Deadlift Personal Record

This morning I did 165#, then 175#, and finally stopped at 180# - looks almost too easy when you're at the top of the lift (getting it up there was the hard part).



















Just for comparison:



This is my first attempt at a 1 RM Deadlift, back in Jun last year. Got to 155# and yelling with the effort.



Afterwards we did handstands - mine lasted 1 min 28 seconds.

Started Spring Cleaning

BEFORE (it was worse if you saw the other side, but I forgot to take a picture before we started sweeping out the cobwebs and dead leaves).











AFTER (still have to go through those boxes but we've already overburdened the trashmen with the first load this week).

Birthday Presents to Ourselves

Both of us had cars that were running but getting older. Ray's was 8 years, 75K and a few rattles in the dash. We knew that a major mechanical treatment was coming due. Mine was new in 2000, had about 73K, and was running smooth (but I had already done a major overhaul last year). We'd heard that the end of the year was a good time for car shopping. And we had both decided to go "green". It was time to move up to a mid-sized vehicle and preferably hybrid.

Ray did lots of research while I was in Washington. He was ready for test drives. On Christmas Eve we visited Ford, Toyota and Mercury. Armed with dealer invoice intel from Consumer Reports we returned to both Ford & Mercury looking for our best deal.

Here's the result:



Hers & His Ford Fusion Hybrids.



I got the silver grey (charcol interior). Loving all the bells & whistles - although we still need to watch the training demo on the dashboard.

Now I'm looking for a good charity to donate the Saturn (hopefully an organization that will actually use the vehicle, not sell it).