morrowlife

Here’s the pilothouse on a sunken ship.  Or something like that.  With some great big turtles.  Great Art taken at the bottom of the ocean with my trusty old Minolta camera during our Oahu submarine ride and part of my famous Machinery and Vacation series.

Hey!  Another two-days-in-a-row post!  Not that there’s anything to tell.

So let’s see if we can think of anything.  Hmm.  Had a nice day today.  Worked some more on our app.  Worked, ate, and commuted (briefly) (the commute part, not the work part) (or the eating part).  Watched a couple of Netflix movies, including [amazon asin=B000059ZWQ&text=The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown], starring Jane Russell.  A bit strange, but funny.  Recommended.

Also saw the end of [amazon asin=B00009VTZX&text=How to Frame a Figg], an early-70s Don Knotts flick.  Also [amazon asin=6301302931&text=The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend], starring Betty Grable.  Both amusing.  Both recommended.  Maybe not highly recommended, but recommended anyway.

In the Jane Russell movie, she’s a self-centered movie actress (is there any other kind?) who’s kidnapped on the very night of the premiere of a movie where she gets kidnapped.  Nobody will believe it’s anything but a publicity stunt.  Comedy ensues.

Anyway.  Sadly, it’s already time for bed.  So I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: thieving photographer monkey!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the Tiger 7 – a tugboat in one of the ports we visited in Hawaii.  It did pretty much everything except tug us.  They pretty much just floated around next to us as we pulled out of the port under our own power and then, right as we were leaving the channel and heading out to sea, they started spinning.  Really.  It was cool to watch, but I imagine the cruise line had to pay for that.  At least it provided some entertainment for us passengers.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone 4S-cam and part of my famous Machinery and Vacation series.

Lots of new stuff to report, as usual.  Let’s see if I can remember any of it.

LRN1 and I are working on our new company’s first product – a promotional app for our non-Loyal-Reader friend Cliff’s famous band!  We’re hoping to use this app as a springboard to marketing a semi-custom app to other bands, as well as event organizers.  We’ll include a gig/event calendar, band biographies, slide show, sample music, and video links.  So far, we have the calendar and music tech part working.  Still need to do the other parts and then prettify the app.  That latter part may be the hardest.  We’re doing our best and hope for a great result.  Oh, the plan is to release both iOS and Android versions.  We’re doing the iOS part first, since that’s what we know.

Our business plan is to be able to do matching iOS and Android apps for our clients, since that seems to be what people are looking for these days.  We really need to develop our Android expertise.  Also need to shake the rust off of our iOS chops.  That part is in full swing already.

Oh, yeah, the company name is Business Casual Software.  I hope nobody else is already using that name.  Haven’t been able to find anybody out there so far.  LRN5, our accountant and budding Android programmer, is working a fictitious name statement for us right now.  Other business arrangements to be made as necessary – particularly when we start actually charging somebody for something.

We’re continuing to have a very nice time with LRN1.  It’s great to have him back.  The three of us are going to Michigan this weekend for a quick trip that’s turned into something of a family reunion.  All my brothers and sisters will be in town, along with all of LRN16’s kids and their families.  We’re staying with LRN8 and my mom, which will be nice.  LRN23 will be there with us too, which ought to be fun.

I’m really loving my new [amazon asin=B0020CL9VK&text=Brother laser printer].  It’s a really cool printer with a color scanner, photocopier, and fax machine (yes, they still make those, although I have no idea why anybody uses a fax anymore).  The cool thing I’ve discovered about it, though, is that you can print from and scan to a memory stick.  You can also scan to email, but I haven’t quite figured out how to do that yet.  I’ve done a lot of scanning, though, and the memory stick setup works out really well.  You don’t have to have a bunch of awkward software on your computer.  Highly recommended.

Let’s see, what else?  Can’t think of anything.  It’s just life these days – kind of nice to have settled down to that.  So I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this combination toilet news and exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: poop fairy!

See you tomorrow.

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.

Here’s an otherwise-unremarkable view through my rental car’s windshield one day last week.  Note the name of the trucking company.  Apparently, they’re pretty big around here – I’ve seen their trucks before.  Am I the only one who pictures a rather unpleasant image when I see that company’s name?  Couldn’t they have gone by the guy’s first name and middle initial?  Just this once?  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Machinery series.

Two days in a row!  That’s a bit of a record, recently.  Maybe I’ll keep it up.  Of course, maybe not.

Pretty good day!  I got to speak with the person who is arranging my TDY visit to Newtown.  It looks like all the terms are as expected and we’re officially starting the assignment at the beginning of next week.  I sign the paperwork on Thursday afternoon, go home to end my current business trip on Saturday, and return here on Monday.  Gonna be a busy few days.  I’m excited!

Not much else new today.  LRN3 and I are working in earnest on the company.  He’s doing a bit of Android training right now – we ordered a book this evening for him to study.  He has the tools set up on his machine and should be writing programs very shortly.  Still looking for t-shirt recommendations.  Anybody want to recommend something?  Designs featuring my face will be given priority handling.  Maybe even a free shirt.  Should I ask for designs on Facebook?  Might get more responses that way.

It was sunny and pretty nice today – got up into the low 50s where I was.  The snow’s all gone except where the plows piled it up, and that’s melting fast.  Another few nice days and it’ll all disappear.  Am I glad about that or not?  I’m not so sure.

They’re showing spy spoof movies on TCM tonight.  It’s going to be hard to go to bed on time.  Which needs to happen in 13 minutes or it won’t be on time.  Sigh.

Exercised tonight in the hotel’s gym.  I’m trying to do it every day, but missed yesterday.  I just have to make sure I don’t miss tomorrow.  Listened to some Car Talk while I walked the treadmill, which I certainly enjoy.  Car Talk, that is; not the treadmill.  Still, soon enough I’ll be doing treadmill marathons.

And there’s a great Morrowlife million-dollar idea – treadmill marathons.  You could line a bunch of treadmills up and have people run 26 miles on them.  No heat, no cold, no muss, no fuss.  You could even do them virtually – have a bunch of people from all over the world competing against each other on their own treadmills.  I wonder if it’s been tried.  I’ll be rich!

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: peeping cows!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the guy driving our submarine off the coast of Oahu during our recent cruise.  Note the shipwreck in the hazy background.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive old Minolta-cam and part of my famous Vacation and Machinery series.

Another long spell since the last post.  Sigh.  Lots has happened.  Shall we take a look at some of it?

Still no real commitment from the company on my TDY assignment.  Of course, they’ve been off for the holidays, just like me, so I haven’t really expected anything.  It’s been since mid-November, though, and I would have hoped they could get their collective act together by now.  Hopefully, we’ll get the formal offer early in the new year and get moving forward.  If not, we might just be staying in Lardville after all.  Which would be a bit of an embarrassment, since we got ourselves untangled from lots of commitments already.  But there you have it.

We’ve had a great Christmas break so far.  We went sledding at a local farm on Christmas Eve.  Also drove through their mile-long Christmas light exhibition a few nights earlier.  Both were fun.  LRN5 and Cliff joined us for sledding and for Christmas, which was really nice.  We love having them come over.  We spoke on the phone with LRN1, who is doing very well in Guatemala.  Less than two months before he’s home!  Christmas itself was quiet and peaceful, just like I like it.

On Monday, we went to see Arthur Christmas at the movies.  It was really entertaining – I’d definitely watch it again.  Tuesday, we went bowling with LRN2 and his friend Josh.  LRN4 slaughtered us all, as usual.  But it was fun anyway.  We had a pizza and a pitcher of root beer there.  There’s nothing better than bowling alley pizza, I always say.

Tuesday night, LRN2 went to LRN5’s house to see Cliff’s show and spend the night.  He appears to have had a good time.  LRN4 and I took advantage of the evening on our own to go out for our anniversary dinner one night early.  We went to the Olive Garden in Tracy for a great meal and browsed the Barnes and Noble store and then the entire Tracy mall afterwards.  Had a nice evening together.

Wednesday was our official anniversary.  We spent it quietly at home and had a nice day.  Thirty-three years of marriage.  That’s starting to sound like kind of a long time, huh?

Today is game day, tomorrow is our annual film festival, Saturday is New Year’s Eve, which will be spent at home, Sunday is New Year’s Day, which will be spent at church and home, Monday is packing day for LRN3 and me, and LRN3 and I are off for Provo and Newtown, respectively, on Tuesday.  Next holiday for me: Memorial Day.  Yikes.

And it’s time to go play games.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: alcoholic thieving monkeys, breaking and entering bears, and kleptomaniac cats!

See you tomorrow.