morrowlife

Here are Loyal Readers Numbers Two and Twenty-one getting ready to set sail for Alcatraz island. They look pretty cheerful for people about to spend ninety-to-life on The Rock, don’t they? Maybe they have plans to get out of there a little bit more quickly, if you know what I mean.

Standard day at work yesterday (this is once again being written – and published! – on the train early in the morning) – I had about thirty “must do” items and got to about two of them. Sigh. At least I’m not bored. Interviewed a really good guy, who we’re going to make a job offer to. I sure hope I get a few more acceptances soon.

Home evening was nice. We spent an hour or two out in the pool/spa for activity and had some more of Sunday’s very good Father’s Day angel food cake and strawberries for treat. Yum.

At some point this week, the Loyal Readers and their friend are going to Apple headquarters in Cupertino to see the Holy Shrine of Appleness and buy a t-shirt at the gift shop. Then they’re going to the Winchester Mystery House. They also have a trip to the NUMMI factory scheduled sometime. When you throw in music lessons, Loyal Reader Number One’s tutoring job, and various other Standard Activities, they’re going to have a busy week. I’ll be in Sunnyvale.

Might as well get to some work emails while I have the chance. See you tomorrow.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Twelve smiling for Grandma. Photo courtesy of Loyal Reader Number Four.

Greetings from the train! The wifi is now working well enough to get into Blogger but not to get into my work email server. So I still have to do that offline.

No Friday post – not even a Wonders of Blogger Saturday edition. No campout either. We decided not to trust non-reservation Forest Service campgrounds, so we went to the storage place to pick up the trailer for a trip to a commercial campground outside of Sacramento. Got to the lot at about 6:30 and it was closed. You have to go through a landscaping company’s parking lot to get into our storage, and when the landscaping company is closed, so is the storage lot. They were supposed to be opening a different entrance into the lot a year ago when we put the trailer there, but it looks like they won’t be able to do it for various vague legal reasons. I think we’ll have to make other storage arrangements. Sigh.

So why no Friday post? Eh. I didn’t feel like it.

So instead of camping, we just sort of hung around the house all weekend. Not that it was unpleasant – quite the contrary. I took Loyal Reader Number Twenty to the airport very early on Saturday morning. We certainly enjoyed his visit. Loyal Reader Number One’s friend from Denver arrived yesterday evening and Loyal Reader Number Twenty-One goes back home today. That’s three airport trips in three days, and I didn’t have to get on an airplane on any of them. That’s what I call a success story.

Father’s Day was very nice. The family showered me with numerous gifts, including some lovely dental floss, and I got to speak with various Loyal Readers and other loved ones on the phone. And they canceled most extra-curricular meetings at church, so it was a quiet day. Just like I like it.

Time to have a look at my work email. See you tomorrow.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Five hard at work a couple of months ago. It turns out she really likes preparing taxes, and she’s quite good at it. She and Loyal Reader Number Six may end up buying the franchise.

Wonders of Blogger today. It’s actually early Friday morning now. Wednesday evening was too busy to blog, and our internets were busted Thursday night. Actually, all day Thursday. Hopefully, it will heal itself sometime today. Or maybe it already did. Actually, the fact that I can now see the blog from the train may mean the home connection is back in business. I hope so – how can the family survive without their email lifeline?

The new iPod arrived! I ordered it on Sunday, as I may have mentioned, and it arrived Thursday morning while I was home getting ready to go to the dentist (my teeth are clean and ready for another six months of abuse, thanks). It’s the 80 gigabyte model – the best one they make for at least the next few days – in black. It’s a thing of beauty, a joy forever (or at least until the screen gets scratched and the battery dies), and a great entertainment device. I loaded every single song and every single video on my computer, and it’s still not even halfway filled up. I love it.

The new Bose in-ear headphones also showed up at our doorstep yesterday, but nobody was home, so they’ll be dropping them off today. I’m looking forward to trying them out too.

Loyal Reader Numbers Two and Twenty-one and I are going camping tonight. We don’t know where we’re going, but we’re tenting it, so pretty much any forest service campground will do. I’m going to have to depend on them to prepare everything, as I have to work all day, but you can’t really go far wrong in the packing department when you’re only spending one night.

Time to start watching videos on my beautiful new iPod. Looking at it realistically, it’s doubtful that there will be time for blogging tonight. Maybe I’ll go with the Wonders of Blogger on Saturday afternoon – check back! See you then.

Here’s another look at that waterfall from the other day, this time with Loyal Reader Number One standing in front of it. I still can’t figure out whether I was holding the camera straight or not. On the one hand, the water appears to be leaning to the left. On the other hand, the trees appear to be leaning to the right. On the other hand, LRN1 appears to be pretty much straight up and down. So I guess I got it right. That place was kind of like a giant outdoor funhouse.

Slightly crowded train this afternoon. I swear I can’t figure out where all these people come from. They’re not on the morning train. I guess they just pop into existence sometime during the day. Every day. Or something.

Interviewed a really good candidate from Denver today. We’re going to make him an offer. The only problem is that I already hired somebody under the requisition he applied for, so I opened another requisition yesterday. It turns out a requisition has to be open for a week before you can hire somebody, so I can’t get him an offer until next Tuesday. I’ll let him know what we’re doing and hope for the best. We’re making an offer to a local guy as well. I think we have a fairly good chance of getting him. My boss is very anxious for me to get people in, so these possible acceptances are a Real Good Thing.

Didn’t get much else done today, in between interviewing and offering. I attended a few meetings, ate lunch, and … umm … answered email. Yikes. Must get people hired and get back to working.

The FedEx person tried to deliver my new iPod’s docking station today, but the Loyal Readers were in the back yard when he or she rang the doorbell. They’ll make another attempt tomorrow, and I’ll be leaving a signed note on the door this time. So if there are any Loyal Readers out there inclined to travel to Saindouxville and steal a thirty-dollar docking station, tomorrow’s the day. While you’re here, stop in for dinner.

The new iPod should be here next Monday or so, and the new headphones may be here as early as Thursday. I was amazed that Apple didn’t put everything together in a single package to save on shipping, since they’re paying for it. Then I noticed where the various things are coming from: the iPod was shipped yesterday from the factory in Shanghai, the docking station came from Sacramento yesterday, and the headphones shipped from Pennsylvania last week. I guess that decentralization must save them money somehow, but it sure doesn’t seem like it on the surface.

The other package I’m waiting for is the box with the remaining parts for Mousey the Junkbot. I really should have bought two sets of parts, since I want to make a Mark II version with an Arduino controlling it after I get the first one working. Instead, I’ll just have to Upgrade MtJ v.1 at some point. I spent a little time over the weekend experimenting with simple filters for Junkey to use to efficiently Go Towards the Light. Should be an interesting project.

Many thanks to Loyal Reader Number Sixteen for weighing in on the blog during the past few days. Those Gratituous Baby Pictures do the trick every time.

Time to start watching videos. See you tomorrow.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Twelve looking a little more satisfied. By the way, the last three works of Great Art are courtesy of Loyal Reader Number Five. Send some more, LRN5!

Good Monday. Rode the train, which was a good thing. I heard 580 was down to two lanes somewhere again today. No problem.

My family gave me a very nice leather rolling briefcase for my birthday yesterday. Hooray! It’s exactly what I wanted. It’s a little wider than my old roller, I think, and everything fits in there quite comfortably. It looks elegant and works great. Thanks, Loyal Readers One, Two, and Four!

I also received a very nice and very unexpected monetary gift from my father. I used it to order a new iPod, which I hope to receive as early as this week. I can stop moving podcast videos to my computer now. I also plan to rip a few movies and get them on there. I have a few Blackadder and MXC rips already, just waiting to be converted to iPod-compatible format. And there’s more where they came from – old movies galore! I can hardly wait to get started.

I was pleased to learn that James Lileks got the gig he wanted. He’s one of my very favorite columnists and pretty much the only blog I read. I was sad when he decided to quit writing his excellent Newhouse column. When the morons at the Minneapolis “Red” Star-Tribune dumped his column (which, truth be told, I very rarely read, but still), I was distressed and worried about the future of the Bleat (which I read religiously). Now he’s running the Red Star’s blog, though, which is a good thing for entertainment purposes but still not for commentary, at which he excels. At least the Bleat, the Diner, and all the other elements of his excellent website are safe.

The Loyal Readers had a nice time in Utah and appear to be glad to be back home. I know I’m glad they’re here. LRN1 and LRN2 each have a friend staying the week with us. I’m hoping to turn them both into Loyal Readers. Maybe I’ll finally get over that twenty-reader hump. How about it, Lee and Jay? Are you up to the Morrowlife challenge?

LRN1 added a comment to a recent post accusing me of making some sort of grammatical error. That’s so unbelievable I don’t even need to respond. Ridiculous. Ludicrous. Far-fetched. Et cetera. Oh sure, there may be some grammatical inaccuracies here and there, but they’re there for a Really Good Reason.

And I’m through for the day. See you tomorrow.