In other news:

- I have started playing classical guitar, and I love it.

- At the end of April I am going to California for four and a half days.

- July 1st – July 10th Kelly and I will be going to California for a costal adventure. We are going to be starting in San Diego and end up in San Francisco.

- I’m still roller skating. A lot of the thrill is gone, but I still do it.

So that is about it for now. I have more to say, but I don’t want to do it right now. But I also wanted everyone to know that I am still alive, and Smackie isn’t doomed to death.

So like I said earlier, this was actually a really good year. This is a year where I saw Paris. PARIS! I went to Bruges, which is the single most amazing place I’ve ever been. With the possible exception of Paris. What is there to complain about in a year when things like that happen? I should reiterate how good my trip to Europe was. Despite the fact that I missed out on Amsterdam, I saw a lot, and had a really good time. I was thinking about the soccer game that I went to the other day. That was a trip that I will probably think about for the rest of my life.

And right after I got back from Europe, I got engaged. How can I complain about a year where I got engaged? And then just a few months later, I got married. MARRIED! I still can’t believe that I got married. And got married to someone who is really damn awesome. Someone so awesome that it almost makes me feel bad when I read or hear about stereotypical bad marriages and bad wives. Because I don’t have that at all. I’ve got it really, really good. And I’m pretty sure that we had the best wedding in the history of weddings. Rollerskating, cake, and deer. I don’t know what else you need.

Speaking of roller skating, I got first place in my event at Regionals. Again, it would feel wrong to write a bitchy letter when I had a year where something like that happened. And even though I totally tanked and sucked at Nationals, I still went and competed, and made a comeback at my next event by taking two second places.

Oh, and somewhere in all of that, we remodeled our bathroom and have the most kickass bathroom in the world. If you had ever been to my house and seen the old bathroom, you knew how bad it was. Well the new one is probably a million times better than that one.

But since people like the bad stuff, I guess I can throw some of that in as well. Mom and Dad still haven’t sold their house. So that means we won’t be going to Disney World anytime soon, which is a pretty selfish way of looking at it, but I know that I’m not the only one with that view of the situation. And Kelly and I found out that her house is worth significantly less than she owes on it. So we’ve had to rent it out, which has been good for money reasons, but not so good for stress reasons.

And I guess in the process of ripping out the bathroom, we destroyed the kitchen, so we’ve basically been living without a functioning kitchen for close to a year now. But you know what? That is about to get remodeled too, so it is hard to complain too long for that.

So yeah. This has been a really damn good year. I know that things are hard out there for a lot of people. I know that the world isn’t a terribly happy place. And if you follow the links I post on Facebook, you’ll see that I’m getting more and more frustrated with our government, and even our system of governing. But still, I think all of that is pretty inconsequential in light of all of the good things that I’ve had happen to me this year, and so at least for the last little bit of 2010 I’m going to choose to focus on those things, and not so much on the bad things.

The biggest thanks go to my parents, for financing such a large part of it. Kelly and I are deeply, deeply grateful.

And then I also have to thank Kelly, who in agreeing to marry me, got more of it paid for than we were originally planning on. Yay wedding gift!

Pictures will be coming shortly, although I know that they won’t do it justice. Especially since I think I forgot to take any “before” pictures. Honestly, though, I think it is best to not think about the “before” and just be happy with the “now”.

Well anyway, since I’m such a “not fan” of lawn mowing, I don’t really do it that often. Which leads to another problem. That when I do get around to doing it, it is about a million times worse than it probably would be if I’d do it in some sort of regular fashion.

Last night, for instance, I mowed my back yard. And there were weeds growing back there that were 4 feet tall, with a “trunk” an inch wide. That is a big ass weed. But the grass itself wasn’t even that tall. So I wasn’t really even mowing grass. Just mowing big stupid weeds.

Anyway, the point of this, is that I am taking applications if anyone would like to be my lawnmower. The pay is non-existent, and honestly, I’m not very nice, so you probably won’t get a lot of thanks. But you will have the satisfaction of a job well done! And really, you don’t even have to do that good a job, because I don’t care.

So just leave a comment or something saying that you’d like to be my lawn mower, and I’m sure that we can work something out.