morrowlife

Here’s LRN2 with an elephant statue at the zoo in Michigan during our vacation a few years ago. That’s LRN2 there in the back.  Magnum!  Part of my famous Statue series.

No posts for a few days, as usual. Been a good week or so. First, the big news. LRN2’s in college! We dropped him off on Saturday. He reports he’s enjoying himself and he’s doing well. We miss him! He attended his first classes and got his first homework assignments today. He also had a job interview today. Good luck with that one, LRN2! I’m sure you’ll find something good. If not, I’m sure you’ll find something like I had in college.

In other news, I went back to work today. Moment of silence, please. Fortunately, everything’s good there. It’s a three-day work week for me, which is always nice. Then I’m headed back to Utah for another week. I got invited today to a training class there that goes Monday-Friday. Didn’t expect to be going back so soon, but I’m really excited about the class.

Nothing else to report. I’m hanging around the loft watching an old episode of Monk – back when he was good. Nice quiet evening.

And it’s time for bed. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: goldfish fry!

See you tomorrow.

Here are LRN1 and LRN2 with a big metal turtle during our last visit to the Detroit Zoo.  Which took place a couple of years ago or so.  I don’t exactly remember.  Wait a minute – I’ll check the photo.  – gone – I’m back.  It was taken on 28 May 2008.  So it was a couple of years ago or so.  Special guest appearance by LRN4 there in the background.  Also an extremely rare appearance by LRN18, taking a picture of me taking a picture.  Looks like a cool day, no?  Part of my famous Statue series.

Incidentally, the turtle’s the one in the middle.

Well.  It’s been a week.  It’s not that I don’t care.  It’s just that I don’t post.

Not that there’s all that much new. Had a nice three-day weekend.  Christmasy things are happening, of course.  In addition to last Monday’s previously-mentioned Christmas creche festival in Modesto, we went to the really, really big Christmas creche festival in Palo Alto (truly lovely, if not quite as big as previous years), wrote and sent our Christmas cards and Christmas brunch invitations, had my brother-in-law Ken over for dinner (nice evening together, as usual), went to the Gallo Theater in Modesto and saw It’s A Wonderful Life (done as a fake radio show – it was cute and well-presented, although I admit I’m still partial to Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed; especially Donna Reed), went to the ward Christmas party (huge crowd and tri-tip; also, we performed on the tubular bells), and got LRN2’s patriarchal blessing.  Whew.  No wonder I didn’t have any time for blogging.

I’m pretty well settled in to my new office, which is pretty much the same as my old office.  Can’t complain.  Work’s going fine.  We’re way too busy for comfort, but I’d rather be that way than the alternative.

Only four more work days until Christmas!  Not that I’m counting the days.  On a related note, LRN2 has mentioned that there are only four more school days until high school graduation.  I’d say that’s even a bigger deal than my Christmas vacation!  He still has lots of work to finish – stay focused, LRN2!

Let’s see.  It’s home evening night tonight.  We calendared, heard a nice little lesson from LRN2 about Christmas, just finished an outstanding cherry cheesecake treat courtesy of LRN4, and we’re waiting for my activity to start – jacuzzification.  The spa is currently at 86 degrees, so I’m figuring we can get in in another 10 minutes or so.  We haven’t been in there for a while – it’s been quite rainy lately here in Lardville.  We don’t mind the cold, but the jacuzzi is not much fun in the rain.  Snow is a different story, as we discovered back in Gardenville.

Heard from LRN1 today.  He spent last week on an exchange in another part of the mission, so he missed his normal Saturday p-day.  I didn’t think we’d be hearing from him at all, since he’s back in the office now and today wasn’t their normal p-day either.  But they apparently were given some time off, and he wrote.  He had a great time last week and is glad to be back to his regular assignment.  We’re excited to talk with him on Christmas morning.  At 7:00.  A bit early, that, but one works around one’s missionary son’s schedule.

LRN5 will be here Christmas morning too.  She wants to talk to LRN1 and is staying to help with our brunch, after which she’s outta here.  She and LRN12 are moving to a new place this week, which they’re excited about.  LRN12 will have her own room, which I believe they’re both also excited about.  We’re happy they were able to get it.  LRN12 won’t be here on Christmas because she’s going to spend the holidays with her dad and her other grandparents.  We’ll really miss her.

Well, I think I can change into my swimsuit now, so blogging is done for now.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: fudge hog!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the statue of Lenin in beautiful downtown Leninsk.  AKA Baikonur City.  They’re still fans out there.  That little mass murder rap is just incidental.  No big deal.  Part of my famous Statue series.

Drove to work today.  I had a dental appointment first thing this morning, and obviously couldn’t make any of the trains.  So I drove.  Only took a little over an hour to get there.  Took a couple to get home.  Made it just in time to pick up the missionaries for dinner.  We had a very nice dinner with them – we have a very nice couple of young men right now.

I finished packing up my office this afternoon for tomorrow’s move.  I can’t say I’m exactly happy about the move.  But nobody asked my opinion.  My new office is about the same size as my old one, so I can’t complain.  We’re just hoping they’ve finished modifying and cleaning up the new area before tomorrow.  Especially since they’re starting demolition on the old area on Monday morning.  Let’s hope we’re not working in the hallway next week.

It started raining again today.  We’ve had charming weather lately – beautiful from Monday through about Thursday, and rainy every weekend.  Great weather if you’re a duck.  Or LRN2.  He loves it.  I suspect it might be because he doesn’t have to mow the lawn when it’s raining, but it’s always possible his foul weather preference is sincere.  Comment, LRN2!

I’ve started listening to some of my gazillion (conservative estimate) old-time radio Christmas shows.  Just finishing up an old Archie show.  Mildly amusing.  And certainly Christmas-y.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this heart-warming food-related crime-fighting story: empanadas save the day!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s LRN12 in her Snow White costume posing outside with the pumpkins.  Great Art taken last night, using the exclusive iPhone-cam in very low light, as usual.  I’m becoming famous for the low-light iPhone look, no?  I wonder why nobody ever thought of that before.  Part of my famous Statue series (for the pumpkins, of course – not LRN12).

By the way, LRN2 designed and carved that one on the right, and I carved the one on the left, based on a design by LRN4.  True works of Great Art.

No posts for a few days.  As LRN4 mentioned, I’ve been busy programming.  Also lazy.

Things are fine, though.  We had a nice Halloween weekend.  LRN5 and LRN12 were here (LRN12 spent the week here!).  The ward party was fun on Saturday night, and trick-or-treating was fun last night.  We had our traditional excellent chili, also excellent cornbread (which kind of exploded inside the oven, but it was truly delicious anyway), and outstanding pumpkin pie.

Had our friends Art and Cathie over Saturday evening after the ward party.  What a bunch of fun!  We ate snacks and played a few games and general enjoyed each other’s company.  We need to do that more often.

And the holiday season has begun.  We’re now just a few weeks away from Thanksgiving, after which we’ll be just a few weeks away from Christmas, after which we’ll be just a week away from New Year’s Eve/Day, after which will be just a couple of days away from LRN2 going away to college.  Wow.  I don’t know what we’ll do all by ourselves.  I’ll be truly sorry to see him leave.  But he’ll have a great time at school and we’ll be just fine while we find out what we’ll do without him here.  He still needs to be accepted to BYU before we’re really sure he’s going, but we hope and expect that to happen Real Soon Now.

I need to start working on my Christmas list.  It’ll be a long one this year.  I’m thinking of a Model T, an iPad, and maybe some new golf shoes.  Need to refine it a bit, still.

And that’s about it, as it’s time for bed.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: station master monkey!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s a hungry-looking bear waiting for its prey – group campers. Fortunately, this bear is technically just a statue, making it highly unlikely to actually catch any campers. Part of both my famous Camping and Statue series. Let’s throw in my famous Vacation series for good measure, for a very rare Triple Series Great Art day.

Well, I’ve certainly been negligent again, haven’t I? Must . . . post . . . more . . . regularly.

Good weekend. My dad was here – had a great visit and had a chance to talk about a lot of important things. I really appreciated his advice on several things. LRN12 was also here, and was as fun as ever. If only that girl would sleep. Sheesh. I wonder how her mom functions. LRN4 is still exhausted.

Otherwise, not much is new. The Miata is finally officially gone, after spending several days at the mechanic (and several hundred dollars!) getting fixed so it would pass its smog test. Finally passed yesterday and got picked up by its new owners today. Hopefully, they’ll really enjoy it. I know we did. My next convertible: a Corvette. It’s either that or a Porsche, and the Corvette will be way cheaper to keep running, I suspect. Not for a while, though. I’m happy with the four cars I have.

Speaking of which, LRN4 canceled the Miata’s insurance today and put LRN2 on as my beloved pickup’s driver. We’re saving a thousand bucks a year! I think they were charging us way too much for the pickup in the past. I doubt we have any way of getting the overcharged money back at this point, but at least it appears to be fixed now. Let that be a lesson to us all. Check your insurance bill. Carefully.

Let’s see, what else is going on? I really can’t think of anything. And it’s time for bed, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: McNugget punch!

See you tomorrow.