...let's hope for a Happy New Year!

Monica & Friends... Flying High

This QT pie is my oldest daughter, Monica. She recently flew charter flights for the Miami Dolphins and the Florida Gators and sent me these photos. If you are football fans, you will probably recognize most of these guys. My brilliant friend and mentor, Mohawk Chieftain, was kind enough to put these photos on my blog, after I once again demonstrated my inability to do little more on the computer but turn it on and off.

I can't believe over a month has passed since I last spilled my guts on my blog space. In fact, probably more like two months. During that time Mallory, Matthew and I all completed our finals for the semester. Mallory got A's and B+'s in her hideously difficult classes...organic chemistry, physics, and genetics. This next semester is going to be even worse, with five classes of this caliber. Did I mention that she intends to go on to dental school?

Matthew could have done much better (he got one A, one B, and two C,s in his fire science classes) if he'd bothered to study.

I have managed to drag my average back up to 3.939...a B in psychology a couple of semesters ago "f-ed" up my 4.0. But my classes are in early childhood education and don't compare to the stuff that Mallory is learning. But again, to be fair to me, I'm working with a much older, worn-out, and used up brain.

We are still operating with one car since Scott's truck was a total loss after the taxi rammed him at a stoplight back in September. It remains to be seen if there will be any favorable insurance settlement. In the 23 years we've been married, I have seen Scott take exactly two aspirin...once for a really bad case of tonsilitis in 1983, and once when he had one too many beers at a 50s & 60s party in about 1989. So it makes me very nervous to see him taking aspirin every day, seeing a doctor, and still be obviously in pain.

Our home is quiet and empty since we had our sweet Pokey (our 15 1/2 year old Pekingese) euthanized in November. All of us just can't get used to not seeing him lying in his favorite spot. We miss hearing him barking at anyone who comes to the door. And nobody has used the back door since the last time we let him out to use the bathroom, before we took him in to his doctor for the last time. His marble urn containing his ashes is up on top of the book case, next to Mama's urn (our Tibetan spaniel who died in 1980), and Tweetie Pie's urn (Mallory's parakeet who passed away about 5 years ago). My granddaughters want to have a funeral for all three the next time they come to visit. I think this is a good idea. It will give us "closure", and give me three fewer things to dust.

Well, now that the elections are over...thank goodness no more "Macaca" Allen...I hope that things will change in Washington. It's always good to hope for the best, while still being realistic enough to expect the worst. I hope Jim Webb makes good decisions, because I voted for him. If he's as big a prickmeister as Allen was, I will be totally disgusted. I want fundamentalist crapola out of government. I say YES to stem cell research, YES to election reforms, YES to same-sex marriage (leave these people alone...politicians should concern themselves with the safety and security of our country, and keep their noses out of people's private lives), YES to enforcing current immigration laws, while remembering we are a nation of immigrants, YES to giving the people in Iraq the tools necessary to self-govern, and bring our sons and daughters home from this frigging mess they got dragged into. YES to stronger punishments for sex offenders, particularly pedophiles and child molesters, and release prisoners from jail who are there for stupid drug offenses. YES to anything that will educate kids. YES to raising the minimum wage. YES to making Congress have the same insurance or social security and retirement stuff the rest of us have to deal with. YES to higher taxes to corporations that leave American workers high and dry while opening up offices and factories in 3rd world countries. YES to kicking ass in Darfur and sending $$$ and help to those poor people. YES to comprehensive sex education. Global warming is a reality... YES to anything we need to do to try to turn it around.

I'm going to go nibble on some leftover Christmas cookies.









Monica and her flight crew

















Monica and the "bunch" ..including Jeff Zgonina's left eye (defensive tackle) and Dave Hack (video director)





Monica with Zack Thomas (linebacker)





Monica with Tony Egues (equipment manager -->)





Monica & Marty Booker (wide receiver)





Monica, Sammy Morris (running back) and Derrick Pope (line backer)









Monica & Ronnie Brown (running back)