You must be living right Bruce. :)

I should go away more often.;)

Thats great - good friends comin thru when you need 'em. One of the best things life has to offer.

Finally, I figured out the VLOOKUP function in Excel. After trying too hard, I found it was quite simple. Which is ironic and annoying but that's another thread. :)

We had our Br Bright, Be Seen day today - staff and children all in bright clothes. Some of them went to an awful lot of effort, to great effect. I had my dyed-fuschia hand decorated t-shirt on, with hi-vis stickers and glitter rainbows, so I felt a real part of it. Although most people commented on the flashing strap I simply bought from the local bike shop. Ah well, no accounting for taste.

It's made me come home with a big smile on my face anyway.

I beat an A rated fencer in my pool yesterday... he won the tourney but I beat him. :) 3 hours of mountain biking today, one of the hens hatched out a single chick Friday, and the buck is enthusiastically servicing a doe as I type.

I didn't get the job in Utah for ski patrol. They claimed some bullshit about how phone interviews are difficult even though I was very qualified and it would actually technically be a step down from my past EMS leadership position. Screw them. The silver lining is that in thinking I was leaving I've been hanging out with some old friends a lot more, and it's convinced me that being around good people is more important than living somewhere pretty just for the sake of living there. So I'll be in Northeast Ohio for a little while longer, and for the first time in 10 years I'm pretty okay with that.

The kids are going back to school and jobs. The stress in this house is decreasing. Oh, and I am finally starting to clean up my study.

The hardest and most tedious thing I did today was crack open some pecans while I had a load of laundry in the washer. And I did both just because I felt like it. It was a big day full of nothing I had to do and nowhere I had to be. Simply awesome.

Make sure you tell people when you're going away next and what else needs doing around the house. :)

Nope, they have to figure out what they think needs doing. One of the guys ripped his exhaust system off on that stump so it might have been a revenge motive, but that was 6 or 8 years ago. ;)

I'm currently sitting on a patio overlooking the Pacific ocean in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and reading the Cellar. I hope everyone had a good holiday.

Bastid! Hope you are having a good time.

The Ward Forum I chaired this evening only had 15 people at it (hurrah: much easier to chair) because of the weather. And thanks to some overly enthusiastic weather warnings from the communities dept we had to bring the meeting in at under 90 minutes.

Consequently, I am now snuggled up in my house, with a fire burning and Pilau chewing happily on a new toy.* I don't have to get up especially early tomorrow: so I can have a late night, if I so choose, guilt-free. Meanwhile the view from my window is of a winter snow scene. Overlaid with the reflection of my room and the living-flame fire.



* a solid rubber, angry Pepparami.