Tough Week

I didn't have any personal connection to any of the fallen soldiers in the horrible helicopter crash in Afghanistan, but I was deeply saddened by the news nonetheless. What a tragedy. All those young lives cut short. My prayers go out to all the families involved. And to the men who made the ultimate sacrifice, thank you.

From tragic to painful . . . how about that stock market. Ouch. Been a very bleak few days around Casa McCarty. It's getting so I don't want to turn on the computer anymore! Looks like the Fed tried to stop the bleeding by offering lower interest rates, but I sure hope it's enough. Didn't it feel like things were just coming back? Jeez. I guess the good thing is that we are quite a few years away from retirements, but I sure feel badly for all those people whose 401ks were hit hard the past few days.

I did have one fun thing happen this weekend. I had an out of the blue phone call from an old friend I hadn't heard from in about 5 years. Turns out he'd run into another old friend of mine in a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles--the funny thing is that I'd just seen her for the first time in about 10 years a few days before. How random is that? Anyway, it was great catching up with both of them. They are the type of friends that even though I haven't talked to them in years, I recognize their voice in seconds and within minutes we are talking like we never stopped. Since I'm not on Facebook (yet) I haven't had those random run-ins that I know a lot of you probably have. Anyone have any good stories? Any old boyfriends that you've always wondered what happened to them?

And finally, Ing is a frequent commenter on the blog. She had a really fun idea that I hope some of you guys might be interested in participating in. She wants to celebrate the release of THE VIPER by doing a series of blogs about the Highland Guard. If any of you might be interested in participating by writing a guest blog about your favorite guardsman, the series in general or your favorite book, she'd love to have you. It's still a couple of months away, so I'll remind you as it gets closer, but if you think you might be interested you can contact her on her blog here.

Hope you guys are having a better week than I am! Anyone going on vacation so I can live vicariously?