morrowlife

Here’s our back yard in Las Vegas.  I’ve been thinking about the house a lot and wishing we could be there.  It’ll happen soon enough, but it’s encouraging to have a look at some pictures every once in a while.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken shortly after the back yard was completed, and part of my famous Garden and Las Vegas series.

Desert landscaping can still be a garden.

Quick note.  All the Loyal Readers were here today, plus my mom.  Mom and LRN9 arrived Wednesday night and we got together Thursday morning.  LRN23 and spouse arrived yesterday evening.  We spent the day today visiting, with LRN23 and Sara leaving in the early evening (to drive all the way directly to Tucson – long trip!).  It’s now about 10:30 in the evening and LRN9 and Mom just left after a delightful day.  I loved it all.

They’re here again all day tomorrow and are flying to Orlando Sunday morning.  We may have to think of someplace to go or something to do.  My mom’s not comfortable walking long distances right now, so the day might have to be adjusted accordingly.  Or maybe we’ll just hang around the Village.  Time will tell.

LRN4 is doing very well.  Her white cell count was down some on Thursday, but her doctor seems to think that’s just how these things go.  He’s watching everything very carefully, so I feel like he’ll be on top of anything bad that might happen before it becomes a disaster.  Otherwise, we’re just moving forward and trying not to worry about day-to-day variations in the numbers.  Progress continues.

LRN4 and I have been walking up and down a fairly long staircase in the hospital building every morning after our clinic visit and again sometimes in the evening.  This morning, she graduated from three times up and down to four, so there’s good progress there.  In addition, she’s getting up there faster and with less exhaustion.  I see strengthening every day.  Unfortunately, I can’t say the exact same for myself.  I want to eat Atkins-approved foods, but I’m not, so I’m not getting back down to my starting weight before this mess all started.  Things will continue to normalize and I’ll get there.  Just not as quickly as I probably could.

Haven’t worked the past two days.  I’ll start up again after company leaves.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this extremely rare toilet news: toilet scam!

See you on Monday.

Here’s our newly-installed back yard.  We’re really happy with the way it turned out – practically zero maintenance and it’s going to be a beautiful place to spend time and entertain.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Statue and Las Vegas series.  Note the cool turtle statue LRN5 gave us a few years back.  He fits right in here!

Been at the hospital with LRN4 every day.  She’s doing exceptionally well, getting lots of exercise, looking and feeling better just about every day, and generally wishing this whole mess were over and she could go home.  We’re likely to actually go home in about 10 days, which isn’t way too much.  It’s just too much.

LRN1 and LRN2 were here for the weekend.  We had a great visit, they enjoyed their visit with LRN4, as did she, and we sent them back to Provo with a 5×8 U-Haul trailer full of LRN2’s worldly belongings.  I really enjoyed their visit and was very sorry to see them go.  But at least I now have an empty exercise room, into which I’ve been transferring LRN4’s numerous exercise gadgets and gizmos.  When we have visitors in the future, they’ll have to make do with our one guest room and a blow-up mattress in that room.  But at least LRN2 has a place to sleep in his new apartment!

That’s right, LRN2 has moved into his new place.  Both he and LRN1 report that it’s very nice.  It’s a two-bedroom place with a single roommate.  I think he’s just subleasing the room to LRN2, in fact.  His roommate is an older guy who has been through a divorce and will have his three kids over to visit occasionally, so LRN2 will have some youthful company from time to time.  He ought to enjoy that.  He starts his new job in six days now.  He’s frantically searching for a car so he can get back and forth to the job.  Hopefully, that search will bear fruit in the next day or so.  Happy hunting, LRN2!

My latest [amazon asin=B001FA1NK0&text=Apple TV] has been acting very strangely lately – it’s playing video just fine, but reboots every two minutes when it’s not playing anything.  Very annoying.  It’s being retired to my office for further testing and evaluation, and I’ve ordered a new [amazon asin=B00BGGDVOO&text=Roku 3] to take its place.  It was a bit of a stretch not to buy another [amazon asin=B007I5JT4S&text=Apple TV], since I’m such a fanboy, but I’ve read excellent reviews on the new Roku and I’m excited to try it out.  I used the gift card my colleagues gave me at my retirement luncheon in California a few weeks ago, so it cost me nothing!  Well, nothing but 27+ years of hard labor, but I was also compensated for that in other ways.

And that’s about it for tonight.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: crime-fighting staring goat!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the finished place in Las Vegas!  A whole lot of work has been done since that last picture.  Of course, it’s been a few weeks, so that makes at least a little bit of sense.  I think the place looks real nice.  Check out that fancy boulder there under the tree and the beautiful fake dry stream bed.  Cost us a couple hundred bucks.  Great Art courtesy of Colin the House Sales Guy and part of my famous Las Vegas series.

Getting tired of seeing pictures of my new house yet?  Well, have no fear.  I’m getting ready to add my new famous Cruise series.  Watch this space!

That’s right, LRN4 and I are back from our east coast cruise.  We got home last Friday.  We had a great time!  All the ports were beautiful and interesting (two in Maine and two in Canada), the food was excellent, the service was outstanding, and a great time was had by all.  Interestingly, we were some of the youngest people on the ship.  They told us at one point that the previous week’s cruise (to Bermuda, not Maine/Canada) had about 500 children under 18 out of the 2450 or so passengers.  Our cruise had about a dozen.  That first week after school starts is definitely the time to take a vacation.  We’ll have to do that every year.

A couple more cruise details: we were warned that we were sailing right into the remnants of a hurricane.  Rain was predicted at every port and at sea.  It didn’t quite work out that way, though.  It apparently rained the day before we came into all four ports, but three of the four place were sunny, warm, and beautiful.  The other was cloudy, warm, dry, and beautiful.  The sea was like glass the whole trip.  We only felt the ship move a couple of times, and then you had to be paying attention to notice it.  It was the most perfect cruise weather-wise and sea-wise we’ve ever been on.  So no hurricane.

Things were just fine here when we got back.  I went to work today and found a reasonable amount of work built up during the six days I was away.  I should be caught up again by tomorrow or Wednesday.  Things are great!

They’re about to get a little bit worse, a little bit better, a whole lot better, and then great, though.  LRN4 is leaving for Las Vegas tomorrow (the worse part), where she’ll buy the house (the better part), paint all of some of the interior walls (the whole lot better part, seeing as how I’ll be here while the painting is going on there), and then come home (the great part) after nine days away.  We got final approval of the loan this afternoon, had a huge pile of money wired to the mortgage company, and are now just waiting for LRN4 to sign (for both of us – she’s done that before and it was a WHOLE LOT of signing) on the many dotted lines.  Then we’ll have three homes!  That ought to be plenty for anybody, don’t you think?

Okay, that’s it for today.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: avocado thief!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s yet another picture of the new house in Las Vegas.  Now featuring stucco!  It’s kind of amazing how quickly it’s coming together.  Low-resolution Great Art courtesy of Colin the House Salesman and part of my famous Las Vegas series.

Speaking of the house, we’re scheduled to walk through it on the 19th of September and then pick up the keys on the 24th.  That’s less than a month from now!  There’s still a lot of work to do, but I’m starting to believe they’re going to make it on time.

LRN4 is planning to be there for all the fun.  Sadly, I’ll be here working.  I really want to see the place.  On the other hand, she’s planning to paint the whole interior in the first couple of days after she picks up the keys.  So I’ll just have to enjoy it from afar and wish her all the best as she turns herself into a painting machine.  Easier to do it without either our furniture there and without me there, from everything I’ve heard.

We had a great visit with LRN1 and LRN2 the past couple of weeks.  They’re both looking and doing very well indeed.  They went hom eon Friday and I miss them already.

However, in order to try to alleviate our sadness, LRN3 and LRN15 are coming this Wednesday!  Or maybe Thursday.  They’ll be here through the weekend, after which we celebrate Labor Day quietly at home.  Then I work two days and we go on our East Coast cruise.  Then we get home and LRN4 leaves for Las Vegas just a couple of days later.  Busy few weeks.

But until then, I’ll be working, eating, and sleeping.  And loving it.

LRN4 has been busy with the Groupon folks lately.  She got us a stay at a nice Bed & Breakfast in Bensalem in October.  Sounds like fun!  She also got me a shiny new [amazon asin=B006LQHPAK&text=iPhone-controlled helicopter]!  It should be here in a couple of weeks!  It’s no [amazon asin=B007HZLLOK&text=Parrot], but I’m excited to try it out.  I’ll let you know what I think.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: hijacked forklift sandwich theft!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the first peek at the inside of our new house in Las Vegas!  The view is through the front door and shows the front door, “great” room (I’m not sure what’s so great about it, but we’ll see), dining room, back door, and backyard wall.  Lots of progress.  We’re supposed to be about six weeks away from owning it.  I’m hoping that green sticker on the window there isn’t a notice telling the builder to tear the whole thing down and start over.  Astute observers will notice the chicken wire coating on the outside.  That’s a sure sign that stucco is just around the corner.  Not to mention the scaffolding there in the foreground.  Great Art courtesy of Jud the Real Estate Guy and part of my famous Las Vegas series.

Lots going on.  LRN2 is here!  He got here Saturday afternoon.  We’re having a nice visit.  He and LRN4 are heading to Longwood Gardens tomorrow, going to the local Grange Fair on Wednesday, and hanging around by the pool on Thursday.  Since I’m off on Friday, we’re all going to see the world-famous Hessian Barracks and possibly Pennsbury Manor that day.  On Saturday, LRN2 is off to visit LRN3 and LRN15 for a few days.

LRN1, in the meantime, is at Cocoa Camp.  I’m just glad he has a chance to go to camp this summer.  He got there last night and is staying through Saturday.  Then he’s going to LRN5’s house for a brief visit and coming here on Monday evening.  LRN2 gets back on Tuesday, so there will be a bit of an overlap.  Then they both head back to school on Friday the 24th.  Boo hoo!  That’ll have to be enough for a while.

LRN4 and I will be all alone from Saturday morning through Monday evening.  Not that that’s a bad thing either.

Pretty much everything else is going along as usual.  Working, sleeping, and eating.  Lying around a bit too.  I can’t complain.

We went to the pool/jacuzzi this evening.  Always a relaxing thing.  The pool water here is nice and warm – just like I had hoped it would be in my own personal pool in Lardville.  Which it never was.  Well, it was usually comfortable for about a week or two in August.  I imagine it feels pretty good right about now, in fact.  Sigh.

We’ve had a bit more trouble with lightning.  As my astute Loyal Readers will recall, a lightning strike did very heavy damage a few weeks ago to one of the buildings in our complex here.  I’ll have to post a picture.  Anyway, compounding that disaster, another lightning strike appears to have killed an old router I was using as an internet switch, an old switch I was using as an internet switch, and the ethernet port on my beloved Apple TV.  Yikes!  I use another old router to replace one of the switches and had to buy a [amazon asin=B004TLIVB6&text=new switch] to replace the other.  It’s a pretty decent (and pretty cheap!) Linksys/Cisco.  Sleek!  Highly recommended.  Buy it through my link!  Do it now!  Do it!  You will obey me.

And that’s about it for today.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news:  cupcake assault!

See you tomorrow.