My iPod is Scratched

My iPod is scratched. It's a new iPod. Amazon.com sent it to me only about a week ago.

Why, you ask, is your iPod scratched, Dan?

Three words: Ben, Ben, Ben. A name so nice, you have to say it thrice.

We're in Naperville, IL (near Chicago) visiting my in-laws. Ben needs to be entertained. In fact, Bobby asked me, "Dad, why can't I listen to your iPod?" (the boys are listening to Heinlein's Starship Troopers from Audible.com)

I said, "Do you really want Ben to wander around the house not being entertained?"

Bobby responded, "I take back my stupid question. He can use the iPod all he wants."

We don't want Ben to be bored. There's no telling what Ben might do if he's bored. What's that saying? "The idle mind is the devil's playground?"

Something like that.

Last night, Brittany attempted to watch a movie and have Ben sit quietly. There was no "sitting quietly" for Ben. He was marching around the room with a bean-bag chair on his head. Unfortunately, it made his younger sister and cousin follow him around as if they were all in some marching band.

Brittany's quiet-time movie-time wasn't.

Then, when she did get Ben to lay down on the floor and watch the movie, he decided rolling from one side of the room to the other side of the room, rapidly, and repeatedly, would be a good idea. Hence, Brittany attempted to watch the movie as Ben vigorously rolled around on the floor.

I suppose that was a tad distracting.

Hence, I've let Ben borrow my brand-new iPod. Because, I knew if he was listening to a story that interested him, he might not thunder around the house, bouncing off the walls, and knocking people over. I gave it to him and said, "Ben, see how pristine and smooth the surface of my iPod is? Please don't scratch it."

Ben responded with all the solmenness a 12-year old boy can muster, "I promise I won't Dad."

And he did scratch it.

I'm working through the grieving process now.

I've been listening to Scott Sigler's PodCast of Ancestor. I highly recommend Scott Sigler's PodCasts if you've not heard any of them. They're free, so you're not losing anything by trying it out. www.scottsigler.net or look for Earthcore or Ancestor using ITunes PodCasting section.

I have Thrush. My mouth is a mess. I went to see a doctor at an urgent care center in Schenectady on Saturday, and she gave me Erithromycin. I don't know why she gave me an anti-biotic for Thrush. That seems counter intuitive.

I happen to have some Nystatin cream for another use. I've been coating my tongue with that topical cream. It seems to be working.

Hopefully, I'll get over my Thrush soon. It's very painful.

Barb drove the entire way out here from Scotia, NY. It took us about 15 hours. I thought it would take 20 hours. I'm so very glad it didn't take 20 hours.

Later all.

You'd Think...

You'd think I could BLOG more often, but I was in NYC for five weeks and my weekends were precious and I didn't have much time in NYC to BLOG.

...so I didn't.

Well, Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat, please put a penny in the old man's hat....

We're traveling to Chicago, IL on Christmas day. Apparently, what that means is we must therefore need celebrate Christmas on Saturday morning (the 24th) rather than on Sunday. According to my master and owner (the Evil Overlord, my wife Barb), we'll be leaving for Chicago *early* Sunday morning.

Of course, this means we'll have to miss church on Sunday. I'd probably blow off church anyway. I'd just sit in my easy chair, "I've got chocolate in my stocking, I can't go to church today."

I learned a lot about NYC. I now know that Uptown is a direction. From Penn Station, you go Uptown to Times Square and again Uptown to Grand Central Station. Hence, you'll go Downtown the other way.

Last Thursday, the 15th, the NYC MTA was talking about going on strike. This particular week, I was staying at The New York Helmsley, which is really close to our client's site. Hence, I would easily walk from the hotel to the site.

The MTA strike was on my mind anyway. At midnight, Thursday night, the MTA would decide to strike or not -- so they said. They didn't actually strike until Tuesday of this week.

At about 11pm I went to bed in my hotel room, but I checked the t.v. first. No strike. They were still in talks.

I woke up at 2am Friday morning and turned on the t.v. I had to find out if the MTA was striking -- still in talks.

Then, I dreampt I was in NYC and my red Expedition was somehow magically transported from the parking garage in Albany to NYC. I remember thinking in my dream, "How did my car arrive here? Oh well, doesn't really matter. Let's drive...."

In my dream, I was trying to get out of the city in my Expidition. I drove, got in this big long line of cars to cross a bridge out of Manhattan, got lost, crossed back into Manhattan and was back in the same line but it was three times longer than before.

That was my dream. I woke up at 6am and checked the t.v. again. This time, they were still in talks.

I woke up at 8:30 am for the day. They'd decided to strike on these two token bus lines that no one really used much anyway. I was able to Escape to Albany Friday evening. My company sent someone else down to NYC this week (five weeks was enough for me for a while). He got to experience the MTA strike.

Christmas Eve day we're all gonna go over my sister Karen's house. We do a gift exchange. This year, we have $20.00 gifts. We put names in a hat and pull them out. You're not allowed to get anyone from your own family.

Our family got both of my brother-in-laws and the husband of my cousin. One brother-in-law is an avid golfer -- as is the cousin's husband. Fortunately for me, I found boxes of Topflite (tm) golf balls this past Spring for like $1.00 per box of 18 balls.

That's a really good deal. Only a buck! They were on sale at Wal-Mart. Some guy there was buying like 10 boxes. I figured I'd pick up two boxes with exactly these two gentlemen in mind. I knew they liked golf.

Fortunately again, we got them for our gift giving drawing!

I told my mom I was giving them the $1.00 box of balls each for their $20.00 gifts. Mind you, the boxes are easily worth $20.00 regardless of the fact I only paid $1.00.

My mom's like, "You should get them each a bottle of wine or something also along with the boxes of balls."

I'm like, "No! They're getting their '$20.00 Gift' and that's that!"

Now... If I'd gotten the wine for a buck also... maybe.

Geesh! You should never tell your mom things.

I got my other brother-in-law a book on local bike trails. He's a really avid biker. I had this 30% off coupon for Borders books that I received via email somehow, so the $17.00 book cost me less than $13.00.

Gee. I hope none of them read my BLOG.