Another year has passed – it’s OBX time yet again after more years than I can count. When asked where OBX is and what the letters stand for, this is it: Outer Banks. Some dude a long time ago added the X because it sounded cool. It’s used everywhere today.

If you’ve ever been to Carmel, Ca. you’ll remember the literally dozens of art galleries in the semi-large downtown area, all designed for tourists, of course. I doubt many locals ever go into the myriad shops, clothes, furniture (go figure), restaurants (some are really good so that’s a possibility for locals) and again, all the TONS of galleries. So what? you wonder.

Taxes are all done, a tear-dampened check sent off, a goodly amount of booze dulled your pain, and now you’re looking forward again to a magnificent spring with maybe a mini-vacation to your in-laws in June.

The 17th is St. Patrick’s Day, but alas, it falls on Sunday, so you need to rethink this. How about you plan to celebrate on Saturday night and on Sunday you can sit in your sham-rocking chair to recover.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone - This is probably the most renowned holiday of the year. Why, you ask. Because, I reply, this is the only day when chocolate sheds all its calories, sends them wafting into the ether, do not pass go, directly out of our solar system to find a young star that needs beefing up. We are the winners.

Do not forget to celebrate Albert Schweitzer's birthday on the 14th. He was quite a mensch (mainly remembered for his medical missionariness in Africa) and deserving of at least one grateful pause in your busy life.

Christmas is nearly on the doorstep, or the roof, ready to bring oodles of joy into your house. Joy is all well and good I've always thought, but it's the wrapped presents under the tree that make your heart thump in anticipation. At our house, first thing, there's sticky buns for breakfast (just a modicum of calories, so don't fret), then it's into the living room or den to rip into beautifully wrapped presents, over in three seconds, and here it took at least 10 minutes to make each look perfect. I know, I know, you can't help yourself.

Can you believe it -- Thanksgiving is just round the corner. Of course I was fast off the mark and changed out Halloween for Thanksgiving decorations November 1st. Because of the wicked decoration house goblin you never find every single ghost or witch hat or black cat pillow.

If you are curious about Bad Kicker, I'm referring to that poor person who missed two field goals for the 49ers on Sunday (versus the Browns), the final one this poor person missed should have been the game winner-kicked in the very last second. Now, all of you know football is a team sport, and so I wonder how did everyone act when the poor person slunk in the facility on Monday morning?

We've now gotten through the first week of the NFL football season. Those of you who happen to care about football, the Jets were so excited — they'd built up the team, great defense and they signed Aaron Rodgers from Green Bay, a veteran and a Super Bowl quarterback, needless to say, for very big bucks. Excitement filled the air, fans filled the stadium Monday night, everyone was excited over the moon.