Clue.

I was making a joke about Col. Mustard on Facebook when it occurred to me that we don't have the game Clue here at our house. I used to play that game ad naseum and it's solely responsible for my career in law enforcement. It's a very basic "if-then" game of applying logic. I used to be pretty good at it. Especially when I peeked at the cards before putting them in the little envelope.
I would always wonder what crime took place in the mansion. Was it rape? Murder? Pirating DVDs? Either way it was up to me to pin it on one of the characters.
Mrs. White, Miss Scarlett, Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green, Prof. Plum, and Col. Mustard were all guilty of something.
I would like to get this game to play with my kids but I'm afraid that updates to modernize the game may have ruined it. For example, instead of solving a crime you have to try and determine who is Miss Scarlett's "baby daddy". Or, perhaps charging one of the characters with a crime kicks off a very long, secondary game called "Due Process".
Regardless, it's way more funner than "Scrabble".

textbooks.

     I can't think of a better way to spend my hard earned money than to buy a textbook. They're so heavy and jam packed with such great information, I plan on giving them out as Christmas gifts. When I went back to school to get my master's degree I bristled with joy at the prospect of spending $300 dollars on a book about organizational structure. 

     Even though they instantly depreciate in value they still hold their value as a domestic chock block. I'm proud of my library of out-of-date, scholarly information that is stored in my shed collecting dust. I know the silverfish love it too! I'm certain that I'll need my COBALT Made Easy book from my computer programming course from the early 1990s. I regularly use my Principles of Child Psychology, 3rd Edition, to make the baby's booster seat a little taller at the table. 

     Recently, I bought my current textbook on Kindle. However, it's just not the same. It's WAAY too easy to press a button and go from strategic human resources management to 1001 awesomely great fart jokes. I hope, in spite of technological advances, overpriced textbooks stay around for a long time. At least, I hope they are still around when I publish mine...

no noise.

Listen.
Do you hear that? 
Silence.
If it's not golden, it certainly has a nice shiny color that attracts monkeys.
As I type this post it's quiet here except for the rhythmic tapping of my keyboard keys and gentle whirring of my computer fan.
My tympanic membranes are overly stimulated with music, people talking, kids screaming, cell phones ringing, and the list goes on.
It's nice when it all just suddenly vanishes and I can finally sit here with that tiny little voice in my head. It's the voice that says, "Does it make sense that your toothbrushes are less than a foot away from where everyone drops 'wolf-bait'?"
This must be what Buddha felt like when he was in his bodhi spot.
That is, until someone disturbed him by trying to rub his round belly for good luck. Still, it's nice to have a few moments just to sit in repose.
Ah, peace and quiet.

<Note: No sooner had I written this last sentence when my cell phone blasted an alert which scared the crap out of me!>