Blog Number 118

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Today is my wife's birthday.  I am sure she won't mind me telling you that she is now 32.  Her birthday has been great.  It started at 2:30 AM with our daughter complaining of an ear ache.  For a five year old, she has a pretty high pain tolerance so the fact that she was crying means it really hurt.  I went out in search of Children's Tylenol and the wife stayed home celebrating her birthday early.  The pain medicine worked for a few hours and then we needed to give her another dose.  My wife's next fun birthday task was to take the daughter to the walk in clinic to see a doctor that we had never met before.  Then, with the daughter almost in hysterics, she got to go to a pharmacy and wait for a prescription.  She then got to spend the day nursing a sick child.  When I got home, dinner was not started.  We decided on pasta but did not have any sauce (today was grocery day, this was SUPPOSED to be her birthday chore).  I ran to the store and when I got back the wife was already in her pajamas (or, as I call it, "frumpwear" - but that is another blog altogether).  I ended up with bath duty (it was my turn) and then we all crashed on the couch.  By 7 PM, the wife was asleep.  All in all, a real sucky birthday.

My day was a different kind of sucky.  More insanity in procurement in the month of December.  Right before bath time, I was reading the Dr. Seuss book, "Hop on Pop!"  There is a line in it that goes...

SAD
DAD
BAD
HAD

Dad is sad.
Very, very sad.
He had a bad day.
What a day Dad had!

I paused on that page and reflected on how well it applied not just for my day, but for the entire family's (especially the wife's and daughter's).  Well, the kids are now asleep (the daughter fell asleep on me on the couch).  I hope she makes it through the night and we can start tomorrow off on a better note.  We do have a Christmas party to go to.  The guy's house we are going to has like a 100 inch projection TV and the Cowboys are playing tomorrow night the same time as the party.  Here's to hoping tomorrow is better.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 117

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

OK, one last follow up on the Secret Santa.  I received one more gift today.  It was a $20 gift certificate to Blockbuster.  I will have to recant everything I said a few blogs ago!

I showed up at the United States Post Office (zip code 75013) this morning at about 10:50.  I had an appointment to sign up for my passport for 11:00.  When I arrived there was quite a line of people.  Almost all of them had boxes of one sort or another.  Many of the boxes were quite large as well.  I decided to stand in line and then if I was not close to the front at around 11:00 I would cut in line and mention that I had an appointment.  10 minutes went by and I was still a long way from the front so I stepped up and interrupted a man with 2 large boxes ad asked the clerk what I need to do since I had an appointment.  He told me I should wait in line.

Now I had a few minutes to think about this concept.  Make an appointment, then still have to stand in line.  This just seems odd to me conceptually.  It is not really like I have a choice.  I want to leave the country in January and I have to have a passport.  So, I waited in line.  After I got to the front of the line, everything went very smoothly.  It helped that I had done my research and had the forms completed and had all the documentation that is required.  15 minutes later I was out the door and on my way to work.

We had a small get together to reveal our Secret Santas in the afternoon.  There were about 15 of us and we went around the room explaining what our gifts were and guessing who we thought had given us the gift.  I really had no clue who to guess.  I really don't know many of these people very well so I took a shot in the dark and was wrong.  The person that I bought for guessed me and I could tell she was less than impressed with the gift selection.  She admitted to giving away one gift and then researching what another gift might fetch on eBay.  Oh well, I was not going for quality of gift, I was trying to give her a story to tell for years to come.  Base on her reaction, I think she will not have fond memories but I don't think she will forget me!

Tonight we went to a home schoolers monthly meeting.  There was a guest speaker there who spoke for about an hour on why we should teach history and how to interpret history books based on what agenda the author may have.  It was actually quite interesting (shhh, don't tell the wife that I liked it, I kinda complained that I had to go in the first place).  The son, on the other hand, was bored out of his skull.  The daughter fell asleep 5 minutes in and was out for the entire hour.  All in all (other than getting home kind of late) it was a good night.  It was a good day as well and even though I logged back in to work when I arrived back home after 9, it has not been a bad day.

I did want to mention one more update.  All of a sudden my Buick's windows have mysteriously started working again.  I just happed to forget that they did not work and tried them again the other day.  At first only the passenger side was working and then all of a sudden, the driver's side worked too.  This is probably a bad thing though, I think I would rather have them not working then working intermittently.  Well, I will be sure to keep you posted.

The wife's birthday is tomorrow.  I wonder if she would like to have a Blockbuster gift card for a present?

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 116

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well first a follow up.  I was pleasantly surprised today when my Secret Santa struck again.  This means that the pencil with the gingerbread man eraser was NOT my 3rd gift after all!  I received a small gift bag containing 2 different kinds of gourmet coffee and some hot chocolate mix.  This has restored my faith in the season again.  I am not saying that this feeling will last, I am just saying that I am OK for now.

I actually got to work early this morning.  I arrived at around 7:20 with high hopes of leaving at a decent hour.  I also arrived HOME at 7:20 (PM).  So much for that.  Today was just insane.  There was no end to the phone calls, meetings, instant messages and emails.  All wanting a piece of my time or wanting me to offer a piece of one of my team member's time.  Everything was an escalate / expedite (which means that nothing was).  I did what I could but given the level of workload and stress lately, I fear I will need to put some of my team on suicide watch (myself included).  At times today, death seemed like it might be a welcome relief.

Tomorrow AM I get to go to the United States Post Office and apply for a passport since I plan on going on a cruise ealry next year with the wife to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary.  I am preparing myself for the worst.  I already know that I will have to pay the insane fee for the expedite service.  The "normal" service is like 6 weeks.  I have no idea how much faster the expedite service is or how much time the extra $100 will save me in the process.  It seems like a scam to me.

Maybe I need to adopt this method in my day job.  Make the "normal" process so drawn out that everyone wants the expedite service.  And then charge $100 for it as well.  Hmmmm.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 115

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I was asked a few weeks ago if I wanted to join the Secret Santa drawing at work.  The rules were pretty simple.  You draw a name from a hat and sometime between December 4th and December 14th you presented the person whose name you drew with 3 gifts that were to total no more than $25.  Around lunchtime on the 14th, there would be a meeting where you revealed your identity to the person you bought presents for.  Easy, peasy.

The person's name that I drew was a lady I had only met once in person and really in my 6 years of employment had not had a chance to interact with on more than a few occasions.  So I had to hope for the best and trust this person would get my sense of humor or worse case scenario, that they would not be offended by it.  I tried to avoid buying the "easy" gifts like candy.  I wanted to buy stuff that even if they were not enjoyed, they would be remembered.  So I bought the following...

1. 2007 Calendar featuring nature pictures containing only Owls
2. A pair of Christmas CDs performed by Barry Manilow and Willie Nelson
3. A used copy of Tolstoy's, "War And Peace"

Can't you feel the Spirit of Christmas?  Anyway, I have delivered these gifts over the last few days to this person's cube.  I had high hopes that I would make a new friend or at least have something to say when I see her in the office.

This was all crushed today.  I actually needed her help on an issue that had to be settled before year end so I headed over to her cubicle.  I noticed that my CDs were laying there against her cube wall but I did not see the calendar or book.  After I finished getting the answers I needed from her I talked to the guy who sat in the cube next to her on another matter.  There was the Owl Calendar!  Her Secret Santa was not even revealed yet and she had already given away my gift!  I felt (and still feel) a little betrayed.

I semi-sulked back to my desk.  My Secret Santa (the person who had drawn my name) had taken the easy way out with the first 2 gifts.  For the first gift I had received a foot tall plastic cylinder containing mini Reece's Peanut Butter Cups (this screamed of "end of the grocery aisle on sale for $1").  For the second gift I had received a small stuffed animal that was holding and even smaller glass jar that also contained candy (this screamed of "this is what I got last year from my Secret Santa").  Given we had a $25 limit, I had really high hopes for my 3rd gift.  I figured there was like $20 left in the budget.  Sitting on my desk when I got back was my 3rd gift.  3 Hershey's Kisses, a small candy cane and a pencil with a fancy eraser.  I am guessing my Secret Santa spent $5 on me and about 5 minutes of thought.  The whole experience (both giving and getting) has really sucked.

Next year I am going to tell people I am Jewish.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 114

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I have been putting a lot of hours in at work lately.  It is probably something like 60 hours if you count the work I do at home most evenings and some weekends.  This time of year is just busy and there is nothing really that can be done.  You suck it up, work more, and wait for January when things will slow down.  This busy time is further complicated by people choosing to take vacation time as well further complicating things.  I remember this time last year telling my (then) team leader that NEXT year, no one should get any vacation in December.  So much for that idea.  Plus, now I am the team leader (for one whole week now) and I admit I would not have the heart (or guts) to tell my teammates that they had to work most of the holidays.  So I just work more to try to pick up the slack.  Actually, my team is great in this aspect.  When I log in at night or over the weekend, there are usually several people working as well.  Given that we are salaried and do not get paid any overtime, this says a lot of the team work ethic.

Anyway, tonight I got home about 5:30 to discover that there was no dinner started.  I am 3 months shy of my 10 year wedding anniversary so I know from experience that this means that we are going out to eat at a restaurant of (not) my choosing.  We ended up going to Chili's and both kids wanted (very badly) to sit by daddy (maybe I am working too much).  Fortunately we got a big booth and there was plenty of room on my side of the table for both kids.  Before we got seated though, we were waiting by the front door.  There were 2 people immediately in front of us and they appeared to me mother and teenage daughter.  As they were being led to their seat, I noticed the teenage daughter grab a children's menu and a crayon from the slot by the front desk.  This girl had to be 15 years old!  Does she need to color THAT badly?  They sat close to the front and sure enough, right when they sat down she opened the menu up and began to color!

Anyway, we did our typical "order 2 adult dinners and 2 extra plates" and shared some burgers and (way too many) fries.  We also did our favorite appetizer (the Triple Play).  The southwestern eggrolls are just toooooo good!  With approximately a 19% tip, the bill came to $30.00.  The food did take quite a while to come but since I was sitting next to both kids, I got a chance to color.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 113

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I shall forever remember this day.  Today my son has made me proud.  He actual said the words, "Let's ask Mr. Google."

I am constantly asked questions at work, at home, at church, etc.  Mr. Google has all the answers but for years, only I and precious few others know this it seems.  For years at work when someone would call, email or IM me with a technical question I would simply "Google" for the answer and then repeat that answer.  Everyone assumed I knew everything (and I did little to discourage this concept).  Eventually, I got tired of all the questions and adopted the motto, "Before you ask me, ask Mr. Google."  This is similar to another motto I adopted back when Windows 95 came out - "Don't call me until you have rebooted."  Both of these mottos have greatly reduced the number of questions asked of me.

But today, today faithful readers, my son has truly grasped this concept.  Tonight the wife was making spaghetti and garlic bread.  The garlic bread did not come from the freezer section.  She actually took some sourdough bread we bought at a local cafe and pressed fresh garlic onto it, threw on a little butter and heated it up in the oven.  Five minutes later she had this disappointed look on her face and stated that we would not be having garlic bread this evening as it had turned green on the bread.  She assumed that there was something wrong with the garlic.  Then my son stated with confidence that before we threw out the garlic bread, we should ask Mr. Google.

We searched for "garlic turned green cook" and voila - the second link gave us our answer.  It turns out that this is a reaction to an acid and is harmless to eat.

As I ate my spaghetti and enjoyed my garlic bread, I was beaming with pride.  Thank you Mr. Google.
Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 112

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well today my daughter turned five.  This was announced at about 6:45 AM when she bounced from bed and began telling everyone that THE DAY had arrived (whether they were awake or not).

We were at church this AM for the first time in a few weeks since we have been on vacation.  The choir and band really ripped through some classic Christmas hymns with gusto.  One person on stage that caught my attention was a percussionist.  There is a drummer of course but this other person handles mostly the tambourine and the shaker.  I have noticed her before only because I wanted to know where that sound was coming from since I knew it was not the normal drummer.  This morning though, I noticed she was was also chewing gum.  As I watched her shake the shaker and chew her gum I noticed that she was not chewing to the beat.  I began to wonder if it is harder to chew on beat or not on beat.  I would think that it would be hard NOT to be on beat, who knows?  If that is the case, she is very talented.

My mother is in town until Monday and she stayed home and made dinner (meatloaf, cheese potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, biscuits, and cherry pie).  We then watched out poor Indianapolis Colts get beat on a 60 yard field goal.  Then it was time to open presents which consisted of baby clothes, a Snow White wig, and a puzzle.  Also in the gift bag was a tiara with the words "Birthday Girl" on it.  However, she announced for the rest of the day that she was queen.  We attempted to use logic (never a good idea with a 5 year old) and told her that since her mother was still alive, she could not be queen so she must be the princess.  Based on the fact that she still claimed her queenhood, she must have been pretending my wife was dead.

All in all, it was a great day (except for the Colts losing).  This did not seem to effect the queen's day though.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon