Surprise Surprise!!!

Yeah, I'm actually still alive. I know I've not written in a while. Sorry about that. Life has been very busy yet fulfilling. The other day we had a very strong autumn rain storm which removed almost all of the colored foliage from the trees. Now we are entering my least-favorite time of year, that bastard sub-season between fall and winter; when there are no more leaves on the trees, it is too cold outdoors to casually relax & enjoy oneself, everything looks drab & dead, and there is no snow to pretty things up. Last year's snowfall was a bit disappointing. At the time, I had received snowshoes for Christmas and bought myself cross-country skis in hopes that they would give me a reason not to stay cooped up indoors all winter, bouncing off the walls with a killer case of cabin fever... yet there was never more than six inches of snow on the ground (for those of you not familiar with cross-country skiing, one needs AT LEAST 9-12 inches of snow on the ground in order to minimize damage to the underside of the skis). I am hoping for a solid couple feet of snow this year so that I can do some deep-woods cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.


My "autumn foliage" party was loads of fun. It has been a while since I've had any sort of real social gathering at my home. One of my coworkers has shown me some blackmail-worthy pics of myself and many of the others there (yeah, we all had a bit to drink). I may or may not post them depending on how brave I am feeling. There was a pretty good turnout of people and a good time was had by all (who were invited)... and here is where I have a bit of a story to tell. In the wee hours of the morning, there were still about eight guests hanging around. Somebody showed up uninvited while I had nodded off in the living room. He helped himself to some of my liquors and got really drunk, belligerent, & violent. One of my friends (who had training in the management of aggressive behavior) ended up tackling the guy and dragging him kicking & flailing out of my house. The guy refused to leave even after he was barred from going back inside, fighting ensued, and the man ended up in the hospital the next day with a concussion. This is by far one of the craziest things that has ever happened at one of my parties. I am grateful that he was removed though because I don't take kindly to drunken fools destroying my property and causing a scene. Although I will say that the guy had the strength of character to apologize to the people who were involved in his removal and subsequent smack-down.

Now here is where I admit that I have an addiction problem: I broke a solemn promise to myself.... Last year I finally caved in and started reading the series of Harry Potter books that everyone has been raving about. I enjoyed them so much that I ended up reading all six books in just under two months. My head was spinning... I couldn't help it... they're like brain-candy. After I finished the sixth book, I resolved that I would not touch the series again until a month before the seventh (and ostensibly final???) book came out. Well, I had a moment of weakness at the beginning of this month... I just couldn't keep my hand from straying up to the bookshelf.... and here I am again, already three quarters of the way through the fourth book. They must have support groups for this sort of thing (haha). I've decided that I am going to take a break after this book and pursue something a bit pithier... The Poisonwood Bible , a controversial best-seller by one of my new favorite authors, Barbara Kingsolver. My dear sister and several friends have recommended it as a bit of an eye-opener.

As usual, I'm a bit awkward at ending my posts. Somebody once told me to always end on a positive note. So for now I will leave you with a video of "Cheech," a long-haired chihuahua at my workplace doing his "walk like a man" thingy.... and may I mention that I am NOT a small-dog person, but he's still pretty cute.