Hell

That is where 2011 can go for all I care. And it can go directly to hell. It cannot pass GO. It may not collect $200. I remember at the end of 2010 how I thought 2011 was going to be a great year. We knew we were going to be moving, just not completely sure of the destination yet. We knew that destination would be closer to Kansas. We knew that whether we ended up in Dallas or Oklahoma City, that Rob would most likely live with us for a year. He wanted to live with us, we wanted him to live with us, and Emma would have thought she'd struck it rich in the lottery having Uncle Rob around since all she had to do was look at him the least bit cross-ways and he'd jump to attention. Now that isn't possible.

I started my new job this week and it's great so far. Except for the small fact that I get to work with extremely technical Excel spreadsheets. Have I mentioned that I know very little, okay almost nothing, about extremely technical Excel spreadsheets? Yesterday I was about in a panic, and Rob is the one person I know who could have walked me through it. I used to get so aggravated with him about all his spreadsheets. I remember one time I asked him to configure a "simple" monthly budget for me and it came back with about 8 cells and 15 rows. Anyway, besides the Excel madness my feet are in ruin. Dress shoes in a job where you have to walk forever and a day to get somewhere is not what I would call a good thing. I wonder if some super sexy black SAS shoes would cause me to get funny looks from my co-workers? Or maybe I could start a new trend. That's right, I could start rocking "mom pants" and SAS shoes. People will want to be me. But I digress...

Back to why 2011 can go straight to hell. Remember in this post how I said I had such big plans for the Big Barn. I was going to email ole' Bob Villa and the fine folks over at This Old House and see if they would come renovate it and we could turn it into a lodge for the ranch. Maybe a place to have corporate retreats. Well, here's how the Big Barn looks now thanks to lightning:

It stood for 106 years. It had what would have probably been thousands and thousands of dollars worth of old barn wood. And it was the last place I took a picture of Emma with her Uncle Rob.