morrowlife

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.