I'm Alive, in case you were wondering.

Wow, this has been a long blog break. Two weeks since my last post.

My head has been empty. Or maybe it has been too cluttered.

Hannah's soccer season ended with a big bang and Georgia's began with one, all in the same 2 weekends. Hannah's friends have outcast her from their inner circle. She is being stalked by a lesbian named PeeDee and she eats lunch with a pregnant seventh grader because like Hannah, the twelve year-old pregnant chick is also an outcast. Hannah came home today wearing two different shoes. I asked her whose shoe she was wearing and she told me, "It belongs to my friend James." Thirteen is a weird age and it is much too difficult for me to understand.

Thank God for sweet, simple nine year-olds. Georgia took a math test this week after she missed a whole week of school last week, so she was a little confused with the material. No worries. She wrote at the top of each page: "GO FSU! SEMINOLES #1!" because Florida State is Mrs. Davis's favorite team. She got extra credit! What a clever child. To steal one of my dad's favorite phrases: There are no flies on her.

Speaking of my father, Georgia wrote him a letter today. It said something like this:
Bubba Jim, please stop smoking or you will DIE. Watch out! Love, Georgia.

Mitch Ultra is due for promotion soon. One more month of financial dire straits, and finally, he will get the big LTC pay raise. Georgia asked me today if we were poor and I told her, "We are house poor. We bought a home we could not afford and now we have no money for anything else." And she said, "Well at least we aren't homeless. But it sucks being poor."

Indeed, it does. I could really use a new pair of shoes.

Casey is doing fine except that he got attacked by ants this weekend. Poor little guy. We were at a soccer game in Venice. That is, Venice, Florida. On the way home we stopped at an Italian Market called Angelo's, which reminded me of the Italian markets on Federal Hill and the North End in Boston. I got a bottle of Fragolino and a few bags of pasta, we ate stromboli, and the wine guy gave me a taste of a Montepulciano that pleased me, so I bought a bottle of that too. I am saving it for a special occasion. I can't wait to go back to Venice with Mitch. Apparently, the beach is only 2 miles to the west, and it is the Shark Tooth Capital of the United States.

Tonight is the first night of the World Series, Phillies vs. Yankees. All I can say is GO PHILLIES. I can't stand the Yankees and any team that beats them is a good team in my book. But the way things have been going for me lately, I'm sure the Yankees will win.

Halloween is such a fun time of year, but the candy is evil. I don't know why I buy the kind I like. I should stick to bubble gum and Tootsie Pops, but those miniature Snickers get me every year. At least I avoided the Reese's pumpkins, my all time favorite Halloween treat.

This weekend we are going to a party on Friday followed by trick or treating on Saturday. Georgia will be a Bumblebee and Casey will be a Power Ranger (again) and Hannah, well...she will probably spend the night in her bedroom hiding from PeeDee and her wicked ex-friends. Unless James shows up looking for his shoe.

And that's my five minute wrap of the past two weeks. Goodnight and Good Luck.