Drum Roll, please...

Ever seen the Ridley Scott classic 'Alien?' The protagonists in that flick get a distress signal from some meteor or planet or something in the Middle of Nowhere, Space. Once they land on it to investigate what's going on, they find it to be a very scary and threatening place (surprise, surprise). Before they actually get there though, the crew on the ship, an intergalactic towing vessel if I'm not mistaken, debates whether they should indeed risk their lives and check things out. Ultimately they receive orders from their employers that they have to venture into the unknown, but that does little to shake their apprehensions.

What, you might ask, does this have to do with this particular blog? The answer: very little. Except for the fact that for me, the author of said blog, this publication has been a weird, scary, deserted meteor ever since I stopped writing almost seven months ago. It has been in the back of my mind since the last post and I have many times been tempted to sit down and share with you all, just like the good old days. But, every time I get such an urge, I'm quite certain that an extraterrestrial will spring forth from the internet, affix itself to my face and lay eggs down my throat. Since I'm not sure that's covered by our family's insurance plan, I've maintained my distance.

Until now.

It's time. The outpouring of support from no fewer than seven or eight people has rekindled a fire that once burned strong in my soul. I have stories to share, some dating back to last year's adventures. I have new tales to tell, with new and exciting characters. I've witnessed things that even Charlie Sheen would marvel at. But before those are discussed, I feel I should catch you, the reader, up to speed with what exactly has been going on since I last posted.

- October 15, 2010: I returned to the United States following seven months abroad. My contract with the Aarhus Tigers American Football Club was up and I was unsure of my future at that point.

- October 16, 2010 - February 15, 2011: I was in the United States, taking advantage of reasonably-priced goods and services, enjoying the company of my friends and family and most importantly, using a toaster oven to evenly brown various baked goods. I think some other stuff happened, too, but I could be wrong.

- February 15, 2011: I had dinner with my folks at Santarpio's in East Boston. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in the last section that I had worked out another contract with the Tigers, only this time they were letting me bring a friend along. After dining in what was once voted the twenty-third best pizzeria in the world, I departed Logan Airport to begin another stint in the Kingdom of Denmark.

- February 15, 2011 - Present: I've been in Denmark.

Any questions?

I'm sure there might be one or two out there and I promise to ... okay, I'm going to nip this in the bud right now. Last time around, I think I got caught up in 'promising' too much and when I didn't end up fulfilling everything I wanted, I caused myself lots of undue stress. Not only that, but anyone reading this thing might have picked up on the fact that I wasn't always the most consistent writer.

So from here on out, I'm going to try not to hold myself to posts that may or may not get done. I will be writing and I'd like to believe I'll be doing so fairly often. But things do come up and if I don't get to an entry, I won't sweat it. The less pressure I put on myself to do this unpaid, leisurely, deadline-free chronicle for a small group of my friends and family, the better.

I think that's a decent first post. Before leaving you for now, I'd just like to wish all the mothers reading this, especially my own, a happy Mother's Day. I hope that you all experienced weather like we had here today (it was beautiful out - see picture below) and that you got spend some nice time doing mom stuff with those who hopefully appreciate you and the mom stuff you do. Also, I want to send along special birthday wishes to my dear old Dad, Steven Michael Dembow (notice I was kind enough not to put emphasis on the word 'old'). Many of you probably know him in some way and today is his special day. I hope he didn't run into problems with it also falling on Mother's Day, but I guess that would be a matter for the courts to decide.

In closing, it's nice to be back. I have indeed missed sharing my thoughts with many of you fine folks out there in your respective domiciles. I'm looking forward to catching everyone up. All in due time, of course.