Gifts Unlooked-For

First of all, mega-thanks to Sarah and her parents for letting me use their garage to change the oil in our Toyota yesterday. I have grown to appreciate our apartment in the last year that we have lived here, but I do miss having our own space to work on cars, and in the meantime, I greatly appreciate being able to do car work at places like Sarah's dad's garage. Also, my cousin Matt has always been willing to let me use his space (and tools, when I need them) to do simple things like change the oil or a tire. And when bigger repairs are needed, he helps me with them or just does them himself. So yeah, thanks a lot, guys. And this goes tenfold for my dad who taught me lots of stuff about auto maintenance and always lets me use his garage when we're down in Lincoln for a visit. Sometimes he even works on our cars without me asking him to. Wow, Dad. Thank you. :)

So last night my cousin Beth came over with her boyfriend and the four of us had a great time eating lasagna (homemade, using a recipe from my wife's friend), playing Wii (Rayman Raving Rabbids and Wii Sports), and eating DQ ice cream. It's always nice to spend time with family, as anyone who reads this blog knows, and I'm glad that we get to see Beth and other relatives as often as we do. In fact, tonight we're going to the aforementioned Matt's house for his birthday. I think he turns 26, but I've always been bad with numbers like this. I do know that his birthday is the day before my brother Phil's, and Phil's is one day before Mark's (an old friend from high school).

Today I got a nice surprise in the mail: not one, but two hoodies from my in-laws. I let my wife's mother borrow my hoodie several months ago, and wasn't expecting to get it back until we see them in November, so that was pretty cool. On top of that, though, was a brand-new hoodie she bought me as a thank-you gift for helping them with some computer stuff lately. I'm going to send them a note, but I thought I would thank them publicly on my blog too. Thanks!

Time to finish my hot chocolate and get to work on some stuff.