Excuses, excuses

Just so that Jenny doesn't give me a hard time for not blogging in nearly a month, I figured I'd post. She was actually counting down the days a while ago when Tom went almost a month without a post - she was going to post a Congratulations on Your Month of NOTHING message.

We're back in business now that we replaced the keyboard Liam ruined by spilling water on it. Ok, so that just happened this morning, but it's the closest thing to an excuse I have for not blogging.

I have read several books lately, though. The Good Earth by Pearl Buck and Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. The first one is a classic 20th century fiction...about a Chinese peasant's life. The second is a non-fiction work relating the author's experience climbing Mount Everest in 1996 on an expedition in which 12 people died. I had read an article in Outdoor magazine that peaked (pun intended) my interest in Mount Everest. It was really a good read (finished in a day and a half). I then started one today called Touching My Father's Spirit written by the son of Tenzing Sherpa, the first man who reached the summit in 1953 with Sir Edward Hillary.

Speaking of reading, we went to story time at the library with Jenny, Nate and Liam yesterday (since I'm on vacation this week). Jenny and I had to laugh because it was at the library in our old neighborhood in Prairie Village. That's not why we laughed; PV is a very wealthy part of town and we got a kick out of watching all the sorority girls turned soccer moms and eavesdropping on their "keeping up with the Jones'" conversations. It made us realize again that we made the right choice by moving to the area of town we did. We feel much more down-to-earth here.

I'm growing my beard out this week since I don't have to shave for work. Coming along very nicely. That coupled with reading about conquring the highest place on earth have made me feel very tough. Maybe I'll go look for something to build, or just settle for hanging Christmas lights.