Reading in Texas

So for the next few weeks I will be in Dallas for some training. I fly out on a Sunday night, spend M-F going to work downtown and spending the night in a hotel, and then fly to see Torrie on the weekend. It's pretty lonely and I'm going to have to find things to do to keep myself busy.

This week I brought three books with me, from our personal library or the Lexington public library. Since I have nothing else to do, I'm going to write my thoughts on them. They are:

The Godfather by Mario Puzo

So, the movie is great. We all know that. But did you know it came from a book? I knew, and thought it would be fun to read sometime. Well, the lady who sold us our new (to us) piano was giving away ten boxes of books. While leafing through the books, I found this one and snatched it up. The actual copy of the book was printed in 1969 and has the old school style pages that don't match up perfectly. It's pretty cool.

The book is a little dirty for my taste - a little too graphic sexual content. However, with skipping over those parts, the book is fascinating. I've only seen the movie once or twice (yay for AMC) but I caught many more details from reading the book.

Of the many themes covered in the book, one of the main ones is the rule of law. One of the reasons for Don Corleone's organization is to provide a place for people to go to obtain justice, instead of going to a corrupt government. The original Mafia families in Sicily started that way in order to fight back against all the different, corrupt powers that have ruled over Sicily. They couldn't go to the government or anyone for justice, so they went to themselves.

And you now what, for 19th century Sicily....I can somehow understand that. While ultimately the population will be better-served by a country, government anfd culture that follows a code of laws, I can see how they are somewhat justifying in taking things into their own hands. However, I am grateful to live in a country where it's not necessary. America, while admittedly unperfect, is a free country, and the more that we choose to follow the law, the better place we will live. However, if as a people - and looking at the problems our country/world is facing right now, I am more and more convinced that this is the case - we choose to not follow the law, we will no longer enjoy the freedom and prosperity that we have enjoyed for so long.

Sorry about the tangent. Anyway, great book, except for the graphic parts. The violence isn't too bad, it's the sex.

Anyway, these are the other two books I'll be reading this week:

The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail by Wallace Stegner
Torrie had this book from one of her college history classes. I'm excited to read it - well, I've started already - and the theme that I've noticed is that the pioneers weren't perfect. The author is very clear about that, and it seems to me that the purpose of the book is to dirty the "squeaky clean" image of the pioneers. (Oh and yes, Brigham Young had multiple wives. We know. Not a big deal, Mr. Stegner.) Well I for one am comforted that the early pioneers weren't perfect. I'm more than okay that they swore every once in awhile and argued and disagreed with who should go first in the road (think: road rage but with wagons). Cause you know what...I do too! The Lord used imperfect people in order to do His work. That means I, an imperfect person, can still help out today as well.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
I got this from the library...placed a hold on it. I did this like a month ago and it came in right before I came out to Dallas. My expectations are pretty low - I liked Angels and Demons and Di Vinci Code, but I understand that it's just a thriller and will probably follow the same basic plot, so I'm not expecting anything great. It's all about keeping the right expectations...

October 19, 2009

So last night Torrie and I went on a shopping spree! Our trip was to our favorite two stores, which coincedentally share a parking lot: Lowe’s and Walmart. We made out like bandits, buying:

1. Paint and rollers to paint our kitchen, bedroom, and bathrooms. Here are the names of our colors:
Kitchen – Quaking Grass
Bedroom – Stratosphere
Bathrooms – Silver Spoon

I'm not sure if the colors are exactly the same, and as I've discovered over the past week, colors are a lot different depending on what other colors they are next to, the amount of light...tons of things.

2. Metal knobs for the dressers that we had sanded and painted white this weekend. They are really simple, and kinda look like pop bottle tops in a way. They're nice though, and were at an unbeatable price of $.97 each. $3 a handle can get pretty expensive pretty quickly...

3. A lot of food. Now that we have a house, we have space to buy more than just the bare essentials for what we will need in the next three days. In fact, we’re pretty excited about building up a good amount of food storage.

I’m really excited to finish painting over the next couple of days. Then, at least we’ll have a few rooms of our house finished, and I can write a before-and-after blog entry detailing our work.

We were pretty hungry as we were leaving Walmart. Our original plan had been to buy food for a taco salad that we would make when we got home. However, it was late and we really didn’t feel like making a taco salad. However, there were some rotisserie chickens at the Walmart deli. You know, the ones that they discount late at night to make sure that they are sold. They were a pretty good deal. However, I looked at Torrie and she said, “You know, I would be just as happy with a bowl of cereal at home.” So we left, saving the $6 or so that we would have spent on that chicken. We ended up having some really good homemade nachos while watching Bedknobs and Broomsticks on our little TV. What a great evening.

A King's Folly

So the closing date on our home was Tuesday, October 6, 2009.

The day before I was at a bank in Northern KY right across the border from Cincinnati. It's about an hour and a half drive from Lexington. Torrie came along and we were getting a bite to eat at a Burger King near our hotel. We were pretty excited to eat a couple of Whopper, Jr. sandwiches (The Whopper Jr. is, in my mind, the best $1 fast food hamburger out there and is actually a very good deal at a $1) After eating, we put our food on the tray and threw it out.

Fast forward to the next afternoon. I worked in the morning and was picking up Torrie at the hotel to drive back to Lexington to buy our house. We had our schedule planned to perfection. However, as I jumped back into the car, I felt my pocket and then the panic hit in. I did not have my wallet.

A frantic calls to the bank confirmed my fear. No wallet. I ran up and performed a frenzied search of our hotel room. No dice. As Torrie and I traced our footsteps over the last 12 hours in an attempt to answer the ever-present question when something is lost, "Well...when did you last have it?" our conclusion came to the little vignette at the beginning of my blog entry. Burger King.


We rushed back to the Burger King. We had little room for error. I raced inside. "Has anyone found a wallet??!?!?" I yelled at the top of my voice. (Actually not, I asked the lady behind the register politely.) The lady told me she would look in the safe, and a quick search revealed no wallet. I asked if the trash had been taken out, desperate that perhaps I had thrown it way with the Whopper, Jr sandwiches. "Yes," she replied. "This morning. I'm afraid your wallet is gone."

I, however, had no time to lament my loss. We had a house to buy! So I climbed back into the car, and drove (which, now that I think about, was illegal because I did not have my driver's liscence) back to Lexington to buy our house. We were probably about an hour late, due to the missing wallet fiasco added to the unfamiliarity with downtown Lexington fiasco, the incorrect Mapquest directions fiasco, and the construction and one way streets fiasco (a plethora of fiascoes) but we made it and signed the papers. Bought the house. Thank goodness for knowing exactly where my passport was, so I could prove my identity.

One of the first things we did in our new house was call my credit card companies and report the loss of my credit cards. While the movers were moving our stuff in, I get a call from an old coworker of mine at Boeing. After the movers leave, I check my voice mail. "Hi Logan..um, we just got a weird call here saying that someone has found your wallet in Ohio..what are you doing there? Anyway, here is her information......"

TURNS OUT that my wallet was turned in at the Burger King after all, and they had delivered it to the corporate offices in Cincinnati. We're going to pick it up on Friday.

I'm really hoping that I come up with some clever way to finish this little blog entry, to perhaps distract you from how stupid I was for losing my wallet at Burger King. Some pun with "King" involved, perhaps. I'm going to go with this picture of "The King" and hopefully that will suffice.