morrowlife

Here’s a nice shot of Loyal Reader Number One accepting his Eagle Scout award a few weeks ago. We’re really proud of LRNO’s accomplishments in this area, as in many other things. Way to go, LRNO!

Well, there’s certainly some big news in the Morrowlife Blog world tonight. We have a new reader! Vickie is hereby declared Loyal Reader Number Ten. Actually, those of you following the comments already learned that she’s been reading for a while now, but she finally decided to reveal her existence last night. Welcome aboard, LRNT! Now just send us your picture for your very own Special Morrowlife Day. Don’t forget!

There’s not much else to talk about tonight. Work was busy as usual. I spent a little time in the software lab today and got a pretty good education. I need to learn how to run tests at various levels.

The mortgage on the Secret Undisclosed Location was approved today (actually, it was approved by two different mortgage companies), so nothing could possibly go wrong now. We’re movin’ to Lardville!

We got back in the spa this evening. They had changed the water today and it was much better. The Pool Guy told Loyal Reader Number Four that yesterday’s problem was a simple chemical imbalance caused by inexperienced personnel operating during his unavoidable absence. Sure. He also claimed they change the spa water every Tuesday, regardless of how polluted it was on Monday night. Right. Anyway, it was much nicer tonight.

Late breaking news! We have another Loyal Reader! That’s two in the same day. Welcome to Mike, our new Loyal Reader Number Eleven! Send us your picture and you’ll have a Special Morrowlife Day of your own.

Off to bed. Hasta manana.

Since we’re near San Francisco now, I figured it would be appropriate to include a picture of Chinatown. Of course, this is Philadelphia’s Chinatown, but I don’t have a picture of the one here. Besides, it’s the thought that counts, no?

This will have to be short tonight. It’s already getting late, and I frittered some time away this evening trying to solve ciphers on the NSA Kids website. The ciphers were pretty simple, but I’m not very good at solving them, so it was something of a challenge. It’s a pretty cool website – check it out.

How things can change over a weekend! Loyal Reader Number Four had me look at realtor.com in the area where our Dream Home is located. I did, and there’s a vacant one exactly like the one we want, but four years old and $45K cheaper. Yikes. We went into the office on Saturday and discussed the situation with the sales people. They didn’t have much to say. We thought about it some more and decided we would be just as happy with the house that’s basically complete already (just missing the appliances and a few knick-knacks) and much less expensive. We offered to buy it if they gave us a free refrigerator and paid for half of our swimming pool. Otherwise, we were going to go have a careful look at the four-year-old house.

Well, they bit, for the most part. They offered us much more than I expected them to offer (although they hit LRNF’s expectations nearly exactly), and we accepted their offer. The contract is signed, we close on 21 July, and we move in as soon as we get back from our August vacation. Hooray! Now somebody has to tell our realtor we won’t be using his services after all. I’ve been unable to get out of that task so far.

While we were in Lardville on Saturday, we found a good pool/spa supplier and decided on a pool and spa that we would like and could afford. It wasn’t an easy thing meeting both requirements, believe me. With the extra money the builder is throwing in, we might now go back and add in a few luxuries we had redlined out the first time. Of course, we believed at the time we visited them on Saturday that we were moving into a different lot, so we have to go back and get them to lay it out again, but I’m sure they won’t mind at all.

Speaking of pools and spas, we decided to jacuzzify for Home Evening activity tonight. The water in the spa here at the Fortress of Solitude was murky and smelled funny, but Loyal Reader Number One and I, inexplicably, got in it anyway. Succumbing to peer pressure, Loyal Reader Number Four did too. We stayed in for a few minutes, got thoroughly grossed out, and went back into the FOS and took showers. How smart of us. We’ll probably all die of e. coli or something. Yuck.

On the positive side, I found a great reading list on the internet today. New Morrowlife book club fodder! I’m planning to get a library card soon and start looking for some of them. Stay tuned. By the way, Tales of St. Austin’s is going well but very slowly – less time than usual for reading. I’ll get through it, though. It appears to be a series of related short stories, rather than a completely coherent whole. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though – it’s easy to break it up over time. I’m still enjoying it and still recommend it and all of Wodehouse’s other work, although I’m still pushing the Jeeves books for first-timers.

I had an idea this evening that would really stir up this blog. I thought of letting Loyal Readers improve their LR number by posting more often. Less-frequent posters would be gradually demoted, although they would of course never be dropped from the list. Then I decided it would cause mass confusion and too much work on my part, so I dropped it. Still, it was an intriguing thought for a few moments though. Loyal Reader Number One suggested awarding my more frequent posters with additional titles (Extra-Loyal Reader, Super-Loyal Reader, Hyper-Loyal Reader, etc.) and maybe saddling less frequent posters with shameful titles (Disloyal Reader, Barely-Tolerable Reader, etc.), but I probably won’t do that either. Too much trouble. Just keep posting, Loyal Readers!

That’s it for today. Got to get to bed. See you tomorrow.

Keeping with our Loyal Reader Number Two theme (we miss you!), here he is with Loyal Reader Number One in front of the model of our new house. No, you can’t see much of the house here, but I have more pictures and there’s always tomorrow! So much for Great Art.

Decent day today. Got a call from my brother Chris – apparently he didn’t have our cell phone numbers and couldn’t get my work email address to work. I don’t know what the problem was, but he took the initiative and called some family members. Apparently, neither of my parents knows our cell phone numbers, but my sister Sandy does! It was nice to talk to Chris.

Nothing else to discuss today. Tomorrow’s ostensibly my off Friday, but I’ll still not sure if I’m allowed to work 9/80 in Sunnyvale, so I’m just not asking. I’ll go in for a few hours and then say I need to leave to look at houses. My subtle plan is to just worm myself into 9/80. Very clever.

Did I mention my new drill? I got it at Costco the other day with some money my colleagues in Newtown gave me as an Extravagant Parting Gift. It’s totally cool. I already have a cordless drill, but this is one of those high-powered ones that all my friends have. Now I can really work on things!

See you tomorrow. I’ll let you know how the subtle plan works out.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Two relaxing at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. I’m not sure you’re allowed to lie on the floor there, but he appears to have suffered no serious consequences. We miss you, LRNT! Find work and fun there in Utah. Your pirate days are over!

There’s not a lot to report tonight, other than that Chateau Pathetique still isn’t sold. We’re getting just a little bit worried. We’re praying for success, though, so we know it’ll work out. I invite my Loyal Readers to join us in our humble petition. And if for some bizarre reason you feel uncomfortable doing so, then at least have the decency to buy it from us. I can guarantee you we’ll get absolute top dollar!

The other good news is that my company laptop (you’re soaking in it now!) is finally able to connect to the internet here in the Fortress of Solitude. I had to cycle power on the modem before it would take an IP address. We need to connect it back to Loyal Reader Number One’s laptop in a few minutes and see if power has to be cycled again for him to connect again. Weirdness reigns.

In a tragic turn of events, I discovered some damage to my precious Honda’s body this evening after I got the gas tank filled. I don’t have any idea where it came from, but it has to be fixed. This isn’t exactly a good time for us to be paying an insurance deductible, but it will work out.

Short post tonight. See you tomorrow.

Here’s an architectural detail from the Fortress of Solitude. These guys remind one of Loyal Readers One and Two, no? Except that there are three of them here. And they’re a little bit smaller. And they look completely different. And they’re not wearing any clothes. Otherwise, the resemblance is amazing.

Well, there’s certainly a lot to report today. Things are really hopping in the Morrowlife Fortress of Solitude. Let’s start with the most important one, shall we?

Loyal Reader Number Two went to Utah to visit his friend Jay for a couple of weeks. Boo hoo for us! We miss you, LRNT! While you’re out there, how about recruiting a new Loyal Reader? And have fun! And don’t worry about us! And have fun!

Now to the second most important order of business. We found a new Morrowlife Secret Undisclosed Location on Saturday. We started off with the intention of looking at a townhouse near the Fortress of Solitude, but they wouldn’t even let us look at the model. Apparently, they won’t sell any more of their large models until they get rid of the remaining small ones. So no townhouse for us. Instead, we decided to just drive out to Modesto and look at what was available before we decided on someplace closer, just in case it turned out we really loved it out there.

On the way there, we saw a sign for houses in Manteca (pronounced man-tee-ka by the locals), so we stopped in for a look, although I had previously announced my Unshakeable Resolve to never live in a town named Lard. The first sales office was decidedly unpromising – the houses were too small and the models were miles away anyway. There was one more set of models nearby, though, so we drove on.

Well, they turned out to be absolutely great. There was a gigantic (3500 square feet or so) one we fell in love with at first. It’s really cool, but the price is quite high and there are some serious issues with the layout – for example, the entrance from the garage goes through the laundry room, which is right next to the master bedroom and way across the house from the kitchen. Then there’s the front door opening directly into the dining room. Et cetera.

Then we saw the second-largest one (link warning – this picture is correct in its basic layout, but it’s missing a lot of stuff, including the third car garage). It’s a little over 2900 square feet and laid out much better. It has five bedrooms and three full bathrooms upstairs, plus a nice large loft. Oh, and the laundry room. Downstairs, there’s the usual stuff. There’s also a covered porch in the back – not huge, but a nice touch. And then there’s the gigantic three-and-a-half-car garage. The third bay has doors in the front AND the back! Wow. It’s affordable too. We picked out an already-framed house on a nice lot that’s on a curve, so there’s more space between houses than elsewhere in the already generous (for California, anyway) neighborhood. The exterior colors, roofing, and cabinets have already been chosen, but we get to select everything else.

We love new houses and we’re really excited about this one. It will be truly nice. The big downside is the commute distance for me, but there’s a commuter train station about five minutes’ drive away. We checked out the ward on Sunday and it seems fine. There’s not much shopping in Manteca yet, but it’s pretty close to both Tracy and Modesto, both of which should be okay in the store department. All in all, we’re excited about it.

Loyal Reader Number One believes we should change the name of our software company from Gardenville Software to Lardville Software. I disagree.

Work continues to improve every day. I’m starting to get a vague idea of what’s going on around there, and the boss keeps giving me more assignments. So I’m busy, which is a good thing. I’m starting to get to know the people too.

Well, the time has certainly gotten away from us tonight, hasn’t it? Time for bed. See you tomorrow.