Movember

This past month hasn't had a lot of activity, so I didn't bother to write a blog post.

My brother Scott and his wife Amanda have announced that they're going to have a baby in June!  I'll be an uncle for the first time.

On November 2, I went to the 2012 Cru Fellowship Dinner as I do every year.  Unfortunately Dad's and Bonnie's RSVP didn't make it back, but accommodations were made for them.  I enjoy seeing how God has changed the lives of college students at MSU.

I am a proud voter, but with Montana's laws changed, we had a lot of outside advertising.  I was constantly receiving phone calls for surveys.  People on Facebook tended to be fanatical over their political party and over the people they wanted to vote for.  I wished that there was a filter on Facebook that would eliminate all mentions of any presidential candidate.  In any case, I was glad that elections were over after November 7.  Not to say that I think anything is going to change in Washington...

Somehow or other I found a way to mess up my back this month.  November 12, I seemed to be doing alright when I woke up, but by the time I went to bed that night I was in horrible pain and could hardly sit in a chair just to watch TV.  Most of the pain was in my neck and right shoulder.  The next day I went to my chiropractor who has been helping me with this problem for the remainder of the month.  Apparently I pinched my brachial plexus nerve cluster.  Now it's mostly fixed, but the story doesn't end yet.

The day before Thanksgiving (November 21) I jumped off a four-foot ledge in the yard, but I haven't been doing a lot of physical activity lately, and so put my lower back out near my hips.  It wasn't very fun to stand or walk.  Since it happened right before Thanksgiving, I had to wait until the following Monday to have my chiropractor look at it.  Fortunately it seems to be a self resolving issue, so at least no harm done!

My birthday was November 16.  I decided to treat myself out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse in Bozeman and then watch Skyfall at the movie theater.  Now that Jean no longer lives with me, it is a little odd to be going to the movies by myself, but I still enjoyed it.

I got to take care of my friend Lori's cat Toby on the 15th-17th.  I enjoyed getting him fed every day.

 On November 19, I had a visitor come by the house for a few minutes:

Thanksgiving was spent at a neighbor's house about half a mile away from where I live.  I've known Greg and Sabina for several years, and this year I went camping with Greg a couple times.  They invited me to their Thanksgiving with some of their friends.  It was a very enjoyable holiday with them.  Greg and Sabina really like an organic diet, and that's what the meal reflected.  They had a rice stuffing with cranberries and cashews, Ethiopian potatoes (that was super yummy by the way), turkey of course, and green beans.  After dinner we played Hedbanz.  Basically it's a 20 questions game.

On Saturday, November 24, Greg and I burned some of the grass that's on his property around his house.  The wind was relatively calm that day, and we didn't have any difficulties to speak of.  Apparently I must have gotten too close to the fire at some point because I ended up singing my soul patch, and my eyelashes and my eyebrow on my left eye.  That night I decided to just shave it off and I've had a clean shave since.  I've had that soul patch for a long time.

No more soul patch!