Olympus Mons, the largest mountain in the Solar System, is 16.7 miles high

I write again! My three week vacation is over. So many things happened. Some of these things were horrendous, but a great many were stupendous. I shall not write about them all. You already know about some of the horrendous (my Dec 12th post), but for more, see my wife's blog (Dec 27th post). As for the stupendous, here is a bullet list of the highlights:

- I spent a lot of time together with Bridget
- I spent a lot of quality time with my family
- I enjoyed excellent food
- I saw old friends which I have not seen in a very long time
- I met a baby named Oscar
- I walked in the snow
- I got lot of exciting gifts
- I watched some Star Trek with Bridget
- I met two extremely fat cats named Sam and Jason
- I watched good movies

After all of this, coming home is emotionally confusing. It is home, because it has Maddy and Koshka, and it has all of my stuff. However, it is missing Bridget, and it is so far away from my family. It also has my awful upstairs neighbor who stomps around at 12:30 am above me, and sings and plays his shitty music all day and night.

But wait! A solution to this mess was recently discovered! Are you ready for it - the most stupendous thing that happened that I failed to put in the bullet list? OK, here goes: Bridget got a JOB in SEATTLE over the holidays!

W W H H OOOO H H OOOO OOOO !!
W W H H O O H H O O O O !!
W W W HHHH O O == HHHH O O O O !!
W W W H H O O H H O O O O
WW WW H H OOOO H H OOOO OOOO !!

Bridget got a job offer at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on the 23rd, an early Christmas gift! She had only a few days to decide, which was a little crazy. You see, this is a good job, and would likely be one of her top picks. But, by accepting it, she was closing the door on other job opportunities in Seattle, at least one of which ranked higher in her ideal job list. BUT, this was a guaranteed job in Seattle, and the other jobs had no such guarantee. The goal was to get a job in Seattle so we could be together, but she needed to make sure it actually was a good job. She used her sleuthing skills, and luckily, she decided it was! So THAT MEANS WE WILL LIVE TOGETHER AGAIN IN JUST 6 MONTHS!

W W H H OOOO H H OOOO OOOO !!
W W H H O O H H O O O O !!
W W W HHHH O O == HHHH O O O O !!
W W W H H O O H H O O O O
WW WW H H OOOO H H OOOO OOOO !!

Thus, Maddy and Koshka and I will muddle through for the next 6 months, knowing that we get our wishes granted at the end. There is no God, but life is sometimes good nonetheless.

I leave you with one last thing of note. On New Year's Eve, Bridget and I decided to celebrate the end of the decade with a midnight 5k race! It started at 11:59 pm, so we were running as the New Year came to be! It was fun. It was a little weird running at midnight, but pretty cool too. It reminded me that exercise and staying healthy is an important part of our lives together, and that made me feel good.

Maddy says hello.