So January is almost gone.....thankfully. I'm honesly just not much of a fan for the holiday season anymore. There was a time where it was magical and when we actually got SNOW!!! But these days, Dec/Jan is just a time for me to try and get past......this year especially.

Work is busy busy as usual now that I'm working on 6 courses and a major website overhaul. Oh and that doesn't include the day-to-day stuff that comes along as well. Busy is good, right?

Probably the biggest improvement to my quality of life lately has been the acquisition and implementation of a new portable heater in my bedroom!!!! When the temperature outside is ZERO degrees or below, it's REALLY cold in there. So luckily I was able to find some on sale the other night at Target......got one for me and one for Dave since his room is equally frigid these days. This apartment is proving to be highly inefficient and hopefully Feb won't be as bad as they're predicting.

Got the lease for my new place and I'll send that in soon. Its a bit smaller than where I am now, but since it'll likely just be me, that should be plenty of space for now. It's a small apartment that sort of a house, so I have extra storage upstairs for the furniture I won't be using and has 2 bedrooms so that I can still have a separate office/guest room (yes, for game weekends). No yard to really speak of, but that's ok. A nice little deck/porch area for the grill and I'll be fine. The best part is that I'll have a place to practice again....whenever I want!!! AND...I've already called dibs on the larger, nicer house next door that is only $100 more than this place! It's got nearly 2x the space with a nice patio and some yard. The new landlords seem really nice (FINALLY!) and I won't have to give any more money to TNT Flinchum!

Ok, enough rambling here. My video compression is done, so back to work.....

Hope everyone's New Year has been good thus far. Mine has been a bit up and down, but lives are moving forward and I guess that's all you can really ask for. Work is picking up quite a bit now with the new course load for the upcoming summer sessions.....gonna be a bit crazy for the next few months, but that's how it goes!!

Got some playing engagements coming up (quintet, solo and duet) so it's time to blow the dust of the horns and get back on the horse!!!!

I'm really excited that I just recently found out that I'll be getting a new Macbook Pro!!! I can't wait to finally have ONE computer for all of my needs!!! I'll still be using my slew of Mac's at home for other purposes, but finally being able to do all of my work tasks on ONE machine.....who'da thunk it?

Well, back to cleaning up for tonight's social activities.......how's it feel, Jaime? Feel any older? Welcome to the club, darling....

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY, JAIME!!!

After a very long week of agonizing, this weekend turned out to be much better. I got to watch the Hokies whoop up on UNC after sticking it to Duke last weekend!! Some amazing basketball going on here in Blacksburg these days! Dave had some of his friends in for the weekend, so we hit the town last night to celebrate the win and a birthday! It was a really good time and just what I needed.....a few drinks with old friends and made some new ones. And today has been a really great, lazy Sunday. Ah if it could always be like this.......

So back to the grind tomorrow. Busy semester coming up with work stuff. I'm not starting the masters this semester after all--I'm just going to be too busy with work and can't afford to compromise my studies or my job performance. So I'll put it off until the Fall and that's fine.

Thanks for all the kinds words/messages/phone calls lately.....I'm blessed to have so many people around me that care so much for me and my family.