If you lend someone $20, and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

Finally, only a few short months after I got the "woman-child" out of the house...I am slowly eaking my way out the hole. I have managed to pay off all of my HPs, so I am actually getting to enjoy my money for a change. I have also had a couple of windfalls of money from various enterprises. So things are definitely looking up. The unions have managed to get us a pay raise this year, very impressive. So slow and steady really does win the race! I feel normal again, not half the man I used to be.

Family wise...My sister and her husband have headed back to the US for a 3 week visit and family catchup. My dad is coming over at the end of this year for a swell off-shore fishing trip. The baby's mother and baby are doing great, hard to believe that just in a few short months....I will be a dad. The mother and I have been hammering out the details on how we will conduct ourselves as parents of this child. I guess it is important to me and to her to have parents that are happy, even if they are not together. We do have a very healthy line of communication between the two of us and we are really coming together well for a common goal...to raise this child to be a winner.

But my ultimate personal goal is to be completely debt free by the time the baby gets here, which is very do-able. I will then be able to start saving up for a house. That is looking to happen by the end of next year actually. I think I will for-go any big holiday plans until I get into the house. But for the most part, I am really enjoying my life at the moment. I am quite content and happy. I feel settled and my life has a definite purpose now. I am going to an anger management counselor, I thought I would get somethings sorted out before the baby came along. It is really important to me that my child not have to grow up in the environment that I did and I am willing to do whatever it takes to assure that. I have been doing a lot of reflection lately and getting my affairs in order in preparation for the arrival. My mate, Panda tells me that no matter what you might think you know or assume about having a child, you will find as soon as you hold that child in your arms for the first time...you have no conception about how you will feel or how much your life will change in that instant. I guess I just want to have all of my "ducks-in-a-row" as a good friend of mine used to say. Being a father is one of the few dreams that I have had that I have yet to make come true and soon, as have all of my other dreams, it will be a reality. After that is done, it will be getting into a house that I own and start getting some equity built up. THEN...that holiday I have been putting off!

Anyway....I am now probably just rambling on, but that is what this damn thing is for, right???

Hope you and yours are well and happy. I wish all the best to all of you.

Reverend Aquaman and the one the only, Aquababy.