Daniel J Isom

August always flies by because the school year is about to begin and we spent another week in North Carolina for the second straight summer. The boys and I played a 18 hole disc golf course while in NC. It was the first time we went out together and we had a blast. Of course it wasn't without some drama as they both threw a disc directly into water on one hole, thankfully we were able to retrieve them. There was a slow down on the amount of board games I played, but as you'll see in that segment that I'm still crushing it for the year. Right now I'm debating on pulling back from in person gaming some as work is about to get really busy for me. I'll probably have more to say about that in the coming months. All in all it was a good month, but I'm happy to get back into our routine this month.  Blah Blog Log Just the one post for August. July 2025 Wrap-Up  - A trip to NY, back to Rockville, MD for work, and a lot of gaming. Bored  Board Games In August, I played 2...

The school year has begun so that means we're getting back into our regular routines. September did have some highlights, include a work trip that brought me to North Dakota for a two day conference and we saw a Taylor Swift cover band called Let's Sing Taylor as a family. Other than that it was a lot of gaming for me and not much else. This month is shaping up to be a busy one between both work and having plans nearly every day each weekend. This post will be shorter than most because we didn't have time to watch anything of note and I didn't come across any fun snacks to share. Blah Blog Log August 2024 Wrap-Up  - Lots of games, an ice cream contest, and a psychological thriller/supernatural horror film that I'm still thinking about. Bored  Board Games My third most played game in 2023, Kingdom Builder , saw 11 plays on BGA last month bringing it to 17 for the year. BGA still saw a majority of my plays, but more in person gaming days meant I played a lot more wit...

  July was full of travel and family time. Time just flew by because I was only home about half of the days of the month. We went back home to Syracuse around the fourth, spent a few days at Great Wolf Lodge, and I also attended my first work travel for my new role. I had a very enjoyable time meeting my counterparts from all over the country. August will start to bring in back our normal schedule towards the end of the month, but we also still have one last big trip left before that happens.  Blah Blog Log June 2024 Wrap-Up  - A lot of gaming, one of my favorite TV shows of all time, and a strange chip flavor. Table For One  - An uncomfortable experience while on a work trip. Bored  Board Games It was another BGA heavy month, but some of those play were with friends which was nice. I also got in two in person sessions and played a couple of solo games while on a work trip. In person gaming should ramp up back to normal levels as we head into the school year. Fo...

A mandatory travel that is a part of the grant I work on has brought me to Rockville, MD for most of this week. It’s the first time I’ve done an out of state travel for work and will be the longest I’ve been away from Christine and the kids. In fact, it’ll be the longest Christine and I have been away from one another in the almost twenty years of being together. I mention that because I’m so used to seeing her looking back at me from the other side of the table when we go out to eat. Sure, I’ve eaten in food courts or at a fast food or fast casual restaurant by myself. However, I can only remember one other time that I was at a full-service restaurant alone and I sat at the counter of a small diner. That brings me to tonight and my quest to find some dinner. Having enjoyed tacos last night while out with my brother, I almost went back to Taco Bamba because they were so good and not far from the hotel. It was an odd day at our conference today that ended with many going home or back...

It's the end of the year and time for an update on how well I did on my two (actually 6) goals. Goal #1: Improve Overall Health I think I did everything I could to try and not get this one done in the second half of the year. Well, I did try and was successful with two out of the three, but the first one was really my main goal and I couldn't stay focused on making it happen. Get Below 25% Body Fat From our trip in July through Christmas, exercise was sporadic at best as were my eating habits. I got back on the wagon at the end of December and have made a very dedicated effort with calorie tracking while fitting in some exercise and I was able to get down to 26.9% for the year. Obviously I didn't get to my goal, but having pizza making as my other main goal didn't do me any favors. For next year, I'm focusing on this single year long goal. Average Sleep Score Above 85 I know what I need to do to get a consistent sleep score above 85 for a given month. The question i...

   We're halfway through the year and I'm doing pretty well with these goals. I could definitely be doing a lot better with some of them, but I'm not stressing about it too much. It's been a much more relaxed year so far, goals wise, as I'm not feeling overwhelmed with just too much to try and complete before the end of the year. Goal #1: Improve Overall Health Of the two main goals, this is the one that I could be doing better with for sure. Seeing some improvements across the board, but need to be more disciplined if I'm going to get there. Get Below 25% Body Fat I'm getting pretty close to completing this one, currently sitting under 27% according to my new home scale. My Amazon Halo body scan has me a bit higher, but being diligent with calorie and macros tracking, I'm down from the beginning of the year. Finding "healthier" snacks has helped with this goal a lot. However, I need to cut back on snacking from our overloaded pantry of goodies...

It's been almost 3 months to the day since my last post and I though I'd take a few minutes to just start typing and see what happens. I've not really had anything super specific to write about and even when I would have something that I thought could warrant a post, I ended up just not feeling like taking the time to do it. Part of it is me focusing on my goals for 2022 , which are going fairly well, but that's a post for another time. However, it's the apathy that concerns me. Even writing this is feeling like a bit of a chore, but forcing myself to do it might make me want to do it more. I don't always feel like exercising and have gone through stints where I do more or less, but I feel physically and mentally better when I'm being disciplined and doing it regularly. So I'm hoping I can do that with blogging again. Taking a few months off has happened before, only now it's starting to weigh on my mind so I know I need to get back to it. I planned ...

  I bit off a bit more than I could chew in 2021, but did still had some great successes across the six goals I set for myself. For 2022, I'm scaling back and focusing on just two goals in 2022 because they're more involved and important to my health and happiness. There are some other personal and hobby things that I want to put more time towards, but don't want to set goals for them. Not having specific goals for those eliminates the obligation to get them done. After the last two years, I want to make 2022 a little less stressful. That being said, each of my 2022 goals have multiple objectives within them that need to be completed in order to meet the overall goal. Goal #1: Improve Overall Health Health comes first. I've written often about my health and have set all sorts of health related goals over the years. The thing that turned everything around for me was making exercise and healthier eating a part of my daily routine. That doesn't mean I always eat clean...

This is going to be a long post that's personal and is probably longer than anyone cares to read. If you just want to know what the big announcement is, scroll down and read everything after the graphic. With that part out of the way, let's go back 10 years to when Christine and I first moved to Delaware. I was still searching for a job after arriving here, but had two interviews with a credit union that resulted in a formal offer. Having just left over six years of banking in NY, I was more than qualified. The position would be a bit of a step back both professionally and monetarily. I recently got the reminder about this on Facebook where I called myself a bad person for really not wanting the job. I felt I should have been thankful for the opportunity but I didn't like the work and really didn't want to keep doing it. Ultimately, I declined the offer and decided to keep looking elsewhere. Following the advice of family and friends, I took the opportunity to try out s...

Pizza is definitely one of my favorite foods and probably one of the things I've made the most. I went from cooking it on a pan to cooking it directly on a stone. I make my own dough and often make my own sauce as well. I've written about pizza a few different times on this site because it's one of the few perfect foods. This recipe was one of the ones that encouraged me to buy the book. I followed the recipe exactly the first time around and it was pretty good, but I didn't love my pictures and wanted to try the actual grilling process again. It certainly takes some practice when using dough on grill grates. For my second attempt, I was making pizza only for myself because Christine didn't love the crust the first time around.  Unlike traditional pizza cooking, the sauce and toppings get added after the crust gets cooked on one side before being flipped over off of the direct heat. Working with an oiled dough, you stretch it out to a circle or oval, carefully drop...

I was planning on making a completely different dish for dinner this week, but the preserved lemon I need is nowhere to be found in my area supermarkets. That's a story for that recipe's blog post. This salad recipe was going to be my lunches for the week, but I thought it would be a nice side to go with pizza since I was making the dough anyway. Everything about this recipe breaks the rules of a traditional Caesar salad. Sure, the romaine hearts are there, as are the anchovy, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce. However, that's when things take a turn towards the bizarre. Lemon gets replaced by red wine vinegar and hot sauce. The Parmesan cheese gets swapped out for Pecorino Romano. Egg and olive oil are replaced with Hellman's mayonnaise. That last one isn't so crazy and actually allows you to keep in longer in the fridge. Like most dressings, it's incredibly easy to make. All you do is add the ingredients to a blender and then puree until it's s...

      December followed November with 2 blog posts, no games, and lots of baking. The year as a whole went really well for blogging and baking. I was successful of doing at least two of each of those activities each month, but we didn't make it on the board game challenge. It was a bit of a risk including that one, but it's given me some perspective going forward regarding my board gaming goals. Overall, I'm happy with what I was able to accomplish in 2020. For 2021, I decided to be very aggressive and set 6 goals. You can read all about them here . For now, here is what I accomplished in the last month of 2020: 1)  Write at least 2 blog posts each month I stated that  Christmas is Canceled . Wrote a recap of the unplayed games I was able to get to the table in 2020. 2)  Complete the 10 x 2 Board Game Challenge As I stated in the intro, we didn't get anything played in December. It was part giving up and part canceling gaming with friends because of COVID....

    The new school year brought a whole new set of headaches, as we navigated virtually learning. It was an overall better month than August for blog related matters, but not by much. 1)  Write at least 2 blog posts each month Shared about Cribbage with Grandpas , a mobile game that's very important to me. Wrote a haiku when I couldn't come up with anything else to write about. 2)  Complete the 10 x 2 Board Game Challenge We got our second play of Takenoko and our first play of Legendary Encounters: The X-Files Deck Building Game in with Shawn and Kelly. That leaves us with 7 total plays left, so we'll need to play 4 games a month for the final two months of the year. It's not looking good folks. However, we do have a lot of time off because of holidays, and with no expected travel, we might just get there. Trying to keep it positive. 3)  Bake at least 2 different baked goods each month October was good month for pizza and other bread type items. Expect more sw...