Daniel J Isom

May was over in the blink of an eye, fueled by a very busy work schedule and the kids having a lot of year end events at school. It seemed like we had something going on almost every night and weekend day throughout the month. Two birthdays (Grace and Christine) and Mother's Day, had us out and about doing some really fun things like going to the Philadelphia Zoo, a cat cafe, and a trip to the movies. Ben and Grace had performances for chorus, band, a drama club play, and Spanish Immersion Night. I also participated in a guy's weekend with three of my friends at a Castle House in the Poconos . Aside from that, I played a lot of games both online and in person while continuing to read issues of Simplicity Magazine for my New Year's Resolution. I'm very much looking forward to the end of the school year and all of the travel plans we have this summer. Blah Blog Log Just the single wrap-up post in May, but I hope to have at least one additional post this month. April 2025 ...

  March felt really busy even though we didn't have any trips or big plans, just a lot of busy weekends and the normal weekly grinds as we head into spring. We got to see Grace and Ben perform at I Love School District Day during mini concerts in band and chorus, respectively. As the weather got better we were able to spend more time outside and yard work has already begun. I also worked towards reorganizing the garage to be able to use my exercise equipment again. It tends to get trapped by random stuff and gifts during the run up to Christmas. My 40th birthday is in just a few days, so I need to really get back into better habits. Blah Blog Log Only a single post in March, which happened to be the wrap up post for February. January 2025 Wrap-Up  - Sourdough discard crackers, a new gaming record, and a show about a nuclear meltdown. Bored  Board Games Another amazing month of gaming that saw 175 plays across 27 games with 57 of the plays being The Guild of Merchant Explo...

As I enter my final year of my 30s, it feels like a good time to reflect a bit. I wrote a similar, yet incredibly long winded, post entitled  Turning 32  back when I turned...32. I don't think this will be nearly as wordy, but it's a stream of consciousness type post so we'll see. Unlike 32, I've started to feel my age. So if you were to ask me the question "Do you feel older?" today, the answer would certainly be yes. It's not a bad thing, it's not that I feel like my body is breaking down or that I see the world in some significantly different ways. My life has just transitioned so much since that last post, especially in the past 2 years or so.  Going back a few years, I'm so thankful for my weight loss journey and being able to mostly keep the weight off since. Had I not done it in the first place then I think mornings would be harder, but I still feel pretty good when I get up. I've been in maintenance mode since the end of COVID and have ...

The year is over and this is a snap shot of the busiest month of the year across the board. Blah Blog Log December was a very busy gaming month and the posts reflected that. Here's what you may have missed. November 2023 Wrap-Up  - The second wrap-up post of the series. Top 10 New to Me Games of 2023  - These were my favorite new to me games in 2023. Deep Dive December 2023: Scythe - A summary of a solo board game challenge Bored  Board Games Despite only having three in person meetups, I did more gaming in December than any other month thanks to  Board Game Arena . These are a couple of games I'd like to highlight: Sea Salt & Paper  - I played this after writing my  Top 10 New to Me Games of 2023  post and this would have slotted in close to the top 5 had I played it before. I've played about a dozen games on BGA of this really smart hand management and set collection game. The hook of the game is how the scoring happens and how players can deci...

The year is almost over, which means I've always got a lot of going on due to the holidays. I thought this month's post might not be as long, but I think it's actually longer than the first one. I'm going to try to keep them from getting out of control, but I added a new segment that will likely stick around and have more ideas for others. Any feedback you have would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy! Blah Blog Log November was a fairly busy month on the blog. Here are the links to each post, if you haven't already read them: Solotober 2023  - I covered my participation in the solo gaming challenge known as Solotober. October Wrap-Up  - The inaugural monthly wrap-up post that is formatted similarly to this one. The House On The Hill - Reading, PA - A great getaway spot that Christine and I stayed in for a couple nights. Bored  Board Games November was a tough month to meet in person because of the holiday, but I still found a way to get a lot of additional plays in tha...

This is the first monthly wrap-up post in what will hopefully be a great series of posts that I keep going for years to come. October was an incredibly busy month, so there is quite a bit to cover. I'm sure there will be months where I'll have less, but that'll be a good opportunity to try out a new segment or share something different. If you have any suggestions, comments, or questions regarding what I'm covering, please leave a comment at the bottom of the post. I'd really like to start interacting more with my readers here. If you came here from social media, you can always interact there as well. With that, here's what was going on in October: Blah Blog Log I thought the name of this segment was funny when said out loud. My assumption is that you just said it out loud as well and found it as comical as I did. If you didn't then you probably weren't an Arrested Development fan. Anywho...here are links to the posts on the blog for October if you haven...

I make a point to say "Hello", "Good Morning", or at least "Morning", as I walk down the hall at work to get more water or grab something from the copier. Inevitably that leads to the question "How are you?". One that I'm sure we're all tired of answering or even asking for that matter. "Oh, I'm fabulous," I answer with a smile in a somewhat sarcastic tone. That normally gets a bit of a laugh as we go our separate ways. It's the throwaway interactions like this that I've grown so tired of.  If you know me, I can be a bit of a talker...okay, I'll talk all day until you stop me. I'll even tell my whole life story with weeks of meeting you. Since I'm quite open about all aspects of my life, I'll eventually get to the bad parts if I think you're down to listen. But that's the thing, I have a very good sense of who I can share things with, so almost nobody knows how I truly am from day to day. I do...

The beach, a quiet nook of a bookstore, snuggled up in bed, fishing on the water; the list of peoples' happy places is infinite. It doesn't necessarily have to be a specific place or activity, it could even be a memory or an imaginary space one makes up. You can even have multiple happy places, anything that helps you recharge or reconnect with yourself. Finding and spending time in your happy place lowers stress levels and boosts our sense of well-being. Sometimes it can do the complete opposite, if things don't go as expected, but in general it's something you should search out if you don't already know what works for you. I've always known that the kitchen is where I'm at my happiest. I'm in there everyday preparing food at least once a day, but that doesn't mean I'm in my happy place daily. Sometimes it's really stressful because I'm normally making two, three, or even five different plates of food and timing them all can be difficult...

Another year has arrived which means it's time to set some more goals. After a fairly successful year across the six smaller goals that made up the two main goals, I flip flopped on how exactly I wanted to handle this year. Having two main goals that were somewhat opposed created some issues so I need to avoid that this year. Focusing on one year long goal feels like a better idea, which will offer the greatest chance for success. There is a Chinese proverb that goes “If you chase two rabbits, both will escape." It couldn't be more true in my experiences. While I've had a lot of success in some goals, I cannot have the same amount across all of them. As I thought about what things were most important for me to improve on, I realized that I didn't need to make them goals for the year to make sure I did them. A prime example are the three board gaming challenges I did in September, October, and December. I wanted more board gaming in my life so I found a way to make ...