Happy New Year!

Quite a few things to follow up on today.

First, here's a pic taken on Christmas of me holding my newest baby cousin.
Her name is Sophie, and she's the first child in my family born of my generation.
But boy do I feel old....she happens to be the child of my now former "baby cousin".
Funny, it didn't really hit me until Christmas day, but we just recently lost the last of the "elders" of the family, and it occurred to me that my mom and her generation of cousins are now the elders of the family. It was a strange thought to say the least. The timeline has definitely shifted.

The job situation.....I finally cleared all the hurdles for Schwan's, so that's done. I gave two weeks notice at Kraft and I start Schwan's on the 9th. Considering that I had originally wanted to take this week off, I expect the next 4 days to be as minimally productive as possible.

Football....the Dolphins had their best finish in 20 years. They missed the playoffs, but finished 9-7 after starting 3-7, and ended up just one game behind division winner New England. Not bad for a team that went 4-12 last year. Btw, that Monday night game I went to a couple weeks ago was a fun time. The game sucked (48-3 blowout), but still a good time. The picture at left is of a portable "tap" of beer that they bring to your table. It was in the bar in the hotel in Baltimore. I never saw one before, I thought it was pretty cool.

Christmas was very good for me this year. Got some really nice gifts, with the best being a Garmin StreetPilot 2720. This thing is so cool. Not only is it incredibly accurate, but it also tells you how fast you're going and what time you will arrive at your destination at your current pace. One thing that really comes in handy is knowing the distance until your next turn/exit. I have said to people though, that with all this technology, if "big brother" really is watching, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Finally, I've been seeing a woman for almost a month now. She's really cool, and we have a lot in common. She likes sports and more importantly, has a genuine passion for music, which is something I've found to be incredibly rare in women. Anyway, we have a lot of fun together, and I'm looking forward to some good times with her. The potential downside is that she's made it clear that she's the type that has no desire to ever "settle down" with anyone. That includes living with someone. She enjoys being self-sufficient and only wants to have someone to have fun times with and hang out with. Her long term goals are obviously different than mine when it comes to relationships, but hey, I respect that she's given me no misconceptions about it, and I figure I should at least enjoy it as long as I can. I don't think my feelings will ever change, in that I do eventually want to find someone that I can come home to, but there's no reason I should be lonely before I meet that person. :-) Besides, she's incredibly attractive, and even better, tells me how incredibly handsome I am. :-)

Happy New Year indeed!

Eight months, two weeks, five days
10528 cigarettes not smoked, saving $2,632.49
Life saved: 5 weeks, 1 day