I am beginning my first blog the day after my 42nd birthday. That's right, yesterday was my birthday. Please hold all birthday wishes until next year, thank you. As this is my first blog, I will begin by stating a little about myself, and then hopefully move on to other topics and interests and comments about My World, My Life as the days progress and if anyone is mildly interested (which I will be able to ascertain by the number of "views" and "comments").

As stated, I am 42 years old and I have two children, a son 21 and daughter 19. My divorce was made official in January of 2008 after being seperated for a year before that. My ex-wife and I were married for 20 years. I had dated some immediately following the divorce but have since settled into a serious relationship with a very lovely young lady named Mary Rose who is 16 years my junior. I know some will think that was the catalyst for the divorce but those who think that will be very far from the truth; and I will leave it at that (at least for the time being). Mary Rose and I have one child (a puppy actually) together and her name is Nemesis, Neme (first e is short, second e is long, so it rhymes with Timmy). Neme was named by Mary Rose and my daughter, and is 1 year and 4 months old. She is a white Shar Pei with lots of wrinkles and a fun-loving personality. She is the sweetest thing and her momma, Mary Rose, treats her like her baby and spoils Neme to death.

Up until last week I was employed as the Area General Delivery Manager for a major retail chain that shall remain nameless (at least for the moment). So I have been officially unemployed for 2 weeks. It is not fun being unemployed - where is my "bailout"?

My interests are eclectic. I absolutely love football! American football that is, not that overseas soccer-bit. Football is the ultimate team sport. I served 5 years in the U.S. Army, and the military is the ultimate team responsibility, but it by far not a sport. Football is a sport, and the ultimate in team sports. Being from New Orleans, I am especially a Saints fan and LSU Tigers fan. But I follow all the teams and am heavily involved in Fantasy Football. In fact, I have been in a fantasy football league since the early 1990's and have won my league 10 times over the years. When I first got involved in fantasy football, the world wide web was in its early infancy and we used the Sports section of the local newspaper to tally up the scores. Now we participate online and have more information at our fingertips than we know what to do with.

I also love music and am not ashamed to say that I am a fan of American Idol. I enjoy all types of music: rock, classical, alternative, country, rap, etc. If is sounds good to the ear, I probably listen to it. Except "Pop" music! I am not very fond of "canned commercialized" noise that the record labels try to pass off as music. MTV in my opinion ruined good music. Good music can still be found and heard mind you; however, the majority of the "pop stars" out there are simply making money off of image and looks and not so much off of their voices. I blame MTV for this decline in what is considered music.

Politics! I keep up on politics as much as possible and have my own views on politics. I say own views because I am a registered Republican (for now). I am not a psuedo-Republican like so many you encounter these days; but a real Republican with real Republican views and values. I am not a right-wing fanatic conservative. I am not a fanatic at all; unless you are speaking of the New Orleans Saints or LSU Tigers, I am a fanatic of them! But I do not and will not vote along party lines just for the sake of my political party. I have voted for a Democrat a few times, as well as an Independent. Depends on the persons running and what they say and what they stand for and believe in. I make my own judgements and vote my conscience.

Reading and writing are also loves of mine. I read the newspaper everyday. I read all types of books: mystery, biographies, history, fiction, science fiction, I like to read them all. Several years ago I bought the first Harry Potter book for my children to read, and ended up reading it myself. I have since read them all as they are very interesting and a wonderfully delightful read. J.K. Rowling is a literary genius. I am no where near her league (very few are in fact) but I also like to dabble in writing. I enjoy writing articles, poems, and stories; and I am comtemplating writing a screenplay (which I may expound upon later) since I have a couple of ideas that I think would be entertaining.

While I do not have the monetary means to play as often as I would like, I am also a huge Texas Hold'em poker nut. I will play the best if they would pony up my "buy in". I did enter a local tournament last year and ended up coming in 3rd place out of over 600 players. I played really well, got lucky a few times to stay alive in the tournament and thought I would win it all. But alas, as it got down to just us final 3 players left and my chip stack was dwindling, I folded a hand that would have eventually flopped a set (three of a kind) and I would have been the chip leader at that point; it wasn't meant to be, I did fold the hand, and came in 3rd place - not bad for my first and only tournament though.

I have a few bad habits also. I smoke and drink lots of coffee daily. Both of those habits I acquired while in the Army. And, I do love the occasional glass (or glasses) of wine. The pinots are my favorites. I did not acquire the wine drinking while in the Army. I acquired the wine drinking due to living in New Orleans. One can pick up quite a few bad habits being in New Orleans - but New Orleans can also be a very fascinating place to live.

So, that is just a little about me. I can be quite complicated at times, although it seemed to be quite easy to write those little tidbits about myself. I hope this is the beginning of many, many more blogs than most will find, at some time or another, interesting, entertaining, thought provoking, moving, conversational, controversial, and/or simply just something to read to pass the time.

Please feel free to comment, ask a question, or request a topic.  Thank you!