I'm gonna go give it back...

In the future, not too distant, but not too near either (sorry, that's the only real hint I'm gonna give... don't want to give anyone any hints on when they should come check out my home to see if there's anything they want there), my family (children) and I will be headed out on a vacation.  Part of that vacation involves visiting that big area north of the U.S. border.  Well, for us, we'll be visiting a small part of that big area, but still, we're gonna go visit "up there" just to see some sights.

While I'm there I'm gonna be sure to take back any of those silly little pennies that come from "up there" and inevitably wind up getting handed back in change when we shop with cash.

Funny that I mention that, as shopping with cash, much like writing checks is becoming a bit of a lost art.  More and more, I use my credit cards to shop just about everywhere and then just pay the credit card bill at the end of the month.  Why?  Well, partly because of the airline miles or reward points that I get, but also because it makes it easier than walking around with a pocketful of change.  The cashier simply swipes the card (or I swipe the card at the self check-out) and away I go.

I know that using the credit card costs the seller some fees, and in turn probably costs me a little more to buy whatever I'm buying, but it is much more convenient and at the end of the month or anywhere along the way I can easily check online and see how much I've been spending and what I've been spending it on.  Quite convenient.

Meanwhile, on the baseball front, I'm learning to really not like Brian Bruney (spelling doesn't matter, though I suppose he'd argue differently, especially when it comes to getting his paychecks, but then again he hasn't been earning the ones he's gotten so far with his crappy performances).  Horrible performance earlier today after start Livan Hernandez pitched a pretty decent game.  As I type this, my favored team is behind in the later half of the 5th inning and looking like they're gonna make the hole even deeper.  Except for a precious few members, the Nats bullpen this season seems not much better than the one they had last season.  I really hope that Storen or some one else down in the minors can get themselves up to the majors soon and help this club as they really seem to need the help.

I put together a few more bins of stuff to send to my parents.  The piles in this house are definitely getting smaller and I can easily see areas of some rooms that I hadn't seen clean and clear in a long, long time.  As I said in a previous article, I've still go several stacks of papers to get through, but I should be able to do that over the next month or two.  None of what I have left to get through is causing problems... well, other than having the containers gather dust on them, or take up some space in the book shelves that they're in.  I'm eyeing the large bookshelf in my bedroom and thinking that I'll (hopefully) soon be able to move the contents of the smaller bookshelf to it and then eliminate that piece of furniture.  That would be nice as it would give me more floor space there.

Yeah, looking in that room again (I got distracted for a bit and was talking with my son, then took a look in the bedroom again, so I was looking at those shelves again) I really think I'd like to lose that bookshelf.  It has served me well, but it would be nice to get more room there for sure.

Oh well, I think that about wraps things for today.  Again, hopefully back again on the morrow.