The first whinge of the year

I’ve been in Leeds most of this week on a course. It is 300 miles from Poole. Drove up there Tuesday night, 5 hours drive, developed a cold on the way up, spent 3 days in a classroom with thumping head and leaking nose finding it hard to concentrate, drove back tonight trying to see through streaming eyes and got home an hour ago.

Kids and Sarah were pleased to see me. However, I picked Lucy up for a cuddle and she threw up all over me. lol. Welcome home Daddy!

I want to sleep a lot this weekend. However I also want to play with the kids. Maybe I’ll play hide and seek with them and hide in the loft and snooze 🙂

Wicked at the Fox

WICKED will play Wednesday, May 17 through Sunday, May 28, 2006 at The Fox Theatre in Midtown Atlanta.
Performances are Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m. with matinees on Saturdays at 2:00 p.m., Sundays at 1:00 p.m. and a special matinee performance on Thursday, May 18 at 2:00 p.m.
Ticket prices range from $27.00 – $66.00 and go on sale Sunday, December 4, 2005 at the Fox Theatre box office, all Ticketmaster outlets, online at www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com.

http://www.foxtheatre.org/current_news.htm

I’m excited to finally get to see this play.

The Center of the Universe

In an email newsletter today, I got a link to author David Foster Wallace’s commencement address at Kenyon University in May 2005. It’s a nice New Year’s read, the time of year where everyone is thinking about resolutions and self-improvement and so on.

It’s about how we are hard-wired to see ourselves as the center of the uinverse, because in fact we are the center of our own universe, per our own experience and point of reference. And it’s about how difficult it is to break out of that “default setting,” as he calls it. I’ve never read any of Wallace’s work before, but I think I will have to add him to the list of people to read.

Be warned, its long. If you don’t have the time, come back to it later. Here’s the link:
http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html

2005 Recap

I’m turning this post into everyone’s recap. A review of the year if you will. Post news by month 🙂

January – Unemployed. 2 cats/2 people. Start knitted bag.
February – Unemployed. 2 cats/2 people. Excellent Mardi Gras.
March – Unemployed. 2 cats/2 people.
April – Unemployed. 2 cats/2 people. Vegas trip. Attempt to pay federal taxes.
May – Unemployed. 2 cats/2 people. Turn on A/C.
June – Unemployed. 2 cats/2 people. Philadelphia trip. Mom’s 50th birthday. Nonno in hospital. Kent’s conference in Boston.
July – Get job. 2 cats/2 people. Beth visits Atlanta. Nonno still in hospital.
Beginning of August – Job. 2 cats/2 people. Trip to Philadelphia and Kent’s archiving conference in New Orleans. Discover Farmer’s Market.
End of August – Get laid off. 4 cats/3 people. Katrina. Football draft.
September – Unemployed. 4 cats/5 people. Rita. Trip to New Orleans. Triple 30 Labor Day Birthday party. Dave gets job at the AJC. Eric and Katie get married. Dave and Paul get new apartment. New glasses.
October – Unemployed. 4 cats/4 people. Turn off A/C. No hurricanes. Halloween.
November – Get job. 4 cats/2 people. Unable to get to Philadelphia, stay in Atlanta for Thanksgiving.
December – Keep Job. 4 cats/2 people. Car accident. Kent falls down stairs, breaks butt. Christmas and New Year’s in Atlanta. Jack, Marnie and Grant visit. Mom and Beth visit. Brent and Chelsey get engaged. Colleen and Tom get engaged. Big party and Paul and Dave’s. Still working on knitted bag.

The Best of 2005

2005 was hands-down the worst year of my 30 years. I don’t think anyone can argue with that. I’m glad to see it go away. While I won’t remember it fondly, I will acknowledge 2005 as a life-changing year. The events of 2005 weren’t always the easiest to swallow or even manage, but their effects will continue to affect my life, and those of my family and friends for years to come. How we deal with those effects is up to us. We can use it as an excuse to give up (the Saints) or we can rise above those events beyond our control and build a better future. I’m choosing the latter. I don’t know of any other way.

Here’s to a better future in 2006. I can’t wait to put 2005 behind me and start over. Thank you to everyone who has been here (from a distance or right in my own house). Without the people I love, 2005 would have been unbearable.

I started this post as a “Best of elbuzzard.com” type thing and got a little side-tracked. Here are some stats from the blog’s first year.

Most Popular Posts – by number of comments
While she doesn’t post very often, Leslie snags 2 of the top 3 most commented-on posts.

  1. Leslie’s Good Things (not necessarily the top 10 of all time) by Leslie- 16 comments
  2. Picking a new team… by Kent – 13 comments
  3. The Top Ten Good Things About Christmas by Leslie – 12 comments

Total number of posts: 196

Total number of comments: 383

Most Prolific Commenters (not an author)

  1. Marnie and TygrrToo (tie) – 30 comments
  2. Staceman – 18 comments
  3. Capn Jack – 7 comments

Happy New Year, everyone!

Number One

The Nebraska Cornhuskers are the greatest college team in the history of all things Collegiate. They could beat the best Duke Basketball team by 40 points. They would have hit consecutive home runs over and over again off Roger Clemens when he was at Texas. If the Cornhuskers were a person, they would be Jesus. When they beat Michigan yesterday, it meant that they are going to be great for the rest of time. Other teams will have to start using handguns just to hang in against Nebraska. The same goes for my other favorite teams. The Baltimore Orioles will no doubt become unstoppable based on the results of the 2005 Alamo Bowl, and yes, so will the New Orleans Saints. The Saints will also move back to New Orleans, which will be completely recovered in the next 3 months. Thanks again Nebraska. For fixing everything.