morrowlife

Here’s the cruise ship I took on my March 2014 trip to Mexico. Note the threatening weather. It was pretty rugged that day, but it didn’t last long. By the first night, we were out of the cloud cover and the rain had stopped for the duration. Weather in Mexico was sunny, warm, and beuatiful. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at the cruise ship terminal while I boarded the ship, and part of my famous Cruise, Machinery, and Vacation series.

No post on Friday. Can’t remember why not. But I’m posting tonight!

Had a great weekend! We went to Laguna Beach, California to celebrate my 57th birthday. That age seems younger every year, doesn’t it? We ate at a lot of very nice restaurants, took a harbor cruise in Newport Beach to look at the homes of rich people (where I got a sunburn on the tops of my knees), did a little scavenger hunt thing around town, got a Thai massage, and went on a food tasting tour of the little beach town there. I had a great time!

The Thai massage was a very interesting thing. The masseuse was a small (fortunately) Thai lady. They had me lie down on a comfortable but firm mat on the floor and the masseuse spent a pretty good part of the time kneeling on me, except when she was leaning on me with her elbows. At one point she was both kneeling on the backs of my thighs and bearing down on my back with her elbows. I came out of there extremely relaxed but with my muscles quite thoroughly stretched. Final verdict: it was a bit more rugged than a Swedish massage, but I would definitely do it again.

The place we stayed was right on the beach and was beautiful. Highly recommended. Laguna Beach is quite crowded on weekends, making getting around a bit of a challenge, but we managed. It was much less crowded today.

The drive there and the return home were uneventful and relaxing. I love road trips.

And that’s about it for today. I’m healthy, happy, and doing well. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: fugitive Chinese chicken! (Warning: autoplaying video. Yuck!)

See you tomorrow.

Here’s Mark just before he headed for San Jose, California early this afternoon. He got there safely at about 8:30 this evening. I miss him already. It’s strange that even though I don’t see him much because he spends most of his time in his room, the house still feels empty without him. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken in front of our house this afternoon, and part of my famous Las Vegas, Machinery, and Vacation series.

Pretty good day. I finally figured out my problem with hash generation in my Common Core Classroom app. The good news is that I know how to fix it. The bad news is that there is no way to make hash generation compatible with the old version. So I’m going to have to put in a one-time-only routine that will check for an existing password, delete it, and ask the user to enter a new one. That’s not too bad of a solution, but I wish I could have figured out a way to use the old one. It just wasn’t to be. We’ll see how much progress I can make on the fix tomorrow.

Joanne took me out to dinner at a nice restaurant called Mundo (a Latin chic restaurant) and then to the Smith Center to see Once. Dinner was outstanding (and very chic, of course). I had excellent mahi mahi and Joanne had pork medallions that were even better. The play was just a sweet story and was beautifully performed. Very touching. Joanne looked lovely in a beautiful black dress and we had an excellent time. The tickets were given to her by her boss and we were seated next to Dave, one of Joanne’s coworkers, and his wife. Because of the nature of the play, we didn’t get to speak to them other than to say hello. They arrived just before the show began and left immediately upon its completion, so pleasantries were necessarily at a minimum. Still, they seemed like nice people.

Not a lot else is new today, so I’m going to end here and go downstairs for a Snickers ice cream bar before bed. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: lamppost-dwelling attack porcupine!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s Shannon on the beach at Half-Moon Bay back in March of 2011. That was a great weekend with good friends. The weather was a bit chilly for beachgoing, but it was just perfect for being together. Great Art courtesy of my old Olympus digital camera and part of my famous Shannon and Vacation series.

And I think this is the where my daily pictures of Shannon end. I have many more that I will continue to share, but I think it’s time to add some Great Art from the present too. Life is becoming easier and easier to live in the present. That’s how it should be, I think. I still want my old life back so, so badly. But it’s not there anymore. And my new life is a happy one too.

Pretty good day today. I got a bit of progress made on my iOS program. I have all the warnings eliminated except for the one telling me to update my distribution certificate soon. I’ll take care of that shortly. Tomorrow, the changes start being applied.

Mark and I went to Roberto’s for dinner today. I meant to make something, but it got late again before I did anything. I have some really good steaks to barbecue. Just need to take the time. Maybe tomorrow.

After dinner, we went over to the Sunset Station bowling alley to meet Joanne’s children and grandson. They were there for her grandson Riley’s sixth birthday. Several of them are really good bowlers. Note to self: think twice before accepting an invitation to go bowling with those guys. But the important thing was meeting her family. They’re all delightful, fun, happy, quirky young people. Just like their mom. It was a pleasant visit and Joanne reports they like me too.

Let’s see, what else happened today? I got an email from my parents-in-law. I had been thinking about them the other day and it struck me how devastated I would be if one of my children were to die – possibly even more devastated than I have been since my wife died. So I sent a note expressing condolences for the effect Shannon’s loss has had on them and thanking them – especially Shannon’s dad – for the great foundation in life they gave her and for their ongoing love. I also mentioned once again how crucial her dad’s example has been to me in my bereavement. Today they responded with a very kind note expressing their love for Shannon and for me. It was touching. I took a moment to cry, which is something that has been happening less and less lately but is still there just below the surface.

And that’s it for today. My Loyal Readers will be surprised to hear that it’s very late and I need to get to bed. I’ll leave them with this shocking food violence news: banana break-in!

See you tomorrow.

Here are Shannon and Mark relaxing at the Yosemite Lodge back in July 2008. I don’t remember what they were waiting for – may have been the tram that took us around Yosemite Valley. Great Art courtesy of my old Olympus camera, taken at the lodge in Yosemite National Park, and part of my famous Shannon, Architecture, and Vacation series.

Pretty good day today. I started working again on the Common Core Classroom app. Today’s activities were pretty much confined to figuring out why a ton of compiler warnings have suddenly appeared. I believe it’s mainly because the latest version of Xcode comes with 64-bit compilation set as the default. I don’t think that’s a good thing for my app right now because I believe I still need to be compatible with a few older 32-bit devices. So I’ll change that back on Monday and see where I am.

Or maybe not. I just read something that says the binaries generated are universal, meaning that they include binaries for both 32-bit and 64-bit devices. So I might as well figure out how to fix the warnings. And then I can get to the actual changes I want to make. I also believe I found a bug today that can keep the last alphabetical name of a student from appearing in classroom reports. It’s always something, isn’t it, Loyal Readers?

Went to Kaizen Sushi Restaurant with Mark this evening for an all-you-can-eat dinner. It was delicious, but I’m stuffed and I’ve been very thirsty since I got home, no matter how much water I drink. Have no fear, Loyal Readers: I will survive. But I can’t believe how thirsty I am.

Anyway. The restaurant makes some really unique rolls and Mark and I tried several of them. Delicious! We’ll go again.

And that’s about it for today. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: exploding artichoke!

See you on Monday.

Here’s Shannon boarding our cruise ship after a long, fun day at one of our Canadian ports during our 2012 Maine/Canada cruise. That was such a wonderful trip. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Shannon, Cruise, and Vacation series.

Pretty nice day today. I think I finished all the work we needed to do before we invite the world to our October conference. I tested the conference payment system in PayPal’s sandbox and everything seems to be working just fine. So it’s live, John’s colleagues will start inviting their community, and we’ll see what happens.

Didn’t do much else today that I can remember. How strange. Let’s see, we exercised in the morning, as usual. We had breakfast and dinner, as usual. Dinner was at Burger King. We’ve been going to much nicer places, but I’ve really been in the mood for a Whopper, so that’s what we had. We enjoyed it. Oh, I ordered some flowers today for my friend Joanne. Tomorrow is her wedding anniversary with her late husband and I expect it to be a solemn one for her. Hopefully, the flowers will cheer her up a bit. Also hopefully, she doesn’t read my blog, or I just spoiled the surprise.

Heard from my nephew Dale today. He’s coming to Las Vegas tomorrow and I hope to see him. He’s been going through some tough times lately – his divorce was just finalized – but he seems to be doing very well. I think the marriage had become a very hard thing to remain in.

My [amazon asin=B00AFGQ3Q4&text=new bluetooth headset] arrived yesterday! It’s exactly like my old headset, except this one works. The battery stayed alive on the old one and it didn’t physically break – a first for me – but it just started turning itself off this past week. I liked it so much, though, that I found another one on Amazon. It’s a different color, but the exact same product. Kind of older tech at this point, but still highly recommended. It just works.

And that’s about it for today. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: peanut butter and jelly sandwich-related knife fight!

See you tomorrow.