Blog Number 332

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

From time to time I have the need to pick on the wife, so here it goes.  I blogged a while back (like maybe a year ago) about a Mr Rogers like sweater that I bought on clearance at Kohls.  We have had a few days lately that were in the 40s overnight.  This causes me to want to wear a jacket (or maybe a sweater) on my way to work.  However, since we also now have a dog that needs to be taken outside in the morning, the wife also wants to wear a jacket (or MY sweater) in the morning.  We sat over coffee on morning this week and discussed this.

My side of the discussion reasoned that since it was my sweater and since I needed a sweater (or something sweater like) it followed that I should be allowed to wear my sweater.  Her side of the discussion mainly relied on the argument that she liked the sweater.  I then offered to sell her the sweater.  I could then take the money and put it towards another sweater (albeit probably not as nice of a sweater since I got it on sale).  She did not like this idea.  I then offered to give her the sweater and I would then simply purchase another sweater out of my clothing budget.  Now, you would think (if you were a reasonable person) that this would be the end of the discussion.  Well, you are wrong for my wife then told me that if the sweater were no longer mine, then she would no longer wish to wear it.  Evidently, part (or most) of the desire to wear the sweater did not lie in its warming properties but in the fact that it was not her sweater but rather belonged to me.  Somehow (through her logic) if I bought another sweater for my use, she would no longer wish to have this one.  Part of the lure of this sweater was the fact that while she was wearing it, I could not wear it (or any other sweater).  She said all this with a straight face and with an expression that would lead you to believe that she was dead serious.

I might point out that during this conversation, she was wearing the sweater.  When two people have a disagreement like this and one person uses logic that the other person cannot comprehend then you come to the conclusion that I came to in that I had no rebuttal and was forced to concede her point (whatever it was) and continue to have her wear the sweater.

Some of you have asked for more pics of Nina so here you go...

  

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 331

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

My mother came for a short visit this past week.  The kids got their intense dose of grandma and the wife and I got a night out together since our free babysitter was in town (and staying at our house).  It all ended to soon though and soon it was time to drive her to the airport.  For reasons I won't go into here, she had to be at the airport by 5:00 AM on Monday.  This meant that I had to get up at 3:30 AM (something I have not done in quite a while).  I had a job about 12 years ago that required me to be at work at 4:00 AM.  It was about  a 30 minute drive so I had to get up around 3:00 (6 days a week).  I was in my mid to late 20's then so I could pull that kind of thing off much better than I did yesterday.  I was really feeling it around lunchtime let me tell you.

Our Panera Saturday was scheduled for when she was here (this is the once a month Saturday when we go to Panera for breakfast).  I think I have mentioned before that we budget $80 per month for eating out ($30 x 2 for dinner out, $10 for Panera Saturday and $10 for our Ice Cream Social).  This month I told the kids that any money left over from the $80 budget would be split 4 ways at the end of the month.  It was my simple hope that I could not have to deal with the leftover cash at the end of the month.  I have a strict "every penny accounted for" budget and dealing with leftover small piles of cash is not worth the hassle.  With this profit sharing program, I can write off the balance of the $80 rather easily.  Since mom was here for Panera Saturday, she paid for our breakfast.  The kids were quick to point out that they were making $2.50 each on the deal.  Tonight we had out 2nd dinner out night and the kids opted out of Italian Villa for Brooklyn's Pizza when the were reminded that Brooklyn's was about $10 cheaper.  It does not matter to me where we eat out and the wife does not care that much either (since she just does not want to cook) so the kids usually pick anyway.  Now they have incentive to figure out where the cheap night out places are.

Speaking of pizza, I was reminded of a great idea I had a while back for a restaurant.  I would call it Leftover Pizza and the basic premise would be that the only meal we serve is breakfast and the only thing we would offer is leftover pizza from the night before.  Basically each table would have a small microwave oven on it and people would order slices of pizza left over from the night before.  We would have to hook up with a local pizza shop and order 20 pizzas or so at the end of the night.  They would deliver them and we would refrigerate them overnight.  When we ran out of leftover pizza then we would close for the day.  We would even leave a small percentage of pizzas on the counter overnight (not refrigerated).  We might need to have the customers sign a small waver removing our responsibility for any sickness they might incur.  We would server coffee and soda and probably make a killing.  We would not have the need to have an actual kitchen or hire kitchen staff.  We would just need a few wait staff really.  I still think this is a great idea so who knows, maybe someday I can still do this.

OK, since it has been a while since I blogged, I think it is time for...

Random Bad Quality Pictures With My New Cell Phone

 

The wife and I went to Central Market and there were pumpkins / squash galore.  I had never heard of the Fairytale Pumpkin.  The do look pretty cool.

  

The one on the left was just plain ugly.  I thought it was interesting that they had to call out the "Edible" varieties of the squash with special signs.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 330

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I made the mistake about a month ago of answering a question.  Let me explain.  Each morning, the wife and I get up around 5 am.  One of us usually puts on a pot of coffee and then we sit and drink a few cups together (I think I have blogged about the unfairness of the distribution of the extra/odd/"5th cup" of coffee).  Anyway, as we sit there and sip our "sweet nectar of life" that gets us up and going for the day, the range of subjects we talk about vary.  Usually we talk about church, home schooling issues, politics, our childhoods, etc.  Every once in a while I will get lost in a thought and she will see the far off look in my eyes and ask, "What are you thinking about?"  Usually I just give the universal male answer of, "oh, nothing".  This keeps me out of trouble.  This is the question that I made the mistake of answering.

On this particular morning I was actually thinking this: If our Sunday school (ABF) class were going to do a play based on a script from Gilligan's Island, who would be the likely cast members for the 7 roles of the castaways?  After the slightly awkward period of silence that usually ensues whenever I actually answer this question (my wife cannot fathom why I waste my time thinking about such things I guess), she formed a small smile and decide to play along.  I refused to tell her who would play each role (the Skipper, Gilligan, the Professor, Mr. and Mrs. Howell, Ginger and Mary Ann) until she told me who she thought would make the best cast member.  We debated back and forth the merits of our choices and the downfall of casting certain people in certain roles (Person A would not make a good Mary Ann as I cannot picture her in cut off jeans, etc.).  We had a laugh out loud good time and all was well until...

Fast forward a few weeks after this conversation.  I was coming back into our ABF class (before it started) with a cup of coffee when I overheard my wife talking to (the person that we cast as) Mary Ann about our discussion.  I think she was slightly offended in our choices and then someone else overheard the conversation and pretty soon the whole class joined in.  People wanted to know why we would even talk about this, why was I picked for this role or that, why wasn't I picked for this role or that one, why didn't I get a part, etc.  Mercifully, it was eventually time for class to start and the whole matter was put behind us.

From now on when the wife asks me what I am thinking about, I am gonna stick to, "Nothing".  It is just safer.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 329

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I had a great idea the other day at work.  After thinking about it, it is a really selfish idea as it mostly benefits me (and those like me which, as you may have guessed, that is a small number).  First a little background.

We have a very nice cafeteria at work.  It is probably 3,000 square feet and contains tons of different things to eat.  It is more like a food court at a mall really as there is a place to get Italian, Mexican, burgers, deli sandwiches, soup, baked potatoes, etc.  Anyway, over by the soft drinks and energy drinks there are 2 microwave ovens.  Inevitably there is a line to use them.  Outside of the cafeteria is a small room with vending machines and in that cramped room are 3 more microwaves.  There is typically a line for those as well but since the room is so small, it is not a traditional line.  It is more like a bunch of people hanging around holding imaginary "take a number" numbers in their minds.  The cramped room microwaves are used less than the 2 in the vast openness of the cafeteria.

OK, now that you have a complete understanding of how my lunchtime starts off (either in a traditional line or holding an imaginary number) let me explain my idea.  There are 2 types of people that are in these lines.  The first type of person brings with them a frozen meal.  These typically take 5 minutes to heat up.  The second type of person (the group that I fall in) brings leftovers that were refrigerated and we simply need to reheat the food.  These typically take 2 minutes or less (in my case only a minute) to heat up.  I think it is incredibly unfair that those of us in the 2nd group should have to wait on those other folks in the 1st group so I am suggesting a microwave designated as "reheat" and one designated as "I don't care that I have to make you wait.  I am a very important person and that is just how it is.  I might even turn on my food and leave so that those that come after me look around at the others in trying to figure out who is using the microwave especially when the timer goes off and I am not there to retrieve my food knowing that no one will take my food out and set it aside and when I decide to return and free the microwave up I will more than likely check the food and decide that it needs 2 more minutes."  I might have to make the 2nd microwave type name a little shorter as it might not fit on the sign.

This is no different than the "10 items or less" lines at the grocery store.  I think that anyone using the reheat microwave for a frozen meal should suffer the same hateful stares that someone with a cartful of groceries tries to convince the rest of us that they are counting impaired (63 items, really, coulda swore there were only 9).

I shared this idea with a fellow re-heater person on Thursday and he was in agreement.  Once he left, a lady (also a re-heater) applauded my idea and even expanded on how we might sell this to management (increased productivity since less time was wasted in line, encouraging folks to eat leftovers and not expensive frozen meals thereby allowing less raises, etc.).  Since I only needed 55 seconds (including a pause, stir, reheat cycle), I did not have much time to discuss the further merits of this idea.  I guess that is one drawback of being a re-heater, you do not have time to socialize in front of the microwave.  Well, I take that back as I do have plenty of time since I am always waiting on some Lean Cuisine type person and their food but those folks do not care to hear about my ideas.  Oh well.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 328

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well it is October already.  This year has flown by.  I normally do not say things like that but for the first time in my life, it seems like the year truly has gone quickly.  Part of it for sure is because of the car accident that my wife and kids were in around April and part of it (though it pains me to say so) is due to the fact that I am 39 years old now.  I have a theory about this (I know, I know, this shocks you, right?).  This does involve some math so if you want to skip down a paragraph or two then I won't blame you.

You see, my theory is that it is all relative.  Meaning that we compare current time to past time and the more past time there is (i.e. the older you are) the less current time seems to be in comparison.  For instance.  When I was 8, 1 month of time was about 1% of my life but now that I am 39, 1 month of time is about 0.2% of my life.  So, in comparison time seems quicker only because compared to past time, it is small (and getting smaller).  The bad news is that with every current passing second, that second becomes a smaller and smaller percentage of our past time.  This is a more sound theory than the theory I have about each of us only being given a certain amount of words to speak before we die (I think I blogged about that in the past).

Speaking of speaking words, I did manage to start back up on my Spanish lessons this past week.  It has been about 6 month since my last Spanish lesson.  I do remember how silly some of the phrases are in the software that I am using.  For instance, one phrase in this week's lesson is...

El payaso de la izquierda es bajo y gordo.
(Translation: The clown on the left is short and fat).

As you can see, a truly useful phrase that I am sure will serve me well should the need arise to speak Spanish at a circus.

Yesterday afternoon, the daughter and I went on a walk.  We cut across a vacant lot at the end of our street and into a (sort of) field.  I took along the camera to talk pictures of any interesting flowering weeds that we spotted along the way.  Ever since I took a summer class in college called Summer Flowering Plants I have been interested in flowering weeds.  I think it is all the days of driving up and down county roads at 10 miles per hour looking for more weeds that has somehow cursed me with never being able to just ignore the beauty of weeds.  Anyway, we did capture this picture while we were out.

Now I do not show you this picture for the flower but rather for my 6 (almost 7) year old daughter's foot.  It does not look as small as I remember it.  In fact, it looks like someone else's kid's foot really, not mine.  It could be the nail polish or that those are relatively new sandals but I just think that my youngest child is growing up at a faster and faster rate than I care to admit (sigh).

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon