April 9

As always, please visit my website at: http://www.thomnichols.com/
Well, today was a bust. Can you believe the Rockies lost their home opener? We didn’t just lose. We were shut out. The score was seven to nothing. It was the first time we’ve ever been shut out on a home opener. To make matters worse, we lost to the Giant’s worst pitcher. It wasn’t pretty. We’re only 1-3 for the season so far. Not the start I was hoping for. So, I’m going to attribute it to start of the season nerves. We’re at the beginning of a nine game home stand, so everything should be better from here on in.

On a better note, I messed around with the taxes this week and arranged it so that we don’t have to pay. The last time I looked at it, we were down 24 dollars. But, it worked out so that we’re getting a little back now.
Even better than taxes: today is the day that I send out the River of Magic to all of the literary agents. I’ve decided to send it out to a couple of dozen this time instead of the two or three I usually try. I’ll get more rejection letters, but it was a New Year’s resolution of mine to try harder to get published. So tonight, all I’m doing is researching agents.
Easter was fun. I found out that Easter was Sunday sometime last week. Usually I’m right on top of those kinds of things. But, this time I didn’t put any money aside or even pay attention to the calendar. When I found out how close it was, I didn’t know what I was going to do. So, on Saturday, I charged everything. We had a card that we’ve been trying to pay off just sitting there doing nothing, so I used it. Surprisingly, I didn’t max it out. (That’s not like me. Usually, I would have used every penny on it.) Instead of going all out, we got the kids a small wire basket and some candy. We went a little bigger on my granddaughter. We got her a princess basket with a little tea set in it. We went to Walmart on the day before Easter to get the stuff and naturally it was packed. There was so much stuff and customers in the aisles that it was hard to move around. When we were looking at the basket for my granddaughter, a family of three adult ladies and four or five kids tried to move past us. Naturally, we stepped back so that they could squeeze through. As they were walking by, one of the ladies picked up the basket we were looking at and started walking away with it. The princess basket was the last one on the shelf and we were almost decided on getting it. After the lady picked it up, we wanted it twice as badly, so my wife started after her. It would have been a really good fight, my wife is a scrapper. But, the lady set it down and turned away. My wife snatched it up and put it in our basket. I was surprised that she didn’t at least shout at the women. But, we did have a lot more shopping to do.
On Easter, we went to the park. All of my wife’s sisters and their families showed up and we had a barbeque. It was fun. We hid eggs and the little kids hunted for them. We played kickball and football. Everyone except for me got a little too much sun. I had on sun block. I was sticky, but I was safe. I only had to return to the house twice for forgotten stuff. But, the game was on, so I tuned the radio to it and got a little Rockies action. It’s funny. There is a perfectly good park right next to my wife’s parent’s house where everyone gathers. But, we always go to a park that is miles away.
My youngest daughter had to work on Easter. But, she got us into the movies for free to watch American Reunion. It was hilarious. I think I like having someone in the family that works at the theater. Speaking of work, my eldest daughter got a job finally. She’s working at Safeway and her first day was today. I didn’t get to talk to her to see how it went. But, my wife stopped by to pick up some groceries and saw her. She was bagging at the counter. My daughter in-law quit her job today. She was being hassled by a boss because she’s planning on getting pregnant and having another baby. The boss was constantly over her shoulder telling her that she might as well quit because she wouldn’t be able to do the job pregnant. I guess she put up with it for a while, but she finally had too much. Maybe she can go to work with my daughter at the movies. Then, we’d probably live at the theater. Especially this summer, all kinds of good movies are coming out.
Well, I better get to work. I’m putting Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Tesla, and Ratt in the playlist for background music. Until next Monday…
-Thom
P.S. Happy Belated Easter