morrowlife

Here’s one more piece of Great Art from our Thanksgiving trip to Utah – the salt flats. Taken during a rest stop at a … umm … rest stop. The interesting thing about that rest stop is that they have a foot washing station, which is somewhat unusual for such a place. Presumably, they expect people to walk out on the salt and need to clean up. Too cold for us, though. Picture courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam.

Extreme Short Shrift. It’s already 10:30 and I need to get to bed. Gave minor help to LRN4 to get some Christmas gifts ordered this evening and … umm … rested. Lots going on at work, though, so it’s nice to rest a bit.

Busy weekend coming up, though. LRN2 has an organ performance Friday evening. Saturday, we’re putting up our Christmas lights in the morning, going to see a creche exhibit (either the beautiful one in Palo Alto or the slightly more convenient one in Modesto – we’re leaning towards Modesto right now) mid-day, and going to the ward Christmas dinner in the evening, where LRN2 is playing the piano in a piano-harmonica duet, among other things. I’m looking forward to it all.

I’m very sorry to announce the death this afternoon of my friend Dave Allen. He was a truly nice person who survived cancer for a year or two, but deteriorated quite rapidly lately and finally lost the battle today. I’ll miss him.

I’ve located an important holiday job opportunity for my Loyal Readers: caveman. It’s temporary, but looks like it might be very lucrative, what with visitors handing out treats all the time.

Tonight’s food violence news comes courtesy of LRN5: police candy theft. Fortunately, our Boys in Blue were able to thwart the heinous misdeed.

See you tomorrow.

As promised, here are LRN1 and LRN4 standing outside the Draper temple, following his first visit there. It was a very rewarding day. Photo courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam. I brought my good camera all the way to Utah and then left it at the Loyal Relatives’ house. Sigh.

No post yesterday. It was a very busy evening and I just never got around to it. Didn’t miss much, though.

Lots to do at work today. But not much to say about it. I like being busy and I like being a manager. So I liked working today.

One small problem, though. We take turns buying donuts for the group every Wednesday. Lately, though, almost nobody is signing up to bring the donuts (I did it today, which is what made me think of it). I don’t want it to seem like the group’s manager is pressuring people to spend their own money on donuts for the group, so I’ve asked one of the department members to send a nastygram to everybody asking if they want to continue having donuts and, if so, to take a turn now and then. We’ll see how that goes. I’m not sure what I’d do without my donut.

LRN12’s time with us as a full-time resident is coming to a close soon. She’ll be moving back in with Mom in two weeks. We’ll really miss her and hope she’ll be here often, but she really needs to be with a parent, and we need to get back to our normal lives too. Still, it’s really been wonderful having her here. I’ll miss her.

But we still have two fun-filled weeks.

I’ll leave you today with some important Christmas-themed religious toilet news: it’s a Christmas miracle!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the sign welcoming us to Nevada. Also telling us not to enter. I’m not sure how to take that. Great Art taken during our Thanksgiving trip to Salt Lake and courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam.

We had a very nice weekend visiting family, seeing LRN1 and, most importantly, going to the temple together. Photo of the aftermath of that event Real Soon Now. Our Thanksgiving dinner featured approximately 24 people, including numerous relatives of our sister-in-law, all of whom were delightful. There was one awkward moment when the sis-in-law realized she had forgotten to cook the turkey, but we worked around it. One of her sisters-in-law had cooked a turkey and brought a bunch of meat over. We all went easy on that meat and it turned out great. There was way more than plenty of everything else, including delicious stuffing (possibly my favorite element of Thanksgiving, other than napping) a very good cranberry jello, and lots of pies. Our turkey finished cooking shortly after dessert was over, and there were plenty of leftovers.

I received notification that LRN1 had added a comment to my previous post sometime in the recent past, but, strangely, I can’t see it today. Maybe tomorrow. Stupid Blogger.

Update: Now it’s there. Stupid Blogger.

Got some things done today. I have to do 24 performance appraisals, and I’ve been dreading getting them written. Finally couldn’t put it off any longer, so I did 12 today and will do the other 12 tomorrow. I’ll start holding meetings with my people on Wednesday. Not my favorite thing, but it needs to get done.

Went to a concert at church last night, featuring excerpts from Handel’s Messiah. It was a very nice way to kick off the Christmas season. LRN2 played the organ for several numbers and did a superb job – lots of nice comments from people. He also sang in the choir when he wasn’t playing. In my completely objective opinion, his contribution was the high point of the evening. They also had refreshments.

Time for Home Evening, so I’ll leave you with some tragic Thanksgiving-related food violence news: a turkey bomb.

See you tomorrow.

Here’s an ominous sign for us Great Artists. I wonder if publishing this picture could be considered evidence of breaking the rule. Fortunately, the sign was in a museum. In Canada. During our Alaska cruise, of course.

Maybe I should make a Famous Alaska Series for the blog. I could add thirty or forty posts right off the bat, huh? And the hits just keep coming.

No post yesterday. I got busy.

Pretty good day. We got some serious rain in Sunnyvale, not so much here in Lardville. Fortunately, the rain had passed by the time I left the office, and it hadn’t started when on my way in. I’m not too crazy about standing on a rainy train platform. We needed the rain, though.

The weekend has begun! LRN12 is going to her mom’s place for the weekend, which will be a welcome thing for everybody. Have fun, LRN12! We have a High Priests group dinner on Saturday night, which we’re looking forward to. Also have . . . ummm . . . lots of other things to do. Hopefully including relaxing.

LRN1 noted correctly that the New Jersey Turnpike turkey has been captured. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing for his Thanksgiving chances. Maybe he’s like Charlie the Tuna and wants to be caught and eaten. Kind of weird if you ask me. Which you didn’t.

There’s been a shocking recurrence of toilet violence – this time in Phoenix. LRN3 and LRN15 had better be careful out in there.

See you tomorrow.

Here’s tonight’s view of the salt factory near my office. Picture taken from the train (reflected overhead lights, dirty windows, and all) and courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam.

Good day. Not much happened, but it was a good day. Got home a bit earlier than usual and had a nice dinner with the family. Washed dishes (my current hobby, and oddly enjoyable), chatted with LRN4 while playing Barbies and putting together puzzles with LRN12, and generally relaxed. Give me a night like this any time.

Nothing else to report, so we’ll end with today’s news from the world of athletics: the RPS world champion has been named.

See you tomorrow.