Archive for February, 2012

Gilligan’s lagoon

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

Here’s the original Gilligan’s lagoon.  This is the one you see during the opening credits, not the one at Universal Studios in California.  I’ve seen that one too and it’s not nearly as nice as this one.  Trust me on that.  Great Art taken on shore leave in Kauai during our recent Hawaii Cruise and part of my famous Vacation series.

LRN1 is back!  Hallelujah!  We picked him up at the airport on Thursday evening as scheduled.  His flights were on time and comfortable and he was returned to us in excellent condition.  We’ve had a wonderful time together!  It’s fun to finally hear all about everything that happened during the past two years.  He was a great missionary and gave outstanding service.  I’m really proud of him.

The visit with LRN3 and LRN15 was great too.  What a fantastic weekend we had!  I’ve missed them since the moment they left.

Let’s see – what have we been doing?  Oh yeah, our stuff arrived on Monday.  We’ve been unpacking, putting away, and setting up.  Most of that has been done by LRN1 and LRN4, of course, since I spend a lot of time away from home.  I’ve done a bit of the setting up, though, not to mention a little hauling around as well.  Hauling around?  I asked you not to mention that!

The place really feels like home now.  I’m liking it.

My cordless drill died as soon as LRN1 tried using it yesterday.  I had just bought two brand new batteries for it and had even tested them (I think), but they wouldn’t charge at all.  The charger wouldn’t even try.  What’s up with that?  In a fit of pique, I sent LRN1 and LRN4 to Home Depot and had them buy a new cordless drill.  This one’s a tiny little [amazon asin=B0043XX87W&text=DeWalt drill] with a lithium-ion battery.  It seems plenty powerful and really cool.  I love it!  Highly recommended.  Now I need to start drilling a bunch of holes.

LRN1 helped me figure out last night why none of the Ethernet outlets in the apartment were working.  He made a simple, crude line tester with two short ethernet cables, a 9-volt battery, and a voltage meter.  We started testing lines wire-by-wire and discovered that several wires weren’t making a connection.  It was then that he discovered that the panel in the closet where all the wiring comes together had never been properly assembled.  He used my handy punchdown tool and everything works now!  It’s obvious that the Ethernet in this apartment has never worked.  Sheesh.  We should charge these people.

And now we have several of the devices in the apartment wired together!  For everything but the [amazon asin=B004KKTCWS&text=Ooma], we could have stuck with wireless, but the wires were there and the wired connection is probably a bit faster for stuff like video, so we’re wired up.  Pretty cool.

And it’s time for bed.  Lots happening.  We’re busy and happy and working hard.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: body-sniffing vulture!  What could possibly go wrong?

See you tomorrow.

Kauai beach

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

Here’s a beach on Kauai.  That was just a pretty place, no matter how you looked at it.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken from the pier featured prominently in The Wackiest Ship in the Army, and part of my famous Vacation series.

Not even a week since my last post!  Could be worse.  It’s been much worse, in fact.  However, I can proudly point to the fact that there has been at least one post every month since November of 2005.  That’s not all that shabby.  Really.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Two more days before LRN1 is home!  He left his last area after lunch today and went to Coban, where he was previously assigned.  He’s there for the afternoon and evening and leaves for the capital in the wee hours of the morning.  He’ll arrive early tomorrow morning, go to a transfer conference, have a final interview with his mission president, have a nice pizza dinner, and hit the sack.  Thursday morning, he’s up early and off to the airport.  Travel safely, LRN1!  We can’t wait to see you.

In fact, some more Loyal Readers are coming to town to welcome LRN1 back.  That’s right, LRN3 and LRN15 are coming up here on Thursday afternoon.  They’re spending the weekend with us so they can hear LRN1’s welcome-home talk in church on Sunday.  Then they’re back to Virginia.

Lots more shopping been going on.  We went to Ikea on Saturday and got a bunch of stuff, including a very nice set of matching tables that include a corner desk, with the total spanning a length of about 11 feet across one wall and 8 feet across the other.  I really like ’em.  We also got a very modest dresser for LRN1’s room, a bunch of lamps (elsewhere) so that every room in the NNFOS has light now, a very nice TV table for the living room, and various other small items.  My hands got pretty sore putting all the Ikea stuff together, but it was worth it.  It’s looking more and more like a home around here.  LRN4 even got a nice big clock today and put it on the wall.  And I even noticed it, not more than ten minutes after I got home!

Speaking of which, our household goods are scheduled to get here on Monday.  Sadly, they won’t be here in time for LRN1’s arrival, but we’re ready for that anyway.  We have our two queen-size air mattresses, and we borrowed a twin mattress with sheets and blankets from a nice family in the ward this evening, so we can even accommodate LRN3 and LRN15 for the weekend.  They’ll sleep on one of the air mattresses in the office and LRN1 will rough it on the twin mattress.

We’re looking forward to having our stuff.  We’re doing pretty well without it, but we’d really like the beds and it’s about time to quit using cardboard boxes as tables and nightstands.  I hope the place won’t feel too crowded when it gets here.

I just got the third disk of the second season of Sledge Hammer from Netflix.  I really enjoyed the first season and I’m looking forward to the second one as well.  I’m sure it gets even stupider than it was in the first place, but when was that an impediment to good humor?

It’s time for bed already, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: fugitive baboon!

See you tomorrow.

 

New phone

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

Here’s the last picture ever taken by my old beloved iPhone-cam.  It’s my new beloved iPhone 4S: the unboxing!  I love Apple’s packaging.  And I’m not alone.  There are lots of people who save the boxes just because they’re so beautiful.  What a bunch of fan boys.  I always throw my Apple boxes away immediately after no more than five or six years.  Great Art courtesy of the (old) exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Machinery and Vacation (I bought the thing on our Hawaii cruise during shore leave on Oahu) series.

Only a couple days since my last post.  Maybe I’m turning over a new leaf.  Maybe not.

I have good news and bad news.  First the good: LRN4’s car got here today, and it appears to be undamaged from its journey!  I’m delighted to have it here – now she can get wherever she wants to go whenever she wants to go there.  Now the bad news – our household goods aren’t even out of California yet.  Sigh.  That’s the price you pay for only shipping part of a truckload.  Apparently, our stuff was put on the truck first, and the driver is going to be loading his truck with other people’s stuff until Saturday.  Then he has to drive for a few days.  Then he has to unload everybody else’s stuff.  Then he’ll get to ours.  It looks like that won’t happen until the 19th or 20th.  So LRN1 will get here before our things do, a possibility we had hoped to avoid.  He’s been living in tin-roofed shacks for the past two years, though, so we’ll probably be okay.

LRN4’s been very busy in shopping mode.  Lots of stuff must be procured for the new quarters.  It was tough deciding what stuff to bring, what we could do without, and what we wanted to replace.  Several things ended up in the “replace” bucket.  She’s been buying towels, rugs, shower curtains, food, can openers, measuring cups, potato peelers, and tons of other stuff.  It’s looking homier around here all the time.

Only eight more days before LRN1’s home!  Tomorrow he’ll start his last week.  Stay focused, LRN1!  But get ready to be home too!

It’s snowing!  Started in the early afternoon.  There’s probably an inch or so on the ground, although it doesn’t seem to be sticking to the pavement.  Maybe that’ll happen overnight.  Might be a slower drive than usual tomorrow morning.  Fortunately, I have all-wheel-drive.  Also this thing which tells time.

And I have about a million (scientific estimate) LDS Tools emails to get to, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: grandma bacon assault!

See you tomorrow.

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.