One of the things that Lyssa and I bonded over early in our relationship were the works of Neil Gaiman, in particular the graphic novel which spanned seven years and seventy-five issues called Sandman. It was considered the flagship series of DC's Vertigo imprint and has a community of fans around the world for whom these stories are very important indeed even to this day. Earlier this year the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco hosted an exhibit (which was so popular they held it over) called Grains of Sand: 25 Years of the Sandman. So of course, when Lyssa …

Lyssa and I started off our Valentine's Day by getting up far earlier than should be allowed by law on a Saturday morning to go to our local H&R Block office to finish getting our taxes done. That morning marked our second trip to get our finances straightened out in Uncle Sam's eyes. I'm sorry to say that our combined medical expenses for FY 2008 weren't enough to earn a deduction, though the repeated trips to the thrift store to get rid of stuff appear to have come in handy. There is a question these days over how many …