--107 days.

--Regardless of what anyone else thinks...I love snow! :)

--108 days.

--OK, I don't know what it was supposed to say, but I got, as a reference, a copy of our issue's highlights (for advertisers to read and decide if they want to advertise in that issue or not) from one year ago this month. I got it to refer to a similar story that was running again this year. So I'm reading through it, and there's a list of m e a t p r o c e s s o r s to be featured in one story. So I'm reading, and it's cool...but then, the fourth company down is named W o l f s h i t s. I'm dead serious. I immediately started laughing my ass off--I couldn't help it. So I had to share it with several of my contemporaries, and it was so freakin' hilarious...I tried searching (and so did they, which is why I've put the spaces in there) for the company, thinking, "Man, if this company really exists, we HAVE to do a feature on them. We MUST!" But I couldn't find anything even remotely close...so, I'm going to ask the guy who worked on the magazine then who it was supposed to be, and give him a good laugh about the typo. Why can we laugh? It was a published material...just a reference sheet, of sorts. But it was too funny...

--109 days.

--Boy, I have to say, there is no better feeling than paying off a credit card. None. Today, I mailed out the check for my worst-interest-rate credit card, which I've had since 1997 and foolishly, in my youth, bought all kinds of crap I didn't need and Christmas presents way out of my league and all that other stuff that comes with experiencing what a young man might perceive as "financial freedom" for the first time. I'm sure some, if not many of you, did the same. I was an idiot, and I hope that, if I have children someday, I can impress upon them the importance of NOT doing that to themselves. This is a huge step in my life, and within the year, I should have ALL of my debts wiped out. Of course, I very much have Gina to thank for a lot of that. Although I have been on the right track (i.e., I haven't used this card for more than a year, and I've been putting a lot more into each payment than the minimum) for quite a while now, a financial boost from her has helped get me there faster. In other words, I'd have gotten the things paid off sooner than later, but with her help, God bless her I love her to death for this, I can get things taken care of faster. And, it's not that she's rich...It's just that, unlike me, she was wise about money her whole life. So thank God for my Sugar Mama. ;)

--I'm still thinking of a new schtick...I have an idea, but I'll have to ruminate a bit and think about if it's possible to do. But we'll see, I guess.

--You know, I never thought picking a Mother/Son dance song for the wedding would be tough, yet it is...and I'm quite close to my Mom. But we've been bouncing songs back and forth off each other and nothing's really stood out, like, "Yeah! That's perfect!" We have good candidates, and one really good possibility. But we'll keep trying, I guess. :) Question on this though, for you guys: If a song mentions the son by name, but not my name, in one line in a verse, does it take away from the rest of the song and make it "unworthy" of the moment? This is important (to a point, I understand that), because I'd love to use this song, but it calls the son out by name in one line. What do you think?

--Meanwhile, I'm taking unofficial applications for "Closest Table to the Bar(s)" for the wedding. What would YOU do in order to sit mere steps from one of the two well-stocked, top-shelf bars at the wedding? :) Be as creative as possible...creativity wins out here. Though it doesn't win a guarantee that you'll be sitting there. I might want you guys closer to the head table. ;) awww...

--110 days.

--I'm thinking of incorporating a new schtick, myself, into the above countdown, given that we're approaching the century mark. Stay tuned if I get any ideas. If not, well, enjoy the last of the countdown. :)

--Well, the luck of the Irish was with me yesterday, on the biggest non-Irish holiday there is. For 35 years or so, the church that my future sister-in-law's family attends has had a Men's Club Corned Beef & Cabbage Dinner on the third Monday of January (more on that later). I've gone two years in a row now, and both times, my brother and I have come up big winners in the raffle. The prize I picked last year was no great shakes, but Tim got this huge old Soldier Field mirror--he was being offered hundreds and hundreds of dollars for it on the spot. I won a smaller Corona mirror, which was nice, in and of itself. This year, though, we both came up big. In the "big stakes" raffle, the first number was called, and then my number was called (it operates like a door-prize raffle, though the prizes are not wrapped--you pick what you want from a table if your number is called). The first guy took a set of Bulls tickets (ha ha!), leaving me with exactly what I was eyeing the moment I sat down: This really, really nice Black & Decker workbench. Awesome! So I have a nice little workbench that I can use sparingly in the condo, but very much so when I get a house someday. It's one less piece of equipment I have to buy. One of Tim's tickets was called soon after that, and he chose a double set of those canvas "lawnchairs," but with a fabric cooler between them and an umbrella that attached to the back for shade. Nice prize, no doubt.
Now, next year, for the first time, it will not be held on the third Monday of January, because that is MLK Jr. Day, obviously. The church just got a new pastor, and he came in and said that having the dinner that day was disrespectful (how, I don't know...it wasn't like it was some sort of exclusive thing...but that's beside the point) and that the date would have to be changed in the future, even though it's not like they scheduled the dinner on MLK Day to spite anyone or any ideals--it was in existence long before the third Monday in January became MLK Day. They're changing it, but I'm just a little bit confused by the decree that was given...it was a pretty interesting thing to hear, in my opinion. I can't say I really care that the day is going to change--doesn't bother me at all, either way. It was just an interesting dynamic to me...

--On Saturday, I was all set to go look at tuxedos and probably settle on them, after I was going to go to a hobby shop out in Elmhurst. Well, on the way to Elmhurst, my car nearly overheated and the power steering went out. Long story short, the tensioner for the serpentine belt broke, and the belt fell off and got all chewed up. I wanted to replace the belt, but no such luck, since the pulley on the tensioner had worn down badly. So I had to have the car towed from Melrose Park to my condo, and now I'm car-free for a while, until my Dad can come up and take a look at it. It's a damn good thing I can take the train to work...So, I never made it to the tuxedo place.

--Also Saturday, I played broomball for the first time, at a birthday party for one of Gina's friends. It was cool...and it made me miss floor hockey. Except when I tried to run around like a psycho on the ice and nearly passed out after the first five minutes of trying that. I gotta work on getting back into shape...floor hockey would do that, for sure. :) Hint, hint. Maybe we should investigate getting the band back together?

--Other than that stuff, getting my invitation lists and all that other good stuff finalized, as well as designing the table cards for the reception and the program for the ceremony, have been priorities right now. I'm staying well ahead of the game, which is a good thing. My invite list is finalized, and I've even assigned tables to everyone, whether they're coming or not. Microsoft Excel is a fantastic program for that type of thing, let me tell you. It'll be nice, because as folks RSVP that they aren't coming, I can just delete them off a table and cut and paste others in, where necessary. So, it's nice to have my table assignments done in advance...it'll make life easier later.

--We've also been working on making our music request list for the DJ, which has not been all that easy. We've got our first dance song, no sweat, and Gina has her Daddy-Daughter song picked too. But my Mom and I are still looking for ours...and that hasn't been all that easy. There hasn't been anything that's completely and totally stood out. Aside from those "special" moments of the reception, we have a long list of songs we'd like to hear throughout the night for dancing, and that's going to be tough, because we'll have to narrow it down quite a bit...I'd like to give the DJ some flexibility, rather than a big, long list to cover the whole night. But, we'll see how that goes...

--Ah well, that's enough for now...I should get back to work.