morrowlife

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Twelve hiding in plain sight. With those camo pants on, it’s a wonder you can see her at all. Photo courtesy of Loyal Reader Number Five.

Happy Thanksgiving! We’ve had a pleasant day today – didn’t do much besides relax around the house and eat turkey dinner. Loyal Reader Number Four and I did go out to check out a Thanksgiving-day sale (shudder) at K-Mart (double shudder, but in its defense I must say it’s not nearly as bad as it used to be). They were already sold out of pretty much all the things we had been interested in, so we only got a couple of things.

We’re heading out very early tomorrow for Black Friday shopping. Wish us luck.

See you tomorrow, if we don’t get trampled.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Four with some of her friends, who are walking on a tree that was cut down over a hundred year ago. I see Loyal Reader Number Two back there, and Loyal Reader Number One way back there in the background. Other tree walkers are members of the Crockett family, with whom we went camping. Love those pretty gold dogwoods.

On the train today, and don’t ask me whether I’m happy about it. Okay, do ask me. I’m not happy at all, and it’s my own fault. I was planning on taking the 4:00 bus, getting me home at 6:30. I had somebody in my office, though, and got out late, so I missed the bus. I went over to the light rail in the vain hope that it could get me to the train station on time. Barely missed the 4:16 train, and the 4:31 train didn’t get there until 4:39. I missed the ACE train. The good news, though, is that I was first in line for the late one! Sigh. At least it’s not crowded, probably because everybody else had the good sense to go home earlier. Double sigh.

However, the Thanksgiving weekend has begun! All is right with the world.

LRN4 and I are planning to venture out early on Friday morning for some Black Friday shopping. In fact, we hope to get all our Christmas shopping done in a single day. In a single morning, in fact. We’ll see. We need to decide which store to hit first and whether to divide and conquer. I don’t really have my eye on any big-ticket items, so it’s not clear at all where we should go. I need to check out the Black Friday website when I get home.

I just got a call from LRN1. He’s been accepted into BYU! Congratulations, LRN1. Now let’s see how much scholarship money you can snag. Not to mention housing.

Well. There’s certainly been an excellent response on my sneezing question. Based on the entirely random sample we’ve taken, I think we can safely say that 100% of the population uses the sun (or a bright light) to at least aid a balky sneeze. So much for calling it a genetic disorder.

I have nothing to say tonight, so I’ll end. Happy Thanksgiving and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Here’s Batgirl early in life. Or maybe that’s Loyal Reader Number Twelve. Photo courtesy of Loyal Reader Number Five.

Left the office at a few minutes after 3:00 this afternoon. There was plenty of time, so I decided to take the back roads, which I haven’t done in quite a while. Big mistake. There was a multi-car accident on one of those back roads and traffic was backed up quite a ways. It didn’t look like anybody got hurt, fortunately, but one car flew off the road into a vineyard. On top of that, there was the usual slowpoke blocking traffic all the way through the twisty bits.

At least the Miata was in top form. It ran perfectly all day – both warm and cold. I think the new catalyst really healed it. Great!

I don’t think I mentioned yesterday that the fishy thing is that the owner before me left a receipt for a new catalytic converter about six months before I got the car. It’s obvious that all they did was take the old one off and turn it around (poorly). I don’t know whether the shop defrauded the previous owner or whether they colluded to fraudently pass the emissions test. Either way, it’s a nasty business.

Chatted with Loyal Reader Number Three this evening. He’s had a bad cold for quite a while now, but he’s feeling well enough to travel to Las Vegas tomorrow. Good luck, LRN3! And Loyal Reader Number Fifteen too!

I got some good responses on the sun sneezing (link note: I resent the suggestion that it’s a “genetic disorder!” It’s more of a “feature.”) question, but I’m still looking for more inputs. We need to get some statistically significant figures. Loyal Readers?

I’m on the train tomorrow. See you then.

Here’s our campsite during our most recent trip. Pretty campground, that. And a nice roomy site too.

Anonymous noticed I didn’t post on Friday. I have a great excuse. I forgot. Sorry about that, Loyal Readers. And thanks for noticing, Anon!

Fine weekend. I got the Miata fixed on Saturday. It was way past time for an oil change, so I decided to have them look at the loud exhaust and the front end rattle while it was there. It turns out the rattle was caused by a brake missing its shim, which is simply an annoyance. When it’s time for new brakes, it’ll get a new shim. The exhaust problem was caused by a catalytic converter that was installed upside down and backwards, not to mention that it appears to have been welded in by children. I got a new converter and it’s now quieter (but not much – there’s still a very pleasant exhaust note) and much more powerful. I was going to take it to work today to see if its cold performance has improved (I expect it has), but they were predicting rain so I took the Honda – ABS, traction control, and more accident safety. I’ll probably drive the Miata tomorrow, when it’s going to be sunny all day.

Wednesday will definitely be a train day, though. As in Washington, my observations here tell me that the commute on the evening before a major holiday is pretty bad. Here in Lardville I have an option, so I’m going to take it.

I was thinking earlier about a comment my sister made a few weeks ago when I was in Michigan. She mentioned that somebody was puzzled when she talked about looking at a light to sneeze. She had no idea that trick didn’t work for everybody. Neither did I. Check this out. How many of my Loyal Readers are light-sneezers? Comment!

Besides the car repairs, Loyal Reader Number Four and I got a few other things done. We got a loveseat from some friends. It works in the family room and looks nice. We’ve been looking for a new couch for that room. I think the search will still go on, but we at least have a workable temporary solution.

Otherwise, pretty uneventful.

It’s Thanksgiving week! I’m looking forward to being home for a few days and having Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and (especially) Twelve over. Sadly, Loyal Readers Numbers Three and Fifteen can’t come. They’re going to Las Vegas.

Only two more workdays to go! See you tomorrow.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Twelve sitting in the infant seat she wouldn’t have anything to do with when she was the right size for it. Now she loves it. Figures. Photo courtesy of Loyal Reader Number Five.

Toughish workday today. Lots of conflict. And slower traffic. On the other hand, the potluck was very nice. People in my department bring good food to these things, although a surprisingly large amount of it came from restaurants.

I’ve been eliminating podcasts I no longer enjoy, and now I need to find a few new ones. I’ve downloaded a few episodes of The Get-It-Done Guy. I’ll let you know if they’re any good. Based on his website, my hopes aren’t too high. Maybe I better find some more old-time radio shows.

Time for bed already. See you tomorrow.