January 12 - Week 1

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Kicked off the year - 2025!

Overall:  

Well rounded week across the board.  Not ready to travel.  But here we go - off to Florida on Sunday for Consultant Forum

Takeaways from Week 1:

  • Good start to work week, I must say.  Focused, connected and moved the ball.  
  • Home front looking good - lot of items to attend to - and the ball is moving along many fronts except basement
  • Good that Mini is focusing on her health
  • Rahul is transitioning to a new department (WM) and is studying for his CFA level 1 and signing up for music.  Belongs to a run club too.
  • Music - glad I am sticking with it
  • LLM - what a discovery
  • Skiing - I MUST listen to my own counsel.  North Lynx adventure
  • Not listening to news for the past two months has been OUTSTANDING - truly game changing
  • Travel is about to go bonkers!
Behavioral Takeaways
  1. Move the ball on priorities
  2. Is it possible to be empathetic, but also circumspect?
  3. Communicate, but stay professional
  4. Informal, but intentional
  5. Stay focused on big picture

NOTES:

Work:

  • Got annual reviews done for directs.  Comp next week.  
  • Glad to have major studies in motion.
  • Shared top priorities with Micky and peers.
  • Excellent use of LLM for talking points, research and summaries (really good!)
  • Nice post in NYT on PFIN
  • Research:
    • Elder Fraud Study
    • Trends in Higher Education Study
    • Future of Advice Study
  • Programs
    • Hesburgh
    • Samuelson
  • Communications
    • Newsletter
  • Mini had a nice demo with her division head Joe.

Home:

  • Winter tires - need to move up by one month next year (too much scrambling)
  • Got quotes from Landscaper
  • Got new tax preparer reference and set up meeting
  • Got a nice download from Eric - meeting in Feb to allocate funds to DAF etc
  • Sent tenant notice about vacating end of March (great job by Mini)
  • Had Gerry look at heating system
  • Back in the spot where Feb comp is going to right the ship (need a better approach next year!)
  • Basement project is stuck in a loop - need to move the ball!

Health & Fitness

  • Got Blue Apron going!  Not bad
  • Bought Indian sweets.. bad!
  • Very little exercise ...
  • Rotated vitamins + regular B12
  • Was able to postpone annual physical
  • Need to schedule colonoscopy
  • Breaks in sleep are an issue - and am being quite careless about not wearing the sleeping mask
  • On the good side - got the replacement masks and so on - whew!
  • Mini got facial skin attended to
  • I am going try and go to Lenox to Canyon Ranch this year (3 years later after Tuscon!) - even if it is for a truly shorter stay

Music:

  • Salon at Brookline Music School - showcased Hava Nagila from Faber Adult Piano Book 2.  Went Well - First Teacher ,Greg was pleased.  I crammed practice the day off!  
  • During final class of first term of 4th year, we agreed that next term I will focus on Pachelbel Canon from Faber Book 2 (we will see if I can sustain interest in learning one piece an entire term!)
Writing etc:
  • Ava story
  • Jugal-Double-Bandi
  • Aval Oru Navarasa Nadagam song karaoke

Social

  • Saw movie with the Kirschners - Complete Unknown - Bob Dylan
  • Played Wine game with Uday
  • Shared LLM creativity with PSG group - Ava, and Jugal-Double-Bandi

Sports 

  • Skiing in Vermont - COLD - continued misadventures and not being cautious (North Lynx adventure)
  • Paid Deposit on Golf Trip in June
  • Rahul is going Skiing this weekend with Andrea
Travel Plans
  • Iceland?
  • New Orleans?
  • DC Wedding?
  • Milwaukee
  • Salt Lake City
  • Manchester

Entertainment

  • Finished James Book - have a 3 part criticism
  • Discovered Carol Burnett Show!
  • NFL Playoffs
  • Subscribed to the Economist
  • Watched an insane number of movies including
    • Red Eye
    • Safe House
    • Breakdown
    • Whole Nine Yards
    • Last Boy Scout
    • Mufasa
    • Complete Unknown


Picture of the week:  This blog!  :-)

Tending To The Vine

Hope this exercise proves to be sustainable and useful!

We shall see . . .




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