It's Been a while. How Have You Been?

Ok, I've not been very good about posting the past few weeks. I have been busy and this will be a catch up post.

The week after Christmas I went to visit my best friend Patrick in Huntington, West Virginia. A lot of the week was spent just lounging around and playing video games, but there were certainly some highlights.

One night we went to a Marshall Basketball game against Binghampton. Marshall really dominated Binghampton on the court, which isn't surprising given the fact that the Binghampton basketball program imploded on itself only 1 1/2 years ago. However that wasn't the most important part of that night. Pat and I discovered the greatest human being to ever have existed in the history of human existence. His name is Jabbi and he is a Forward on Binghampton's basketball team. He is so great that he can punch someone on the court and not get ejected.

On New Year's Eve, we went to celebrate Patrick's Niece's 3rd birthday at a place call Gattiland* in Kentucky. Pretty standard little kid birthday stuff there. It was funny and cute when she didn't want to give up her tickets to exchange them for prizes.

After that and a trip to a liquor store we were back at Pat's place to celebrate the New Year. It was pretty low-key and fun and there certainly wasn't a giant awkward elephant in the room ;) This is as good a time as any to say this was in reference to something that happened that night.

You'll never find a better/more disgusting liquor than Goldenschlager. That is what I drank on New Year's Eve. After a shot of that you'll certainly know what heart burn feels like for a few minutes. For a liquor it does taste pretty good, but depending on your stomach it may also make you instantly nauseous. It does get easier after your first shot, but I can't really go a lot further than one shot**.

I took 3 shots that night, but they were pretty well spaced, so I wasn't ever too far gone. I took one at about 11, another after the ball dropped and one at about 2. Right before my final shot, Gandalf and Dumbledore came by and gave Pat a beer. I swear that Dumbledore performed a vanishing spell on it. I didn't dump it down the sink because Pat was already too drunk and I thought it was probably laced. It was the spell.

On New Year's Day, as you can imagine, I slept in pretty late. However that didn't stop us from taking a nap that afternoon when the games got boring. Although it turned into a 5 hour nap for Pat. When we were awake the day was spent watching sports. They brought me home the next day. It was an awesome trip!

The past two weeks, my Cousin, Taylor and his girlfriend, Sheryl from Arizona have been visiting. They flew in very early on Tuesday morning two weeks ago and left last Thursday. I hung out with them everyday of their visit/was their personal chauffeur ;)

Seriously, it was really nice to have them here. We spent loads of time playing games. We played Rummy, Clue, Scategories, Scrabble, and a few others. It was lots of fun and filled with many accusations of cheating. We also played in the snow. It's been a long time since I've played in the snow. It was awesome.

Last Saturday, we had a big family get together for a late Christmas. It was the first time that all the Grandchildren/my generation have been together in a long time. It was really nice to be together with everyone and hope that it won't be such a rarity in the future.

I've been sick for the past week. I'm getting better though. I backed way off on the medication today and am doing ok.

Ok, I'm going to get back into the regular blogging routine now. I only have one thing on my calendar for the next few weeks, so I guess things will be getting back to normal in my hermit life.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

*Imagine a redneck Chuck E. Cheese.
**I'm a lightweight