What's that?

Okay. So is it a cross or a bookshelf? And what about the three Christmas balls on the shelf? Is that supposed to be the Trinity? Or is it just three Christmas balls on a shelf? And what about the lights on the tree? If you connect them do they spell out "repent"?

I don't think so.

But nothing in political ads is done by accident. The men in the little dark rooms plan everything we see, so if the cross shaped bookshelf was not intentional, it was surely opportunistic. The sad thing is that the bookshelf will get more attention that what Mike Huckabee has to say. I don't think the men in dark rooms wanted that to happen.

A shot across the bow ....

I just got the results of my biennial physical bloodwork. It was not good news. My cholesterol is up (203) with the bad stuff - the LDL - up to 136. Apparently the best is for this level to be below 100. The last time I was tested - two years ago - it was 114. So no more high-fat foods. Love the (yuk) veggies.

That shouldn't surprise me. I have been eating like a pig. And my weight has shown it. Since 2004 I have regained 50 of the 80 pounds I lost on WeightWatchers. I don't know who I think I'm fooling. I haven't been sticking to the program, so why should I expect it to work.

My doctor said my weight is the big problem. No prostate trouble, no high blood pressure (thank God that was normal!) and my blood tells the whole story.

I was thinking this morning that what I have been doing is not working - the lies I have been telling myself. The extra calories add up and there's no way around it.

So if I want to live, I have to change. No fun. Especially right before the family Christmas gathering. But what has to be done has to be done.

Pray for me. Food is one thing that I have struggled to control my whole life. Now the battle is serious.

It's that time of year ....

to take a look back at what has happened and see where you might be going. My year has been an eventful one; I have probably earned more air miles this year than I had in my previous 44 years on the planet.

My first trip was to the Super Bowl in Miami, Florida in February. That's where Tony Dungy and the Indianapolis Colts beat the Chicago Bears in a pouring rain. Billy Joel did the National Anthem and Prince did the halftime show. I got soaked, but it was a good game. Not to mention it was about 70 degrees there while it was around 30 degrees in DC. Not bad work if you can get it.

Shortly thereafter, Cornelia and I went to the Bahamas for a much-needed warmth break. She gets SAD really bad if we stay in the cold, dark, wetness of DC for too long. Frankly if we didn't work here, we would probably live somewhere warmer.

In July, I went to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the Pan American Games. It was one of the longest flights I have ever taken, and apart from some great music and a chance to see Rio's Christ the Redeemer Statue, I was frustrated by not being able to do my job. Without the rights, I couldn't take any recording equipment into the venues, so I couldn't bring back any tape of the athletes I was interviewing actually doing what they do. But we will try to work around it somehow.

My bitching was put in perspective when nearly 200 people died in a plane crash in Sao Paulo while I was there. They slid off the runway at Congonas Airport in a driving rain storm and no one survived. It made getting home that much more special.

Shortly after the Rio trip I went to Japan to cover the World Athletics Championships. That was the trip I actually wanted to take. The Rio trip I was roped into because my boss wanted someone to go. But Japan was somewhere I wanted to see. It was like being dropped on another planet. The atmosphere and the attitudes were so different from home. And it was another God-awful long flight both going and coming.

In October, Cornelia and I did something I have wanted to do for a long time - we went to Paris. That was one trip that I would do again in a heartbeat. The other places I have been this year? Not so much.

The highlight of the year has been twofold - finding a new church and graduating from Regent University. Both are things that are a relief and a joy. But sometimes I wonder what to do now?

God is not finished with me yet. The elections are coming up next year, and I frankly don't know who to vote for. Some of my church friends say Mike Huckabee, but of course they also said Sam Brownback, who dropped out of the race. But I am not really enthusiastic about any of them.