First post!

So...my first post. How terribly exciting for you all. I suppose that what I'm supposed to do here is write about myself, so you all can see just what happiness and light you're about to be exposed to, lol.

Well, I'm 33. I'm married to the best dude ever, Jimbob. He's 44. We've been married for 3 years, but have been together for about 7 1/2 years. We've known each other for...sheesh...forever. We met whilst working together on the ramp for TWA at Lambert Airport in St. Louis. Life for me has not been the same since I worked at the airport.

I grew up in a podunk little town in Illinois called Wood River. It's claim to fame is that Lewis & Clark stopped there, with Sacagawea (which I know I did not spell correctly, don't go all spelling police on me). It's other claim to fame is that it's home to not one...not two...not even three...but four oil refineries. Let me tell you, there is just nothin in the world quite like the smell of the quad city area (Wood River, Roxana, South Roxana, Hartford) after a rainy day, when the pollution from the refineries just lingers in the air because it's so humid. It's kind of sad that I'm being 100% truthful when I say "I know I'm home when I smell the rotten egg-goose shit air".

I have 2 little brothers, Thing 1 and Thing 2. Thing 1 just turned 29, Thing 2 will be 28 in November. They are both married, to wonderful chicks who have provided me with some most excellent nieces and nephews. Thing 1 has a 3 1/2 yr old, and 4 1/2-month old twins. Thing 2 has an 8 yr old stepdaughter, and a 1 1/2 yr old son. I love my bubbies...they make me happy.

Ummm..what else. Oh, we have 2 cats. We did have 3 cats, until about 4:45 this afternoon, and we are now back to 2. We're moving to a new apartment in September. Jimbob is out of work on major medical leave, no idea if/when he might go back. We go to see his cardiologist on 8/12 to get him cleared for surgery, then we go back to the neurosurgeon on 8/13 for surgical consult and to get him scheduled. He has a condition called sacrolumbar spinal stenosis, which is a degenerative disease. We'll talk more about that later.

So far, in the almost 8 years we've been together, we've been through 3 heart attacks (all his), 3 cardiac catheters to place stents in his heart, and an emergency double bypass. We've also gone through extracorporeal lithotripsy for massive kidney stones. And now the situation with his back. We lost our home to foreclosure in 2006. We worked for TWA until we got laid off at the end of 2003. There's more, but I'll save it.

I love animals, music, and food...not necessarily in that order. I fancy myself a bit of a chef, even though I have absolutely no culinary training whatsoever. But, my grandma was the most amazing dessert chef you've ever met, and I learned almost everything I know from her.

I work in retail banking, and we'll talk a little about that, but not too much. I don't want to dooce myself. If you don't know what it means to "dooce yourself", go Google it.

So...I don't really have too much else to say at this point. You'll have to bear with me, folks, as I figure out this whole blogging thing. As Joe Dirt once said:

"I'm new! I don't know what to do!"