Happy Thanksgiving… at last

We had Thanksgiving dinner at the in-laws house today. We stuffed ourselves full of tasty food and watched some college football. I also fell asleep in the leather chair after eating all the turkey. It was good and we had an enjoyable time hanging out with the family.

So anyway… without further ado…

10 things I am thankful for this year.

1. My gorgeous wife. My life has been infinitely better since she became a part of it. She just plain rules.

2. My family… both sides. My family, of course, is awesome. They totally support us in whatever we do, even when it meant moving nearly 1,000 miles away. I can’t wait to see them. I only wish we could see them more. I miss Sunday lunches. Jess’ family is cool too. They have us over for a great meal and then hang out and tell stories. It’s generally a good time and they’re super supportive as well.

3. Our kids. (Two cats) They’re the coolest cats ever. I love them both and I’m glad we have them. They keep me entertained.

4. Our little home. It’s in a great location, it’s affordable and we have great landlords. I get to walk to work. I like walking to work. It allows me 10 minutes to get my head in the right place for work and then 10 minutes to get work out of my system before I get through the door to see Jess. It’s small and cozy and has its quirks, but I’m glad we live where we do.

5. Obama won. I’m one of the few in my family that is thankful for this… but I really believe that things will get better with him in office. He’s an inspirational leader and he knows it’s going to take more than just government by itself to fix the mess we’re in.

6. That we could afford new skis. Seems so materialistic doesn’t it? It’s not. Skiing is my one extravagance. Mostly though, it’s how I get through the winter months without going nuts. Work is stressful and I have a lot of frustrations. Since I have limited vacation time I can’t just go away too often. Getting on the mountain on Fridays in the winter gives me a chance to clear my head and stay sane. It also makes Jess happy cause I’m always in a good mood after a day of skiing.

7. Friends. I have a lot of friends. They’re scattered all over the country. I miss them all and wish I could see them more regularly. Some of them I haven’t seen in many years. Still though, I know if I have something I needed to talk to them about, they’d get right back to me. I have some of the best friends and they’re super cool. I’ve been fortunate over the years.

8. Our Colorado church… We keep trying to find a church here. It’s tough. We came from such a great one. Flatirons Community Church. We keep trying to find a church that we can fit in with and one that we feel comfortable in. My dad says that it’s not about what you get out of church, it’s about what you put in… but we have to find the right place for us and so far we haven’t done that here. We’ve been to a lot of churches and we just haven’t felt comfortable in any yet. Our church back in Colorado was/is awesome. Fortunately for me, they put the Sunday sermons online in podcast form. I download them and take them to work with me. I love that church.

9. My dad. Admittedly, he’s already been included in the list under “family” but he goes beyond that. I admit I haven’t been keeping in touch with him lately as much as I should, but he’s one of the best friends and fathers a guy could have. He’s always been so great for giving me advice and never says no when I ask him for help with something. Beyond that, he’s been an incredible example to me on how to be a great husband. That’s made my marriage so much better because I haven’t had to go through some of the challenges many men go through adjusting to life with a woman. My dad made me who I am and any successes I have are a result of his influence on my life. I’m very thankful for him.

10. Our jobs. Jess has a job that uses all her skills and that she truly enjoys. I’m so happy for her and proud of her. She’s doing good things for a good cause and that’s pretty neat to be a part of. I’m thankful that she found a job that she loves so much. She deserves that. My job may not be perfect, but it’s one that affords me a schedule that allows for a lot of skiing and gives me work I generally enjoy. There are challenges that keep my mind active. Despite the frustrations I have with the work environment, I recognize that it is still one of the better jobs I’ve had. Plus, in this economy the fact that we both have jobs that pay decently is a true blessing. We’d be sunk without jobs and the fact that we have pretty good ones is a true reason to be thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope your lives are as blessed as ours.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I just realized it’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog. I slacked. Every night I think about it and then it gets late and I think, “Oh, I’ll just do it tomorrow.” Then the process repeats itself.

Today is/was Thanksgiving… but not really for me. See, the newspaper still comes out tomorrow so someone had to put it together. That means I got to work while everyone else enjoyed a nice day off. Christmas will be the same way. So I spent most of the day at the office. I went in at 11, came home at 2 to watch the Cowboys slaughter the Seahawks, then went back until 9:30 to finish it up.

So my Thanksgiving will be Saturday. That’s when we’ll be heading out to the in-laws homestead to eat the turkey and fixin’s. It’s hard to not be around my family for Thanksgiving, especially when Thanksgiving has so often been spent skiing at Winter Park… but mostly because I miss being around my family for the holidays. Can’t wait to see them in a month.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving everyone… hope it was good for everyone else.

Yup… feline acne

My family already knows cause I’ve talked to them, but for everyone else that may be reading the blog… Aspen the cat, who went to the vet on Friday, does indeed have feline acne. Poor girl. So now she’s on antibiotics which we have to give her twice a day and we clean her chin every night. Hopefully this will make it go away and she won’t have to deal with it anymore. If it gets worse we’ll have to take her back to the vet but hopefully that won’t be necessary.

The weekend was pretty dreary weather wise. Lots of rain and cool weather. It snowed up on the mountains which was sweet but it was nothing but rain down here where we are. If only it would cool off enough to snow a lot here. That would make me quite happy.

Friday night we went (briefly) to Jess’ employee appreciation dinner. It was kind of dull. Actually it was really dull. They gave out awards for people that have been working there for years that are multiples of 5. That part, no joke, took a couple hours. Unreal. We had a generic dinner, chatted with a few people then bailed. My employee holiday party is in a month but I’m not convinced I’ll go… We got the email about it Friday (so I saw it today) and I’m still a bit irritated by it. I’ll explain it in a future blog post after I’ve had some time to let it sink in and I’ve cooled off a bit.

The Cowboys won their game tonight. May have saved their season. If they’d lost tonight they probably would not have made the playoffs. They still might not make it but at least they are a little closer. Hopefully they’ll get things turned around. They’ve got two easier games the next couple weeks. Maybe they can get their confidence back.

Ok, off to bed. Peace out.

Poor Aspen

Our first cat, Aspen, is going to the vet tomorrow morning. I’m taking her in cause we think she has feline acne. I’ll let you look that up yourself. Basically, she’s got all this black gunk under her chin and it hasn’t gone away on it’s own or with us using oxy pads on it. So I need to take her in so we can confirm it is what we think it is and not something worse and then maybe get something else to put on it to see if it will go away.

As far as I can tell, it doesn’t hurt her but it doesn’t look good and all the website say to have a vet check it out. Plus, if it gets too bad it CAN be a real problem. Right now it just looks like she’s got a dirty chin. I feel bad for her though cause she HATES being in a car, being some place new, meeting strange people… Pretty much anything other than being in the house with me and Jess. Tomorrow she’ll get stuffed in the travelling carrier, taken to the vet and poked and prodded. Poor girl.

AJ however is just fine. He’s got more energy than he knows what to do with. He’s passed out next to me at the moment but that’s because he’s been running all over the house for the past couple hours. He’s recharging. He hates being in the carrier too but he likes going for car rides and he likes meeting new people and animals. Going to the vet isn’t too bad for him… he’s pretty much Aspen’s opposite.

Hopefully tomorrow will go smoothly and we can get Aspen’s chin all fixed up.

One week later…

I haven’t posted anything in a week because I’ve been basking in the glow of the historic election. Since I was on the winning side, I’m happy. I recognize that many that read this blog were on the other side and are disappointed in the outcome. That’s ok, I still love all of you…

I haven’t done a whole lot that’s interesting in the past week. Friday I waxed a pair of skis that needed it pretty badly. Saturday we went to Missoula and did some shopping but nothing exciting. Sunday I went to work and I did the same again today. Basically, it’s been pretty dull around here lately. That’s ok though, sometimes you gotta have a little dull so you appreciate the fun that much more.

The great thing is that over the past couple days the mountains have been getting hammered with snow. They were solid white when I walked to work today. I was starting to get worried because it’s November and we haven’t had much snow. I need it to snow so that as soon as hunting season is over ski season can get rolling. Now we’re getting snow so that might actually happen.

I don’t know if I ever mentioned it on here… but I’m the pretty much the only person writing editorials at the Ravalli Republic these days. The editor will kick one out every couple of months but for the most part, if you read the newspaper’s editorials, I’m the one that wrote it. Today I wrote one on poaching. Any idea how hard it is to write an editorial about hunting when you don’t hunt? Ugh… Not easy. So it’s not the best editorial but at least I got it written. I’ve got a couple coming up that should be better. I’m looking foward to discussing the need for better high-speed internet coverage in our area.

So that’s about it right now… but at least now you know you’re not missing anything just because I haven’t posted.

Yes we DID!

What a historic night. One of the biggest elections ever, certainly in my short lifetime and guaranteed to have a historic outcome. The best part though is that Obama won! I’m so proud to have been a part of it and been able to witness it.

The speech was one of the best I’ve ever seen from a politician. Obama is such a great speaker and his speech last night was so inspirining. Makes me really look forward to the inauguration speech. Makes me want to be there. Of course I won’t get that opportunity but if I could, I so would. I used to want more than anything to see Bill Clinton speak. I got to do that this year. Now I want to see Obama speak.

It also really inspires me to pursue a masters in public policy/political management. I’m leaning more and more toward the George Washington University program but I’ve got some groundwork to do before I can do it. I have to take the GRE and I also have to figure out how to pay for it. That means filling out the old FAFSA and seeing what kind of financial aid I could get. Seeing Obama rise from the humble beginnings he did to accomplish so much shows me that if I worked at it, I could accomplish great things too. I’ve always felt I had great potential but didn’t know how to get to it. I think I do now.

Mostly though, I’m so excited for what the next four years will hold. I think this country is about to undergo some great change. Necessary change. I’m really looking forward to it.

Go vote!

No matter which side of the political spectrum you fall on, I hope you all go out and vote today. There’s nothing more important in this thing we call a Republic than choosing the leaders that will represent you. By all accounts this is going to be one of the biggest elections ever in terms of voter turnout.

I went and voted this morning and the election place was busier than it’s been in any other election I’ve participated in here. The County Clerk and Recorder said they’re expecting an 80% voter turnout. That’s unreal here. A normal election attracts 20-30 percent. Unreal.

So go vote. It’s your civic duty.