I didn't see the three week break coming. What do we do with ourselves? I'd love to get together for a barbecue or throw frisbee. Okay, both. Or throw horseshoes, play some checkers (been a while, but I can still get my game on). Or some chess. I don't mind getting my ass beat. I'd love to get all my House friends here together, bring a dish! I'm an American, and I'm not always proud of it. We're trying to get our priorities back in line. Unbridled capitalism and military solutions are not what the United States is all about. That's my belief, but not what I see. I hope we get it together. I only bring this up because, some things transcend all that nonsense. It's all about personal relationships. When it's all said and done, it's about instincts. Is your instinct to question someone's motives, or reach out and hug them, without hesitation? I do believe I am proudly rambling. TG

This is kind of a personal blog, but House has hit home! This requires some background, which is the personal part. My father died two years ago, less than a year after my mother died. Over 50 years together. Not bad. He didn't leave a will, so the estate has to be divided up between the three brothers. I'm the middle one. My older brother was designated the unofficial administer of the estate. After a couple of months, my younger brother started accusing my older brother that he was mismanaging the estate (like stealing money). It became nasty. But my younger brother couldn't provide any evidence of impropriety. It was baseless. I was kind of the negotiator, someone who could talk to both of them. So we open the estate, and have a meeting with the lawyer. My younger bro doesn't talk a lot at the meeting, and our interaction is minimal. I hadn't seen him in nine months. Later that night, around midnite, young bro comes to the House, in tears, says he's going to kill himself. I said, "Do you have a gun?" He says yeah. Then I ask, "Do you have the garbage bag?" He says "what?" I said, "you need it to put over your head, so they don't have to pick your brains off the wall. Show some consideration." That was my House moment, lol. I really wanted to give him some perspective. I got the guns from the trunk of his car, btw. He had a Desert Eagle, the biggest handgun I've ever seen. But that's another story. Turns out he wants to end it because he's losing his mind. He was having scary type memory loss. As an example, he goes out to the grocery store. Once on the road, he forgets why he's in the car. That would scare me. It's not until he gets back home till he remembers. Sounds like Alzheimer's type stuff. He had started going to neurologists. He knew something was wrong. So today he drops by, and tells me the diagnosis. "Brain encephalopathy." I looked it up on google, and it's a booger. I'll admit, the first thing I thought of was House. Would probably need Foreman too, at least. Look it up! They should use this condition as a plot device, if they haven't yet. There can be so many causes, and the conditions can become so debilitating. Before young bro left today, he wanted his guns back. I gave them to him. I've always had a close connection to House, but today it really hit home.

Hey, Thanks for the support! What's a good blog frequency? A better question might be, what's boring? Matters of opinion. First off, I missed tonight's episode, Needles in a Haystack? Had to work late. I'm a graphic designer and prepress operator at a newspaper. About once a month or so, we have to work late on Tuesdays. And my mood gets dark. I look at my watch, and wonder what House is doing, what's the POTW, grrrr... so that was my day. But back to the whiskers. House has this condition, that has afflicted many leading men over the years. They never have a real beard, yet they're never clean shaven. Do they devote days to where they shave, then live as shut-ins till their stubble grows out? Or are these just baby face days of their lives that we never see, like you never see anyone go to the bathroom to relieve themselves? I personally have a problem with facial hair. Not aesthetically, beards are great. But I have a problem with hair growing right around my mouth, too close to my lips. It just bugs me. So I kind of do a tiny shave, and clip the mustache hairs in reach of my tongue. That's how you can tell if someone has a problem with their facial hair. They'll rub their beard and stare off into space, like they're in deep thought, or they'll run their tongue around the sides of their mouth, and look like some kind of pervert. If they do both at the same time, they just look demented. Believe me, I know. But this new year, 2007, I made a resolution I knew I could keep. If the past 20 years are any indication, I'd never take off 20 pounds or single handedly change the world. So I decided to grow a beard. How can you screw that up? It's growing pretty good, except the whole bottom half is silver. I sincerely believe it's silver, rather than gray. So it's a two tone deal; it's grown out enough to scare small children. Especially when I'm rubbing it and licking my lips. It probably wouldn't be such a problem if I didn't have a big mouth. Hopefully I can catch next week's episode. And shave by then.

Hello friends, This is my first blog, and I'm not real familiar with the format. I mean, what's appropriate to talk about, mostly. House would be a good place to start. When I was around 13, I had bone fusion surgery on my right ankle, they took bone out of my hip and fused the tiny bones between the ankle joint and the toes. As a result, I can move my ankle up and down, but not left to right. My knee mobility makes up for it, and it's not an obvious condition. But... here's the House connection. I no longer trust doctors. Well, not a single doctor's diagnosis. And I'm in chronic pain, which is just a part of life. It's not like what House has to go through, but enough to make you curse from time to time. And I've been known to have a dark, ascerbic wit, so I appreciate The Man all the more. But I'm not all doom and gloom. I do appreciate what life has given me, and hopefully all of us can do the same. My first official blog! I don't know what's next. Maybe an observation on whiskers.