There’s about an hour left of the year. Outside the laughter of children and the explosions of what I can only assume is the beginning stages of nuclear war. We shall see who survives to laugh the morrow!

Had a nice dinner with the family. They had pork, I had rice porridge. Oh the joys of vegetarianism! Haha. It was good, though. And I guess I should pat myself on the back for staying strong. Mostly. Also, I’m glad I seem to have made it through christmas and new years without being mugged or burglarized. Assuming those kids are laughing at the fireworks, not at their plans to break down my door…

As is tradition, I shall now copy/paste my Facebook post about 2013. I don’t think I have much to add, other than HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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It’s been quite a year. I have had some big ups and some big downs. I guess I’ll start with the bad first. Losing two goat friends. Bob and Tiny. Both very tragic. Bob, my special boy. Son of Magnethe who we lost last year. The last of the bloodline from when I started going to the playground. He meant so much to me. And having him torn away so suddenly and violently without warning was very hard to accept. No goodbyes. Just guilt and pain. And then Tiny. I didn’t get to know him very well of course. We didn’t get really close, we didn’t have the time. But it’s always sad when babies die. And the way it happened. Holding him in my arms as he passed. After trying mouth-to-mouth and everything. It was pretty traumatic.

The constant pain of it has passed but it still stabs whenever I think of them. It would be impossible to say this has been a good year with the loss of them in mind.

But there have been good things. Very good things. From the goat front, of course, there’s Palle. The little wonderboy. The way he came, as such a surprise. One day I had Mia standing on my back, literally two days later she was a mother. And we were so worried because she was so young and Palle was so little. But she turned out to be a great mother and Palle turned out to be a strong and happy, little guy. So curious and trusting and just perfectly goat. I’m so happy we got to keep him. There was Large and Medium too, of course. Or Bob and Lucy as they are now called. It was sad having to say goodbye to them too. But knowing they live on in a good place makes it so much easier. And we had a lot of fun together. As I had fun with the other goats. Mia, of course. I’m closer to her than ever. Maybe the closest I’ve even been with a goat. She is amazing and my love for her knows no bounds. And her Facebook page has brought me much happiness too. Got me in contact with nice people and given me chances to talk about her, with people from the playground too. It’s been a really good thing. And her mama Mio. The ferocious cuddlebug. While the other goats usually come looking for treats, Mio just walks over and stands against me. Waiting to be cuddled. And she can seemingly enjoy being scratched and stroked forever. She never seems to get tired of it. I’ve gotten a lot closer with Kamel too. It took a while to get that connection because she was pretty shy at first and stayed mostly away from the others. But working with her I think has helped her confidence. Just having her come asking for treats or “shaking hands” to get her hooves scratched is very sweet. She’s such a calm and sweet thing, impossible not to love. Yup. They all make me very happy and I feel lucky that I have them to spend time with. My four rays of sunshine when skies are grey.

On the home front, this summer was pretty great. Hard, hard work on the exercise bike. Along with strict diet and vegetarianism. It might not sound like fun, but it was. And it paid off. With the loss of some 40 pounds and the reversal of diabetes. I am proud of it. It felt great. I never thought I’d be able to get quite so far. I am less proud of the unhealthy holiday season I’m having! But I have big plans for next summer. I will get slimmer than ever and I am quite confident that I can do it. It will be hard and good and I’m looking forward to it. Once the sun comes back in full force, I will get back to kicking ass.

It’s been a pretty mild winter. Only one weekend of snow so far. Rarely below zero temperatures. But it’s still super cold for me with my bad circulation. I am thankful for my space heater. It’s a heatmax model and I have named it Heatmax ‘Max’ Huxtable. Because that’s how I roll. The heatmax, the crosstrainer and the tomatoes. Three of the great things I have found this year. I don’t know how I ever did without them.

I have found some really nice people on Facebook too. Many of them through Mia’s page. I am still a little, lonely boy inside. But it gets better and better. And I am thankful for the friends I have and the support I get. From friends and family. From the people at the playground. Bodil and her dog Sif. I am lucky in many ways. I hope 2014 will be good. For everyone I know. For me I’d like it to be a lot like 2013, just without the goat tragedies. If I could have that then I would have a lot. I know 2013 wasn’t good for some of my friends, thoug. I hope things will get better for them. Without suffering there can be no happy ending. I hope we will all get our happy endings, and that they will be long and drawn out. The happy end is the beginning is the happy end.
Now why dont I shut up!

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See you next year, folks!

It’s been a good week. Christmas and all that, don’t you know.

We had a sunny day the day before christmas. That was quite lovely. Bodil came by and we exchanged presents. She got me sugarfree bonbons (and a really sweet card where she thanked me for the time we spend together and my videos). I got Sif some sugarfree doggy chocolate. The stuff I ordered for myself thinking it was human chocolate, haha. Bodil told me that she had stayed up till 5.am the night before looking at my youtube videos. She got her computer working again. She loved the video of Palle’s first trip in the snow. And the bit in another video where Sif came running to the camera. I’m glad she enjoys my videos so much. I enjoy making them.

On christmas eve I swung by the playground. Used my key to get in and say hi to the goats. Gave them some festive fruits. Made sure to give a pear to Kamel. There were some ladies who stopped by the day before with some old, ripe pears. And Kamel really loved them. So much that she didn’t back down even when Mio came over to hog the food. Kamel wanted all the pears for herself. Normally she’s a very dainty eater. Like she can barely open her mouth completely. Sometimes you practically have to shove the food in her mouth! But the pears she loved. And the goats all enjoyed their little feast. And then I went on to my parents’ place. We had uncle Jens and his lady friend Anny visiting. It was the first christmas in my parents’ new apartment. And I have to admit it’s a little small for 6 people. But it was fine. I spent a lot of time at the computer fixing stuff and making backups. Then we had our traditional christmas roast. And I ate meat for the first time in 6 months. I was curious whether I’d get sick or feel bad about it. But no. I just enjoyed it. I don’t want to back out of the vegetarianism. But I did enjoy it. Yum.

Then we had the risalamande dessert. My brother and I both got the almond prize. There was only supposed to be one almond in the pudding. But since my dad had actually bought two prizes, you have to suspect that they put two almonds in on purpose. Even though he vehemently denied it. I ended up giving my prize to my brother anyway, since they were both DVDs that I weren’t really too interested in. Typical, the one year I don’t have diabetes they decided to not get a chocolate/marzipan prize! Haha. It was a good time, though. Good people, good food. A little old traditional, quiet christmas. Just how I like it.

I made a christmas video. Like the two from previous years. Again, nothing special. But just a little look at our christmas.

I enjoyed it. Uncle Jens drove me home, so no surly taxi drivers this year either. Couldn’t have planned it better.

Wednesday and Thursday was spent doing nothing. I think it’s the first time in years I’ve had two consecutive days without either visiting the goats or exercising. I have had an unhealthy christmas and am planning to have an unhealthy new years. I will need to work hard to get back in shape. Got back on the bike today and it wasn’t easy. But so it goes. Summer will be big for weight loss. This things I believe.

Now, for your christmas present here is a boatload of pictures.

Jolly me! I got a santa hat and was planning to take christmas pictures of the goats. But Mia was afraid of the hat at first! Even raisins couldn’t persuade her to come over. So I thought to myself I thought “okay, if I can’t get a picture of Mia wearing the hat then I guess I’ll have to make do with one of myself!”. Haha. I thought it would be funny to put it on over the cap. And people on Facebook seemed to like it. And then a little later on…

I did get Mia to wear it.

I actually put it on Palle first. Which made Mia scared of Palle. Just a little. You can see that in the video below. Aww. But when she realised that it was just good, old Palle and the hat wasn’t dangerous it was all good.

Mio my Mio, and me.

I can still lift Palle. Getting heavy, though.

Getting attacked by goats from both sides. It was supposed to be a selfie, like the one of Obama and Cameron and our Danish prime minister Helle Thorning. Did you see that? I can’t believe it made the front pages all over the world. Haha. Silly. I don’t think it was too big of a deal in Denmark. Meeting an American president IS a big deal for us. You should see how our entire country stopped the couple of times we had a US president visiting… Anyway, I digress.

Christmas candles.

The goats on christmas eve, ready for their presents.

Nice shot of Kamel.

Mia on the pallet.

goaty kissies.

All four goats.

That wonderful face.

Mia and Palle.

And videos. First a video from the day I shot the santa hat pictures.

And then a goatlog from this week. Before and after christmas. Especially the running of the goats after christmas was a lot of fun. Can’t remember the last time I saw the big ladies running around like that.

And that’s all for this week, folks. See you in the next one. There will probably be a new year’s update on Tuesday. If I survive the firebombs.