They are a part of life.

It's been a busy weekend. I was in Youngstown for Thanksgiving, and back in Reynoldsburg the very next day. I turned 23 and got a thumbs-up on my job at work thus far.

Thanksgiving was fun. As per usual, my family drank a bunch of wine and got silly. After we ate, Nick wanted to go throw a football around outside. Since we were both...silly with wine, this turned into about an hour-and-a-half's worth of shtick in the street, entertaining the rest of my family.

Nick, Amy and I eventually watched "Deal or No Deal" with the rest of my family, making fun of a southern woman who kept saying "might could," as in, "I might-could take that deal." She was also calling her husband "Love Dove." We have no idea what his real name was. Damn south. Hannah was asleep from about 6:30 that evening until about 7:30 the next morning.

At any rate, Monday was my birthday. I had to go into work to do all of my ordering and things, and then I came home. When I arrived home, Amy was waiting for me on the couch. There was a card on the table, that said, "OPEN ME FIRST." Tied to the chair was a balloon that featured Darth Vader. Taped on the balloon was a note imploring me to "Use The Force" to find my presents. So for the next ten or so minutes I wandered around the apartment on a scavenger hunt for my presents.

She's the one for me.

If you think this typing looks a little different, it is. It's a very subtle change and I applaud you for finding it. The change is that I got a laptop computer.

Amy and I made a compromise to the effect that I could get a laptop if we could start seriously shopping for engagement rings. This is a compromise I could live with. So, while we were out Monday night, we stopped in at Best Buy because one of her gifts was a $10 gift card (which had a dreidel on it). On a whim, I suggested we go back and look and laptops, just to start researching. After a few minutes of looking, I happened across one that caught my eye. It was great price for the features that it had, and since it had Windows Media Center, when the Vista upgrade came out, this one would come with Vista Premium. And on top of that, if I got a wireless router and signed up for the Geek Squad to come and set up two computers on it, I would get a $150 rebate. So, all said, I would pay $10 for a router and an appointment. I didn't get it Monday night, but we did some more looking around.

Yesterday we came back to Best Buy and I bought it. It's great.

Lastly, I'd like to ,with your indulgence (like you have a choice), mention a few work-related items. First of all, I found out what the deal is with my meeting in Maryland next Thursday. My flight out of Columbus is at 6:15 a.m., and my flight back TO Columbus is at 5:40 in the evening. I hope I get paid for this.

Also, there's a very good chance I'm going to win the trip to Costa Rica. Basically, there's a holiday coffee competition going on in the region. The store that sells the most as a percentage of the overall store sales, wins a trip for a week to Costa Rica, along with 10 or 11 other people.

Lastly, the regional director-type for coffee was in yesterday and today, but he had to leave earlier than he expected today, so I didn't get a chance to talk to him. But I called him, and he said that I was doing a really good job and that he's really impressed with what I've done to bring the sales back up and to make everything look better.

Success!