Archive for the ‘guatemala’ Category

Guatemalan waterfall

Monday, February 6th, 2012

Here are LRN1 and a few friends hanging out by a waterfall somewhere in Guatemala.  That’s LRN1 there on the right wearing a white t-shirt.  Great Art courtesy of somebody in Guatemala and part of my famous Guatemala and Hiking series.  I’m guessing they had to walk a little way to get there, anyway.

Greetings from beautiful Langhorne, Pennsylvania!  LRN4 got here last night (I got here last Monday), we’re in the apartment – AKA the New New Fortress of Solitude (NNFoS) – and things are chugging along.  I did a bunch of shopping during the past week. Started in the apartment on Tuesday with a cheap sofa and a couple of lamps from Target, an air mattress, pillows, and blanket from Amazon, some inexpensive plates, silverware, and glasses from Target, a set of sheets and towels from home, and whatever clothes I had been able to carry with me during the past few trips.  On Friday, I added our beautiful new dining room furniture, a great set of pots and pans, a “professional” waffle iron, and a beautiful new laser printer/scanner/copier/fax from Costco, and Internet service from Comcast.  I think the Internet was the hardest thing to live without.  I’ve been comfortable, if a bit on the hobo-lifestyle side.  I made a coffee table from a big Amazon box and nightstands from moving boxes from my work stuff.  They’re working out great.

LRN4 was busy too.  She got her car picked up on Tuesday; as of noon today, it’s somewhere in Virginia.  On Friday, the movers came and packed and loaded us on that same day.  LRN4 had spent the entire week getting ready for that event, which apparently went very smoothly.  Many, many thanks to our dear friend Cathie for spending practically the whole week helping her.  She also got wined and dined by her friends all week – they took her to dinner nearly every night, not to mention to see several movies.  She got pretty well spoiled.  I guess I should be grateful she came here at all, huh?

Anyway.  Our stuff is supposed to be here sometime between the 13th and 20th of this month.  We’re hoping like crazy that it gets here before the 16th, as that’s when LRN1 comes home from his mission!

Update on the Mini’s whereabouts: as of this evening, it’s in Delaware now.  I think we’ll be seeing it within the next day or two!

Anyway, back to LRN1.  He’s coming home in 10 days!  As of tomorrow, he’ll be in single digits.  We heard from him today, of course.  He’s having some mixed emotions right now – loving the people and loathe to leave them, but anxious to get home.  I understand how he feels and it’s a great feeling.  I absolutely can’t wait to have him home again.  Even if home is currently just the NNFoS.

Speaking of the apartment, I think it’s going to work out just fine.  It’s just a little bit older than our house and, while it’s not nearly as nice or in as good condition, it’s still quite nice.  We’ll be comfortable here.  We have a three-bedroom, so there will be plenty of room for the three of us, I expect.

Let’s see, what else is going on?  I’m incredibly busy at work and greatly enjoying it.  My job is just a little bit challenging – I have to manage a bunch of people over whom I have no authority and get them to do stuff that isn’t yet well defined using a process that hasn’t been established yet.  Other than that, it’s a piece of cake.  I’m really enjoying it and the days just fly.

Time for other things.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: oatmeal road rage!

See you tomorrow.

Caver

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

Here’s LRN1, in a particularly dirty state.  Explanation below.  Great Art courtesy of one of his companions and part of my famous Guatemala series.

As promised, I’m not mentioning anything about how long it’s been since I last posted.  Not a word.

Had a decent weekend.  Friday afternoon, we went with our friends Don and Lynn – with whom we’re cruising next week – out to a place called Woodward Reservoir to try out their kayaks.  We told them we’re kayaking in Hawaii and that we’ve never done that before, so they invited us to go get some experience.  It’s easy, of course.  Although perhaps just a bit tiring.  I expect to have somewhat sore shoulders and arms after doing it for a couple of hours.  Don and Lynn also brought their waverunner, which I availed myself of a few times, and their motorized kayak, which LRN4 and I both tried out.  That thing is fun!  It’s quiet, smooth, and relatively fast.  You control the motor with a potentiometer (I used full forward and then a bit of reverse as I beached it when I was done) and steer it with aircraft-like rudder pedals.  Easy and great fun.  I want one!

Saturday and Sunday we watched general conference, which was very nice.  I’m really curious to know what caused President Monson to arrive halfway through the first session.  Must have been quite pressing, whatever it was.  We washed all three cars between sessions, and that’s pretty much the sum total of what we got accomplished on the weekend.  Sunday morning, our friends Doug and Connie came over for breakfast and conference, which was nice.

Enjoyed LRN1’s weekly letter today.  He spent part of his preparation day exploring a nearby cave.  Hope that was a safe and approved activity, incidentally.  Especially the safe part.  Anyway, he sent us the above picture of the muddy aftermath.

I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: ice cream feud!

See you tomorrow.

Gone native

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

Here’s LRN1 getting into the Guatemalan jungle thing just a tiny bit too much.  You can tell he’s a missionary by the nametag.  Great Art courtesy of an unknown missionary and part of my famous Guatemala series.

Greetings from home!  I didn’t write on the train this afternoon.  Too busy sleeping.  And I already feel like I could use another nap.  Sigh.

But it was a nice holiday weekend – especially Monday.  I spent Friday working on LDS Tools, as planned.  Got a couple of things done but, alas, not all that much.  I’m frustratingly not feeling successful there.  Don’t know how to put in enough time to make it successful.  Don’t know what to do about that.

Anyway.  Saturday was fine.  Can’t remember anything that happened except that we went to our friend Evan’s fiftieth birthday party.  Saw several friends there, watched a little college football (it was his party and he could watch sports if he wanted to), and had a bit of nice food.

Sunday was normal.  Church was fine, there was no choir practice, and we got to chat with LRN2, which we look forward to greatly every week.

Monday, we got up and went golfing with our friends Doug and Connie.  Had a nice time, although I stunk up the course big time.  We got home just in time to go to the ward picnic, which was also very nice.  The weather couldn’t have been more perfect, the park was beautiful, and we got to chat with several friends.  Couldn’t have been better.  Next, we went home and spent a couple of hours in our pool.  Again, the weather couldn’t have been better for it and the water felt great.  We got out just in time to go for a quick bite at our favorite Mexican fast food place, after which we went for dessert to our friends Don and Lynn’s house, where we talked about our upcoming mutual Hawaii cruise.  What a great day!

Then, to pay for my fun, I spent the day today going to meetings.  Period.  Looking forward to more of the same tomorrow.

I’m not a meeting hater.  I think they’re a great tool to get people together and get things discussed, understood, and decided.  But you can have too much of a good thing, sometimes.

Anyway.  Listened to an interesting interview with Mark and Caralyn Buehner, who are a hus-a-band-and-a-wife-a-team of children’s book author and illustrator.  I’ve seen one of their books before – a long time ago – called The Escape of Marvin the Ape.  I somehow got it as an interactive book .  Probably came with a computer a long time ago.  Anyway, it was cute, and their newer stuff looks even cuter.  Very good interview here and their website is here.  I’ve recommended their stuff to LRN4, whose website is here, just in case I haven’t remembered to mention it before.

Time to quit.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this combination shocking food violence news and exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: turkey intruder!

See you tomorrow.

 

Tikal reader

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

Here’s LRN1 in front of the temple at Tikal, Guatemala.  He was there yesterday and, by all reports, had a great time.  I’m really glad he got to go there.  Great Art courtesy of one of his fellow missionaries and part of my famous Guatemala series.

Incredibly busy days yesterday and today.  I’ve been getting ready for an all-day meeting on Thursday.  I’ve decided to travel to our Air Force base for it, mainly to get our folks there to give me back something I loaned them for one week a year ago.  Seems like my only hope is to go get it myself.

Anyway, it’ll be incredibly busy at work tomorrow morning, after which I’m coming home and heading south.  LRN4 is coming with me.  We’ll enjoy the drive down there together, have a nice dinner, and hang out in the Embassy Suites hotel tomorrow.  Thursday, I’ll go to my meeting and LRN4 will work on her website and generally hang around.  Friday morning, we’ll go get the package and head for Sunnyvale.  I’ll drop the package off and we’ll go home.  Sounds busy.

Friday night, we’re going to a Modesto Nuts baseball game – never been, but there was a Groupon coupon and I love minor league baseball.  We’re going with our friends Art and Cathie.

Saturday evening, we’ve been invited to our friend Julie’s 50th birthday party.  We also have golf lesson number four Saturday afternoon.  That was supposed to be it, but our instructor is throwing in a fifth lesson.  No charge, I assume.  At least there better not be.

Sunday, both LRN4 and I have lessons to teach.  I’m substituting in Gospel Doctrine and she has Relief Society.  So that’ll be busy too.  Plus, we need to prepare ahead of time, of course.

Monday afternoon, we’re going over to our friends Rob and Jan’s house for a holiday picnic.  Directly after that, I take LRN4 to the airport in Stockton for her trip to Las Vegas, hopefully to buy us a vacation/retirement condo.  And I go home and sleep.

Whew.  Sounds like fun.  I had no idea we were so popular.

LRN2’s doing well in school and at work.  LRN1’s doing well on his mission.  LRN3’s doing well in Virginia.  LRN5 just got back from Las Vegas (should have bought us a condo!) and is doing well.  Everything’s good!

I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: monkey advertising executive!

See you tomorrow.

New companion

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

Here’s LRN1’s new companion.  See circumstances and description below.  That’s LRN1 there on the right.  Part of my famous Guatemala series.

No posts for a week.  Such a long time!  Fortunately, nothing has happened.

Well, that’s not entirely true.  LRN4 and I had a bit of entertainment this weekend.  It started Friday night, as these things often do.  We went to Modesto to see Madame Butterfly.  Turns out it wasn’t a comedy.  I think it was the best thing I’ve seen done by the Townsend Opera Company, though.  Not that that’s necessarily saying much – they have put on a few stinkers over the years (we saw Romeo and Juliet there in January of this year – everything was good except the actors/singers who portrayed Romeo and Juliet, which seems like the one thing they should have gotten right.  Just saying.)  Not the best attendance, and the prices were quite reasonable.  So that’s a bit of a shame.  But we had a very nice time and enjoyed it quite a bit.

On Saturday night, we went to Danville to see our non-loyal-reader friend Clifford’s band perform.  They were excellent!  They played in a Lutheran church there, which was a unique experience for us, but how nice of them to provide facilities for things like this!

Anyway.  Nothing much else to report.  LRN1 wrote on Saturday, taking us a bit by surprise, since his p-day has been Monday, like most missionaries.  However, he’s been transferred back into the office.  And the office denizens have their p-day on Saturday.  I guess he’s just too good at doing the finances for his own good.  I hope he enjoys his second tour there.  He reports that he has a really great companion, which is an excellent start!  Have a great time in the office, LRN1!  As if you were reading this!

Got the Suburban detailed today.  When they replaced the vandalized window, they vacuumed, but there were still millions of tiny glass shards everywhere.  So the insurance company told me to get it detailed at their expense.  It cost more than three times what they initially told me to spend, so we’ll see how much they end up paying.  I just sent them the receipt and told them to pay whatever they feel good about.  In any case, the car looks great!  I want to get it done to all my cars every year!  Or maybe every month!  Sadly, that would be a bit unaffordable, so maybe I should just hope for one car a year.  Next year: the Honda.  The ‘Burb goes into the shop here in Lardville at the beginning of next week to have its mirror switch replaced, thereby finishing the repairs from the Vandalism Incident.  Weep with me, Loyal Readers.

Anyway again.  It’s 9:00 and I need to start getting up earlier.  Therefore, I need to start going to bed earlier.  Therefore, I need to end this and go to bed.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news:  grape assault!

See you tomorrow.