Simple Gifts

This year, I'm thankful for my sons, for health, and happiness... even if I'm not exactly at my happiest at the moment. I'm thankful for having met most of my early goals in life, and hopeful that I'll meet most of my remaining goals.

I'm thankful for family - my mom, and brothers 'back East'. My nieces and nephews - both my brother's sons & daughters, and my niece-and-nephew in-laws - I'm still the father of their cousins whether they like it or not, and I appreciate each of them - they're great kids.

Thank God for the ability to start over... I'm thankful that I have a job in this time when unemployment is over 10%. I'm thankful that I could take my high-tech skills, and work for many companies in the area. I'm hopeful that the current project I'm working on will lead to many new and interesting projects on middle-tier, and handset (iPhone/Blackberry) applications [I'm following a widget called 'Swype' which I think could revolutionize the handset / tablet-PC, and would LOVE to be a part of THAT revolution's evolution].

I'm thankful for the ability to muster up a shred of optimism amidst all the problems I deal with - budget worries, struggling paycheck-to-paycheck, watching my new investment nest-egg grow, shepherding my sons' custodial accounts toward their college educations.

And I'm thankful that I'm still plugging away at that QWERTY... thing. Oh, sure... I'm staring at the glowing rectangle FAR too much - more than 8 hours a day, and that can NOT be healthy... but hey... it's a living.

I'm thankful for Kayla - my dog / daughter / girl-friend... well... she *THINKS* she's my girlfriend, and I hate to break the news to her. She's the 'alpha-bitch' (literally!) of the house, and she knows it. But she's a PRETTY GIRL... and I remind her of it every chance I get.