A Christmas Branch

We have not had a Christmas tree in several years, well not one that met the minimum standards of the wife and kids.  During our first Christmas in Texas (2006), we lived in a second floor apartment.  We did not have a tree for Christmas.  We put the presents in a pile by the couch if I remember correctly.  I don’t even think we wrapped most of them.  It was our first Christmas without a big family gathering though my cousin and (then) fiancé came over for Christmas breakfast.  The day after Christmas, my mother arrived from Indiana and brought us a 3’ tall Christmas tree that she purchased on clearance at a Cracker Barrel restaurant on the way down.  It had Christmas lights built into it and came apart in (2) pieces for easy storage.

By 2007 we had moved into a house that we were leasing.  We re-used the 3’ Christmas tree but still stacked the presents up near the couch (there was not much room under that small of a tree).  I think we tried to repeat this same set up in 2008 (we were still in the same leased house) but by that time we had either lost the little tree or it was broken.  The next Christmas (2009) had us back in Indiana again and in a house that we purchased but we still did not put up a tree.

Previous to 2006 we had always had a tree (even before our children were born).  Early in our marriage (when we lived in a house with tall ceilings) we bought a 9’ real tree and put it in the front entry way.  I remember that I had to climb up the stairway to decorate the top 1/3 of it.  We bought an artificial tree after that and drug it out year after year.  So, our current draught of Christmas trees is (4) years as we decided not to pack the tree in the moving van on our way to Texas.

If I had my way, we would continue this glorious run of no Christmas trees.  As you can probably tell, I am no big fan of Christmas trees.  They are a pain to put up, a pain to decorate, a pain to maintain (e.g. keep the pets off them) and a pain to take down and put away (a sad reminder that the Christmas season is gone).  I am no Scrooge, I just don’t get into Christmas trees.  The wife and kids have (unsuccessfully) lobbied for a tree each of the last (4) years.  They use the same bullet points each year (evidently using the “let’s wear Daddy down” technique).  This year they are starting early (last week) but they appear that they do not have anything new to bring to the table for their side of the argument.

As I was thinking about this recently, I remembered a made for TV, Christmas special called “Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas” that I watched over and over when I was young.  I seem to recall it being on HBO quite a lot so there were opportunities to watch it 10+ times each year.  I even found a copy on DVD at the local library a few years back and made the kids watch it (they were not impressed).  Anyway, the reason I remember this show is that Emmet Otter and his mother (Ma Otter) did not have a Christmas tree.  Apparently Emmit’s father (who evidently had died some years earlier) always meant to go out and cut down a Christmas tree each year but instead always returned with only a branch, a Christmas branch.  He just could not bring himself to kill a tree in honor of the holiday.  I like this idea.  I like this idea a lot.

I offered this concept to the wife as a compromise.  We have plenty of evergreen trees on our property and we could even make it a family tradition.  She was cold to the idea initially and still is.  However, if I use their technique against them (the “wear them down” technique) I might be successful.  I have high hopes.  There is still plenty of time for more arguments to be made, more appeals to tradition, more sad and pitiful children’s eyes looking up at me begging.  I will have to be strong.

I will keep you posted and share pictures of either our tree or our branch (hopefully our Christmas branch).

Jon

The Least I Can Do

The wife came home from work yesterday in a pretty good mood.  She had just came from the chiropractor’s office for her bi-weekly visit (that’s every 2 weeks, not twice a week) as her appointment was right after work.  She was a little more affectionate than normal towards me (not that she is normally not affectionate).  A extra touch on the shoulder here, an extra hug there, etc.  This usually only means one thing, namely she dealt with or spoke to a woman during the day whose husband did or said something wrong.

Over the years I have been the benefactor of other bad husband’s actions.  This is great for me as I don’t even have to to anything to appear above standard (husband-wise) but reap the benefits of this status anyway.  I have to endure the “story” of a husband’s or boyfriend’s actions and of course appear sympathetic but that is all that is required of me.  Other than that, I only need to maintain the normal husband behavior.

It is particularly good for me if one of the wife’s friends are the ones having the husband issues.  The updates on the behavior(s) are more frequent and thus I look all the better for it.  Over the years she has had several friends who have had husbands that do not live up to the husbandly standard.  The infractions could be husbandly or fatherly (not being a good father to their child / children).  Evidently I also meet the standard for fatherly duties so compared to these other, substandard fathers I compare favorably.  Again, as a father I just do what comes naturally, no more or no less.

I would like to tell you that I try very hard to be a good husband / father but honestly I really do the least of what is required of me with an occasional over the top performance (you know, to break the monotony).  My standards are based on some unknown list of requirements that I must have picked up from somewhere over the years.  I mean, there are the socially agreed upon minimum requirements of course: provide for the family, etc, but beyond that I don’t do much else.  But I do look pretty good compared to those who don’t even do the minimum.

In a few weeks I am scheduled to sing a special song in church service.  I chose a song that talks about what wives and children expect of their husband / father and the singer’s admitted short comings in those areas.  Ultimately he realizes he will need help from elsewhere (in this song, God) to know what to do.  It is a very emotional song for me so I hope I can get through it.  This song helps to remind me that I just cannot run on autopilot most of the time but really do need to realize that there are those that look up to me and depend on me daily to be the leader.  I hope I can remember that.

http://www.sanctusreal.com/ – you can hear the song and watch the video / story behind the song at the band’s website

Jon

Can’t Undo

The wife went to the grocery store the other day (actually it was Tuesday).  Tuesday is the normal grocery day.  It is also the day we pick up our milk at the dairy farm (our assigned pick up day).  Invariably she will ask me if I need anything while she is shopping.  I rarely think of anything (in time) to tell her but even when I do, there are not good odds that it will be remembered (at least not the first time I ask).  I tend to ask for bathroom products like shampoo, deodorant or shaving cream.  Last week I asked for cotton swaps (Q-tips) but did not get them.  I was forced to dig around the bathroom cupboard for q-tips that had fell out of the container and settled on the shelves.  A new box was purchased but it was touch and go as the next grocery day approached as I had to look harder and harder each day.

This week I asked for (and did not receive) toothpaste.  I could head up front to the kid’s bathroom and borrow some of theirs but I am a little concerned that it might not be hygienically wise to do so.  My only other choice was to try to squeeze more toothpaste out of our near empty container.  I forget the name of the brand we currently use but the tube is quite hard and difficult to roll up to free up the last of the liquid inside.  I worked at it for a few minutes with little progress until the last turn produced toothpaste.  Too much toothpaste actually and I ended up with a large glob on the end of my tooth brush.  Anyone who has tried can tell you that you cannot put toothpaste back in the container.  You just can’t undo this, sort of like cutting your fingernails too short.  Now by “large glob” I mean the normal amount that they show in the toothpaste commercials on TV.

Sorry for the small picture size but I didn’t take a picture of my toothbrush this morning nor did I spend a lot of time with Senor Google searching for a comparable picture.  I was always amazed at the amount of product placed on the toothbrush in those commercials.  Does anyone use this much toothpaste really?  It seems like overkill.  Your mouth would foam up and you would look like a rabid dog after a little scrubbing.  Well today, not wanting to waste anything, I actually used this much toothpaste.  At first it felt odd, like I had taken a bite of some bad dessert.  Then the foaming began.  My mouth could not contain the foam as it rapidly multiplied in my mouth.  I pressed on though hitting the back teeth scrubbing away (and producing even more foam).  My foam creating kept going as I made another pass around the 27 teeth I have left (4 were pulled when I was younger right before I got braces and 1 was pulled a few years ago as it was a back tooth and was cheaper than getting a cap).  Anyway, it finally ended and my teeth were no more clean than normal brushing usually produces.  I am hopeful that the wife will remember toothpaste soon so this incident is not reproduced.

Jon

No Boxed Dinners

A long standing joke between the wife and I while we are shopping is for me to throw a box of Hamburger Helper in the cart.  This is usually met with “The Look” (married guys, you know what I mean) and then followed by me putting the box back on the shelf (quickly).  Early in our marriage (and even when we were dating), we went through many a hamburger helper box.  I seem to recall that being a positive for the argument to marry me (that I could cook, a little).  Since we became more educated about nutrition, items like hamburger helper started to be weeded out of our diet.  Some of my favorite flavors were Potato Stroganoff, Cheeseburger Macaroni, and Zesty Italian.  We probably tried them all at one time or another I imagine.  But that life (and culinary pleasure) is a distant memory for me since our ecu-ma-cation about nutrition.

You would be hard pressed to look in our cupboards and find even a can (let alone a box) of anything.  All our vegetables are either fresh or frozen.  If we make any meal, it is usually from the ground up, nothing pre-packaged.  Even cheese has to come in block form and we either slice it or shred it as needed…

This is the lunch I made for the daughter last Saturday.  I got this grilled cheese just right (according to her) which entailed the correct thickness of cheese slice and the correct amount of butter on the outside of the bread and the correct temperature for the pan / duration of grilling time per side.  The “ants on a log” took some prep time as well (using all natural peanut butter).  These raisons DO come from a can but I am not sure if you can get them in anything other than a can or box.  Even the tea is freshly brewed (not instant) and lightly sweetened with raw sugar.  Up until just recently (before the wife started working part time) we even made most if not all of the bread that we ate (sigh, honey, please, can you get the bread machine back down and teach me how to use it?).

We have big plans next year to expand our gardening.  This year we just planted a few things, to see if we could do it.  I have blogged in the past about some of the things we pulled from the garden but next year will make this year’s produce look pretty paltry.  We have dreams of canning and / or freezing items for the winter like many other people do.  It seems we are just throwing away money at the grocery store due to our ignorance or lack of effort in gardening / canning.  I know my grandmother used to can items as I remember watching her and her daughters do it one summer and I could always go to the basement and see rows and rows of green beans, etc, on the shelves.  She even had a bumper crop of raspberry bushes one year and made (17) raspberry pies (which, by the way, I was sick of around number 10 or so).  Anyway, we have big plans for next year.

Well the wife and daughter are about home from gymnastics so I had better get dinner started.

Jon

Where Are You Going With That

The kids get up awful early on weekday mornings.  The son is up by 6:15 and the daughter by 6:30.  They don’t need to be up that early really as we do not leave the house to take them to school until around 8:00.  So, when I say they get up early I mean in comparison to how early they need to get up in order to be ready to leave by 8:00.  Anyway, the wife and I (and the dogs) are not up much earlier than 6:00.  I think we chose that time originally so we would have time to make some coffee and enjoy some quiet alone time on the couch before the kiddos got up.  That plan is not working out this school year thus far.  We still sit on the couch and we still enjoy coffee, it is just that we are neither alone nor is it quiet.  We could get up earlier I suppose but I fear that that reaction would only be met with the kids upping their alarm clocks too.  For now, this will have to do.

Since the kids get up so early, then tend to be ready (lunches packed, dressed and ready to go) with plenty of time to spare.  The son hops on the laptop to kill his time and the daughter usually spends a little of her extra time out in the garage or back yard with the kittens that have made our garage their home.  This morning she came bounding back in the house announcing that she had found a frog.  Now we have plenty of frogs and toads in the yard.  In fact I blogged about one such frog about 1 year ago.  Also, I tend to find toads in the yard while I am mowing the lawn.  They are frantically trying to get out of my way so I try to corral them toward the portion of the grass that has already been mowed.  So, her announcement seemed a little over the top.  She then went into the kitchen and grabbed a drinking glass and was heading back out side.  I wondered what she was going to do with the glass but then realized that she intended to capture this frog.  I was busy setting up my work computer so I could get logged on and work from home so the wife went out to inspect this frog.  This is what she found…

This is not a camera trick.  This very flat frog was about 3 foot off of the ground and hanging on to the side of our unfinished sun room.  It was not that big and I am not sure what the daughter was planning on doing with it after capturing it in the glass but we did manage to get a few pictures in lieu of making it a specimen.  By the time I went outside a few hours later he was no where to be seen.

The kids did go on a field trip to Koh Koh Mah today with their school.  You can click on the link to their website for more details but they had a great time.  The daughter brought home some sarsaparilla flavored rock candy.  She had never heard of this flavor before and found it hard to pronounce so she just called it root beer.  I did learn that the sarsaparilla plant was used as a treatment for syphilis up until 1910.  You learn something new everyday.  I remember having some sarsaparilla when we were on vacation one summer as a kid.  I forget where we were but I think it was out west.  That was over 30 years ago but I remember the flavor.  I think I might even have resorted to calling it root beer as well.

I hit the treadmill for the first time in a few months on Monday and then again on Tuesday but have yet to get back on it since then.  I fear my weight has picked back up due to inactivity and bad eating habits creeping back into my life.  So I had better get off here and into bed since this rock candy is right next to me here on the dining room table calling my name.  Hopefully the frog doesn’t scare me when I get up early and head out the treadmill tomorrow morning.

Jon

Fighting Carbon

I got an email the other day from my power company.  I don’t mean that I own a power company, I mean that it is the power company that I use to provide power to my house.  Anyway, they sent me an email.  I usually only get one email from them and that is when they want money.  I don’t mean that they need a loan, I mean that they want me to pay my bill for the power that they supply to my house.  Anyway, I had already got the normal, “hey buddy, you owe us money” email for the month so this one was not about my indebtedness to them but it did involve money.  They were suggesting that I consider purchasing Carbon Offsets.  Carbon Offsets (if you are too lazy to click on the link I provided) are…

a financial instrument aimed at a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions

I perused the Wikipedia article (unlike you) and found it quite interesting.  My favorite part was the Controversies section, especially this part…

Some activists disagree with the principle of carbon offsets, likening them to papal indulgences, a way for the guilty to pay for absolution rather than changing their behavior.  George Monbiot, an English environmentalist and writer, says that carbon offsets are an excuse for business as usual with regards to pollution.  Proponents hold that the indulgence analogy is flawed because they claim carbon offsets actually reduce carbon emissions, changing the business as usual, and therefore address the root cause of climate change.

I bolded my favorite phrase.  Talk about trying to respond to one group only using terminology that might offend another.  To disagree with the comparison in one thing, to “dis” the group used in the comparison is another.  Now I know that papal indulgences have not been recognized since the 1500’s, but still.  Overall, I just found it funny.

So back to my email, there was this environmentally friendly looking background picture…

Also, there was a link to the main carbon offset page along with a calculator to determine how many carbon offsets I would need to purchase in order to negate my carbon footprint.  I went through the calculator steps using the typical amount for their customers for a single family home < 1,500 sq ft and selecting that I heat my house with gas.  This told me that I put the equivalent of 2,461 lbs of carbon into the air.  Next I put in both my car’s mileage (15k for the van, 6k for the Buick) which brought my total to 3,876 lbs.  Next I entered that I travel exactly 0 miles (on airplanes) and I was told that I needed to buy 8 carbon offsets at $4 / month to offset my entire carbon production.  So a clean conscious can be had for $32 / month (a little less than $400 per year).  This is about 50% of my bill as is so I think I will pass for now.

This site offers more information if you are interested (don’t think I know that you won’t be clicking on this link even though I spent minutes finding it for you).  Well, I better power down the laptop and stop emitting for now.

Jon

Saying No To NFL

I have decided not to follow the Indianapolis Colts this year or for that matter any football (high school, college or professional).  I actually toyed with this idea in the off season but figured it would be a game time decision once the season started.  I was still undecided heading into the weekend.  I have read the stories of how the sport is too violent and then there are the few bad apples of players that bring the sport down.  I also (for whatever reason) do not like the emotional ride that occurs during a typical game (Colts games anyways).  I’m happy, I’m mad, I’m upset, I’m ecstatic then I am disappointed only to be lifted up again.  To some that is part of the joy of watching football but I don’t like the ride.  I think in the end it is the injuries that bother me the most (interesting site discussing, among other things, the lasting effect of ex nfl player’s injuries).  I know these guys choose on their own to play but I feel partly guilty in encouraging them to do so.  Anyway, I thought about all these things over the summer (with the bitter taste of a Colt’s super bowl loss still in my mouth).

Fast forward to this past weekend.  The Colts (being in the AFC) are typically broadcast on CBS.  I have never been able to pick up the Indianapolis CBS station with my Radio Shack rabbit ears.  I can get ABC and NBC and even Fox out of Indianapolis but never CBS.  I have been able to get the CBS affiliate out of Lafayette (a city about 30 miles to our west) but only if I put the rabbit ears about 3 foot in front of the tv and a few feet to the left of it.  They also have to be suspended about 5 to 6 foot in the air.  I usually accomplish this by scooting the coffee table over and then stacking all 9 seasons of Little House on the Prairie DVD sets on top of a few board game boxes (Yahtzee and Rummikub work well for this).  Even then the signal is weak and if anyone is in the hallway bathroom, the signal is interrupted.  I usually have to allow 30 minutes to set up my structure for my CBS reception in case I need to move it left or right or need to add or remove DVD sets.

I have not needed to use the CBS setup all summer long (I think I used it in April for The Masters golf tournament) so maybe I am a little out of practice or maybe the trees have grown between Lafayette and my house or maybe some other obstruction has been erected but I could not get even the weakest of signals.  And just like that my decision was made for me (for week 1 of the NFL season anyway).  The wife had the van so I could not drive to somewhere else to watch the game so I assumed the fates had made my decision.

I am not sure what I am supposed to do with my Sunday afternoons once the weather turns cold.  For now I will be OK as the outside can be enjoyed.  Soon though the temperature will turn colder and I will have to decide whether or not to stick with my decision (assuming the rabbit ears start picking up the station again).  I will have to keep you posted.

Jon

10 Tons Of Fun

I think I mentioned before that the wife has been working part time for a few months now.  She is putting the money she earns into projects around the house.  She has already paid for new gutters all around the house as well as some work done in other areas.  Next on her agenda was our driveway.  Last winter we had a snowstorm or two that made getting out of our driveway and onto the highway that runs in front of our house quite difficult.  Due to the slight incline as you head toward the road, the overall lack of gravel and a row of trees partially obstructing our view of the east and west, getting out of the driveway was quite an adventure.  Toward the end of one snowstorm (after the son and I did our best to shovel a path) we basically had to get a running start.  We had a “point of decision” or “point of no return” about 15 foot from the road where you had to decide (quite quickly) if you thought you a) had enough velocity to make it up the incline and b) could successfully avoid any traffic coming from either direction.  Fun times.

Anyway, a fresh layer of gravel is needed and that was next on the wife’s list of projects with her part time job money.  She called around a little bit and found a place very near to us that could deliver gravel and spread it out (to some degree) for us.  She had to measure the square footage of the driveway and the small area to the side that we have for extra parking and decided that we needed 11 to 12 tons of gravel.  Evidently, due to some weight limits for a single axle truck, going from 10 tons (allowed on a single axle truck) to 11 or 12 tons would greatly increase the delivery cost so we made do with 10 tons.

Above is a picture of part of the driveway and the extra parking area (note the large rocks that mark the end, also note the much nicer looking driveway of the neighbor to the east of us).  The grass was taking over and I had to mow the driveway a few times this summer.

Here is an action shot of the truck dropping off some of the gravel.  You can get an idea of the size of the truck compared to our Kia minivan.

Here is a nice shot of the finished driveway.  I had to do some raking as you can only be so accurate in spreading out the gravel with a big dump truck.  The driver really did a good job and we (the wife especially) is happy with the results.  We also came in at about 1/2 the amount we thought it would cost to do this project.  I can hardly wait for the first snowstorm to see how much easier it is to get out of the driveway.

Jon

Why I Called You Here

I remember this Peanuts comic strip from my childhood.  It was wintertime and Linus was making some small snowmen.  They were probably about a foot tall.  He must have made about (50) of them.  He had them all facing in one general direction.  He then made some sort of stand (or maybe he had a stand there already) and addressed the crowd of small snowmen, “You may be wondering why I have called you here today…”  I like most of the Peanut characters but I think I liked Linus the most (with Snoopy a close second).  He was wise beyond his years and was always waxing philosophical.  He was also the only one who could quote the Christmas story in “Merry Christmas Charlie Brown”.  I was reminded of this comic strip this morning as I went into the daughter’s room and saw this scene on her bed…

In this case it is Oreo and not Linus who has called the meeting and his audience is stuffed animals and not snowmen but it still reminded me of that old Peanuts scene.  I tried very hard to find a copy to point you to as a comparison but my google skills could not accomplish it (update, a faithful reader provided me a link to the comic strip that I was remembering).

I mowed down the cantaloupe patch in the front yard yesterday as the last of the fruit fell off the vine (indicating it was ready I guess even though it was still green-ish in a few parts).  Amazing, but with 3 passes of the mower you cannot even tell there was a garden there.  The tomato cages are still there as they have yet to give up all there fruit and having witnessed what happens when you do (a meeting with the mower), they may never allow those last tomatoes to turn from green to red.  The back yard garden is far gone with the last of the cucumbers not quite making it to adulthood.  I can’t quite mow it down as it is a raised bed garden but I can stop yelling at the dogs when they get near it and it should be demolished soon enough.  We have plans for a much bigger garden next year, we might even have to rent a tiller (or whatever those things are called).  I am sure it will be an adventure worth blogging about.

Jon

I Do Not Want To Know

Those of you who have kids know that silence for too long of time usually is not a good thing.  I went looking for my daughter after a prolonged period of silence from her and discovered her with a pair of scissors, my roll of electrical tape, the band aid box, some of her stuffed animals and some books.  Here was the scene…

She opened her mouth to try to explain the scene to me but I thought it best that I not know.  Notice that the animal on the right has a band aid on its nose and tail.  We had just bought these books at Half Priced Books on Sunday so they are new to her.  I really do not know why she was doing this and now that I think about it I am sorry that I did not ask.  I do not want to venture a guess.

I have this week off on vacation (Monday was a US holiday and I am trying to use up some vacation days before work gets crazy and I will not be able to use them [or feel guilty for doing so]).  I have done very little.  The wife has Tuesday’s off so we hung out most of the day.  I then spent the last 2 days watching movies and doing some little things around the house.  Yesterday I watched Blindness.  I had read the book a while back (written by Jose Saramago).  I actually only read the book after seeing the trailer for the (then) upcoming movie.  From the wikipedia article…

Saramago's experimental style often features long sentences, at times more than a page long. He uses periods sparingly, choosing instead a loose flow of clauses joined by commas.[5] Many of his paragraphs extend for pages without pausing for dialogue, which Saramago chooses not to delimit by quotation marks; when the speaker changes, Saramago capitalizes the first letter of the new speaker's clause. His works often refer to his other works.[5] In his novel Blindness, Saramago completely abandons the use of proper nouns instead choosing to refer to characters simply by some unique characteristic, an example of his use of style to enhance the recurring themes of identity and meaning found throughout his work.

It was hard to read based on the above description of his writing style but worth the effort.  Basically breaking every written English rule, his books are a mental exercise for sure.  Anyway, the book was great and I was hopeful for the movie and they did a pretty good job (leaving a lot of parts out of course but leaving them in would have made the move too long).  I do remember attempting to read a second book of his but made it only half way through before giving up.  The wife and I made it through M Night Shyamalan’s The Happening last night.  Not his best movie but probably better than Lady In The Water.

Today I struggled through Quarantine.  I only struggled as the whole movie is shot from one camera and the cameraman is actually a character in the movie so if he has to run (say, for his life from rabid people) then you get a lot of jerky camera action.  This tended to make me nauseous (not to mention the subject matter of the movie).  I had to stop after about 30 minutes and get some fresh air before continuing.  A good horror film nonetheless and I found myself laughing out loud at some to of the scarier parts (including the ending).  They were perfectly scary but for whatever reason I laughed.  I offered to rewatch it with the wife tonight but a resounding NO left her mouth before I even got the offer finished.  She is not one for scary movies (but did make it through The Happening OK).

I did want to give a shout out to the wife for an excellent dinner tonight.  I was in one of those “nothing sounds good” moods but her Gnocchi with Red Bell Pepper Alfredo Sauce really hit the spot.

She takes some sautéed onion and throws in a stick of butter and some heavy cream.  To that she adds a pureed mixture of roasted red bell peppers (bought in a jar) and some freshly crushed garlic.  The gnocchi is store bought but excellent.  Throw on some parmesan at the end and you have perfection.  There was just enough left over for lunch tomorrow (which I will enjoy while watching one more movie before the weekend hits and I won’t have the house to myself any longer).

Well the clock on the wall says it is time to get the dogs outside one more time for the night and wake up the wife from her place on the couch before heading to bed. 

Jon

Wildlife Photography

I very much enjoy taking pictures with the daughter’s, low quality camera.  It does alright but not great.  One thing I take a lot of pictures of is our dogs (any regular reader of this blog and testify to that).  I also like taking pictures of animals that live outside of our house whether it be a bug or a rabbit or anything really.  Some things are easier to capture on film than others…

These (2) kittens have claimed our attached garage and have made themselves very much at home.  They are all that is left of the (8) that were living underneath one of the sheds in the backyard.  I did see a mamma cat and another kitten in our front yard today so maybe the rest are with their mother still.  But for whatever reason Marble (in back) and Tigre (in front) are a permanent fixture.  Tigre is more social and likes to be picked up and petted while Marble is more shy.  They have no problem not moving for the camera.  On the other hand…

This is the picture of the hummingbird feeder just outside our kitchen window.  I have tried off and on to get a picture of an actual bird but so far all my photos look like the above one.  I sit by the window for 10 minutes or so and patiently wait for the hummingbird to return once I see him in the morning or evening and although he has no real fear of us on the other side of the window, my timing has just been off.  That is until yesterday morning…

When one hummingbird appeared from behind the feeder and posed for me.  He sort of hovered there for a while and then flew off.  I was about to unmount the camera and close the screen to the window when he returned….

Did I mention that we have a low quality camera?  Anyway, I feel better now that I have one of these little guys photographed.  They are pretty cool to watch and I will admit I thought the wife was a little crazy to buy a feeder when we had never even seen hummingbirds nearby.  There must be some sort of social network going on with this species to let everyone know there is a new place to dine.

I am taking this week off of work so maybe I will have time to take some more pictures.

Jon

The Return Of The Cup

It has turned cooler the last few nights and since my wife is part lizard (as evidenced by the fact that her body cannot retain heat once the sun goes down) it is now time for the return of nightly tea (at least for a few nights)…

Above is MY favorite tea cup that somehow always ends up in the wife’s hands at night.  I even make and deliver the tea to her on the couch so I suppose I am partly to blame.  She just loves this cup so much and laid claim to it the moment I brought it home from work.  I found it there on a “free to a good home” table when some folks were cleaning out their cubicles (or possibly the cubicles of fallen comrades [like most companies, we have had layoffs over the last year or two]).  Anyway, I used it at work for a while then brought it home which (I now know) was a mistake (unless of course my goal was to make the wife happy [which I claim it was {of course} in front of her]).

This blog is being posted in the morning as late last night the ISP was down.  I hope to return to my normal nightly blogging tonight (after making the tea of course).

Jon

Pop Goes The Weasel

I only use the title of this blog based on some knowledge I gained recently.  It has to do with the pawn brokering business whose symbol looks something like this…

The son and I spent a little time at my favorite pawn shop today and I did see one of these symbols in the window as we entered.  I almost always devote my purchases there to music CDs and movie DVDs and today was no different.  I picked up the following CDs for $0.50 each…

• Foreigner – Records (An older, best of album)
• Ozzy Osborn – No More Tears

I am all about the 80s music (hence the Foreigner CD) but I am not really an Ozzy fan.  I can only justify my purchase in that I like the song “No More Tears” and it was only $0.50 (for Pete’s sake).  I have gone over all their CDs so often that I can tell which ones are new compared to the ones that have been there for years so once I nabbed these up I focused more on DVDs…

• Herbie Fully Loaded
• Max Keeble’s Big Movie
• Air Buddies
• Apocalypto
• Walk The Line
• Tommy Boy (2 DVD Holy Schnike Edition)
• Black Sheep

The first (3) were DVD’s that the son picked out (there is sort of a children’s section for movies).  The middle (2) were my choices and the last (2) were movies that the wife likes (though I do enjoy Chris Farley and David Spade, especially in Tommy Boy).  Most of the time the son and I were looking over the seemingly 1,000’s of DVDs there was a lady there who was trying to determine if several rings in the display case might indeed have been hers.  From what I could overhear, there was a divorce in the past and her ex-husband may have pawned them here.  If her story wasn’t so sad it would have been funny.  She was giving a little more detail than was needed simply to put some money down on these rings so they could not be purchased by someone else.  She did go on quite a bit on how much she (they) paid for them years ago (which I would think would be a mistake since they were selling for much less than that now).  Anyway, people like her and her ex-husband are why pawn shops are in business (and thereby provide me with cheap CDs and DVDs) so I guess I should cut her some slack.

Back to the title of the blog, according to this page…

The nursery rhyme "Pop Goes The Weasel" refers to pawning. A weasel is a shoemaker’s tool and to "pop" is to pawn. "That’s the way the money goes...Pop goes the weasel."

I had never heard of this but I know there are stories behind most nursery rhymes so it does not shock me.  The 3 ball symbol (at the first part of this blog), this same web site says…

During the Middle Ages, certain usury laws imposed by the Church prohibited the charging of interest on loans, thus limiting pawnbroking to people who had religious beliefs outside of the Church. Out of economic necessity, and because of problems with the banking system, pawnshops made a resurgence in later years. The House of Lombard operated pawnshops throughout Europe. Legend contends that they even counted royalty, such as King Edward III of England, among their clientele during the 14th century. The symbol of the Lombards’ operations was the three gold balls that still remain the trademark.

I had to figure the church was mixed up in this somehow.  Anyway, I spent < $25 and picked up some good stuff and the kids even have some new movies to watch.

Jon

314

Something about being human makes us want to see patterns, even when they aren’t there.  We want to think that nature is playing some joke on us and every once in a while shows its hand (either on purpose or on accident).  I am no different.  I mentioned a few days back that my birthday this year now makes my age a prime number.  Perhaps I am worse than others in seeing patterns (should this year be better or worse because of this being a “prime” year?).

I recently sold something on eBay.  I have not been a seller on eBay for quite a while as I usually am on the other end of things (the buyer) but for whatever reason my feedback rating has now hit…

Now any good math student can tell you that 3 1 4 are the first numbers of that glorious number, pi (π).  Of course, as soon as the buyer gets my package and (hopefully) gives me a positive feedback then I will move on past 314 but until then I take a certain amount of pleasure in this being my feedback rating.

A month or two ago the wife’s cell phone made an unsuccessful trip through the washer (and I think drier, but I cannot be certain).  Anyway, after drying out (we put it in a sealed container of rice for a few days) it actually did still work but the display screens did not.  We could dial by faith but could not confirm we had done so correctly until the person on the other end picked up.  We were quite a few months away from the completion of our (2) year plan but we were close enough to get a discount on a new phone (with the agreement of another [2] year plan of course).  The phone was almost free but it was only that way due to a $50 rebate.  The rebate came in the form of a Visa gift card.  We were even fortunate to get the rebate before our bill came due.  Anyway, the good and bad thing about a Visa gift card is that you can spend it anywhere but cannot then trust any particular store to tell you how much you have remaining as your balance.  We used the card for some amount more than $10 but less than $15 for lunch one day and then for $35 toward our big school supply purchases.  This left us some unknown balance of $0 to $5.  On the back of the card in very tiny print were instructions on getting the balance.  The preferred method was for them to text it to us by typing in some cryptic code and hitting send.  Since we have incoming texts blocked, this was not an option.  There did not appear to be an online method of doing it so I was forced to punch in the 16 digit code and a few other things before a computerized voice gave me our current balance.  Wouldn’t you know it, it was $3.14.  Coincidence?  Sure but somewhere in the back of my mind I immediate tried (whether it was logical or not) to tie this number to my eBay rating.

I ended up buying a bagel today for $1.34 so my balance is down to $1.80 and try as I might I cannot see 180, 18 or 1.8 as being special (…yet, maybe tomorrow it will make sense like if I get on the scales and weigh 180 lbs).  I will have to keep you posted.

Jon

Bedtime Rituals

I have a background picture on my work laptop.  I usually don’t do this and prefer a nice, business-like, blank, easy-on-the-eyes, black background.  I found the below picture and just had to make it my background…

I think I found this at CafePress one day when I was looking for something else.  This is a pretty good match (except for the pointy ears) of a scene I see every night at bed time.  See if you don’t agree…

This of course is Nina, our beloved Doberman.  Every night she gives us this look.  She will not move her head but glance at me and then the foot of the bed (indicating where she would like to lay).  She is quite the beggar and very persistent.  It does not help that 2 foot away she sees this…

This would be Oreo already on the bed and snuggled up against the wife (wearing my blue t-shirt here in this pic).  Unless the kids are staying with a grandma, Nina is not allowed on the bed at night.  She does get permission to hop up there if it is close to time to wake up.  How she tells the time to know when the break point is (the time of the morning when she would be allowed) is beyond me.

Well it is about time to head to bed and live though the above pictures for another night.

Jon

A Wrong Decision

Earlier this morning I had $2.  The $2 was in the form of (2) $1 bills.  Nothing unusual.  Since it is the first of the month, it was time to pass out allowances (or in the wife’s and my case, blow money).  We have a predefined payout for each member of the family with the kids getting a little extra sometimes for jobs done between paydays (the son can earn extra money for instance by helping me with the lawn mowing).  My blow money for a bi-monthly pay period (my work pays me twice a month so our allowance / blow money is also given out twice a month) is $20.  So later in the morning I had $22 (the same [2] $1 bills and a $20 bill).  Anyway, since the wife worked today, I worked from the office instead of from home.  This means that I had to do something about lunch.  We didn’t happen to have any leftovers (well we did but the wife took those at my insistence [these were really 2x leftovers having had them for {2} nights in a row]).

When lunchtime came around I decided to walk over to a burger joint that offers cheeseburgers for $0.69 each (Wednesdays and Sundays).  (2) cheeseburgers with tax (7% here in Indiana) came to $1.48.  This left me (2) quarters for a $0.50 can of coke (there is a machine on the way back to the office that offers cans at this price).  After I placed my order and received my change I took a look at the quarters.  I blogged a long time ago about our state quarter collection.  We have been getting closer and closer to completing it and have recently moved from needing 6, then 5 and now only 4 quarters for the complete set.  The problem is that I can never remember the states that we are missing.  Of the quarters I got back in change, one of them was not a state quarter but the other one was and it was for the state of Washington.  I thought to myself, “Washington, Washington, is that one of the ones we are missing or not?”  I thought about this until my food was ready.  I thought about it as I ate my cheeseburgers while walking to the coke machine and I thought about it as I held the quarter up to the coin slot.  I just couldn’t remember.  Now I was faced with a decision.  Do I get the coke and potentially use a state quarter that I was missing or do I get the coke and hope that Washington was one of the (46) states that we already had?  Decisions, decisions.  In the end, thirst won out.

When I arrived home today, one of the first things that I did was to grab our quarter book…

The (4) states we are missing are Mississippi, Maine, Arizona and (drum roll please) Washington.  How could I have forgotten?  I knew I was missing some states that started with “M” but the rest were a blank.  Hopefully this blog will help me remember for next time.  Mississippi and Maine have been out since 2002 and 2003 respectively so you would think that the odds would be in our favor.  I have thought about calculating the odds of NOT getting these (4) states based on general circulation of all quarters and the number of quarters that I receive / review in a given period of time.  Over time, the odds get lower and lower but I suppose there is some small % of a chance that we will never get the collection completed without cheating somehow.  This kids have given up on completing this long ago but I still hold out hope.

I did get excited the other day when I looked at the back of a quarter that I had just received and did not recognize the back of it.  However it ended up being one for The US Virgin Islands (part of the DC and Territories quarter program).  I had not even heard of this.  Fortunately for me, my coin book does not have room for these quarters or else I would be missing (10) quarters and not only (4).

Jon