morrowlife

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Two relaxing at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. I’m not sure you’re allowed to lie on the floor there, but he appears to have suffered no serious consequences. We miss you, LRNT! Find work and fun there in Utah. Your pirate days are over!

There’s not a lot to report tonight, other than that Chateau Pathetique still isn’t sold. We’re getting just a little bit worried. We’re praying for success, though, so we know it’ll work out. I invite my Loyal Readers to join us in our humble petition. And if for some bizarre reason you feel uncomfortable doing so, then at least have the decency to buy it from us. I can guarantee you we’ll get absolute top dollar!

The other good news is that my company laptop (you’re soaking in it now!) is finally able to connect to the internet here in the Fortress of Solitude. I had to cycle power on the modem before it would take an IP address. We need to connect it back to Loyal Reader Number One’s laptop in a few minutes and see if power has to be cycled again for him to connect again. Weirdness reigns.

In a tragic turn of events, I discovered some damage to my precious Honda’s body this evening after I got the gas tank filled. I don’t have any idea where it came from, but it has to be fixed. This isn’t exactly a good time for us to be paying an insurance deductible, but it will work out.

Short post tonight. See you tomorrow.

Here’s an architectural detail from the Fortress of Solitude. These guys remind one of Loyal Readers One and Two, no? Except that there are three of them here. And they’re a little bit smaller. And they look completely different. And they’re not wearing any clothes. Otherwise, the resemblance is amazing.

Well, there’s certainly a lot to report today. Things are really hopping in the Morrowlife Fortress of Solitude. Let’s start with the most important one, shall we?

Loyal Reader Number Two went to Utah to visit his friend Jay for a couple of weeks. Boo hoo for us! We miss you, LRNT! While you’re out there, how about recruiting a new Loyal Reader? And have fun! And don’t worry about us! And have fun!

Now to the second most important order of business. We found a new Morrowlife Secret Undisclosed Location on Saturday. We started off with the intention of looking at a townhouse near the Fortress of Solitude, but they wouldn’t even let us look at the model. Apparently, they won’t sell any more of their large models until they get rid of the remaining small ones. So no townhouse for us. Instead, we decided to just drive out to Modesto and look at what was available before we decided on someplace closer, just in case it turned out we really loved it out there.

On the way there, we saw a sign for houses in Manteca (pronounced man-tee-ka by the locals), so we stopped in for a look, although I had previously announced my Unshakeable Resolve to never live in a town named Lard. The first sales office was decidedly unpromising – the houses were too small and the models were miles away anyway. There was one more set of models nearby, though, so we drove on.

Well, they turned out to be absolutely great. There was a gigantic (3500 square feet or so) one we fell in love with at first. It’s really cool, but the price is quite high and there are some serious issues with the layout – for example, the entrance from the garage goes through the laundry room, which is right next to the master bedroom and way across the house from the kitchen. Then there’s the front door opening directly into the dining room. Et cetera.

Then we saw the second-largest one (link warning – this picture is correct in its basic layout, but it’s missing a lot of stuff, including the third car garage). It’s a little over 2900 square feet and laid out much better. It has five bedrooms and three full bathrooms upstairs, plus a nice large loft. Oh, and the laundry room. Downstairs, there’s the usual stuff. There’s also a covered porch in the back – not huge, but a nice touch. And then there’s the gigantic three-and-a-half-car garage. The third bay has doors in the front AND the back! Wow. It’s affordable too. We picked out an already-framed house on a nice lot that’s on a curve, so there’s more space between houses than elsewhere in the already generous (for California, anyway) neighborhood. The exterior colors, roofing, and cabinets have already been chosen, but we get to select everything else.

We love new houses and we’re really excited about this one. It will be truly nice. The big downside is the commute distance for me, but there’s a commuter train station about five minutes’ drive away. We checked out the ward on Sunday and it seems fine. There’s not much shopping in Manteca yet, but it’s pretty close to both Tracy and Modesto, both of which should be okay in the store department. All in all, we’re excited about it.

Loyal Reader Number One believes we should change the name of our software company from Gardenville Software to Lardville Software. I disagree.

Work continues to improve every day. I’m starting to get a vague idea of what’s going on around there, and the boss keeps giving me more assignments. So I’m busy, which is a good thing. I’m starting to get to know the people too.

Well, the time has certainly gotten away from us tonight, hasn’t it? Time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Here’s a brief glimpse at our Secret Undisclosed Location. It turns out to be pretty nice. We moved in yesterday.

There’s a lot to report today! Where do I begin? Well, let’s start out by mentioning that we’re now in California! I started my new job on Monday and I’m enjoying it, although I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed by all the things I don’t yet know. Time will take care of that. Loyal Readers Four, One, and Two have started looking at places to live. So far, they’re all too small and we can’t afford any of them anyway. Something will work out, though.

As most of my Loyal Readers are aware, today is the Most Wonderful Day of the Year. That’s right, it’s my birthday! Happy birthday to me. Lavish gifts are still being accepted. Just address them to Secret Undisclosed Location, Fortress of Solitude, California. Operators are standing by.

Once again, my apologies for the long delay between posts. My computers are all still in Pennsylvania. I’m borrowing Loyal Reader Number One’s laptop today. I tried to use my new one, but I don’t yet have administrator access and it won’t allow me to get an IP address. I need to have the EIS weenies at work fix that tomorrow. As life settles down a little, it will become increasingly easy to resume Normal Blog Posts. Stay loyal, Readers.

Well, I guess there’s not really that much to report today after all. See you tomorrow-ish.

Here’s a nice old camping picture from right after we got to Pennsylvania. Loyal Reader Number One has changed a bit since then.

Blogger’s alive again! I tried posting the other night, but couldn’t get into Blogger. It had already been way too long since my previous post, and now it’s even longer. Must . . . post . . . more . . . frequently.

Today was my last day at work in Newtown! I must say they’re not really rolling out the red carpet in Sunnyvale – I had to call somebody to find out when I should report on Monday, since they made no effort to contact me. If I wasn’t so full of self-confidence, I’d be a little worried. I’m really excited to be finished with all the integration clerical work and start actually doing some software again. And to become a boss. Check back with me in a year or so to see if I’m still excited.

My coworkers took me to lunch today, as might be expected, and give me some Extravagant Gifts, which consisted of a very cool lava lamp (link warning – lava sounds), a bottle of Excedrin (for manager-sized headaches), and fifty-five bucks of Cold, Hard Cash. I thought about using the cash to buy a video iPod, but Loyal Reader Number Four pointed out a slight discrepancy between the cost of the ViPod and available funds. That’s never stopped me before, but it just might stop me this time. We’ll have to see. My sister Sandy (sadly, not a Loyal Reader, in spite of my best efforts) has one, and it looks really nice. It might come in really handy on the train between Tracy and Sunnyvale. Assuming we end up living in Tracy, that is. Which I’m pretty sure we will. But maybe I should wait until it actually happens in a few months.

I noticed that I forgot to update the Morrowlife Book Club when I changed books several days ago. Strangely, there hasn’t been a Loyal Reader outcry over the omission. Luckily, I’m fixing it now, so there’s no need for an outcry after all. Stay sharp, Loyal Readers!

A thunderstorm is rolling into town as I type this. It is suddenly pouring and there’s lightning o’plenty. The Loyal Pet is freaking out. It’s supposed to keep raining pretty much until we get on the plane to leave on Saturday morning. Fortunately, the lawn is pretty short already, since it doesn’t look like there will be much opportunity to cut it again before we leave. Also fortunately, they’re not trying to move our furniture into a truck this evening.

We bought an old (built in 1924, actually) Chickering grand piano yesterday afternoon. It will be delivered tomorrow, and they’re taking away the hideous Steinway. Good riddance. It plays and sounds just fine, but it’s an upright and it looks like it belongs in a saloon. The Chickering needs to be refinished, but that’s something we can do, and it will then be absolutely beautiful. It has real ivory keys. Very cool. Although I’m of course totally opposed to the ivory trade. Stay away, PETA.

I hope to blog something short tomorrow, and then the next post will be from our new Secret Base of Operations in California. See you then.

Here it is folks – a view of Paris from high up on the Eiffel tower. I think it looks best from this angle, don’t you?

I hope Loyal Reader Number Five has been reading the blog the last few days. She’s a big Paree fan, dontcha know. Watch for a few more Paree pictures in the near future.

Three more days at work in Newtown! Woo hoo! I’m really sick of being there.

Bad news – I found out I’ll have another company laptop in Sunnyvale. Now I can’t justify buying that 15-inch MacBook Pro I had my eye on. Well, there’s always another time. Besides, I still love the G5, and I can get one of them for no more than the cost of a MacBook Pro. I’ll probably wait and see what Intel machine they replace it with. It’s bound to be beautiful too.

Sandy and Scott are scheduled to arrive in another three hours or so. I’m home from work the whole time they’re here and we have some fun stuff scheduled. It’s supposed to be 90 degrees and sunny on Monday, which ought to be a pleasant day. Let’s not talk about the rain forecast on Friday and Saturday.

The potential house buyers evaporated today. They certainly had a quick case of cold feet. It’s just as well – I would rather have lost them now than a few weeks in the future, and I had developed a really bad feeling about them. We adjusted our price today and have a showing scheduled tomorrow. Our agent feels “confident” the house will sell within a few weeks. It needs to.

I finished Something New by P.G. Wodehouse today. What an enjoyable book! It’s classic Wodehouse – a frivolous look at frivolous upper-class British Twits. The story revolves around a rich guy who accidentally takes another rich guy’s valuable Egyptian artifact and then mistakenly assumes it was a gift. The other rich guy wants it back and hires a young guy to steal it. Lots of humor ensues. I highly recommend it, as I have almost all of Wodehouse’s work. Next up in the Morrowlife book club: Tales of St. Austin’s, by our hero, P.G. Wodehouse.

Remember, friends, most of our book club titles are absolutely free to download from www.gutenberg.org, and pretty much the rest come from the public library. Our goal here is to read some cool books without spending much money.

Remember also that the tools to convert the Gutenberg text files to Palm readable files are also free. I use Microsoft Word (definitely not free, but freely available on my work-provided laptop) to make a few formatting changes – eliminate paragraph breaks at the end of each line and delete excess spaces – and then use MakeDocW to convert it to a Palm-readable file. I use PalmReader, which is also free, as my Palm e-book reader. Try it out, Palm owners!

Time for a bowl of ice cream. See you tomorrow.