When I was little, my parents bought a house that wasn’t finished on the inside. They had to paint walls (in some areas, put wood paneling on the walls because it was the 70s) and install carpeting.

I could not, for the life of me, understand why they put green carpet in our basement when everything else around was brown. My mom would laugh, and tell me the carpet wasn’t green, it was brown. I was constantly frustrated by her inability to see the carpet for what it was-green. This happened with my choices in clothing, (I was convinced my shirt was blue, she said it was black) as well as not understanding why she would do oil paintings with the wrong colors for certain flowers.

By the time I was a teenager, my ability to see far away became an issue, so my dad took me to an optometrist. This was the first time I had done an eye exam this extensive, and half way through it, he called my dad into the exam room and said “Did you know she’s colorblind?” My dad starting laughing and said no, he and my mom did not know that. But that would explain why I couldn’t help him choose the right socks to match his suits anymore than he could himself. My dad was colorblind, but they didn’t know women could be, and they just thought I was being stubborn about what I saw.

It turns out that 1 in 12 men in the world are colorblind, but only 1 in 200 women are. This genetic issue is passed down directly from the mother for men, but women get it when their father and their mom’s father are colorblind. My mom’s father passed away while my grandma was pregnant with my mom, so none of us ever knew him or anything about his genetics. When I got home, I told my mom the news (you have no idea how happy it made me that I had a reason I was seeing  green carpet all those years) so my mom called my grandma to find out if her dad had been colorblind. He was!

And because genetics are awesome, I passed my colorblindness on to both of my sons. I knew this early on because extensive eye exams are performed at school now, so I got the panic letter sent home when Ryan was in first grade “HE CAN’T SEE CERTAIN SHADES OF RED AND GREEN. TAKE HIM TO HIS DOCTOR IMMEDIATELY!” And the less panicked letter two years later when Nolan had the same exam at the same school “I’m sure you are aware of this, but Nolan appears to be colorblind. Please follow-up with his pediatrician.” Um…ok.

The saving grace for the three of us colorblind family members is that Wil is not colorblind. So when we all drove by that new house in our neighborhood and freaked out that they painted it purple, Wil was the voice of reason in reassuring us that it was brown. And if we were lucky, he’d catch us before walking out the door in clothes that didn’t go together AT ALL so we could change. He also has to be the one to point out that we’re moving the wrong piece on the board when we’re playing a game, because we thought it was a different color than it actually was.

And since so many people asked me, I will tell you. That dress is not white and gold, nor is it blue and black. It’s tan and purple.

Hey, I’m just calling it like I see it.

Turns out this week is a busy week of ALL THE THINGS for one Anne Wheaton. I was going to mention them via Twitter as they come up, but it also turns out that this week of ALL THE THINGS also involves me being in 3 different cities within a 4 days span, with a quick stop at home before heading off to a cruise, so it’s best I just post ALL THE THINGS here now.

Thing the first: I’ve known about this for about 4 months, and it has been KILLING me that I haven’t been able to talk about it. But I can spill the beans now because well, they already spilled said beans and so now I can do what I want with those beans.

Wait. Let me try that again.

Calgary Expo is happening this April. I had already planned to spend some quality time in the booth with Espionage Cosmetics, along with my super awesome friend, Bonnie Burton, to promote the VandalEyes nail wraps that Bonnie and I designed with Espionage, which I’m really looking forward to. But then something else happened…

An organizer for Calgary Expo contacted me because she knows how much I freakin’ LOVE Sharknado. For the first time, they will be having a Sharknado panel with Ian Ziering and Tara Reid, and they ASKED ME TO MODERATE IT.

I know you can’t see me, but I have the stupidest face of excitement on right now, and I’m jumping up and down. Trust me. It’s a little ridiculous. I know it’s not until April, but my excitement has already started and I will continue to be excited about this LONG after the panel has ended. I absolutely love everything about this crazy movie (the first and the second one, and now a THIRD is on the way OH BOY!) so I am beyond thrilled to do this. And I absolutely love everyone at Espionage Cosmetics and I love spending time with Bonnie, so this convention is already going to be 100% awesome. Well, 99% awesome because Wil can’t be there, but I will manage. *winky face*

Thing the second: I did a podcast with Wil last night. If you haven’t figured out by now, either on my blog or on Twitter, there is no mystery to me. I share stories that are bizarre, embarrassing, disgusting, and horrifying all the time. And now, you can hear them in podcast form! That’s either awesome or I’m sorry, take your pick. But you can listen to it here, so there’s that. We also talk about our charity foundation and the two eBay auctions we are doing this week of signed TableTop games we’re releasing in support of our foundation.

On to thing the third: I did a new episode of TableTop with Wil, Clare Kramer, and Bonnie Burton, which airs on the YousTubes this Thursday, January 22nd, on the Geek & Sundry channel. I’m not going to tell you what happened or who won, but I will tell you that I did a LOT of singing. We played a game called Geek Out, which our friend, Elisa Teague designed. A week from Thursday, January 29th, the gag reel for this episode will air. I haven’t seen the full episode or the gag reel, so I have no idea what to expect there, but I’m sure it’ll be good.

If you’ve read the post I put here or seen the PUPDATE posts I do on Twitter, you know about Lucy, the tiny, malnourished puppy I took in and fostered for 4 days before taking her up to Sacramento to live with my friend. My friend sends me photos of Lucy’s progress, both in being accepted by the other pets in her new home, as well as how much she has grown and filled out now that she’s getting regular feedings. She was so thin and bony when I took her in, and already seemed to be putting on weight in the 4 days with me. I took her to my vet for a check-up, scan for a microchip (none) and vaccines the day I got her. Other than the obvious signs of needing food, this little 5 pound puppy, who the vet estimated at 3 months old, was healthy and would be just fine. My friend has had her for 6 weeks now, and Lucy is up to 19 pounds. Now that Lucy is healthy and growing at a normal rate, the vet thinks her age was over-estimated when originally found. She thinks she was actually just barely 6 weeks old when I got her. It breaks my heart to know that tiny, young little pup was wandering alone. But knowing she was that young, it makes sense that she became so attached to me so quickly. I wrote about her here if you want to read that story. In any case, after attending w00tstock in San Francisco this Thursday, I’m going over to Sacramento on Friday to spend the weekend with Lucy…er…to see my friend and visit with her….not just for the dog. *GIANT WINKY FACE* I’m sure I will take a million pictures of Lucy and post them on Twitter, so keep an eye out for PUPDATES if you want to see how much she has grown.

Thing the fourth: Wil and I are going on a super awesome nerd cruise January 31- February 8, so we will not be doing the TableTop game auction that week. We will be doing two games the following week instead (which is what we are doing right now because we were in Canada for a week and missed one) so keep an eye out for that if you’re interested.

Fifth and final thing, I swear: On February 11th, Wil and I are participating in an event that our Space Mom/Space-Mom-In-Law is doing called “Krusher Does Krusher.” If you’re in town and would like to see it,  I think you will enjoy it.

That’s all from me! Have a great week!!

We have this sweetly odd cat named Luna. She and Watson, our other cat, were adopted by our son, Ryan, while he was in college. He was home for one summer (cats came with him) and when he was about to head back for the Fall semester, found out his roommates had rented a place where animals weren’t allowed. We offered to have the cats live with us until he finished school and found a permanent place to live, and of course, now they’re just our cats that Ryan comes over to visit.

Watson is a super mellow love machine. I have never had a cat as affectionate as he is. He puts up with the dogs getting in his face, lets anyone hold him in any position (he used to hate being held on his back but I worked that out of him and now he loves it). Luna, on the other hand, is a strange one. Ryan adopted her from a shelter when she was just 8 weeks old. She was found wandering the streets in Tucson, and has always been a bit “off.” She is affectionate on HER terms.

Since Luna was raised by a boy, she LOVES boys. If they have facial hair, even better. She will jump on the counter and stand her front feet on the chest of anyone visiting our house who has facial hair. She will rub her face on each side of the facial hair owners face, with the hopes of getting back scratches on her torso while she’s outstretched on the chest of the unknown bearded man. If I’m at the counter? She doesn’t give me the time of day. But if other girls are visiting our house, she does this odd display of flipping over and rolling her face into the hand of the female visitor (Luna LOVES Nika Harper and Ashley Clements) for affection, but then acts pissy like she doesn’t want to be touched, so the visitor will stop petting her. But then as soon as they stop, she whines like she doesn’t know why they stopped, and the cycle continues. She’s nuts.

Luna also acts like the dogs are on her last nerve, but I have watched her rub up against them or even dart under their feet in an attempt to get the dogs to play with her. She acts particularly annoyed with Marlowe, who is only 2 years old, who gets super excited at the idea of kitty wanting to play with her. Luna will antagonize Marlowe, and then hop up on a table and bitch at Marlowe to leave her alone, while Marlowe just stands there looking confused.

Over the past few months, Luna has been doing what I like to call “secret affection” with me, where she gets up on my bed in the middle of the night (you know, when no one is looking) and tucks into me as tight as she can under my chin, and then puts her face on my mouth to kiss on her and rub her chin. Of course, I oblige because she’s not always like this, and I generally lose about 2 hours of sleep loving on her, but it’s too cute to ignore. I don’t know if she’s mellowing out in her old age (she’s 8 now) or what, but I love affectionate animals, so I cave to her every time she does this.

But last night something new happened with Luna. I didn’t get a picture because I knew if I moved she would get up, so I’ll just have to describe it. Marlowe likes to sleep tucked into a ball in between my pillow and Wil’s pillow. Seamus sleeps stretched out between our torsos, usually pressed up into me (I hope you’re visualizing the crowd that is my bed every night). Marlowe had shifted so she was a little more stretched out, with her head laying up against Wil’s shoulder, her back toward the foot of the bed. There was maybe 8 inches of space between Marlowe’s back and Seamus’s head and shoulder below. In that space in between, I saw darkness. Not any normal darkness, so I sat up and looked. It was Luna, who had clearly wedged herself in between the dogs, her outstretched body pressed snuggly up against Marlowe’s back, with her tiny paw draped over Marlowe’s neck, and her face tucked into the back of Marlowe’s head.

MY CAT WAS SPOONING MY DOG.

It was the cutest, most unbelievable sight coming from Luna, ever. Sure, I’ve seen Watson tuck into Seamus many times over the years. The two of them have been sleeping buddies since the third day they met, but Luna?! That was too cute and probably something I will never be able to get a picture of. So you’ll just have to take my word for it that the cat who wants everyone to think she’s a super badass is secretly becoming the adorable ball of affection I’d always hoped she’d be. Just don’t tell anyone, or she’ll chomp on your hand before demanding more chin scritches and crunchy cat treats, and then meow at you in disgust before whining at you to come back.

Last week, Wil and I took our kids on a family vacation to Lake Louise, which is north of Calgary in Alberta. Wil had been there a couple of times as a teenager, but this would be the first time for the rest of us. I have traveled quite a bit, several times out of the country. But I learned a few things while being a visitor in Canada that I am STILL laughing at, because laughing at myself long after an event has happened is my secret power. Think of this as unsolicited travel tips so that one day when you visit this place, you can avoid these horrors.

When arriving in Canada and going through customs, it’s important to speak clearly to the customs agent about how you plan to get from the Calgary airport up to Lake Louise. When I said “rental car,” the agent got wide-eyed and practically yelled “WHAT DID YOU SAY?” so I repeated myself by saying “rental car” again because apparently I mumbled the first time and the agent, as well as my entire family, thought I said “rectal cock.”

Canadians speak French and English. Highway signs will post in both languages, but other places show only an English version or only a French version. Learn how to pronounce these French words, even if you don’t speak French. Calling the hotel to make dining reservations will be a lot less awkward when you know how to pronounce “Brasserie,” which is a French restaurant, instead of saying ‘Brassiere” which is an undergarment for women.

It’s great that you’re prepared and have actually brought Canadian money with you. For the most part, it’s called “dollars” just like in America. So when the bellman brings your bags to your room, there’s no need to announce “I have Canadollars!” before tipping him. Also, when you grab a snack and a cocktail in the restaurant lounge later that day and the waitress asks if you’d like to charge the bill to your room, you don’t need to respond with “I brought Canadough, so I’ll pay with that.” It’s just dollars.

When deciding to go skiing with the family at the nearby ski resort, it’s best to remember before getting on the chairlift that you haven’t gone skiing in 8 years, and may need a refresher on a run that isn’t very steep. That way, you don’t go up to the top of the mountain with your children to a run that feels WAY out of your comfort zone, and then spend the next 45 minutes going down the hill in an awkward, squatting snowplow hunched over stance of total embarrassment in an attempt to make it to the bottom alive and with all of your limbs intact. And when that ski instructor bringing a group of 6 down the hill stops and looks at you oddly, don’t smile and wave as you continue to “ski.”  You’re only making it worse. (Fortunately, I only did one run like that, and it all came back to me. The rest of the day, and the other two days of skiing were much smoother than that first run.)

So now that I’ve given you some travel tips, I highly recommend a visit to Lake Louise. It’s an incredibly beautiful place in winter, and from pictures I saw in the hotel, it’s a different kind of beautiful in summer. The lake is frozen solid in winter, so we went ice skating on it, and walked out and stood in the center of it. The view from our hotel room never got old, and I miss it already.

Drawing by Len Peralta

Four days ago,  I met a guy who was parked along a curb, sitting in his car with the door open, holding a tiny puppy that he had found while camping up in our local mountains. He brought her home to care for her, but for whatever reason, wasn’t able to keep her. He was asking people walking past if anyone could take her.

The guy was near a park, so my biggest fear was him leaving the puppy there if he couldn’t get anyone to take her. We already have three dogs and two cats at home, so I know taking in anymore pets would just be too much for us. I offered to take her to the Pasadena Humane Society, assuring him that she would receive great care, shelter, and food, and would be adopted in a heartbeat because she’s so adorable. He agreed and handed her off to me. This little dog didn’t look more than 6 weeks old, all of her ribs and both of her hip bones showing, yet so happy and affectionate from the moment she crawled into my arms. I got in my car and snapped a picture of her, sending it Wil and to my best friend before heading to the shelter.

Not 30 seconds went by after sending that picture, and my friend called me to say she wanted the puppy. She’s been saying for months that she wants another dog, and her other small pup would love to have a buddy. She lives in Sacramento and with a huge rain storm about to hit all of California, I decided to wait until Thursday (today) to drive the puppy up to her. I took the pup to my vet to have her checked for a microchip (none) and get a health check-up, shots, and a flea and parasite treatment.  According to how many teeth she has, the vet says she’s about ten weeks old, but only weighs five pounds. Other than the obvious signs of malnutrition, the puppy is totally fine.

I stopped at a pet supply and got some basics to care for her over the next few days, and then brought the puppy home. I decided it was best to keep her in another room away from my way-too-curious large dogs, and two cats that probably wouldn’t appreciate a new face in the house. I set up a little camp in Wil’s office, and mentally prepared myself for round-the-clock care of a very hungry, very attention deprived little dog.

The first 30 hours, the puppy was up every 2 hours eating and going to the bathroom. As soon as she was done though, she came straight over to me and whimpered to be held, tucking herself into me as tight as possible, adjusting that tuck multiple times throughout the night. I hardly slept because I just kept kissing her little face and holding her into me so she would know she’s safe. The second and third nights, she mostly slept straight through, only waking once after about 6 hours to eat and go to the bathroom, before crawling back in bed with me, still tucking in as close as possible.

I have always known how important foster care is for rescue animals. Sometimes shelters don’t have the room, the pet may need special care, or they’re just too small to be in a shelter (they need to be a certain weight to get vaccinated, so if they can’t get shots, it’s unsafe for all of the animals to be around a potentially sick one.) After this experience, I have a whole new level of respect for people who selflessly offer their time, love, and care for an animal in need, knowing it’s eventually going to live somewhere else. What has gotten me through this experience (besides her obvious need for food and shelter) is knowing my friend is adopting this puppy. She has such a great personality and is so affectionate, that it would break my heart to not get to see her grow up.

So, thank you to those who foster animals (which I hear can sometimes be a failed foster, because you end up keeping the pet) and for those who take the time to rescue an animal, either from off the streets or from a shelter. There are so many homeless animals that need our help. Please continue to adopt and not buy from breeders. You and your rescue pet will be so glad you did.

For several years, Wil and I have supported a handful of our favorite charities with personal financial donations. Two years ago, we decided to start our own charity foundation to expand our ability to help these charities we love by not only contributing financially, but by doing projects to help them increase their visibility so that others may help them in their own way. We are a non-profit 501(c)3 charity with no administration costs (other than our accountant who files the necessary federal paperwork for it) so the maximum funds available can go directly to help others in need.

Our foundation is technically a private foundation because we are the only ones who have donated into it thus far. Since I am the only one running it, I’ve taken baby steps toward doing more with it. I have used it to fund a rescue pet calendar project, as well as create an informational video for the Pasadena Humane Society, and continue to use it to donate financially to Planned Parenthood, NAMI, ACLU, the Ronald McDonald House in Pasadena, and a few smaller, local charities. I am slowly working my way toward doing some projects with these other charities soon but like I said, baby steps.

People ask me all the time if they can donate directly to our foundation (which I love) but I haven’t set up online access to that yet. I currently have a web designer working on designing a website for our foundation (because I am seriously technology challenged and can’t do it myself) and I’m in the process of setting up a way for it to be made a FOR REALS public charity with the ability to accept donations on our site. It’s going to take a few more weeks for that to get all set up and frankly, I’m tired of sitting on my latest idea so I’m just going to start it now.

When Wil filmed the third season of TableTop over a month ago, the game publishers sent Geek & Sundry a huge supply of the games that were being played on each episode. The crew had every guest from each episode they were on sign the covers of the game they played and Sheri Bryant (President of G & S) saved me a set of these signed games to auction off to support our charity foundation. Woohoo!

So, instead of freaking myself out at trying to do a big auction of 19 games at one time all by myself, I decided it would be better to continue my baby steps and auction off each game AFTER its episode of TableTop airs so that you can see if it’s a game you would like (way too often after a TableTop episode airs, the game company immediately sells out of that game and then it’s hard to find a copy) and if you win the auction, you immediately get the game shipped to you with the added bonus of supporting a charity! HOORAY!!

I am going to be starting my first 3-day auction on eBay on Monday, November 24th and it will end on Wednesday, November 26th with the first game of the new TableTop season, “TOKAIDO.” Well, Wil is going to help me with the auction part because he already has an eBay account and I haven’t figured that stuff out yet. Anyway, here is a picture of the signed copy that I have.

If you haven’t seen the full list of episodes for season 3 with the games that will be played and the guests on each show, I snagged it off Wil’s website so you can peek ahead and prepare yourself for the auction of an upcoming signed game that you may want for yourself or as a gift for someone you love.

• Tokaido – Jason Wishnov, J. August Richards, Chris Kluwe
• Concept – Joseph Scrimshaw, Rett and Link
• Roll For It and Sushi Go! – Jason Ritter, Jennifer Hale, John Ross Bowie
• Forbidden Desert – Felicia Day, Alan Tudyk, Jon Heder
• Love Letter and Coup – The Fine Brothers and Felicia Day
• Hare & Tortoise and Council of Verona – Jessica Merizan, David Kwong, Alison Haislip
• Sheriff of Nottingham – Meredith Salenger, Ashley Clements, Derek Mio
• Stone Age – Nika Harper, Jesse Cox, Jordan Maron
• Geek Out – Anne Wheaton, Bonnie Burton, Clare Kramer
• Five Tribes: Jenna Busch, Richard Garriot, Satine Phoenix
• Epic Spell Wars: Jonah Ray, Emily Gordon, Veronica Belmont
• Mice & Mystics, Chapter One – Anne Wheaton, Ryan Wheaton, Nolan Kopp
• Dread – Molly Lewis, Ivan Van Norman, Laura Bailey
• Catan Junior – Emily Anderson, Brett, Baligrad, Adam Chernick
• Libertalia – Karen Gillan, Seth Green, Clare Grant
• Kingdom Builder – Yuri Lowenthal, Tara Platt, Paul Scheer
• Dead of Winter – Dodger Leigh, Grant Imahara, Ashley Johnson
• Legendary – Allie Brosh, Mark Fischbach, Brea Grant
• Tabletop After Dark: Cards Against Humanity – Aisha Tyler, Ali Spagnola, Laina Morris

When Wil and Boyan prepare for filming each season of TableTop, they play test dozens and dozens of games sent to them by publishers to see if the game is fun and will work on camera. Too often there will be a game that is super fun but just won’t work on camera so they don’t use it. When this happens, we donate those games to local community centers and charities who could use them. This season is the first time they have an episode that features kids playing a game. Because of this, we have a bunch of kid-friendly games that are fun but just didn’t make the cut. That supply of games will go to http://www.pasadenarmh.org which makes me really happy to be able to do.

Thank you in advance for joining me on this exciting new adventure. Are you ready? I’m ready. This is going to be fun!

Here is the link to the eBay auction page!

There’s a thing you may or may not know about me. I love to see patterns in numbers (#numbernerd on Twitter came from me) and when I see letters on objects, I MUST make them spell something out. Which brings me to this: There are several retail stores that put out monogrammed stockings, ornaments, or even just individual letters found in craft stores that are just sitting there, BEGGING to be made into a word.

Around this time last year, I spelled out a few silly (and somewhat inappropriate) words with the decorations I had found in Target. I posted it on Twitter and as a joke I added “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create your own fun with words and send them to me.” Oh, man. I was FLOODED with some of the funniest things I’ve seen on monogrammed Christmas decorations in a long time.

No matter what festivus holiday you choose to celebrate, whether by religious tradition or just your own family tradition, this time of year always seems to sneak up on us and make us STRESS THE FUCK OUT. So instead of just racing through stores in a panic, why not take a few minutes for yourself and say something funny with letters!

I started a Tumblr for this because I didn’t want to bombard Twitter with retweeting all of the funny that is bound to head my way over the next several weeks. This way, we have a platform in which to admire other people’s work either at the end of the day, or when you’re looking at your phone while waiting in line while that one woman who knew it was her turn and still wasn’t prepared, writes out a check with a pen that won’t work and can’t hear the cashier tell her the total or the date, no matter how loud he yells it at her face.

Just like last year, I encouraged people who spelled out something that may not be kid-friendly to mix the letters back up when they’re done so uptight moms or a couple of nuns out shopping won’t get pissed that you’re spelling out “Dickwagon” with their favorite glittery ornaments. Be sure to keep things in the areas they are designated for. We don’t want that ONE person who freaked out at me last year and decided I was “creating extra work for retail employees” when the ornaments are still in their same location, not over on aisle 6 next to their UNDERWEAR THAT GOT IN A BUNCH BECAUSE THEY HATE FUN. We wouldn’t want  Alex from Target to do something other than look cute while he bags your goods. (Possibly a euphemism)

So have some fun and be the stealthy holiday ninja you’ve been waiting all year to be. I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

A month ago, I wrote a blog post about all this weird stuff happening to me and I wasn’t sure if it was my thyroid or what. I’ve known about these thyroid nodules I have for a few years now, so I see an endocrinologist annually to get them checked and to make sure my thyroid is still functioning properly. The nodules haven’t changed as long as I’ve known about them and my thyroid has always been fully functional on its own. I decided I would get another opinion since I’m due for my annual check on this anyway, so I went to see a head and neck specialist at USC Medical Center two weeks ago.

I went over my health history with the new doctor and talked about the symptoms I’ve been having this past year. He said the same thing I had researched on my own, which is that it’s either my thyroid function or the ‘ol body not producing as much estrogen as it used to, because that’s just part of getting older. I went to the lab and had blood drawn to test my thyroid and then had to wait a week to go back and get an ultrasound with another physician to biopsy any nodules that may look unusual.

When I went back for the ultrasound and biopsy, the physician told me that one nodule was large (1.3cm is large, I guess) and it had calcification in it, which is concerning. He did a very unpleasant biopsy with three different needles, getting directly into the calcified spot, and said to call my doctor in a week for the results. Of course, over this last week I made the STUPID mistake of reading way too much online on what it could be, almost all of it saying it was thyroid cancer. I know that is very treatable but still not what anyone wants to hear. I called my doctor on Monday and got his voicemail so I left a message. I did the same thing on Tuesday because he still hadn’t called me back. When I did get a call today, it was from his nurse saying my doctor wants to talk to me himself about my results and he would call me later today.

WHAT THE HELL. Thanks for the paranoia boost, pal.

An hour later my doctor called to tell me my biopsy was benign and that my blood work shows my thyroid function is completely normal. HOORAY! A huge wave of relief washed over me, followed by the realization that all of my symptoms (slowing metabolism, thinning hair, and not sleeping well to name a few) are actually because I’m getting older and not producing as much estrogen.

That is so weird to me.

In my brain, I still feel like I’m in my early 30’s but my body is here to remind me that I am in fact, 45 freakin’ years old. I kind of figured that’s what it was going to be when I used MyFitnessPal for a month to track what I was eating and to make better food choices to see if I could drop the 5 extra pounds I’d been carrying around this year. I was able to drop the weight so now I know it’s because my metabolism is changing and not my thyroid function.

I’m so glad I got another doctor opinion anyway, even if I did feel like I was being a bit paranoid. I will continue to get these annual check-ups  and watch what I eat but BOY, is getting older weird.

A little over 20 years ago, I became friends with a really awesome girl named Stephanie, who introduced me to Wil at her New Year’s party a year after I met her.  She had another friend at this party (who she had met while they were both doing a Charlie Brown play in 7th grade) named Damion, who I instantly liked. He was cute, incredibly funny and just the right amount of crazy goofball. Damion spent the next year after we met dating occasionally, telling us hilarious stories of his experiences but never really finding the right person for him. He finally did meet and fall in love with someone who was not only a tall, blonde haired, blue-eyed beauty on the outside, but a kind, caring, supportive and loving person on the inside. They balanced each other out perfectly.

Over the past 18 years, these two have supported each other in their careers, vacationed with family and friends, and purchased a home together. Now that they are approaching their 50’s, they decided to figure out retirement and estate planning. They have always been committed to each other in every sense of the word but on the legal side of things, their attorney suggested they get married because it will make things easier down the line with everything they have together.

They decided to make their commitment to each other legal and so today, they will exchange vows in a civil ceremony with Stephanie and her husband as witness. It always makes me so happy when two people find each other and get to share their lives together. So congratulations, Damion and Mike. It’s about damn time!!