As most of you already know, I have gout. The flare ups in the last year have gotten so bad that it has dramatically affected my quality of life. I have dedicated myself to a change in diet that will hopefully reduce the number and severity of the flare ups. While I am not willing to completely give up eating meat, I am almost a vegetarian. Nancy has been a trouper and has led the charge coming up with satisfying meals that are meat free (her tomato sauce for spaghetti is better than the sauce with meat we had been having), I am interested in hearing suggestions and getting recipes for entree type dishes that you have enjoyed.

We said goodbye to Kiwi today. She had been much better for months after having a really bad summer last year,but this last week she seemingly lost all control of her bladder function. I figured it up and she was just over 15 years old. It affected me much more than I thought it would. She was a good dog with a very sweet disposition. She was truely a part of our family.

Current Mood: sad

This is the next big thing!

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2009/06/15/clearwire_wimax.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

Our water heater has been on Death's doorstep for a while now. And after several missed appointments with my eldest to get it replaced, this last Saturday was the day. We didn't get started quite as early as we had hoped, and we worked much longer than I had planned, but it is now installed. Thanks to Wil. It is good to have a plumber in the family. It looks good and works great!

It is customary at this time of year to give thanks for what we have. I am thankful first and foremost for my family. For my wife, kids, parents, brothers and grandparents. You have left and continue to leave your finger prints on my life. After recent events, I recognize that it is very important to tell the people that you love just how much you love them. I do love you very much. Your love makes me feel wanted and needed, and I have found that to be a very essential part of a life worth living. I am thankful for my friends, the people who love me for no apparent reason whatsoever. Everyone should have friends that know more stories about them than they can even remember. I didn't it get before, but through the years, you have become the spice that makes my life rich. I am thankful for my extended family, aunts, uncles and cousins, who have shown me the enormity of a family full of love and support. I hope that I am as an important ingredient in your life as you are in mine. While, I am thankful for the material things that I have been fortunate enough to have and the opportunities that have been afforded to me, these things would be meaningless without the people I love to share them with.

Tags: family time!
Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Alman Bros - Jessica

The fellow that pioneered the mortgage backed securities that were at the heart of the recent Wall Street melt down is losing his bank.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081108/ap_on_bi_ge/bank_closures_texas_california;_ylt=AvyLpdi_1juCAQHXrUfgl86yBhIF

I have just read that the bailout bill has passed the house and was signed by the president with great haste. I can't help but wonder if this was the right thing to do. I just don't have a good feeling about it. Thoughts or concerns would be appreciated.

It started when Nance came to me and said that she wanted to go to St. Augustine for our 23rd anniversary. We went back and forth about where to go and what to do, but we couldn't come to a decision. But it was more than a little clear, she wanted to go somewhere. So last week we finally decided to go to Cherokee, NC. We both took Friday off from work and stocked up on groceries and trusted that older kids would be able to handle things in our absence and took off. This was the first time in almost twenty years that the two of us were going to be alone for more than a few hours. I was nervous. Would we be able to relate to each other as adults and not just our kids parents? It was wonderful! We had both wanted to try the casino; we had so much fun when we went to Biloxi with some friends a few years ago, but neither of us cared for it very much. One of the places we visited was a private zoo that had a 5 month old tiger that ,for a small fee allowed us to photographed with the baby tiger. Nance was like a kid with excitement. We wound up not following the plan we had set and spent the rest of weekend cruising the mountains from Cherokee to Gatlinburg to Pigeon Forge to Helen. The mountains were beautiful and the roads were VERY curvy. I think that I liked Helen the best. The town was small and quite and we walked around checking things out with no sense of being in a big hurry to do anything in particular. I know it may not seem like much to those who travel often, but to me it was a grand adventure, and I am already looking forward to the next one.

This is one for discussion, if you knew before hand that you wouldn't fail, then you couldn't actually be "attempting" anything; you would be succeeding at it. Also, wouldn't failing to fail be mutually exclusive and therefore an impossibility? What if I wanted to jump over the moon? I might succeed by making the jump, but die in the attempt; wouldn't that be failing indirectly? We need answers to this silly question!

Tags: writer's block

Every now and then I have a day like today. I don't even know how to describe it. I don't want to say that is was bad, because nothing bad happened. And even though I felt like I just couldn't get anything done, I actually was able to get a lot done. I feel stressed, but not about anything in particular. I feel restless. Tired, but not sleepy. I just don't feel like myself, and I don't like it very much!

Current Mood: anxious