Hi Shaun, always good to hear from you! Your stair-climbing regimen is impressive—sometimes when I’m doing work around the house I try to work in as many trips up and down our stairs as I can. That doesn’t come close to what you two do, but it’s better than nothing! There’s also a nice hill just down the road; MAL and I take a morning walk up it (the round trip is maybe around 1 mile) on the weekends.

Some people want to tone up, without adding more muscle mass. Callanetics is supposed to be good at giving muscles deep exercise without adding bulk to them. It also is inexpensive compared to a lot of other formal programs—one just needs a book or vid to see how to do the exercises. I am aiming for both toning and adding some muscle mass; so far I have just handheld weights that I use regularly.

And now for something decidedly less health-oriented: A week or so ago I was wanting to try something different in a beer ... I saw a bottle labeled “Newcastle Brown Ale”; I thought of you, and that sealed the deal. It was a good beer.