Eagle lighthouse

Here's a twofer - the Ketchikan, Alaska lighthouse with a bald eagle sitting on top of it. We took a boat tour of the harbor there and saw lots of bald eagles. Pleasant little tour, too. Part of my famous Bird series.

Blogger's refusing to add pictures to blogs via FTP again, so I have to do it by hand. Stupid Blogger.

No post Friday. No excuse. Fortunately, not even good old Anon noticed, so no harm done.

Nice weekend - it was quite hot and we spent a lot of time in the pool. LRN2 and LRN4 got back from dropping LRN1 off at school on Saturday afternoon, a few hours earlier than expected, which was nice. It was pretty quiet around here while they were gone. I like quiet, but too much of a good thing can be bad. So I'm glad they're back.

Not much else new. LRN1 reports that it's great to be back into his routine. He likes his house and his roommates and his classes and his job, so there's not much to complain about. He's run into several friends from last year - says it happens like that for the first week of the semester and then you never seem to see them again. I wonder why.

I've found an excellent opportunity for any Loyal Readers who might be looking for work - be a carny! The possibilities are limitless. I know I'm applying.

See you tomorrow.

Haines

Here's part of the pretty little village of Haines, Alaska. At least I think that's what it is. Anybody recognize it?

Anyway. I'm home alone today. LRN1 is back to school as of this morning, and LRN2 and LRN4 went with him to help him get settled. Also to drop him off. They'll be back on Saturday evening. The Suburban ran well for them and their trip was uneventful, except for having to turn back to retrieve LRN1's computer. Dang. I would have enjoyed that thing.

Quiet evening. I went for dinner to the Chinese buffet restaurant we've been thinking of trying. It was actually pretty good, which is about a 50/50 chance for Chinese buffets, in my vast experience. Not necessarily gourmet, but a pretty good meal. And the price was reasonable.

No posts Tuesday and Wednesday. I had meetings and just couldn't get to the computer. I need to get serious about my blogging again. Sorry about that, Loyal Readers.

I've been listening to a couple of new podcasts. The first is Everything Creative, part of the Mormon Radio channel. It's supposed to be a podcast about creative people - artist types. I started out with low expectations, not being too much of an art lover (other than Great Art, of course).

It turns out to be very interesting, though, because of its unique twist: the person interviewed this week has to find and interview next week's subject. Kind of like an interviewing chain letter.

If I remember it right, they started with a painter, who interviewed an architect, who interviewed an Egyptologist, who interviewed an NBA basketball player, who interviewed a professional organizer. Or something like that. I have no idea where it's going next, but I love it. Very creative.

I've also been listening to the Biography Podcast. Another good one. This one has the same host every week. He interviews writers of interesting biographies. They talk about both the subject of the biographies and the process of researching and writing the books. Fascinating and recommended.

And there's not much else to talk about. So we'll end with today's food violence news: They're cracking down on lunchboxes. Those things have been known to kill people!

Floating village

Here's a floating village in Alaska. Loggers used to live there. Looks like fun, as long as you're not subject to motion sickness. Which I am. So it doesn't look like fun after all.

Extreme Short Shrift. It's Monday night, I couldn't get home until 7:30, and it's getting late. My loss is your gain, Loyal Readers.

Thanks to Anon for noticing a missing word in Wednesday's post. I've been writing the blog on my iPhone, and I'm still getting the hang of typing on a virtual keyboard. It must be my phone's fault. Yeah, that's it.

Great campout over the weekend. The campground itself was a parking lot (literally), but the park was very pretty, we had hookups, and there was a free performance of Richard III. The one by Shakespeare, that is. It was better than you would expect for free. Several of the actors were very good, in fact. All in all, it was great to get away and we enjoyed it.

I'll leave you with yet more food violence. The Ding Dong Dang Dairy has been robbed! How low can they go?

See you tomorrow.

Alaskan boat

Here's a boat. In Alaska. I have no idea what that chimney looking thing is for. Maybe for heat. Part of my famous Machinery series.

Another day, another Extreme Short Shrift post. I need to get up shortly before 4:00 tomorrow morning and we have company tonight. So no time for thoughtful blogging. Not that ever do that anyway.

Our company? Why, it's none other than brother-in-law Ken! We're delighted to see him, as always. Also, LRN1's friend Leah, who it was very nice to meet.

So today's post is necessarily short. Pretty good day, though, I must say. I worked and LRN4 canned a bunch of peaches, apparently. I say "apparently" because I'm writing this on the train and I haven't actually seen the bottles, so I have no idea whether there's a bunch, a mess, or merely a passel. Probably a bunch, though.

We're leaving early tomorrow afternoon for a weekend camping trip. Going to a Santa Clara County park near Los Gatos, I believe. I'll try to get some Great Art while we're out. Maybe a geocache or two to boot.

Unfortunately for my Loyal Readers, though, that means there will be no blog posts on Thursday or Friday. Unless they shock me by having wifi in the park. Hardly seems likely, does it?

So I'll leave you with today's food violence news: What's even lower than a banana burglar? A cucumber thief.

See you on Monday.

Haines sign

Here's LRN4 pausing for a moment on her way into beautiful downtown Haines, Alaska. That's not a third arm growing out of her neck, fortunately. Some annoying tourist wouldn't move away from the sign long enough for me to take a picture, so I tried to hide him/her. Turns out it didn't work quite perfectly. We loved Haines. Not enough to move there, but it was a great little town. In the summer, at least. No opinion on wintertime.

It's post number 777! Too bad it's Extreme Short Shrift Tuesday.

Busy day. I came home at the regular time and went directly to the church for a Branch Elders Quorum Presidency meeting, but nobody else showed up, so I went home. Made it in time for dinner.

Got spinfo dot info rehosted on Blogger last night, which kept me up a little late. So I want to go to bed a little early tonight. Have a look at the new website. There's tons of work left to do, including fixing the template to eliminate all the nonsense on the right and add my own nonsense. Plus some ads. Gotta feed the Juggernaut. I also need to add LRN2 as a contributor - that I'll do tonight.

I'll leave you with some more shocking food violence news: What's worse than pizza assault? Banana burglary!

See you tomorrow.

Another look

Here's the Mendenhall glacier again. I think I might like this view even better than the last one.

No Friday post. I got deathly ill mid-day and went hoMe to sleep on the couch (and then in my bed). I'm feeling much better now, thanks. And thanks to Anon for noticing.

It was truly a shame that I got sick, since it was the rare combination of my personal temple night and stake temple night. Purely a coincidence - really. I picked the date for myself before finding out about the stake schedule. To make up for it, I've added a second personal temple night on August 28, while I'm home alone while LRN1 is on the way back to school.

Which I greatly regret I can't join in on. I'm out of vacation days. Spent them all on Young Women camp and the cruise. Plus a couple of nice, long camping trips earlier in the year. I'm glad we did the other things but heartbroken to miss this highly important trip.

Stake conference was quite nice. Good talks, especially on Saturday. I have good notes and will have to remember to review them a time or two later.

The weekend was otherwise uneventful. Worked on the pool a little - the vacuum is dead again and, while looking into it, I discovered that the skimmer's return line appears to be partially blocked. Sigh.

I (sort of) resolved the skimmer problem by adjusting the valve that mixes it's intake with that of the vacuum to give a little more flow to the skimmer. Partially disassembled the vacuum to satisfy myself that it didn't have a hidden blockage and then decided to take it to the Pool Place. When we complained bitterly about the apalling vacuum failure rate and its lousy performance even when it's not broken, they offered to sell us a Kreepy Krawley vacuum for $340 new or $250 used. They even put one together as a used loaner to let us see if it would work better for us.

It certainly looks different and has the huge advantage of having no rotating parts. The jury's out on whether it works, though. I thought it was immune to getting stuck, but it found a way. Sigh. Maybe if I slightly shorten the hose. Or possibly lengthen it. Or something.

Stayed busy at work today. There's plenty going on. They've decided to invite people to volunteer to be laid off. I have at least one person who will certainly do it, and who knows whether anybody else will step up? We in the shovel-ready aerospace industry are certainly living in interesting times.

I devoutly wish I could sign up for it, but it's not the right time. A few more years at the earliest for me.

Time to work on other things. Work, work, work!

I'll leave you with today's food violence news: Pizza violence.

See you tomorrow.

Mendenhall glacier

Here's the Mendenhall glacier, just outside of Juneau. Lots of dirt on there, but also tons of very blue ice. It reminded me of Mount Rushmore in that it looked better in real life than in pictures. Otherwise, not so similar. Although I think I can see Millard Fillmore's face over there on the left if I scrunch up my eyes just right.

The last few days have been incredibly busy at work. We've had networking problems that were finally resolved early this morning. It's also been a great week, with LRN3 here the last couple of days and sporadic visits from LRN6 and LRN12. We went out for Indian food last night. Hence, no post. And I don't feel one bit bad about it.

However, I'm now getting back into the rhythm of things again.

Great news for LRN2 today - he got his driver's license! Motorists of Manteca, beware. Have fun and be careful out there (in the opposite order), LRN2.

We have a rare case of board game violence today: Could there be anything lower than Monopoly assault? I note with some consternation our family's love of board games. And our extreme competitive streak. Jail, here I come.

See you tomorrow.

Downtown Ketchikan

Here's a good look at beautiful downtown Ketchikan. Extremely high tourist-trap-to-resident ratio, no? But it was certainly a beautiful day.

No posts Friday and Monday. I was off both days and simply didn't think about it. Sorry. But nobody complained.

Wonders of Blogger today. LRN3 was using my computer.

LRN2's birthday was Sunday. Happy birthday, LRN2! He's sixteen now. Wow.

It was a pleasant day, as was the weekend. LRNs 5, 6, and 12 came, as planned. The wonderful surprise was that LRN3 grabbed a ride from LRN6 and was here too. How thoughtful of him!

We all spent the afternoon Sunday in the pool, playing a made-up game involving bopping a beach ball around the pool and catching it in my pool lounge chair in the jacuzzi. Very entertaining. And it was great to have all the kids with us.

I was also pleased to have LRN24 over for the afternoon. Thanks for coming over, LRN24!

Monday, I had jury duty. I was unpleasantly surprised to actually have to show up. It turned out to be a fairly relaxing day. Spent several hours reading recent issues of the Liahona magazine in Spanish and was then notified that the trial for which I had been summoned was dismissed. So I went home and don't have to return until 2011 at the earliest.

Otherwise uneventful. Should have done a bunch of stuff. Didn't do it. Life went on anyway.

Massive Meeting Tuesday today. I'm writing this on the train and will pick a nice Piece of Alaska-themed Great Art and post. So nothing else to tell. If I remember, we'll take a long-overdue look at the Morrowlife Financial Juggernaut. Remind me, Loyal Readers!

I'll leave you with today's toilet news: They've become collector's items. But not for me.

See you tomorrow.

Porch canoe

Here's an Alaskan canoe. On the front porch of an Alaskan house. Where canoes belong.

Very trying work week. I'm glad it's over. The weekend looks busy. LRN5, LRN6, and LRN12 are coming over on Saturday and staying the rest of the weekend, which will be great. We haven't seen them for quite some time. I also need to prepare a talk, figure out why the Suburban's check engine light is on, and attend a funeral for a woman from the ward on Friday. Very sad about that last part, but she had been in sad shape for quite some time, apparently.

So I'll end with a continuation of both our stupid criminal and Alaska themes: This wasn't us.

See you tomorrow.

Seaplane

Here's a seaplane coming in for a landing. One of many we saw during the cruise. There's a lot of money in hauling tourists up in those things. Lovely day, wasn't it?

I'm keeping it short again tonight. Need to get some sleep. Got up, got ready, commuted, worked like a dog, commuted, ate, blogged, went to bed. One of those days. Tomorrow's the last work day of the week, though.

Let's end with today's stupid criminal news: This guy needed protection from his victims.

See you tomorrow.

Bear attack

Here's LRN4 on a pleasant little walk in the woods, just before she was brutally attacked by a very sneaky bear. Fortunately, she was able to fight it off, mano a mano. It can get pretty rough up there in Alaska.

Finally. I have plenty of Great Art. That cruise was definitely worth the money.

Busy, busy day. Spent most of it keeping other people happy - or trying, anyway. Also had to go directly to a church meeting from work, which explains tonight's Extreme Short Shrift.

So no more tonight. For now, let's check out today's beach theft news: There's trouble in Mexico.

See you tomorrow.

Bad traffic

Here's our cruise ship stuck in the heavy Alaska traffic. Those Celebrity guys snuck in ahead of us. Just for a brief moment, though. The rest of the time we were pretty much out on our own. Had a great time.

The Blog is back! Again! We had a great trip. Alaska was beautiful, as noted above. The days were relaxing and enjoyable, the ports were spectacular, and we had fun.

The upside: The weather in all the ports (except Juneau) was perfect - sunny and warm but not hot. It really couldn't have been nicer. The ship was nice, if slightly smaller than we expected. The service was perfect. No other word will suffice. The food was excellent, and it got better as the days passed. It was fun being there with our friends. We did some things together and other things on our own, which worked out perfectly. We saw a bunch of bald eagles and a bunch of whales. From a decent distance, of course.

The downside: It was cloudy and downright cold during all the sea days. This was a problem because we would have liked to be outside but couldn't. This was a problem because there really wasn't much to do on the ship, contrary to our hopes and expectations. So we spent a lot of time in our stateroom. Which was tiny. But nice. Also, we missed our visit to Tracy Arm Fjord, due to an unfortunate malfunction on the ship. Which was never identified with any more clarity. On the positive side, they gave us some money back as compensation.

No other real downsides. We had a great time.

The Loyal Readers were fine in our absence and the house looked great when we got back. No problems.

Let's end with a disclaimer: this wasn't us. But it was our cruise line and in our general area. Creepy.

See you tomorrow.