Blog Number 261

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I thought I would log in tonight and squeeze one more blog into the month of January.  We had black bean soup a few nights this week (including the night we reheated the leftovers).  The kids like black bean soup about as well as the sausage / potato soup we had last week.  Tonight however we did not have soup as today was grocery day.  Typically this means that we have what looked good at the grocery store (totally based on the wife's opinion).  On grocery day, almost anything is possible for dinner and I will admit that I do look forward to it even if whatever ends up on my plate is not a success.  Here was the menu for dinner...

• Fried catfish
• Fried potatoes
• Steamed broccoli
• French bread (not pictured below)
• Milk

Looks good, doesn't it?  The breading for the fish was our version of Shake-n-Bake (corn meal, spices, buttermilk and a ziplock baggy) and the broccoli was fresh (not frozen).  We did not have any desert as we finished off the biscotti this morning with our coffee.

After bath duty (it was my turn tonight) we listed to music on SeeqPod (similar to imeem but sill in beta).  Since the son was a baby, I have been singing "Surfin' Bird" to him and also to the daughter.  If you are not familiar with this song or cannot remember it, just go to seeqpod and search for "Surfin Bird Trashmen" and give it a quick listen.  The song is quite meaningless and as the son grew older and older he thought more and more that I had to have invented this song in my head.  I tried to convince him otherwise but it did no good.  That is, until tonight when he heard The Trashmen version.  He listened with his mouth wide open and this look on his face that indicated that he thought that I had somehow rented studio time and had a band record this song that I made up and then put it on the internet.  I would have done all this just to prove I was right and that I was not lying about the song being real.  My son is like that, he is convinced at times that I will go to no end to fool him.  He is quite justified in thinking this way of course in that I do trick him and his sister quite often.  This time though, he finally ended up admitting that the man on the internet was not me and the song was a real song.

My daughter still thinks that I made up the words to "Hanky Panky" (by Tommy James & the Shondells)  though.  I will save that for another day.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 260

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Today I feel like posting a few (random) pictures.  Let's start off with the return of biscotti in my diet.  The wife made a fresh batch on Saturday night so it was all ready for our Sunday AM coffee.  She tweaked the recipe a little though I thought the last batch was perfect.  She tried a whole wheat flower (so the biscotti looked more healthy) and added almond extract and crushed almonds as well.  I can't complain as I have not ever met a biscotti that I didn't like.

Yesterday night while the kids were at church (Kidz Praise) I headed out to Kohl's in search of a new (Texas) winter jacket.  I have a light brown jacket that I have had for years and it is full of stains that the wife has long since given up on trying to get out.  I hit the jackpot and ran into the 60% - 70% - 80% off racks.  I ended up with a jacket, another sweatshirt material coat, a sweatshirt, a few shirts, some socks and a sweater.  List price total for all of the items was around $350 but my final total came to just over $70 before tax.  One of the t-shirts was 90% off (see pic for reason why) and I am not too sure about the sweater.  It makes me think of the kind that Mr. Rogers would have worn.  I like it but I think I am a little to young for it really.  See for yourself.  I have all the buttons buttoned by the way.

This morning as I was heading out of the kitchen (with coffee and biscotti in hand) my eyes beheld the below site.  It seems the dog (not to be out done or left out) decided that since the cat was on the back of one of our living room chairs, she would sit on the back of the other one.  She did not stay there for long (just long enough for the picture).

Well, that is all the pics I have for you today.  Hope you enjoyed them.  Until next time...

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 259

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

We just returned from a nice breakfast at Panera.  Let me explain how we ended up there.  It all started last night at dinner.  The wife had made a soup consisting of milk (raw of course) and chicken broth (organic of course) as the broth.  It also contained spicy Italian sausage, potatoes, onions, and corn.  She has made this soup before and to say that is not our kid's favorite would be a massive understatement.  We are quite strict when it comes to eating the food placed in front of us and (as I mentioned in a recent blog) at times we have to resort to a timer to goad the kids into finishing before midnight.  Last night the kids were both picking at the soup.  They did not complain as complaining is not allowed and is usually met with additional soup placed in their bowls.  The son is really not fond of the broth portion and even though the wife was careful not to give him that much he still had a lot of broth left when all the rest of the soup was gone.  When he realized that he would need to drink the broth, the look on his face was one of horror.  The daughter on the other hand was just pokey in general as she is not fond of potatoes.  I asked the son what he was willing to do in order to avoid drinking the broth.  He did not quite understand what I meant so I asked him if he was willing to lick the dog's mouth in order to be allowed to be done eating.  I tried to pick something so disgusting that he would rather drink the broth.  He proceeded to get up with a smile of relief on his face and head toward the dog and pried open the dog's mouth.  It was then that I realized that he was not bluffing (as he sometimes does)!  He was actually going to lick the inside of the dog's mouth!  His hatred of the soup broth was so great that he would rather French kiss the dog than drink it!  I stepped in and told him I was just kidding but felt pity for him.  I mean, he must really be dreading finishing his soup.  I then asked the kids if they were willing to pay for bagels the next morning if we went to Panera.  They both agreed.  So, in essence, they bought their way out of finishing dinner.  As a result we went to Panera this morning.

In the mail yesterday we received a brochure from The Cleaning Authority.  The tag line on the brochure says, "Life's too short to clean your own home."  Wow what a statement.  Talk about targeting your audience.  I could paraphrase the tag line as follows...

• Do you have too much money and are you lazy?
• Did you buy way too big of a house and then had to take 2nd job so that you are never at home to enjoy said house?

The brochure also said that," Cleaning Service Makes a Great Gift."  Nothing says how much you care about a person than saying, "You know, your house is a mess and I know you are not capable of cleaning it yourself so I bought you some help."  The brochure offered no hint of pricing but referenced a number to call in order to get an estimate.  Sounds like you are getting a car repaired or something.  I feel a little better in that the brochure was addressed to the previous tenant of the house and not to us.  I am not as offended as I would have been if it had mine or my wife's name on the label.

We are now just hanging around the house until the mall opens.  We have some budgeted clothing money that is burning a hole in our pockets.  I am sure it will be and adventure.  Until next time...

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 257

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Last night after the kids went to bed, the wife looked at me and said those three words husbands everywhere like to here.  "Get our laxatives."  Let me explain.  I mentioned last week that I was weaning myself off of caffeine (again).  Or rather that the wife was weaning me off of coffee in order to start a week long detox.  As you can see by the picture below, it is a kit that you buy.

This kit was enough for 2 detoxes (what is the plural of detox?).  Anyway, you take 3 fiber pills 30 minutes before breakfast (the big container), 1 milk thistle pill 2 hours after breakfast, 1 milk thistle pill 2 hours after lunch, 3, 4, or 5 (depending on what day you are on) fiber pills 30 minutes before dinner and a cleansing laxative pill before bedtime.  Also, you have to drink 96 oz of water spread throughout the day.

Now, I mentioned that you cannot have caffeine on this week long event but you also cannot have processed sugar or red meat.  Given that 96 oz of water is roughly 93 more oz than I usually drink per day and add in all else that I have to give up along with having to plan my eating / pill taking and you can guess that this has not been a fun week for me.  Fortunately though, since we started on Saturday, I only have 3 days left (including today).  After 4 days I cannot tell a real difference.  I do not feel especially cleansed.  Also, I am sick of drinking so much water (and having to use the restroom at an equally increased frequency).  It is nice to be off of coffee (again) though I guess.

Let me take this last paragraph to personally and publicly thank my wife (once again) for keeping me healthy.  I should live to a ripe old age and I can see myself at age 80 sitting down to breakfast with her, taking a pile of pills and chewing through my oat bran wondering if I would not have had more fun eating what I want and being dead at 55.  Fortunately for me, I don't have the choice of eating unhealthy stuff for if I do, there are more cleansing kits waiting for me (or [gulp] who knows what else).

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 258

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I am sitting here enjoying my white tea on my last day of exile from the real world (i.e. last day of the milk thistle detox).  I have 14 pills to go and then I am free.  Tomorrow AM the wife and I will enjoy the sweet nectar of life that is coffee and all will be back to normal in my world again.  I cannot wait but I will say that I have not really missed coffee as much as I thought I would (I only snuck down to the cafeteria at work once this week for a de-caf Starbuck's).

Yesterday at work was a little rough in that I was on the phone for 3+ hours from the start of my day up to lunch time almost.  One phone call after another whether it was a scheduled meeting or an ad hoc phone call to clear up matters.  I did not take my headset off and only hung the phone up to dial another number.  My first call on Thursdays is always with Egypt, The Netherlands, and Hungary.  English is the 2nd language for everyone on the call (except for me) so I feel bad sometimes in that I forced each participant to speak in a language that is not their native tongue.  Other than English however, no one on the call speaks a language that anyone else on the call understands so English has to be the choice.  In Egypt they speak Arabic, in Hungary the speak Hungarian (duh!) and the official language of The Netherlands is Dutch.  They tend to understand each other's English pretty well and (oddly enough) I am the one they cannot understand at times.  But this makes sense if you take into account that I am the only one that would use words like "wanna" (want to), "gonna" (going to), etc.  Also, I am the only one with the risk of using American slang or phrases that they would not understand.  I have met with this group every Monday and Thursday morning since last summer so we have a little bit of a rapport and can poke fun at each other.  Anyway, that was my first call and it just got crazier after that.  Fortunately for me the calls ended before lunch and I was free the entire afternoon to get some real work done.

Well, I better finish my white tea before it gets cold.  Can't wait til tomorrow.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 256

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

After enjoying my 1/2 cup of coffee yesterday morning I am now enjoying a cup of green tea (sweetened with stevia).  This is of course in anticipation of some sort of week long detox process the the wife is putting us through.  As you can imagine, it is not something I am looking forward to.  Couple my green tea with the annoying-ness of the dog this morning (she wanted in and out the back door 4 times in about 40 minutes, mostly just to play) and my Saturday / weekend is off to a great start.  Speaking of the (annoying) dog, she has made herself at home and is quite comfortable in her new surroundings.

Exhibit A (comfortable in her Hello Kitty blanket lined cage)

This cage has a divider in it so you can limit the size of the area the dog can fit in.  This way you can buy a big cage (ka-ching) and still let the dog grow into it over time.  the  Hello Kitty blanket was a Christmas gift to the daughter a few years ago from my wife's mother but evidently now is the dog's.  As you can see, just a few months in and she has the run of the whole cage.

Exhibit B (confortable on our leather couch)

She has not quite figured out how to use her back legs for jumping but she does use them to crawl up onto the couch (another option of hers is to put her front paws on the couch and look longingly at one of us until we come over and hoist her back side onto the couch).  She has a favorite corner of the couch and (as with the cage) prefers to sleep on her back.

Exhibit C (comfortable being where I am at)

This is from yesterday morning (after my 1/2 cup of coffee).  She crawled to this position with no help from me and the wife was kind enough to capture this Kodak moment for me (and the blog).  Despite my often harsh tone and general ignoring of her, the dog has caught on that I am the Alpha Male and as such gives me the respect that I am due.

The wife just brought me another cup of green tea (woo hoo).  I will let you know if the dog finds any more areas of the house that she is comfortable in.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 255

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well I just enjoyed a nice 1/2 cup of coffee.  But Jon, you say, why would you only be drinking a 1/2 cup of coffee instead of your normal 2 cups?  Well, I am glad you asked.  I am (once again) weaning myself off of coffee only this time I am doing it in a more intelligent way.  As you may recall, the last time I lost an entire Sunday suffering while I tried the cold turkey method.  This time, I am trying a smarter approach.  It is really not I who is weaning me actually.  It is my wife.  For she is going to have us go through some sort of detox thing starting Saturday.  From what I have been told by the wife, this detox thing will not be fun but it will be good for us.  I will have to let you know.  I drank only 1 cup on Tuesday and Wednesday and tomorrow I will again only have 1/2 cup and then Saturday I am done.  I can only hope my body is kind to me.

We went to a friend's house to watch the football games on Sunday.  It was terrible to watch the Colts first and then the Cowboys lose.  What a bummer.  It really put a damper on the crowd that was there.  The wife and I were quite depressed but we were able to offer comfort three hours later to the bulk of the people since they were all big Cowboys fan.  I feel your pain people (having just gone through it earlier in the afternoon).

Spanish is still coming along.  The lesson I am on now talks about various articles of clothing (raincoats, skirts, shoes, etc.).  As with previous chapters, nothing I can really use if I were to fly to a Spanish speaking country tomorrow.  8 lessons down and 76 to go to complete the first level of Spanish (I have purchased the 100+ lessons for level 2 as well so it will likely take me 2 years to get through it all I am sure).  I didn't expect to have Spanish down in 3 months or anything but 2 years (dos años) seems like a long time.  There is a level 3 available too so I will be in my early 40's by the time I am done!

Well I better get going to work.  Until next time...

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 254

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Ah biscotti, how I loved thee but alas thou art no more.  We polished off the last of the 2nd batch of biscotti on Friday and I am going through a slight amount of withdrawal.  I got a little excited this morning when the wife had the cookbook open.  I got even more excited when the page was opened to the biscotti recipe.  She was right by the coffee pot when she was doing this so logically it meant that sometime this morning some biscotti would emerge from the oven.  Imagine my disappointment when I found out that she was not making any but was instead writing down the recipe for someone else in our ABF class.  Now not only will I not have biscotti but it is possible that someone I know will have some before I do.  I tried to feel good for the other person, but could not muster up any good feelings, only jealousy.

For most nights this week the pre-bedtime entertainment for the family was watching Tex Avery cartoons on YouTube.  The kids had never seen any classic Tex Avery stuff though they did recognize portions from the movie "The Mask" which was a tribute of sorts to Tex Avery and (as I recall) even had the Tex Avery documentary running on a TV in one scene in the background.  Anyway, once dinner and bath time is over, the kids are all over me to watch more cartoons (Droopy being their favorite).  Gotta love this internet thing, tons of truly useless things to do to waste your time.

The Colts play today in the early game and they are a big favorite.  This should worry any Colt fan as we typically do not do well when we are favored so I am a little nervous.  Since the Patriots won last night, things are shaping up for the rematch between the 2 powerhouse teams of the AFC.  The Giants/Cowboys will fight it out to see who plays the Packers next weekend.  That game will be for the right to see who gets killed by the winner of the Colts/Patriots game in the Superbowl.

I did spend the last part of my Christmas money on a web cam yesterday and the daughter and I already recorded a small video and sent it off to my mother.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts,

Jon

Blog Number 253

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

We have hung a sleigh bell on our back door so that the dog can ring it when she needs to go outside.  "Needs" is the word we were thinking however our dog "wants" to go outside a lot.  I will give her credit for learning what in the world the bell is for in the first place.  The whole thing works pretty well as the bell can be heard from even our back bedroom.  But again, our plans were that she would ring the bell when she needed to go outside, not every time she gets the hankering to go outside.

Take the morning for instance.  She goes outside about 5 times in the 45 minutes or so that the wife and I sit around talking and drinking coffee.  There are times she comes in, makes a lap of the living room and then rings the bell again.  I think it is annoying, the wife says that she is just acting like a little kid that does not know what she wants (whatever!).  That and the fact that when she wants in, it is a relentless digging on the back door window or our bedroom windows (if she can tell we are in our bedroom).  When we moved into the house, the back window screens were damaged and laying in the garage.  It was our guess that the previous tenant had a dog that also used the "dig relentlessly into the back window screens" method.

When the wife lets the dog out in the morning or evening, she will turn the outside light on for the dog.  However she (and the kids) are not very good at turning the light off when they let her inside the house.  The kids are bad about leaving lights on anyway so that is par for the course.  The wife is only bad about this one light.  I egg her constantly about it and she is showing signs of improvement.  This morning she tried a new technique.  She did not even bother to turn the light on at all.  Whatever works I guess.

On the tooth front, the son's tooth is still a tooth having not turned into money despite being under his sister's pillow.  He has mentioned this to me but she has not.  I am still not sure what I will say to her if she brings it up.  I will have to let you know when the time comes.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts,

Jon

Blog Number 252

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Continuing on with her trend of trying new recipes, the wife has tackled black bean soup and corn chowder this week.  Now, I have had both of these items in restaurants or out of a can but never out of our crockpot.  Neither of our kids are big soup fans but my wife (as my wife is very fond of pointing out) is not a short order cook (and usually follows up that sentiment with something like, "this is what we are having so eat it or go hungry").  We have made a conscious effort not to have picky eaters in our house.  So much so that if we come across something that the kids refuse to eat (say at a restaurant or over at a friends house) we will eat that item for every meal for a week.  Cole slaw was a big one the kids did not like, 6 or 7 straight dinners with coleslaw as a side dish and voila, the are ok with it now.

Anyway, neither of the kids cared for the black bean soup that we had on Sunday.  They sat at the table picking at their bowls for about 1 hour.  Finally I took the bowls from them, placed them in the refrigerator and announced that those exact same bowls would be heated up for their next meal (be it dinner or the next morning's breakfast - not an uncommon event as the daughter recently had potato soup for breakfast).  They ended up eating the rest of it later that evening albeit slowly.

Last night was corn chowder.  They were making about the same amount of progress as with the black bean soup so I asked the daughter to go to my bedroom and bring me the clock that dings (we have a kitchen timer that you can set for up to 1 hour than it will ding - they play with this a lot for some reason).  Upon hearing my request, the son started digging into the chowder (much to the confusion of the daughter).  She came back empty handed so I had to head to the back of the house to look for the timer.  During my search, the wife explained to the daughter that daddy was going to set the timer and if she did not have her chowder finished by the time it dinged, there would be consequences.  I came back and set it for 15 minutes (which is plenty of time) but since the daughter still does not grasp the concept of time that well she started shoving chowder in her mouth like she hadn't eaten in a week.  We tried to convince her that she had plenty of time and she did slow down a little.  7 minutes later, the bowls were empty.  The chowder was quite good (I had 2 bowls and it will likely be my lunch today).

The timer though might stay on our kitchen table for the time being just in case the kids need encouragement.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts,

Jon

Blog Number 251

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I have taken it upon myself to read the Mission Earth series by L Ron Hubbard.  This will not turn out well and let me tell you why.  First of all, there are 10 books (volumes) that total about 4,000 pages (containing 1.2 million words) so odds are I will not make it through the entire pile before losing interest or wanting to read another book more.  Secondly, the Frisco Public Library only has the first 8 books.  So, even if I do stick it out for the first 8 books, I will then be forced into searching and (gasp, maybe) buying the last 2 books to see how it all ends.  Either way, I will have something else to gripe about.

People who know me well wonder why in the world I would read a book or books written by the father of the Church of Scientology.  To me, he is just a science fiction writer.  Also, I was getting desperate last month at the library when 15 minutes of wandering around looking for a good book resulted in an empty book bag.  Then there they were.  8 books all of approximately the same shape and size giving me the promise of not having to look for a book for a long, long time.  The first book took me about a month to finish.  It was about 550 pages but I only read it sporadically.  Fortunately for me, the library does not have any late fees.  They just don't allow you to check any more materials out until all the late books are returned.  No problem for me since this is the only book I wanted to check out and would not need another book until I was done with this one.  I am about 25% through the second one and at this rate it should take me the better part of 2008 to finish the series.  That is assuming that I can find books 9 and 10 somewhere without incurring too much of a hit financially.

On the tooth front, the kids both slept in a tent last night so the son's tooth did not make it underneath the daughter's pillow.  They got a nice sized pop tent for Christmas that they have taken to sleeping in on the weekends (inside the son's room).  They would probably sleep in it every night if we would let them.  But for now, the son's tooth is still a tooth.  I will have to keep you posted.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts,

Jon

Blog Number 250

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Another day, another biscotti with my morning coffee.  There is enough left to last us about 5 more days however I fear that the wife is going to bring them to our ABF class tomorrow AM at church.  Sometimes you just don't wanna share (is that so wrong?).

The daughter lost a tooth on New Year's Eve and another one on New Year's Day.  In fact, they were both top, front teeth.  Those tend to bleed a lot when they come out so mi hija was freaking out a little as they were coming out of her mouth.  Once they were out and the bleeding had stopped, she was already counting her money.  I have mentioned before that we do not do the tooth fairy thing but rather tell the kids that the teeth just magically turn into money.  The daughter told me (in no uncertain terms) that she believed that one tooth would turn into $2 and the other would turn into $5!  Shock of all shocks when she awoke the next morning and came into her room, there was a $5 bill and 2 $1 bills in her hands.  She was pumped as she came in to tell us, "See, I was right!"

Now, the son has figured this whole thing out.  I told him that the tooth only turns into money as long as you believe that it will.  He thought about this for a day or 2 (as he lost a tooth about 2 weeks ago and it has remained a tooth this whole time despite being under his pillow for several of those nights).  Evidently after thinking about it for a few days he has had a personal revival in his belief of the magic teeth.  He has told me several times of his newly redound belief but the tooth still stays there unchanged.

This morning he called his sister into his room and then asked us to come in a few minutes later.  He thinks he has found a loophole in the system as he announced to us that his tooth would be underneath his sister's pillow tonight.  He reasoned to us that since she still believes that it (her belief) should count for something.  He also told us that he believed that his tooth would turn into $4.  Now the wife and I have a quandary.  What to do?  Do we leave the tooth as is and try to find a way to explain that to the daughter or do we exchange the tooth for money and let the son think he has found a work around for his non belief?  I guess we have the whole day to think about it, I will let you know.  For now though I think I will distract the wife and grab another biscotti.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 249

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

The wife likes to cook and even more so now that we are in this nice house that has a big kitchen.  She also likes to experiment with cooking and I get/have to eat her experiments.  Some are great, some are not so great.  For instance, she attempted tiramisu one time.  Not finding the exact ingredients and also wanting to make some substitutions to make it more healthy, she assembled it.  The result was not tiramisu.  The result was not even close enough to tiramisu to be confused with tiramisu.  I think she tried to replace too many ingredients really.  In fact, I don't think there was a single, major ingredient that was what it was supposed to be.  I ate most of it (partly because it did not tast that bad and partly because that is what a good husband does).  In the end we threw the rest in the trash.

Then there are times like yesterday when she hits it right on the nose.  I came home from work to freshly made biscotti.  It was the perfect combination of crunchy and chewy and she even melted and spread chocolate on one side.  It was great with our coffee this morning.  The biscotti was not made for me though.  A friend down the street had invited her over for coffee in the afternoon and the wife thought it a perfect time to test her biscotti skills.  She said it was easy to make, just time consuming.  Even though it was not made for me, I still get to eat the bulk of it and given her love for this treat I can imagine she will be making it very often (attn. wife: hint hint).  The stuff is expensive to buy in the store and truth be told, the wife's is much better.  Here's hopin' this ain't the last I have seen of homemade biscotti.

It seems weird that today is a Friday since I only had 3 workdays this week.  Try as I might, I cannot wrap my head around this being a Friday which is a pity as usually you look forward to the weekend and I part of the enjoyment of the weekend is having just worked 5 days.  This 3 day week has ruined my looking forward to it.  I guess I shouldn't complain too much (but faithful reader,  you know I will find something to whine about).  Anyway, I hope you enjoy your Friday even if I don't enjoy mine.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 248

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I just realized that December was a rather sparse month for blog entries.  My apologies to you.  I also realized (not just realized but realized yesterday) that I forgot to mention that the wife made bacon wrapped green bean appetizers for the New Year's Eve party.  These were the hit of the party (food wise) so I don't know what I was (not) thinking.  We had first tried this at a Christmas Eve dinner hosted by my cousin and her fiancé.  Very tasty indeed.  Basically it is a 1/2 slice of bacon wrapped around 3 or 4 fresh green beans with some butter and brown sugar thrown on top.  Very tasty and easy to make.  I just hope (but I fear) that it will not be 2009 before I see them again at our house (note to wife, this is a not so subtle hint).

It is Thursday early AM at the time of this blog which means the wife, kids and dog are piled into the minivan to go fetch our raw milk.  It is one of the few times I have the house to myself and it is almost too quiet.  The cat is here (I think) but he is in hiding.  I appreciate this quiet for about 10 minutes then I have to have some noise (radio or CD) or else I might go crazy.  Maybe some day I will get used to the quietness of an (almost) empty house but I doubt it.  I think I used to like quiet (before marriage and especially before children) but that has been so long ago that it is but a distance memory.

Everybody is back to work at my place of employment.  The building was very vacant the last week of the year (and quiet).  Everyone is returning to their filled up email inboxes and trying to wade through them.  That is the thing I dread most about vacation / holidays - the huge pile of unread emails.  Trying to figure out which ones still need your attention and which ones the sender chose to follow up with your out of office backup person.  It is a great feeling to catch up but you can only get this feeling after having been way behind.

Anyway, faithful reader, I will make every attempt to find relevant things to blog about this year.  You will notice that I have started a counter for 2008 blogs (this is #2).  Hopefully this will shame me into blogging more often.  Time will tell.  Until next time...

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 247

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well it is the new year and our "party" went well.  It was not until around 12:30 AM that we realized that all we did for the 5+ hours we were together was talk and eat.  I mean, we did not play cards, we did not play any board games, we literally hung out in the kitchen and ate and talked or sat in the living room and ate and talked.  The menu was quite good though...

• Swedish meatballs (my all time favorite)
• Chips & salsa
• Mini pigs in a blanket
• No bake cookies
• Peach cobbler (which we never go to really)
• Chocolate sundae cake
• Ice cream
• Sun chips
• Veggies and dip
• Cheese and crackers along with some lunch meat

I think that was it, I am still a little tired so I might have missed something.  When it was getting close to midnight, I was looking frantically for a clock that showed the seconds so we could count down til the new year but my search came up empty.  We had bought some sparking apple cider and sparkling grape juice to toast with as the new year rang in but they did little good without a countdown.  I looked for a radio station that was counting down but could not find any.  Finally (in desperation) I turned on the TV to see what I could pick up with no antennae.  The only station that would come in had "Feliz 2008" at the bottom of the screen.  Despite my 6 lessons in Spanish, I could not understand but a few words but there was a countdown so it would have to do.  We gathered the kids and poured the sparkling drinks and counted down (10, 9, 8, etc.) and then Feliz 2008!

The son was excited as this is the first year he actually made it until midnight (his previous record was around 10:30).  It helped that there were a few kids over and he kept busy.  The daughter crashed before 9 and was oblivious to it all.  We helped load the guests into their vehicle, put our kids to bed, did a little cleanup in the kitchen and then hit the sack.

New year or not, Señor Gato woke us up at 5 for his breakfast.  Things are back to normal now.  I have to head back to work tomorrow with no more holidays for a while (sigh).  Here's hoping the new year is great for you faithful readers of the blog.  I have not made any new year's resolutions per se but I am sure the wife has made some for me or for the family in general.  I will have to let you know when I know.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon