So a public defender at court said she wanted to internet-stalk me and I directed her to this site. She emailed me later telling me how amusing she found it, so i started looking back over the posts.

It’s bloody hilarious at times. At the risk of quoting “Fran” Mulhern’s classic, we’relikebeverlyhills60210 line, I do think we are a very funny lot…

except Brian.

Has anyone heard that old song?
It’s about this dude that is coming back from prison, and asks his love to tie a yellow ribbon “round the old oak tree”. That way, he’ll know if she still wants him.

In a tear-jerker of an ending, the bus rounds the corner to see that the tree is covered with ribbons.
For some reason, my family remembered the ending as a moment of despair, because the oak tree had been replaced by an orchard or forest or something, and in an even more tear-jerking reversal, every single tree has a yellow ribbon around it. Personally, I thought our version was better.

My journal page from the day I was returning from Philly has a sketch of a plane on it that I made while half-comatose during a delay at Gatwick. Underneath it says, “I’m comin’ home, I’ve done my time…”, the first line of the song. Paschal picked me up at the airport, with my mother in tow. As we drove up to the house in Glenbank, I see my mother has tied a yellow ribbon around every branch on the shrub she had.

Anyway, this moistness-inspiring tale is my long way of telling you that I’ll be back on the 24th of December, and Abby will follow me on the 30th. I’ll also be in Rugby over the New Year, celebrating my Ten Year anniversary of being in Philly with the girls.

As always, looking forward to it. Your couch is free, right Dave?

Not only a black man, but a man who can actually speak, and actually sounds like a president, is president.

Not only that, but he’s Irish.

Here’s to O’Bama.