Catching Up on Life

Wow, it's been a really long time since I posted anything here. Guess it's kind of gotten shoved by the wayside. I don't know where to start, so this may be a bit more rambling than usual. At the end of August, we went to DragonCon for the first time in several years. It was a blast! It's always a hectic few days, but well worth it. I finally got to actually speak to James Marsters. He's awesome! Watching he & Juliet Landau interact was hysterical. My love for Firefly led me to a Battlestar Galactica panel where Mark Sheppard was speaking. It ended up being one of the highlights of the con for me, and Mark convinced me that just maybe the new Battlestar isn't all that bad. September whirled by with nothing overly exciting to report.

Halloween, a holiday that brings out both the childish & the gothic sides of my personality, was a bit more active than usual. The weekend before, we went out with several friends to a local bar to see a favorite band perform, which is always a good time. The downside of the evening was the Carolina game ran over, delaying the band, which infuriated several of our party, as they don't enjoy Carolina football like I do. So, already in a sour mood, we were looking to the band to redeem the evening. Sadly, it was not to be. The band recently underwent a lineup change, and the new members had not yet gelled to the awesome band we're used to. Halloween night, all of our friends who have children descended on our house as Trick or Treating HQ because our neighborhood gives out great candy. We had a great time. Our dog, however, did not, as 5 children ranging in age from 1 to 11 bartered candy in the middle of my living room floor while the 8 adults looked on. We ended the evening playing SingStar with one of the couples. I'm going to have to drag that one out as a group effort one night.

Rushing right into November, football & Thanksgiving were the highlights of the month. Thanksgiving, while a bit chaotic due to ongoing in-law antic, turned out to a nice time shared with family. I even cooked a Pumpkin Gooey Cake that turned out pretty well. I sometimes forget how much I actually enjoy baking. I hate cooking, but there's something comforting about baking. Maybe it's all those years of watching my grandmother bake those 12 layer cakes. Fate smiled upon me by dropping tickets to the Carolina - Clemson game in my lap. While I would have preferred the last 3 seconds of the game never happened, I had a blast!

The not so high light of November was pulling a muscle in my back picking up some firewood Thanksgiving weekend. It was a nuisance for about 2 weeks, and I felt I was on the mend. Driving home from work about 2 weeks after the injury, I experienced one of the scariest moments of my life. My lower back went numb. The numbness travelled in a wave down my legs & up to my neck and got uncomfortably hot! The short version is that several hours in the ER provided no answers and no reassurances. Followup with my own competent doctor led to an MRI, which I'm still awaiting the results of. No more episodes of the numbness, though I still have twinges in my back now & then.

I guess that's an update on everything up to the holiday season. So I'll finish this off for now & work on holiday post soon.

Again, for the couple of readers I do have, I apologize for the dearth of posts over the last several months. Hopefully, I'll develop more consistency in 2008!