Zombies

Here are Loyal Readers Numbers Two and Fifteen, inadvertently revealing their true nature as zombies. Frightening. Picture taken Christmas Eve in a dimly-lit room at the Railroad Museum.

Happy New Year's Eve! It's been a beautiful Monday - sunny and relatively warm. We enjoyed it. Loyal Readers Numbers One, Two, and Three and I went shooting this morning at a range that turns out to be just about ten minutes down the road from us. We were hoping to borrow a shotgun and shoot some trap, but it turns out they don't have any guns to either borrow or rent. So we used my .22 and had a fun couple of hours. I still need to clean and oil the rifle, which I hope to accomplish either tonight or tomorrow morning.

Happy anniversary to Loyal Readers Numbers Three and Fifteen. It's been three whole years. Congratulations! And many happy returns. They're out watching a movie or two and eating lunch. Presumably. I believe they'll be back for the evening. Although it's already after 6:00 and dark outside.

It was a nice weekend. We didn't do much. We planned to go to a museum down in Modesto on Saturday but fortunately checked before leaving. They're closed between Christmas and New Year's. Sigh. Well, at least we've gotten to two museums this vacation.

We listened to an impromptu organ concert by Loyal Reader Number Two this afternoon. He and Loyal Reader Number Four went to practice for a performance at the upcoming stake conference, and the rest of us went over there a little later. Good concert.

The new Mac has shipped! The FedEx website reports that it should be here on January third. I need to rest up between now and then, since I'm practically guaranteed to be up all night that night.

Pretty much everybody but me around here has a cold right now. Wish me luck avoiding it.

We're going over shortly to spend the evening with our friends the Hepworths/Englands. Looking forward to it.

Update - LRN3 and LRN15 just got back. Perfect timing, since it's dinner time.

And it's time for me to quit. Stay up late tonight! See you tomorrow.

Call me on my cellphone

Here's Loyal Reader Number Twelve making a quick call with her favorite Christmas present. She gets busy!

Wonders of Blogger today. I'm kind of surprised good old Anonymous missed it. Friday was our anniversary, and while I did fiddle with computers for quite a while, I didn't find time to blog.

Speaking of fiddling with computers, I have a tragedy with a happy ending to report. First the tragedy: Loyal Reader Number Four's computer has bitten the dust. It had been behaving erratically for quite a while - some applications wouldn't start and others crashed a lot. I took a look at it on Friday and decided it must have gotten a virus or some other corruption, so I tried to reinstall the operating system. It wouldn't install. I suspected a bad OS disk, so I downloaded the latest version of Ubuntu Linux and tried to install it. It wouldn't install. That disk had an option to verify the computer's memory, so I ran it. It reported numerous memory problems, all of them in the same bit, which is consistent with a bad memory stick, of which the computer had only one. I tried installing again anyway and noticed the CD drive was making funny speeding-up-and-slowing-down sounds. Ubuntu reported that it couldn't install because of a bad CD drive. At that point, I declared the computer dead. Services were held last night in Loyal Reader Number One's room, at which time the 20 GB hard disk (which SpinRite had declared perfectly functional) and power supply were surgically removed for later transplant and the remains dissected for sport and frolic.

So much for the sad news. Now for the happy ending. Loyal Reader Number Three, LRN4, and I went to a few stores to look at replacement PCs. We saw a few machines she might have liked; the prices weren't too great, but there were a couple of decent deals. She finally decided to take the plunge and switch to a Mac, though, so I ordered a new Mac Mini for myself (before the Loyal Readers get all huffy, that's what she asked me to do!) and moved my existing Mini down to her desk. I'm in the middle of setting it up right now. All the software is installed and I'm now moving files - I especially hope to get Entourage to recognize the old Outlook mail and contacts files. Wait a minute - it's ready for me to give that a try.

-- Time lapse --

I'm back. I haven't been able to get LRN4's old emails yet, but I do have pretty much everything else set up. We've been through a little bit of Mac training and I think she's going to like it. I have a couple of plans for getting her old emails into the system. They all involve opening them using various programs on Loyal Reader Number Two's system and saving them in different formats.

And what am I doing for a computer now that LRN4 has my Mac and I don't have my new Mac yet (it's scheduled to arrive sometime between January 3 and 9)? Thanks for asking. I have Larry, my Linux server, set up as my temporary emergency backup computer. It has all my email accounts in Thunderbird and copies of all my documents. I'll be fine. Really.

Otherwise, not much is new. LRN4 and I went out to the local Indian restaurant for our twenty-ninth anniversary celebration. We were the only people eating there, although a couple of people came in for take-out while we were there. I can't figure out how some of these restaurants stay in business. I figure either they have a good lunch trade or they're laundering money. In any case, the food was good. We ordered "medium" spiciness and got "outrageously hot," but it worked out okay. Our mouths burned for just a little while after we got home.

LRN4 isn't feeling too well today. She has my pity. She might go lie down for a little while to try to recover. Or maybe not.

My helicopter is broken again. It ran into a wall and the same part snapped off. Sigh. I'm going to try to fix it again, maybe more permanently again.

Have a great weekend. See you on Monday.

Train wreck

Here's the aftermath of yesterday's Great Art. Poor Loyal Reader Number Two is now nothing but nose art. Hopefully, he'll recover soon. I'm sorry to have to share this tragedy with my Loyal Readers.

Loyal Reader Number Five has suggested that I number the list of my Loyal Readers over there on the right for your convenience, since the list is now so long. I've thought about it once before but rejected it, preferring to keep the mystery alive. What do my other Loyal Readers think? Would you like to see your names and numbers associated with each other?

It was another great day at home. We did get out to the Manteca museum for a little while this afternoon. It's a fairly small building - an old church, actually - but it's jam packed with Important Artifacts. The fun thing was that the docents were all long-time Lardville residents and they knew everyone and everything about this town. Most of it was probably true, to boot. We enjoyed the visit.

Right before our visit the water softener repair guy came and (finally) repaired our water softener. It had stopped working right a few months ago, and Loyal Reader Number Four called it in about a month ago. They came out and discovered that a rarely-broken part was broken; it's a gear that makes the recharging cycle go. They didn't stock the part (since it's so rarely broken), so they ordered a new one. The wrong one came, so they reordered it. General Electric sent it to the wrong repair shop, so they reordered it again. It finally came, it's been installed, and the water should be soft by tomorrow. We're relieved.

And I have no more to write about tonight. See you tomorrow.

On the tracks

Here's Loyal Reader Number Two straying onto the tracks, just a little too close to that oncoming train. I think that's a clear violation of some safety standard or two. Fortunately, he made it okay.

No comments the last couple of days. I guess all my Loyal Readers are busy enjoying their Christmas break. As am I.

We hung around today. That's about it. This evening, we watched two movies we had received for Christmas from Loyal Reader Number Four's brother and then jacuzzified after dinner. Pleasant day. Tomorrow's plans are open, but I believe they include leaving the house for at least a little while. I also need to get to some of my projects before there's no holiday left.

Speaking of which, today was my sixth day off. Wow! I'm back to work one week from today.

About the movies. They sent us "cleaned up" versions, so we knew they would be acceptable. We received The Ultimate Gift and Touching the Void. The latter was a really intense true story of a two-man mountain climbing expedition that went very wrong. It was shot in documentary style, which was an interesting touch. Even though you know both climbers survived because you see them talking about it, you really wonder how they'll make it. Very well done. However, I looked it up and discovered the original movie was rated R, so if you can't find the cleaned up version, I don't recommend it.

The Ultimate Gift was another intense movie for completely different reasons. Very touching, very heartwarming. The movie's website treats it more like a way of life than a show. In spite of that, I highly recommend the movie, which was originally rated PG, so I don't think they cut anything out of our version.

About the censored versions of movies. There was a company in Utah that made and sold them and had a pretty brisk business going. The movie studios sued them out of existence, so LRN4's brother's wife bought a bunch of movies during the closeout sale. I'm not sure why the studios shut them down, other than just to harass good people. They claimed the company was destroying their "artistic vision" or something like that. They don't seem to mind destroying it themselves for the versions they show on airplanes and television, though. Totally irrational.

Anyway. Time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Decisions

Here's Loyal Reader Number Twelve trying to decide whether to go upstairs or not. Be good or be naughty? Decisions. As I recall, she went up.

Fresh, new Great Art is on its way. I have a few good pictures from yesterday's museum on the official Morrowlife Great Art Camera. I'll try to get them downloaded to the computer soon.

Merry Christmas! We had a great day today, starting with presents, moving to good food, going on to pleasant company, and ending with a fun movie. We watched Ratatouille, which we received from Santa last night, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's about a rat who wants to be a chef. Where do they dream up these things?

Some of the Loyal Readers also went out to see the latest National Treasure (link warning: spooky National Treasure sounds) movie. They're rating it somewhere between a B+ and an A. Loyal Reader Number Five interprets that as either a B++ or an A--. I'll go with that.

Otherwise, not much to report. I was excited to get my little RC helicopter and it was going great until I seriously broke it this afternoon. I superglued it back together, and we'll find out tomorrow if that fixed it. Otherwise, it was great fun while it lasted.

And I'm too busy enjoying the remainder of Christmas to go on. See you tomorrow.

Top of the falls

Here's the view from the top of the Clark's Fork waterfall.

Merry Christmas Eve! It's been a beautiful day here in Lardville - about 60 degrees and sunny all day. Well, the Weather Channel says it's actually 56 degrees right now, but it's getting late.

No post on Friday. It was my first day off work and it seemed like Saturday. So I forgot. Thanks to my old pal Anon for noticing.

We're back from our Christmas Eve museum visit. This year we went to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. It's a really nice museum. There are lots of cool locomotives and several other cars in a beautiful setting. One of my favorites was the Pullman car you can walk through. They have the back of the car set up for daytime seating and the front for sleeping. It's beautifully restored, and the presentation is really cool. They have lights and sound outside of the car and something that shakes the whole car. It really feels like it's moving. Very cool.

They also have a dining car you can walk through. Those things were really elegant - much nicer than the dining cars I've frequented on Amtrak. MUCH nicer. Loyal Reader Number Four read something that said those dining cars always lost money; the railroads used them as advertisement and competed heavily with each other for the best food and service. Those were the days. The ACE train isn't quite that nice. But it gets me there and gets me back.

Otherwise, it's been a pleasant weekend. Loyal Readers Numbers Three, Five, Six, Twelve, and Fifteen are staying with us and we're having a great time. LRN5, LRN6, and LRN12 have to leave either Christmas night or very early the next day - the demands of employment, alas. We've baked cookies, had a nice day at church, done some last-minute shopping, and hung around a bunch. A good time is being had by all.

And we're ready for Christmas! Except that Loyal Readers Numbers Five and Fifteen are out shopping again. Maybe they're buying something for me. The world can only hope.

Time for Lasagna (link note: try not to pay attention to the first sentence of the second paragraph - yuck) and our annual Very Special Home Evening. So have a great night and I'll see you on Christmas.

Sequoia

Here's a Sequoia among some of its shorter cousins. Sequoia is the only word I can think of right now that contains all the vowels, not to mention that it has only two consonants. Can any of my Loyal Readers come up with any other all-vowel words?

The work year is over! I got home this afternoon at about 2:00 and have enjoyed the start of the Christmas break. I've already gotten a couple of little things done, as suggested by Loyal Reader Number Four. We took down and put away the crib and set up the new inflatable bed in the game/sewing/exercise room, and we fixed the white chair.

Part of the chair's frame had broken, rendering it pretty much useless as a place to sit, even if it superficially didn't look any worse than before. The springs were attached to this part, making it difficult to just replace. Instead, we made another piece, which we glued and bolted to the broken one. Then we screwed the whole thing back into its original position. It seems pretty solid and we think it's back to normal. I don't recommend my Loyal Readers jump on it, though.

I managed to escape from the chair job with only a cut on one fingertip, a puncture wound on the back of the same finger, and a knuckle rubbed raw. Not bad.

I've also ripped three of the remaining twelve Home Improvement DVDs. Gotta get those things done before their owner is ready to take them back home, which will happen in just a few days.

We have a new Loyal Reader! Welcome to Tom, our good friend and Loyal Reader Number Twenty-Four's dad. Your new identity is Loyal Reader Number Twenty-Six. Check out your very own name over there on the right on the actual Internet! Wow.

And check out the web page LRN26 pointed to in yesterday's comment. We have one of their switches controlling our outside lights - it's a programmable timer that turns off a predetermined time after you turn it on (you can also turn it off whenever you choose, of course). It's high-quality, easy to install and program, and perfect for our outdoor lighting. Highly recommended. Loyal Reader Number Four has some indoor applications in mind and I didn't know about the indoor switches shown on LRN26's Friends and Family website. We're going to have to order a few of them. Thanks for letting my Loyal Readers in on the great deal, LRN26! Very cool products.

I have a couple of ideas for games to write for Android. Remember the card games called War and Crazy Eights? Neither one seems too difficult to write, and the great thing about War is that the computer could play it entirely by itself. Thus saving a lot of time. Loyal Reader Number One is busily working on an SMS application, which is a bit more practical but not much more fun, if you ask me. I think he'll have something running long before I do. But maybe not.

No more tonight. Lots going on tomorrow. See you then.

Dog bed

Here's Loyal Reader Number Twelve in Loyal Pet Number One's bed. She really takes over. Drives the dog nuts. Photo courtesy of the exclusive RAZR-cam.

Greetings from home! I felt like taking the sports car this morning and the train tomorrow, so that's what I did. There was no rain after all on either leg of the voyage, so it went quickly. I'm off the train again tomorrow too - need to take Fluffy's old home to work so somebody can take a look with the idea of buying it. The Fluffinator has grown so much she needed a new home, which she received as an early Christmas present. Hence, the old one has to go.

I got home a full two hours tonight before my Wednesday evening meeting starts. Plenty of time for a leisurely dinner and a little blogging. The boys are out caroling as this month's YM/YW combined activity. Sounds like fun. They're finishing up at the amazingly-decorated house in town. Loyal Reader Number One and I went to look at it on Sunday evening while the boys were at Loyal Reader Number Twenty-Four's birthday get-together. It's pretty cool. LRN4 told me the backstory of the house is that the guy's wife was criticizing him for being something of a grinch, so he decided to reform in a big way. Mission accomplished.

Plans are firming up for the holiday break. Here's a brief list:

- Finish the mousebot.

- Finish the Android tutorials and maybe try to make something interesting.

- Install the garage door insulation purchased today by LRN4.

- Do all the things on the Christmas calendar (museums, film festivals, cookie baking, etc.).

- Maybe help Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and Twelve move (the place by the cemetery isn't working out for them).

- Replace the Miata's headrest speakers.

- Do some reading.

- Finish ripping all the Home Improvement DVDs for my iPod.

- Maybe make something fun with the Arduino (mousebot v.2?).

- Play with my toys!

Only one more work day left!

As you can see, I'm out of material tonight. See you tomorrow.

Birthday present

Here's Loyal Reader Number Twelve opening her enormous pile of birthday presents a month ago. I found the birthday pictures on my camera yesterday. Oops.

Rainy day again today, so Greetings from the Train. It rained all night and much of the day, but appeared to be clearing when I walked out the door this afternoon. I still think we're expecting rain the rest of the week. I'll be on the train a lot. And glad to be there.

The train was pretty empty this morning, but seems quite full this afternoon. Where did all these people come from? The other strange thing is that enough people got off the lightly-populated train this morning to entirely fill our shuttle bus, with one person (my friend and co-worker Dan, as it turns out) standing in the aisle. Strange.

It was also raining hard enough for water to be pouring in through the two roof vents on the bus, which is an old Hertz shuttle they maintain just enough to keep it from falling completely apart on the freeway. Most of the parts appear to still be there, but they don't necessarily work. The only good thing it has going for it is that it's big enough that when it eventually careens out of control, we'll probably squish all the other cars without getting hurt ourselves. Thank heaven for that.

Anyway, it was raining inside the bus this morning almost as hard as outside.

I'm working short days this week to burn up my remaining comp hours, which are now down to about three. I especially want to go home early on Thursday, of course. If I'm on the train, though, I can't really leave earlier than about 3:00, so that will have to be good enough. I don't even want to think about trying to drive home on Thursday afternoon in the rain with the holiday traffic getting out of town. So it's the train for me.

Nothing else significant to report today. See you tomorrow.

Another head in hole

Here's Loyal Reader Number Two sticking his head through a hole in a tree. Those two just can't seem to get enough of sticking their heads through holes in trees. It guess it's better to have a head in a hole than a hole in your head. Har har.

I need to get a little more Blog Fodder again. Fortunately, the holidays are coming up, the family members are coming to town, and work is closing for several days. Plenty of photo opportunities, no doubt.

Stupidly, I forgot to bring my camera to a few recent events that would probably have resulted in something blog-worthy. Such as Loyal Reader Number Two's organ concert (did I mention he was the highlight of the show?) and possibly the ward Christmas party. Sigh. My Loyal Readers expect better.

Well, let's cheer back up and see how the weekend went. First, the success/failure list:

Ward party and turkey: check, sort of. We watched the time carefully on Saturday and made sure we were home in plenty of time to put the turkey in the oven so it would finish cooking in plenty of time. No problem. Strangely, though, Loyal Reader Number Four discovered about an hour and a half before we were supposed to be at the party with a cooked turkey that somebody had turned off the oven at an unknown time. We had no idea how cooked or uncooked the bird was. She immediately turned it back on and we took it out of the oven at about our scheduled departure time. We did a little exploratory slicing and it looked done all the way through, so we sliced it up and took it to church - only about half an hour late. It all worked out and, as far as we know, nobody has died from eating it. In fact, most people weren't even sick the next day. So all's well.

Christmas shopping: check. We're either done or essentially done. Phew.

Miata headrest speakers: no check. Never even looked at it. I need to find some speakers of the appropriate size, power rating, and price online and get them ordered. Then we can talk about installation. In the meantime, the buzz continues.

Robot, Android tutorials, and DVD ripping: no check, no check, and no check. They were just too low on the priority list. Maybe next weekend. The DVDs will have to be ripped no later than then; I want to return them to Loyal Reader Number Six when they're here for Christmas.

Cold water faucet: check. Actually, LRN4 did it for me before the weekend ever started. I just hadn't noticed it yet when Friday's blog was written. Thanks, LRN4!

Sunday School lesson: check. I did it after all. My friend Jim had a serious relapse, and I got a call on Sunday morning. Prepared it, gave it, had a good time. Next week, I have to teach Gospel Principles, so there's more preparation to do. Fortunately, I enjoy doing it. A lot.

Financial juggernaut update: I'm up to 26 cents and one click! Many thanks to whoever clicked. Nothing can stop me now! Riches! Power! Et cetera!

We had some rain overnight, and the morning commute showed it. It was dry the rest of the day, but they're predicting rain just about every day until Christmas. Sigh.

See you tomorrow.

Girl and grandma

Here's Loyal Reader Number Twelve with her grandma. I'm not sure which one is having a better time.

Loyal Reader Number Four and I went to the Primary Christmas dinner this evening. It was very nice and was fun to be out with some friends. We had chicken with pasta and Alfredo sauce and a very nice Italian salad. There was a white elephant gift exchange. For a brief time, I was the proud owner of a plastic pooping reindeer, but somebody stole it (which was allowed, by the way). Sigh. We got some nice towels instead. They'll be perfect for making bread rise. But they don't simulate pooping, so they're not nearly as good.

Loyal Readers Numbers One and Four had a great time at The Theatre last night. LRN4 reports that the scenery alone was worth the ticket price. Although she does have to admit that the price to her was zero. Still, somebody (Loyal Reader Number Twenty-Four's family, to be specific) paid for that ticket, and it was worth it. Thanks, Loyal Friends!

Let's see what's ahead of us for the weekend, shall we?

We have another party tomorrow night - this time for the whole ward. We're cooking and bringing a ward-provided turkey, so that's a good indication the food ought to be pretty good.

The calendar also calls for us to put up the outdoor lights. However, that was taken care of yesterday by Loyal Readers Numbers One, Two, and Four. Nothing left to do there.

LRN4 and I are going to look at our Christmas present situation sometime tomorrow and try to get any remaining shopping done.

I need to replace the headrest speakers in the Miata. I think the new stereo was a little too powerful for the factory speakers, and they don't appear to be any good anymore. They shouldn't be too hard to replace. I also need to put some foam or something similar between the new speakers and the doors. There's a little buzz in there somewhere.

What else? Well, I still need to finish the robot, do the rest of the Android tutorials, and rip the rest of the Home Improvement DVDs. With the new hard disk, I have plenty of room for them now.

The cold water faucet on my bathroom sink seems to be falling apart. Gotta get that thing fixed.

And I'm sure lots of other things will come along. Fortunately, my friend Jim is feeling better, so I don't need to prepare a Sunday School lesson. I enjoyed teaching for a couple of weeks, though, so his good fortune is my slight misfortune. Alas, but there will be other opportunities.

LRN2 wants me to do some scientific research and figure out who Anonymous is. I think I'll let it go, though. Life must have some mystery, after all. Stay anonymous if you like, Anon!

Have a great weekend. See you on Monday.

Shady river

Here's the river at Clark's Fork. Ahhh.

No post yesterday. There was a Boy Scout Court of Shame Honor, to which I went directly from work, followed by a quick trip home for a fifteen-minute dinner, followed by a return to the church for the Wednesday evening meeting, followed by a trip back home, followed by bed. So no post.

Thanks as always to Anonymous, who always notices my absences and appears to have become one of my very most Loyal Readers. Maybe I should put him/her over there on the right as LRN26. But I won't. I have a feeling good ol' Anon is already on that list somewhere.

Nothing interesting to report today. Got up, went to work (longish trip), worked, had a nice holiday luncheon with the group at a local Thai restaurant (great food, which I can still taste), worked a little more, and came home. Had dinner with Loyal Reader Number Two, with whom I am home alone this evening, Loyal Readers Numbers One and Four being at The Theater (they're seeing A Christmas Carol, I believe), watched The Mouse That Roared, and now we're watching Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. Excellent night at the movies, I must say.

This morning's long trip was at least partially due to a little truck accident. One of those execrable dirt-hauling trucks had apparently been driving way too fast, as usual, this time on a freeway entrance ramp. When I got there, it was lying on its side with dirt all over the ramp. It didn't directly affect freeway traffic, but it was slow anyway. Sigh. I hope the driver was unharmed and loses his license. Along with all the other jerks who drive those trucks. Or something like that.

Tomorrow's my off Friday. But I'm working. Sigh.

See you tomorrow.

Both sides now

Here's Loyal Reader Number One. From both ends. Picture taken at Calaveras Big Trees State Park.

Fine day today. I dragged out of bed at an extraordinarily early hour, but it was pretty much uphill from there. I had lunch with my old friend Al. He's doing fine - thanks for asking. I also went to Fry's and bought a new external drive for my Macintosh. It looks just like the Mini, has 500 GB, and even has powered hubs for USB and Firewire. Cool!

I pretty much spent the evening so far getting the new drive installed and getting Leopard installed on it. Now I'm waiting for my data from the Mac's internal drive to transfer over. Only fourteen minutes to go! Then I can start finding out what went wrong.

In the meantime, I'm using Loyal Reader Number Two's computer. He and Loyal Reader Number One are out at battle-axe, so it's free for the moment. I just hope there are some pictures on it. We'll all know in a minute or two.

In fact, I'll look for one right now. Stand by.

I'm back. There don't appear to be any pictures on this computer at all. I'll have a wait a few minutes until my machine wakes back up.

In the meantime, I'll see you tomorrow.

Wide stance

Here's Loyal Reader Number Twelve taking a good wide stance. The better to drink her bottle with. Photo courtesy of Loyal Reader Number Five.

Fine day today. I got a few things done and got a little closer to getting a few other things done, so I can't complain.

The weekend was similarly fine but unnotable for anything in particular. I did some of the things (museum, the first two tutorials, and Sunday School prep) I mentioned last Friday. Others (the mousebot and the last of the tutorials) will have to wait.

And it's just about time to jacuzzify for home evening activity, so I'm outta here. See you tomorrow.

Watching the Tabs

Here's Loyal Reader Number Twelve watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. She's certainly a great art lover for such a young age. And they seem to be having an enlightening effect on her. Photo courtesy of the exclusive RAZR Junk-o-Cam.

The weekend is here! We started it in fine fashion by going to Loyal Reader Number Two's Christmas organ concert. He did a great jeorb! His piece was definitely the best one. And I say that with complete objectivity.

I don't know the weekend's plans yet. I do know Loyal Reader Number Four is in charge of a Relief Society activity in the morning. Good luck, LRN4!

I also know we're going to the Haggin museum.

I also hope to work through the Android tutorials.

I also hope to get my mousebot working.

I also need to prepare my Sunday School lesson (substituting for the sick substitute again).

So I guess I do know the weekend's plans. Cool.

And there's nothing else to talk about tonight. See you on Monday.

Big tree

Here's Loyal Reader Number Four and a really big tree. Taken at our last campout, of course.

No post yesterday. The Morrowlife blog was off the air! It turns out that the modem quit (for the second time in about a week!) and when Loyal Reader Number One reset it, it changed IP addresses on us. I had to get into my DNS service and reset it. Which reminded me I need to get the automatic DDNS service working again. Sigh.

By the way, I missed the no-post post from Anonymous. Where are you, Anon?

The work week from heck is winding down, and tomorrow should be an easy one. Let's see, I had an all-day gummint audit on Tuesday (went fine, as far as I know), an all-day technical coaching seminar on Wednesday (went longer than scheduled, but was useful), and spent all the live-long day giving people their performance appraisals today. I have one more to do tomorrow morning and I'll be done! I also got some monetary awards for people into the computer this afternoon, which I hope to hand out tomorrow. Busy, busy, busy.

Speaking of monetary awards, I got two today! One from each of my bosses. I'm not exactly sure they knew about each other's award, but I'm okay with that. One of them gave me the money for getting some good things done this year, and the other one gave me the money basically for putting up with the first one all year. I won't say which was which.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to putting the money to good use. Don't know how yet. Maybe I'll buy a new car.

Speaking of which, I need to buy a new car next summer, but for the first time in my life, I can't think of a single one I want. Nothing being made by anybody interests me in the slightest. And that's a scary feeling. Any thoughts from my Loyal Readers on a new car I might like better than the ones I already have?

Or maybe I'll buy a new computer. A Mac Pro might be nice, or maybe a MacBook or MacBook Pro. Or maybe not.

Or maybe I should spend it on gum and candy instead.

Anyway. Time for sour cream chocolate chip pie. See you tomorrow.

UPDATE: Happy birthday, Loyal Reader Number Nine!

Steam

Here's the Greenfield Village train coming 'round the bend. It was fun to watch it.

Long day at work today, but it went reasonably well. Tomorrow will be another long one, though, and probably the day after. Sigh.

On the positive side, I got home at 6:30 tonight and have enjoyed a nice evening at home with Loyal Reader Number Four. The boys are away at Battle Axe lessons. We had a nice dinner and have been watching Monk and The Closer on TV - recorded them the other night.

And I have to get up at 4:00 again tomorrow. See you then.

Splash

Here's a scene leftover from summer, featuring Loyal Reader Number Twelve, as usual.

Extremely short shrift tonight. I didn't get home for work until about 7:45, we still haven't have home evening, and I have to get up tomorrow morning at 4:00 to make it to work in time for the day's activities. I'm pretty busy right now.

So let's recap the weekend. We started putting up decorations on Friday (haven't quite finished yet, but the Loyal Readers are working on it during the day). Went to the temple Saturday morning with our friend Michael and his parents. He's going on a mission to South Africa soon - very exciting.

After the temple, Loyal Reader Number Four and I went to Daly City, where we met Loyal Readers Numbers One, Five, and Twelve. Loyal Reader Number Six was at work. We hung around there for a little while, went to lunch, and went on to a church building in Palo Alto, where there was a really great creche exhibit. You don't normally expect too much from such an event, but this was really high quality and surprisingly spiritual. Highly recommended, although it's closing in two days. It'll be back for a week next Christmas. Even though it's a long drive from here, we might put it on the Christmas calendar every year.

Sunday was full of meetings, and then we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, which was very nice (or so I hear, I couldn't exactly stay awake for the whole thing, but it was a great nap too).

Haven't heard how LRN6 is enjoying his job, nor how LRN12 is enjoying her daycare. Hopefully, both are enjoying it. Fortunately, LRN5 seems to be enjoying her new job. They certainly have a lot of changes going on right now.

Great news! The Morrowlife Financial Juggernaut has made its first ten cents! Nothing can stop me now. For details, see the Commerce section over there on the right.

Well, the Loyal Pet's bath is over, so it's time for FHE. See you tomorrow.