Verily am I thankful

Vacation Things for which I am thankful:
Air travel
Cincinnati Chili
Southern Foods (shrimp & grits, Chick-Fil-A)
The Stuart Family
The Pappas Family
The Sketches
The Griffins
Grandparents
Wilmington
Interstate travel
Phone calls to family on holidays
Ole Miss football (even when they are lame)
Carolina basketball (ditto)
Unseasonably warm temperatures
Brothers / sisters
Sleep
Happy hour beer prices















Things for which I am less than thankful:
Checked baggage fees
Limited vacation
I-40 Construction

Egg (on my face) Bowl.

This is me, watching Ole Miss do nothing except for lose.

If anything changes, I'll update this. But for now, with 6:16 left in the 3rd (and another 3rd we can't convert), we're looking rough. Much like me.

Sister sister.

Saturday started off with book club at our place. We usually meet on weekdays, but we thought a weekend meeting with brunch would be fun since we don't meet up in December due to the holidays. Since my place is a bit of a trek from town, I volunteered to host it. I made apple pecan muffins, chocolate chip croissants and lemon cakes. Some of the other girls brought amazing quiche and other baked goodies. Yum!

Later that afternoon, while Micah was watching an ill-fated Ole Miss football game, Caroline (sister) and her boyfriend, Lathan, arrived. They were up in Boston for the weekend visiting sisters - his and me. They hung out with his sister, a doc at Boston Children's, the night before and then came out to our place for Saturday. It was a super-nice day, we're talking unseasonable 60s, so we decided to head out to Concord and wander the Minute Man National Park and visit the North Bridge - drink in the sunshine and autumn leaves. Give the city-ites some fresh air.









After that we headed home and relaxed, cooked some chili and played some games - dominoes and Rumikub. Fun, relaxing times. Good to see Caroline and Lathan.

Playgerism.

I'm just going to throw this out to the opinions of the blogosphere.

My lovely friends, Zach and Shelly, of Florida, have started a blog. And they are beautiful people and super creative and witty and the like.

So, I shouldn't get all chapped that their header is dang close to ours. And is seasonally appropriate. And uses a similar memo dog ear thing.

They are creative and could come up with a far cooler header than my own. But, the question must be asked:

Should I feel flattered? Or should I sue the pants off of them?

Comments encouraged.

Thir(s)ty.

Last night I celebrated the night of my birth, thirty years ago, with some steak and Scotch. And the love of my life.

It's amazing to think back over the past decade. Looking at that bottle of Scotch, in particular, that was casked before I was even in high school, got me to thinking.



To be fair, I think the 30s are going to be out of this world. But the 20s, oh the 20s:

Left the country for the first time. Then did it again nine other times.
Moved to three different states.
Got my first job. Bought my first car. Got rid of them both.
Spent half of it with my love.
Became a married man.
Had a mohawk. Had a ponytail.
Never gained any weight (still strong at 134).
Fell in love with another school (my wife's).
Buried my best friend.
Believed, for the first time, in Jesus.
Paid off my student loans. Erased all debt.
Lost half my retirement.
Saw the Towers fall from a business class.
Saw the market fall more than my parents ever did.
Finally got to vote blue and it matter.
Established a relationship with my father.


Here's to the next 3650 days and growing a family and whatever else the Good Lord has planned for me. I know it is going to be wild.

First of the year.

Last night was too warm for a fire, but it was too cool not to have one.

So we ate turkey meatballs and spaghetti and watched Ole Miss play and listened to the snap crackle pop of our new flatmate.