Pilot

Here's definitely the last of the playground pictures. But she's so cute, the Great Art is easy. If I feature any more, I'll have to make them part of a famous Series. Soft-focus picture courtesy of the famous Treo-cam.

The real puzzle is why I'm not getting any comments from Loyal Reader Number Sixteen. She used to be a sucker for Loyal Reader Number Twelve. Must not be reading too loyally right now.

Long post yesterday, short post today. And no posts on Thursday or Friday - we'll have no connection.

Not my favorite day - I had a large conflict with one of my former subordinates, which I hate. Sigh.

Otherwise fine. No rain today, but we're expecting it tonight and tomorrow. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday look fine, so the campout isn't immediately endangered.

Lots still to do to get ready for the trip. I'll make a list early tomorrow morning and start working it off.

Nice to see a few updates on Loyal Reader Number One's blog. I'm interested in trying some of that cookies and cream milk. Sounds delicious.

See you tomorrow.

Heading down

Here's Loyal Reader Number Twelve going down the slide. Yes, I know I said I was through with that topic. But it was so much fun. And she's so cute. And I don't feel like looking for another picture. Picture courtesy of the exclusive Treo-cam.

Ouch! My aching back! I have a sore muscle on the left side of my lower back. It's been there for weeks and doesn't show any signs of getting better yet. I think I need to lie in bed for a day or two. Or maybe I could lie in my hammock at this week's campout.

Speaking of which, we still don't have the trailer back. We went over on Saturday, as predicted. We were disappointed to learn that it wasn't ready. We gave them a few words of encouragement and went home to wait. They never called. Loyal Reader Number Four reports that she called and found out it's done now. We'll go get it on Wednesday. Hopefully, they balance out their pokey pace with excellent work.

The Truly Great News of the weekend is that the rocket launcher is working!! Double exclamation mark!! Loyal Reader Number Two and I did a bunch of experimenting and finally came up with setting the table saw to cut a groove in a tube for the o-ring. We got the exact right depth, making it easy to put the rocket on the launcher while ensuring a perfect seal. We're planning to take the launcher and a bunch of supplies camping with us so we can work on some designs.

Let's see, did anything else get done? Oh yeah, we put down some badly-needed weed killer on the lawn. Ummm . . . Went over to the home of our friends Jim and Kathy for dinner and games Saturday night.

I taught the lesson in Priesthood on Sunday. Thought it went well. At least there was some good discussion.

The Gardenville software website and email service are back! Stupid Vizaweb.

We're going out to dinner again tonight, this time to a good Chinese restaurant with our friends Bill and Carol. He's our home teacher and one of my valued associates in the Group Leadership. Looking forward to it.

I tried for the second time to read a book on the history of the California state parks. I bought it several months ago at a library book sale. Can't recall the title right now. Also can't recommend it. I consider myself to be a state park lover and a big history fan, so it would take quite a lot to produce a history of state parks I didn't like. This author succeeded. The book is jam-packed with irrelevant, uninteresting facts in three columns per page of tiny print with small, sparse photographs. Every conceivable name and date is included. Sadly, in order to fit in all those facts, the author had to leave out the story. I threw the book away.

Loyal Reader Number One reports that he's delighted with his new job. Good to hear.

More good news! I just checked and found out the Morrowlife financial juggernaut has made $11.04! Interestingly, once you get above ten bucks you have to verify your address and phone number. I verified the phone number tonight and will verify the address as soon as the letter they sent me comes. Less than ninety dollars to go before I get my first check. I wonder what I'll spend the money on.

Anyway. Time for other things. See you tomorrow.

View enjoyer

Here's Loyal Reader Number Two enjoying the view at Yosemite. Part of my famous Camping series.

Okay workday. Nothing too exciting, but nothing too depressing, either. Most of the day was spent in meetings (sigh) and giving performance appraisals to people. Several more of those left to do next week.

The train was half an hour late this afternoon. The one in front of us broke down outside of Livermore and had to wait for us to catch up with it so we could push it home. I'm glad I wasn't on the earlier train - it was an hour and a half late.

In today's toilet news, they're now classified as Great Art! Now, that's my kind of museum.

The weekend is once again upon us. I'm sure there's plenty to do, but I frankly don't know what any of it is. I'm not planning to figure it out right now, either. The work will have to come to me this weekend.

One thing I know, though, is that we need to pick up the trailer from the shop. Oh, and I need to fix that doggone rocket launcher once and for all. And I should probably get a car washed.

I just checked the weather for the campout. It's supposed to be sunny to partly cloudy with highs in the lower sixties or upper fifties and lows in the upper forties. Not too shabby, although I could stand it a little warmer. Shouldn't complain, though, it being late November and all. We will have full hookups at the campground, so there will be no shortage of heat and light. And water and sewer, for that matter. I'm really looking forward to being there.

Spoke with Loyal Reader Number One for a few minutes this evening. He's doing well at school and greatly enjoying his new job. He has his own personal, private desk with a quite nice (Apple) computer on it, so what's not to like? He has nice co-workers, fresh-baked bread, bratwursts, and there's even a cot in the closet. He's thinking he could live there.

Which would be great! He could save big on housing expenses. In fact, he might not even have to work anymore! Of course, then he wouldn't have an office to live in anymore. So he'd have to move back into the dorm. And then he'd have to go back to work. So I guess he can't live there after all.

LRN2 is away at a friend's house for the night. Loyal Reader Number Four and I are on our own again. Not that that's a bad thing. Have fun, LRN2!

See you on Monday.

Pumpkin girl

Here's Loyal Reader Number Twelve getting ready for trick-or-treating. Photo courtesy of Loyal Reader Number Four.

Extreme Short Shrift tonight. And I mean it. It's after 9:30 and I just got home from the Thursday evening meeting. Very little time to blog.

We can't miss today's important toilet news, though. Apparently, somebody didn't appreciate World Toilet Day and went on a rampage. Is there anything lower than toilet arson?

Worked pretty hard, got a few things done. There's lots left over for Friday, though. I only have about four hours of meetings scheduled, so there should be some time to actually work. I can hardly wait.

As possibly my final look at last Saturday's playground activity, I offer the following exclusive Treo-cam lo-fi cinematic masterpiece:



Now what could be cuter than that?

I was hoping for some proposed Holiday Activities as comments to yesterday's post. Didn't get any, so I refer my Loyal Readers to yesterday's post. Is there anything anybody wants to do in Lardville over the holidays?

Loyal Reader Number Two and I made a few plans for the Thanksgiving Weekend campout. We're hoping to geocache, shoot the .22, and work on water rockets. Assuming, of course, I finally get the launcher working. Sigh. Back to work on it this Saturday.

Time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Sliding slider

Here's Loyal Reader Number Twelve on her way down the slide last Saturday, as the final part of my famous Playground Trilogy. Fuzzy picture courtesy of the exclusive Treo-cam.

Well, we're halfway through the week before the Thanksgiving week. I'm really looking forward to the four-day weekend, especially the three-days-in-a-campground part. Then there are three work weeks left before the two-week Christmas break.

Loyal Reader Number One has his airline reservations for the Holiday. Unless I'm very much mistaken, he'll be home on 16 December and is staying through 6 January. That involves leaving campus a little early and getting back a little late, but it cuts the price of the ticket by about half. So his loss is our gain, seeing as how we're buying the bargain-price ticket and he's figuring out how to take one final early and dealing with getting back on the first day of class.

Anyway. The Holidays are upon us and the Holiday Plans must be made. We need to dedicate our next Home Evening to this crucial task. I invite my remote-based Loyal Readers who will be in Lardville to provide inputs sometime this week.

So far, known activities will include:

• Decorating the tree & house
• Undecorating the tree & house
• Baking cookies
• Giving cookies away
• Eating cookies
• Film festival
• Game day
• Visit wacky lit-up house
• Museum trip
• Ward Christmas party
• Ritual human sacrifice
• First Presidency Christmas Broadcast
• Listening to my old-time radio Christmas collection
• Staying up too late
• Sleeping in too late
• Having fun

I can hardly stand the wait. Please, Christmas, don't be late.

In the meantime, there are things to do. For example, I'm teaching the lesson in Priesthood meeting on Sunday, which is one of my very favorite things to do. Haven't started preparing yet, though.

Got a call this morning from my buddy Jim. He invited Loyal Reader Number Four and me to join his wife, him, and another friendly couple for Mexican dinner and games this coming Saturday evening. Not Mexican games. Just games. We gladly accepted and are looking forward to the get-together.

I foolishly accepted an invitation to be in a quartet at the Stake Christmas Music Fireside. I'm happy to do it, but I need to practice. A lot. A whole lot. So far, nothing We're a couple of weeks away now and we haven't sung it even once. We haven't even heard it yet. I'm worried.

Happy World Toilet Day! I'm not sure I want to attend the celebration, though.

Vizaweb has disappeared again. It seems to happen every November. So, no Gardenville Software website or email - for now. At least I own the domain name now, so I haven't lost the site permanently. I can just rehost it to my own server. I'll give it a couple of days before I get excited about it.

No controversy, no poetry. See you tomorrow.

Slider

Here's Loyal Reader Number Twelve getting ready to go down the slide. Her baby (that's the object in her right hand) went down first and LRN12 followed. She had fun. We all had fun. Except for Loyal Pet Number One - she was tied to a tree.

Drove the Miata today. It was yet another warm, beautiful day and I wanted to do a little open-air motoring. It turned out to be pretty much perfect in the afternoon, and I kept the top up in the morning. The only minor problem was that I had put the top down during the afternoon when I had to go to another building for a meeting, and there was quite heavy dew on everything when I left the building this afternoon. It was on the inside of the windshield and took a little while to get out of there. Can't complain, though. Traffic was heavy in some places and light in others. Pretty average day, in other words.

Worked, ate, read, commuted, et cetera. Nice day.

More toilet news. Don't let the scammers fool you - let the toilet flush itself.

Speaking of which, I firmly believe there's a special spot in hell reserved for the worthless scum who steal from old people.

So there's that.

I've noticed that Loyal Reader Number One hasn't posted to his blog for a week or so. It's harder than it looks, isn't it, LRN1?

No controversy, no poetry. My Loyal Readers will have to be satisfied with the poetry in the comments.

See you tomorrow.

Dolphin rider

Here's Loyal Reader Number Twelve riding a dolphin. Which is something you don't see every day. Picture taken on Saturday at the park near the Secret Undisclosed Location. Picture also courtesy of the exclusive Treo-cam.

LRN12 came over for several hours on Saturday while her parents went to a movie and did some other things. She'd been asking to come to Grandma's house for a few days and they relented. The four of us (Loyal Reader Number Four, LRN12, Loyal Pet Number One, and I) walked over to the park for quite a while in the afternoon.

Otherwise, the weekend was fairly quiet. Saturday, I bought more stuff for the rocket launcher and then never got around to trying to fix it yet again. I'm discouraged. So much for my unbreakable oaths. We did a little shopping, picked up the Suburban (but not the trailer yet), got a new fish from our favorite pond store (a nice big koi - very pretty), and did a few other memorable things I don't remember right now.

Sunday was average. Lots of time at choir practice.

Toilet news continues to pour in. So to speak. In the latest episode, we learn of the dangers of a combination of pyromania and deodorization. Don't let this happen to you. Especially in a train.

And of course we can't forget Destiny's New Toilet. Yes, we're flush with toilet news.

Thanks to all my Loyal Readers who are participating in the Virtual Poetry Slam. Here's another entry:

Insightful comments
Great art and controversy
The Morrowlife blog

Or, if you don't like that one:

Inane, dumb writing
Today's Great Art is blurry
Why do I read it?

Take your pick. I like the first one, of course. Although I wrote both. So they're both Great Works of Art.

Today's controversy: Pick a poem. Choose wisely, Loyal Readers.

See you tomorrow.

Pool shark

Here's a rare appearance of Your Humble Webmaster, playing one of my favorite games at Baikonur. Loyal Reader Number One happened to mention his enjoyment of the game the other day, so I thought I'd hop on the bandwagon.

I hope all my Loyal Readers are following the virtual Poetry Slam (link warning: pathetic talking) I've got going in the comments section.LRN1 added an excellent Haiku yesterday. Keep the Great Word-Related Art coming, Loyal Readers.

Speaking of poetry, I downloaded the Haiku operating system last night and installed it on my virtual machine. It's a development of BeOS and appears to be basically a flavor of Unix. There's not much there, but it works. Slowly.

Fine day today, although I spent a good five hours working. The good news: I got all the performance appraisals done! I also rebuilt the water rocket launcher. It still doesn't work. It looks like it's an o-ring problem this time. I need to go back to Home Depot tomorrow and try a slightly smaller one. The trouble is that I might have cut the o-ring groove too deep for the new one and I'll have to do some more cutting and gluing. Sigh. I am determined to get that thing working right or die. Well, maybe "...get that thing working right or cry" would be a little more realistic.

No other accomplishments to speak of today. Although the night is still young. Maybe I can still do a little reading.

Watched a little bit of golf on TV while I was working. There was a women's tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico. Those ladies are really good. Golf is real easy to watch while you're doing something else. Probably because nothing much happens.

Following up on my recent series of transportation-related toilet issues, here's some news my Loyal Readers can almost certainly use. I wonder if some enterprising passenger was trying to kill the power with excessive flushing. Not generally a good idea on an airplane.

See you on Monday.

Tom and Monique

Here's Loyal Reader Number Twenty-Six and his non-Loyal-Reader spouse at the recent ward Halloween party. Question: What were they going as?

Moderately long day. As predicted, I got up at 4:00 to catch the uber-early train. I needed to put in a minimum of nine and a half hours, which was easily done in plenty of time for the 4:45 train. Home at 6:30.

Tomorrow's Off Friday! The trailer's going in to the shop early for brake and axle work. The water rocket launcher needs to be rebuilt to eliminate its unfortunate leak. I'm thinking of trying an o-ring for the bottle seal this time, as opposed to the heat-and-deform method I used before. Don't know whether I can produce a straight, even groove without the proper power tool, though.

Let's see, what else is on the weekend agenda? The pool and pond filters are probably good to go another couple of weeks. The lawn may need a quick trim - need to check it in the light tomorrow.

I definitely need to get some Work done. There's the normal preparation for and conducting of the 10:00 meeting, of course. There's the preparation for an upcoming financial audit. And then there are the Performance Appraisals. I'm WAY behind on those things, and we just got approval to hand them out next week. So I need to get them finished up. The Quiet Home Atmosphere should make it a lot easier to get through all those babies.

Heavy fog this morning, all the way from Lardville to Sunnyvale. Since both of my drives are on lightly-traveled secondary roads, I suffered no ill effects traffic-wise, and I certainly do enjoy a foggy morning.

Today's Morrowlife controversy: Are young musicians really smarter? And if so, do music lessons make you smarter or does intelligence make you a good musician?

Thanks to Loyal Reader Number Two for his excellent poetry the last couple of days. Recommendation: Try Haiku today.

See you tomorrow.

Trick or treat

Here's one more Halloween picture - Loyal Reader Number Twelve in her devil costume scamming a few handouts. Good job, LRN12!

Short work day. Got to work at 7:45 after working only half an hour on the train. Then I heard from Loyal Reader Number Four in the mid-afternoon, telling me my brother-in-law Ken was going to be in Lardville at 5:00. We had just approved an important software release, so I decided to head out on the 3:45 train. I should be home at 5:30.

I have no idea what I'll do with myself at home that early. I'm sure that as a family we can jointly think of something.

One thing I can definitely do with myself is get to bed early. Need to be up at 4:00 on the dot.

Let's see . . . what else is going on? Ummm . . . nothing.

No new controversy either. Feel free to generate something of your own.

No links either. Too late to search for them. Tomorrow's blog will be better.

See you tomorrow.

Sunnyvale sky

Here's the view across the parking lot as I walked out of work this evening. Fuzzy picture courtesy of the exclusive Treo-cam. Red sky at evening, sailor start . . . umm . . . grieving, I guess.

Happy Veteran's Day! It was a regular work day for me. No rest for us knowledge workers. And judging by the crowd on the train, it wasn't a free day for much of anybody around here. As many of my Loyal Readers are no doubt aware, I trade away almost all of the Federal holidays (other than the really big ones, of course) for the Christmas week. That's a trade I'll make any day.

Anyway. Getting back to veterans. Thanks to them all. Really.

Today's Morrowlife invitation: Find a veteran, shake his/her hand, look him/her in the eye, and give sincere thanks. I did it a few times today and don't regret it.

Today's Morrowlife Controversy: No controversy. Absolutely nothing controversial happened anywhere in the world today.

Thanks to my Loyal Readers for their helpful comments on the train/bathroom controversy. I think I'll go with Loyal Reader Number Five's idea. Loyal Reader Number Three also has a good thought, but the train's many windows don't open, alas. Loyal Reader Number One's idea, on the other hand, just has me a little worried.

Long day at work today. I had gone home an hour early yesterday for Home Evening purposes and needed to make up a little time, so I dragged out at 4:00 this morning and got here at 6:30. The downside: I got up at 4:00. The upside: the food truck was there and I got a nice, fresh 5-speed burrito. Yum. Also very filling and an excellent start to the day.

Left the office at about 5:15 this afternoon. That's the other downside. I'm thinking of proposing to my new boss that either I get credit for the hour-plus I put in on the train every day, allowing me to leave at 4:15 and arrive home at 6:30, or change my work hours to 6:30 - 4:15. The common thread here is a departure time of 4:15. I think my life would be better that way, don't you?

I also think I would be more productive, since I usually get more done early than late. We'll see what happens.

I've finally figured out how to get some work out of Fluffy. We'll make her our bird catcher!

Time for other things. See you tomorrow.

Jewelry

Here's Loyal Reader Number Twelve trying on her birthday jewelry.

Pretty decent weekend. I actually accomplished a few things! This is unprecedented.

Not much, though. Let's try and figure out what it might have been. Ummm. . . I cleaned the pool filters. They were pretty dirty, to the point that the vacuum wasn't doing much anymore. So that's something.

Also hung out with Loyal Reader Number Twelve for a few hours on Saturday. Her folks went to a housewarming where little kids weren't invited. Shocking! Anyway, we had a nice time together - played with Legos and babies, read a bunch of books, watched a little bit of Dora, had a snack, and took a nice, long, nap. Made for a thoroughly pleasant day.

I also spent some time trying to organize just a few things. I took care of a huge pile of books and put away a couple of other things. It's a start.

Speaking of putting things away, the Loyal Readers and I have decided we're sick of having so much stuff. We are ready to really clean the place out. As an incentive for ourselves, we've decided to sell all the junk and buy a solar heater for the pool. Wish us luck, Loyal Readers! And buy some of our old junk!

Normal busy Monday. No excitement, no complaints.

Today's Morrowlife controversy: Should I hold it on the train from now on? My answer: Nah. I like living dangerously.

In other news, there's finally something I like on MTV.

See you tomorrow.

Apple II

Here's another computer museum piece - an Apple II, seen at the Henry Ford Museum in a realistic-looking display. It's amazing how quickly computers go from hot stuff to museum pieces, isn't it. I've owned and/or worked on several machines I've seen in museums.

Fewer meetings than usual today, so I actually accomplished a few things. It was great! On the other hand, most of my afternoon was spent in a meeting.

Went to the Young Women's camp fundraiser (is it starting again already?), had taco salad, and participated in a silent auction. I got one thing - Loyal Reader Number Twenty-Four's chocolate pie. It's delicious. Loyal Reader Number Two bought a coffee cake. Maybe we'll try it at breakfast tomorrow. Thanks, LRN24 and soon-to-be Loyal Reader (link note: somebody should comment on this poor woman's blog - she needs encouragement) Number TBD!

Situation otherwise normal. As mentioned before, Loyal Reader Number Twelve is coming over to be babysat tomorrow mid-day. Loyal Reader Number Four will be gone for much of that time, so we'll just have to see how it goes. She'll either have a great time or a terrible time. I'm voting for great. We have books. We have cars. We have Legos. We have yogurt. What more could she possibly need?

Today's Morrowlife controversy: How many of these things have you personally said in normal conversation? My answer: With all due respect, I personally, at the end of the day, have absolutely said all of them. I know I shouldn't of, but it's not rocket science, you know. At this moment in time, it's a nightmare 24/7.

Here's yet one more reason to keep Loyal Pet Number Two's cage closed. You never know when she'll come after our pet kangaroo.

Dinner went long, then I read the new Reader's Digest (well, I read the jokes, anyway), then I came up to blog. So the evening is gone. See you on Monday.

Boulder

Here's Loyal Reader Number Twelve playing with her exclusive Birthday Boulder. It came with her toy front-end loader, which her dad likes a lot. Picture taken at her birthday celebration last weekend.

Short shrift tonight - it's Thursday meeting night. I'm composing this at the train station, so when I finally drag into the house slightly after 9:00, I expect to need only to sync the exclusive Treo, copy/paste into Blogger, add some Great Art, find a few links, and post. That's still plenty. As some of my astute Loyal Readers may have deduced, writing is the easy part.

Possibly great news! Dan, my train-riding colleague, reports that they were testing yet another version of WiFi on his home-bound train tonight. He sent me a couple of emails, which actually got through. There's hope! Still, they've gotten our collective hopes up before, only to dash them on the rusty old tracks of despair. So I'll hold off on the celebration until a working system is permanently installed and working. And I still might not believe it for a couple more years.

It would sure be nice, though.

Let's see, what else is going on? Loyal Reader Number Twelve is coming over for a solo visit on Saturday. Seems her Loyal Parents have an invitation to a Fancy Luncheon and she's not invited. The nerve! She'll rest comfortably in the Secret Undisclosed Location. Hopefully. She may rest loudly, but we'll give it our best shot. She's made it through a few hours of church with us in recent weeks, so we're hopeful.

No improved poems. Come on, Loyal Readers. At least try. I can see why you'd be intimidated by my poem's sheer awesomeness, but surely my clever, gifted Loyal Readers can come up with something.

I had a great idea the other day for putting a little lipstick on a pig. Loyal Reader Number Four was speaking in an aggravated manner about the nice folks at Safeway who have simultaneously reduced the quantity of yogurt in the single-serving container and raised the price. I figure they ought to be marketing such products as The Safeway Diet. They could claim that the smaller containers encourage you to eat less and the higher prices keep you from buying more. Hence, you lose weight.

I'm thinking of writing a new diet book, expanding on the concept. Rather than grousing at the grocery store, my book will thank them for their bold steps to help curb overeating in America! I'll be happy to sell copies to all my Loyal Readers. Full retail price, of course, but I'll sign your copies for only an extra dollar. Pre-orders are being accepted now!

That's about it for today. See you tomorrow.

Happy birthday

Here's Loyal Reader Number Twelve celebrating her second birthday. Which happens to be today. Happy birthday, LRN12! Picture taken this weekend when we were together, which is when we had our family celebration. Check out that cool new jewelry.

Average day. All meetings, all the time. I can't seem to get any of my own work done. And it's really starting to pile up. Sigh. My hope right now is for Friday - since people alternate off Fridays, we tend not to schedule many meetings that day. So there's hope.

At dinner tonight, Loyal Reader Number Two was mentioning some poetry work he's been doing in English class. I decided to help out by composing a brand-new, never-before-heard poem on the spot. With a few helpful suggestions from Loyal Readers Numbers Two and Four, here's what I came up with:

A hippo and rhino from France,
Put on their berets and black pants.
When forced to remove,
From their spot in the Louvre,
They said, "Why won't they give us a chance?"

I have to admit it's not my best poem, but I didn't have time to change it.

Today's Morrowlife Challenge: Improve my poem. All improved versions will be published on the actual Internet. As comments to the Morrowlife blog, of course, but that's still publication on the actual Internet. Fame and fortune will be yours. Just like they're mine.

Speaking of which, here's today's Morrowlife Financial Juggernaut update: I'm at $7.79! Made a penny just yesterday. I can feel the financial breakthrough just moments away.

News update: maybe holding hands isn't such a good idea after all. I'll chance it.

Here's an unfortunate headline: Skydiver Dies in Second Fatal Jump at Virginia Airport in 2 Months. Don't you think that skydiver should quit taking fatal jumps?

Yes, I know that's not really what they mean. But it sounds like it.

Can't find a controversy today. I guess the news people are too busy with election coverage, which I don't plan to touch with a twelve foot pole. The Morrowlife Challenge will have to be enough to keep my Loyal Readers' creative juices flowing until tomorrow.

See you then.

Ice cream guy

Here's the ice cream guy at Greenfield Village handing out an extra-large. Lactaid time.

Took a sick day today - my back is absolutely killing me and I needed to lie around.

Therefore, there's nothing new. I spent the day lying around.

So we'll go on to today's Morrowlife controversy: Should they crack down on space littering? My answer: Yes, but only if they deliver the summons in person.

Oh, I did manage to get to the library today. I had finished the book mentioned yesterday (it turned out fine - I'm giving it a provisional recommendation) and picked up a few new ones, including three by Dave Barry and Save the Males, by Kathleen Parker. I heard an interview with her and got interested, so I'm looking forward to reading it. After Dave, of course.

Still can't sit in this chair too long, so I'm off. See you tomorrow.

Apple bobbing

Here's the apple-bobbing booth at the recent ward Halloween party. Spooky.

No post last Friday. We had a little party and were busy. Happy Halloween.

Thanks to the many Loyal Readers who kept the blog going with their comments. Especially good old Anon.

We had a nice party, although few people attended. It was lots of fun - we played games, ate snacks, and gave candy to the moderately small number of trick-or-treaters. No costumes, good cheer.

With the notable exception of Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and Twelve. They were a cat, the Grim Reaper, and the Devil, respectively. All excellent costumes. LRN6 also did a bang-up job decorating the exterior of our house for us, including carving the pumpkins and cleaning it all up when Halloween was over. Really made it nice for us - thanks, LRN6!

He even had a bottle o' blood to pour on his Grim Reaper Hook. It's the little touches that make holiday fun so entertaining.

Otherwise the weekend was, umm, fine. I worked on the trailer brakes and didn't fix them, but I did discover a very badly worn out bearing that I replaced, so it wasn't a total loss. Plus, I have an appointment to take it to somebody who will fix it in a couple of Fridays.

Let's see what else I accomplished over the weekend. Hmmm. There must be something. Oh yeah, I prepared and taught a Priesthood lesson. I thought it went pretty well, although there wasn't enough time to really get to my point. On the upside, there wasn't any time because I got so much participation. So I'm satisfied.

Otherwise, it was quiet. I'm suffering a little bit this evening from a sore back, so it's still quiet.

I've spent many of my spare hours the last two days - including about three hours on the train today - reading Truck: A Love Story, by Michael Perry. I borrowed it several weeks ago from the library and hadn't bothered picking it up until yesterday. I got it right after I bought my pickup, and thought it might be entertaining to read about somebody's adventure restoring an old truck. While that's certainly a large part of the book, it's really about a year in the guy's life. I'm quite enjoying it and recommend it to my Loyal Readers as a deep insight into the Guy Psyche. Plus, there's a truck.

Here's something I've never realized I needed until today: the CatCam. In fact, I'm still not sure I need it. I don't think I want to know what my pet's doing when I'm not around. Might be too disturbing.

Time for bed. See you tomorrow.