Yeah.  I know.  I pen an entry on Thursday night, in which I say that I’m going to try to get back to daily updates, and then I don’t write anything else for 5 days.  I’m a slacker.  I know.

The worst part about doing that is that I honestly forget what I’ve been doing every day.  It’s a ritual of sorts.  I wake up between 6:00 and 6:30, go downstairs to feed the cats, go back upstairs to pee, turn on the news, and forget everything I did the day before.  I know that the throngs of people swarming this blog each day think that my goal is to write things for them to read, but the truth is that I’d like to keep this thing updated just so I’ll know what the hell I’ve been doing with my life.

Now that I’ve cleared the air, I’m happy to report that I’ve done basically nothing since last Thursday.  Friday was a typical work day, followed by a typical do-nothing evening.  Saturday was given over to yard work and gushing perspiration.  Sunday was the annual Sausage Fest at a brewpub in Roswell.

Actually, Friday night wasn’t a complete waste.  I began reading – and generally enjoying – Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying.  This was Betsy’s idea, and I believe she’s been harboring it since I told her a year or two ago that I’ve never read more than about two pages of Faulkner in my life because I can’t stand the way he writes.  She gave me a copy of AILD a few weeks ago and insisted that it wasn’t that bad. 

Spam.  Brussels sprouts.  Faulkner.  Three things that I hated as a kid and three things that I decided that I needed to try again as an adult.  So far, I can report the following: 

• Spam no longer makes me vomit and may actually be useful for low-maintenance camping food; but I’m not going to rush out and buy a bunch of it just in case I want to fix myself a big ol’ spamburger at home. 
• Brussels sprouts remain the single most disgusting plant on the planet. Anyone who eats those things and claims to like them is a liar.  A damned liar, even.  Seriously, Brussels sprouts are just plain nasty.  The simple act of thinking about them makes my tongue shrivel up.
• The jury is still out on Faulkner.  As I Lay Dying has, for the most part, kept my interest.  Yes, there are some chapters that make me shake my head and whisper, “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT ALL ABOUT?!?!?” but I have finally learned to recognize and appreciate the sheer genius of Falkner’s writing.  I could write 10,000 words a day for the next 20 years and I still wouldn’t have the literary rhythm of the gentleman from Oxford.

Moving up to  Saturday for a minute: I managed to get my wood chipper (the one that won’t start) into my car (an Audi A3).  This was not an easy thing to do, but I did it.  I then drove to a small engine repair place in Duluth and asked them to make the chipper work.  They indicated that they’d be happy to if I gave them about three weeks.  That was fine with me.  So.  They now have my broken chipper and I still can’t cut any brush.

After bringing the chipper to the shop, I spent most of the rest of the day doing things outside in the extreme heat.  Picked up pine cones.  Trimmed a few bushes (and piled up the clippings).  Washed my car (I do this about once every three years whether it needs it or not).  Sat on the deck.  All typical things designed to give me heat stroke, and I think I may have accomplished that.  I hit the sack at about 7:30, was asleep by probably 7:45, and was out of it and nearly incoherent when a friend called me at about 9:00.

On Sunday, I did pretty much nothing until about 3:00, when I drove to the 5 Seasons Brewpub in Roswell and watched Mercury Orkestar perform at the pub’s annual “Sausage Fest,” and event in which some people bring in samples of their sausage recipes and everyone else votes on them. 

I think I’ve said before that I’m not overly fond of Mercury Orkestar, which is a “Baltic Brass Band” (read: a very very very very loud gypsy band). but Betsy, John and various other friends are in it, so it seemed like a good way to spend an afternoon.

Yesterday was Monday and today is Tuesday.  ‘Nuff said.

TWD

Holy crap!

That picture over there pretty much tells the story of how my week has been.  It was taken shortly after I left work this afternoon.  While I’m sure that the reading on the thermometer was a bit high (actual air temperature was probably around 95), my car’s thermometer is a pretty good indication of how hot it FEELS when you’re sitting outside for more than a few minutes.  I am so ready for a couple of weeks in New England at the end of this month.

The heat hasn’t helped my mood any lately.  Nor has the discovery that the frame around my front door has rotted to the point that I can no longer put off repairing or replacing it.  Nor has the fact that, when I went outside to clean the mold off of my siding last week, I discovered that there was a tree next to the house doing its utmost to grow through my renter’s window.  Nor has my complete inability to get my chipper running (which means that, when I pruned the aforementioned tree, I couldn’t do anything with the resultant brush pile except throw it off to one side until I get the stupid chipper fixed).  Nor has the current political climate (in which we apparently have to cut out all those big-ticket items like public radio and funding for the arts, but we have to keep paying for two wars that are doing nothing except pissing off the rest of the world).  Nor has work, which continues to weigh pretty heavily on my shoulders.

But hey – I had some fun over the last two weekends.  On May 21, my nephew Wesley got married in Central, SC (that’s the name of the town, in case anyone’s wondering), and he “hired” Betsy and me – along with 14 other brass players – to play some seriously kick-ass arrangements (by Greg and Wesley) during the ceremony.  I was, frankly, a bit worried that the ensemble would be staffed with high school students and older folks who pull out their horns once a year; but I was really pleasantly surprised by the quality of the group’s sound.  Let me tell you, 16 decent brass players honking their heads off through Crown Imperial makes for a pretty impressive wedding ceremony.  I’m looking forward to hearing a recording at some point.

Last weekend (on the 28th), Betsy and I hit the road again – this time for Greenville, SC.  We spent the day watching the Highland Games at Furman, whereat large men (and large women) in kilts entertained us by throwing telephone poles, iron weights and sheep around; all while being serenaded by a series of bagpipe bands of varying size and ability.

After the games, we went to a baseball game in Greenville’s West End, where the Greenville Drive (a class-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox) dismantled the Kannapolis Intimidators (no idea to which team they are attached).

I took this picture of a Mexican restaurant with my phone, then edited it with Photoshop Elements for iPhone.

Monday was Memorial Day (no work), so I drove down to Macon, where Betsy and I took in dinner at a Mexican restaurant (a picture of which accompanies this paragraph) and a movie (The Bridesmaids).  The last movie I actually saw in a theatre was about a year ago, I think.  I do enjoy going to cinemas, but the cost never ceases to amaze me.

The heat, however, is really the story of the last couple of weeks.  Walking outside is like stepping into an oven.  I’ve been pretty much forced to turn on my air conditioning every night (something that I really hate doing) because it’s simply too hot in my bedroom to sleep.  I’ve taken to filling my bathtub with cold water as soon as I get home from work and getting up once or twice during the night just to sit in it for a few minutes and cool down.  Then I’ll crawl back in bed and spread a wet towel on my chest (or back) and let my ceiling fan do its best to help me sleep.  I’m sure that this is probably bad for my health, but I just don’t care.

Between work and bedtime, I’ve mostly just been zoning on my couch downstairs (where it’s about 15 degrees cooler than the bedroom).  On a few occasions, I’ve ventured outside long enough to do some yardwork that just can’t be put off.  During those forays, I’ve ended up so sweaty that, upon returning inside, my clothes immediately go into the hamper and my body just as immediately gets plunked into the tub of cold water.

All this to say, of course, that DAMN, IT’S HOT!

As it’s now pushing 11 o’clock at night, I shall end this drivel and go sit in the tub for ten minutes before retiring.   And I think I’ll make a promise to myself to try again to update this little blog on a daily basis for the next month or so.

TWD

The lazy days of May.

I got bored a few weeks ago and decided to take pictures of water drops in a pan in my kitchen sink.  I was really pleased with the results.

It may technically be spring in Atlanta, but I’m here to tell you that it’s really summer.  Temperatures have been in the high-80s for the last few weeks, yardwork (and sweating) is in full swing, and I’m completely ready for a vacation.

Looks like Canada isn’t in the cards for me this year due to the band’s concerts in Vermont and Massachusetts, but I did manage to make it to the ocean last weekend and get some swimming in.  Also got an incredible sunburn, which normally doesn’t happen to me; but it’s more or less gone now.

Betsy and I had been scheming to visit Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah for about a year, so when our mutual schedules allowed for it last weekend, we finally made it happen.  After driving down on Saturday afternoon, we had a late lunch on historic River Street before taking in a Savannah Sand Gnats (class A minor league) baseball game.  The home team beat the Rome Braves, 3-1, I believe.

Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah is known for its Spanish Moss and arching Live Oak trees.

We then spent an hour or two walking around old Savannah, visiting several of the 21 city squares (parks), taking really bad cellphone pictures and generally enjoying a fairly cool evening.

Sunday was spent mainly at the beach on Tybee Island, one of the barrier islands slightly SE of Savannah.

On Monday, we spent some time at Colonial Cemetery in downtown Savannah and then finally went to Bonaventure, a huge cemetery made famous by the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.  Both graveyards were extremely peaceful and interesting, and both yielded some pretty decent photos.

Work this week was very little fun.  I fear that I’m overextended myself on a couple of projects and really don’t know how I’m going to finish them.

The Bull River as seen from Bonaventure Cemetery

This weekend was supposed to be the Deep South Brass Band Festival in Pine Mountain, GA, but it was cancelled last week due to incredibly poor planning on the part of the organizers.  After having all year to plan for the thing, they’d only managed to book two acts – the Georgia Brass Band and a brass quintet made up of GBB members.  Pathetic.

So our next concerts – in New England at the end of June – will be the last of our very light season.  I think we only played 5 concerts this season.  Also pathetic.

Not much else to talk about at this point, so I think I’ll find a couple of pictures for this entry and call it good.

TWD

May 1st already.  How’d that happen?
Last week was Easter and I had a gig with Betsy, John, and some college kid who I didn’t know, in a little Episcopal church in the teeming city of Americus, GA.  It was a decidedly strange affair – beginning with the instrumentation.  Originally, this was to be either a brass quartet or quintet, but one of the trumpeters bailed on us about a week before the gig, so John flew in from Texas to replace the missing trumpet – with a trombone.  So we ended up with the kid on 1st trumpet, John playing the 2nd trumpet part on a trombone, Betsy playing the 1st bone part on a euphonium, and me playing the 2nd bone part on a tuba.

My hand was not attractive after I polished my tuba for an Easter gig

Oddly enough, it didn’t sound all that bad.  We were quite attentive and well-behaved during the service, by the way, because we were scolded by the priest, after a rehearsal on Saturday night, that we’d better behave and pay attention during the Sunday services.  I’m fairly certain that that’s never happened to me before, and I can only assume that it was prompted by some previous group of instrumentalists at the church; but John summed it up well enough: “How about you treat us like professionals, you jerk?”
He didn’t actually say that to the priest, but I think we were all thinking some variation of it, and John verbalized it in the parking lot after the scolding.
During my drive to the rehearsal on Saturday, I started chewing a piece of gum and one of my crowns fell out.  Lovely.  I spent the next two days trying not to play with the gaping hole in my toothline with my tongue (I was not successful and ended up with a sore tongue).  Got that under control eventually, and had the crown glued back in (and got everything else cleaned) on Thursday. 
While eating a hotdog yesterday, I managed to make the crown fall off again…
In the news this week: Obama has proven, for about the third time, that he is an American citizen.  Birther wingnuts finally forced him to show the “long form” birth certificate (to go along with the certificate of live birth, birth announcements in Hawaiian papers, the fact that his mother is American, the fact that he was vetted by the DNC, etc.).  Of course, the validity of the birth certificate was immediately called in to question by people who don’t know the first thing about PDF files, and several of my former Facebook friends decided that the whole birther conspiracy must be real. 
I say “former” Facebook friends because that type of idiocy is just too much for me.  I can deal with rapid conservativism, but when you just go batshit crazy, you are no longer a friend of mine.  All told, I think I “unfriended” about 7 people.
The fuse to the front cigarette lighter in my car is now blowing on a regular basis.  I went out yesterday and got an extension so that I can power things from the rear outlet for now, but I also spent a great deal of time researching just how to get the center console/arm rest out of my car so that I can try to figure out what’s causing the problem.  I may try to do that today.  Also need to mow the lawn, though – and I need to get some gasoline for the mower.
Have two very large projects on my plate at work – neither of which interest me.
Earlier this week, we had some incredible storms in the southeast.  Tuscaloosa and Birmingham were both hit pretty hard by tornadoes, and I was pretty worried – watching radar – that my house wasn’t going to exist for much longer.  Actually, I wasn’t worried about that – I was sort of looking forward to having State Farm build me a new one.  I was worried about saving my cats and my car and my horns and an antique clock and various other things. 
Fortunately, the storms literally split in half just before getting to my area.  Some went to the north and some swung around to the south.  Other than some gusty winds and a few drops of rain, my neighbourhood was untouched.
Cooked a couple of burgers on the grill last night.  First time I’ve fired it up this year.  It was such a lovely evening that I felt compelled to be outside as much as possible.  Today looks to be a repeat of yesterday…maybe I’ll grill some corn or something.
TWD

I think I’ve said before that there are about 6 weeks in the average year that I really like living where I live. Three in the fall and three in the spring.  We’re right in the middle of the spring cycle, and – except for the pollen – I’m loving it.

Massive storms hit all around me last night (and across much of the southeast US), but other than having to deal with some decent wind – which I’m not going to complain about – and torrential rains, my house had an easy time.  I was a bit worried that the rain would continue throughout today, as I’d planned to do some yard work, but it was bright and sunny when I woke up; and strong breezes all day have dried up most of the wet stuff.

That being the case, I took advantage of the sun, wind, and 68-degree temps to attack a bunch of holly trees that have become incredibly overgrown in the last two years.  It’s amazing to look out of my kitchen window and actually see my back yard!

My original plan was to chip all of the holly trees into mulch and spread it in a part of my back yard, and I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to start my chipper, since I didn’t use it at all last year.  I was quite pleased, therefore, when it started up on the first pull and worked like a champ.

Until I stopped it after an hour to empty the bag.  When I tried to restart it….nothing doing.  So I finished off the holly project by carting what hadn’t been chipped off and throwing it into a pile near my shed.  Then I thoroughly cleaned and reorganized the shed itself, as it was obvious that a family of mice had made it home over the winter.   I’m happy to report that there are no longer any signs of the little vermin in my shed, and it is once again the crusty man-cave that it used to be – complete with radio.

All told, I spent about 6 hours on those two yard projects, and I’ve got plenty left to do.  I’m hoping that tomorrow will be another nice day – we’re expecting a cold front tonight, and temps may be in the thirties tomorrow morning!

TWD

I got home at around midnight last night after spending two days watching brass soloists, brass ensembles, and brass bands.  I already touched on the solo & ensemble stuff.  The band competitions on Saturday did not disappoint.  I missed the two lowest sections (three total bands) because I got tapped to help the dude who takes pictures of the bands before they go on stage, but I did manage to catch most of the bands in the 1st Section (that’s the section that my own band normally competes in) and all of the entrants to the Championship Section (the big boys).

NABBA President-Elect Stephen Allen throws himself into conducting the Princeton Brass Band to a tie for the 1st Section Championship.

I was completely blown away by the first two bands that I saw in the 1st Section.  Central Ohio (our nemesis) played very well, and I thought that Princeton was equally amazing – in fact, I put status updates on my facebook account to that effect after hearing each of them.  The other bands that I saw in the 1st Section were okay, but there was a clear gap between Central Ohio/Princeton and everyone else.

As it turned out, COBB and PBB ended up tied for first, and COBB was declared the winner on a tie-break rule (their score on the required piece was highest).  I’m not sure how Georgia would have fared had we competed this year.  I can’t imagine us sounding as polished as those two bands, particularly given the lack of esprit de corps that has plagued us since last year.  Maybe we’ll have our personnel issues ironed out by next year.

In the Championship Section, the reigning studs of the North American Brass Band scene, Fountain City Brass Band, gave their typical wall-of-sound performance, and I was fairly certain that they would win, although I was also awed by the performance put in by the Atlantic Brass Band.  After listening to Atlantic, I remarked to one of the stage hands, “That band is from another planet!”  I had them as a solid #2 after my sentimental favorite, Chicago, turned in a pretty flat attempt.   I think that, had a poll been taken of the audience, 99% of the people there would have called it Fountain City, Atlantic, Chicago.

Everyone in the building was therefore somewhat stunned when FCBB was announced as the runner-up, and the crowd went completely crazy when Atlantic was crowned champion.  Fountain City is an amazing band, deserving of any accolades that you can throw at them; but I don’t think I’m telling any tales when I say that an awful lot of people have gotten tired of them winning every year.

This was actually the second let-down for FCBB this year, as they lost to a band out of Florida at the U.S. Open Championships.  Are they slipping or are other bands stepping up their games?  I guess we’ll find out next year – maybe sooner, as FCBB is slated to compete in (I think) The Netherlands later this year.

As I said up front, though, the bands did not disappoint.  For those of you who’ve never heard top-flight brass bands playing at their peak, let me just say that it’s an indescribable sound.   When that kind of power, in control, hits you….I don’t know how many chills I got listening to the Championship Section bands.

Back to work tomorrow, unfortunately, and not much to look forward to before the Deep South Brass Band Festival happens in early May.

TWD

Today was the first day of the 2011 brass band championships, and consisted of the solo and ensemble competitions.  They ran from about 10:30 this morning until 5:00 this afternoon, and I spent the vast majority of that time walking a circle between three ballrooms and photographing people playing brass.

Exciting?  No.

Good playing?  For the most part.

Feet hurt?  Oh.  My.  God.

Tomorrow is the band championships and I’ll be doing more of the same.  We haven’t figured out yet if I’ll be able to shoot the bands from backstage or if I’ll have to find a spot in the balcony and shoot from there.  At this point, I don’t much care.  I can probably get better (or at least more interesting) shots from backstage, but if I can grab a box seat for myself and just sit in it all day, that sounds pretty nice, too.

I put a few pictures from today on Facebook and will post a link to a SmugMug album when I’ve gone through all of the keepers from the weekend.

TWD

Got up at zero-dark-thirty for the second day in a row (had to take Betsy to the airport yesterday morning), and left the house between 6:00 and 6:30 this morning, headed for Grand Rapids for the brass thingy.

Got to my hotel at around 7:30 this evening.

Am currently sitting in my underwear at the desk in the room, trying to decide whether to go find some food or merely lie in bed.

Heard several of the announcements for the contest on NPR on my way up (I was streaming Grand Rapids’ public radio station through my iPhone), and they sounded really good.  Yay, me.

Very tired.  Also very hungry.

Dammit.

TWD

I went up to Furman yesterday to shake off some of the photographic cobwebs and shoot the annual spring scrimmage.  It was an obnoxiously beautiful day in South Carolina, which made me wish that I’d gotten out of bed a couple of hours earlier than I did so that I could have spent more time out in the sun.  After 7 straight days of cold and rainy days, it was a great way to start the weekend.

I like this shot.

The shooting went about as I thought it would.  My sports reactions are rusty after 4 months off, but I managed to get a few decent shots.  Also walked around the campus for a couple of hours after the scrimmage, and it was just about impossible to take a bad shot.  Every flower on the planet was in full bloom and the university grounds are pretty gorgeous anyway.

I finished a few easy projects at work last week and will be starting a fairly major one on Monday – for the second time.  I originally began this particular project in November, but when I sent some questions about it to the client, he blew me off.  So I tabled the thing.  Now the client is ready to give it another shot, so – for all intents and purposes, I’m starting over.  I don’t remember a thing about it or what I’ve already done with it.

I won’t get much of a start on it, however, because I’m leaving for Michigan on Wednesday for the brass band championships.  I spent a good portion of last week trying to get the word out about the contest to as many people in the Grand Rapids area as possible, which ended up being amazingly annoying when I suggested that we buy some radio spots on the local NPR station.  While everyone on the board agreed that this was a good idea (well, every one of them who weighed in with an opinion), none of the executive committee wanted to actually pull the trigger and kept pushing it back to me.  I finally got the president to say, “You’ve done all the groundwork, so go ahead and do it.”

So I did.  Unfortunately, the bill (for $350) will be coming to me.  I dearly hope that the executive committee is more decisive about paying ME than they were about paying the radio station.

Today, I’m just processing some of the photos from yesterday and chilling out.  I’ll do some grocery shopping later and perhaps practice my tuba for a bit.  Might even get crazy and mow the lawn – but mostly, I’m just planning to lie in bed and do nothing.

TWD

Nathan made my day with this shot. I think it might be the best I’ve ever taken.

Last week was fairly eventful, what with my nephew Nathan starring in a college production of “The Music Man” on Saturday night and my father getting hitched Sunday afternoon.  I’ll include a few pictures of the latter event with this entry.

Actually, I’ll start things off just by talking about the pictures, which were right up there as one of the highlights of the week.  I only took about 70 on Sunday, but when I started going through them Sunday night, I was amazed.  41 of the shots went up on Facebook with just about no editing.  Of those that I didn’t post, most were good shots – they just didn’t add anything to the gallery.

Slap a cross and some flowers on an antique sewing machine table and bam!  Instant wedding chapel

41 out of 70.   Consider this: when I shoot a football game, I’ll take between 700 and 800 pictures.  If I’m lucky, 50 of them will be usable.  41 out of 70 is unheard of for me.  Made me pretty happy, and you can see/print all 41 of the final shots at this link.

I test out my wireless shutter release while Greg and Kara do photos the old-fashioned way

As for the wedding itself, it went off pretty much without a hitch (no pun intended).  Dad and Diane appeared to be pretty happy with their respective mate selections, and I had a nice time getting to know my step-brothers, step-sisters, step-neices and nephews, etc.  Also got to see all of my siblings, and Jenny and her father made the trek to SC for the festivities as well.

I believe Dad and his bride will be moving back to her place in Cleveland today.  Why anyone would want to leave Greenville for Cleveland is a mystery to me, but that’s the plan.  Maybe Dad just wants to see the world or something.  I wish them both the best.

Tried out my new Garmin GPS unit on the way up (yeah – I broke down and bought one.  I’ve got a couple of long trips coming up in the next few months, and football season this year will also have a few hefty treks).  Overall, it’s an acceptable unit.  Not as good as the Tom-Tom that I had until last year, but it’ll get me where I’m going.  I read an article today saying that GPS units are dinosaurs and using a smart phone is just as good an option.   No.  It’s not.  A dedicated GPS device will always be better than a smartphone that has GPS in it.  Trust me on this.

Doing that whole “With This Ring” thing

The amazing Bob – he of the band’s board of directors – has claimed another victim.  Betsy quit the board in spectacular fashion yesterday by sending them a resignation letter that pulled no punches, left absolutely no doubt about *why* she was quitting (that’d be BOB, ladies and gentlemen), and ended with the question, “How many more good people have to quit before you’ll take some action [against Bob]?”  I loved every word of it – and I believe Betsy will be much happier now that she’s washed her hands of the problem, as both Rich and I did earlier this year.  Eventually, I think the board *will* get the message – I just hope the band still exists at that point.

Diane checks out the wedding cake. I really like this picture.

In other board business – the North American brass band kind, I mean – crises are looming as we prepare for our 30th championships, in Grand Rapids, MI, in a couple of weeks.  The biggest problem is that the board from a few years ago vastly overestimated their bargaining power and agreed to block 850 rooms in the hotel which is hosting the event.  In exchange for the room guarantee, they got free meeting and performance space.  Good deal, right?  Sure – if they could actually get people to rent the rooms for the contest.  Unfortunately, the hotel is one of the most expensive in the city, the city is way off the beaten path for most Amercian brass bands, and no Canadian bands decided to make the 6-hour trip from Toronto to Grand Rapids.  End result?  Only 13 bands will be competing, only 400 rooms have been sold, and the organization is on the hook for close to $50,000 (at last check, our entire treasury was about half of that).  Last I heard, the board’s executive committee made a deal to let the same hotel host the contest again in 2014 in order to avoid lawsuits.  If that’s the case, I predict a general outcry from member bands when that decision is announced, and I predict that the 2014 championships will be even less well-attended than the 2011 version.

It also came up in recent board discussions that there has been generally no publicity about the championships in Grand Rapids or the surrounding area.  Good planning, huh?  Not surprising, considering that our president has been AWOL for most of the last year (he will be removed from that office at our meeting on April 7) and no one else feels empowered to do anything on their own.  When I joined that board, I didn’t know I was jumping in to the wheel house of a sinking ship.

Work this week has been good.  My project manager has been feeding me jobs that she hasn’t had time for, and I’ve been steadily knocking them out of the park.  I don’t feel like I’m working particularly fast, but she warmed the cockles of my heart the other day when she said something like, “I like giving these to you because you get them done so quickly.”  So I’ve got that going for me.

The happy couple, faces covered in cake frosting, makes out in front of their children.

Almost forgot to mention that I got a fairly decent bonus at the beginning of the month and made that stupid American Express balance go away.  I’m hoping to be able to nuke one of my Visa cards with my tax refund in a few weeks, and then it’s just a matter of time before the other debts go the way of the passenger pigeon.  Once I’m down to just having a mortgage payment and utilities, I can start socking away some serious green.  I’m actually excited about this, folks.

Felt tired for most of today, so I’m going to finish this up now and get some sleep.  Congratulations again, Dad and Diane!

TWD