Home, safe

I made it safely, and without incident, back to Ohio, making it in about 9:45pm. This trip home was much better than the last, which was when my Neon died on the interstate on a winter night.

I stopped to get a little gas in New Philadelphia, OH, and it has been so long since I had a Sheetz sub, I broke down and got a 6-inch. For those who have never had one, you are missing out. The fun part is the ordering: you order on a touch screen, picking out what kind of sandwich, then the ingredients. You hit submit, go pay, and it prints out in the back for them to make it. Very tasty too, might I add. :-)

True to form, my mom had something to eat, so even though I had eaten a sub 1 1/2 hours before, I had 2 sloppy joes before calling it a night. To my amazement, my dad has gone techie, and hooked up a second computer, and ran a cable to a router so 2 computers are hooked up to the internet here. I was surprised. :-)

This morning, I ran into Dutch House, where I used to work in the bakery, and visited with a few former co-workers who seemed happy to see me. They want me to come back, but I am hoping for other work. Mom and Dad met me, and we went on to Boardman to do some shopping, which started out with a delicious breakfast of sausage links, eggs, pancakes, and hashbrowns at IHOP.

I saw the neatest thing there at Home Depot. Mom and Dad were trading in their empty gas tank for the grill, and they have a cool system at HD: you pay inside and get a slip with a bar code. You go outside, and there are tanks in cages. After you swipe your barcode on the machine beside the cages, the door on an empty one will swing open. After you put your empty tank in, another door will open, allowing you to get a full tank. Unfortunately, I put the tank in the car, and did not realize it was empty also, so Mom and Dad are heading back to Boardman to exchange it - a 35 minute trip or so.

For part of Katie and Allie's birthday presents, I bought them denim bags at Hobby Lobby, and ironed on their first initial in red. Looks pretty cool, and I did a good job, if I must say so myself - it did help that the letters are adhesive, so they don't move while ironing. The 3 s are spending the night here tonight, as they often do on Fridays, since their parents both usually end up working Saturdays. They may also spend the night Sunday as their mom has to work til 1 on Monday, and their dad is planing an early morning fishing trip with my dad. We may have a full house Sunday night, as Paul and Pam and the 3 boys are driving in after church and spending the night also.

Since it was kind of my fault that Mom and Dad had to run back to Home Depot, I decided to start mowing so Dad won't have to do as much when they get back. Unfortunately, after mowing the front yard, the belt broke for the mowing deck, something that happens fairly often, I found out from talking to Mom on the phone - a relief to me, as I was afraid it was my fault. :-)

I am hoping to get with my friends Kevin and Kimmy while I am here. She emailed me asking how long I was here, and if I would be able to get together with them, and I pointed out my schedule is more open than their's. :-)

Well, will post more later.