Blog Number 204

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I am not really good a taking vacations so yesterday I went into the my company's Kokomo office.  My badge still worked thankfully and I remembered my passcode easy enough.  I had not been in this office since Thanksgiving last year but it looks about the same.  I had to chuckle a little as well since there were several packages piled up out front that no one has bothered to take the time to deliver then to the intended recipient.  This was the subject of one of my first blogs actually.  So you see, very little has changed at all.  I looked at the attention line of the packages and did not recognize any of the people's names or I would have picked up where I left off and delivered them myself.

After visiting with a few folks, logging in and checking my email and making a phone call or two I logged off and headed down the street (on foot) to my favorite pawn shop.  When I first started going there they had CDs for $3 or 5 for $10.  Eventually they just lowered them to $2 each and lo and behold when I came in yesterday they were now only $1.  I recognized a lot of the CDs from my November 2006 visit but now that they are only $1 my standards for what I wanted were greatly lowered.  I found 7 CDs that I thought I needed and even 2 of the 3 Lord of the Rings movies for $5 each. Unfortunately the DVDs are the 2nd and 3rd movies so I will need to go find the first one before I can feel like I got a bargain.  Still, 7 CDs and 2 DVDs for $18 (including tax) is not too shabby.

The son and I went to lunch with my mother while the daughter and wife went to lunch with hers.  My mom then took my son birthday shopping and I hung out at the house with the daughter while the wife got her hair done.  It seems there is only one person in the known universe that can properly understand the complexities of my wife's hair.  Fortunately for her, that person is located in Kokomo (and not, say, Budapest).  Anyway, a short 2 1/2 hours later the wife arrived back home looking like a million bucks and with a broad smile on her face (indeed this morning she said goodbye to the new look as she hopped in the shower since she claims she can not pull off styling it herself).

Last night the mother-in-law and sister-in-law planned a late birthday party for the son.  There were almost 20 people at our table at Hacienda.  My brother, his wife and her son came along with my dad and his wife.  My grandmother was there along with a friend of the family and 4 of her 5 kids.  Through in my mom and her boyfriend and my family and my wife's sister and mother and you have one big crew.  The service was very good and the food was average (which is good for Hacienda as it is not one of my favorite spots).  Most importantly I got to spend some time talking to my dad and of course my son had a good time.

We have another partially full day ahead of us so we will see what adventures the day brings.  We are heading over to some friend's house and the husband and I typically engage in an epic ping pong battle.  I will have to let you know how it goes.  Until next time...

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon