morrowlife

Here are a couple of surfboards somebody left on the grass outside the condo the other day. Whoa, dude.

Things continue to be fine here at the Cape. Tomorrow is our scheduled launch day and all systems are go. Keep your fingers crossed and watch us on the internet.

I left work at just about the right time this afternoon, which was unusual for me on a launch campaign. We’ve had strangely few difficulties in my area, so I’ve been trying to help my coworkers when the opportunity presents itself. Today I helped Sam find the ASOC, for example.

Not much else to talk about tonight. The launch looms large in my consciousness right now, pushing most other thoughts aside. Also, I’m sleepy. So you tomorrow.

Wish us luck!

Here’s the airboat I rode in a couple of weeks ago on my infamous alligator-picture-taking trip. It was loud. Pretty high-class outfit, huh?

Well, a previously-unimaginable event has occurred. Are you ready? Sit down. No, really, sit down. Okay. We have our ninth Loyal Reader! Welcome, Tony. Send your picture (or maybe I can dig one out from somewhere when I get home) and you’ll be photographically featured right here in the blog. And check out your name in actual pixels over there on the right (link alert: “The Dead Pixels” would be a great name for a rock band, don’t you think?).

Went to the launch team banquet tonight. It went from 7:30 to about 11:30 and I’m tired. Dog tired. It was a nice time, though. I like the people on the team and will miss them when I’m no longer hanging around with them.

I did a little bit of Financial Negotiation this afternoon. We’ll see the results tomorrow, I hope. Maybe it will work out to my advantage! Maybe not. That’s the beauty of negotiation – it’s so unpredictable.

I want to go to bed now, and since none of my loyal readers are actually here telling me to keep typing (although I know you’re thinking it), I’m quitting for now. My Loyal Readers can definitely count on more content tomorrow – unless it’s absolutely inconvenient.

As promised on Friday, here’s Germany’s version of the Ron Jon tower. Although there’s a chance this one has been around a little longer. Compare and contrast.

It’s late on Monday night and I just got home from work (stopped on the way to pick up some Chinese food at Ginseng, which is excellent) after 13.5 hours at the office. Fortunately, about an hour and a half of that was spent on the phone with Reader Number Four, so the day wasn’t a total waste. We’ve got some Big Exciting Things in the works – stay tuned!

It was a tough day at work. We’re moving along, but not as quickly as we’d like. Hence the long day. And another very long one tomorrow, most likely.

At least the weekend was nice. I worked five hours on Saturday and took Easter Sunday off. I spent the day going to church (nice ward – good Gospel Doctrine class and friendly High Priests group), barbecuing my lunch, washing some clothes, reading the scriptures, reading my book, watching a couple of movies, and chatting with Reader Number Four. It would only have been better if I had been at home.

Gotta get to bed, so this will be short tonight. Let’s hope for a shorter workday tomorrow. See you then.

Here’s my last picture from Ron Jon’s (unless I run out of Blog Fodder, of course). See next Monday’s post for its German counterpoint.

It’s a beautiful Saturday evening and I’m leaning back in my chair with a nice glass of Smoothie. Note that this post is dated on Friday; through the miracle of Blogger, I’m able to travel to the past and get the right date in there. Why is this bit of trickery necessary, you ask? Simple: I forgot. I had kind of a late night last night and just dropped into bed without taking care of my obligations to my Loyal Readers. Mercy.

I went out at about 7:00 this evening to wander around aimlessly until I came across a restaurant that looked appealing. My colleague Joe passed me on the road and signaled me to follow him, so I did. It turns out he was meeting a group at Bernard’s Surf restaurant, so I invited myself to join them. The meal was great but expensive. I had some excellent seared Ahi tuna as an appetizer, a very nice filet mignon for dinner, and creme brulee for dessert. We split the bill evenly, so it cost me a great deal more than it would have otherwise, since my beverage choices tend to be much cheaper than those of my colleagues. Doesn’t matter – it was a great meal and the company was pleasant.

I’m looking forward to Easter Sunday. We will NOT work that day, so I can go to church without getting a last-minute call to come to the office. I’m just sorry to not be home. No jelly beans, no Easter baskets, no family fun, no nothing. Pity my solitary loneliness. And pity my poor family members who have to endure the holiday without me. Those are the ones I really feel sorry for.

Sorry to end that last sentence with a preposition. I guess I just got carried away. Or was that caught up? You be the judge.

Anyway, Happy Easter to each and every one of my Loyal Readers. Hug your family members and thank Heavenly Father for your blessings. See you on Monday.

Here’s the little surfer guy from the Cocoa Beach Surf Company, Ron Jon’s arch nemesis. They’re right across the street from each other and they’re both going for the throat.

There’s a TON of news today! First and foremost, a big morrowlife welcome to Julie, Reader Number Eight! Actually, I kind of talked her into becoming a Loyal Reader, but morrowlife mania knows no limits. She’s in. Send me a picture, Number Eight!

Let’s see, what was secondmost? Oh yeah, a little update to the morrowlife book club, over there on the right. I finished Psmith in the City a few days ago and forgot to note the fact. As previously advertised, it was delightful. It was a bit more subtle than much of Wodehouse‘s other work, and I’m thinking the Jeeves books here in particular. Psmith is more eccentric than hilarious, but I found myself liking him and his friend Mike. The story moved quickly, it was Veddy British like every other Wodehouse novel (but in a charming pre-WWI way), and it was amusing. It left me wanting more Psmith. Luckily, that’s exactly what I’m reading! I started Psmith, Journalist this afternoon. It’s obviously more of the same, which is a good thing. I simply can’t recommend P.G. Wodehouse to my Loyal Readers enough. Try any of his stuff, but it’s a safe bet to start with anything in the Jeeves series. I encourage any Loyal Readers who actually take this advice to let me know what they think. I’ll be waiting right here.

Okay, it seems to me that there was a thirdmost here, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was. I always think of these things while I’m walking up the stairs to the condo, and they don’t bother writing them down as soon as I get inside. Inevitably, they disappear long before I get around to writing. Well, maybe I’ll ramble on a little bit and see if anything comes to me.

Had a great dinner tonight at a place called A Taste of Goa. It’s advertised as an Indian-Portuguese restaurant, but it looked and tasted to me like just a plain Indian place. That’s not a bad thing though – quite the contrary, in fact. I had a mango lassi that was so good I ordered another one for dessert. I also got some shrimp in a coconut milk/spice sauce and some vegetable soup. Outstanding. I might go there again. It’s pretty close to the condo to boot.

The campaign proceeds in good order. Last night’s launch resulted in a healthy satellite in a very good orbit, so there’s no ‘splainin’ to be done there. I’m cautiously optimistic about next Thursday for us. If so, I’m home on Saturday! If not, I’ll be home one of these days.

I wish there was more of interest in my life right now, but there just isn’t. I hate to say it, but Cocoa Beach is getting kind of old. I’m clicking my heels together three times and saying “there’s no place like home” several times a day, but without result so far. Maybe tomorrow. I want to go home and see my family – and my little dog too!

I’m listening to an old Leo Laporte podcast and heard one of his callers talk about an application called SeaMonkey. It’s a Mozilla project that includes a web browser, email application, chat client, newsgroup client, and HTML editor. It’s available for Mac, Windows, and Linux and looks like it might be pretty cool. It is beyond version 1, so it ought to be stable at this point. I think I’ll download it and try it on my Mac when I get home. Maybe a loyal reader would like to download it first and let me know what he/she thinks.

Well, Big News Item Number Three never materialized in my mind, so I’ll end with a bang.