That’s right folks, its time for our monthly news update. I remember back when we first got started the goal was two to three per week, but now our policy is at least once each month, so here it is.

First off, I’d like to thank everyone once again for coming to our latest Halo party. We had a good time and hope you did too. We shall do it again hopefully sooner than later. Secondly, things have changed a bit for me lately. I quit my job recently and went full time with the consulting gig I had been doing for the past year. For those who didn’t know, I have been working on websites specifically for real estate brokers and agents, setting up MLS data feeds, and working on some other top secret projects. I enjoy the work and the best part is I get to work from home. I was a little worried that I would have a hard time staying focused with distractions around the house, but it has gone pretty well so far. I have a fairly unproductive assistant, a fancy new laptop which beats the pants off my 5 year old desktop, and my morning commute went from 25 minutes to 15 seconds. It does suck to be in the house all day, but I often find an excuse to go and and run an errand or two during "lunch". In other news, some of you might have seen last night that we no longer have a big tree in the front yard providing shade, extensive home repairs, and hours of leaf-raking chores. After half of the bradford pear fell on our house a few months ago, we noticed it wasn’t looking so healthy. Since then, a fairly large branch had started to split and was threatening the street where our neighbors park at least one of their dozen cars. It was time to put this tree out of its misery. We took some pictures to post, but they seem to be missing from the camera. This is unfortunate, but I think that they may have been exported to Mike’s mom’s computer. We will post them when we get them.

WARNING: The following content is basically a rant about recent sports events that have not made me happy. Feel free to stop reading at any time

In sports news, it has been two crappy weekends in football if you are a fan of the NC State Wolfpack or the Carolina Panthers. I am a fan of both, so I am a little pissed off. NC State’s only win this season was the opener against Division 1-AA Appalachain State. Granted, they were the 1-AA national champions last year, but a lot of that talent graduated and it was a closer game than the score made it out to be. The last two games have been labled "upsets" (both losses) and this past one was just ugly. I know we lost three defensive players to the first round of the NFL draft, and 6 players overall, but dammit 6 turnovers in 2 games is unacceptable. Our offense has been crap since Philip Rivers left, even though there has been other talent that is capable of doing better.

The Panthers just ruined my Sunday of football viewing by losing their second game (now 0-2) to the Vikings. Not that everything is his fault, but I hate Jake Delhomme. I especially hate his stupid commercials. I wish I could watch one game without seeing his stupid tougue hanging out of his mouth like a rabid dog. But more than Jake, I hate all the hype the Panthers got in the offseason about going to the Superbowl this year. They may still be able to get something going, especially when Steve Smith gets healthy, but as of now they are embarassing. I’ll go ahead and call the Chicago Bears as one team that makes it to the Superbowl. I’ll be sure to link back to this post in February. Sorry for that big chunk of sports rant, but I was too lazy to make in into a rant. If you read this far, give yourself a pat on the back!