An Eventful Fortnight. A great deal has occurred in the couple weeks since my last post.

The trip to the Sierra Grande Lodge in Truth or Consequences was wonderful. We had two great hot spring soaks and we each got a massage. My massage therapist was an 81 year-old blind man named Ramon who was apparently the master masseuss in T or C. His massage was phenominal. The Lodge was a beautiful, friendly hotel with wonderful amenities, comfy southwest-style rooms and a great restaurant. We went ghost town hunting to and from T or C and visited Choride, Winston, Cuchillo and Engle. We were looking for a winery that was supposed to exist in Engle, but only found a dead end road with a sign that said "New Mexico Spaceport."

I got into a car wreck about a week ago, and for once, it wasn't the other guy's fault. I screwed up. I was trying to quickly get into a turn-off lane from Coors Road to Coors Bypass and did not see the guy in the far lane behind me. My right rear collided with his left front. We were on our way to a friend's birthday party and never made it because we waited for and hour and a half for the police, but they never showed. My car suffered less damage than the poor kid I ran into, but I just thank God for good insurance coverage.

The car accident triggered some sort of "machine rebellion" against me. In the last few days, our automatic garage door broke a spring, and our dryer started making horrible squeaking noises. My dad came over and repaired the dryer, which worked fine for two days, then developed a horrible rumble. We had a guy fix the garage door, but the dryer rumble needs to be fixed.

My tenure at Gorilla Tango Improv Comedy Theatre has ended. The last couple months, Ii have felt less comfortable there, not feeling like I was part of the group. I am nearly twice the age of most of the troupe members, for one. The other thing that made me uncomfortable was that our group line-up kept changing. It was just hard to get into a consistant groove. I had been thinking about leaving for a while, and I think that affected the level of my performance, which had declined over the last month. Well, my lack of enthusiasm was met with an email from Dan, the theatre owner, who said that he wanted to take me off of the regular roatation. I guess I got what I wanted in a weird self-fulfilling prophechy sort of way. But it is all good. I enjoyed improv while it lasted, and grew in my self-confidence and public performance abilities. Besides, there is now more time to devote to Susan and my writing, the two main focuses of my passion these days.

But the REALLY BIG NEWS is...I'm Engaged to be married! Last Tuesday was the one year anniversary of my first date with Susan. I decided it would be the perfect time to ask the woman of my dreams to marry me. I got down on my knee, presented her with a ring and popped the qestion. She said yes! We have not set a date yet, but it will probably be sometime in late May or early June of 2007, after Susan finishes her masters degree and after the school year ends. We are thinking about having a wedding somewhere in the nearby mountains, with our Unity ministers Judi and Ross doing the service and having one or two of our musician friends sing the great Carole King song "Loving You Forever." We are thinking about a European Honeymoon in Spain, Austria or Switzerland, or if money is a concern, Northern California will do. More details as they become available.

Movies and assorted nonsense. Went to see Eight Below. I have to admit it was pretty good. The dog footage was more interesting than the human story, but for a Disney "True Life Adventure" style movie it was fun.
The Oscars pretty much turned out as I wanted, with Crash winning best picture. I guess gay cowboys are still too much for the Academy to handle. The only disappointment was George Clooney cancelling out both Matt Dillon and Paul Giamatti for best supporting actor. I was thrilled that Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit won for best animated feature. But what was the deal with the "Pimp" song? What the hell was that?