Well, fall has managed to sneak up on me and I haven't posted in, probably, over a month. I'm a disgrace to the blogging community! Be that as it may I have decided to throw out a new family update to keep my diasporic friends and family informed. You can thank me later and, yes, I made up the word diasporic; sue me. No, please don't sue me I can't really afford to defend myself - in fact, just forget about the diaspora I suggested and focus, instead, on what follows. After my bad luck bike ride where I ended up with two broken chains and a flat I don't think I've made it back on the trails again even though I did replace my chain. I think I need to tweak a tooth on my second chain ring and thus I've been making excuses to not ride. Not only in blogging have I been a slacker. However, I have not just been sitting on my ass. No, I've been out playing ultimate frisbee again, which, truth be told, has been a blast. Sure, I've sucked - but I've had a lot of fun. I've played once or twice a week over the past three weeks and it has been a great change of pace. My left Achilles tendon doesn't care much for it - but the rest of me is feeling great. In a completely unrelated topic my website, WhyHuntington.com, is still going pretty strong. It has never gotten as many other contributors as I would have liked but it's going OK. Because of it I have been asked to speak at the Create WV Conference being held in Huntington Oct 18-20. I'll be a speaker in the Business Tracks session on "Why West Virginia?" This will probably be my largest speaking audience since High School Debate so hopefully I don't make an ass out of myself. Shannon and Emily are both busy with school; Shannon in 3rd grade and Emily in Kindergarten. They both have homework every friggen night which is a real drag. How much homework should a kindergartner have anyway? Granted, Emily needs to work a bit harder during the day, in school, but sheesh I'm not sure they both need to have so much to do every night. Shannon is working on a solid "C" in her conduct grade becuase she is such a screwball. She talks, pretends like she's sleeping, doesn't turn in homework - or tests for that matter - and is generally a non-model student in class. In large part this is our fault becuase I don't think we've really instilled much responsibility into her so now we are trying to think of some ways to get her to me more responsible. I'm not entirely sure where we are going with that but hopefully, in the long run, we'll pick a winning strategy. Emily, on the other hand, is no better. She doesn't really listen in class, does her own things, and makes up excuses for why she can't do things all the time instead of trying to figure out how she actually can do something. This whole parenting thing is no walk in the park let me tell you. Of course I have no idea how to make her not be a total slacker - but we are trying and hopefully, again, we'll figure out a good strategy for straightening her out a bit. Even with these past two paragraphs as evidence against the girls, in general, they kick ass. They are great. They both keep the house full of joy and creativity. If you're a friend of Lisa's on facebook you've undoubtedly seen some of the breakfasts they've made for her over the past few weekends. They crack me up. I'm pretty sure there still hasn't been a day in Shannon's life where she hasn't made me laugh and smile. Emily is super excited about her upcoming birthday and everyday she comes up with something else she wants. I don't think she'll be getting any of the things she has asked for. She knows her birthday is in the fall so when she heard fall started she was pretty certain it was her birthday. She cracks me up. Lisa just had her birthday and I threw her a surprise party to celebrate the birthday she had while I was in Hong Kong. While she had an inkling I was doing something she didn't realize the scope of the crowd that would be there so I partially surprised her which was cool. It is really hard to schedule, plan, and pull off a surprise party for another adult living in the same house. Especially if the party is in the house. The next time I try that I'll see if someone else will host it or I'll have it at a place. Lisa is working, working, working and hoping for good news around Thanksgiving when she will find out if her companies merger will leave her unemployed. Hopefully the new company realizes what an amazing asset she is and they keep her. Otherwise she will get to fulfill her second career dream (after being a pharma rep) of being a stay-at-home mom. If we thought the budget was tight now I can't imagine how frugal we'll have to become if that happens but I imagine we will figure out some way to work it out. I know our annual vacation will be on the kibosh, as will TV, internet, and any eating out ever. In fact we would probably have to sell our house and move to a much less expensive residence. It would be an interesting change of pace. Our babysitter has been pretty sick lately so Lisa has been with her at the Hospital a lot lately. She was diagnosed recently with several pulmonary embolism's so she was admitted to the Hospital a little over a week ago. Now she is on some blood thinners that are insanely expensive (for a variety of reasons). She also has no health insurance so, initially, we were really concerned about her financial health as well. Fantastically, the state of WV stepped up and gave her a medical card for the next six months which basically covers all of her medical costs. Every six months they will review her financial status to see if she still qualifies. What a great program! I know some of you may be bothered to see the government interfering in health care - but I think she is exactly the type of person who should be getting help. I'm sure there is a lot more I should be saying right now but I can't think of anything so hopefully this will be enough to sate your appetite for all things Rawlinson in Huntington.