Blog Number 442

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Yesterday we had to break down and turn on the furnace for the first time this season.  We had avoided it thus far despite some nights dipping into the lower 50's.  Our house keeps pretty warm but yesterday was just too cold.  This means of course that the "thermostat wars" will soon begin again.  The wife (being part reptile) cannot generate her own heat and (short of having a heat rock handy) needs to have it a few degrees warmer in the house then I care to pay for all winter.  We will agree to a daytime temperature and a nighttime temperature but when I leave the house and am not here to see the thermostat, all agreements are considered null and void where a flimsy excuse like, "It felt colder than X° in here" is all that is needed to justify violating the terms of our thermostat war treaty.

We took a few years off of the winter version of this war while in Texas (winter is only 2 weeks long there it seemed).  The main warring moved to the summertime and regulating the central air.  On the hottest months I calculated that every day cost $3 to cool the house.  So anyday that we succeeded in leaving the air turned off was a day to celebrate the savings.  I could predict my electric bill pretty accurately based on the number of days in the billing period that the air was used.  Here in Indiana we seldom had to use the AC this summer as it was quite mild.

Wednesday nights the kids have AWANA at church and the wife is one of the leaders so I have the option of staying home, going to AWANA and helping or finding something else to do (like visit with my gramndmother).  I stayed home 2 weeks ago (the day I shaved off my hair) and last week I went to the church so tonight I decided to visit my grandmother.  She recently moved into my mom's condo while my mom bought the condo next door and moved into it.  The condos are actually duplexs but my mother's house and my grandmother's house are not connected and are actually mirror images of each other.  This makes it feel very strange now to go to my mother's house and have everything be completely backwards of what I am used to.  Anyway, tonight I was at grandma's house (my mom's old house) so everything was in the right place.  That is except the thermostat.  My grandmother (who is also part reptile in her old age) has the heat set pretty high.  On top of that, she sits with a space heater about 1 foot from her body most times.  I stayed about 90 minutes and showed her some videos I took of the kids during their recent recitals.  She was impressed of course.  I was sitting next to her and showing her the videos on my laptop.  This meant that I was pretty close to the space heater as well so fortunately for me the videos were only about a minute each so I could head back to the relative coolness of the couch.

Well I have the thermostat set to 66° right now so it is time to head back and get under the covers and pray the same prayer I pray most winters, namely that the wife's feet aren't too cold (please Lord!  Amen!)

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 441

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Ye olde dial up connection is really slow tonight.  At least it is only $5 / month for now as my 3 month, 1/2 price trial period is over.  In the mean time, I head over to mom's house to download the new fall TV shows.  One of our favorite shows is The Big Bang Theory.  One of the main characters (Sheldon) is a spot on image of our son only grown up.  At times he does something so much like what our son would do that we laugh until we cry.  You would have to know our son pretty well in order to understand this but in the premier episode (which we watched tonight) there were a few times we had to pause the show so we could stop laughing (and crying).  We watch that show along with Fringe, CSI, CSI NY, NCIS, Survivor Lost, and House (I think that is all of them).  I am sure there are a few favorites that we will pick up this season.  Our beloved Prison Break ended last year (it was time) and Eleventh Hour was cancelled so we will need to pick up a few shows to fill the gap.  We watch them sporadically as they are available.  Shows like Survivor however we wait until we have all the season's episodes and watch them over a 2 or 3 week period.  We did the same with American Idol (only the performance shows, not the early rounds or the vote off shows) and we are doing this technique now with the last season of Dancing With The Stars.  As long as we don't have friends that we converse with about these shows, we are ok to watch shows in this way.

When we returned the 6 toed kitten over the weekend, our neighbors gave us some rasberries and also a spaghetti squash.  I had never had this type of squash before...until tonight.  The wife (ever trying to expand our menu) prepared it with some spaghetti sauce.  It looked like angel hair pasta but was a little cruchier in texture   As with all things new, the kids were skeptical.  I only finished about 80% of mine and we only forced the kids to eat about 2/3 of their bowls.  I will have to check in on the price of this kind of squash before I can justify attempting it again.  If they are dirt cheap then I could justify eating it again.  If it is the same price as pasta (even gluton free pasta) then what is the point?

Tomorrow is the last day of the month and the last day of the quarter.  We are heading into the 4th quarter of the year unless you work for my company where it started 2 months ago and ends next month (as does the year).  I have not researched why it is that companies do this but I am sure there is a logical reason for the weird calendar. At any rate, the year is heading into the home stretch and soon it will be time to start counting the days until Christmas.  The wife hinted about doing a real tree this year.  Hinted is too weak of a word really.  I got along without a tree the last 2 years but since we are back in Indiana I think that streak might come to an end.  Oh well, it was a good run.  I will probably devote a whole blog to this as the season approaches so I won't go into the preliminary rounds of our discussions.  It is sort of like the early rounds of American Idol in that we can skip them for now and get the highlights later.

Surprisingly I was not sore today despite doing 100 sit ups yesterday.  I am due to do 107 tomorrow so we will have to see how that goes.  I have avoided the treadmill for the past week and a half (as well as the scales) due to a small nagging injury.  I don't want to make this a habit so I am hopeful to get back on the horse soon, probably Thursday since tomorrow is a sit up day.  I have not heard from our fellow challengers at church yet but they were out of town this past weekend so the bantering back and forth had to be paused.  Well once again it is time to head back to the bedroom with the rest of the pack to bed down for the night.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 440

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Monday, Monday.  I am a little tired, mostly from staying up late at mom's house watching the Indianapolis Colts win their Sunday night game.  It is always more fun when your team is winning.  Fortunately for us Colts fans, they have had many good years in a row during the regular season.

We had a good time Sunday morning at church as I led the song service.  I even had the 11 year old son up there on the stage with me with the 2 scripture readings.  He was a little nervous I think and did set a new church record (as far as I can tell) for shortest amount of time to read Psalm 1.  After singing all my favorite hymns and hearing the sermon, we headed home quickly and then off to the big family reunion.  Actually there were far fewer people than I was expecting but we had a good time.  We had missed the last few years while we were in Texas so we were the star attraction and I was able to catch up with all my great aunts and uncles (who are all in their 70s, 80s and even 90s).  We stuck around until almost everyone was gone and then came home.

We did learn that our neighbor's outside cat had kittens and they were missing one.  So our 6 toed freak of a kitten found his way home and I am told by the wife (who brought him next door) that he looked happy to be reunited with his litter mates and mother.  The neighbors told us that the mother cat was one of the kittens that were born earlier this year.  You may recall my exploits in trying to get them from out from under our house.  One of the cats wasted no time in getting into the family way.

Today was a typical Monday.  Nothing really special other than I left work an hour early as I had a 8:30 call tonight that I just got off of.  Those silly people on the other side of the world and their clocks that are 14 hours ahead of us!

• White Noise: I still picture Michael Keaton in Mr Mom, Johnny Dangerously, Gung Ho, and Beetlejuice in the 80s and so it is hard to take him seriously in a scary movie.  Still, I think he did a pretty good job though I kept missing the main plot (other than speaking with the dead and being scared when the scary music was being played).  At first you think that he is supposed to help people with this ability and then the next minute he is being warned not do meddle.  Anyway, we made it through the entire movie though the wife did so through her fingers at times, hiding from the movie's frightening parts.  The ending was kind of weird (go figure in a movie about recording messages from the dead).  Anyway, I would not necessarily recommend this one unless you are bored and it comes on a cable channel.

I think we are going to make it through September in the black which is more than I can say for July or August.  October is looking good as we do not have any planned major expenses (yet).  Oh and I did manage 100 sit ups this morning overall in our 2nd week of the 200 Sit Ups challenge.  I am sure I will feel it tomorrow.  Even though I am only into week 2 of this 6 week program, I am already wondering what we will do once we are done.  Do we pick a number of sit ups and just do them 3 times a week?  Forever?  That does not sound like any fun.  I was discussing this with my cube mate this morning.  He and I compared notes when I was losing my 30 pounds (he is also losing weight albeit he started in January of this year).  It is one thing to have a goal but maintaining after hitting your goal is challenging as you get bored and there are no goals really to reach for.  He and I passed a few ideas back and forth so we will have to wait and see if any of them are implemented in 5 weeks or so when we are through.  Well it is time to wake up the wife and dog who have both fallen asleep in the chairs behind me.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Nina Finds A Fried

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

When Nina (our doberman) has been out in the back yard the last day or two she has spent a large percentage of her time staring at the base of one of our sheds.  This is not normal behavior for her but we supposed there was some critter down there and she was showing an interest.  No critter in their right mind would dare come out with Nina's 70 lb frame lurking out so when a small head did appear we were interested.  The wife headed out and found exhibit A (see above photo).

A lady at the pet store told us that this little guy (and he is a guy) is about 3 weeks old.  We stocked up on premature kitty supplies and now we have this little meowing thing that is holding our attention the bulk of our time since yesterday when we found him.  He did sleep all through the night which was one of my concerns and we were relieved when (despite being quiet all night) he was still alive this morning.  One thing you cannot see in this picture is that he has 6 toes on both his front paws.  They just look weird, like some kind of tree dwelling creature or something.  I tried to get a pic of a paw but none of them came out very good.  Maybe some other time.

Last night (after the kitty excitement) we went to a recital of sorts.  The place where both kids take music lessons has a student night once a month.  The son participated last month but I was quite sick at the time (or at least still contagious) so I could not attend.  The video the wife took left something to be desired and in the end the wife and daughter could only stay for his performance since they had another commitment right after that.  The cost is $5 (students are free) and there is quite an elaborate set up with lighting, amps, microphones, etc.  All manner of skill levels are represented from beginner to advanced.  Everyone did a pretty good job and it was well worth the $5 price of admission (and I got some much better videos of the kid's playing).

Today after church we have a big family reunion (like grandma level family, and given that my grandma had 10+ siblings, the 80+ years she has been alive have produces a big family).  It should be a good time and we are hoping for some good weather.  I remembered to charge the camera battery since kitty and kiddy pics and videos have drained it down.  Well it is about my turn for the shower.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Cleaning The Vacuum

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

The wife is out walking with her friends as she does most every Saturday (and Tuesday and Thursday).  Being a Saturday, the question of making a Panera Bread run afterwards has come up and with little discussion a decision was made in the affirmative.  The kids are with their aunt so that leaves me here at home all by my lonesome.  The wife did leave me a task to do however, namely to look at the cheap vacuum cleaner that we have and see if I can get it working again.  Most of you that know me will know that this decision (to have me look at it) is really the last ditch effort before the vacuum finds its way to our large trash bin.  I can read the signs that my wife is secretly (or not so secretly) hoping that I would be unsuccessful at this which would result in a new vacuum.  We had a really nice one that I bought over 10 years ago and it lasted us up until the move back to Indiana.  Once we had picked out our house here and noted that it was small and had little carpet, we decided against another high quality expensive one for now.  This one was around $100 if memory serves and was bought at Lowe's as apposed to the $500 one from 10 years ago bought at an actual vacuum (and sewing) center.  We new a salesman there that we could trust and he even threw in a box of attachments for free.  The vacuum we have not is not worth paying to have fixed hence the wife's having me look at it.  I started by taking it all apart...

This involved a wrench and a screwdriver.  I made a mental note how things went back together hoping that this I would be successful and that this knowledge would be needed for reassembly.  There were not that many parts that could come off but if it could be disconnected, I did so.  You cannot see this in the picture but notice my disregard for my safety in that part of the disconnecting occurred whilst the vacuum was still plugged in to the wall.  Notice also the fork in the right of the picture as this proved the most valuable tool in fixing the real problem, namely some serious pet hair clogging up the biggest hose.  Also notice the large amount of dust and stuff on the floor.  When the first deluge of dust poured out of the bottom I then realized my first mistake was doing this in the house for if I was indeed unsuccessful in resurrecting the device I would have somehow to clean up the carpet.

I think I could make another pet with the amount of fur that I found lodged in the hose.  Pet hair probably makes up a large percentage of stuff we sweep up anyway so I don't know why after many months the clogging happened but no matter as when I got done forking out the furballs the vacuum returned to its normal sucky self.  I wish the son could have been here to see me do this as he does not get to witness Dad doing stuff like this very often.  This is part of the reason for the pictures, proof I did something semi-husbandly today.

The kiddos should be home in about an hour and the wife has a book club this afternoon.  After that, the daughter has a recital so the day is filled and a nap is a low possibility.  Oh well, at least I have an hour more of peace and quiet here by myself now that my vacuum repair is done.  I just hope the wife is not too disappointed that I was successful.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

An Overheard Conversation

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I overheard a troubling conversation the other day.  Actually the conversation was being retold to me by the wife but no matter.  But first, a little background for you.  We are sending the daughter to a private school this year.  Financially it is the wrong decision.  Actually it is phenominally the wrong decision.  We have cut out everything in order to afford this.  The school is a perfect fit for her learning style and even only being a month in the wife and I know it is really great for her.  We are now considering sending both children next year.  Well I considered it for about 10 seconds when I knew in my heart of hearts that there is just no way to cut corners anymore in the budget without selling an organ on the black market (you would be surprised what a healthy kidney will go for nowadays though).  Anyway, since this school only goes up until the 8th grade and since my son is the eldest of our children and since we can only afford to send one, it is likely that he will attend next year and the daughter will stay at home to be schooled.  She is very understanding about this even though she loves going to this school.  OK, moving up to my original point.

The wife was explaining the "one one kid can go" part of life to the daughter when the wife said something along the lines of, "Pretend that money does not matter, would you like to return to this school?"  It is not the second part of that conversation that troubles me, it is the first part.  I wonder how many times a conversation has started with these words over the course of history?  There are times that the wife and I are discussing matters of finance and as we weigh our options about a matter I immediately dismiss options that are financially impossible.  It is easy for me to dismiss these options and move on to the choices left after those are removed.  It makes complete sense logically.  The wife, however, does not dismiss these choices as easily.  Financial impossibilities are not impossible, just another hurdle to overcome (albeit a very high hurdle).  I think this is becasue deep down she has some all but forgotten conversation replaying in her head and the only part of that conversation is, "pretend that money does not matter."  Perhaps her mother had a conversation with her that started with a similar phrase.  I don't think I have ever considered things from this point of view.  This is akin to the "if I hit the lottery" type of daydream that some folks have (I have never played the lottery so I know winning to be quite impossible, although not that different from the odds if I actually played).  I cannot even bring myself to think of things through this lens.

Perhaps this is some sacred knowledge passed down from mothers to daughters for generations.  "Honey, some day you will grow up and fall in love.  The man you marry will at times shackle you with logic and reason using only the possible when considering your options.  Do not fear, simply do not accept his arguments that are based on money.  Always think of what you would do if money were no object and then work towards getting him to that option.  He loves you.  He wants to make you happy.  He will find the money.  He just needs a motive."  We men need to get with our sons and start a defence for this line of thought.  I have made a mental note to speak with the son on this matter.  To coach him on the falacy of this and to teach him to stay strong.  In the end though I think it will not be enough.  Women are just too tenacious and I have no doubt that somehow (goodbye kidney) the son and the daughter will attend this school next year.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 436

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I am much less sore today than I was on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Thank goodness because tomorrow should be a killer pushing upwards of 90 sit ups overall.

Yet another dog picture.  Honestly I took some photos of some amazing spiderwebs that have popped up in my front yard recently due to the lack of rain.  These little spiders just build a web around the blades of grass.  Alas, you cannot really see the webs in the photos that I took so you will have to settle for another picture of Nina napping in the ugly chair.  The kids like the way she buries her head between her paws.  I wonder how she breathes in there.

• Grace Is Gone: Here is another movie I would not have grabbed but for my march through the library's movies alphabetically.  This (I am guessing) is a low budget film but it does star John Cusack as a husband of a soldier away at war in Iraq.  His wife (who is not in the movie save for a few phone messages and photos) dies during the war and struggling for a way to tell his two young daughters he decides instead to take them to Enchanted Gardens.  This involves driving from Minnesota to Florida and along the way he struggles off and on with his task at hand.  The oldest daughter senses something is amiss but ultimately does not find out until the end of the film when the father finally has the courage.  It was slow gonig at first and I did not get the character but we stuck with it and we were glad that we did.  If you like John Cusack then I think you will like the film.  The 10 minute documentary on the real life family this was based on is a tear jerker as well.  Only one nitpick though.  Look at the below photo.  Since this is low budget, I know that they could not head to Disneyland (or is it Disneyworld) in Florida but the sign for the amusement park lookes photoshopped.  Maybe it's just me.

Tonight I met a lady at the church to go over the songs for Sunday's service.  I am going to be the song leader this week and the son could not be more proud.  He has all kinds of suggestions for songs.  Typically the service planner (in this week's case, my wife) picks out the songs, song order and gathers the musicians.  I got to have some input on the song choices and untimately we picked the ones that I knew pretty well without much thought of a theme or if they went together very well.  I guess if we mess it up too bad, they won't ask us to do it again.

Well since I got home late from practice, the pack is already back in the bedroom waiting on me.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 435

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

As I mentioned last Thursday, we are taking the sit up challenge as outlined at 200 Sit Ups dot com.  We challenged another couple from our church and we have now completed Day Two of Week One and I (for one) am sore.  the basic premise is that you can do 200 good form sit ups in one sitting after 6 weeks on this program.  There is an initial test (which we completed on Sunday) in order to find the optimum number of sit ups to start with and that number is broken up into 5 sets (with more sets being used in the later weeks as the number of sit ups increase).  You need not even ask if I have a spreadsheet to track our progress.  I was really sore yesterday and that soreness was only surpassed by the pain I experienced during sets 3, 4 and 5 this morning.  I can proudly say however that I did complete the listed total number of sit ups (81) as did the wife (29).  I really should have thrown the initial sit up test so I could be down there with the wife in numbers but I will press on despite the pain.  If you read the website, you will see that these are really more akin to what I would call a crunch rather than a true sit up (perhaps twohundredcrunches.com was taken).  We have the same problem doing sit ups as I did when I was doing (regular) sit ups a while back during my 4 months of weight loss, namely if you are on the floor, the doggies want to be with you.  Here below are exhibits A and B...

Note the bone by my head in the first picture.  Nina did better this morning than Oreo.  Trust me, but that for the shock collar around her neck, she would be right in there on top of me as she was every time I tried doing sit ups in the past.  There is something about me being on the floor that drives the pups wild.  In case you are wondering, that is the daughter's pillow that we used to buffer the hard floor from our backs.  It is about as tacky as our $25 chairs that you see in the above pics.  They were a Texas garage sale find that made the trip back to Indiana with us.  They will either soon be kindling or we will get some covers for them.  They are Thomasville brand so they are well built but the pattern leaves something to be desired.  Our $25 Goodwill couch looks much better but is not quite as comfortable.

One week into the haircut and I still like it.  I have had a few second and third looks at work and at church but overall the comments are positive (although the pastor joked that he was tempted to offer me a visitor's packet this past Sunday morning).  I am thinking that a weekly buzz to keep things in control might be the best method but I will need to talk the wife into helping me and she is one of the dissenters when it comes to liking the new doo.  Well Nina is telling me with her big browns that it is time for the pack to bed down for the night.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Satellite Internet Reviews

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well it took me a little over 3 weeks (or is it 4?) to reach 200 Facebook "friends"

Aren't you impressed?  I did not blog yesterday since I was out late at mom's house watching the Colts win over the Dolphins.  It was a very exciting football game but I think I over did it on the pizza, chips, veggies & dip, soda, ice cream, etc.  We did not get home and into bed until around midnight and only slept until about 5:30 so tonight I bet we will turn in early.  While I was over at mom's, I set her wireless router up for her.  I brought my laptop to test the connection so I was able to play around a little during the game and I realize how much I miss high speed internet at home.  I once again did some research into satellite internet for the home.  The up front cost is around $300 no matter how you slice it (assuming that I do not want to attempt installation of the dish myself).  The monthly cost for any kind of throughput pushes $80 in most cases as well and they all require a 1 year or 2 year commitment.  Every provider is about the same really and offer about the same choice of packages so it was on to some review sites for the various vendors.  I found one site with over 100 reviews per provider for the 2 providers that I was looking at.  Let me give you some random, actual quotes...

• After having awful issues in ### with an internet service provider named ###, I didn't think internet service could get any worse and then my girlfriends family got ###.  It's awful. The setup and installation costs were ridiculous.  Not only that, but our "premium" internet is barely faster than dial-up, which is completely inexcusable in this age of data and technology.
• It's not so much the slow speed and total lack of internet for hours at a time that I am disgusted with. It's their fraudulent sleazy business practices.
• BE AWARE! THIS COMPANY WILL MAKE UP FALSE CHARGES & CHARGE YOUR CREDIT CARD...THEY WILL SAY WHATEVER IS NECESSARY TO GET AROUND THE TRUTH....BE AWARE...THIS INTERNET COMPANY WILL LIKELY COST YOU HUNDREDS!!! FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
• This is the worst company in the history..well, in the history of companies. My co-worker and I have been trying to resolve a fairly simple issue for the past few weeks with no answers in sight. Today alone, their "customer service" dept has transfered us to dozens of different people, has kept us on hold for hours on end and has hung up on us three times.
• Horrible. Never use this. Ever. Their customer service is set up to blather uselessly in foreign languages until you give up.
• Do NOT use these people. There is NO, zip, zero, nothing but an excuse for tech support. they keep jacking around w/ their settings and don't tell you till you spend 2+ hours on the phone with their so called tech support and that's IF you can understand them AND IF they can understand you.
• ### is a lousy company because they sucker people (through false advertising) into thinking they will be getting a service that will meet their needs and then some. When in fact, if you wanna do more than just check the weather now and then you're ###. And you better forget about updates, or streaming video, or any type of useful downloading you might do.
• DO NOT GET THIS SO-CALLED SERVICE! It will be the biggest mistake you've ever made. Everything they advertise is a lie, I don't know why they haven't been indicted by the FTC or FCC.
• Never, never go with this company!!! The support is very bad! The service cost way to much and never works like they advertise. Getting your money back once you have shipped the equipment back is like getting water from a rock. Video tape the return!!!!
• It is slow when it works at all which is increasingly seldom. Customer service is awful - from the incomprehensible accents of thier reps, tech support is from probably from India. Are there any good class action attorneys out there? I'll sign onto a class action suit in a heartbeat!
• They are horrible and prey on people who live in rural areas.
• ### is the most horrible "service" that I have ever been scammed into. Instead of listing the several reasons for why ### smells like a dead rotting fish, I will provide a story of my experience with these malovelent fiends...
• etc

Those are just samples, there are 100s like that for each choice.  Now I know that typically only the complainers leave reviews, but the sheer volumes of this one site is amazing and has scared me off.  Couple that with the tall tress all around my property and I think I am better off sticking with dial up.  Furthermore, after doing the math (gotta love spreadsheets), I had to add a column of the total price over 2 years of service versus ACTUALLY MOVING to a place where normal high speed internet it available.  Amazing when it might be cheaper to sell your house and move rather than sign up for internet access.  So for now we are sticking with diap up and our $10 / month charge.

Man, am I tired now, sorry for the limit of original material tonight in this entry.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 433

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

On the 2nd and 3rd Sunday nights of the month, our church has something called the Jesus Lodge.  There really is no lodging involved per se so I am not sure where the name originated.  It lasts about 90 minutes during which the first hour is devoted to card playing (the men) or knitting / crocheting (the women).  Please Jon, stop, we are so jealous now that you have described this exciting event to us and we cannot attend.  Hey, this was my first night so don't get all in my face.  Anyway, as I was saying, the first hour I spent playing a strange game sort of based on poker but with some rummy thrown in there.  The cards / knitting is really just an excuse to get together and socialize.  The last half hour is devoted to sharing what's going on in your lives and for praying for specific needs.  In this part, the men sperate from the women since we share the same room for the first hour or so.

The wife had a grave side service to go to this afternoon and while she was gone I was able to catch a short nap.  I threw the little dog in its cage and invited the big dog up with me on the bed where she quickly assumed the napping position.  I can see myself napping with this dog for years to come.  She knows exactly where to position herself and does not move once she is settled in.  She is this way at night too when we invite her on the bed.  I can see her providing extra heat to us during the winter months as well as she is quite exothermic.  There was evidently a get together after the service at someone's house and somehow the wife ended up coming home with a bottle of wine.  She told me the details but either they were not that interesting or I was just being a bad husband and did not pay attention to the details.  I think the owner of the house said something about going to a wine tasting and things got out of hand so he had bought wine that he did not need or want.  His loss, our gain.  It appears to be about a $20 bottle of wine from what we can glean from Señor Google.

We might head to mom's house tomorrow night to watch the Colts play on Monday Night Football.  Even though week 2 of the NFL season is about over, I have yet to see one snap.  Maybe after we buy a TV we can look into an antenna so we can catch some local channels.  The way this month's numbers are looking though the TV might have to wait yet another month (sigh).  Oh well.  I have had a few comments on my previous blog entry about the flat surface syndrome that my family suffers from.  It seems this is not specific to us and might be more common of an ailment then I originally thought.  Thanks for the comments.  If the post seemed as though I was picking on one particular person in the household then I apologize.  I had as many things as the others here in La Casa de Dieterman.  I will say one thing though, the flat spaces are more clear today so perhaps the post did accomplish one thing, motivation.

Well 10 pm has snuck up on me and it is time to move the wife from the chair to our bedroom.  Sad to see the weekend go so quickly.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Flat Surface Disease

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

OK, it is gripe time once again here within my Random Thoughts.  Take a look at this picture...

This is my kitchen counter.  Can you name the things that do not belong on the counter?  From left to right we have some tomato containers (ok), lunch bag (maybe), green bag containing a duvet cover for the daughter's bed (no), light bulb (no), library books under the light bulb (no), mixer (yes), broken hair brush (no), blue chip clip (maybe), wooden massager (no), paper towels (yes), misc receipts (no) and at the far right the shock button for the new shock collar we bought for our doberman (maybe).  I have a big problem with clutter.  Our family sees an empty flat surface and there is some primal urge to fill it up.  No empty space on flat surfaces, that is their motto.  Let's move on shall we...

This is a little stand that my mom bought us a while back.  Now I will grant you that this item is made to hold stuff, but it is constantly filled.  Here we have a CD (the son's), a Bible (the son's), a guitar tuner (the son's), a book (the son's) and a few other items.  Not pictured here are the items that are on the bottom shelf and also the items that have fallen off the top surface to make room for the current items that are there.  On the floor are a dvd, a few books, a magazine or two and a handheld game.  Moving on...

This is the divider between our kitchen area and the dining room.  This looks pretty good compared to normal.  There is an out of place lime green hair band and a book on the far right.  The pencil sharpener on the far left is normally there.  In case you are wondering, the brown cup-like thing toward the right is my maté cup from Argentina.  On to the dining room...

 

This us usually pretty bad.  This is our smaller bookshelf that we got in the scratch and dent section of Ikea while in Texas.  Let's go from right to left this time shall we?  We have a bicycle helmet (the son's), my old Texas license plates for the Buick (that the kids wanted me to keep), a toy set of play-dough (the daughter's), an mp3 player (the son's), and some kleenex (normally there) along with a pencil box and a decorative lamp.  There is still a little space left here so the kids are slacking.  Let's look at our bigger book shelf...

Now here is where I come in for the blame game.  This is usually where I deposit my keys, sunglasses, and items kept in my pockets after coming home from work.  Also up here is a small coin bank that my grandma gave the kids and some bills that I will pay on Monday.  The other items are not so out of place.  I think this flat surface is too high for the kids to fill (yet).  Moving on to our bedroom.

 

This is our dresser.  It is usually pretty bad.  The clock on the left is usually there as are my head bands on the far right.  Everything else is just clothes or bags of clothes.  There is a figurine in there somewhere.  I honestly don't know whose socks those are.  In the right photo is our cedar chest that sits on my side of the bed and usually has my stuff on it exclusively.  Here we have a clock radio (that I really only use for the radio part), the book I am currently reading and a pile of clothes in various forms of cleanliness.  Usually I have a t-shirt or two and a pair of sweats or pajama bottoms folded here along with the shorts that I wear while on the treadmill.  I try to wear these items more than on day to cute down on laundry.  No surface in our bedroom goes unused, even if they aren't exactly flat...

Our dog's cages usually hold items as well.  Nina's cage usually has a laundry basket or two on it and poor little Oreo usually has to sleep while looking up at the wife's sodoku puzzle book (and for some reason in this picture, a yo-yo).  The daughter's room is usually pretty bad...

She has more than one flat surface in her room but they all pretty much look like this one.  Sometimes the son offers to clean her room for her and then it looks better however even their bathroom's flat surfaces remain cluttered...

Here we have some pretend Batman shaving foam on the left (with the pretend razor being on the far right).  The brush is ok here but the decorative clear plastic cube containing pennies seems out of place.  The eye drops there actually belong to my wife's sister and they have been there for over a week (maybe 2).

Here are our washer and drier.  This looks pretty good actually.  I cleaned it off while the rest of the family was on vacation in July and placed all those containers in the cabinets you see to the upper left but they have migrated back down to the flat surfaces.

Now that the tour is complete, let me tell you a few things.  For one thing, this hatred of empty flat space cannot be solved with more empty flat surfaces.  We had many more flat surfaces in our house in Texas and they were equally as cluttered.  Buying more shelves will not help us, they will just be filled with more stuff that does not belong on them.  This is something that has to be fixed by sheer will power (or threatening of punishment in the case of the kids).  I seem to recall as a kid always filling up part of the top and bottom stairs (also a flat surface).  I would also like to let you know that since I started posting this blog and the wife saw the first picture, she is no longer speaking to me.  I will have you know however that I warned her multiple times that, "the flat surface blog entry is coming" but it did not stir her to action (other than to restate that she needed more shelves, a point that I successfully defended against [that is, if you count a glare, a growl and then completely being ignored by the wife as a successful defence, {which I do}]).  Those of you who go to our church, if you see us sitting a little further apart than normal, this is why.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 431

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Two days into my new, shorter hair "style" and I do not have any regrets.  Showering time is down 47% (ok, I made that statistic up but just for a second there I bet you thought I actually kept track, admit it).  I do like showering at night right before bed instead of in the morning.  I am surprised that I have only received 2 comments from co-workers about the hair.  One blog reader did ask me if I had joined a cult (the answer is no in case there was a doubt in your head).

I am almost done ripping the (74) cds that I bought last Sunday at the Frankfort Goodwill store.  I did find one duplicate though as I already owned Out Of The Grey's "The Shape Of Grace" but that is not too bad I guess and I am only out $1.  My hard drive is almost full as well which has got me thinking about replacing my 3+ year old computer.  I toyed with the idea of buying another hard drive as this PC has room for a 2nd one but I am so out of the loop on hard drive interfaces / power connectors that I am afraid I will mess up and buy one that will not work.  I tried ebay'ing for the same model that I have now (a Western Digital WD800JD model) but the interface on the pictures looks different than mine so even that did not help me.  I have 100 GB of space left on my external hard drive so I think I will have to keep it on all the time in order to play music off of it instead of turning it on only for back ups.  That is the cheapest (approx. $0) solution.  The DVD rom drive that I used to rip my CDs also quit on me when a rubber gasket looking think came out with one of my CDs.  I have another drive (a DVD / CD burner) that I bought a while back and I have never used both drives at once so even this combined with the hard drive space is enough to justify either fixing / upgrading what I have or getting a newer model.

• The Missing: It took us (5) sittings but we finally finished this movie starring Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett.  This is one of those rare rated R movies that I decided to watch since it only received that rating due to violence.  Even then, I think PG-13 would have been OK for this one.  All throughout the movie the wife and I felt like we had seen parts of it but definitely had not seen the whole thing before.  This made us think more about where we might have seen it before instead of concentrating on the movie at times.  The movie had a good story line and Jones was excellent as usual.  The bad guy in the movie was done well too and you really hated the guy and wanted him to die (or at least be brought to justice though I was rooting for death while the wife was rooting for a good beating followed [not too closely] by death).  I won't ruin the ending for you but it really only could have ended one way and it did just that.

The kids are with the aunt and grandma tonight so the wife made us an excellent dinner consisting of pork with a honey, apple, raisen topping along with a baked potato.  Through in some 7 layer salad from the deli down the road and it was a great meal.  We then headed out for desert which ended up being the Chimi Cheesecake at our favorite desert place, Mi Familia.  They were not that busy for 8 on a Friday night but the waiter always seem dissapointed when we only order drinks and a desert.  I try to tip good even though the bill is low.

Well the wife is crashed (again) on the chair.  I think she got too much sun earlier today.  The dogs are just now calming down from being in their cages for a while this evening while we were out so it is time to hit the hay I think.  The calendar is empty for tomorrow so far but I am sure something will come up.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 430

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I am trying to mix it up a little.  I cut my hair shorter than it has been since I was around the age of 5 for starters.  Also, I am changing my exercise schedule.  Previously I would to the treadmill in the morning before the wife woke up.  This seemed the right thing to do.  I don't care much for sleeping in (and I get a headache if I lay in bed too long while awake) and the wife needs more hours of sleep each night to function normally.  This extra sleep (or my less sleep) affords me to have an hour or so alone each day albeit I have the basic choice of either 5 - 6 in the morning or 10 - 11 at night.  Since I have tried the morning slot for the past 5 months or so I am now going to try the night hour and see how it goes.  The wife falls asleep in the chair around 9:30 so I figure then is a good time to hit the treadmill.  I finish up around 10 or 10:15 and then hit the shower.  By 10:30 I am here in front of the computer and the wife should be 30 minutes into her sleep time.  The problem is that she does not like to fall asleep without me.  Mind you, I don't have to go to sleep the same time as her, I just need to be in the room with her at that time.  So this new routine will be a bother for her I imagine meaning that it might be short lived.  We will have to wait and see.

I have worked my way back up to 30 minutes on the treadmill now.  I had to back it down a bit when I returned from vacation and tonight was a tough one, especially the last 6 minutes or so.  Now that I don't have my trusty weight spreadsheet pressing me on, I need something new to work towards.  I don't know if I want to lose another 5 or 10 lbs really and I don't see myself taking up running anytime soon so I don't know what is left really.  The wife and I are starting something new on next Monday however and that is the 200 sit up challenge.  One day back when I was doing push ups and sit ups each morning in addition to the treadmill, I was researching how many sit ups a 40 year old man should be able to do.  I never did find the answer but I did discover the 200 sit up web site.  According to it, if you follow their program you should be able to do 200 sit ups in a row after 6 weeks.  Their definition of a sit up is a little different but 200 seems like a lot by any definition.  We have challenged another couple to go through this at the same time so we will be able to urge each other on during this period.  We plan to do the other challenges (100 push ups and 200 squats) after completing this one so this should take us into January of next year depending on how well we make it through the holidays.  Can you imagine being able to do all 3 of those?  I can't see either my wife or myself being able to do it but I will trust in the sites encouragement that anyone can do it until proven otherwise.  Wish us luck.

Well it is nearing 11 so I best get to bed.  I imagine the doberman is wanting me back there about as much as the wife since Nina is not allowed into our bed until the whole pack is bedded down for the night.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 429

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

First a little math...

THIS 

MINUS THIS

EQUALS THIS

I finally got tired enough of my hair to do something about it.  As with the son's recent hair adjustment, this hair cut occurred whilst the wife was gone (though I did forewarn her).  I started with the 1" blade and then not liking that switched to the 3/4" blade.  Even with that it did not look right so I moved down to the 1/2" blade and you can see the end results.  I think the wife will need to do some touch up tomorrow morning but I think I did an OK job.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 428

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

It has been a while but it is now time for another installment of...

Random low quality pictures from the wife's cell phone

Sometime late this evening the wife turned to me and asked me the following question: "Did I tell you that we saw a monkey today?"  Faithful readers I can honestly say that I have never been asked this question before.  I would think that in the summary of the day that monkey sightings would be your lead off story not some afterthought following stuff like "I forgot to get the mail" and "Listen to how well your daughter plays 'Old MacDonald' on the piano" but that's just me.  The money in question is actually a Capuchin monkey and the wife and son saw it this morning while walking at a nearby park.  It was only 6 months old and did manage to get bold enough to climb partially up the wife's leg.  I still cannot believe my son did not greet me at the door with a "hey dad, guess what, we saw a monkey today!"

This is a quite old picture as I took it in Texas (so at least 5 months old).  I am used to handicapped parking signs or even those marked for pregnant or new mothers but I had never seen one of these.  The parking spot where this sign was located was empty.  I wonder what constitutes a Fuel Efficient Vehicle in the eyes of Best Buy?  I meant to ask one of the sales associates but we did not make it into the store and only visited the store next to it.

Here is another picture of a dog.  I cannot believe the number of pictures we have of our pets.  I really cannot believe the number of pictures that I take of our pets especially when you compare it to the number of pictures of other things (like, say, my children).  For me, I think it is because the pets do not think to pose for the camera like my kids do.  I like the live action-ness of the dog pics whereas the kids just pause what they are doing and smile for the camera.

Well once again I have killed another evening and topped it off with a blog.  I cannot believe that my next blog will be # 400.  Incredible.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 427

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Other than my 70+ CD shopping spree there was another event of note this weekend.  Let me back up a bit first however.  For the past few months I have threatened to take my clippers to the son's head.  He has less than stellar shampooing and grooming abilities and I had grown tired of the wife's constant reminders to him to take care of this particular part of his body.  About a month ago I had had enough and grabbed my clippers that I had bought while in Texas and my 4 clip (1/2") and shaved him down.  He liked it, the wife was OK with it and he really did not have to comb it.  Problem solved.  In subsequent weeks I moved down the clip number to 3 (3/8") and then 2 weeks ago to a 2 (1/4").  It was then we began entertaining the thought of shaving it all off.  The son was all for it but the mother (who's vote as you can imagine carried a large majority) was not so for it.  Fast forward to last night when the wife was not at home (a key ingredient to this story) and I informed the son that tonight was the night.  I grabbed the clippers and my razor and shaving gel and we headed to the garage (our normal hair altering place).  About 30 minutes later (I was real careful with the shaving part) and he was sin pelo (without hair).  The wife arrived home about an hour later and while the son was wearing a hat (for full effect) she immediately (using her spidey-sense) could tell something was wrong.  She then instructed, no commanded the son to remove the hat.  There was a moment of silence that followed that lasted a little too long for my taste but she was truly shocked that we had actually gone through with the deed.  One day later and the son is still happy with it and the wife has even let him leave the house without a hat.

Today was a sort of busy day at work so the time passed quickly.  I had to run 2 errands at lunch.  One was to head to the bank to get cash out for allowance / blow money which involves hitting the ATM and then going into the bank to get 10s, 5s and 1s so that allowance is in exact change.  The tellers there know my routine by now and I hand them a post it note with my needed denominations.  The other errand was to get an oil change.  My warning message was coming on in the Buick reminding me that I was overdue and I had put it off for about a week.  I don't like getting an oil change since I always feel like the oil change dude is trying to take me for some extra money.  I had not had an oil change since Texas and I honestly forget where I used to get it changed when I last lived here.  I chose a 10 minute place near the bank and despite the price being a little high at $34.99 (the wife only paid $29.99 at the Kia dealership to get the van done a few weeks ago) I decided to sit back and pay the extra penalty for not being enough of a man to change my own oil (which I have done by the way, but not in about 20 years).  The tirade of questions then begins (do you want us to do this or that extra service?).  I ended allowing them to sell me a way overpriced air filter (about $10 more than at the part store) but refused the $6 top off of the cooling fluid (which I bought on the way home from work at the part store, the place where I realized that I had over spent on the air filter).  Anyway, I was out in about 10 minutes and even got a free car wash which is included in the $35 charge.  I can tell you that I have not washed any car of mine in about 20 years (about the time I quite changing my own oil I guess).  I just don't see the point in washing my car.  I think I allowed the son to wash my car a few times but he really did not improve the looks since he did a poor job of rinsing.  I still have the car wash token in the car but don't know if I will use it or donate it to the wife (who has been known to have her van washed a time or two or three).

Toward the end of the day I received a phone call from the wife informing me that I had a job to do once I arrived at home.  It seems that the son was attempting to close the back door to the garage and it was not closing (since something was in the way).  In typical 11 year old fashion, instead of inspecting what might be in the way he decided to use more force to get the door closed.  I was only after this method did not work that he discover the remnants of a small frog (the item blocking the door from being closed).  Based on the wife's description of the carnage, there was no way they could stomach doing the clean up and it would fall into my hands to do so.  I was mentally preparing for the worse.  After a nice dinner of BBQ chicken and garlic mashed potatoes (which we have not had in a really long time) I headed out to the garage to perform my husbandly duties.  In the end it only took me about 15 seconds to dispose of the body.  Ironically enough, there were tons of flies around the frog.  Anyway, it was not that bad and the dread leading up to having to do this was worse than the doing (isn't that always the way it is).

The day the wife was packing for our Labor Day trip she called me to tell me (among other things) that she had found a pair of jeans that I had forgotten that I owned.  This was like finding money since a few weeks ago I no longer owned jeans that fit me and these were old enough to have not fit me at my high weight but the are a little loose on me now.  Either way it saved me the cost of a pair of jeans since I was looking for another pair.

Well, my fingers are getting tired from typing and we are going to watch a few more minutes of our current movie.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 426

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well the weekend is gone, farewell my friend.  I had planned a trip to Frankfort (about 25 miles southwest of us) for today as I heard that the Goodwill half priced color this week is black meaning that all the CDs that I flipped through last Tuesday on the way through Frankfort would now be half priced (or right at my normal per CD limit of $1 each).  I did not have a good estimate of how many were there that I wanted but my guess going in was "a lot."  I figured that it would cost me lunch for the family so I just put it in my head to make an outing of it.  The wife found a restaurant (thank you google) that showed which items on the menu were gluten free and we were so impressed with this fact that we predetermined that we would be eating there (at Pepe's).  Once we arrived there (after church and a quick trip home to let the dogs out for a stretch) we realized that this place was right on the town square across from the courthouse.

This looks very much like downtown Kokomo except all the shops around our square are closed (or so it seems).  The place was pretty empty despite being 1:00 on a Sunday and we were seated quickly and given chips and salsa.  The chips were slightly thicker than I am used to and did not taste salty at all (one might even want to add salt).  The salsa was a little runny but good nonetheless.  We ordered an appetizer (which ultimately arrived after our food) and 2 combo platters to share among the four of us (our usual method of eating out).  As with most mexican restaurants after the lunch rush, the beans and rice were not warm enough for our taste but the rest of the food was pretty good to average.  We did have a waitress in training but given that there were not that many other customers it did not effect our service.  Once we finished up it was on to the Goodwill store.  I was bracing myself for either misremembering the color of sticker on the CDs or miscalculating the sticker color for the week.  I am happy to report that I was correct on both counts and I quickly jumped into the task of flipping through the CDs.  One thing that I remembered almost immediately was that the CDs were quite filthy and were covered with a light black powder of sorts that soon was all over both of my hands.  Despite disliking immensely having dirty hands, I pressed on knowing that the prize would be worth it.  After going through the pile twice and opening every case to check for scratches I walked out with a boxful.

The cashier and I agreed that I had 74 CDs.  There are some real gems in here along with a few chances that I was willing to take for $1.  I will not bore you with the complete list (also I don't feel like typing it out, perhaps some other day).  I do know that my poor little 80 GB hard drive is woefully short on space and might not even hold all the mp3s for these CDs.  I will now have to face the decision of upgrading the hard drive or just replacing the entire system (which is about 3 years old, the longest I have ever kept a pc).  I will mention that 2 of the CDs are autographed.  Al Denson's self titled first release and an Out of the Grey CD as well bears the autograph of the husband and wife team that make up the group.  These autographs impressed the son since he just got Stellar Kart's signatures recently.

The wife went to church tonight but since there are no kids programs on Sunday nights currently, I stayed home with the kids.  The son and I decided it was time to get serious with his hair.  I have been cutting it shorter and shorter each week and tonight we went all the way.  After hitting his skull with the trimmers with no blade on it I got out the triple blade and the shaving gel.  I got to give it to the kid, he trusted his dad not to cut him and I did not let him down.  We did discover that he has 5 freckles on his head and that his skull has a great shape to it.  Words cannot describe however the look on the wife's face when she got home from church.  Ultimately she decreed that the son had to wear a hat everywhere they went for a while.  She was not too upset (I think) and the son loves it.  I don't feel much like shaving it every week so this might be it for me and I will return to my trusty 1/4" blade (once it has grown out a little).

• For Your Consideration: What an odd movie.  Written in part by Eugene Levy and starring many old time SCTV actors what else could you expect.  I found myself (like anytime I ever watched SCTV) wondering what parts were supposed to be funny and when I should be laughing.  We almost gave up about 20 minutes in but did come back to it eventually.  It is a movie about making another movie and the buzz that goes around award time when you think you might be nominated.  The show just kind of ended with no real wrap up or closure.  I cannot say that I can recommend this one.  Ed Begley Jr was funny though as the make up artist and the guy who played Lenny on LaVerne & Shirley (I forget his name) was funny as well as one of the writers of the movie that they were making during the film.
• The Company: Another odd movie (and another movie that has James Franco in it).  There is so much real ballet (probably 2/3 of the movie) that all these people had to be real dancers I imagine.  There was a guy from Star Trek Generations though that I recognized.  This movie kept our attention based solely on the ballet dances.  The side plots were not really interesting.  I really don't know why there were actors in this one at all really, they could have cut out the scenes not at the dance hall and extened those and would have been fine.  The ending just ended with no closure or summary or anything.  One minute you are watching someone dance and then next there are the credits.  Strange.  If you like ballet then I think you will like this one though.  Given that I am reading a fiction novel currently based on another ballet company, this one had a little more interest for me at this time.

Well the wife is crashed on the chair again so I better get her off to bed.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 425

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I have a problem.  I have a severe shortage of screwdrivers.  Strike that, actually I have a sever shortage of phillips head screwdrivers.  Here is my entire collection.

I have a small tool box and it has the normal small tool box items in it.  Things like a wrench, a tape measure, some L-shaped hex headed things (no idea what these are called, I am not really the handy man type, shocking eh?), and an assortment of other tools that I rarely use.  Also in that tool box is my (bigger) collection of regular screwdrivers.

I am not sure why the ratio is so great for regular:phillips.  I don't think it was always this way but I will tell you that I cherish my rusty, phillips head screw driver.  It is on its last leg though and I fear the day is coming soon when I will have to buy a new one (or maybe a set).  I hope that the set does NOT include any regular screwdrivers since I have so many of those.  I have gotten good at making a regular one work with a phillips headed screw since my lone phillips is usually not the correct size and the pointed end is getting rather blunt.  This is a skill that I don't thing will suit me well later in life but who knows.

One other thing that I have plenty of is tshirts.  I was digging through my 2 drawers today where I keep various clothes that do not need hung up (mostly pajamas, sweats, sweat shirts, etc) and decided to hang up all the tshirts that I found in there since they do not look so good when wearing them with the deep creases that folding and being crammed in a drawer tend to do to them.  Once they were all hung up I counted them.

I had 17 tshirts hanging there.  Throw in the one I was wearning and a few that are probably in the laundry and I am easily in the 20s.  Is that too many?  I don't wear them during the week at work really and only change into them once I get home and am in for the night.  I do wear them on weekends but even then I don't think I really need 20.  A few of them (like the rue 21 one I am wearing currently) are quite old (well, old for tshirts, like say 6 years).  I don't think I have have paid full price for any of them (this should not shock you of course).  Some of them were gifts and those were probably paid for at the normal price.  I have a Texas Rangers one that I picked up at 90% off ($2.50) but I think the player's name on the back is no longer with the team.  I have a very old (9 years maybe) one from my company that I got as a "bonus" (along with the tshirt I also got a few coffee mugs with the company logo and a few other trinkets like a hat which I lost a long time ago but I still have the mugs and display them at work to this day).  They do take up a lot of space in my closet though so maybe I need to thin them out a little.

I went shopping today in hopes of finding some end of season sales on shorts as all mine are too big for me now that I have lost my 30+ lbs but I did not find any to my liking.  It is a pity since I now have so much room for them in my drawers after hanging up the tshirts and tossing out my shorts that are too big for me.  Oh well, it will be fall soon enough and I will not be able to wear them.

I think the end may be nigh for my Facebook experiment.  Despite approaching 200 friends in only about 3 weeks, the novelty has wore off for me.  If I end up deleting my account I will still be happy that I tried to be hip at least.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 424

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Since the wife is out walking with friends this morning that left breakfast duty to dear ol' dad.  Now we have cereal in the cupboard so I could have taken the easy way out and even made the kids fetch it themselves.  But no, I did not take this route and instead asked how they would like their eggs.  I talked the daughter out of boiled and poached and convinced her to agree with over easy like her brother had requested.  The kids watched in awe as I heated up a skillet and put some butter in it then carefully cracked the eggs, fried them a little, flipped them over and then produced (3) of the best eggs the had ever tasted (their words mind you, I don't like to brag).  As I basked in the glory of providing a hot meal for my offspring, I realized that their adoration for the meal was not based on all eggs they had ever had but rather on what they expected the eggs to taste like since I was the chef.  I then wondered how much they had lowered the bar so that the eggs I produced so far exceeded their expectations that it warranted this much praise.  It was then I realized that my kids must have a really low estimation of my cheffing (is that a word) abilities.  This made me a little sad since I (think I have been) cooking for them since they were born and I do not recall producing a bad meal (some mediocre ones maybe, but nothing truly horrid).  Next time they get cereal (and I bet they will be happy for it).

Good news Indiana Stryper fans (all 6 of you), they are coming to Indianapolis on their 25th anniversary tour.  The date is October 8th which is a Thursday night.  The wife has shown an interest in going with me moreso just to have a night out with her husband rather than to see Stryper.  She is familiar with their songs since I play them now and again in the house.  I even talked her into playing "Together As One" at the end of our wedding as we were walking back down the aisle to head to the reception.  Anyway, tickets are not that expensive ($12.50 & $17.50 I think) and it is always good to hear live music (even Stellar Kart).  The last time I saw them they did not allow cameras at the concert so hopefully this time they will not have this restriction.  Looking at my mp3 collection I noticed that I am missing one of their CDs.  Mind you it was the last one they released before they broke up in the 90s and it was not that good but still, as a serious Stryper fan I feel I should own it.  I mean I have no less than (3) copies of To Hell With The Devil (all on LP mind you).  I have the limited edition picture disc (with corresponding limited edition poster), the limited edition alternate album cover version and the regular album cover version (still sealed).  There are some limited edition items that I do not have but one cannot afford everything when one is 15 (how old I was when their first record was released).

This brings me to my hair.  I have wanted for quite some time to have the guts to cut it all off.  I don't mean to get a nice conservative cut but rather to take the clippers and a short clip and hack it all off.  I kept it for the Stellar Kart concert since it is a little shaggy and fits in nicely with the young crowd that mostly made up the audience.  I could decide to keep it for the Stryper concert I suppose as well.  The only thing that has stopped me most of the time is the wife and her incessent insistence that it is really HER hair and I just keep it on my head (in a style that suits her).  This solidifies my "I am just a giant Ken doll" theory even more but I am really tired of taking care of it.  Anyday now I think I will snap and just do it (even if I have to pay $10 at Great Clips since I know I will hack it up too bad if I try it myself and I don't think the wife will help me out - there is always the daughter but I am not that brave...yet).  Today though I am thinking the end is nigh for the mop up there.  I have the support of the son since I have his down to 1/4" all over and shave him down weekly now (probably again today come to think of it).  He likes the idea of having the same hair "style" (or lack thereof) as his dear ol' dad (who can't cook).  More on this later I am guessing.

The Saturday calendar is still open at this time and the wife should be home in 30 minutes or so.  I will have to wait for the day's agenda until then.  Blog at ya later.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 423

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Wow, I recently passed 400 blogs.  Seems like just yesterday I began my blog adventure with the only goal as not becoming an abandoned blog author.  My new adventure, Facebook, is going well.  Today marks the 3 week anniversary and I have 177 friends already.  I have had to block a few from my wall due to content but so far, so good.

Tonight the wife had that look in her eye.  The look that says, I ain't cookin'.  Despite having had shopped for groceries earlier in the day, there was nothing for dinner.  Which usually results in me caving in and taking us out to dinner (which ain't gonna happen on a Friday as I don't like the crowds) or me slapping something together.  In the end I fried 2 potatoes (diced) with one white onion in some olive oil mixed with chili powder.  Throw in some sausage and a little shredded cheese and you got a meal.  The kids did not even complain about the onions like they usually do as they are not onion fans.  They did such a great job that I took them out for some ice cream down the road at Sweet Retreats in Russiaville.

Today was "don't shoot the messenger" day for me at work.  I have 2 different applications that I am responsible for and today was almost wholly devoted to one of them (my least favorite one).  It involved sending about 300 emails to bug people to follow up on certain responsibilities.  In the end it is like stirring up a hornets nest with frustrated end users and upset managers.  But, it is my job to make sure certain things move along and it did make the day go very fast.  It seemed odd walking out of the office and thinking it was a Friday since I only worked 3 days this week but here I am on a Friday night.

Well the wife is getting the dogs out for their last romp before bedtime.  Nina acted like an old woman when you inform her it is time to get off of the chair and go outside.  She is just now a year old so I can only imagine what she will be like in a few more years.  Oreo is just happy to be included at all and hops along behind Nina.  The pack order is established.  Bedtime is interesting as Nina sleeps with us.  As long as both the wife and I are sitting up and reading (or in the case of the wife, doing a Suduko puzzle), she is content to lay in her cage.  But as soon as one of us lays down, she is right up in the other (non laying down) person's face "explaining" to that person that it is time for the pack to retire for the evening.  I cannot do the explanation justice with words really, but she is quite insistent and there is no putting her off.  Her head is quite huge and heavy and when she lays it on you and presses down, she has your attention.  Anyway, she is giving me that look now as I should really be back in the bedroom with the pack.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 422

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

The scales were kind to me this morning and I only gained 2 1/3 lbs since last Friday (before vacation started).  I can deal with that.  A few days of being good and I will be back to the weight listed on my driver's license.  Time to catch up on the movie reviews.

• My Super Ex-Girlfriend: I was a little leary of this one and I don't quite know why.  It was really funny.  They did not overplay the super hero part of the movie and focused on what it would really be like to have a girlfriend who was a super hero but a bit needy and then to break up with her.  I liked the part where (after the break up) the ex girlfriend / super hero throws a live shark into the boyfriends bedroom.  Too funny.  I could have done without some of the sexual references but if you overlook the easy (crude) jokes, it was a good movie for me.  The wife enjoyed it to and we laughed out loud several times.  Luke Wilson (the male lead in the movie) looked familiar to me but I cannot find where he was in any movie or show that I have ever seen.
• Spanglish: Hey, what do you know, another great, semi-serious Adam Sandler movie that I liked (along with 50 First Dates, Click and Bedtime Stories).  A bit long (over 2 hours) but a great story line and Adam did not steal the show and (honestly) could be said to be only a side character.  The DVD did have a nice 4 minute story on one scene where he makes a late night snack sandwich for himself (complete with a recipe that I have made note of for the wife).  Anyway, no crude Sandler like jokes and other than some adult type conversations, no real problems with the PG-13 rating.  I recommend this one fully but do not go in expecting it to be a comedy.

Tonight we had about 45 minutes before bedtime so we pulled up an episode of the latest season of Dancing With The Stars.  I have not seen any of the first (7) seasons I will admit but I thought the show would be fun for the family to watch together and except for some of the skimpy outfits it is good entertainment so far (we are only 5 shows into the seaons thus far).  There was one dancer (I forget her name) but for the episode we watched tonight she was "dressed" in a skimpy red outfit and had her blonde hair poofed way up.  She is also, ahem, well endowed in the upper area of her body (this is important for the rest of this story or else I would not mention it).  The daughter was asking about this particular person and her description was as follows: "You know, that lady with the big, big b..."  Now at this point the wife and I are bracing for impact as we are fearful of the parts of this person's body that the daughter was referring to in order to discern who she was speaking of but the B word that she used was "big big blonde hair"  Phew!  What a relief.  Though we had to describe what we thought she was going to say in order to explain why we were laughing so hard at her words.

Looking at the calendar close to the computer I notice that we have NOTHING penciled in for this Saturday.  This is indeed a rarity since the last (5) have been filled up.  The wife does have a walking date with a few girl friends but that is at 8 in the morning which leaves the rest of the day free.  I am looking forward to it.  I am hoping to make a Goodwill Store run to the same store I stopped at on the way home from Decatur as the 1/2 price sticker color is changing to black (which is what many of the CDs that I wanted were tagged with).  Hopefully the CDs are still there and I can score some more $1 CDs.  Well the wife is crashed on the chair so I better get her to bed.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 421

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

OK, I think I would like to be retired now.  I have worked a whole (1) day this week and I am ready for the weekend.  I wonder what it would take to retire in say (5) years?  That is too long to wait actually based on how I am feeling today.  I need to find a pile of money somewheres.  I did find part of a dollar bill today while walking from my work to my favorite pawn shop but it was like 15% of the bill and none of the serial numbers.  I looked around for the rest of the bill but it was not there.  The tear pattern was not real clean either so (using my CSI skills) I think it was ripped on purpose.  At any rate, I am not retiring today based on money found.  I did get a few CDs though for 50 cents each (no idea why there were not charging $1 like normal)...

• Alanis Morissette - So-Called Chaos
• Harry Connick Jr. - Star Turtle
• Maroon 5 - Songs About Jane

I have had the Maroon 5 one before but got rid of it for some reason.  This also brings my Harry Connick Jr collection up to (4) CDs (all for less than $1 each).  This is only eclipsed by my Reba McEntire collection which now totals (6).  I picked up (2) DVDs for the kids for $3 each too (Cheaper By The Dozen and Daddy Day Care).  They just found them as I stuck them in their pillow cases while thay were at AWANA tonight.  They are easily impressed so I have them trained well (to be happy with the little things).  I did hit pay dirt at the Goodwill store on the way back from Decatur.  I got (2) CDs by John Elefante (of Kansas fame) and (2) CDs from Allies (their later, rarer releases).  There were dozens more CDs I wanted but I did not want to be greedy.  Maybe I will head back there in a few weeks as it is only about a (30) minute drive.

Well the kids are awaiting the tucking in part of bedtime from dear old dad so I better wrap this blog up.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 420

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

So we have some new wall art.  Below is me posing with my birthday present from my son and to the right is the newly framed autographed 8x10 photo of Stellar Kart along with our tickets.  We spent more on the frame than the photo (though the tickets did cost us more not to mention the gas, hotel room and food).  I am not sure how long the wife will allow this "art" to remain in its current position.

The son and I arrived home around 2:30 today.  There is not really a direct route available from Decatur to Kokomo so once we hit Indiana, we meandored around from state highway to state highway that went through little towns with populations below 1,000 (the exact population was usually posted at the edge of town near the city limits sign).  We got a dip in the pool before we left and hit a Bob Evan's for a late breakfast somewhere in Illinois.  He is already talking about his NEXT concert.  He was googling all my favorite bands to see if any of them were in concert anytime soon and anywhere close (though I think he prefers the concert be far enough away to justify a hotel stay).

I have not decided if I will weigh myself tomorrow or not.  Part of me says no since I was just on vacation and I did break my streak of 133 straight days with a weighing and another part of me says I need to face up to reality and get back down (assuming I have gained) to my birthday goal weight.  As I type this I am leaning toward not weighing myself but who knows what mood I will be in tomorrow morning.  Right now though the kids are in bed and that leftover sangria in the fridge from this weekend will not drink itself.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 419

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Four and a half hours, all Stellar Kart coming from the van's CD player.  They have 3 CDs out and a best of that has 3 new songs (man I hate it when bands add new songs to a best of album).  Anyway, we listened to all the songs twice and still had a few miles to spare before we pulled into Decatur.  We arrived around 2:15 local time (check in time was 2) and were able to get some pool time in before heading out to find some hotel room snacks.  I did lose a dollar bet with the son as he managed to go from hot tub to pool within 30 seconds (I warned him it would be cold but he did not believe me).  The expression on his face was worth the price though.  We wandered up and down the road looking for a store where we could get snacks, aspirin (my right knee is sore from the drive), some anti-itch creme (mosquitoes were bad near the beach) and some chips and drinks.  We ended up at a WalMart (which I generally avoid) and then headed to the mall for some dinner before the concert.  Not many choices when you are trying to eat gluten free but we shared a foot long meatball sub (by sharing I mean the son ate the meatballs and I ate the bread and left over marinara sauce).  Back to hotel for some quick clean up and then off to the concert.

We arrived when the doors opened (6:30) and found some seats about 2/3 of the way back.  Soon it was time for the first band, First December, to start.  They are a local band (actually from Decatur) and they all looked way young to me.  They were OK and only did 4 songs.  Next up was Seventh Time Down and they sounded great to me.  They were very loud however and not knowing their music at all the son did not care much for them.  He was there for one reason and one reason only, Stellar Kart.  They came on eventually with a ton of energy.

They were all wearing headbands and bright band tshirts.  Since I know all their music I can tell you they did a great job of staying true to the CDs.  With the exception of no keyboards (their 3rd CD has a lot of keyboards), they sounded spot on.  They also were quite funny.  They did a whole Disney movie theme montage that was hilarious.  When the concert was over, we picked up an 8x10 of the band and then got in line for signatures.  Once we got to the front of the line, I made sure that they knew that their #1 fan from Indiana made the 300 mile trek to see them.  They were impressed.  The son's smile (that had been plastered on his face the whole night) got even bigger as his heroes actually looked him in the face and talked to him.  A great night to be his father.  I am sure he will not forget this time that we had.

Well we have time for one more dip in the pool before we have to pack up and head back to reality-ville.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 418

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

So I forgot to mention that I went swimming yesterday.  I had not gone swimming yet this year that I recall.  Even when I lived in TX I did not swim despite having 2 pools in our neighborhood that were furnished by the home owner's association.  I think part of it was my weight but since I am down to 180 (or was before the eating began on this vacation) I was not so self conscious about my belly.  Now, the whiteness of all my exposed skin, that is another thing.  Anyway, I convinced the wife to join us in the pool and based on the looks the lifeguard was giving us we might have been pushing it and were close to being in violation of the No Horseplay posted rule.  I did manage to beat her in a game of H-O-R-S-E as they had a small goal at the edge of the shallow end of the pool.  I won based on my superior skills and my ability to hit the "left shoulder under the water, one leg off the pool floor, one handed, bank shot" as the wife does not have this shot in her bag.  I won H-O-R-S-E to H so it wasn't a shut out.

This morning we are getting everything ready to head home (mom, boyfriend, wife, daughter) or to go to Decatur (son, me).  This is always the saddest time of any vacation as you have to work AND you know that vacation is over.  It is a very surreal feeling since you are technically still on vacation but then again you are not.  One thing I will definitely miss is the shower water pressure.  Wow, that is all that needs to be said.  They should have handles so you can brace yourself for the impact of the water that comes flying out of the shower head.  This kind of pressure I could get used to and it points out even further the pathetic pressure we have at home which my brother tells me that I might have a few hundred dollar expense coming up to get the water tank fixed or replaced.  Sigh, I guess it will be another month before I can consider getting a flat screen TV.

Well I guess I should quit blogging and go help pack.  Vacation time in South Haven is truly over.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon