Fishing people

Here are some folks looking for fish at Lake Chabot. Part of my famous Camping series.

Happy New Year's Eve! Like most people, I have no idea where the year's gone. There's been a little bad. And a whole lot of good. Overall, I can't complain.

Thanks to Anon for missing yesterday's post. I was working on Waterlogged until all hours of the night. Didn't get it done last night, but Loyal Reader Number One and I worked on it again today and got it fixed. Hooray! Everything's now on Godaddy and I won't be getting any more intrusion attempts. Larry's serving video for the loft's television. Life's good.

Only five more days before I go back to work and LRN1 heads back to school. And everything and everybody else gets back to normal. I'm kind of looking forward to the "normal" part. But not the "work" part. And definitely not the "LRN1 heads back to school" part.

I have a pretty long list of things I want to get done during the holiday. So far, so okay. I'm a little behind in the "Cleaning Up My Room" department, and not so great in the "working on the cars" department. I'm right up to snuff on the "messing around with computers" department, though. Priorities.

We're going to the Big Stake Dance this evening. For some reason, our excellent stake president has really wanted it to be a nice event, so he's had people working on it all year, including several dance practices. Ought to be pretty fancy. If I can stay awake. I've been up until all hours of the night nearly every night this vacation, and I'm exhausted tonight. I'll make it, though. Send me a few encouragement rays, Loyal Readers.

I've started reading Bernard Goldberg's Arrogance. It describes itself as a book about "rescuing America from the media elite." It's been a pretty quick read. It was written in 2003, so he misses a lot of material about media malfeasance, especially in the light of the recent election. He's pretty much right on the money prediction-wise, though. One interesting point he makes, though, is how fast the media will turn on one of their pet liberals when they come into conflict with somebody else higher on the pet liberal ladder. He cites the case of Tammy Bruce, the president of the Los Angeles chapter of NOW. She was very popular in her community of like-minded people and a darling of the media. Then she had some harsh words to say about O.J. Simpson's treatment of his ex-wife, starting with physical abuse while they were married, right up to her murder after their divorce.

The establishment didn't like that, and they didn't put up with it for one second. She was ostracized from her previous friends, and she became instant persona non grata with the media. I guess black men are higher up on the pet liberal ladder than white women.

For further evidence, see the case of Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama. She's still trying to figure out what happened.

Anyway. Entertaining book.

That's pretty much it for the year. Have a great and safe New Year's Eve. See you tomorrow.

Straddling pilot

Here's a guy out for a ride on one of them flying machines. His eyes bear mute testament to his slight level of discomfort at straddling that thing. Picture taken at the Hiller Aviation Museum. Part of both my famous machinery and statue series.

Great day at home. On the downside, off-week number two is 20% over. Sigh. On the upside, I rested like crazy, and actually got a few things done. Let's see, now. The pool filters are now clean, the leaves are picked up from the bottom of the pool, the Honda is clean, Larry's server files are moved over to Moe, an HDMI cable for Larry and a 1 terabyte disk drive for moe are on order, the workbench light power strip is back on the wall, new windshield wipers are on the Honda and the Sable (and will be on the Suburban tomorrow morning), the band of my new watch is more my size, and a lot of food has been consumed. Not bad for a day off.

Lots of things are on the schedule for tomorrow, but they're too boring to discuss here. Suffice it to say that I'll be as busy as a leisure-filled day will allow.

I just finished reading The Blight Way, Patrick F. McManus's first (as far as I know, anyway) murder mystery. Highly recommended. It's a delightful little murder mystery. No gore, no sex, no profanity. Just fun and a triple homicide to solve. Exactly what I expected from McManus, and exactly what I wanted. If I still have a Morrowlife book club, this would be this month's selection. I'm looking forward to reading McManus's other mystery book, as well as the one scheduled to come out next September. Not to mention his new book of humor columns.

Anyway. No other news. Having a great holiday. See you tomorrow.

Flight crew

Here are Loyal Readers Numbers One, Two, and Three in a rare joint appearance as the flight crew of a 747. Picture taken at the Hiller Aviation Museum. Part of my famous Machinery series.

Wonders of Blogger. Friday was game day, and we were having too good of a time for me to blog. Sorry about that, Loyal Readers. And special thanks to LRN1 for noticing.

Loyal Readers Numbers Three and Fifteen went home today. Sob. We had a great visit with them and were very sorry to see them go. The good news is that LRN3's job back at Fish and Game is a definite. He's still working on either getting a second part-time job or converting what he has into full-time, but this is an excellent start at a job he's very likely to enjoy as much as he did before.

Went to downtown San Francisco to see A Christmas Carol at the American Conservatory Theater. It was well done and we had a great time. The building itself was beautiful, which I always enjoy. The new TomTom guided us there and home flawlessly. It's pretty cool - I knew all along that as soon as I got a modern GPS, I wouldn't be able to live without it anymore. And I was right.

That's all for now. We have friends coming over tonight, and preparations must be made. See you on Monday.

Chopper mechanics

Here are Loyal Reader Number Four and one of her many colleagues working on an old Hiller helicopter. Part of both my famous Statue series and my famous Machinery series.

Merry Christmas! We had a great day. Lots of presents were given and received, new stuff was played with, video games were played, He-Man cartoons were watched (that show was so bad it was great), a new jigsaw puzzle was started (and will probably be finished tonight), and a general nice time was had by all. I'm sorry the day is over.

But it is, and I'm exhausted. We stayed up way late again last night, what with preparations for the holiday. We slept in quite late, but it still wasn't quite enough. Need more sleep tonight.

Tomorrow morning is shooting time (at the range down the road, that is) for the boys and shopping time for the girls. Except that some of the girls might be coming for shooting time too. I'm hoping it's not raining. The Weather Channel is calling for cool but mostly sunny weather. So there's hope.

I played with my TomTom for quite a while today - it's pretty cool. I never went out of the house other than the back yard, so I haven't actually used it to navigate anywhere, but I'm looking forward to trying it out in the car tomorrow. It locks on to satellites really easily and knows where all the roads are. I updated it online, and discovered you can put your own splash screens, voices, map updates, and lots of other stuff on it. I especially like the ability to do custom voices. I just might try that.

Also love my new Seiko watch. It's small and light, unlike the monstrosity I've been using lately.

Lots of other new stuff to talk about, but it's too late. See you tomorrow.

Aviator reader

Here's Loyal Reader Number Two ready for takeoff. Picture taken today in the gift shop at the Hiller Aviation Museum. He really wanted to buy this getup, but we talked him out of it. Maybe we should have let him get it thought - he looks pretty jaunty.

No Tuesday post. I forgot. Fortunately, we had a nice day.

Merry Christmas Eve! We had a nice day. Went to the aforementioned aviation museum (Hiller). Turns out there was a Hiller Helicopter company here in the Bay Area. It started out as a few teenagers making toy cars in their parents' garage. World War II broke out and the kids somehow got a military contract to build . . . ummm . . . something. I can't remember. Anyway, they quickly became helicopter pioneers. Pretty cool.

Otherwise, we relaxed at home, enjoyed each other's company, and watched A Christmas Story. Had our traditional lasagna dinner. It was even better than usual.

Speaking of which, there are a ton of leftovers around here. I'm having a hard time not overdoing it. As are several of my Loyal Readers.

Holiday greetings to Loyal Reader Number Seven, from whom we haven't heard in a while. Thanks for the kind note and we wish you and your family the best Christmas ever.

Same wishes to all my Loyal Readers. Thanks for making the Morrowlife blog the cultural and financial powerhouse it is today.

And it's time to get ready for Christmas. See you tomorrow.

Victorian lady

Here's a plasticky-looking lady in the Victorian Christmas Farmhouse, getting ready for Christmas. Picture courtesy of the exclusive Treo-cam. Part of my famous Statue series.

Great day! Loyal Readers Numbers Three and Fifteen arrived mid-day. We've been enjoying the day. Games are being played, computers are being worked on, shopping was done, wrapping is happening (and there's more to come), great food was eaten, cookies were baked, home teachers visited, Loyal Reader Number Twenty-Four spent much of the day, and . . . let's see . . . lots of other fun things happened. Oh, and I worked for a few hours. But we won't count that.

So my first official day off was a great one.

We've decided where to go on Christmas Eve. We're checking out the Hiller Aviation Museum. LRN3 has been requesting it for a few years now. Loyal Reader Number Five preferred the Asian Art Museum, but we think Loyal Reader Number Twelve might not do as well there this year. Maybe next year.

We went to the wacky light house last night. It was as lighted-up as last year, but it was cold, windy, and raining. There weren't many people there, there was no Santa, and there was no hot chocolate. On the positive side, there was plenty of nearby parking. We took a quick look, got back in the car, and went home for our own hot chocolate. I'm glad we went, but the weather was not very favorable.

Good news! My recently-ordered Christmas present arrived in the mail today. Bad news! LRN15's gift that was ordered before mine and for which quick delivery was paid still hasn't arrived. As I mentioned to her, I guess I've been good this year and she hasn't. Do better next time, LRN15.

Nothing else to write about tonight. Film festival tomorrow, which will be duly reported on. More Great Art will be shot over the next few days. See you tomorrow.

Christmas house

Here's an exclusive fuzzy Treo-cam view of the Victorian Christmas Farmhouse.

Work's over for the year! I put in a good, solid four hours today and returned home exhausted. I go back on January fifth, although I do have to attend a couple of telecons on Monday. Sigh.

We checked out the new Bass Pro Shop near our place this evening. It's been open for a couple of months, but we never found the time to go until now. It's pretty much what you would a expect - a big store with a lot of outdoorsy stuff. And relatively high prices. It'll be a great place to go when we need to find obscure spare parts. Plus, they have a giant fish tank. And camouflage recliners. For sale. We actually bought one, but now we can't find it.

We did buy a couple of light bulbs for Loyal Reader Number One's flashlight. They cost three dollars. Obscure spare parts.

Today's toilet news: The space station is a little short on privacy for their new privy. I say go ahead and start using it anyway. Everybody can just close their eyes.

At least the space toilet isn't smoking. Yet.

Loyal Readers Number Three and Fifteen should be in the Bay Area tonight. They're spending a couple of days with Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and Twelve. We're looking forward to seeing them out here in Lardville Real Soon Now.

Weekend plans include cookie baking, wacky light house visiting, possible oil changing, and planning projects for the rest of the holiday. Reports on Monday.

And that's it for tonight. Have a great weekend, and I'll see you Monday.

Smithy

Here's the blacksmith at the Victorian Farm. I love blacksmith shops. We mentioned to this guy that his shop must be a nice place to be on a cold winter day. He said it's not too bad in the summer either, other than right by the fire. Picture courtesy of the famous Treo-cam. Part of my famous Machinery series.

One more day of work. Must . . . survive . . . one . . . more . . . day. Today's luncheon was okay - potluck is never my favorite, but there were a few good things.

Loyal Reader Number One finally got home this morning. They canceled his flight last night due to the lack of a pilot. Apparently, the snow in Las Vegas pretty much closed the airport and his pilot never made it to Salt Lake. He called his uncle at about midnight and spent the night at their house. He got out on this morning's 10:00 flight. Welcome home, LRN1! At least you weren't on Flybe Airlines.

I briefly considered buying myself this additional gift for Christmas. I'm afraid it might make the Loyal Pets see me as meat, though. So I'll probably skip it.

No controversy, no toilet news, no food attack news. Maybe tomorrow.

No more for tonight. It was Thursday Meeting Night, and it's late. See you tomorrow.

Mercury pilot

Here's Loyal Reader Number Two at the controls of a Mercury space capsule. Not too much room in there. Picture taken at the Chabot Science Center. Part of my famous Machinery series.

I am so ready to be done with work for the year and start wassailing and chestnut-roasting and tinsel-draping and caroling and figgy-pudding-eating and all that.

But it's not to be. Not quite yet. Two more days.

The week's second luncheon went well. We went to one of those fondue restaurants (link note: the good reviews all look suspiciously written by the restaurant owners, don't they?) in downtown Sunnyvale. The food was pretty good - I enjoyed my self-seared ahi tuna - and the service was . . . ummm . . . ordinary. Certainly not excellent. But I've had worse. Not too often, though.

Anyway. The cooking part of the meal was interesting. Appetizers were dipped in a pot of cheesy creamy sauce. Dessert was dipped in a pot of dark chocolatey pepperminty creamy sauce. But the meat was cooked on individual hot rocky slabs. Everybody seemed satisfied when it was over and nobody was rushed to the hospital with third-degree burns, so it appears to have been a success. And the program appears to have paid for it all.

Would I go back to that restaurant? I wouldn't avoid it, certainly, and it was interesting and different. But there are a whole lot of other places I would definitely choose first. It was just kind of . . . bland.

Not much else new today. I attempted to cash my annual Prudential dividend check after lunch. Some years ago, they changed from a mutual insurance company to a publicly-held corporation. They gave me three shares of stock. Every year, I get a hefty dividend check - this year's was $1.74. I cash it and buy a sandwich or a car or something. I presented this year's check to my friendly teller this afternoon and it was returned to me uncashed. It seems they post-dated it to December 19. Sigh. A whole nother trip to the bank for a measly buck seventy four.

Haven't decided how to spend the money this year. Loyal Reader suggestions are welcome. And will be treated with the respect they deserve.

We're off to the Oakland airport tonight for Loyal Reader Number One's arrival! Everbody's looking forward to it. Safe travels, LRN1!

See you tomorrow.

Lake Chabot

Here's Lake Chabot through the trees. Part of my famous Camping series.

Not much to write about today. Work was . . . pretty much as usual. Lots of meetings, little other work. But I enjoyed it. I did go to my first of three luncheons scheduled for this week. The others are tomorrow and Thursday. It was a nice South American restaurant, but the prices were outrageous. I think it was probably my most expensive lunch, other than the one where I had to get a new bumper for my car. I doubt that one will ever be topped. At least I hope not.

I'm delighted to report that somebody has finally publicized my exercise plan. I have a feeling I'll be in fine form tonight.

In more worrisome news, Steve is staying away from MacWorld. Is he sick? Or just sick of it? Only my Loyal Readers know for sure.

Don't feel like writing any more tonight. See you tomorrow.

Eyepiece

Here's the business end of one of the telescopes at the Chabot Science Center. Part of my famous Machinery series.

Fine weekend, as usual. It's been cold, cold, cold - almost down to freezing at night and only in the 40's during the day. Brrrr!!!

Anyway. Got a few things done. Didn't get others done. Loyal Readers Numbers Five and Twelve were here on Saturday, which was nice. Good visit. No news from Loyal Reader Number Three in the employment department - he's still waiting for that letter.

Otherwise, all is well. We went to a church building in Tracy on Sunday evening to have a look at their first annual creche exhibit. An okay start, but they have a long way to go before they're competitive with the big guys in Palo Alto. The good: there were some very nice creches there, they made an attempt to display them nicely, and they had a great bookmark, modeled closely after the one from Palo Alto. The bad: there aren't enough creches to reach critical mass yet, the displays were lacking the supporting material to really make them classy, and there was no significant attempt to do lighting well, other than strings of Christmas lights artistically placed on the tables around the displays. The ugly: the proselyting-to-display ratio was way too high.

All in all, though, I think it was a good start. They need to grow fast, pay more attention to supporting details, and be sincere, and I think they'll have a wonderful display in a few years.

Let's see, did anything else happen on the weekend. Oh yeah, the really great news: the water rocket launcher is working! We tried it out with our flight-model bottle, and it stuck on the tube as badly as the one we tried at our recent campout. I swapped the o-ring with a smaller size, and that did the trick. We're back in business. Of course, we destroyed our air pump at the campout, so we still have equipment problems. I used the compressor to pressurize it for our Saturday tests, but that's a little bit of overkill and I fear it could damage something. So we need to either get a new bicycle pump or figure out how to limit the compressor's pressure.

I'll say one thing for the compressor - it sure pressurized that launcher fast.

I got all the websites but one transferred over to Godaddy on Saturday. The remaining one is written in Ruby on Rails, and it's a more complicated transfer, what with multiple servers required to be running all at once. I think I'll wait until Loyal Reader Number One (who is the author of the site) gets home later this week and solicit his input. We'll get there.

Todays food attack news: A sandwich assault. Can you get any lower than that? Also today's great Christmas idea: lousy gift wrapping. I need this. I'll bet I could find a Loyal Reader or two who could do the work, though.

Time for home evening. See you tomorrow.

Caching reader

Here's Loyal Reader Number Two holding a geocache at Anthony Chabot Regional Park. Sadly, the cache turns out to be positioned behind a bush, so we can't see it. Not my best Great Art. Picture courtesy of the exclusive Treo-cam, and also part of my famous Camping series.

Great news from Loyal Reader Number Three in the job-search department! We think. He called his old employer at the firing range to see if there was any opportunity. They asked him if he had received their letter. He hadn't. Apparently, they sent him a letter a couple of days ago to see if he was interested in coming back. He's interested. There are no details until the letter actually arrives, and it may not turn out to be what he thinks it is, but we're all cautiously optimistic. Best of luck, LRN3!

Okay day at work. I wasn't supposed to be there today, but we did get the things done that had to be done, so I don't resent it. Too much.

-- Much later --

Had to stop - too many things going on. It's now nearly 4:00 in the morning and I'm finally just about to go to bed. Yikes.

It all started out when I went to the store with Loyal Reader Number Four and bought a new router. The old one was dying - it crapped out pretty much once a day. It took a little while to get the new one installed. And then my IP address changed. Which killed my websites. Which would have been fine, except that my Dynamic DNS service didn't work anymore because I had a new router and the script couldn't find its IP address. Which I couldn't figure out how to fix.

So I finally bit the bullet and bought hosting on Godaddy. I've been thinking about doing that for quite a while. It took quite some time to get the site set back up there, but it's finally working and I'm going to bed. The remaining sites will move over there tomorrow, after which Larry will live out his life as a testbed. Or something.

No links, no toilet news, no food attack news. Just bed. See you tomorrow.

Telescope

Here's one of my two favorite things at the Chabot Science Center - a telescope. This is an oldie. They have several big ones too, but this one just looks cool.

Fine day. Got a couple of things done. Didn't get a couple of other things done. The usual.

Went at lunch to have a look at a couple of cars. First tried to see a Lincoln MKZ. The nearest dealer turned out to be a thief, so I walked away without even looking at anything. Then I went to the local Chevy dealer to look at Suburbans. They only had a few, none of which was perfect, but I decided to test drive one. They actually told me they wouldn't let me drive it without giving them my phone number. I won't give car dealers my phone number, so I walked away.

Honestly. Does anybody wonder why American car sales have evaporated? I have money burning a hole in my pocket and a can't even get them to show me their cars. The American carmakers have lots of faults, but their dealers are the biggest one. I may have to look at Japanese cars again.

Off Friday tomorrow, but I'll be at work. We have a software delivery tomorrow. I think I'll sleep in until 6:00 and go in an hour late. Maybe I'll get to come home an hour early to boot. But maybe not.

Today's toilet news: It's not only Tokyo that's looking at a toilet nightmare. Washingtonians, be afraid. Be very afraid.

See you tomorrow.

Green valley

Here's the view from near the campground at Anthony Chabot Regional Park. Loyal Reader Number Four and I were commenting on what a pretty little green meadow that was. Loyal Reader Number Two mentioned it looked like a golf course to him. Which it was. Part of my famous Camping series.

Yet another berserk day at work. We made it through our financial audit this morning. The folks interviewing us didn't seem like they had a specific plan, so we just went through a few things and called it an hour and a half. Then we got a nice (and free) mexican lunch. No complaints.

We have one more audit by videoconference tomorrow. Hopes for success are high.

Talked to Loyal Reader Number Three a couple of times this afternoon. He's still working on the job search and wanted to talk about the latest edition of his resume. Looks good. Let's hope it does the trick.

In fact, let's work on focusing some exclusive Morrowlife concern rays on LRN3's behalf.

Prayer might be a good idea as well.

No Christmas list yet. I really need to put some work into it. Wait a minute - I know what I'll do: leave it to my Loyal Readers. What do you think I should have on my Christmas list? Remember, we're talking about me here, so nothing's too good. Comments, Loyal Readers?

Todat's heartwarming holiday tale: Man uses candy cane to fend off attacker. Go, and do thou likewise.

See you tomorrow.

Victorian reader

Here's Loyal Reader Number Twelve being wheeled around at the Victorian Christmas Extravaganza. I believe this was taken before she threw up. So she looks a little grouchy. Picture courtesy of the exclusive Treo-cam.

Extreme Short Shrift tonight. We went directly from work (meaning Loyal Readers Numbers Two and Four had to come out to the South Bay this afternoon) to the annual Palo Alto LDS Christmas Creche exhibit, featuring over 400 creches and a organ concert performed by a well-known local organist, featuring original works by a well-known New Mexican composer and surgeon, who was in attendance and actually performed one of his own works. In addition, the president of the company that made the organ was also in attendance.

The concert was very nicely done. The organist's work was technically excellent and a beautiful performance all around. The one thing I would have changed is that he tended to abruptly adjust the volume in kind of a jarring way. It wasn't just an accident because he did it several times. I'm wondering if it was a limitation of the instrument, which he described as "modest."

And it was - it's a great church organ but I think it lacks the power to really give the best performance in a recital. Interestingly, the organ company that made it also made the church's Conference Center organ and did the recent refurbishment of the tabernacle organ. So they're good and this was a good instrument for its size.

Anyway. It was LRN2's first visit to this annual exhibition, and he was as overwhelmed as we had been when we first went last year. The creches are beautiful, with lots of original work from all over the world, and they're displayed incredibly artfully. It's truly a first-class operation all around. We remembered several creches from last year and noticed many new ones this year.

I think we may make it an annual tradition. Although it's open for less than a week in early December, and it's a long drive from home. Still worth it.

That's it - it's too late for any more. Check out Loyal Reader Number One's blog - he's started posting again.

See you tomorrow.

Outhouse

Here's a pretty little building in a pretty little clearing in a beautiful big forest. The fact that it's a restroom has no bearing on the situation. It's still Great Art. Picture taken at Anthony Chabot Regional Park. Part of my famous Camping series.

Busy, busy, busy. Worked like a camel, only with less spitting. But the smell was pretty much the same.

But let's talk about the weekend first, shall we? There were predictions made on Friday, and my Loyal Readers are doubtless on pins and needles to know how it turned out.

First, the not-unexpected bad news: I didn't work on the rocket launcher. Maybe next weekend. Doggone it.

As discussed previously, the organ recital Friday evening was beautiful, and Loyal Reader Number Two gave a fantastic performance. We received word before we left home that there was a large accident on the freeway that haf traffic backed way up, so we decided to get there on the back roads.

It didn't work exactly to plan, but we got there, and we got to explore some nice back roads. And plenty of them. If it hadn't been dark already, there might have been some nice scenery.

Anyway. We picked up Loyal Reader Number Twelve and headed over to the Victorian Christmas Farm. It was decorated nicely, there were a couple of musical groups (including some young girls playing flutes and recorders), there were some Christmas cooking demonstrations, and the requisite vendors were there too.

LRN12 was acting very quiet and standoffish, which was somewhat puzzling. She's been a little bit ruled by emotions of late, though, so we didn't get too excited about it and just enjoyed having her with us.

Well. We found out the true cause right as we stepped out of the beautiful Victorian house. LRN12 barfed on the porch. Also herself. And Loyal Reader Number Four. After that, she felt fine and had a nice time. And so did we.

And I forgot my camera. Yet again. I got some acceptable shots with the exclusive Treo-cam, though. They'll have to do.

Saturday evening was the ward Christmas party. A nice time was had by all. As far as I could tell. I had a nice time, anyway. They didn't do much. We had a nice ham dinner, listened to a Christmas story, heard a little bit of singing, and went home after visiting with friends for a while. Not bad.

Also spent a few hours looking at new cars. We finally saw one we really liked - the Ford Edge. We drove a nice example and are tempted. There's a lot of money off, but it's still too expensive. Don't know what we'll end up doing.

Outdoor Christmas lights and setting up the tree were on Saturday's schedule, but didn't get done.

Which brings us to Sunday. We got the tree and all the interior decorations up, although as of my departure this morning, the boxes still needed putting away. Still haven't figured out the outdoor lights.

Otherwise, not a good Sunday for me. I was feeling quite sick all day. Missed church, which featured Christmas songs, which I really enjoy. Some improvement today - thanks for asking.

Forgot to go to the First Presidency fireside. I bet it was nice.

Which brings us to today. Got up at 4:00 and worked eleven and a half hours. Which was too much.

Tonight's calendar calls for Christmas cards to be done at Home Evening. Might be a long night.

Today's toilet news: Japan is in trouble.

And so, in conclusion, I offer a great job opportunity for Loyal Readers Numbers One and Three (and really pretty much every Loyal Reader out there): Hotdogger.

See you tomorrow.

Fisher boaters

Here are a couple of guys out fishing at Anthony Chabot Regional Park. Part of my famous Camping series.

Another berserk day at the office. Busy, busy, busy. I really need the weekend. Fortunately, it's here.

Highly foggy morning. It's been that way on a pretty regular basis lately. I've been enjoying it as a pleasant change. Fortunately, my drive to the station is short and on basically untraveled roads, so the fog doesn't really slow me down much.

Loyal Reader Number Two's organ recital was this evening. We left basically the moment I got home from work. It's always a nice presentation and LRN2 did a great job on all three of his pieces. Congrats, LRN2!

Let's talk weekend plans, shall we? It's shaping up to be a busy one (sigh). We're taking Loyal Reader Number Twelve to the Victorian Christmas thingamee around mid-day Saturday, after which we have the Ward Christmas Spectacular.

Speaking of the Ward Christmas Spectacular, it's been advertised in kind of amusing way. There were invitations that said something like this: "Come enjoy a spiritual feast as we celebrate the sacred birth of the Savior of the world. Fun for the whole family!" I'm not quite sure what to expect - a Nativity scene or Pin the Nose on Rudolph. Maybe both.

At any rate, there will be dinner.

Saturday is also scheduled for dragging out the Christmas decorations, setting up (but not decorating) the tree, and putting up the outdoor lights. All of which will take some time. Plus, I'd like to get out and look at a new car or two.

Sunday will be normal, although I don't remember whether we're having choir practice in the afternoon. Then it's the First Presidency Christmas Fireside in the evening.

Plus, I still need to work on that stupid rocket launcher. Also hope to spend some time lying around relaxing.

We're hoping the First Presidency Fireside will be shown on BYU TV. Need to check the schedule.

Anyway. No toilet or food attack news today. Instead, we have some festive holiday news.

Have a great weekend. See you Monday.

Amphitheater

Here's the amphitheater at Anthony Chabot Regional Park. Looks nice. Sadly, this year's evening programs are long since over. I guess people just aren't enthusiastic about going to campfire programs when it's 47 degrees out. Picture part of my famous Camping series.

Yet another Short Shrift day. There just doesn't seem to be enough time. At least my normal Thursday evening meeting was canceled. So that's something.

I'm pretty tired again tonight. It's been an exceptionally busy week meeting-wise, and I need to rest. It's as if I hadn't just slept in every morning of a five-day weekend. Sigh.

On the upside, it's better than unemployment. But not as good as self-employment. Some day.

We've been trying to decide whether to buy a new car. On the one hand, it's great not to have any payments on most of the cars. On the other hand, some of them are getting worrisomely old. One of the most popular ideas out there right now is to replace both Loyal Reader Number Four's car and the Suburban with a new Burb (or equivalent). I would drive the truck as my primary car and LRN4 would take my Honda. I would have the Miata as my going-to-work car if I wanted to drive.

There are plusses and minuses to the plan. Still don't know whether I'm enthusiastic about anything out there. Including the BMW 3-series I drove. Sigh. When I can't even get excited about a Bimmer, I really worry. And the deals I've seen at the dealers haven't been as exciting as the news people are trying to get you to believe.

Any advice, Loyal Readers?

Christmas list update: Pretty much anything on this list. Especially the dogfighting helicopters. And the Nerf cannon. A more personal list is coming, no later than this weekend.

I don't know whether to share today's shocking toilet news or the even more shocking food attack news. Which do you find most shocking, Loyal Readers?

Too many links. Time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Purple planetarium

Here's the view inside the planetarium before the show started. I always imagined outer space as less purple than that. Cool color, though. Taken during last week's science museum visit.

Extreme Short Shrift. It's late already and I'm exhausted for some reason - possibly because I haven't been getting enough sleep lately. Just a guess.

My program is having a banquet for everybody tomorrow afternoon. I'm looking forward to not being in meetings for a few hours. Also to sitting down and enjoying being with my friends and colleagues.

No toilet news today, but there have been some disturbing holiday events. Santa was beaten up. Sounds like he had it coming, though. Still, whether he deserved it or not, I have to wonder whether that dad will end up on the naughty list.

So I'll leave you with today's Morrowlife controversy: Is there anything lower than cookie assault?

See you tomorrow.

Walking readers

Here are Loyal Readers Numbers Two and Four taking a little hike at Chabot Regional Park last week. There's a little view of Loyal Pet Number One too. This was the flat part of the hike, which turned out to be a very short distance. The steep part, on the other hand, was pretty substantial. Part of my famous Camping series.

Nothing much to report today. Got up, commuted, worked, etc.

Fortunately, there's some important toilet news today. I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me. Gotta start reading the fine print.

Still working on my Christmas list. In the meantime, my Loyal Readers may be able to find something nice for me here or here. Might want to study this too, just in case. I'm only trying to help.

See you tomorrow.

Zero gravity

Here's your humble blogmaster caught by surprise in Zero G. Lo-fi picture courtesy of the Chabot Space and Science Center. Of course, we expect lo-fi photography when the picture has to be beamed back from low-earth orbit.

Happy end of the Thanksgiving weekend! I trust my Loyal Readers all had a peaceful, relaxing time. We did. The campout went well. We had cool, cloudy weather on Thursday and Friday, and it got sunny and nice just in time for us to leave on Saturday. But we weren't there for the weather. We went to the Science Center and observatory on Friday and had a nice time there. It's the kind of museum you enjoy visiting once but probably don't return to. Except for the free observatory evenings and the planetarium shows, neither of which were available to us when we were there. So we might go back after all.

Anyway. We brought the rocket launcher. We took a slightly larger bottle, added fins and a nosecone, set the thing up, pressurized the bottle, pulled the pin, and . . . nothing. It wouldn't go. Sigh. Apparently, not all bottles' necks are created equal, and this one appears to be just a little bit too tight of a fit on the launcher. I have several slightly smaller o-rings, which might be all we need, so we'll keep trying. Oh, and I also bent the pump on the uneven ground there. Might have to replace it.

I've begun to wonder whether I'll ever get that stupid launcher working.

No toilet news today. Very puzzling.

I've been asked to provide a Christmas wish list. I'm really scratching my head over that one. I pretty much buy myself everything I want. Still, I'm sure I'll come up with something. In meantime, here's some stuff to consider. And absolutely anything from ThinkGeek will work. Especially the fish training kit.

Well, the Christmas season is all planned out. We started the season with the stake Christmas music spectacular last night. Loyal Reader Number Two and I were half of a quartet. It went fine. The other music was good too.

It's already way late. See you tomorrow.