I was in Okemos MI recently in what was left of their downtown district. I say “left of their downtown district” because most of the business district of this quaint little town has move a mile north onto the state highway.

But, one of the business that is left in the downtown area is The Travelers Club. Now The Travelers Clubs’ claim to fame is their international restaurant and tuba museum. That’s right, tuba museum.

Some how, a tuba museum doesn’t strike me as being very interesting.  But, what ever.

John Phillips Sousa, eat your heart out.

Our office area has a handicap door. If you push the button, the door will open automatically. This is to help the handicapped people get in and out of the office. We have no handicapped people in our office.

The people across the hall from us have a handicapped person who is in an electric cart. Unfortunately, they do not have a handicapped door. I guess you only get one door per floor.

Some of the women at work though that I should ditch my gold hoop ear ring and get a white gold post with a Cubic Zirconium stone. In fact, they were so sure that it would look good on me that one of the women gave me one of hers to try out for the weekend. And to add to the frenzy, Quy, my boss even put it in my ear for me even though I was quite capable of doing it myself.

When I got home, Kathy also commented on how good it looked. So, I decided to go to Meijer’s (regional grocery chain) and look over their selection.

Now, the jewelry at Meijer’s is always 70% off so I was reasonable sure that the $60 pair of ear rings would be substantially discounted. And they were. For $15 I got a pair of Cubic Zirconium/white gold posts.

The women at work really liked the ear ring and suggested that I step up to the counter and buy a real diamond. I will have to check out Meijer’s this weekend.

It was a cold and snowy day at work so I decided to stay inside for lunch. Of course, staying inside gave me two lunch options. I could either go to the snack bar and purchase a sandwich or I could go down to the cafeteria. So I opted for the cafeteria. After all, if I didn’t like what they were serving, I could always go back to the snack bar.

When I got to the cafeteria I discovered that one of the items that they were serving was beer batter cod with fries. Since it had been a long time since I had had any battered fish, I decided to give it a try.

Judging by the size of the people waiting in line, I should have known what I was in for. And I had forgotten that the cafeteria is best know for starch and grease. But, I was hungry and the cod sounded good, so, I waited in line for my turn at the cod.

When I got my cod and fries, I paid for it and headed back to my office to eat. Once in my office, I opened the container, ready to dig into my cod. But, to my dismay, the cod was buried under a pound of greasy fries. Drat!

After some sorting, I managed to rescue the cod from the fries. This, of course, left my fingers covered with grease, but at least I was able to get at my cod.

I sliced off a chunk and stuck my fork into it. It disintegrated. I managed to scoop it onto my fork with the use of my knife but putting tartar sauce on it was out of the question. When I stuck it in my mouth, it had no taste what so ever, just grease. And thus was the way of the cod.

I tried to eat the fries but they were just plan disgusting. Soggy and greasy. I picked through them looking for some that were a little more crispy but they were few and far between. And while I found them to be unacceptable, I am sure that their abundance pleased the regular patrons.

Next time, I will brave the cold and the snow.

Recently, a couple in England had to divorce. They discovered that they were really brother and sister, twins to be exact. They were given up for adoption shortly after being born and were raised by two different families. Because adoption records were sealed, neither knew of the other.

They must have thought that it was a coincidence that they were the same age and had the same birthday.

The other night when we went to leave for home, my carpooler discovered that he had a flat tire on his Chrysler Town and Country minivan. We didn’t think it was a big deal until we went looking for the spare.

Usually the spare tire for minivans is located underneath the rear of the car. But when we looked, there was nothing. Next, we checked to see if it was in a side compartment somewhere. No luck.

Since it was cold outside, we put our pride aside and got out the owners manual. That is when we learned that the spare tire was optional.

Now, my carpooler had just acquired the minivan and couldn’t remember if the spare was on the list of options. So, I suggested that we check the owners manual as to where the spare would reside if it had been purchased. That way, if the location was devoid of a spare, we would know that we were SOL.

According to the owners manual, if the spare had been purchased, it would be underneath the car between the driver and front passenger seats. A quick peak under the car revealed that he had indeed purchased the spare option.

Next was trying to figure out how to release the spare. Again, the manual gave instruction. According the manual, there was a plastic plug in the floor between the seats. You simply pulled the plug, inserted a T-handled wrench and cranked the tire down.

This seemed easy enough so we gave it a try. After about a minute of turning the handle, the tire appeared. Within a few minutes, we were on the road.

What a strange place to put a spare.