The other day I was playing cards with Samantha and she said, "wow, I have good fingers!" I said, "do you mean you have a good hand?"

The FBI showed up at our door the other day. It really surprised me but it turned out he was doing a background check on one of our neighbors for his security clearance. He kept mentioning my husband the police officer and finally I said, "so, how do you know my husband is a police officer?" I sort of wanted him to admit to some top secret FBI data base but he said, "your neighbor, Joy, told me." It was funny but a little disappointing.

Samantha has discovered www.YouTube.com and loves looking up hamster videos. I told her if see clicks on anything that looks inappropriate to come get me right away. I wonder if the cartoon farting hamsters should be considered inappropriate?

Thursday evening we went for a bike ride at Pickerington Ponds and got rained on. We were about 3 miles, half way, into our ride when it started and we were completely soaked by the time we got back. It was also weird because we heard ice cream truck music almost the whole way before the rain started. It was so weird because we couldn't imagine where it was coming from. There we were riding along and I kept imagining that the music was coming from some alien ice cream truck and little green men were going to jump out of the bushes and abduct us. Then Samantha asks if I could hear the music. She thought it was just in her head which made it even creepier. We must not have been white trash enough to be abducted though be cause we made it back fine.

On Friday Tara came over for a play date. When John was leaving for work he called out to Samantha to come out and get her hug. Well, Tara came running out of the playroom and up to John for a hug. It was so funny because as she came around the corner she realized what she was about to hug John and she stopped.

Then Friday evening I took the girls into town for the concert in the park. The girls saw Hope and we all walked down to Dairy Queen. When we got back Kelly, Tim and the boys met us for the rest of the concert. Afterward we went over to their house to sit on their new patio. The way their house sits facing East it is difficult for them to enjoy their backyard in the late afternoon and evening because the sun is so hot so they built a patio in the front. Kelly also thought since the kids like to play out front with their friends that she can watch them better. They put out a patio table and chairs and they got a fire pit that is exactly like ours only miniature. So, we had a fir at their house.

On Saturday Kelly did a ride-along with John. She wanted me to go but since he can't have 2 riders in the police car I rode with Keisha. It was a busy night so Kelly got to see a lot. The first call Keisha and I went on was a girl who had moved out and needed to get back in but the former roommate was threatening her. The roommate had thrown all of the girls belongings on the front lawn. So, we get out of the car and I follow Keisha up to see what's going on and oh my god, the roommate had this neck brace on. It was the dirtiest thing I had ever seen. Picture a really ratty flea collar and that's what it was like. The girl seemed slightly normal but the roommate was something else. She went on and on about how the girl had warrants out on her (she didn't) and how the girl had stolen checks from her. Then another officer shows up and oh my god, the roommate asks him if he remembers her. She tells him that she was the one who had called in about the friend who had called her looking for someone to hire to kill his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. Oh my god, it was like being in some kind of hillbilly hell.

Next we got to go pick up a prisoner from another agency and take him to jail. I find going to the jail (as a visitor) fascinating. They were quite busy and there were lots of bad guys in the one cell with the window. It is so creepy how they look out at you like caged animals in the zoo. Then some heroin addict came in and when they had him take off his shoes to be searched the fun ended. The guy's feet stank so badly.

Next we went to a Latino market that had just been robbed and the robbers had fired 2 shots. that was cool because we got to drive their with the lights and sirens as well as going rally fast. When we pulled up John was standing by his car with the shot gun aimed and ready to go. This bothered Kelly slightly but I told her I was used to seeing him like that. Then I realized what I was saying and how horrifying that I found it not that disturbing at all to see my husband standing there with a gun chasing bad guys. The bad guys in this case were nowhere to be found so it was on to the next call.

Kelly got to see some really trashy homes so that was interesting to her to see how some people live as well as why some people call the police. We went to one apartment where there was a drunk chain-smoking 40-something guy and a 80-something old man on oxygen. The old man said that the drunk hit him. John said that they are over there about once a month when these 2 get into it. The apartment was disgusting complete with a bed pan of urine on the table.

It was quite a night that ended with a traffic stop where one of the people asked who Kelly and I were and John told him that we were doing a ride-along. The guy asked if he could do one and John said no. He asked why we got to do one and John said, "because they are doing community service. That one sells crack and the little blonde is a prostitute."