Hi there, strangers.

OK, my blogging hiatus has lasted much longer than I had intended. But since this will be both my “I’m Back” announcement, and my 200^th post, I’m thinking I should put a little thought into where I hope to go from here.

While I haven’t exactly been setting the world on fire or saving mankind, my beloved and I have finally found our way into full retirement. I’ve made at least some progress on my original goals, and telling you about what we’ve been doing should be fodder for a number of fun and interesting future posts. For example…

• We’ve settled into our retirement home (more or less… there will no doubt be a few posts on the rehabilitation of the fixer-upper we bought!)  We’ve also made our decisions on starting Social Security, pension options, and IRA distributions. Once we knew what our mortgage and healthcare costs would be, that got easier!
• Now that we are both retired and in one place (we actually had two homes going for a while), taking care of our health and diet will be easier. A recent scare has given us new focus here. That’ll be worth a post or two as well.
• 2015 will be a year when our time will be more flexible than it’s ever been before. I’m looking forward to the resulting possibilities, and sharing what we do with them!  So far, we’ve started planning a late Spring trip to the opposite coast. For the first time ever we aren’t limited by available vacation days! That should be good for a few travelogues…
• We just had our first “Soup Day” in our new house. This year, sixteen people stayed here for the weekend, cooking soups and playing games… our newly installed kitchen received a baptism by fire (not literally, but it got quite a workout!)  The upcoming holidays promise several wonderful get-togethers with friends and family, and we’ve had lots of small visits recently, too.
• I have updated my genealogy software, and my beloved and I each did a genealogy DNA test (with some interesting results.)  I’ve done quite a bit of online family research in the past month, in the hope of making some personalized Christmas gifts. I’ve also been consolidating and organizing my digital photo archives so I can more quickly add any newly scanned or taken pics as I go, and can better find what I’m looking for in my older digital files.
• I still need a new digital SLR camera, but I can’t wait to get back into my favorite photo challenges. I’ve been sporadically following a number of my favorite bloggers, but have resisted taking time to engage, for the most part. I’m ready to jump back in!

And… that’s me caught up in a nutshell. I’ll have to think about whether to continue periodic retirement challenges or whether I’ll start focusing on other things. For now, I’m just hoping to get back into a regular posting and following rhythm, looking forward to reconnecting with my old blog-buddies and maybe even finding some new ones.

So, what’s new with you?

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Credits:

• Arnold Schwarzenegger Expendables 2 Clip: Lionsgate/YouTube
• My Little Pony Power Pony Clip: HasbroStudiosShorts/YouTube