morrowlife

Here are Loyal Reader Number Two and Loyal Pet Number One staring at the camera. LPN1’s eyes always freak me out in photographs. Devil dog. LRN2 is kind of prone to the same thing too, although not nearly as badly, of course.

Nothing else to report today. I looked at a few old sports cars online this afternoon but didn’t buy any of them. A few look promising. We’ll have to see. I’m kind of looking around for a fun project car – not a restoration, but a tasteful modification. Miatas seem like likely subjects, as do Rangers and Jeeps (totally different uses, but the same basic idea in my warped mind). Porsches don’t seem promising at this point – too much money to buy and WAY too much money to fix/modify. There’s no hurry, though. In fact, I’m not theoretically ready to buy for another year and a half, but when did I ever let a little fact like that get in the way?

Nobody was home when I got here this evening. The boys were away at Battle Axe lessons and the girls were away at Book Club. The Loyal Pets and I were it. We made the best of it.

And it’s already time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Twelve looking at her mom (or is that Grandma?) in unbelieving amazement over some slight, real or imagined. “Did I just hear what I think I heard?” Check out that arsenal of feeding tubes in the background. She’s got nothing to complain about. But that doesn’t necessarily keep her from complaining. Photo once again courtesy of Loyal Reader Number Five.

Gotta Blog Like the Wind tonight. It’s already almost 10:00 and we’re just finishing Home Evening. I get home later than I used to, so we have dinner later than we used to, so we start Home Evening later than we used to, so we finish later than we used to. It’s a vicious circle.

Loyal Reader Number One got his driver’s license today! Congratulations, LRN1. Be careful out there.

Spent a good part of the weekend working on the Gardenville Software website revamp. Instead of being nothing but a links page, it now features actual software! It needs a LOT more work (doesn’t even have a banner at the top of the page yet and isn’t hosted on the right server yet, just for two examples), but it at least gives you an idea of where we’re planning to go with it. Have a look and give me suggestions!

I ended up using TikiWiki to make the website. I’m still not sure it was the right idea, and I’m thinking of making a demo website with Drupal. If I do end up doing that, I’ll put them both someplace where my Loyal Readers can find them and ask for a vote. That sure seems like a lot of work, though.

And then again, there’s WordPress. Hmmm. What to do (other than bore my patient Loyal Readers)?

Okay, you’ve suffered enough for my art for today. See you tomorrow.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Two trying out his new RC car the other day. Both Loyal Readers Number One and Number Two got RC cars. As a matter of fact, they’re outside enjoying them right now.

Speaking of driving, keep your fingers crossed on Monday for LRN1. He’s taking his driving test, along with a final or two at school. Busy day. Good luck, LRN1! We need you to start running errands for us.

Wonders of Blogger again today. I can’t even remember why I was too busy to blog last night, but I definitely was. It’s been busy today too. We finally took all the Christmas decorations down, which took hours. I went to Home Depot and Orchard Supply to find one of those shelves you hang from the garage ceiling. Finally found one at Orchard. They cost seventy bucks! What a ripoff. They’re worth twenty bucks as far as I’m concerned, so I didn’t buy one. Put the decorations back where they came from and called it a day.

It was quite windy yesterday and last night. Recycling day is Friday, so everybody put their stuff out. However, we all should have realized that they weren’t coming until Saturday because of the holiday on Monday. Hence, there was paper and plastic blowing all over the neighborhood by this morning.

The pool was chock full 0′ junk when we got up. The pump was running but it appeared that the vacuum wasn’t working. I went out to take a look and appearances were indeed correct. Turns out it had run over a newspaper, which was jamming it up. Then I noticed that the skimmer didn’t appear to be doing its job either, so I checked its basket and found three plastic bags, along with numerous leaves and pieces of paper. After I got everything cleaned out, the pool did a great job cleaning itself back up.

Otherwise, we’ve been watching Loyal Reader Number Twelve all day while her mom works on people’s taxes. And now I’m going to get to work on creating some new websites. See you tomorrow.

Due to popular demand, here’s another shot of Loyal Reader Number Twelve, looking a little tired at the end of a long Christmas day. I’m sure she’s not the only one who felt that way. She’s just the most expressive one. Photo courtesy of Loyal Reader Number Five.

Blogger seems to be working again! I had checked their Google “Help” group, and I was far from the only one who couldn’t post pictures and couldn’t post blog entries. Darn Blogger.

I took Loyal Reader Number Two’s online quiz this evening. I’m not sure where he got the idea, but it was twenty questions about LRN2, his life, and his likes and dislikes. I’m pleased to report that I got 70% right, giving me high score! It’s the only electronic game I’ve won in I don’t know how long.

I received What About Bob? for Christmas and finally got the chance to watch it the other day. I had been led by the advertising to believe it was going to be one of those Bill Murray movies where he overacts and ruins the show. Fortunately, I was totally wrong. It’s a cute movie with several very funny moments, and Murray comes off as human. I like him when he’s human, like in the not-very-well-liked-but-I-thought-it-was-okay Groundhog Day and the barely-noticed-by-anybody-but-I-really-enjoyed-it The Man Who Knew Too Little (which I believe I received last Christmas!). When he’s not human, as in the absolutely repulsive Caddyshack, he’s horrid.

Anyway. I recommend What About Bob?

I’m frustrated with my inability to come up with websites for the new and improved Gardenville Software (now containing actual software!) and the HRVA. I’m kind of paralyzed by not being able to figure out what I want to do on the technical end of things; chiefly which Content Management System to use. After doing a lot of research, I had decided on Drupal, which is very flexible, very powerful, and not too hard to customize. When I tried to implement it on Larry, though, I found that it doesn’t seem to work on 64-bit Linux installations. It gets about 75% installed and just quits. Now I’m back to square one.

And don’t even get me started on coming up with a cool design for either site. So far, I can’t even come up with a lousy one. I’m hoping Loyal Reader Number Two can give me some ideas, preferrably in the form of color sketches. I want them to look nice and clean and Web 2.0-ish. Soon. Very soon.

And it’s time for bed. Sorry about no post last night – those Wednesday church meetings take a lot of time.

Here’s some Great Art from a few days ago. The boys were driving their RC cars in an under-construction lot late in the afternoon. I had a look in the garage and saw these bags full of junk. I like the colors and hope you do too.

Short post tonight, especially since I used the Wonders of Blogger yesterday (actually, this morning).

Easy rides to work and home today. I think a lot of people are still on vacation this week. No problem as far as I’m concerned except that I’m not one of them. Several of my coworkers were, though. It was like a ghost town around the office, and just about everybody I talked to said they had a real hard time getting up this morning. Me too. As usual during the break, I went to bed way too late and had to get up way to early for my taste.

That’s it today. See you tomorrow.