Blog Number 327

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

From time to time when I get home and log onto the computer I am met with this sight...

This (of course) is Notepad, the simple most important application that ever came (free) with windows.  I have used Notepad since Windows 3.1 days and still use it everyday at work (despite having Microsoft Word 2007 at my disposal).  Anyway, when I come home and someone has left a Notepad session open, I never know what there might be there.  In times past it has contained grocery lists, home school curriculum lists, copies of web pages or (at times) a song that my 10 year old son has written.  Tonight was a rare treat however as it contained this...

Face: Murdock, do you want to go to Burger King with me?
Murdock: Yeah sure face i love Burger King.
Face: We better take BA with us.
Murdock: I agree.
Face: Let's go tell go tell BA and Hannibal to come with us.
Murdock: BA! Hannibal! We're going to Burger King.  Come with us to be our protection.
BA: I'll come with you guys.
Hannibal: This is a nice place  BA you sit down first.  You're the king.
BA:  Thank you Hannibal .  You are very kind.  I would give my life for you.
Face: BA!  Look, there's guys coming with guns.
BA: I'll hide you guys.  Come with a plan.
Deke: Get off that chair,  I sit there all the time.
Grad:  You too, nerd.
Deke: What's your guys names?
Face: My name's Face and his name is Murdock.
Deke: My name's Deke and his name's Grad.
Face: Deke, you're very nice.  Don't you agree Murdock?
Murdock: Grad, I told ya you needed a little more salt. So here's some in your eyes.
Grad: Ah, my eyes!
Face: (Punch) How did that feel?  Don't come in here with guns again.

Evidently this is a scene from the script for a lost episode of The A Team.  I can almost see the scene in my head (really).  This MIGHT have something to do with the fact that we just finished season 1 of The A Team but I can't be sure.  Maybe tomorrow when I get home there will be more.  Who am I kidding?  It will  probably just be a boring grocery list.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 326

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Wow!  Two blogs in two days!  What am I thinking?

Recently my son purchased his first CD.  Now he has other CDs that he has from birthdays or Christmas or whatever but this is the first CD he ever purchased with his own money.  There are some teenagers that come to his Sunday school class and do a short praise and worship and one of the songs has a catchy chorus that basically says, "Life is good.  Eternal life is better" (repeat ad nauseum).  Anyway, after having heard him sing those 7 words over and over (and over) and over again (his sister usually chimes in as well), we discovered that it was actually a real song (and had other words).  The song is by a band called Stellar Kart and so we set out to find the CD that it came from.  Turns out they just released their 3rd CD but this song came off of their 1st one.  We found the CD at the local bookstore for $11 (with tax) but since he only gets $6 / week he asked if I could find it cheaper.  I searched and eventually found a seller on eBay that only wanted $8.25 for it.  Actually it was only $1 (with $7.25 shipping) so I bought it and we waited.  It took almost 2 weeks to arrive but when it did he was pumped.

I made a copy for my car as I was sure he would want to discuss my thoughts on the album.  Of the 11 songs, only 2 are better than average but I would like to call your attention to one song in particular.  That is their truly forgettable cover of "Livin' On A Prayer" (originally by Bon Jovi).  Wow, really hard to listen to all the way through.  They do OK on the chorus but the verses are a little rough (the lead singer does not have that great of a voice).  To be fair, they are not on a big label and this was their first CD so I am sure the budget was low.  My son is already decided to save his money for their other 2 CDs so for the sake of my ears I hope they got better.  If you head over to the Pure Volume site, they do have "Finish Last" off of their first CD so check it out.

I just finished a book (not any that were listed on my recent blog) called "A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama And Why He Can't Win" by Shelby Steele.  It is just over 100 pages but it was an interesting insight from an author who (like Obama) has one white parent and one black parent.  The books talks about many of the inner struggles Obama must be going through not only during this election season but for his entire adult life.  Anyway, it is probably worth a read if you can find it at the library.

Well, it is time to head to the front room and finish up the 2nd Pirates of the Caribbean movie that we did not get to finish this afternoon before church time.  I offer no promises as to the date of the next blog.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 325

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well another month has almost slipped by without a blog entry. I do not know why all of a sudden I am not in the blogging mood after having been so into it for the better part of 2 years. Maybe I am finally outgrowing the need to express my frustrations to an (albeit small) audience. I haven't really thought about it much actually until today (just now actually). The big news in our household is the arrival of our new dog...

Her name is Nina (long I on the first syllable like the number 9) and she is a Doberman. We purchased her from local a local breeder. In fact, they were the same folks that turned us on to Gabbi (our dog that was lost in the auto accident in April). We got our deposit in early and were able to snag our pick of the litter. You might be wondering about the name Nina, but before I go into that let me tell you some of the names that we were thinking of...

Latte: This was a close 2nd. Part of the reason was because of her coat's color and part of the reason was that (at $375) we were going to have to give up latte's for a while in order to pay for her.

Caspian: This would have been our pick if we ended up with a male puppy. It seems like a very noble name for such a noble breed. Having just now seen the Prince Caspian movie helped a little too.

Shelby / Sugar / Ginger / Princess: These were all the names our 6 yr old daughter added to the mix. We ruled out Sugar and Princess our of mere principal. Ginger was actually a name of the mother of one of the kids in her swim class. I guessed she really liked the name as there is no better honor (from a 6 year old anyway) than having them name their pet after you.

(Insert arbitrary German, female name here [Heidi, Helga, etc]): The wife was convinced that since the Doberman is a German breed that it had to have a German name. She fought very hard but in the end she was outvoted.

Meecham: OK, a little explanation here. A long, long time ago (like 20 years ago) I worked at a local bowling alley. They had the first automatic scoring system in town and so you had these monitors that hung 10 foot in the air to show your score. You had to punch your name into the lane system before you could bowl and when it was your turn it would display your name at the bottom of the screen (along with flashing some arrows in the row for your score). Anyway, one night I was bowling a few lanes away from some teenage girls that were also bowling and from my angle I swore that one of the girls was named Meecham. I thought that was such a cool / unique name. I wandered over to behind their lane to see how good they were bowling and then noticed that the name was actually Meagan and the extreme angle I was at had tricked me. Ever since then though I have remembered that name and swore I would name something Meecham. The wife did not like this name for a dog any more than she liked it for our daughter's name when she was born.

This brings us to Nina: We have not had good luck with dogs since we have been married. In our defense, we lost one dog in a car crash and had to get rid of two dogs due to moving. The other 5 were just bad dogs that we got mostly from the local dog pound. This dog (if we counted correctly) is our 9th dog. She is also the 9th born out of a litter of 10. So I decided that Nina (9-a) would be a great choice. I am also convinced (though I have no proof) that dogs respond to short names (1 or 2 syllables) that have a long vowel in the 1st syllable.

Anyway, Nina is doing great. She is very smart and has already (at barely 10 weeks) mastered the sit, lay, shake, high five and speak tricks. She is almost sleeping through the night and stays in her cage without whining too much. The 1st week was rough but she is shaping up to be a great dog. We don't want to have to go out and get our next dog (temporarily named Rin 10 10) anytime soon.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 324

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

We had a great get together at our next door neighbor's house yesterday from around 2 until about 8.  Several other neighbors from our street were there along with friends of the hosts.  The July 4th get together was 2 doors down from us so I think (doing the math) that makes the next get together at our house.  Unfortunately the next holiday on the calendar is Halloween (which we typically do not celebrate).  Also, based on the amount of wine, mixed drinks and beer at the last two get togethers I think we need to start saving up in order to afford to host a party for our street.  The wife and I were talking over our coffee this morning and we decided it took us moving to Texas in order to make some true friends.  Back in Indiana, we had our family we could always rely on but here we have to rely on people who we have only known a year or two.  We decided it was a good thing.

We went to the Allen public library on Friday evening to return some books and check out some new ones.  Once I got home I started reading one of the 3 books that I checked out.  When I laid the other two books down on the bookshelf, I noticed all the other books with bookmarks in them.  Since then I have made a search of the house to see how many books I am actually reading concurrently.  Here is the list...

1. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis - I read this to the kids one chapter at a time on some evenings.  We are almost 1/2 way through the book (pg 95 / 217).
2. Couplehood by Paul Reiser - This was a birthday gift from my mother.  I am pretty sure she got it at the Goodwill store.  I am only a few chapters in to this one but it reads like a stand up comic routine so you can just read it a little at the time as each chapter is not necessarily based on the last.  The book actually starts on page 145 (it is explained in the forward as to why) but I am about 1/2 way through it (pg. 197 / 348).
3. Dogs Don't Tell Jokes by Louis Sachar - This is my 10 year old son's book and I am reading it so he can narrate to me after he reads it.  Louis Sachar wrote Holes (which was turned into a movie a while back).  I am about 1/3 of the way through it (pg. 72 / 209).
4. You, Inc. by Harry Beckwith - Another book from my mother.  I think she bought this one in an airport.  I have not read anything in this book for better than half a year but it sits in my back bathroom ready for my return.  I am about 1/2 way through it (pg. 170 / 316).
5. King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green - I might abandon this one actually.  I just can't get into it really.  This one is hard to read if it is not the only book you are reading as the names are long and hard to remember.  I am only about 1/5 of the way through it (pg. 71 / 330).
6. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings - Though I just started this one (it sits next to You, Inc. in the back bathroom) I really think I am going to like it.  Many of the books in this list (and many of the books in our house) are classics that we purchased for a ridiculously low price at the Half Price Books store.  In the last few months I finished 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Treasure Island and these were both books from that store as well.  Somehow I escaped school without reading either of these books.  As for The Yearling, I am only about 1/7 of the way through it (pg. 48 / 354).
7. History of the Millennium (So Far) by Dave Barry - Another "mom" book.  Back in Kokomo, the wife and I would take turn reading chapters of Dave Barry's books to each other.  We had to take turns because it was to hard to read while you are crying due to laughing.  This book is a few years old.  I am about 1/6 of the way through it (pg. 35 / 208).
8. Religious Literacy (What Every American Needs To Know - And Doesn't) by Stephen Prothero - I like to peruse the 200 section of the library (200 being the Dewey Decimal system number for religious books).  I enjoy reading how other people view religions in general and my religion in particular.  This one however better get interesting quickly or it might not stay on this list for long.  I think perhaps the 18 page introduction (where he describes what the book is about and why he decided a book like this needed to be written) was a little long.  Still, since I deal with many countries on a weekly basis (Malaysia, Egypt, etc) where the dominant religion is not Christianity I thought this book would do me well..I am about 1/9 of the way through it though I just got it from the library on Friday (pg. 27 / 233).
9. All the Names by José Saramago - I just returned Blindness by this same author and it was excellent.  Saramago has a strange writing style that involves such quirks as infinitely long run on sentences (I think one sentence lasted 3 pages) and the phenomenal lack in the use of quotation marks during dialog.  He also does not start a new paragraph when someone else starts speaking.  So you have these tremendously long conversations between two or more people (or perhaps a character and his conscious) that do not stop when the speaker changes and seldom us the "he said" or "she said" to indicate who is speaking even.  This was very annoying at first but the story was so good that you look past it.  They are making a movie based on Blindness (trailer is here).  Anyway, All the Names is the book he wrote after Blindness but even though I am about 1/2 way through it I think I will give up on this one.  I did check out the sequel to Blindness though (titled Seeing) so I hope to start it soon (what's one more concurrent book really?).

I wonder if it is strange to have 9 books going on at the same time in my head.  I would think that since people can juggle the ongoing plot lines of that many TV shows, that I could do so with books.  I am running a little low on bookmarks though.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 323

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I have forgiven myself for not blogging for 2 weeks so I will assume you will join with me and do the same.  Since I got my new cell phone I have snapped pics of things that interest me or might potentially be a blog subject.  They are not all winners but anything not used on the blog ends up stuck on my computer desktop just in case I decide to use it.  Well, I need the space on my desktop so today's blog is just a cleaning house for...

Random Bad Quality Pictures With My New Cell Phone

 

So we were at a grocery store the other day for the sole purpose of checking their prices on the things we buy week to week.  At the end of one of the rows were all these painted mixers.  There were probably about 15 mixers overall.  They looked pretty neat and there was a small placard with information about the "artist" and how to contact them should you want your mixer painted.  I don't know but it seems to me like someone has a little too much free time.

 

I mentioned in an earlier blog that we stayed at the same hotel to and from Indiana.  The hotel was great and the only thing I can fault them for is the phenomenally low quality of their forks at their continental breakfast.  It is a little hard to tell from the pics but these things were quite thin and provided barely enough resistance to stab your food and forget about using it to cut through your biscuits and gravy.  The fork quality was the same during both of our stays.  Checking some online stores I think you will find that plastic forks are $19.00 / 1,000 count case.  Now that is less than 2 cents per fork (for medium quality).  Spending an extra penny per guest for a good quality fork seems like a small price to pay.

The wife and I were killing some time waiting before our movie time arrived and while in a store near the movie theater I saw this toaster.  It is designated as high speed.  Is there a real need for faster toast out there?  I cannot honestly say I have every used slow toast making as an excuse for being late for anything.  Sorry boss, I would have made it to work on time if it weren't for my cursed slow toaster.

While shopping a week or so ago I came across these Donut Peaches.  After a little research I found out they are also know as Saturn Peaches.  When I checked, even Wikipedia did not have an article devoted to them.  They really do look like a donut to me (more so than the planet Saturn).  Also in the parking lot of the grocery store where the above peaches were for sale I snapped this picture...

At first glance you might not catch what I saw but look in the background and you will see a SmartCar.  In the foreground is the front of a cart made for people with small children.  I could not help but notice the similarity in overall design especially from the profile view.  I just thought it was funny.  I should have moved some of the carts in front of the car for a better comparison pic but I was afraid the car's owner would come out and ask me what I was doing or perhaps be offended or embarrassed.  I can tell you that the SmartCar does not have 2 steering wheels like the front of the cart does (I peeked in the SmartCar to check, just in case) so there is at least one thing NOT in common between the two.

Well that almost clears up the desktop (I threw a few pics out since they were even lower quality than the above ones).  In family news, we are getting a new puppy (puppy pics here).  We should be able to pick up our new pet in mid September.  I will keep you posted.  Until next time...

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 322

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

It has been a while since I have scolded the wife publicly via this blog so it is about high time for one of those kinds of blogs.  First, exhibit A...

This is a close up shot of the 2006 Kia Minivan that we bought recently.  The line in the middle of the driveway divides the driveway roughly in half.  I have complained numerous times to the wife when I come home from work that I do not have enough room to park in our driveway and still get my Buick's door open.  She claims that she is trying to stay on her side but just can't seem to do it.  Exhibit B...

Notice how far to the right that I am parked.  This is so I can still open my door and not bang it into the minivan.  About 10 minutes ago, the son and I measured the driveway.  The overall width is 196 inches.  I measured my half of the driveway and discovered that from the right side of the driveway to the dividing line (shown in the first picture) and it came to 102 inches.  This left only 94 inches for my wife's "half" of the driveway.  Researching further I found that my Buick is about 73.5 inches wide while the Kia is just a shade over 78 inches.

So it seems I owe my wife a (small) apology as it is harder than it looks to park her van and not crowd the center line.  Maybe I will suggest switching sides so it is more fair.  Speaking of switching sides, I was able to regain my side of the bed.  Ever since our wedding night, I have slept on the right side of the bed.  I remember making that choice over 11 years ago.  Since she was moving into a house that I already lived in and since the bed we bought was delivered a few days before the wedding day, I had the advantage of making sure I had the side I wanted.  I did everything but sleep in the bed (for some reason, I wanted us to sleep in the bed for the first time together).  But I did lay on both sides of the bed checking for key things like proximity to the alarm clock and bathroom and maybe the quickest exit in case of fire.  I ended up choosing the right side of the bed (facing the bed from the foot).  As we moved from one house to the next to an apartment to another house to another apartment (this time in Texas) and then finally to our leased house that we are in now, I kept the right side.  Overall I think it was a good choice.  Things changed on April 10th.  That was the day the wife came home from the hospital after the wreck.  I spent the first month either on the couch with her or on an inflatable mattress next to the couch but when she was able to return to the bedroom, I moved her to the right side as it was closest to the door and was the easiest side to get in and out of bed.  As she recovered, she remained on MY side of the bed.  That is until 2 nights ago when I reclaimed it.  She claims it feels weird but to me things are a little more normal now.

I will let you know if I can talk her into switching sides of the driveway.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 321

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I have thought about blogging many times this week but never got up the gumption to do so.  Usually I think about it as I am snapping a picture with my cell phone (and I have many potential blogs based on them) but by the time I get home and get the picture off of my phone and onto my computer, the desire has passed.  But I have some time now and have nothing in particular to do so here we go.

It was 103° the other day...

...per the handy dandy outside temperature feature of our Kia so we decided it was time for some ice cream.  I have mentioned before how we schedule an ice cream night once a month.  With the vacation to Kokomo, we missed our usual night so given the temp outside, we headed to Braum's.  It was good (as always).  Today (and up until Monday night) we are under a heat advisory as temps will be upwards of 105° for a high.

When I checked the national gas map before our vacation, I noticed that Missouri was one of the states with the lowest price gasoline and that in particular, Springfield was really low.  I made a point to fill up there...

This was about 30 cents lower than Texas and 40 cents lower than Indiana.  I filled up on the way there for $3.52 and on the way back (see above) $3.56.  Even now (at the time of this blog) gas is $3.33 at the same gas station as this picture.  Each time we drive back and forth to Indiana, we dread Missouri.  It is the state that we spend the most time in (about 5 hours total) and there is nothing interesting to see other than the arch in St Louis.  The wife and I have come to view Missouri as more of a necessary land bridge connecting Oklahoma and Illinois.  The east half of the state is very hilly making it tough to navigate by the semi's going slow up the hills and getting the heck out of their way as they come from behind you down a hill.  The west half of the state appears to be there only to host several "World's Biggest Fireworks" stores and many adult themed "book" stores.  There are no less than a half dozen (with billboards advertising for them) dotted along interstate 44.  Our favorite name is The Lion's Den book store.  Without thinking about it too much, it sounds like a proper name for that kind of store since there is danger in going there (or at least the wife indicated that it would be dangerous for ME to go there) but remembering the biblical story of Daniel and the lion's den, I don't think the title makes much sense.  The only way to avoid Missouri is to head through Arkansas and as I recall (from the one time we did go that way) there are too many "vasectomy reversal" and "dentures in 24 hours" billboard signs for my taste.  What is it about Missouri that there are so many adult stores and what is it about Arkansas that you need to have fake teeth quickly and cheap reversals of vasectomies?  I hope never to find out.

We had a knock on our door at 8:30 pm one night this week.  Usually anyone who knocks is looking to see if one of the kids can come out to play but they know better than to ask this that late at night.  Sure enough it was a neighbor kid but they were telling us that there was a rainbow outside...

You can't see it real well from this low quality cell phone pic, but it is actually a double rainbow with one faint one just to the right of the main one.  We stood outside with the neighbors for a bit watching the rainbow and chatting then it was time for bed for the kids.
Well, that is enough for now.  Hopefully I can get back into the habit of regular blogging.  I have plenty of pics still on the cell phone.  Until next time...

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon