Update

Things have been busy, busy, busy. Derek keeps telling me to update the blog...so here goes (but no pictures - sorry).

Helen is enjoying her weekly tennis group on Tuesday evenings. She's been playing with a core group of 8 or 10 ladies for a couple years now. They compete in a low key "Calcutta" style round robin tournament for 8 weeks or so. Helen usually feels too tired or too "something" each week and tries to wriggle out of it, but once she gets out there she has fun. I always point out to her that she'll screw up the tournament if she doesn't show. The ladies have been very nice and brought us a couple of dinners to help out while we have taken care of our nieces.

The boys have soccer practice on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and games on Saturday. I'm the coach of Adam's team. We picked up a couple of players with a clue, so that helped. It's still hard to stomach sometimes...pass the ball...kick the ball...it's right in front of you...run...hustle...pay attention...get your head out of your *** (I wish). Both boys seem to really enjoy it. Adam still falls down all the time. Derek still hates offense.

My tennis team is hanging in there and should make it to the playoffs. We have a lot of players, but can't seem to get many wins at the bottom of the lineup. As the captain, I'm trying to get everyone some playing time, but you gotta win if you're playing at the bottom.

My Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets have been a pleasant surprise. I like the new coach's hard-ass attitude. Unfortunately, the only game I really watched was the only loss and I almost blew a gasket at all the mistakes.

I'm also continuing to deal with all the contractors on our home improvement projects. It's crazy how many different opinions you get from so-called experts. I'm trying to move forward, but there's so many variables - it's paralyzing. I prefer to keep myself "disengaged" most of the time for that very reason - you can spend a lot of time spinning your wheels.

Our niece, Lindsay, has been coming over on weekends while her Mom and Dad recuperate. Mom and Dad are doing well. That means hand-offs from Helen's parents on Friday and Sunday nights. We're getting a break this weekend - Lindsay is staying with her Aunt Pat. We've really enjoyed our time with her, but it's nice to get a break. Derek told me a couple weeks ago that it's been fun having Lindsay over, but he's ready to just be back to our immediate family. I'm sure Lindsay would rather get back to her immediate family as well. We're all just craving some down time.

Since we don't have to wait around for the Lindsay hand-off we're going to the high school football game tonight - yeah! It's always big fun for us boys - not so much for Helen, but she wants to be with her family.

I've also been very distracted by all this financial meltdown stuff. I'm a business\money news junkie anyway, so this has been debilitatingly addictive. It's like a train-wreck that I just can't take my eyes off of. I've been reading stuff like this, this, and this for over a year about how bad things could get. I remember telling Helen all this stuff (she can only take so much) and how I felt so burdened by it while almost everyone else was just running around in ignorant bliss. These are truly historic times - not good historic mind you, but historic nevertheless. For a laissez-faire, Libertarian, live within your means, capitalist like myself it's disgusting to see what we've become...comrade. Let it burn. Being in the mortgage software industry, I've been experiencing the meltdown firsthand. Luckily, we were bought by a big company last year...maybe I'll make it through, but it's not looking good.