morrowlife

Here’s yet another picture of LRN2’s Eagle project. This guy is using the power hedge trimmer (gotta get me one of those) to trim the edges of the trail. Love them chaps.

Once again, the weekend’s here. Lots to do. The Loyal Readers and I are helping some people from the ward move tomorrow morning. Then I need to work on my Sunday talk, which I’m giving in two wards. Then I might have to go to a youth dance in the evening. Sunday is Father’s Day! The second happiest day of the year! I’ll spend until about 2:00 in church, followed by nonstop Father’s Day stuff. You know – gift giving, delicious food making, flattering, inviting to relax, that kind of thing.

The latest round of new parts for the MARV arrived today. We need to try to find time to get the accelerometer working again. Maybe sometime during the day tomorrow.

I’m still enjoying figuring out how to work the iPhone. I keep finding out about new and cool features. The battery won’t last through a day of mucking about with it, so I need to get a charger for work, just like with the Treo. I was checking on Amazon for something inexpensive yet good when I remembered that one of my co-workers had had his iPhone stolen. I sent him a note offering to buy his old charger if he still had it. He wrote back, offering to give me all his accessories on Monday. Woo hoo! I’m set up.

Situation otherwise normal. Several of the Young Women are here for the evening to continue working on preparations for camp. They’ve been painting, hot gluing, recording music (accompanied very ably by LRN2), and generally putting decorations together. Seem to be having a nice time.

I appreciate the opinions of a few Loyal Readers on what kind of cereal they would punch someone in the mouth for. It’s that kind of hard-hitting journalism that really sets the Morrowlife blog apart. Keep it up, Loyal Readers.

Speaking of Loyal Readers, LRN3 received a free 1977 MG Midget today. Apparently, it had been in somebody’s garage as a restoration project for quite some time. LRN3 said some admiring words, and suddenly it was his. He needs to put a few things (radiator hoses, seats, bumpers) back on and make sure everything is functional, but between him and LRN6, I think they can get it done. Send us a picture, LRN3! I’m looking forward to getting a ride.

And finally, we have a strange combination of food violence and toilet news: Why?

See you Monday.

Here’s a group of happy peppy Eagle project workers, featuring LRN1 in the background. Don’t they all look excited to be there?

Extreme Short Shrift. It’s late – I had a bunch of Young Women Camp work to do. Making good progress, though.

There was an important unacknowledged Morrowlife milestone yesterday. It was the 750th post. Incredible. More than three and a half years of marginal content. Wow. I just finished a bowl of raspberry sherbet to celebrate. True wretched excess, that.

The first day with the iPhone was great. I really like it. Got a couple of nice scripture applications and an excellent book reader. It’s all good.

Otherwise stayed busy and happy. And worked moderately hard. And had moderate success.

LRN5 pointed out that LRN4 didn’t need to suffer from mosquito bites quite as much as she did at the Eagle project, since she received a lovely personal mosquito net headcover for her birthday. I suspect she’s saving it for a special occasion.

I’ll leave you with some important food violence news: A 76 cent punch in the mouth. Not worth it, if you ask me. Maybe for a bowl of Cocoa Krispies, but never for a bologna sandwich.

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the new iPhone, being powered up for the first time. It was a special moment.

Lots of news today. Two things came: my brother-in-law Ken (I guess he’s technically not a thing) and my shiny new iPhone. Ken’s visit was very pleasant – we’ll be going to visit them in about a week, so there will be a repeat.

The iPhone is a thing of beauty, as clearly demonstrated above. I’m busily figuring out how to use it, which is taking a little time. I got a nice leather case for it – no clips this time. It’s staying in my pocket.

Tried to ride the train today. Got to the station, punched my ticket, waited on the platform. After a minute or two, the loudspeaker reported that the train had hit a car and they didn’t know how long it would be delayed. People, including me, started heading for their cars mere seconds later. I found out later than the train eventually arrived 89 minutes late. Good decision to drive. A quick web search discloses that it was exactly a year ago today that another ACE train hit somebody who wandered onto the tracks. Dangerous things, trains. You would think people would see and hear them well enough to avoid being hit by them.

Having the Miata at work allowed me to leave a little earlier than I might otherwise have done. That was important, since you have to call the AT&T people when your new phone arrives to get them to activate it for you, and then you have to connect it to your iTunes computer to complete activation. The only way for me to do both of those things was to come home early. Which I did.

Let’s see, is there any other news today? Umm . . . no. Nothing. So let’s check today’s Toilet News: Maybe they flush a little too well. Note to self: find another way to wash your dog. And don’t even think about LPN2. Snakes and toilets are too well-documented of a problem.

Anyway. Time to plan with the iPhone some more. See you tomorrow.

Here’s LRN2’s Eagle handmade project sign, complete with the detail shown yesterday. Great Art, LRN2!

It’s finally starting to warm up a bit here in Lardville. We’ve been having an unnaturally cool summer, and even had a bit of rain on Friday night/Saturday morning, which is absolutely unheard of around here. I’ve started wondering whether Al Gore has moved to town. I hope not – we need all the global warming we can get.

Otherwise normal day. I got some important things done at work and didn’t get others done – typical day, in other words. Got a very nice compliment on behalf of the group from the tip-top program manager today, which was nice. Passed it on to the group. Then I got a personal compliment from a guy who recently left the program and was back to pick something up. Called me an “inspiration” and said his carpool mate, who works for me, tells him constantly what a great boss I am. Very gratifying, if just a bit irrational.

Anyway. LRN1’s telephone surgery took place today. The patient didn’t survive the treatment. Not overly surprising, since the patient was dead before the procedure commenced. Still, there was little to nothing at stake. I received word this morning that the iPhone was shipped from Texas last night and is expected to arrive sometime tomorrow. Woo hoo! After which time, of course, LRN1 will have a Treo again.

This is kind of an end of an era, however. It’ll be the first time I’ve been without a Palm PDA since I bought my first one in Denver, which was about 1997 or so. That first one didn’t last long – a few hours, in fact. I bought it at the Franklin Covey store during lunch, played with it all afternoon at work, took it home, and went to show it to LRN4. it snagged on my pocket and I dropped it on the hardwood floor and the screen shattered. Sigh. I took it back to the FC people and told them my sad story. They took it back and gave me a new one on the spot. Wow, what great service. Their kindness has led to great loyalty and resulted in numerous additional purchases.

Anyway. I’ll be Palmless after tomorrow. Hopefully, the iPhone will be good enough to make me forget my troubles. I’m hoping there’s a great free text file reader for my e-books. I’m pretty sure I’ll find something good in that department.

We have some important food crime news: It doesn’t get any lower than this.

See you tomorrow.

Here’s LRN2’s artist’s conception of a chainsaw-on-a-pole attack. Pretty gruesome. Detail from this weekend’s Eagle project worker sign.

Good weekend. The Eagle project got done. The trails ended up looking very nice, to boot. Everybody is mosquito-bitten and sore, and a couple of people got into the stinging nettles (Link note: Food violence? You decide!). Otherwise, all’s well.

Sunday was busy, as usual. Some things got done, others didn’t. Nice day, though.

LRN1’s Treo appears to have died. The keyboard won’t work anymore, so the phone is useless. I hated to see him suffering, so I magnanimously offered to give him my Treo. I then ordered an iPhone for myself. No need to thank me, Loyal Readers. It was the least I could do.

I got the newly-price-reduced 8GB 3G phone, which is the previous generation. I would have liked the brand-new one, but didn’t want to spend at least double the money. And I’ll actually be saving money, since, for inexplicable reasons, the iPhone’s data plan is discounted by 25%, while my current phone’s is not. I live to economize.

The MARV remains at a standstill. We can’t get the Arduino to talk to the accelerometer. We now believe it’s a voltage conversion issue. We now have a 3.3 volt Arduino coming that ought to get us back on track. I hope so, anyway. It’s gotten pretty frustrating.

There’s important toilet news today: they float! The toilets, that is. Let’s keep the conversation at a mature level here.

See you tomorrow.