There and Back Again

Yes, Dear Readers, just like my namesake Bilbo Baggins, I've been there, and am back again.

Of course, Bilbo helped kill a dragon, rescued the dwarves from the Elves of Mirkwood, and found the One Ring, while I just flew to Dayton and watched my granddaughter's dance competition and my grandson's hockey game, but - hey! - we're short on dragons and heavily-armed dwarves nowadays.

We had a wonderful, if whirlwind visit. Marcy's dance team took second place in their category ...

Marcy had a good cheering section ... her mom, dad, and brothers had their own shirts in the team colors ...

And Tabitha, the Best Daughter-in-Law in the world, made sure that Agnes and I had the right team colors ... and buttons to clearly show who our favorite dancer was ...

Joe scored two ... count 'em ... two goals in his hockey game ...

and I helped Noah build his new Lego police helicopter. We had a raucous and happy family dinner at the Cheesecake Factory on Saturday evening, and flew home yesterday with only an hour's flight delay and no other incidents ... unlike our eventful flight home from our last visit, which you can read about here in case you missed it at the time.

So, here we are back at home again, ready dive back into a new week. Well, maybe not ready for... perhaps more like resigned to a new week. I'll be back into the full-blogging mode again tomorrow ... for now, here's the latest news from Wall Street ...

Helium was up, feathers were down;

Paper was stationary;

Fluorescent tubing was dimmed in light trading;

Knives were up sharply;

Cow steered into a bull market;

Pencils lost a few points;

Hiking equipment was trailing;

Elevators rose, while escalators continued their slow decline;

Weights were up in heavy trading;

Light switches were off;

Mining equipment hit rock bottom;

Diapers remained unchanged;

Shipping lines stayed at an even keel;

The market for raisins dried up;

Coca Cola fizzled;

Caterpillar stock inched up a bit;

Sun peaked at midday;

Balloon prices were inflated; and

Batteries exploded in an attempt to recharge the market.

Invest wisely, ha, ha.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo