2009! Woo hooo!

Happy New Year everyone!

2008 was a great year for the Hanleys, even if we didn't start as the Hanleys. 2009 will be even better. We've already made an addition to the house, which will be announced here soon. Oh, the anticipation is brutal.

In the meantime, one of Matt's resolutions is to run more often in the coming year. As part of that goal, he's started yet another blog. But this one is about running and it's for work, not play. At 1:09 am. Jan. 1, a post will show up right here on the brand-new, never-before-seen Off and Running blog. Later in the day, Matt will add Post #2. What would be great is if everyone went on there and looked at the blog - comment if you like - so that Matt's bosses will know why they pay him the big bucks.

Sadly, this means the Ugly Baseball Card Blog may have seen it's final set. Well, all weird things must come to an end.

Hope 2009 is a safe and joyous year for everyone!

This blog would like to express condolences to the family of Studs Terkel. You will be missed, Studs!

Woofing you a Merry Christmas

He's making a list,
He's sniffing it twice.
He's gonna find out who's naughty or nice.
Santa Jack is coming to town.

He licks you when you're sleeping.
He licks when you're awake.
Jack don't care if you're good or bad,
He likes dog treats, for goodness sake!

So, you better watch out,
You better not cry.
You better not bark,
I'm telling you why.
Santa Jack is coming...to town!

Christmas miracles

Matt doesn't like to post his real work on this blog, unless the stories are connected in some way to Johnny Depp, or at least Barack Obama. Matt figures if you wanted to read stories in the Beacon, then you'd probably buy a copy. Or nine. (Please!)
But Matt heard the grumblings about the lack of posts, and last week he covered a particularly memorable event.

Matt was on the night shift, a time when reporters can be assigned to anything that comes up. Matt's boss asked him to write about a doctor at Rush-Copley Medical Center who visits all the kids in the hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Basically, these are babies that were born way too soon and face a whole host of challenges. Obviously, they have no idea they're being visited by Santa, but the doctor stops by to make sure each family gets a picture with The Big Guy on their first Christmas.
With that kind of story, you never know what you're going to get. After all, you can't interview the kids and they're the most interesting people involved. But, Matt was pretty lucky that he found a family willing to share a difficult time in their life, for just a few minutes.
Hopefully, you'll find a little Christmas spirit in their story.

Here's the link to the story Matt wrote for the Beacon News.
(By the way, make sure to click on the pictures. They're not the babies I wrote about, but they're still fantastic photos.)