Archive for November, 2007

Blacksmith tools

Friday, November 30th, 2007


Here’s the latest in my famous old-fashioned tools series. This was taken in the blacksmith shop at Greenfield Village.

No post yesterday, but this time I have a good reason – our internet service was out. It didn’t come back up until sometime this morning when I unplugged the modem, iBoss, and router for five minutes or so. Sigh.

It was my off Friday today and I enjoyed it. Didn’t do much, though. I slept in a little and then worked from home most of the morning. In the afternoon, Loyal Readers Numbers One and Four and I went to Kohl’s to spend the gift certificates they gave us on Black Friday. They were going to expire tomorrow, so we needed to get it done. We also set up the Christmas tree and put on most of the ornaments. We’ll finish up decorating the house tomorrow. Tonight, Loyal Reader Number Four and I are going to our panel discussion on parenting. Wish us luck. Although it might be quite anticlimactic, since I don’t know if anyone is planning to be in the audience.

Let’s see, what else? LRN1 is going to Daly City tonight to babysit Loyal Reader Number Twelve tomorrow while her parents are both at work. That’s right, Loyal Reader Number Six is starting a new job! He has been enjoying staying home with the baby, but I guess it looked like a good gig, so he’s trying it out. I’m not sure what they’re going to do for babysitting. But that’s their problem, isn’t it?

Time to get ready to go. Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you on Monday.

Wild thing

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007


Here’s Loyal Reader Number Twelve on her oddly-named little car, Wild Thing. It looks like a dune buggy. It’s nice to have wheels of your own, no?

No time to post, so it’s another extremely Short Shrift post. Also no post yesterday – we jacuzzified instead, which I’m sure all my Loyal Readers would agree was a much better use of my time.

However, the last couple of days have been productive. Several of my colleagues have been calling in sick, but I’m feeling fine so far. Must be that flu shot I got.

Loyal Reader Number One found the software development kit for Google’s mobile phone operating system. He’s gotten a “Hello World” application running. It looks like a cool OS and I’m confident there will be a huge number of cool applications for it by the time the first phone is available. That’s the biggest mistake Apple made with the iPhone – no third-party apps for the first six month plus. Could be the death knell for the platform, especially when Android hits the streets running. We’ll see. In the meantime, here’s yet another opportunity for Gardenville Software to get in on something on the ground floor. What do you think, Loyal Partners?

Nothing else to report. Enjoy the photo and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Bridge

Monday, November 26th, 2007


Here’s a peaceful river scene from our Clark’s Fork campout this summer. Now that we’re in the depths of winter (the Weather Channel actually reported light snow in Stockton this morning, but I don’t think anybody actually saw it), campouts are but a pleasant dream. Sigh.

No post on Friday – I was on vacation. But it was certainly a busy day! We went to a couple of stores on Black Friday. It was certainly an early morning, but it went just fine and we got a few really good deals. Would I go again? Maybe. If I wanted a big-ticket item, definitely. But maybe not again at 4:00 in the morning.

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. Loyal Reader Number One and I were really busy on Saturday (finally) installing the new radio in the Miata. We went to a local car stereo store and bought the only installation kit available for the Miata. It’s a pretty chintzy plastic universal kit, but it fit with a minimum of cutting, filing, and mucking about and it looks fine. The radio works well and sounds better than the factory relic it replaced. LRN1 pointed out that this is probably the most extensive auto modification I’ve ever performed. He has a point. Oh, and I really like the remote control, although I’m not sure I’ll ever use it. I certainly don’t need it. It’s not like it’s hard to reach the radio itself or anything.

One of the things I like most about it is that it has a jack on the faceplate where I can plug in my iPod. No more cassette or radio adapter! In fact, there’s no cassette player at all (of course). It has a nice CD player that can handle MP3 CDs and even displays the album title and song name. I need to burn a CD so I can check it out Real Soon Now.

During the installation, I pulled a muscle in my arm. Ouch. It was quite sore for about 24 hours and it still hurts a little, but it’s getting better quickly. Pity me, Loyal Readers.

Loyal Reader Number Five called this evening and told us her Thesis defense was tough but successful. She’s earned her Masters degree! Many congratulations, LRN5.

By the way, did I mention that LRN1 got his acceptance letter to BYU last week? Probably so. At any rate, congratulations again, LRN1.

Thanks again to Anonymous for his/her vigilance and to everybody else for their comments too.

See you tomorrow.

Camo baby

Thursday, November 22nd, 2007


Here’s Loyal Reader Number Twelve hiding in plain sight. With those camo pants on, it’s a wonder you can see her at all. Photo courtesy of Loyal Reader Number Five.

Happy Thanksgiving! We’ve had a pleasant day today – didn’t do much besides relax around the house and eat turkey dinner. Loyal Reader Number Four and I did go out to check out a Thanksgiving-day sale (shudder) at K-Mart (double shudder, but in its defense I must say it’s not nearly as bad as it used to be). They were already sold out of pretty much all the things we had been interested in, so we only got a couple of things.

We’re heading out very early tomorrow for Black Friday shopping. Wish us luck.

See you tomorrow, if we don’t get trampled.

Tree walkers

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007


Here’s Loyal Reader Number Four with some of her friends, who are walking on a tree that was cut down over a hundred year ago. I see Loyal Reader Number Two back there, and Loyal Reader Number One way back there in the background. Other tree walkers are members of the Crockett family, with whom we went camping. Love those pretty gold dogwoods.

On the train today, and don’t ask me whether I’m happy about it. Okay, do ask me. I’m not happy at all, and it’s my own fault. I was planning on taking the 4:00 bus, getting me home at 6:30. I had somebody in my office, though, and got out late, so I missed the bus. I went over to the light rail in the vain hope that it could get me to the train station on time. Barely missed the 4:16 train, and the 4:31 train didn’t get there until 4:39. I missed the ACE train. The good news, though, is that I was first in line for the late one! Sigh. At least it’s not crowded, probably because everybody else had the good sense to go home earlier. Double sigh.

However, the Thanksgiving weekend has begun! All is right with the world.

LRN4 and I are planning to venture out early on Friday morning for some Black Friday shopping. In fact, we hope to get all our Christmas shopping done in a single day. In a single morning, in fact. We’ll see. We need to decide which store to hit first and whether to divide and conquer. I don’t really have my eye on any big-ticket items, so it’s not clear at all where we should go. I need to check out the Black Friday website when I get home.

I just got a call from LRN1. He’s been accepted into BYU! Congratulations, LRN1. Now let’s see how much scholarship money you can snag. Not to mention housing.

Well. There’s certainly been an excellent response on my sneezing question. Based on the entirely random sample we’ve taken, I think we can safely say that 100% of the population uses the sun (or a bright light) to at least aid a balky sneeze. So much for calling it a genetic disorder.

I have nothing to say tonight, so I’ll end. Happy Thanksgiving and I’ll see you tomorrow.