Archive for July, 2006

Vacation

Saturday, July 29th, 2006

Morrowlife is on vacation until about the 15th of August. Have a great time without me! My Loyal Readers are invited to Keep the Blog Alive by posting comments to this post. Pictures taken by you are welcome (assuming you know enough HTML to make it work), tales of your lives (more interesting than mine, natch), or whatever. Just maintain my normal High Standards! If we find any free WiFi on the way, I’ll drop a comment or two myself.

See you on the flip side.

Zak

Friday, July 28th, 2006


Here’s yet another example of Loyal Reader Number Two’s Great Works of Art. Photography courtest of LRN2. Massive file massaging by The Gimp and me. The subject, of course, is LRN2’s former educational colleague Zak. I’m not exactly sure what that thing on the wall is but it looks really cool. I want one.

I’m on vacation for the next two weeks! Call it a working vacation if you must, but it’s still a vacation. I’ll take whatever I can get. We’re moving essentially the rest of our stuff to the Secret Undisclosed location tomorrow. We still have to sleep here tomorrow night, so the logistics aren’t really simple. We have to move the right things to the house tomorrow, pack what we need for the camping trip, and have just enough stuff here for a couple of meals and a shower until Sunday morning. We’ll figure it out.

I had to give The Romance of Engines back to the library this afternoon. I didn’t finish it, but I certainly enjoyed it in a slightly weird way. The writing wasn’t all that great, many of the illustrations were strange, and the author had a hard time both staying on subject and getting around to the point. But I really enjoyed it. What can I say? I love engines. I want a collection of my own. Maybe I could keep it right in our front room window! Anyway, the book is unconditionally recommended for Loyal Readers who like that sort of thing.

The bishop wants to see me on Sunday before church. I wonder what I’ll be doing.

Well, it’s time to finish planning the camping trip, so I’m off. As my Loyal Readers know very well by now, this is the last post for a couple of weeks. I’ll put the Comment Fodder up over the weekend and hope to at least get a post or two. Have a great Morrowlife vacation.

Casey Jones

Thursday, July 27th, 2006


Here’s railroading at its finest. As you’ve probably guessed, this is yet another picture of the Los Gatos miniature train we rode a few weeks back. Looks like fun driving that thing.

Worked twelve hours again today. I’ve already finished all my required hours for the week, and that’s without working on Monday. At least I didn’t have to take any vacation.

Loyal Readers Numbers One, Two, and Four went to Lardville today and picked up the keys to the Secret Undisclosed Location! The deal is done. The diggers show up tomorrow to make a hole for the pool (and rip up the lawn, of course, which they are contractually obligated to repair). LRN1, LRN2, and LRN4 are going back tomorrow to work on painting the living and dining rooms. Their first attempt in that direction didn’t go well today due to a slightly off-nominal paint color. They’re hoping for better results tomorrow. So am I.

Short post today. See you tomorrow.

Wet dog

Wednesday, July 26th, 2006


Poor Belle. Not only does she have to look miserable in the tub, but she’s permanently ineligible for Loyal Reader status. She is a sad, strange little dog. She has my pity.

Loyal Reader Number Four has an appointment at noon o’clock tomorrow to pick up the house keys, do the final walkthrough, and learn how to work the alarm. I borrowed some moving boxes from work today and she’s filling them up tonight. Also baking some good-smelling cookies. I plan to try a couple of them shortly. Maybe some cookies & cream ice cream too, if there’s any left. Life is good.

We’re watching HGTV tonight, as usual. It’s “I Want That” Wednesday, which is entertaining. They’re currently showing us Futuristic Bathrooms. I’ve never really felt like I wanted a Futuristic Bathroom, but there are a few interesting things there, like heated stone flooring. The last show, though, had some really cool stuff. My favorite was the Aqua Skipper. Other than the hard work it obviously takes to make it go, it looks like a lot of fun. Sadly, I don’t like it quite enough to spend five hundred simoleons for it. Maybe I can get Loyal Reader Number Five to talk her in-laws into buying one. Then I can visit and try it out. Great idea.

Speaking of bathrooms, did I mention that the Secret Undisclosed Location has one of those jacuzzi bathtubs? Well, it does. Of course, we wouldn’t have bought it if we had the choice, but it was already in, so it’s ours. We watched it work the other day when we went out there for our walkthrough and it actually looks pretty cool. Even LRN4 thinks she may try it out. This may turn out to be like so many other features from past houses that we would never have bought on our own but we were really glad to have. I’m thinking hot tub (liked both of them so much we’re paying a bunch of money for one this time), koi pond (I want another!), and our first shed in Colorado. Maybe we’ll end up taking jacuzzi baths every day. Who knows? Of course, it does seem a little extravagant to have jazuzzis both inside and out, but it really isn’t. It’s actually a bare minimum requirement for an inhabitable home. I don’t know how we’ve done without it before now.

No sale on the old house yet. Pray, Loyal Readers. Pray like the wind!

Gotta get to bed. See you tomorrow.

Loyal reader number twelve

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006


That’s right, folks. We have a new Loyal Reader, pictured above! Well, she’s not exactly reading yet, but she’s absorbing the Morrowlife Wisdom in other ways. Besides, she probably reads this at least as often as most of my other Loyal Readers, so she’s on the list. As with last Thursday’s picture, this isn’t exactly a photograph, but it’s pretty close. Imaging by Loyal Reader Number Five’s high-priced medical team.

No post yesterday. I forgot. Loyal Reader Number Four and I went to Lardville yesterday and paid a whole lot of money and signed a whole bunch of papers and got in return — nothing. Well, we did get a receipt for the money and copies of all the papers, but we didn’t get the keys to the house. Because of California’s insane real estate system, we don’t pick up the keys until Thursday. That’s just two days away, though, so there’s light at the end of the tunnel! We’re getting ready to move out of the Fortress of Solitude, get the old house packed up, take our vacation, and move the truck and trailer to California. It’s going to be a busy several days.

My Loyal Readers are hereby reminded that they’re the Morrowlife Blog while I’m away. You might want to be thinking of Interesting and Important Things to write about. Take your responsibilities seriously. I’ll be monitoring the results!

Life is otherwise uneventful. Work, eat, blog, and sleep is pretty much the order of the day. The work hours keep getting longer and I keep falling further behind. What a great job! Airplanes with laser beams on their heads are at least as cool as launch vehicles and satellites. The challenge of this program is as immense as its fascination factor. Very cool.

I’ve dumped Programming for Embedded Systems and Linux Application Development from the Morrowlife Book Club. They both had that rare combination of uninterestingness and unusefulness that’s so hard to find nowadays. Not worthy of the MBC. The Romance of Engines, on the other hand, I can’t quit reading, no matter how hard I try.

Since I stayed at work until about 6:30 and then worked a couple of hours after I got here, it’s late and I want to go to bed. See you tomorrow. And keep up the good work, LRN12!