I hope your Turkey Day weekend went well. Amy and I had a wonderful time with my mother and grandmother coming up to spend it with us. Granny just turned 87, so it was great to see her doing so well. They came up Thursday morning and left Saturday morning.

Amy and I went Christmas shopping after they left. We got some gifts for Dad and Mary's family gathering this upcoming Saturday. They were going to have it at the Parker family cabin in East Alabama, but they're going to have it at their house instead. I was looking forward to the cabin and possibly spending the night there. I haven't been there in ages. I've got a lot of good memories from when my dad's parents were alive. Maybe we can still go down and see it. Anyhow, after shopping around (which I ended up with the Neo/Agent Smith figures from “Matrix Revolutions! Awesome!), we went to see “The Haunted Mansion.” I was half excited about it, half not. I don't think there should've been a lot of comedy in the movie, but I don't know how they could've made it any better. It looked good, and I was mostly pleased with it.

That brings us to today… My story for work today was Christmas tree shopping. Clayton (cameraman supreme) and I went out to a tree farm to film it for tonight's newscast. Poor Clayton… he gets down on his knees to shoot a guy cutting down about a six-foot-tall tree… and it falls on him and the camera. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. So, what do I do? I end my story with “And remember, when you go to get your tree, be sure to move out of the way when it falls.” And of course, the video shows the guy cutting the tree, the tree hitting the camera, and Clayton saying, “It's okay.” It was a funny ending to fun story. I may submit that for the upcoming Associated Press awards. We'll see.

With a happy ending to my weekend in sight with that story, I started to have some pains in my lower pelvic area. I won't go into any details about anything else, but needless to say, Amy called the doctor and he told her to take me to the ER within four hours. I was at work when this started, so luckily, I finished and headed home. We went to the hospital where I passed another kidney stone. I had one in June, 2000, which had to be surgically removed. It didn't hurt nearly as bad as the one back then, but it wasn't fun, either. But, I'm home from the radio station (recording morning news) and feeling fine. So, all's well that ends well. And next week… the pain returns! Finals week! One more semester to go!