Archive for June, 2009

Feeling sick

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009


Here’s LRN1 on a day when he was not feeling all too well. Great Art courtesy of his computer’s built-in camera, I believe, as enhanced with Photo Booth. He kind of looks like he comes from Easter Island, don’t you think?

Life’s back to normal – I spent the entire day in meetings. Found out on the way to work that I had an all-day commitment for the entire three days I’m working this week. The upside: three free lunches. The bigger upside: it looks like we’ll probably finish on two days. The even bigger upside: I only have to attend tomorrow for a short time in the morning.

You have to take your good news where you can get it.

The Loyal Readers have been working on installing a new ceiling fan in our bedroom. I’m excited to see it and even more excited to use it. One thing about the Las Vegas-based family’s house is that they’re much more comfortable when it’s hot because they have ceiling fans in essentially every room. Ought to be a good thing for us too.

There’s a bit of progress on the MARV today. LRN1’s been working on getting it to write to the SD card. It has looked like a fairly difficult task until he found an internet link to three different systems to do exactly what we need. Hopefully, he’ll get something working Real Soon Now.

We have some highly disturbing Food Violence news today, involving pretty serious Cheeto abuse. Let’s be a little more circumspect out there, snack food-wise.

See you tomorrow.

Road trip

Monday, June 29th, 2009


Here’s LRN3 cordially helping LRN15 into her seat as they were getting into their snazzy new (to them, anyway) van on their way back to Arizona from our weekend rendezvous in Las Vegas. Picture courtesy of the famous iPhone-cam.

We’re back! Limited posting during the trip, as described earlier – the internet out there was quite unreliable. It was basically non-operative almost the whole time we were there. We got it working pretty well on Sunday, which was one of our primary weekend tasks.

The other primary tasks were visiting (mission accomplished), a visit to the fancy makeup store for LRN4 (ditto), and the removal, sandblasting, painting, and reinstallation of the Suburban’s trailer hitch receiver (ditto also).

We also managed to replace the truck’s spark plugs and wires, which was way too non-trivial and took way too long, but which was instructional also.

Otherwise, we pretty much relaxed and hung out. Very pleasant weekend, and a great time seeing LRN3 and LRN15, as well as all the Nevada-based family.

My brother-in-law Ken gave me an old Dell computer with a few problems. It’s a bit more powerful than Shemp, the Dell I received as a gift from LRN5, so I put the best parts of both machines together to form New Shemp. He’s up and running now. I’m still deciding whether it will be necessary and/or prudent to reinstall Windows on him. Will probably decide by tomorrow. Thenks for the computer, Ken!

It’s hot here in Lardville! It was about 104 when we got home this afternoon, and is supposed to remain warm for a while. The pool water was at 86, so LRN1, LRN2, and I went in for a very pleasant swim, followed by Costco pizza and diet root beer on the deck. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Next big event: LRN2’s departure for Utah on Wednesday to visit LRN21. We’ll miss you, LRN2!

He’ll get home just a couple of days before Young Women Camp, which ends just a few days before the cruise, which will take us into August. Goodness, how the summer is flying by.

I’ll leave you with some important toilet news: Even the animals are getting into the act.

See you tomorrow.

Work truck

Friday, June 26th, 2009


Here’s LRN3 and his fancy work truck. Pretty cool. Photo courtesy of the famous iPhone-cam, as usual. The truck’s only a couple of years old and in great shape. LRN3 reports that it has lots of power, rides pretty rough, has no cruise control, and is fun to have. The blue and red flashing lights and police radio are big pluses.

No post yesterday. We were having too nice a time. And the wireless internet wasn’t working. It’s working now, but still cutting out pretty frequently. We’re still in diagnostic mode and hopeful.

And that’s it for today – can’t count on the connection. See you on Monday.

Summit Garage

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009


Here’s the Summit Garage, a lonely outpost of obsolete automotive care at the top of the Altamont pass. I can only imagine it used to be on the main road over the pass in the pre-freeway days. They probably did a pretty decent business back then. Great Art courtesy of the famous iPhone-cam. Taken through the train window.

I wonder if the Summit garage is on the Internet. Let’s have a look: Why, of course! There’s something on the internet for everyone.

Okay day. It turns out my employee with the layoff notice yesterday was identified by mistake, so it’s all fixed now. Good thing – I really don’t want to lose that person.

And the weekend is here! Kind of! That’s right, we’re off to Las Vegas early tomorrow morning. My colleagues at work all wondered how much I planned to gamble. The answer was simple: zero point zero. Well, we were certain to take in a show then, no? No. I would certainly do that if I didn’t lack one thing: the desire. We’re going to hang with the family.

The cruise will have lots of shows; I’m sure we’ll see at least a few. That will have to tide us over.

Have no fear, though, Loyal Readers. Daily posts will go on as scheduled. We’ll be staying with Internet-equipped relatives, so there will be at least brief posts. And the quality will be just as good as always.

Unfortunately.

We’re really looking forward to being together with LRN3 and LRN15. As of today, we still have no confirmation that LRN15 is coming, however. All I can say is that she had better be there. I mean it.

Anyway. We plan to do a little mine exploration (conditions permitting), a little work on the Suburban (cleaning up the hitch’s rust problem and possibly looking at its fuel gauge problem), and a bunch of enjoying being together.

I noted today that Boxee has been released for Windows. I tried installing the Alpha version on Shemp downstairs the other day, but its built-in, non-expandable video card has insufficient oomph. Sigh. I’ll try it on Larry Real Soon Now.

I did install the latest Boxee on Joe, my beloved Apple TV, last night. Not a good thing. It’s completely broken now. Double sigh. I’m sure they’ll fix it presently.

On the video-related upside, I set up Netflix on Larry last night. It’s massively cool. Essentially unlimited content. Lots of on-demand stuff and everything else imaginable on disc. We’re going to like it.

Everything else is normal. So I’ll leave you with a bit of toilet news: There’s nothing lower than a toilet-tipping pair.

See you tomorrow.

Dancers

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009


Here’s Saturday’s 12/13-year-old dance instruction class in progress. All those boys and so few girls. That’s just not right. Fuzzy action photo courtesy of the famous iPhone-cam.

Another beautiful, sunny day. Not overly hot in Sunnyvale. I’m not sure how it was here in Lardville. I do know it’s been a remarkably mild summer so far. Bad for swimming, good for the electric bill.

Got my permanent crown this morning. It feels fine, I suppose. The chewing surface feels a bit rough, but I assume that will take care of itself. It’s also a bit sensitive to cold, but I’m hoping that will diminish quickly. If not, back to the dentist I go.

I spent essentially the entire workday in meetings. After getting there from the dentist’s office, that is. One of the meetings was to tell me I’m supposed to lay one of my people off. I think they identified the wrong person and plan to get it fixed tomorrow.

Minimal Meeting Tuesday tonight. Only one meeting, but it goes from 8:00 to 10:00, so it’ll be a late night anyway. I’m writing this on the late train, so I’ll have only about fifteen minutes to change into my suit and have dinner. Not quite the relaxing meal I sometimes get.

And the iPhone’s battery is getting low (my kind coworker still hasn’t handed over the free charger), so let’s end with some disturbing food violence news: When cucumbers are outlawed, only outlaws will have cucumbers. My advice: stay out of the vegetable aisle.

See you tomorrow.