Archive for February, 2010

Dodge brothers

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010


Here’s an early Dodge emblem. The Star of David is kind of interesting. I don’t think it had any meaning – they probably just liked it. Great Art taken at the Sacramento auto museum on Christmas Eve, of course. Part of my famous Machinery series.

Greetings from the train! I’m using my laptop, having finished my daily 100 names of indexing and tried to simultaneously stay awake with limited success. I think it got done well, though – I guess I can index in my sleep already. Pretty impressive.

Anyway, I’m using the train’s wifi and my laptop’s battery. The wifi signal is pretty good right now, although they still only have it on one train a day, I believe. The battery’s down to 23 percent, so I can’t write for a terribly long time. I could have brought my power cord and plugged in to the train, but I didn’t. No problem – the new battery can last pretty much the entire one-way trip, which allows me to index and blog. Which I believe we can all agree is an excellent use of my commuting time.

LRN1’s reading days are temporarily over! We dropped him off at the Oakland airport this morning, hugged him, told him we love him, and watched him walk away. What an emotional day. Last evening’s setting apart was also a wonderful experience, if a bit emotional too. As mentioned yesterday.

I’m really going to miss LRN1. Our relationship has been very close. Experience tells me the time will pass as if it were a dream, but I’m still feeling the loss right now. On the positive side, I’m moving my computer stuff back into his bedroom, which will heretofore be know as “my office.” Can’t complain about that. He could, I suppose, but he hasn’t.

Anyway. I’ll write letters at least weekly and hope to hear from him every week. We expect great things to happen, both for him and by him. Pray for his success, please, Loyal Readers.

Got to work a couple of hours late due to the airport trip. LRN2 and LRN4 dropped me off at the Santa Clara train station so I could pick up my beloved pickup. We also thoughtfully pre-positioned my Honda at the Lardville train station, so I don’t need to get the Loyal Readers to come pick me up on that end. Which is good, since it’s Massive Meeting Tuesday.

And we’re almost home and I’m almost out of batteries. So I’ll end with this shocking food violence news: Nacho fight!

See you tomorrow.

Missionary

Monday, February 8th, 2010


Here’s LRN1 on his last evening at home. He was just set apart as a full-time missionary a couple of hours ago. In p-day clothes for his final pre-departure haircut. He’s ready and rarin’ to go. We’re confident in him. Had a beautiful setting apart blessing too.

Extreme short shrift. I hope things will be back to normal by Wednesday. Massive Meeting Tuesday tomorrow. No post last Friday – it was my off day and I never seemed to get around to it. Thanks for noticing, Anon. Really.

Pleasant weekend. Went to a ward dinner, attended a bunch of meetings, did a tiny bit of work around the house, fixed Moe’s hard disk problem and swapped one of his disks into a new machine we’ve named Harpo (we’re finally out of stooges) and installed the latest Ubuntu server on both machines. Also ate and slept.

Time for bed. LRN1’s off to the airport tomorrow and then into the MTC on Wednesday morning. Did I mention we’re all excited?

I’ll leave you with this shocking food violence news (this time the food itself perpetrated the violence!): chili-choking trucker.

See you tomorrow.

Stiff drivers

Thursday, February 4th, 2010


Here’s a beautiful old Ford being driven by a somewhat stuffy couple. In fact, we never got a word out of ’em. If I’m not mistaken, this is a rare Ford Model K – an expensive precursor to the Model T. Great Art taken at the Sacramento auto museum on Christmas Eve and part of my famous Machinery series.

The weekend’s here! Tomorrow’s my off Friday, and it’s Thursday evening, so that counts. Good day at work – got a few things done, didn’t get a few others done. Some great stuff is happening, which will probably be discussed at a future date. Also, I got a few man-months added to my funding this year, which is really good. Really.

No post yesterday – I stayed home sick. Had a very sore throat and a pretty serious headache. Slept it off and felt much better by evening. I faded a little this afternoon, but all’s well. Thanks to Anon for noticing, as usual.

Went to my first Scouting district committee meeting this evening. I already knew most of the people there, including my counselor Jason and my former colleague on the high council Rich. Not to mention everybody else. Pretty productive meeting, although I’m still not quite sure what an Assistant District Commissioner is supposed to be doing. Maybe I should just keep attending meetings until somebody asks me to do something. Or maybe I should go to the Scouting website and look for training. Which is probably there.

Anyway. I signed up for the family history indexing program yesterday and indexed my first 51 names. Also took a bunch of their training. I’ve decided to bring my personal laptop to work every day for a while and index on the train during the ride home. I did another 100 names today. It’s great because you can work offline – just have to download some batches ahead of time, and you can submit them the next time you have a connection. Pretty slick. And it’s fun too!

There’s a ward challenge going on right now, pitting the Young Men (my department) against the Young Women, Melchizedek Priesthood, and Relief Society to see who can index the most names during the month of February. The YM are widely thought to be the underdog in the competition, what with their heavy videogaming requirement and extreme sleep training. I’m trying to do my part, anyway. You would think that such a computer-savvy group would be way out ahead, but I haven’t spoken with any of them who are too interested. I’m having fun, though.

And that’s about it for tonight. Lots to do this weekend. Unfortunately, we decided to cancel our family camping trip due to the expected heavy rains and strong winds and cold temperatures. Not the best combination for a fun camping experience. So we’ll probably go to the ward dinner on Friday night and get a bunch of other things done. Need to reserve plenty of time for fun and frolic, though, this being LRN1’s final weekend at home before his full-time mission starts. I can’t believe it’s upon us already! I’m really going to miss him, but he’ll be having a wonderful experience and the time will pass much more quickly than any of us realizes.

I’ll leave you with this shocking Food Violence news: biscuit crash! Be careful out there when going out for breakfast.

See you tomorrow.

Moroni

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010


Here’s the Angel Moroni statue on the Sacramento temple. Great Art courtesy of LRN1 and my classic Olympus OM-1 film camera. Old school. Rock on.

I don’t use that camera anymore, though. I have a nice shiny new Olympus digital camera. You can take this old school thing too far.

Fine day. Nothing to report. Woke up, commuted, worked, commuted, ate, and blogged. I’m planning to head for the gym in a few minutes.

And I had better get going. LRN4 has a church meeting and either I need to watch LRN12 or get to the gym. I’ll leave you with this shocking combined toilet and food violence news: meat urination. Disgusting. Not recommended.

See you tomorrow.

Three fourths

Monday, February 1st, 2010


Here are LRN1, LRN2, and LRN5, having a nice time. We miss you, LRN3! Little bit of redeye in this original, unretouched photo.

Nice day. We went to the movies for Home Evening. Saw the new Jackie Chan movie – The Spy Next Door. It was really cute. Strangely, I really enjoy Mr. Chan’s body of work. He doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously.

I’m sorry to report that LRN5 has broken her big toe. Ouch! She tripped while doing a babysitting exchange and reports that she had three little girls following her around afterward complaining that their toes hurt too. LRN12 is coming over for a couple of days so her mom can rest. Get better quickly, LRN5! Broken toes hurt like the devil. You have my pity.

I have discovered a great job opportunity: Hotdogger. This is even better than Monkey Man. LRN2’s updating his resume as I type this. I’m thinking of doing the same.

Otherwise, a normal day. The weekend was also pleasant. Went to a Scouting event on Saturday morning and the opera on Saturday evening. We saw The Merry Widow at the Gallo Center, as discussed in this space earlier. It was quite well done, especially considering that Saturday evening’s cast consisted (mostly) of college students. Unfortunately, the young lady scheduled to perform the title role took sick and had to be replaced with the professional who was part of the cast on the other nights. That’s fortunate for us, come to think of it. Anyway, we had a very nice time.

And I’ll leave you with this shocking food violence news: beef vs. chicken. Can’t the meats all just get along?

See you tomorrow.