Vacation

Morrowlife is on vacation until about the 15th of August. Have a great time without me! My Loyal Readers are invited to Keep the Blog Alive by posting comments to this post. Pictures taken by you are welcome (assuming you know enough HTML to make it work), tales of your lives (more interesting than mine, natch), or whatever. Just maintain my normal High Standards! If we find any free WiFi on the way, I'll drop a comment or two myself.

See you on the flip side.

Zak

Here's yet another example of Loyal Reader Number Two's Great Works of Art. Photography courtest of LRN2. Massive file massaging by The Gimp and me. The subject, of course, is LRN2's former educational colleague Zak. I'm not exactly sure what that thing on the wall is but it looks really cool. I want one.

I'm on vacation for the next two weeks! Call it a working vacation if you must, but it's still a vacation. I'll take whatever I can get. We're moving essentially the rest of our stuff to the Secret Undisclosed location tomorrow. We still have to sleep here tomorrow night, so the logistics aren't really simple. We have to move the right things to the house tomorrow, pack what we need for the camping trip, and have just enough stuff here for a couple of meals and a shower until Sunday morning. We'll figure it out.

I had to give The Romance of Engines back to the library this afternoon. I didn't finish it, but I certainly enjoyed it in a slightly weird way. The writing wasn't all that great, many of the illustrations were strange, and the author had a hard time both staying on subject and getting around to the point. But I really enjoyed it. What can I say? I love engines. I want a collection of my own. Maybe I could keep it right in our front room window! Anyway, the book is unconditionally recommended for Loyal Readers who like that sort of thing.

The bishop wants to see me on Sunday before church. I wonder what I'll be doing.

Well, it's time to finish planning the camping trip, so I'm off. As my Loyal Readers know very well by now, this is the last post for a couple of weeks. I'll put the Comment Fodder up over the weekend and hope to at least get a post or two. Have a great Morrowlife vacation.

Casey Jones

Here's railroading at its finest. As you've probably guessed, this is yet another picture of the Los Gatos miniature train we rode a few weeks back. Looks like fun driving that thing.

Worked twelve hours again today. I've already finished all my required hours for the week, and that's without working on Monday. At least I didn't have to take any vacation.

Loyal Readers Numbers One, Two, and Four went to Lardville today and picked up the keys to the Secret Undisclosed Location! The deal is done. The diggers show up tomorrow to make a hole for the pool (and rip up the lawn, of course, which they are contractually obligated to repair). LRN1, LRN2, and LRN4 are going back tomorrow to work on painting the living and dining rooms. Their first attempt in that direction didn't go well today due to a slightly off-nominal paint color. They're hoping for better results tomorrow. So am I.

Short post today. See you tomorrow.

Wet dog

Poor Belle. Not only does she have to look miserable in the tub, but she's permanently ineligible for Loyal Reader status. She is a sad, strange little dog. She has my pity.

Loyal Reader Number Four has an appointment at noon o'clock tomorrow to pick up the house keys, do the final walkthrough, and learn how to work the alarm. I borrowed some moving boxes from work today and she's filling them up tonight. Also baking some good-smelling cookies. I plan to try a couple of them shortly. Maybe some cookies & cream ice cream too, if there's any left. Life is good.

We're watching HGTV tonight, as usual. It's "I Want That" Wednesday, which is entertaining. They're currently showing us Futuristic Bathrooms. I've never really felt like I wanted a Futuristic Bathroom, but there are a few interesting things there, like heated stone flooring. The last show, though, had some really cool stuff. My favorite was the Aqua Skipper. Other than the hard work it obviously takes to make it go, it looks like a lot of fun. Sadly, I don't like it quite enough to spend five hundred simoleons for it. Maybe I can get Loyal Reader Number Five to talk her in-laws into buying one. Then I can visit and try it out. Great idea.

Speaking of bathrooms, did I mention that the Secret Undisclosed Location has one of those jacuzzi bathtubs? Well, it does. Of course, we wouldn't have bought it if we had the choice, but it was already in, so it's ours. We watched it work the other day when we went out there for our walkthrough and it actually looks pretty cool. Even LRN4 thinks she may try it out. This may turn out to be like so many other features from past houses that we would never have bought on our own but we were really glad to have. I'm thinking hot tub (liked both of them so much we're paying a bunch of money for one this time), koi pond (I want another!), and our first shed in Colorado. Maybe we'll end up taking jacuzzi baths every day. Who knows? Of course, it does seem a little extravagant to have jazuzzis both inside and out, but it really isn't. It's actually a bare minimum requirement for an inhabitable home. I don't know how we've done without it before now.

No sale on the old house yet. Pray, Loyal Readers. Pray like the wind!

Gotta get to bed. See you tomorrow.

Loyal reader number twelve

That's right, folks. We have a new Loyal Reader, pictured above! Well, she's not exactly reading yet, but she's absorbing the Morrowlife Wisdom in other ways. Besides, she probably reads this at least as often as most of my other Loyal Readers, so she's on the list. As with last Thursday's picture, this isn't exactly a photograph, but it's pretty close. Imaging by Loyal Reader Number Five's high-priced medical team.

No post yesterday. I forgot. Loyal Reader Number Four and I went to Lardville yesterday and paid a whole lot of money and signed a whole bunch of papers and got in return -- nothing. Well, we did get a receipt for the money and copies of all the papers, but we didn't get the keys to the house. Because of California's insane real estate system, we don't pick up the keys until Thursday. That's just two days away, though, so there's light at the end of the tunnel! We're getting ready to move out of the Fortress of Solitude, get the old house packed up, take our vacation, and move the truck and trailer to California. It's going to be a busy several days.

My Loyal Readers are hereby reminded that they're the Morrowlife Blog while I'm away. You might want to be thinking of Interesting and Important Things to write about. Take your responsibilities seriously. I'll be monitoring the results!

Life is otherwise uneventful. Work, eat, blog, and sleep is pretty much the order of the day. The work hours keep getting longer and I keep falling further behind. What a great job! Airplanes with laser beams on their heads are at least as cool as launch vehicles and satellites. The challenge of this program is as immense as its fascination factor. Very cool.

I've dumped Programming for Embedded Systems and Linux Application Development from the Morrowlife Book Club. They both had that rare combination of uninterestingness and unusefulness that's so hard to find nowadays. Not worthy of the MBC. The Romance of Engines, on the other hand, I can't quit reading, no matter how hard I try.

Since I stayed at work until about 6:30 and then worked a couple of hours after I got here, it's late and I want to go to bed. See you tomorrow. And keep up the good work, LRN12!

More penguins

Here's the third - and quite possibly the last unless some Loyal Readers get their art thing going again - in my famous Penguin series. This one is once again courtesy of Loyal Reader Number Two, with photography by Loyal Reader Number Four. Slight image rotation and cropping by me.

It's the weekend! And possibly our last irresponsible one for a long, long time. We go pay for the house on Monday morning and then pick up the keys on Thursday. After that, I'm sure there will be plenty to do on Saturdays. Tomorrow, by contrast, I hope to go to the pool and maybe do a little reading.

I remembered to go get our house closing money a mere few minutes before the bank closed this afternoon. It would have been embarrassing to have to delay Monday's appointment so I could go to the bank first. I have the check in my hairy little paws, though, so Nothing Could Possibly Go Wrong Now.

We've started planning for our vacation, which is coming up in another week. Fun, fun, fun is on the camping schedule, along with a grueling sea-to-shining-sea driving regimen. We have no idea where we'll be stopping at night, and we're hoping to not have to make too many plans. I think we might want to get a campground listing book before we go, though, so we can call ahead every day if we feel the need. The Extended Morrow Family Campout plans are also moving ahead. Eighteen family members are scheduled to be there. Each group is providing one meal - we've got dinner on Saturday night. LRN4 is thinking about taco salad, but I countered with a suggestion for hamburgers. We'll have to see what she decides. I didn't mention to her that if she chooses hamburgers, she's guaranteed that I'll work on at least a little bit of the meal. In any case, we're guaranteed to have a nice time being with everybody and I'm looking forward to seeing everybody one more time before we're permanently Way Out West in Lardville.

Have a great weekend. Wake me up on Monday.

Digital penguin

Here's the second in my now-famous Penguin series. This one's from Loyal Reader Number One, created using Blender. Since it's computer generated, there's technically no photography involved here, but I'm letting it slide this time.

Tonight's post is really late and really short for a Very Good Reason. We picked up Loyal Reader Number Four from the airport! Her flight was quite late, though, so it was a long evening. We agreed not to come into the terminal, and it turns out SFO doesn't have a cell phone lot, like so many of your better airports have these days, and heaven forbid you should actually stop in front of the terminal for a couple of minutes, so we did a lot of circling around. Loyal Reader Number One steadfastly refused to run into anything, though, so it was all right. LRN4 had a nice time and we're really glad she's home now.

So it was a great day, all in all. Gotta go to bed. See you tomorrow.

Penguin

Here's the first in my famous Penguin series. Thanks to Loyal Reader Number Two for creating this piece and to Loyal Reader Number Four for the photography. Just like yesterday. In this case, though, I broke every Morrowlife Great Art Rule and did some serious electronic correction. Looks good, says I. We'll be featuring a few more of my Loyal Readers' works in the next few days.

Where's Loyal Reader Number Eleven when I need him? He makes a little bit of folding money by taking beautiful pictures of his clients' Great Art and printing them on High-Quality Paper using a Fancy Printer with Expensive Ink. We don't need to print the pictures, but we really ought to take high-quality photos of Loyal Reader Artwork. Maybe I can remember what he taught me about his technique. Or at least enough to make my Loyal Readers' work look good. Not that the existing pictures aren't good enough already. I'm just always looking for ways to improve the Loyal Reader Experience around here.

Speaking of Loyal Readers' artwork, Loyal Reader Number Seven previously expressed interest in sending in some Art. I promised to email her an address to send it to, but I apparently don't have the right address for her, since my message bounced back. Therefore, I'm going to give you an address in a highly cryptic fashion that spambots (hopefully) can't figure out. Here it is: my first two initials (the second one is "a") plus my last name at gmail dot com. Send in that Great Art, LRN7! And I'm sorry about the delay - I just couldn't get the email thing to work.

Loyal Reader Number One and I need to get to the store to buy a bag of M&Ms, so it's already time to quit. I promised to bring some M&Ms to a coworker who has a couple of candy machines at his desk. He normally provides the candy and the pennies, so I figure the least I can do is fill up the machines every once in a while.

Adios.

Portrait of the artist

Here's Loyal Reader Number Two's self-portrait. Beautiful! Not to mention totally lifelike. I like it.

This post is brought to you courtesy of Computer on a Dime. That's right, it's a totally Linux post. I transferred some photos over to the new machine via one of my thumb drives. Had to figure out how to mount the drive again. It was pretty easy to find something on the net that tells how to do it, but Linux won't really be ready for the desktop (at least for non-nerds) until it can automount thumb drives. I wonder what it will do with a CD-ROM. Anyway, I got the photos transferred over to the Linux box and now I'm running my normal blogging software on Firefox. Yoo hoo.

I need to figure out how to make blog posts offline after we move to Lardville. I want to write on the train during the trip home every afternoon. Even though there's a Wifi car, I hear it doesn't always work well. Offline posting is something Blogger simply won't allow, of course. Might have to change to a non-hosted blogging client to make it work. I have to make the decision pretty soon, though - train riding starts in less than a month, and it's a pretty complex change.

Speaking of which, I need to send away for my free one-week commuter train ticket. Real Soon Now.

Speaking of things happening soon, I have a proposal for my Loyal Readers. As you may know, the family is going to be out of town for the first couple of weeks on August. Since we'll be camping, it's almost a sure thing I won't have an internet connection and won't be able to make any Morrowlife blog posts for two whole weeks. This is bordering on the tragic. My proposal is for my Loyal Readers to take up the slack. I'll post a brief message right before we leave and the Loyal Readers can keep things going via comments. What do you think?

See you tomorrow.

Aboriginal art

Here's a Great Work of Aboriginal Art, courtesy of Loyal Reader Number Two (photo by Loyal Reader Number Four, I believe). Good work, mate! Crikey!

It was an eventful weekend. Loyal Reader Number Four left on Saturday afternoon and she andLoyal Reader Number Five are together in Park City, Utah for a few days with the McCulloch Women's Clan. It sounds like they're having a good time. We miss you, LRN4, in spite of the fact that you bought us food before you left so we won't starve. We also miss LRN5, of course, but we don't normally get to see her quite as often.

We got serious about the Computer on a Dime on Saturday evening. They were having a great sale at Fry's on an AMD Athlon 64 with a decent motherboard, so I got it and the other necessary parts to make a new computer. I went slightly over budget, but still got an excellent deal on a very powerful computer. We got it put together and installed the 64-bit version of Fedora Core 5, which is my favorite Linux. It wasn't really hard to put it together, but getting it up and running was a little more time-consuming. First, we had the jumpers for the hard drive (100 MB for fifty bucks) and the DVD burner mixed up, so we had to take them back out and get them right. We started downloading Fedora's six CDs, and we tried to install a couple of live CD Linuxes in the meantime. Unfortunately, neither of the live CDs (Knoppix and Ubuntu) could format the hard disk. I finally decided to install (shudder) Windows (link warning: Windows sounds) to get the drive formatted. It worked, and by the time that was done, the first of the Fedora disks was available, so we immediately got rid of Windows and got the real installation going. Unfortunately, the download took overnight, so we didn't get the whole thing installed until Sunday morning, after which we took a couple more hours to download and install all the updates.

Our goal was to make the computer "headless," which means that it has no keyboard, monitor, or mouse. We borrowed those items from LRN4's computer (thanks!) to get it going, and then got a VNC server installed and running properly. Now we can access the Linux box from any of the other computers just as if we were logged directly in to it. It's truly a thing of beauty.

I started playing with Wine (the software, not the beverage!) last night. I think it's still not ready for prime time (link warning - cheesy TV sound), but I'll see what I can get installed and working. For those still trying to crack the Linux code, Wine is software that tries to emulate Windows on a Linux machine, allowing you to run any Windows programs you absolutely need while keeping your computer Microsoft-free. It's a great idea that's getting a lot of attention, but there's still a lot of work to do.

Next up: the case mod (although probably not before we get into the new house).

Loyal Reader Number One was sick this weekend. He couldn't go to church, so LRN2 and I went by ourselves. Fortunately, LRN1 is feeling better now. In fact, he was well enough for a heapin' helpin' of Hungry Man this evening. That ought to be enough proof of his complete recovery for anyone.

Time to hit the jacuzzi. See you tomorrow.

Round the bend

Here's yet another picture of the little train we rode several days ago. I think this looks just like some of your more famous train pictures, don't you? What a great train.

Today was my off Friday, so I only worked about five hours and then did one phone call at home. Easy day! Man is the work piling up there. Extended Bearing Down is required just to keep up there.

Spent some time with Loyal Readers One and Two in the pool this afternoon. Great relaxation. Later, Loyal Reader Number Four and I went to the grocery store to buy food for the boys and I to eat while she's away on her girls' trip next week. We have plenty of TV dinners, taquitos, popsicles, and breakfast food. We'll survive. On the opposite side of the spectrum, she made us a great dinner tonight. I figure she wants to create a contrast between when she's here and when she's not, causing us to miss her more. Not necessary, of course, but the difference will probably be dramatic indeed. I'm sure we'll enjoy our TV dinners, though.

Inspired by Design On a Dime, I've decided to work on a Computer On a Dime. I want a reasonably-powered Linux machine for experimenting, and I'm trying to figure out how to get it for two hundred bucks or less. I'm looking for a 2 GHz motherboard and processor for about a hundred dollars, an eighty or hundred gigabyte hard drive for fifty bucks, 512 MB of memory for thirty dollars, and a case for about twenty. I have a CD drive already. This is really a challenge, but I think we'll be able to do it. Loyal Readers are invited to keep an eye out for sales and let me know. Or they could just donate hardware if they prefer.

Phase two of this project will be a case mod. Loyal Reader ideas for this phase are also invited.

A quiet weekend is planned. We take LRN4 to the airport on Saturday afternoon and go to Manteca for church and to pick up the modified pool plans on Sunday. Otherwise, we're pretty much unplanned. Maybe something fun will come up.

Otherwise, see you on Monday. Have a great weekend.

Loft

Here's a picture from the Secret Undisclosed Location, courtesy of Loyal Reader Number Two. I won't reveal the exact function of this room except to say that we expect a lot of rumpusing to go on there.

It turns out that one of my brothers-in-law is a little more famous than I had realized. Way to go, Loyal Reader Number Zero! On the other hand, my father isn't doing very well at all.

Well, we made it through the induction ceremony - turns out it was more for the parents than the kids! - and the house and pool walkthroughs. We detected a small mistake in the pool design, which they have agreed to fix before construction begins. We also found several nits but no really serious problems in the house. This builder really seems to make a quality product. Check back with me in a year or so and see if that opinion still holds.

Anyway, we're all exhausted. Poor little Belle had to spend the entire day in her box, but she seems fine tonight.

The one problem with going to the walkthrough is that we're now more anxious than ever to get moved in. The place is beautiful and relatively roomy (could be better, but it'll be just fine) and we are really ready to have our own things and our own home again. There is a lot of landscaping and interior designing to be done, and we're anxious to get started doing it. Only two more weeks and it's all ours!

We got a call from Loyal Reader Number Five around mid-day. She had apparently recently been to see her doctor, and she now knows the gender (link warning - cute baby picture that doesn't disclose any Top Secret Information) of her baby! I'm not telling, of course, but she can feel free to add an appropriate comment if she chooses. All I can say is that I'm really excited about the whole thing. We need to start buying baby presents right away! I wonder how (he or she) would like a new computer. Or maybe a 42-inch plasma television. (He or she) could use them whenever (he or she) comes to visit us. I think I'll get that neat-o baby wipe heater to keep at (his or her) house.

Well, I want to read some tonight, so bye.

Horse in the leather mask

It kind of looks like this poor caroussel horse is trapped in a full-body leather mask, doesn't it? Poor thing. I wonder what he did.

Tomorrow is a big day for us! We're doing both the house and pool walkthroughs up in Lardville, and the boys are going to Salida for their School Induction Ceremony. I think they have to take a test or something. We have to leave pretty early, so I have to get up on schedule on my vacation day! That's just wrong.

We watched a DVD with a bunch of old Monk episodes tonight. Always enjoyable. The three of us boys also got haircuts. We look great, if I do say so myself.

The History Channel is running shows about pirates. I think it's merely a coincidence that Disney is releasing their big pirate movie this week, don't you? I wonder if those guys ever wrapped a horse in leather. Bad people.

Bedtime seems to come earlier every night. See you tomorrow, with news on the multiple walkthroughs.

Mighty steed

Following up on yesterday's Great Art, here's a fearsome steed from the Los Gatos caroussel. In fact, this was my Personal, Private Horse. He tried to throw me several times, but I showed him who was boss.

I'm enjoying having the comments on the main page. It makes it feel much more like a conversation than before. Keep making those comments, Loyal Readers!

Loyal Reader Number Four spent a lot of time today getting some of the details of the new house lined up - insurance, power, water, sewer, garbage, phone, internet, television, and . . . and . . . maybe that's it. Still, that's a lot, and she did great work on it. It looks like the combination of phone/DSL/satellite is somewhat cheaper and probably better than phone/cable modem/cable TV. The big kicker is that the Comcast people don't include TCM with their basic service here, and the DirecTV people do include BYU TV. Who can argue with that? DSL is a little cheaper than cable internet, but I'm really worried about the speed. Still, it might be worth it to give them a chance. Besides, I'm really sick of Comcast's brand of service.

Loyal Reader Number One got a book called Applied Cryptography at the library today. I enjoy the topic and hope he does too. Maybe we'll see some new crypto programs coming from Gardenville Software soon.

Early finish tonight. Hasta manana.

Angels

Here's a beautiful hand-painted picture of some angels. With just a single glance, I'm sure my Loyal Readers will agree that their spirits soar. A second glance might not lead to the same conclusion, however. Actually, this lovely portrait is in the caroussel in Los Gatos we visited during the Fourth of July weekend. They had a lot more (by the same artist!) just as good as this one but, strangely, I failed to take their picture. Maybe we'll go back so I can correct this oversight.

Speaking of Great Art, I think it would be appropriate to invite my Loyal Readers to submit Quality Photographs they feel would be suitable for viewing in the Morrowlife blog. This is a limited-time offer. Operators are standing by, so act now! Really. I'd love to showcase some Loyal Reader work here. At least until I find time to take some more pictures.

The days, they keep getting shorter. I'm busy, busy, busy at work, and now taking a substantial amount of work home to avoid being there until 7:00 every night. Yikes! At least they're now giving me substantial responsibility and a little bit of authority to make decisions. Whatever were they thinking? I've been either eating, working, or home eveninging since I got home. Of course, home eveninging included a substantial amount of time in the spa under the heading of "activity," so don't get all emotional for me.

The weekend was pretty peaceful. We went to the library on Saturday so I could augment the Loyal Reader Book Club. I got a few good ones. Some are too nerdy to mention right now, but I'm reading a really interesting one, in a nerdy sort of way. It's called The Romance of Engines. It's by a Japanese guy who works for a manufacturer of large trucks and, as my notably intelligent Loyal Readers have probably guessed, it's about engines. So far, I'm still in the early history of internal combustion, but he's already discussed some pretty amazing technology developed to try to improve the efficiency of gasoline and diesel engines. Most of the basic science was done by the 1800s, and by early in the 20th century, they had tried a lot of really advanced stuff. The fact that most of it didn't work, and in fact made things much worse, doesn't take anything away from the coolness and inventiveness of the ideas. The book itself is an entertaining cross between history and science textbooks. We get the stories of the people and companies who invented new things along with a fairly detailed description of the math and physics behind their ideas, with illustrations ranging from pictures of vehicles and their engines to simple block diagrams of physical principles to detailed graphs of experimental results to basic equations and their applications. I'm really enjoying it. While the book won't be everyone's cup of tea, I suspect that one or two of my Loyal Readers might find it interesting. But probably not. Anyhow, it's going on the Book Club list.

Let's see, what else did I get? Oh, there's a book called Basic Electronics that includes some elementary digital circuit design. Maybe too nerdy for the Club. There's another one called The Success of Open Source. I don't know what it says about open-source, but I intend to read it and find out. If it's more general interest than how-to-program (and I think it will be - it got great reviews on Amazon), I'll tell you all about it. Then there's Cryptography for Dummies and The Elements of User Interface Design (kind of a weak point for Embedded Systems programmers like me, hence a topic of interest). You might not hear much more about those ones either.

I also get an Evelyn Waugh novel called Decline & Fall. I know nothing about it yet, other than that it was recommended by an author who likes P.G. Wodehouse's work, so it might be good. I'll refrain from adding it to the Book Club list until after I've read a little bit and determined whether it's up to the Morrowlife Book Club's high standards.

It was nice to hear from LRN5 in Friday's comments. Your high Morrowlife standing is assured - at least for the time being. We're pretty demanding around here.

Well, it's time to stop writing and start reading some of those books. See you tomorrow.

Dragon

Here's a patched-together water fountain dragon (link warning - lots of audio) from the Fortress of Solitude. It looks better from a distance, trust me. But not much better.

Busy, busy, busy. I'm working like a dog. Check that - dogs spend all day eating and sleeping, and I didn't get to do much of either today. I'm loving it, though. The busier it gets there, the more I like it. I'm finally really doing the management thing. Can't go overboard with it, though.

The family was in the pool when I got home today, so I got changed and got in too. It was really nice to relax for a few minutes before dinner. The meal was great and it's really nice to be home for the weekend.

And I'm out of stuff to write about today. I really can't give much detail about what goes on at the Giant Space Factory (link warning - strange French sounds), and there's effectively nothing else in my life right now. I need to get to the library. Don't worry, though. It'll get much better when I start riding the train every day.

Oh, there is one thing. I'm about halfway through Programming for Embedded Systems and I've started believing the really negative comment on Amazon. The book is full of completely uncommented code with obscure variable and procedure names and precious little else. I'm sticking with it for a little while longer in the hope I'll get something worthwhile out of it, but I'm not counting on much. I'll let you know, but right now I'm not recommending it to my discerning Loyal Book Club. I need to get to the library.

Okay, that's it for today. Have a great weekend. See you on Monday.

On the train

Here are Loyal Readers One and Two on the medium-small train we rode on Monday. It really was a fun ride.

Another busy day today. It's almost 10:30 already and I'm finally just sitting down. I got yet another responsibility at work today - we have a mysterious problem that hasn't been solved for quite some time. We're just about at the point of needing it to work right, and upper management is concerned. They've assigned three of us to get it solved, so get it solved we will. I pretty much understand the problem now, which is a great start if I do say so myself. I need to get several people together tomorrow and get some action going.

Loyal Reader Number One has started driving! He took his first behind-the-wheel training this afternoon and is now eligible to practice with us. LRN4, LRN1 and I went to Wal-Mart this evening to pick up a few things and give LRN1 a chance to get on the road. It went fine, and the fear level in the car was kept down to a minimum. So far, so good (link warning - brief unintelligible sound)!

We pretty much have LRN1 and LRN2 signed up for a pretty cool homeschool charter school for this year. They pretty much let you do what you want to do (music and other lessons, trips [link warning - sound], etc.) and they pay for it. Cool. They still need to give us the formal green light in early August, but it's apparently a done deal.

It's already time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Scoopy Doo

I just love this sign. It's disgusting, of course, but that's just part of its charm. It's in what's come to be known around the Fortress of Solitude as The Pooping Grounds. Belle is all over that place.

Busy workday today. As I get more responsibilities, I have more to do. Strange how that works. I'm still avoiding working excessive overtime hours, of course, but it's getting harder and harder. When I start riding the train back and forth to the Secret Undisclosed Location, there will be at least a couple extra hours a day I can devote to the job. That is, unless I need to take them up with blogging, sleeping, and listening to podcasts. The days are just packed!

Nothing much else to report. I submitted an expense report for per diem money that came to an amazingly high amount. We need every penny, of course, to buy the house. Otherwise, that would buy me a pretty nice MacBook Pro or even a good G5. Hmm . . .

But enough dreaming. Time to get some reading and/or programming done. See you tomorrow.

In the station

Here's the little train we rode yesterday getting ready to leave the station. It was a fun ride and a pretty little park.

We had a nice Fourth today. Spent the morning at home and went over to the Santa Clara City celebration in the afternoon. We're at home watching The Long, Long Trailer on DVD. Nicky and Tacey are just buying the trailer now. We're planning to watch the Great America fireworks from The Privacy of Our Own Home at 9:30. We've seen the shows for the past few nights and they were very good. Tonight's show ought to be great.

We were introduced to Lawn Bowling this afternoon. It looks like a lot of fun. There's a beautiful bowling green at the Santa Clara City park and a club that plays four days a week. They tried to get us to join up. We might have done it - it looks like a lot of fun - but we're not going to be in Santa Clara much longer. Maybe there will be Lawn Bowling in Lardville.

I used my new Palm development system to create an actual program last night. It calculates the CRC checksum of a given string. I know that's not much, but it was good practice. I got everything working right - forms, buttons, menus, an about-box, and the application itself. It works great! Now I just need to decide what to write next.

Speaking of programming, in a minor tragedy, I appear to have deleted the source code for all my previous programs when I left my job in Newtown. I somehow failed to get them copied onto my new computer. That includes that famous classic, Tapeworm, along with some other highlights. I may have to resort to reverse engineering some things. I'm very sad. On the other hand, this is the perfect opportunity to recode and improve performance.

I finished Tales of St. Austin's a day or two ago. Can't really say much more than I've said before. It's a bunch of unrelated short stories centering around common characters and locations - a boys' school in England and the upper-class twits that inhabit it. It's fun, light reading - perfect for carrying around in a gadget and reading in spare moments. Highly recommended, especially at the price.

Added my embedded system programming book to the book club list. Its one review on Amazon is pretty unflattering. The jury is still out for me on this one. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone but programming junkies in any case. I also added a fun little 19th-century book about camping. So far, it's really interesting. Check it out.

I'm going to pay attention to the movie now. Tomorrow's back-to-work Wednesday. See you then.

Real kitchen

Here's a picture of the kitchen at the Secret Undisclosed Location. Compare and contrast with the Dream kitchen posted a few days ago. I think I like this one at least as well. I might as well, since this is the one I'm getting. Thanks to Loyal Reader Number Two for today's picture. I turned him loose in the house with the camera the other day and he took numerous pictures.

I'm cheating just a little on today's post and typing it on the Fourth. Don't tell anybody.

Time for lunch. I'll be right back.

I'm back. I had chicken and rice, with a brownie and ice cream for dessert. It was delicious.

Anyway, the activities of the Third of July include a trip to a park in Los Gatos - a lovely little community - to ride a small railroad (pictures to come later) and an antique carrousel. Cool.

See you tomorrow with much more content. Happy Fourth.