Blog Number 320

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Whew!  We are so glad to be back home again in Texas, in our own house, able to sleep in our own beds.  The drive back home was not too bad really.  We did hit rush hour in Indianapolis but even that was not too bad.  We did manage to forget the wife's pillow back in Indiana so my mother has shipped that to us (it was an expensive Tempur-Pedic pillow).  We stayed at the same hotel on the way home as we did on the way up and we arrived there early enough to be able to catch a matinee showing of Wall-E at a theater 1/2 mile away from the hotel.  We slept well and were up and on the road by 8:00 am.  We had a late lunch and arrived home around 4 pm yesterday.  We unpacked, got some laundry started and then relaxed for the evening (though I did have to make a CVS run as the son forgot his toothbrush somewhere along the way).  All in all, we are very, very happy to be home.

I realize that I did not blog much while on vacation so let me give you a highlight or 2.  One place we went to lunch was Louie's Coney Island...

Louie's used to be in uptown Kokomo (like for 50 years) but I seldom went there.  They moved about 3 years ago to right across from the building that I worked in while I lived in Kokomo.  I could walk over there for lunch whenever I wanted.  I would get 2 bakes for about $2.50 total.  A bake is a hamburger that is in the shape of a hot dog.  It is served on a hot dog bun and has been sitting in the Louie sauce for a while.  Throw on some mustard and onion and you have a little slice of heaven here on earth...

 

Still as tasty as I remember!  Louie's is not high tech and your bill looks something like this...

As you can clearly see, we sat at table 4 (T4) and I ordered 1 Coney (C) and 1 Bake (B) as did the wife.  We also had an order of French fries with cheese and chili (FF w/ ch & chili).  The wife had a large coke (LC) and I had a large root beer (LRB).  As you can see, the bill is actually just a post it note that I had to bring up to the take out section in order to pay (ours totaled around $11 before tip).  We had 30 minutes of pleasure while eating but about 2 hours of feeling not so well during the afternoon.  Still, I am glad we went.  If I remember correctly, they sell these during the Colts home games down in Indianapolis in the RCA Dome.  I am sure it would be more than $11 there though.

I have more pics (all taken with the handy cell phone) of our vacation but will save them for another blog.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 319

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

This morning the wife and I performed a duet at our home church in Kokomo.  It went really well and many people told us that they enjoyed it.  It is hard to tell if we were really good or not as even the bad performers get the pity clap (i.e. at least it ain't me up there having to sing).  I think they were sincere though but either way, I enjoy singing very much.  The church we attend back in Texas is so big and there are so many talented singers they as of yet they have not needed my singing service (nor are they likely to need it anytime soon).  It just so happened that they were taking pictures for the new church photo directory.  It also just so happens that they were doing families who's last name started with A through L.  So, we had our photo taken.  After church we got together with our old flock group and had a cookout along with hand churning some old fashioned ice cream / custard.  It was incredibly delicious.  We stayed there for about 3 hours and caught up with everyone (including some friends that moved to Luxembourg about the same time we moved to Texas).  The kids played the Wii that they bought that morning by getting up and standing in line in front of Target before they opened this morning.  I guess it is next to impossible to find one of those where they are staying.

When we arrived back at my mom's house we were tired and bored.  Eventually my mom took the kids to get something out of her motor home and so the wife and I took off in our van and tried to find something to do here in Kokomo.  We eventually ended up at the new Goodwill store but only had 20 minutes to look around before it closed.  As I was driving around aimlessly the wife was on her cell phone setting up a lunch date for tomorrow and I saw a very familiar thing out of the corner of my eye so I pulled in the parking lot of a local laundromat and...

While this looks like a Pac Man machine from the road, it is actually a Ms. Pac Man machine.  I located the change machine and inserted a $1 bill.  The wife stayed in the van to finish up her call and probably had no idea what I was doing.  Eventually she came in and sat down and snapped this picture.  There was a relatively good score for the high score so that immediately became my goal.  About 15 minutes later I lost my last Ms. Pac Man but was able to secure the high score...

By this time the wife was done and demanded one of my quarters.  Admittedly she is not in my league and her end score attested to this fact...

Anyway, our small time at the Goodwill store and our 2 video games did the job in killing some time.  Did I mention there is not a lot to do in Kokomo?

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 318

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well we have arrived here in picturesque Kokomo, IN.  It seems a little weird to see the familiar streets, restaurants and businesses.  It also seems odd to be staying at Chateau Dieterman (aka my mom's house).  We missed an exit just past St Louis that costs us about 30 miles but arrived safe and sound around 7 pm local time.  The kids are now in their beds in the spare room and the wife and I are trying desperately to stay awake until 10 (which would be 9 back home in TX).  Driving just sucks the life out of you.  Hopefully a good night's sleep awaits us and we can get on with our vacation tomorrow AM.

My mom planned a moving day for my grandmother and it just happens to coincide with my visit (hmmmmm).  So tomorrow I am to help move my grandma from her assisted living center to an independent living center.  She does not have that much stuff thankfully but at least I will get in a workout to help make up for eating on the road the last 2 days.  Last night we had pizza delivered to the hotel room in Springfield, MO.  There is something about staying in a hotel and having pizza delivered.  The wife does not see how this is exciting but the kids and I enjoyed it nonetheless.  I did notice that there was an extra charge for delivery.  I do not recall this being the case the last time we had pizza delivered so I am assuming the pizza joints are making up for the high price of fuel and passing the cost onto the consumer.  No matter, the Pepperoni Feast pizza from Domino's was great (well, it was OK but it was pizza in a hotel room and that automatically upgrades to great unless there was a bug on the pizza or something of that nature).  I don't think we have ever had pizza delivered to any house we have lived in during our entire marriage.  Usually the local pizza places have a carry out special and I always opt for that.  So the kids think it strange that we can just pick up the phone and have someone make us food and then bring it to us.  I grew up with lots of pizza delivery so I cannot relate to how odd this must seem to them.  We also got a can of soda out of a vending machine (something else we seldom do).  I am glad that we can do these simple things and the kids think they are special.  It takes the pressure off of having to make the vacation special.  Having a TV with actual channels on it was special too (even though the wife insisted we watch some best of breed dog show on Animal Planet).  The hotel was very nice and we plan on staying there on the way home next week.

Well, I am tired so I am going to head off to bed.  It will take very little convincing I think to get the wife to join me.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 317

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

In 5 days we will pile into the new (to us) van and make the 900 trek north to Kokomo, IN.  I can't say that I am looking forward to the drive but I am looking forward to being away from work for the 10 or so days that we will be on vacation.  I was checking my paycheck stub and realized that I have taken no vacation days this year so far.  I have enough time in at work to get 3 weeks off plus a diversity day.  My work has a "use it or lose it" policy so there is no carrying over the unused days.  I am taking 1/2 day off on Thursday and then Friday and the entire next week but that will still leave me with 9 1/2 days for the rest of the year.  I will likely take 2 1/2 off to have my Lasik surgery later in the year so I will have to squeeze in the other 7 days somehow.  Forget December as there is too much work to do usually at year's end and my conscious would not allow me to take time off then.

Today was Panera Saturday and as is our custom we went to Half Priced Books when we were done with our bagels.  I like to flip through the discount CDs while the rest of the family spends time in their respective favorite parts of the store.  I try to remember where I left off from the last month and dig in (the discount CD section is too big to look at all of it in one visit).  I did manage to find the first CD by Grammatrain titled, "Lonely House".  It was only $3 and I recall having a copy once but I have no idea where it is at.  This was one of the first grunge bands to be on a Christian record label (Forefront).  As I was ripping it to my hard drive I began to peel the price stickers off of the CD case.  The top sticker read "Clearance: $3.00" but the one right underneath it read "Clearance: $1.00" but it did not have any store's logo on it so it was hard to tell if it used to be $1 at this store or not (though I have found some $1 CDs in the clearance section there before).  The bottom sticker had a price of $3.98.  Even at $4 I probably would have bought it.  We walked out of the store having spent around $20 (our normal amount is seems - and that includes my wife's 10% teacher's discount - she is a home school mom which qualifies per the store policy).

As I was flipping through the CDs I did notice a few artists that kept coming up.  There were tons of Madonna CDs and also many Backstreet Boys CDs.  There were also quite a few by Shania Twain.  I also saw 2 copies of "The Sign" by Ace of Base.  The first one a found was the original, 1993 release and then I saw what appeared to be a rerelease of sorts.  It had different packaging but the song titles and order were the same.  Sad that even though they rereleased it, it is still destined for the clearance section.  I also saw quite a few CDs that I already owned (and paid close to full price for probably).  I get a little offended when an album that I like is sold for so cheap.  For instance, I found the 2nd CD by Blindside (still sealed) for $3.  That is crazy!  It is a great album and should not be on clearance.  I guess I should not complain, it is fun to find a bargain (like Grammatrain).

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 316

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Wow, has it really been a week since the last blog?  I really enjoyed my 3 day weekend.  This is not normal as usually I feel the need to log into work from home sometime late Saturday or perhaps Sunday afternoon.  Not this past weekend though as the company laptop remained in its bag (much to the happiness of my wife).  Also, did you know that today marks the 2 year anniversary of my first blog?

Friday night (July 4th) we met some friends from our ABF class at the church parking lot around 8 PM hoping that when 9:30 rolled around we would have a good view of the fireworks show being shot off across the highway from us.  At first we were hesitant because we did not know if we would be able to see anything.  But as 8 turned into 8:30 and the parking lot began to fill up, our fears eased with the hope that someone in the throng of people knew that this was a good spot.  When 9 PM rolled around, the parking lot was full.  There was even an ice cream truck that stopped by.  At first I thought it was pretty cool but by the 78th loop of "Pop Goes The Weasel" being blasted from its low quality external speaker system I was ready for it to leave.  Finally 9:30 came and we were treated to an excellent 25 minute fireworks show.  Some of us were wondering how far away we were from the actual fireworks.  I was up for the challenge.  I thought that I remembered that the speed of sound was around 860 mph so through some math in my head I calculated that we were 5/8 miles away.  Now I know that the speed of sound is really 760 mph.  However, that is not exactly correct and according to this calculator, the speed of sound at 85° F (the approximate temperature at the time) is 782.6 mph (or 1146 ft/s).  Now is where the math gets fuzzy as I did not have a stop watch so I used the reliable "1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi" method of measuring time.  After measuring several times counting from the time of the fireworks explosion to the resulting boom I guessed that it took 2.5 seconds for the sound of the explosion to reach us.  After coming home and using a stopwatch to measure my Mississippi's I think it is closer to 2.2 seconds.  So we were about 2520 feet (1146 x 2.2) from the fireworks (or just under 1/2 mile).  I don't feel too bad about being off by 1/8th of a mile but I will be better equipped next time should the need ever arise to measure such things.

On Saturday we went to our neighbor's house 2 doors down for a barbecue / swimming party.  There were over 20 people there (more than 1/2 were kids and all of them were in the pool most of the time).  Our neighbors have a great back yard that is perfect for throwing a get together.  The food was great...

 

The left photo is some sliced sausage (after we had tore through about 2/3 of the platter).  The right pic does not do justice the the burgers.  They had to be 1/2 lb. each.  In fact, the wife and I just split one (we did have lots of sausage though).  A good time was had by all (the kids all had hot dogs).

Sunday was the first Sunday of the month so it was time for our ABF's "First Sunday Lunch" and we went to Scotty P's (a high class burger joint).  Another great time was had by all (we had salads but we did gang up on the daughter's leftover French fries).  We headed home, cleaned up the house for about an hour and then settled in for a game of Rummikub then an episode of Little House on the Prairie.  I arrived back as work yesterday having truly enjoyed my time off.

Wii Watch

As mentioned in a previous blog, as soon as the wife and I lose a combined 20 lbs we are buying a Wii.  We had a little bit of a set back due to the holiday weekend but as of 5:10 AM this morning we have lost a little over 6 lbs.  We are heading back to Indiana for a vacation on the 17th so we will see how that effects the Wii progress.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 315

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

On the way back from t shopping on Saturday we passed a sign offering land for sale.  It read, "6.9977 acres for sale."  Talk about precise!  This is 4 decimal places!  Back in Indiana we have signs that read, "Approx. 7 acres for sale."  None of this 10 thousandths of an acre stuff.  I was wondering just how short of 7 acres this lot was so I did a little research.  1 acre = 43,560 square feet.  This lot was 0.0023 acres short of 7 acres so 43,560 sq. ft. * 0.0023 = 100 sq. ft.  So this lot is the equivalent of a 10' x 10' piece of land short of 7 acres.  That is about the size of my master bath room.  I wonder if there is some kind of Texas regulation stating you have to be accurate to a thousandth of an acre when stating lot size.

Speaking of numbers, the wife and I have made a pact with each other to lose weight.  We are trying to get back into our pre-accident form.  We started Monday and we are getting up a little earlier and exercising.  I am walking about 2 miles and she is doing a lighter workout using a DVD she got from the library.  We are only 3 days in so it is hard to predict how we will do.  We did promise the kids that as soon as we lost 20 lbs. combined, we would purchase a Wii.  As you can imagine, the kids are watching what we eat more than we are.  I, of course, have a spreadsheet to track our progress.  So far after 2 days we are down 3 lbs. so we are very encouraged by this to carry on each day.  We get up at 5 am, use the restroom and then weigh ourselves.  We promptly record the data on the aforementioned spreadsheet and then start our morning.  I hope to keep you posted.  We have a BBQ for the 4th of July and our vacation back to Indiana lurking so we are hopeful we can stay strong.  I think we would like to lose 40 lbs. total so we will likely have to devise goals for 30 and 40 lbs. to keep us going and keep our cheering section in our corner.

Well even though it is only 9:45, my body is telling me that it is late (5 AM comes early).  Until next time...

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 314

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

So the year is half gone.  Wow!  Early in the year a person sang the song, "Don't Blink" (as made popular by Kenny Chesney) and the pastor preached a topical sermon around the lyrics to the song.  It really does seem like this year just started a few weeks ago.

Yesterday we met with a personal injury lawyer (more to get some questions answered than to hire him at this time).  He answered all of our questions (and caused us to think of more based on those answers).  I had never met with a lawyer before.  In fact, I don't know that I ever really met a lawyer (though I am sure that I must have when my parents were divorced about 30 years ago).  As we were driving home, I was trying to explain to my son why we needed to meet with a lawyer.  This led to an attempted explanation of car insurance (or any insurance for that matter) and then policy limits.  I think he got most of it but he could not grasp the concept that if we paid $80 / month for 10 months (totally $800 in payments) that the insurance company would have to give you (or the person you crashed into) more than that $800 (let alone $25,000 or $50,000).  The ride home was about 15 minutes and we spent most of this time talking about it.  He interest did peak a little when we got to the pain and suffering part.  I tried to explain it by asking what it would take (in dollars) to allow me to hurt him just like he was hurt in the crash.  He had to think about that one for a minute and then said that $10,000 would be enough to allow me to hurt his face, wrist and knee just like in the car crash.  I told him that was how they figured how much pay and suffering was worth.  He stopped asking questions then so I don't know if he understands or not.

Another thing that I have been unsuccessful in explaining (to both kids) is prejudice.  I the early years of Little House on the Prairie the have some characters who are prejudice against either the Native Americans of the African Americans.  Try as I might, they cannot grasp the concept of someone not liking someone else based solely on their skin color or their place of birth.  I have tried a few different angles and in the end they both have blank looks on their faces.  To hate someone for such a trivial thing as skin color seems so foreign to them.  I hope they always stay this innocent.  I am sure this will come up in the rest of the episodes so we will have many more discussions on this topic.

Well, the kids are bathed and showered now and we have time for a video.  The wife is out with some other ladies from our ABF group so who knows when she will be back.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon