We ate our Thanksgiving dinner on Friday afternoon. My in-laws traveled up from Tennessee after spending a week visiting other relatives there. After two days of turkey - and despite The Wife’s fabulous cooking - they opted against turkey dinner leftovers for a third night in a row.
They offered to take us out to dinner, so we started the laborious process of figuring out where to go. We narrowed down to two choices and finally decided to try Loon Lake Lodge on 82nd and I-69.
After finishing our dinner, we returned to the car only to find the passenger window on the driver’s side smashed in. The Wife’s laptop and my son’s school backpack were gone. The car parked next to us had its passenger window smashed. They lost a purse. Fortunately, it was a smash-and-grab, so the thief missed other valuables. The other people had a camera and laptop in their backseat, and my oldest son’s PSP and my FLIP were also in the backseat of our car but weren’t taken.
We asked the manager at the restaurant to call the police for us. He was sorry it happened to us, and indicated that this had happened before in their parking lot: THE NIGHT BEFORE! My neighbor ate dinner there this summer and both of his coworkers’ cars were broken into and their property stolen.
I understand our personal responsibility in this; we should not have left valuables visible in the car. I also understand that the restaurant can’t be responsible for damages caused in their parking lot. At the same time, however, I think they should take some ownership to protect their clientele.
The parking lot is dark and deserted. Better lighting and cameras would deter thieves. Hiring a security person would also protect cars from vandalism. The management knows this is a problem but they don’t seem to care. They didn’t even try to win us back by offering gift certificates or a cold drink while we waited for the police.
I wasn’t sure I would eat there again. After the break-in I definitely won’t eat there again and I would warn others not to eat there as well.
We should have gone to our other choice - Stone Creek Dining Company - instead.
Remember those days when you tried to impress the person with whom you were dating with your witty remarks and clever anecdotes? Remember how you’d open car doors, use manners and wear pants? Ahh, fun times, fun times.
In those days, I too was trying to sell my future wife a bill of goods. We were already engaged that fateful day, but I still kept to my best behavior at all times. It was especially true the weekend we were visiting my parents. Those moments were always stressful when your fiancee evaluates your parents’ every idiosyncrasy. I thought it best we leave the house and get a little break. We went downtown to shop on Main Street.
Eventually, we found ourselves in a homemade gift shop. While I stared aimlessly out the front windows of the store, The-Wife-To-Be perused the inventory.
“Oh, these are cute,” I heard from behind me. When I turned to look, what I saw was so terrible - so horrible - I could barely stifle my gagging reflex. She held two porcelain bears decked out in Pilgrim outfits. They were the perfect Thanksgiving couple except for one thing: they had DEMON EYES.
She asked what I thought of them. I mumbled something incomprehensible and nodded in an attempt to be supportive. I silently hoped she would move on. Instead, I heard the five worst words: “I’m going to buy them.”
The little old lady running the store carefully wrapped the bears in paper and tucked them into a bag. As I carried the spawns of Satan to the car, the bag got heavier and heavier with the realization the bears would grace our dinner table each Thanksgiving for the rest of my life. Their wicked painted eyes would stare at me over the turkey and taunt me for not putting my foot down. Still, I didn’t want to hurt her feelings and I put them in the trunk.
When we got back to her house I offered to take the bears to the basement and store them until Thanksgiving. I found a dark corner and tucked the bears behind a box hoping they would be forgotten.
Time passed.
Three years later she re-found them. We were cleaning when she discovered them still wrapped in the bag.
“Why on earth did I buy these?” she asked. She turned the bears to show me. Their evil eyes caught mine.
“You thought they were cute,” I replied and took a cautious step back.
“Why didn’t you stop me?”
I took another step back - this time from her. I mumbled something incomprehensible and shook my head. Our marriage would never be the same after that moment: we both knew I failed to protect us from these cutesy demon bears. She stuffed them back into the bag and told me I could get rid of them.
But something else stirred in me - a mischievous need to “get her back”. Get her back for buying them, I guess.
One night close to Thanksgiving, I slipped the bears under her pillow and cackled to myself. I waited until she climbed in bed and reached under the pillows. She felt them underneath and pulled her pillow away to see what the lumps were. A startled scream echoed from the bedroom when she saw their fiendish stare.
I laughed myself to sleep on the couch that night 
I have found a way to surprise my wife with the bears each Thanksgiving since. One year she found each of them buckled into the front seats of her car. Another year they were staring at her from inside the refrigerator when she open the door to get some creamer. She even found them waiting for her in the shower in a creepy Psycho-like moment.
Last year when she was working out of Indianapolis and we still lived in Wisconsin, I shipped the bears to her office. Inside the box was a note: “I know you’re lonely down there by yourself. I thought these guys could keep you company.”
Happy Thanksgiving from us and the demonic Pilgrim Bears!
Kyle Lacy and Lorraine Ball have compiled their lists of the Top 50 Indianapolis bloggers. Unfortunately, since I’m a pretty lax blogger I didn’t make either of their lists; at least, not this year. So, for 2009, I’m going to make it my goal to get on their lists of bloggers. Lorraine’s list will be a bit trickier, as I’m not just competing with her Indianapolis blog picks, but those around the world.
Lorraine’s list can be found at her website Roundpeg: My Top 50 Blogs
Kyle’s list can be found on KyleLacy.com: Top 50+ Bloggers in Indianapolis
@bnpositive suggested that we all be Indiana blogging titan Douglas Karr’s friend. I wouldn’t mind, but he’s so tall… it kind of freaks me out.
He also needs to stop patting me on the head like that.
Edit: Doug has posted all of his friends: Thank Goodness for Friends!
It’s only a month until the Blog Indiana Conference, a blogging and social media conference. This conference is being held here in Indianapolis on August 16th and 17th. With a two day event covering three tracks, I think it will be a great conference at a low price ($49). I have heard some of the local blogger speak previously, and their sessions should be great.
I guess I should start blogging again
I mentioned on Twitter that I had taken a power nap, but wasn’t sure if it was effective (I was a bit groggy afterward). footndale asked if I had followed the instructions on this excellent infographic on napping. I thought I would share.
- Saw Speed Racer. It’s like freebasing Skittles for two straight hours. #
- The Wife re: Speed Racer: I just spent $32 to see a monkey throw poo. #
- Prior to the early 1900s, social causes were championed by Christians. #
- Finally got around to getting donations for Shephard Community Center food pantry. I really want to make a habit of this. #
- Full RSS feeds should be required. Found a good blog to follow, but am considering deleting it already because of partial feeds. #
- $67.54 at the pump. Sad. #
- I must hang out with Twitterers and bloggers too much because I was the only person at the #IndyALT.NET meeting with a laptop (hosts excl.) #
- Live blog from #IndyALT.NET meeting re: EntitySpaces http://tinyurl.com/69kkhx #
- @Lestat I have no life here in #Indy. And an iPhone . #
- @Jaxidian Weird. Looking it up is fine, but posts don’t show the .net. May have to use #IndyAltDotNet instead. #
- @Hockeyskates There’s one already scheduled for Wed at Broad Ripple Brew Pub. http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/612008/ #
- @rohdesign @axlconn suggested 3m scrapbooking tape or glue http://tinyurl.com/6pl7nm (still interested in others’ responses, though) #
- @Hockeyskates ? I won’t be able to get away two nights in a row, unfortunately. Perhaps next month? #
- Must be Friday. Everyone and their cousin is hanging out at the coffee shop today. That, plus construction next door making work impossible. #
- @Jaxidian Pried open a can of red paint with an axe when it got everywhere. Ran outside screaming bc it was in my eyes. Neighbors concerned. #
- @Jaxidian No, nothing both true *and* interesting. #
- @jeremycoenen Snippets? Snippets? We don’t need no stinking snippets! #
- @erwilleke 104th and Olio Road (ish) #
- @alxconn Heh. We have the same taste in free WP templates. http://christcentereddad.com/ #
- @alxconn Keep it if you want, I doubt there’ll be any crossover. Eventually I’ll redesign anyway. #
- @bnpositive Great. Now I have to go through with this and write some content since I have a reader. Thought of that after I tweeted the link #
- @alxconn Yeah I modified them to get rid of the fru-fru stuff. #
- @bnpositive An audience is good. Keeps one from wallowing in anonymous mediocrity. #
- Just noticed my Netflix return envelopes are addressed to #Indy. No wonder they have a 2-day turnaround. #
- @alxconn Check out http://subsonicproject.com/ It’s a very easy-to-use DAL that takes care of the CRUD plumbing for you. #
- @DeanWeber @Jaxidian @erwilleke … just remember, kids, that hanselman follows me… so that makes me important. Or egotistical. Whichever. #
- @bnpositive Not you and the britekite updates, too?! They are so annoying. All noise. #
- Everybody raves about Resharper but I think it’s a POS. Crashes on multiple computers and takes forever to startup. Wish I hadn’t bought it. #
- @DeanWeber Of course! Bring peeled grapes. #
- That was one unkempt lawn. I’m going to end up mowing it again in 2 days cause most of it just got pushed down by the weight of the mower. #
