Readers with Brigham

Here's a group of Loyal Readers hanging around with Brigham Young. He's the bronze-colored guy in the back. Picture taken during yesterday's drop-off session. Part of my famous Statue series.

Extreme Short Shrift tonight. It's late already.

Visited Loyal Reader Number One once more. We dropped off his suit and visited for a little while. He's having a great time, has met lots of people, and is already incredibly busy. Have a great semester, LRN1! We'll miss you. We miss you already.

Also visited Loyal Reader Number Four's aunt and her husband (which I guess makes him her uncle, or at least step-uncle, but since her original uncle, who passed away unexpectedly a while ago, wasn't a blood relative either, the current uncle is just as much an uncle as the late uncle. Or something like that.) and had a great time. He's very friendly, witty, and a genuinely nice man. She's also a family favorite.

Otherwise, slept, ate, and relaxed. Appropriate for vacation. Worked on our hosts' desktop computer a little more. There's still more of that to finish up tomorrow, along with a good amount of car maintenance I hope to accomplish. We'll see. There's also a visit and lunch with LRN4's dad and stepmom and LRN4's dinner out with friends from Virginia, which I may have mentioned I'm not invited to. Sheesh.

Anyway. See you tomorrow.

BYU campus

Here's a postcard-type view of part of the BYU campus. That greenhouse-looking structure on the left is part of the library. Taken today while we were dropping Loyal Reader Number One off at school.

That's right, LRN1 is now an official college student. We got him into the dorm at 9:00 or 10:00 or so, did a little walking around campus, had lunch together, and then left. He had a bunch of orientation stuff this afternoon and evening. We're hoping he's having a great time. Classes don't start until next Tuesday, so he has plenty of time to get set up and familiar with the place.

Otherwise, very little happened today. I've been working on degunking a couple of our hosts' computers and enjoying that. The laptop's now done - it's working great. I'm working on the desktop now. It's in much better shape to start - it will boot, for example - but there's a bunch of HP-installed garbageware and some things they no longer need, so there's still work to do. The biggest challenge will be to get McAfee off of there. I'm going to replace it with AVG, which has a much smaller footprint.

More visiting coming up the next couple of days, and then we're off for home. Have to go down to Provo again - LRN1's suit got left in the closet, and he'll definitely be needing it. We'll be happy to visit with him one more time before we go.

Today's Morrowlife controversy: Is this guy the lamest criminal ever? My answer: Definitely. Note to self - when taking hostages, find somebody else to do my shopping.

Time to be with the family again. See you tomorrow.

Under the bridge

Here's the view from another of our Clark's Fork geocache locations. This was on an old depression-era highway bridge. The bridge has been replaced by a bigger, better one, which is about three feet away. The old one is still cool-looking and the view of the river underneath is spectacular. As you can see. Part of my Camping series.

Nice day. I worked on our hostess's laptop computer this morning - it wouldn't boot and hadn't ever been connected to their home network. I reinstalled the operating system from its secret partition and have been working on getting it set up ever since. It's been trying to download Service Pack 2 for the past hour or more. I have no idea how much more time it'll need. There are probably numerous updates to install after that, too. Good thing we're here all week.

I also ran the PC Decrapifier on it. It worked pretty well at getting rid of the pre-installed junk. Highly recommended.

Anyway. I was finally persuaded to put the computer aside for a little while and go do a little siteseeing. We went to the Church Museum of History, Temple Square, and the Conference Center. There was a poorly-attended organ concert in the Conference Center - there were probably about twenty people there. The church's organists do two performances daily, and have for many years. They're now doing one in the Tabernacle and one in the Conference Center, which is the one we attended. Highly recommended. We stopped inside the Tabernacle for the first time since its recent renovation. It looks about the same as before, but better. The General Authority seats and podium are missing and have been replaced by a stage, but I assume they're portable and can be brought back in when needed.

The museum was very nice, as always. It was lightly attended too. I guess the prime summer tourist season is over at this point. Anyway, we had seen most of the exhibits before, but I particularly enjoyed the small American Indian collection, the exhibits of Tabernacle artifacts, the collection of Temple Square photographs, and the Presidents of the Church exhibits. They had an exact copy of the podium in the Conference Center, made from President Hinckley's walnut tree like the original.

And I forgot my camera, so there's no new Great Art. Don't panic, Loyal Readers. I'll get some tomorrow. And the day after. But I missed some wonderful opportunities. I did shoot a couple of pictures on the exclusive, low-resolution RAZR-cam. They'll have to wait until we get home, though - I don't have the right cable for it here and this computer doesn't speak Bluetooth.

We have a new Loyal Reader! A casual look over there on the right will reveal that Austin has signed on to the Morrowlifestyle. Welcome, Loyal Reader Number Twenty-Seven! As soon as I take his picture, he'll have his own Very Special Day.

Here's some good news for egg lovers - we can eat them every day without feeling guilty! Happy days are here again!

Loyal Reader Number One checks in to college tomorrow. Exciting day for him! I'm really going to miss having him at home, but we're all really excited for his new adventure. And things aren't like they were when I first went away to college. Email is immediate and long distance phone calls are free. Big difference right there.

Later in the week, we're hoping to hit a Church Distribution Center and visit the This Is The Place monument. We also have some old friends from Virginia to visit. Well, at least Loyal Reader Number Four does. I don't think I'm invited to the party. Harumph.

Mountain peak

Here's Loyal Reader Number One at Clark's Fork last week. Special low-res picture courtesy of the exclusive RAZR-cam. Part of my Camping series.

Greetings from Draper, Utah! We got here this afternoon after a smooth, quick trip. The truck ran perfectly, the weather was great with the possible exception of a fairly stiff breeze, and we enjoyed being together.

The Utah branch of the family is doing well. We've been enjoying chatting all evening. They should really be in bed by now, but that's not my problem, is it?

Had a great campout this weekend. As discussed earlier, we went to Clark's Fork again. What a beautiful place! It's in the Sierra Nevada just a little more than two hours away from home, up above 7,000 feet, and north of Yosemite. There's a pretty little river that runs through it. And lots of spectacular mountains. Wow.

Today's controversy: Are you pro- or anti-nun-beauty-pageant?

The fun continues, so the bloggage must stop for the night. Much more tomorrow.

See you then.

Odd faces

Here's one more look at that bizarre statue in downtown Sacramento. I have no idea how much they paid for this, but they didn't get their money's worth. Poorly-lit photo courtesy of the exclusive RAZR-cam. And part of my famous Statue series, of course.

The pickup's here! Well, not exactly here. Technically, it's in Sunnyvale right now. It's waiting for me to get home from my various vacations. I do have the key and the owner's manual here, though. Already read the manual. Of course.

I like the truck very much. It needs to be detailed inside and out, but everything works great and it will look great soon.

Vacation starts tomorrow. No posts Thursday or Friday - they haven't extended the Intertubes into the woods yet, as far as I know. Posting will probably be limited next week, although I expect our non-Loyal-Reader relatives in Utah will have some kind of network to which we can connect. If so, there will be posts. If not, you're on your own, Loyal Readers. Stay tuned.

And there's not much more to say tonight. Had a nice day. Commuted, worked, ate, participated in a panel discussion, ate, worked, commuted, ate, read the owner's manual, ate, and watched a little TV. The usual.

Have a great weekend. See you ... umm ... soon.

River

Here's a river. Picture taken . . . umm . . . somewhere in California. It was certainly a beautiful place, wherever it was. Part of my Camping series.

How nice to hear from Loyal Reader Number Sixteen yesterday. It was the Great Art that did the trick, as usual.

Bought a truck today. It's a 2001 Ford Ranger (link note: this isn't the actual truck, but it looks just like this one). It's an extended cab XLT with all the normal power stuff (windows, locks, mirrors, etc.). It has the 3.0 liter engine with automatic transmission. Not much power - 150 ponies - but it'll be okay. It's in great - though not perfect - shape and was an absolute steal. I'm planning to pick it up tomorrow. It will stay in Sunnyvale and be my station car. It can come home when a pickup is needed, of course.

The Taurus is going to Loyal Reader Number Three, if he wants it and will come get it. He'll decide within a few days, I expect. Otherwise, it will probably go as a gift to our non-Loyal-Reader friends here in Lardville. If they want it. Otherwise, we'll sell it or something. Loyal Reader Number One might be slightly sad to see his first car go, but he has indicated he expects the trauma to be slight. I remember being delighted to get my first car (link warning - very hard to hear commercial audio) and even more delighted to see it go.

Today's controversy: Who could have seen this coming? My answer: Me. And you. And just about every other living being, including plants. But not the press. By the way, didn't somebody already 'fess up on his deathbed to making up the whole Sasquatch thing? Of course, Yetis are a completely different story. They're totally true.

See you tomorrow.

Shooting

Here's Loyal Reader Number Eighteen helping to put down a rebellion. Good work, LRN18! We have high hopes for the Union.

I have no memory of the weekend, so it will be a little hard to report. Except that the high priests group social was an unqualified success. Which I guess makes me an unqualified host.

Also, I vaguely recall staying up way too late every night. One of those nights, I was getting my Sudoku-solving program running. It's just a command line thing, but it solves at least one puzzle. Remaining work: make the puzzle input file name a command line argument, test it against a bunch more puzzles, and clean it up for publication on Gardenville. And publish it, of course.

Sunday was As Usual. Loyal Reader Number Two did a musical number with a non-Loyal-Reader friend. She played the flute, he played the piano. Her performance was very nice. His was flawless. Great job, LRN2! Also, choir has started back up. The group was small but fun, and we started a nice song we're going to perform in September.

Plans for spinfo.info are coming along well. Rather than going to the trouble of actually making any products, I'm planning to make tons of money simply by generating a lot of Internet buzz. The idea is to make my site extremely valuable simply because of all the traffic it gets. Then I sell the site. To that end, I'm planning to make a bunch of spinfo t-shirts. The first one will go to Loyal Reader Number Three as part of my sponsorship package of his archery efforts. He's gotten on the ASU Archery Team, and apparently he can get sponsorships. So I'm sending him five bucks and a t-shirt. Fortunately, he works cheap. The juggernaut rolls on!

LRN3 is our immediate family's first Student Athlete at the collegiate level (link note: There's absolutely no proof that LRN3 is that tall "X" guy in the middle. None whatsoever.).

Today's Morrowlife controversy: Should the mayor of this Australian town have chosen his words a little more carefully? My opinion: Oh, yeah.

Time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Ford's boathouse

Here's Henry Ford's boathouse. It doesn't look much like a boathouse, what with the lack of water, but it's a boathouse. See if you can spot where they filled the watery spot in.

No post yesterday. I had an appointment in the evening, got home late, and didn't have much to say.

Still don't have much to say. Not my favorite week.

So I'll leave you with this. Are these people nuts? Or just crazy.

See you on Monday.

Another picker

Here's Loyal Reader Number One having at that cherry tree. It appears he didn't get the full "in the tree" experience like Loyal Reader Number Two did. Too bad for him.

Nothing to report today. I got up, commuted, worked, commuted, ate dinner, and here I am.

I've been watching the seventh season of Home Improvement. Loyal Reader Number Six loaned me his entire collection, consisting of seasons one through eight - the entire show. I've never seen any of the shows before, and I've generally enjoyed them. Until season number seven. I think they've run out of scripts. They're obviously trying to be "edgy," but it turns out to just be "stupid." And of course they're tackling The Issues. Very disappointing. Shut up and sing, guys. I'm expecting Tim to waterski-jump over a giant shark (link warning: video and sound of Fonzie actually jumping over a shark) any minute now. Sheesh.

Anyway. I've moved on to much better things iPod-wise: I'm now in the middle of Attack of the Giant Leeches. Now that's good entertainment. I'd love to see the MST3K version.

Wait a minute - I think I found a copy. I'll let you know later.

Time for peppermint ice cream. See you tomorrow.

Cherry picker

Here's Loyal Reader Number Two picking some cherries. Looks like fun, no?

Extreme Short Shrift today. I had to go to the dealer and pick up the Honda. It seems to be going straight now. Thanks for asking.

I'll leave you with today's Morrowlife controversy: Do you care even as much as one iota about the Olympics? If so, are there any events worth watching? My answers: No and curling, which isn't even available in the Summertime version. Feh.

One more controversy: Do you think doing the elevator trick in today's first link is ethical? My answer: No, not really. It's pretty childish, but I think we all have to admit it's tempting to try it.

See you tomorrow.

Road locomotive

Here's a locomotive without any tracks. Picture taken at Greenfield Village. Part of both my famous Train series and my famous Machinery series. You're welcome for the twofer.

Well. There's been quite a reaction to Friday's Great Art, starting with Loyal Reader Number Three's suggestion that Grandma teach the kid to skitch and ghost-ride (whatever those are) and going right through Loyal Reader Number Twenty-Four's non-written comments to me regarding knowing who the friend was on Saturday afternoon. Or was that yesterday? Time goes so quickly on weekends, doesn't it?

Anyway, if I can figure out what skitching and ghost-riding are, I might start doing them. Probably not, though. Just guessing there.

Update: I found out what ghost-riding is. I had suspicions. I don't think I'll start doing it.

Another update: I found out what skitching is. I also had suspicions about this. Ditto on starting to do it.

Those things sound like so much fun, don't they?

Thank goodness for Wikipedia, Loyal Readers.

Anyway. Fast-moving weekend. It was over before we knew it. The Loyal Readers got home from the Scout encampment on Saturday. They had a great time. Emphasis on the great. I'll let them tell about it in the comments. If any.

Loyal Reader Number Four and I didn't do much while the boys were away. Quiet few days. We had our young friends the triplets over to play games and swim on Saturday. Their house had suffered a broken pipe and their parents and LRN24 needed to get some work done around the house. We had a nice time.

Since Saturday was one of the six most special days of the year, we celebrated that evening. What was the special occasion? Loyal Reader Number Two's birthday, of course. He got a razor. And not a moment too soon.

We had a power outage later Saturday evening, right while we were watching Psych. The power stayed out for about an hour and a half. After the first five minutes, Loyal Reader Number One and I went out and started the generator. We plugged in a light and played some games. Had a nice time. In some ways, it was even better than watching television.

Sunday was quiet and peaceful. Just like I like it.

Took the Honda to the shop this evening. They're going to try the front-end alignment one more time. Wish them luck, Loyal Readers. Really. I need them to be lucky.

Hope your weekend was as good as mine. Time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Sleeping friend

Here's a young non-Loyal-Reader friend having a little nap on the sofa in our loft. He obviously needed the rest. That's a kid who knows how to spread out. The pillow and blanket look to be doing him a lot of good, don't they?

It's (obviously) time for more Great Art. I'll take the camera on the camping trip and to Utah, of course. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities both places. I could probably do a little more mining of my current stash of photos as well. Have no fear, Loyal Readers. The Great Art just keeps on coming.

No post yesterday. It was Thursday Meeting Night and I ran out of time. Sorry about that, Loyal Readers. But I guess it wasn't much of a hardship for most of you, since I haven't heard from Anon for quite a long time. Although I was gratified to see some lasagne-related comments the last couple of days from Loyal Readers Numbers Three and Five.

Disaster! The Blog went down again today. I know what's going on, but I don't know why. Comcast seems to be changing my IP address daily. Maybe they're doing it in an effort to discourage web servers. I have to admit it's a bit discouraging to be brought down two days in a row. But I have instituted a fix that will (or won't) prove itself when the IP address changes again. My server is now automatically checking the IP address every fifteen minutes and updating my DNS server when it changes. So the blog shouldn't go down for more than fifteen minutes from here on out. We'll see how well it works, won't we?

Well, today was possibly the most interesting day of the year, date-wise. It was 08/08/08. Won't see another one like it. Until 09/09/09. I made sure to date everything I signed today.

Controversy of the day: did this woman deserve to be arrested and charged with child abuse? After all, she was going at "snail speed." And she was holding the kid's arm the whole time. What could be more caring than that?

Have a great weekend.

Powerhouse controls

Here's the control panel in Henry Ford's powerhouse. I guess if I had enough money to buy literally anything I wanted, I might get a power generating plant. Why not?

Greetings from the train. I've been riding a lot lately - it's so much cheaper now - but haven't been doing much writing onboard. I need to make better use of the time, though, and maybe reduce some evening computer time at home. There's lots of writing to be done - stuff for the HRVA, articles for Gardenville (working on a short one now, in fact), to name just a couple - and I could stand to fritter just a little less.

I took the Suburban to Sunnyvale today to leave it at the station on that end. That'll allow me to get to work a few minutes more quickly in the morning, leave the office about half an hour later in the afternoon, and have an emergency ride home in case I miss the last train. Or if I choose to take the late bus, for which there is no shuttle service. Plus, it'll be nice to have a car at the office when I need it. I'm hoping it turns out to make the train trip much more pleasant. If it does work out, I'll swap it for the Taurus after Loyal Reader Number One abandons it.

Speaking of which, I definitely want to make one of these. And definitely check out that website.

In spite of the need to get more done on the train, I do enjoy my podcasts. I've been enjoying a couple of new ones - one is a vodcast called Jigsaw. It's a difficult-to-describe sock puppet comedy show. It's better than it sounds. Have a look.

LRN1 is off to the LDS encampment. It's being held on a farm a little more than an hour away from Lardville. He took off this morning, and Loyal Reader Number Two is going up tomorrow. They had the priests go up a day early to help finish setting up. LRN1 was able to call this afternoon to request that LRN2 bring him some additional equipment, and he reports that the place is really cool. They've got high-adventure stuff galore: scuba in a pool, rock wall climbing, horseback riding, a water slide, and tons of other stuff. They're going to have live musical entertainment (an LDS group, but still), at least one motivational speaker, and an apostle. LRN1 sounds really excited about it. I'm looking forward to hearing about it when they get back. Have a great time, Loyal Readers!

In the meantime, Loyal Reader Number Four and I will be on our own for a few days again. Just us and the eleven Loyal Pets. We have no exciting plans. In fact, I have to work on my off Friday this week. Still, it ought to be quiet again.

Not that it's particularly noisy when the Loyal Readers are at home.

We have a camping trip scheduled. We're going up to Clark's Fork again. We'll go a couple of Thursdays from now, stay through Saturday, have a little birthday party for LRN2 Saturday evening (two weeks after his birthday, but it's the only opportunity), go to church on Sunday, and leave for Utah on Monday for our fun-filled week of dropping LRN1 off at school. We'll come home on Saturday and go to church on Sunday. Then it's Labor Day. That'll be twelve days away from the office, including the weekends, at a cost of only six days of vacation. Pretty good deal.

Anyway. I'm looking forward to the campout. We were up there last year and it was beautiful. Probably will be again this year. This time I'll remember to write it up for the HRVA.

Morrowlife controversy followup: It looks like Kirby's getting a little fallout. He can't say he wasn't warned. Assuming he reads the Morrowlife blog, that is. But everyone does, of course.

The blog was down for part of the day today. The server got a new IP address and I needed to update my DNS server. Things are back to normal. No comments on yesterday's controversy, though, so I'll let it stand for one more day. What's your opinion on the Lasagne Registration issue?

See you tomorrow.

Tram view

Here's the view from our tram ride through Yosemite. That place is just dripping with Great Art.

Short Shrift again tonight. This time I spent the evening listening to 70s music. It was worth it. They made some pretty good stuff back then. Of course, they made some pretty bad stuff too. Loyal Reader Number Four and I heard some stuff we hadn't heard in a long time. Also some stuff we don't want to hear again for another long time.

So I'm already out of time. Fortunately, there's nothing to report.

So I'll leave you with a lame controversy: should lasagne be strictly regulated by the government?

See you tomorrow.

Ford's fireplace

Here are Loyal Readers Numbers One and Two in front of Henry Ford's fireplace. Pretty nice piece of wood. Picture taken in the ballroom at Fairlane.

Short Shrift. I had time to blog and watched this week's Monk instead. It wasn't bad. Natalie became the Lottery Girl. And a couple of people got murdered. Fortunately, Natalie and The Captain weren't guilty. You're welcome.

Saturday was as bad as predicted. I spent much more time in the car than at work, my folks weren't in the lab when I was able to be there, and my arms and neck got sunburned. Pity me, Loyal Readers.

Sunday, on the other hand, was restful.

Oh, the good thing that happened on Saturday was that Loyal Reader Number Four got back from camp. She had a medium time, which is not as good as hoped but better than feared. Next year needs to be better, though.

Other news later. See you tomorrow.

Little house

Here's another one of my famous Train series: the little house on the pampa. Picture taken with the famous RAZR-cam. As if you couldn't tell.

Fascinating comments on yesterday's exclusive Morrowlife Controversy. I'll leave the question standing for the weekend - how would my Loyal Readers put the technology behind the StupidFilter to good use? Or expand it. Or repurpose it to something else entirely. I think there's money to be made public service to be performed here.

What a work week! I worked like a dog. And not one of those spoiled house dogs like Loyal Pet Number One. I'm talking about a mangy old sled dog. Or maybe one of those sniffer dogs at the airport. Or one of those terribly abused German Shepherds stuck in the bed of a tailgate-free speeding pickup truck in Texas. Or something like that.

Anyway. The weekend's here. Loyal Reader Number Four will be back tomorrow! And I'll be at work. For very little reason. My boss thinks I ought to "show the flag" because we're encouraging a few people to come in over the weekend. I have no part of the work they'll be doing tomorrow, of course. On the positive side, I'm charging them for my time. And the traffic should be relatively light. And I'll enjoy the drive in the Miata. And I have tons of stuff to do at work that isn't getting done. But I'd much rather be at home. If it will really make these folks feel better about being there (for a hundred bucks an hour or so), I guess I can do it. But let's not make a habit of it. And when is my boss getting that transfer she's been hoping for?

Loyal Readers Numbers One and Two and I had to cancel our camping plans for tonight. We're still going out for breakfast tomorrow morning, though. They can't take that away from us.

Otherwise, all is well. I'm going to quit now and suggest to the Loyal Readers that we take a dip in the jacuzzi. Hope your weekend is even better than mine's shaping up to be. See you on Monday.