What's This Growing Out of My Nose???

33 days marks not only the end of the year but I will be 35 years and 1 day old. I took a good hard look at myself in the mirror this morning and reflected about the last 332 days. I thought about what my accomplishments were and what things I really was hoping osmosis would take care of but, as always, didn't. Or, as my dad so eloquently put it, "Shit in one hand, wish in the other and tell me which one fills up faster."

I also took a look at my body. Starting at the top of my head I noticed my fair hair getting even thinner - thanks paternal side of the family! , I am having to color my hair more frequently than ever to cover up the now probably 65% gray -I don't know if that's an accurate number but I will never not color my hair now to find out. My eyes move down to my forehead - now I may be "almost" 35 but my skin still thinks it's a teenager in the throws of puberty, down to my eyebrows - starting to thin out as well, though not in a shapely fashion with some wild squirelly eyebrow hairs making their way to forming a unibrow. I am now staring at my own eyes - the eyelids are starting to sag and a few teeny crow's feet are branching out. I am now looking at my nose - I have to say, I've always liked my nose but what's this?! This is something new. It's a big black hair curling around and out of my nostril making it's way out into the world! I screamed and reached for the tweezers. I told that black barb "Hasta La Vista, Baby!" only to realize that I had a battle on my hands as this hair had many friends and they were all not going down without a fight. I finally overcame but was in tears and a sneezing fit.

I had to postpone my reflection for another day when I can resume my self- examination of what my body has turned into after 35 years of living. I wish that Doctor 90210 was actually Doctor 83843 so I could get myself a complete overhaul. Oh well, shit in one hand..........

A Time to Be Thankful

I am writing this from the dining room of my brother's house in Boise. We are warm and snuggly, watching a movie and our bellies are full. It's hard not to think of those less fortunate than us, especially during this most wonderful time of the year. While I think of those who are suffering from loss, illness, lack of food and shelter, and lack of money I still can't help but be whiny when my brother serves me regular Coke and not Diet Coke.

So even though we are thankful for the clothes on our back and the food in our tummy. Thankful for family and friends and the usual things to be thankful and grateful for, we thought we'd share some very "superficial" things we are thankful for this year.

Nate - kahlua and cream, sleeping in, microbrew, watching good looking women on TV especially those with big boobs

Josie - Nintendo and wi-fi connections

Annabelle - Pokemon

Molly - being able to choose from over 100 restaurants in which to eat tonight, doggie boarders, egg nog

What are you thankful for? We hope your Thanksgiving weekend has been joyful.

Back It Up!

When it comes to parallel parking I would win the Olympic Gold. Backing up into our driveway, however....let's just say even the Special Olympics would reject me.

The Five Year Plan

I'm always on a five year plan. In five years we'll go to Disney World, paint our bedroom walls, get a home bar put downstairs..........and so it goes. The problem with the five year plan is that it seems time always stands still. Ask me next year when we're going to Disney World and I'll say "In five years." In fact, I have been planning on going to Disney World since 1993.

I've noticed another five year cycle for me that happened this weekend. Only this thing did happen five years ago almost to the day. I got really drunk. I wasn't praying to the toilet god or anything like I was in 2002 but there are moments of the evening I don't quite remember and the next day I was moving awfully slow.

We went to the Moscow Bears HS Booster auction and sat with some friends. I threw some (alot of) Captain Morgan down the piehole and proceeded to feel like I was the weathiest person in the room spending a good chunk of change on a trip to Bend, Oregon (actually we split this trip with some friends of ours who were feeling equally giddy and generous), an iPod and a ride on a firefighter truck - for our little three year old buddy Matthew Rembert - who loves "farfighters". All in all it was a blast (what I can recall anyway) but now we're sitting here with an empty wallet and no savings for Disney World. Oh well, we'll get there ..........in five years.

Annabelle's New Look

Annabelle lost a top tooth. Her look has totally changed now.

The Puzzle

Another hobby of mine that doesn't get much mention because I hardly ever do it is to put puzzles together. Once I get started I can usually put together a 1000 piece puzzle in a metter of days. I've done a double sided puzzle and even a puzzle that came with just a picture potion of what the thing was supposed to look like. The above puzzle, however, took me 6 weeks to produce. It doesn't look that hard and I even did the Constance Sprott method of laying every piece out on a seperate table (I usually start with the edge pieces and then pick the other ones out from the box). This particular puzzle was called 'Bits and Pieces' meaning that no two pieces were a like, didn't go staright across like other puzzles and were literally in little bits and pieces.

I purchased a table at a yard sale for our living room. I wanted a space to look out the window and drink coffee (I don't drink coffee just Pumpkin Spice Lattes). Anyway, after buying the table I told myself that the next puzzle I saw for sale I would get and it just happened to be this one. It does have a few missing pieces. Now that I've finished it it's off to our church garage sale to make someone else agonize over it. Good luck with that.