Archive for the ‘vacation’ Category

Packing pet

Monday, November 30th, 2015

  
Here’s the Loyal Pet helping me get ready for a recent trip. I’m not sure exactly which one I was packing for, but he’s reliably helpful. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken in my room prior to a recent trip, and part of my famous Las Vegas and Vacation series.

Wonders of WordPress. I’m quite sure I’ve never let so much time go by before. Hopefully, never again. So let’s see what I was up to in November, shall we?

First, of course, we spent Halloween quietly at home. Several adorable little tykes came by begging for candy. We have it to them, lest some terrible misfortune overtake us.

I went solo to see Katy and Cliff on November 3-4. There was a threefold purpose to the trip: to see my Loyal Family, to celebrate Mia’s birthday, and to get enough flights for A-list status on Southwest Airlines. All missions accomplished. It was a nice visit. Katy and Cliff are always such fun hosts.

November 6-9, Kristina came here. She stayed with her mom at the condo. They had a very nice visit and I was glad to see her too. I don’t remember exactly what we did, but it was enjoyable.

We went to Allen, Texas to visit Desi and his family on November 13-15. Another great visit! I was delighted to meet Andrea’s family. Plus, Desi, Andrea, and Riley are so much fun. I really like them.

Joanne and I went to San Diego on November 21-22. Objective: get enough flights for A-list status on Southwest Airlines. Also to have fun and relax. All missions accomplished.

We had a great Thanksgiving! Andy and JaNell were here. It was great to see them and we had a great few days. Joanne went to the Bay Area for a few days right after the holiday and had another excellent  is it with Ryan and Kristina.

And that’s about all the travel for November. Hopefully, that’s enough for my Loyal Readers. It was certainly enough for us. I don’t really remember what else happened during the month. So it’s time to quit.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this combination exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity and shocking food violence news: pie-stealing bear!

See you tomorrow.

Hammock relaxer

Tuesday, June 30th, 2015

hammockrelaxer

Here’s Mia relaxing on a hammock during our recent trip to San Diego. About which more below. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at the Bahia Hotel in San Diego, California, and part of my famous Event and Vacation series.

Wonders of WordPress. Today is actually a week into July. My, have I gone a long time without writing. I’d like to write more and I have plenty to write about. I guess I’m just focusing more on other things. Maybe that will change.

So let’s talk about June. It was the happiest month of the year! My birthday happened! I’m 58 now! Katy and Clifford got married! Joanne’s birthday happened! She’s an undisclosed age now! Mia visited me!

Let’s take them one by one, shall we? I’ll start with my birthday. Joanne gave me an unbelievably cool present: she took me to The Richard Petty Driving Experience. Go ahead, click on the link. I’ll wait. . . . Okay, you’re back now. Doesn’t it look like fun? Well, it was. I went 140 miles per hour. Lots and lots of fun. I loved it. It’s an experience I won’t forget. Thanks, Joanne!

Also, Andy came to stay with me for my birthday weekend! Fun! Thanks for coming, Andy. It meant a lot to me.

And now: the wedding! Yes, Katy and Clifford officially tied the knot. It was a beautiful wedding and we were thrilled to participate. Congratulations, Katy and Clifford! I love my favorite daughter and I love my favorite son-in-law!

And now: Joanne’s birthday and Mia’s visit! Mia came home from the Bay Area with us after the wedding. She stayed until July 1st. Much of that time was spent in San Diego. Joanne took Mia, Ryan, Kristina, Corey, and me for a few days at the Bahia resort. It’s a beautiful place. It was there when we lived there, but I never got to see it. Mia, Joanne, and I had a Marina Suite. We were on the first floor. It was a matter of about five steps from our sliding door to the sand and another dozen or so to the water. Of course, that was marina water, so you wouldn’t want to go in it, but still: beautiful!

The actual beach was about a block and a half away. We walked down there a few times during the weekend. We walked along the beach, waded in the water, walked the boardwalk, bought some beach junk, and rode the roller coaster and bumper cars at Belmont Park. It was a great stay and a happy birthday for Tina (the 25th) and Joanne (the 27th).

Now we’re home and Mia is with her other grandparents. It’s awfully quiet around here, but it’ll noisy up soon enough.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: attack housecat!

See you tomorrow.

Edison’s shop

Tuesday, April 28th, 2015

edisonshop

Here’s Thomas Edison’s shop. He developed the lightbulb here. Nice work, Tom! Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken last July at Greenfield Village in beautiful Dearborn, Michigan, and part of my famous Architecture, Electronics, Vacation, and Workbench series.

It’s only been five days since my last post! That’s a new record in recent days here. So there’s not so much to report about. However, we are not without news here.

Joanne and I went back to the Bay Area on Saturday morning. We came home Sunday evening, so it was a bit brief. Joanne attended Katy’s bridal shower and appears to have enjoyed it quite a bit. My in-laws-to-be are wonderful folks and Joanne loves them too now.

In the meantime, Clifford took his stepdad James and me out for the world’s fanciest donuts, the world’s fanciest coffee, and the world’s prettiest wedding venue. It was a great morning! The big wedding will be beautiful. Sunday, Katy, Cliff, Mia, Joanne, and I went to the Berkeley Kite Flying Field. Surprisingly, while we were there, we flew kites! Never saw that coming, did you, Loyal Readers? In the afternoon, Joanne and I went to visit Ryan. We had lunch together and went over to visit with Junior, Joanne’s former dog and Ryan’s current dog. Then we came home.

Anyway, it was a pleasant weekend. San Francisco was beautiful. And we missed the big Las Vegas rainstorm on Saturday.

Joanne and I went to the 51’s baseball game last night. Our team won! We enjoyed the game. Plus, they gave everyone in our row free Big Foam Fingers! For keeps! Now that’s something.

I may need that finger. I sliced my thumb open this morning on Joanne’s mandoline. Oops. I wasn’t even cutting with it. I was just trying to put it back in its box. It was bleeding badly enough that I decided to take a trip to urgent care. They put a butterfly bandage on it and told me not to get it wet for a week. So it’s not a big deal. Still, it’s nice knowing I have a spare foam finger around the house just in case.

And that’s about it for today. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: crime-fighting parrot!

See you tomorrow.

Drive wheel

Thursday, April 23rd, 2015

 

Here’s one of the drive wheels from an old steam locomotive.  A beautifully restored old steam locomotive. In fact, it’s probably way better than it ever was when it was actually pulling railcars, including the day it rolled out of the factory. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken in June 2014 at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, and part of my famous Machinery, Train, and Vacation series.

That was the trip to Michigan that I felt I must make. It started as a month-long drive all over the country to help me heal a little bit and morphed into a flight to Utah, a ride in Andy’s car to Colorado, a flight to Michigan, and one more flight home. I never did take that road trip I was contemplating.

The trip turned out to be the last time I was with my mother before we found out she had cancer. What a difficult year it was! But I’m alive and moving forward.

Long time no post. Let’s try to recap just a little of what’s been going on. Hmm . . . not too much, it turns out. I’ll just get started with what I can remember and we’ll see where that takes us.

Joanne and I went to Seattle last weekend. We stayed at a beautiful historic hotel downtown a few blocks from Pike Place Market. We saw the old subterranean portion of town (fascinating!), took a tour around several of the old neighborhoods, and rode the auto ferry to Bainbridge Island for lunch and a drive. It was all beautiful. The weather was quite favorable and we enjoyed the weekend greatly. We’re going to San Francisco this weekend so Joanne can attend Katie’s bridal shower and I can hang out with Clifford. Should be a ton of fun.

Mark’s current semester is winding down quickly. He’s doing very well in all his classes and looking forward to some time off during the summer (although he will be attending the summer term).

Andy is getting ready to move out of his extremely expensive downtown Denver apartment and into a friend’s house while he saves to buy his own place. I loved that apartment and the area, but he is paying an amazing amount of money to be there.

Joanne has moved into her very nice condo. She’s enjoying it and I like it too. Corey is still with her and he seems happy there also. She couldn’t resist having a pet, so she got a cat a couple days ago. It’s a beautiful animal and only has a few bad habits. I’m sure crazy about her.

Paul and Melissa are moving too! They expect to be here in Las Vegas in May. I’m looking forward to having them close by.

Katie and Cliff are still getting married. It is less than two months away! I’m tremendously excited for them.

I’m not moving. Instead, I decided a few days ago to finally take glider pilot lessons. I’ve been contemplating it for quite some time now. As my Loyal Readers no doubt know, I have long loved sailboats and not particularly loved powerboats. I dislike the noise, the discomfort, and the pointlessness of the whole thing. Sailing takes skill, things move slowly and yet seem quite exciting, and the trip is enough for it to be enjoyable.

I took some flying lessons back when I was in college and discontinued them after three or four lessons for pretty much the same reasons I dislike powerboats. They’re noisy, uncomfortable, and pointless. I have long wondered whether I’d feel about sailplanes the same way I do about sailboats. So I’ve decided to find out. I haven’t had my first flight yet, but I’m hoping it will be soon and frequently thereafter.

As a bonus, the sailplane license is much less expensive to get and sailplanes are much less expensive to rent after you have your license. The only downside is that you’re even more of a slave to the weather than you are with a powered plane. That ought to be okay, though; our weather is pretty good most of the time.

Since I haven’t started flying yet, I’ve started studying. I found several FAA publications that offer a lot of information for glider pilots and I’m reading them like crazy.

Speaking of reading, I got a Kindle the other day and I absolutely love the thing. It’s just like Andy told me – reading is just more pleasant on a Kindle. Recommended!

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: joyriding dog! Two positions are available.

See you tomorrow.

Denver Art

Wednesday, February 25th, 2015

Here’s yet another instance of Great Art in the blog’s Great Art section. This particular instance is in Andy’s apartment building in Denver. I’m not quite sure what it is, but I like it. A lot. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken during one of my recent trips to Denver, and part of my Art and Vacation series.

Lots of stuff has been happening this month. Let’s take a look, shall we?

I spent last week in Orlando at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences’ annual conference. We had a booth at the expo Wednesday through Friday, and John spoke at the forensic odontology session on Tuesday. Our software had a few very nice mentions, we had several nice visits at our booth, and we achieved our goals, I believe.

One of our goals was to take over development of a crucial piece of forensic odontology software. We asked for it and we got it! We’re going to upgrade it to web-based form and give that version away. We’ll also roll it into PhotoDoc and hope to attract some more users.

Next year’s AAFS conference location: Las Vegas. Convenient!

Since I was going to Orlando, I decided to tack on a few days at the beginning and the end and do a bit of vacationing. I was already staying with Tony, and Chris lives close by, so there was plenty of company. Joanne came with me the first weekend. We had a great time. We went to Disneyworld on Saturday. The crowds were unbelievable! Turns out it was Presidents’ Day weekend and there were a few more visitors than they might have had on a normal day. Other than barely being able to move, we enjoyed it. Luckily, I didn’t need to swing any cats.

Sunday we went to NASA. It was fun being there again and I really enjoyed showing Joanne around. The crowds were smaller by quite a bit and their displays were much more developed than the last time is was in the visitors’ center.

The weekend after the conference, Chris, Tony, and I went to Universal Studios on Saturday and a neat place called Bok Tower Gardens on Sunday. Universal was a bit more crowded than usual because they were having a Kelly Clarkson concert that evening. We had a great time anyway. As everybody seems to say, the Harry Potter ride was very well done and quite entertaining. I also quite enjoyed Revenge of the Mummy. Highly recommended.

Joanne has decided to sell her house! It went onto the market shortly after I got home and it sold immediately! The appraiser was there today, the earnest money was just deposited, and things are moving quickly toward a closing date in just a few weeks. She’s kind of sorry to let the place go, but I think she’s just about ready to live a bit smaller.

Of course, she can’t have all those kids with her after she downsizes. Desi and Andrea are in Texas helping Andrea’s sick mom and they’ve decided to stay there indefinitely. Ryan’s going to live with his dad in the Bay Area. I don’t know what Tina’s plans and schedule are, but they seem to be in flux. Corey’s staying with his mom when she moves.

We’re cutting back on nights out for a while so Joanne has the time to pack stuff up, find her next place, sell stuff she doesn’t want, and get her house ready for someone else to move into it.

I bought tickets tonight for the Clark County fair and rodeo in April. We’re excited to go. We went to a rodeo in Wyoming some years ago and I’m looking forward to seeing another.

And that’s it for today. Time to sleep. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: massive maple syrup spill!

See you tomorrow.