Getting Started

ready, set, go........

Well to start off, I want to welcome you to my ramblings. I haven't decided if I am doing this to join the "in" crowd of those of you who would visit this site, or because my wife, in her wisdom, recommended that I create a blog in order to document a new hobby. I think it would be a combination of the two, but with addition of my own heaping cup of unsolicited comments about various things in life.

This whole adventure started back in January of 2008, when a very nervous man and a much calmer wife sat in the office of an overpaid tax specialist. (to borrow a term from a very wise person, I would like to interject here with an "A.D.D" moment... the only reason I was uneasy was from the previous 6+ years of having to grab my ankles for Uncle Sam at tax time.) Anyhow, back to the story... we went to this over paid tax specialist with an arm load of "tax" documents, more than we should have had to bring (thanks to a forced move and a new job, thanks Tom!) and a stack of adoption documents. The latter stack of documents gave us a glimmer of hope in avoiding the very unpleasant act of taking one for good o'l Uncle Sam. This would be the first year we would be able to claim dependants on our taxes, and better yet we would be able to receive the, until now, elusive "child" tax credit.

Much to our surprise and shock, Uncle Sam does have a heart, and he looks kindly on adoption credits... it didn't hurt to tell him we had three at the same time. So with this new found "mini" fortune, we paid some neglected bills, put some money aside for a "dream" vacation for 3 little kiddos ,who's horizon, until now, rose in Colorado and set in the far South East corner of Idaho. (to quote another wise person, "for those of you in Rio Linda, that covers Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and a minute sliver of Idaho.) And then I purchased this:

That's right, I took El Presidente Bush's challenge to stimulate the economy, only I didn't borrow the money from China. I bought a piece of electronics that unfortunately has dropped $65.00 in the less than 60 days I have owned it.

So now you are up to speed. This little talking box, and the very impatient female voice inside, have barked out directions and traffic alerts for my morning and evening commutes for a few weeks now. Not too long ago, I decided to put the cranky old lady to work and make her provide us with more entertainment than the smirky voice that tells me my normal 45 minute commute just turned into a 70 minute commute, because there is a "unavoidable traffic delay up ahead" translation = some "insert minority slang here" Jack-O decide to text his silicone date while driving 80 mph in the evening commute without noticing the 7 miles of RED lights in front of him and swapped a little bumper paint with the unsuspecting soccer mom who was fortunate enough to be in front of him.

This lady now provides Ro, the Old Man and sometime the girls with weekend entertainment of Geo caching, or better known by those in our family under 4 feet tall as "treasure hunting". That's right, we plug in the coordinates of someones attempt at "hiding" the unsuspected in unusual places.

For those of you who have put the boots on, and stepped carefully through my ramblings up to this point will be blessed, or punished depending on your familial ties to me, to be enlightened on our different adventures in seeking the ultimate all-a-dollar treasure.