's sick pleasure that she finally pulled the shoot and we left.
Again, this is nothing against this man, his love for this show and knowledge about it was staggering, but wow that was alot.
The worst is that if you like he are a Three's Company trivia master, and are thinking wow now Sean knows alot about Three's Company and we can chat about it, sorry to disappoint you, the whole time we was talking I was thinking about all the different scotches I have yet to try and formulated a priority list in my head.
#nonactivelistener
Sean " BigBoyRunning" Ryan