Hi there - I'm Mush, and it's nice to meet you!

Wow...it has been over 3 months since I last posted.  To the handful of you who actually read this (thanks, Mom and Dad), sorry!  This thing they call real life has floored me.  On a good note, I finished my first year serving the role as advisor, and I think I only ruined a couple of students' lives in the process.  On an even better note, I've made a lot of progress on that albatross around my neck known as the dissertation.  No, I'm not done yet, but I foresee the proposal hearing in the next 2 months, and I've even completed the tests needed for the 4th Chapter.


Another year of leading a Den for Cub Scouts has ended, with nearly all of the Den getting their Wolf badges.  The Bear is up next for them.  The time commitment for this seemed to be quite a bit more than last year, though I didn't hold as many meetings.  I think the most taxing part of this was trying to coordinate everyone to try to get them set up for the badges - if they missed a meeting where we did several achievements, well, it put them back that much farther, and I had to find a way to catch them up in subsequent meetings.  Aaron did really well - got the Wolf as well as 4 arrow point badges - they look pretty cool on his uniform.  Eric is up next for scouts.  While I'll continue on as Den Leader for Aaron, my assistant Den Leader will be taking on the Den Leader role for the incoming Tiger Cubs, and Eric will likely be with her.


As Cub Scouts has wrapped up, baseball has taken over.  I'm head coach for Eric's instructional league and, while not officially one of the coaches for Aaron's team, I help them out where I can (keeping the books, helping at practice, etc).  It's definitely time-consuming, but it's something I love doing with the boys.


As many of you know, I suffered a minor back injury in early April that had me laid up for a while.  Luckily, nothing was found in an MRI, so our best guess is that it was muscular that ultimately pinched a set of nerves.  I'm back to myself, though I still feel the slightest twinge every once in a while, just to remind me that it's there.  The pain is gone, at least.


Unfortunately, the podcast updates have fallen dramatically in the priority list.  I simply didn't have time and wasn't going to kill myself trying to do sub-par reviews.  Shawn has continued to do admirably in keeping the community updated with his Dis_Pod_Review updates over on Twitter, so the Disney Freaks have still been able to read what's going on with the shows.  I do plan on getting back into the reviewing in the coming weeks...hopefully once the dissertation proposal is defended and the last part is in on track to be completed, I'll start listening/writing up shows.  It pains me that I haven't even listened to a show for nearly 2 months - I used to listen to over 40 a week.  I want to get back on this with a vengeance!

Also in abysmal shape is my progress on the June 2011 WDW Trip Report.  I was able to get the first several days out with no problem; the next day in the chronology was a really tough one to write, however...if you've been reading the TR, you probably know what happens that day.  I've got it written and will start posting it again once I get the videos/pictures uploaded for inclusion.  I know there were quite a few who were reading every updated post on that report - sorry for leaving you hanging!


On a good note, I've kept up my running after the WDW Half marathon last January and have signed up to run the 2012 half.  Oh, and, yes, I have rejoined Team AllEars this year, so you can expect to see a number of posts on my fundraising efforts.  I'm going to be a little more aggressive this year as I missed the $1,000 mark last year by a mere $130.  You'll see a post about this in the coming days as I kick off my 2011 fundraising campaign for the Avon Walk.


Okay...so there's the update.  You can expect to see some more regular updates really soon with the podcasts, baseball, trip reports, a new trip (yes, folks, we're heading out to California to visit Disneyland this July!), and training/fundraising updates.


See ya (reading this) real soon!