What just happened to 2013?

It's Dec. 31st, 3 p.m. 2014 is only nine hours away. Where did the year go?

Evey at her 1st grade recital, back in... October?

I look at the blog... just the number of posts. This will be post # 101 on the year. My second-worst effort since starting the blog in 2007. Last year I blogged here 94 times. At least I did a little better, I suppose.

2013 was good, but at the same time it was too damn busy. I'm going to try to settle down some in 2014. Work got the best of me in '13... I took 25 business trips on the year. The magazine had a great year, our numbers were up across the board... but I missed too much of my family this year. I aged myself too much this year. Ate too many bad meals in airports. Drank too many microbrews in foreign cities. I've gone almost completely gray this year. Poor Boydee, he'll never remember his dad having one strand of dark hair.

We took family photos on Saturday. They took a photo of just Adrianne and I together. We knew we wouldn't buy it — we're there for photos of the kids. But they took it and showed it to us on their big flat screen. My response was, "Wow... no one wants a photo of Adro and her dad!" I easily looked 20 years older than Adrianne in the photo, maybe more. I was shocked, actually. I felt bad for my wife. As we get older, people are going to think she married this old guy for his money... then realize he has no money!

(A quick aside — I'm thankful my wife is so attractive and young looking. But it makes my premature gray look even more shocking. But mostly... I'm thankful my wife is so attractive and young looking!)

So what I'm saying is, sorry the blog sucked again this year. I know there are only a handful of people who read it, but more than anything it's a record of my family, for my family. I go back and read stuff and realize I've already forgotten things that happened only two, three years ago. That's why I like blogging abut the family so much.

You can tell my posting dropped off when I took my new job. Well, good news, I was able to hire two new staffers who are going to help me out a lot. But it's still a skeleton crew. I used to blog at nights when the kids were asleep. I'd grab a beer, and post a photo or two, then tell a recent story.

Now, when I'm at the laptop, I feel like I can't be there for fun. It has to be work related. Write something for the magazine. Write something for the magazine's blog. Respond to email. Do an expense report. Look at a competitor's magazine and see what they're doing.

Plus, I worry about not being around the kids, and being upstairs if the kids wake up. Taking 25 business trips in a year... let's say the average trip was three days... that's 75 days away from the family, not helping Adrianne with the kids at night. So when I'm home, I stay upstairs now and try to make sure the kids are good, and Adrianne isn't stressed. I might just be sitting there watching basketball, but at least I know I'm close by.

And I think Boyd is at a unique age, too, for sleeping. His bedtime is funky. Sometimes he falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow. Other times he's up late, unable to relax. Sometimes he crashes easy, but then is up just an hour or two later.

Anyway. If I had a new year's resolution... and maybe I'll come up with some by midnight... it would be to travel less, and work smarter, not harder.

And thanks to Adrianne for never sweating me while I was flying all over the world this year. Babe, January is going to be bad... three trips I think. But hopefully once the GIS comes and passes, I can get it down to one trip a month...

***

Jess and I took Mom home on Sunday. She's out of Sweet Life in Shawnee and now back in her own home. She had a knee replacement surgery six weeks ago. And if you talk to her, she won't let you forget that she also had her other knee operated on at the same time — that one to repair her meniscus.

I am worried about her. At Sweet Life she had people there to help her, to make her food, to monitor her recovery. Now she's on her own, with the occasional visit from a nurse.

When we left Mom's house, I didn't want to leave Mom there. It doesn't feel safe or smart. But I don't see an alternative outside of kidnapping her, selling most of her stuff, and then buying her a 2-bedroom townhome in DeSoto. Pulling off a blindfold and saying, "Sorry, that was me. But here's your new home!"

I think Mom will eventually cherish the surgery she had to repair her knee. I think it was a wise decision, and frankly, her only choice. It'll take some time for her to get to feeling better... but I bet my springtime she's happy she did it.

Until then, yeah, it's going to be a tough road for my mom to get to feeling good about her knees.

***

Hit the KU/Toledo game last night. Judy's friend, Penny, won tickets at a church raffle, and I scored some of them.

The seats? Let me tell you about the seats... six rows behind the KU bench! Dexter McCluster (Kansas City Chiefs) was sitting two rows in front of me, and Aaron Miles, Jeff Graves and Travis Releford were all sitting four and five rows in front of me. Bill Self was so close I heard him yell "Pull your head out!" to Naadir Tharpe. I took some photos, I'll try to post them eventually.

So thanks again to Penny, who set me up with those KU football tickets (the game we won, that I took Evey to) and last night's game against Toledo.

***

We had our end-of-season fantasy football party on Saturday at Rick's. We drank like we were young again! Good crew, too — Neuty, Stark, Dave, Gaus, Hendren and I were all there.

It's always good to catch up with Starky. We lived together for two years, and they were memorable times... we both met our wives at about the same time. It's fun to reminisce and recall some of the dumb things we did.

I woke up with a level three hangover the next morning... just in time to drive the truck to Mulvane. That was a brutal drive, let me tell you! I still don't know how much I feel like drinking for New Year's tonight!

***

Boyd got a basketball goal from Jess and Mark for Christmas. He loves that thing. But what's weird is he's super possessive of it. "Dad, it's mine!" he keeps telling me. He doesn't really want other people shooting on it.

But he still shoots a pretty good percentage from the floor.

Ball hog.

***

Evey's got her first rec league basketball game on Saturday. We're gonna get killed. These kids can barely catch or dribble. We work on dribbling every practice, and I stress to them they have to take care of the rock. But once they start scrimmaging, it's a free for all.

It'll be interesting to see how the game goes. I've already got in my mind to keep expectations low, and to just try to encourage the kids. We'll see how long that lasts, and how many Ts I get on the season.

Evey told me she prefers soccer, because you can just run around and chase the ball. "In basketball," she tells me, "there are so many rules you keep telling us about... and I've already forgot them all!"

Yup, it's going to be interesting.

***

Happy New Year! If you'd like to read my year-end column in Golfdom where I write about my best and worst moments of the year, click here. It's on page 6, and includes a fun Arnold Palmer story.