The best laid plans...

1/30/10 Six VHS movies and a water-proof mattress cover, given away

Here's my excuse: my birthday present to myself was to take a day off from blogging. Either that, or the champagne went to my head.

January 30th was my birthday. Early in the day, we had a visit from my sister and nephew, and then Joanna's sister arrived in the evening for an overnight visit. Amanda's the one who brought the champagne, which is a dangerous thing for a sleep-deprived new dad who hasn't had a drop to drink in two and a half weeks.

This morning, at 4:15AM, I got up to change Chase's diaper. As he enjoyed an early-morning meal, I picked up the ol' iPhone -- Hey, Dear Readers, no hard feelings, but my birthday came and went with no word of my new iPad. Didn't we have a deal? -- and saw a comment on Friday's blog from loyal reader CRM asking why there was no birthday post.

Just a gaping silence on the blog for Saturday, January 30, 2010.

What?!? No birthday post? No update on January 30th?!?

Wait, how could that be? I did a DOUBLE downsize on my birthday: six movies that Katie selected from our VHS collection and a water-proof bed cover (which proved unnecessary for us since Joanna's water broke in the hospital) for my potty-training nephew. I downsized, I downsized, I downsized! Didn't I write about it?

When I began the Downsizing Challenge I never intended to post an update every day. In fact, the day before the challenge began, I wrote that I'd shoot for commenting on the blog about once a week.

But, once I got started, the blogging became a routine, and the routine became a necessity. With my iPhone I had no excuses, and managed to post every day, without fail, even from the woods, hotel rooms, even the hospital. Heck, I didn't even let the birth of my son get in the way. Writing about the downsize became just as important as actually getting rid of something each day.

And then, half of a bottle of champagne does me in. Pass the aspirin.

In my defense, this doesn't taint the Downsize Challenge at all. I did downsize yesterday, I just waited five hours too long to write about it.

And here's a little serendipitous twist: as I write this, at 4:30AM on January 31, it is exactly the half-way point of the year. One hundred eighty-two days of Downsizing behind me, one hundred eighty-two days of Downsizing ahead of me.

And this day, the day smack in the middle, will be the ONE DAY that has two posts, to make up for yesterday's oversight.

At least until I get into that beer Amanda brought and forget to write again...