Back From Ohio
I just got back from visiting relatives in Ohio for the holidays. It was nice to finally get back to Grandma's house and do the Christmas thing after missing out on it last year. There were some changes, but it looks like a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same in a way. I'm sure anyone with a family can understand what I'm talking about. Doing the Christmas thing remains fun, and seeing how it's my family, we all pigged out on ham and cookies.

We got to do some fun stuff too, like meet one of my Grandpa's old WW II buddies and go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. It was interesting to go to the hall because, seeing how Rock music and behavior has been pretty extreme from society for most of its existence, the Hall itself was quite the middle-of-the-road, family friendly affair. There was a ton of artifacts, my favorites included Jimi Hendrix's clothes and John Lennon's weird high school newspaper artciels.

Gift highlights included the Star Wars DVD set, a nice big coat and lots of Under Armor brand sportswear apparel (protect this house). Overall it ended up being a pretty long trip, full of enjoyment and laughter but also pain and anguish. Of course I'm talking about the Panthers losing to the Saints of all teams at home to miss a trip to the playoffs. Even worse, being in Ohio I couldn't watch the game, so I was stuck with monitoring the ticker every 5 seconds to see if the score changed. Not fun. It wasn't helped at all by my sister reminding me "it's just a game" every five seconds, yes, I know, it's just a game, thank you very much. Still, even though the Panthers lost, it's better than the Bills, who lost a must-win game to Pittsburgh's thrid-string scrubs.

Now I'm back in NC, and after slogging through a foot of snow in Ohio a week ago, it's 70 degrees outside and I'm wearing shorts and a T shirt.. Hmm.