morrowlife

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Twelve coming down the slide. Not my best picture, maybe, but I think it’s a good likeness.

Another sunny day, temperature about 60. Sunshine predicted the rest of the week, with highs up to about 70 by Friday. The drought people must be positively giddy. As our current Masters in Government say, never let a good crisis go to waste.

Pretty good weekend, although Saturday was packed, as predicted. I had two ten-minute visits home from 6:45 AM until about 10:45 PM. All the activities were pretty good, though. Loyal Reader Number Two had been worried about being competitive in the Science Olympiad, but he did extremely well. Took second in bridge breaking and third in water rocket flying. Congrats, LRN2!

I played hooky from the branch so I could make a bunch more phone calls for girls camp callings. Got almost everything done. The only real worry item left is our head cook. I haven’t been able to make phone contact with the spouse in that case, despite numerous tries. Apparently, he has a difficult work schedule. So do I, so it’s tough. We’ll get it done, though.

Nothing otherwise new. In today’s toilet news, we have an interesting new restaurant. I think I’ll skip it. Thanks to Loyal Reader Number Twenty Six for recommending the place.

Plus, they’re on the attack! Be careful out there. Or in there, I guess.

See you tomorrow.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Twelve getting ready to come down the slide. She has to do a few pull-ups first.

Great day at home. First the good news: against all odds, the Miata passed its biennial smog inspection! Not bad for a car with more than 170,000 miles on it. I’ll probably get another 170k out of it before it’s done. What a great little car.

The other good news is that Loyal Reader Number Two and I got a working water rocket design done. That’s a good thing, since his competition with it is tomorrow. Our design is pretty cool looking (we could do lots more in terms of workmanship, but it works great) and it didn’t break its test egg! We’re still experiencing premature deployment of the parachute, but it’s going to have to be good enough as it is. We made two rockets, which LRN2 named Buddy and Skippy. Contest results reported on Monday. Don’t get your hopes up, though. We’ve never been to one of these, so we don’t know how well we have to do. It’ll be fun just to be there.

Got a couple other things done too, but not much. Attended my two work telecons in the morning, transferred a lot of files to Larry (still doing it, in fact – there are tens of gigabytes of shows to move), a did a bunch of reading and relaxing. Didn’t get any cars washed, didn’t get the cable cut off, didn’t order any TV or Ooma parts, didn’t make any Girls Camp callings. Maybe there will be time for some of that tomorrow.

But precious little. Busy Saturday schedule previously reported. I expect to hold to it.

There’s some big toilet news today: They’re not all that comfortable from the other side. My recommendation: check for your keys one more time before you do anything drastic.

In other toilet news, I’ve found a home improvement project we ought to consider: the golden toilet.

Have a great weekend. See you Monday.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Twelve running for the slide. Taken at the park on a sunny day in January.

Another busy work week grinds to a halt. Got a few things done. Didn’t get a few other things done. Pretty average. I enjoyed it.

Lots to get accomplished this weekend. I have a couple of work telecons to attend on Friday. Need to wash the Miata, Honda, and Suburban. I also need to wash the Ranger pretty badly, but I don’t plan to drive all the way out there to do it. Maybe I can find some time to get it done professionally sometime soon.

Anyway. I also have plenty of electronic-type projects to work on. Need to come up with a short-term solution for Loyal Reader Number Four’s computer networking problem – it turns out the Ooma Hub doesn’t pass its source IP address space through to devices attached to it. It does network address translation instead. This allows attached devices to get to the internet but not see the local network, causing printing and file sharing problems. The short-term solution will probably be to move the Ooma up to the loft and plug it into the router up there. That will leave nothing plugged into it, thus solving my NAT problem.

For the long term, I need to make the make-or-buy decision on the network splitter and get the parts. Also probably need to bite the bullet and buy a bigger switch for the closet. But not right now.

Then there’s the television situation. I absolutely must get a remote control for Larry so I can declare him Fully Operational, at which point I think we can turn off the cable. Or maybe we should just turn it off now. Just get it over with.

Then I can start buying the additional TVs and various needed computer upgrades. I suspect I might be more motivated to get the computers done and TVs bought if the cable’s turned off. Plus we want to stop spending the outrageous monthly cable fees.

Other things needing doing: adding free web-based content to Larry (I found several excellent HD podcasts, which I’ve downloaded and need to move), cleaning up a few things around the house, and relaxing. Lots of relaxing.

Saturday will be pretty busy. I have to give a quick five-minute talk at the Branch’s Elders Quorum breakfast. Then I’m off to join Loyal Reader Number Two at the Science Olympiad for most of the day. Then there’s a Stake YM/YW activity in the evening. That’ll pretty much do it for the day.

Oh, and there’s a home teaching visit to make on Friday afternoon. Plus numerous Girls Camp callings to issue. Plus all the normal Sunday meetings.

Whew. Looks like I’ll need to take my relaxation (link warning: new-agey video with sound) wherever I can find it.

Anyway. Let’s see what going on in the Toilet News world: The quality is going way down.

See you tomorrow.

Here’s a pretty little bit of water up at Clark’s Fork. That water is nothing if not blue. Taken during our August 2008 trip. Part of my famous Camping series.

Sunny, rainy day. Sometimes both at the same time. More rain coming through Friday. The weekend looks pretty clear, which is nice for a change.

Nothing much to report. I called Loyal Reader Number Four on the Ooma during the lunch hour. It worked great. I need to do a little stress testing soon – want to see how the calls go when I’m downloading something big, copying lots of files across the network, and watching TV on the ‘net. May have to set a fixed IP address on the Ooma and do a little Quality of Service shaping to keep data flowing. Another fun toy to work on!

Otherwise, it’s pretty quiet. LRN4 has been looking for just the right formal dress for our upcoming cruise. I have a modest suggestion.

Let’s check in with the food violence world: It’s getting dangerous out there. Remember: when frozen meat is outlawed, only outlaws will have frozen meat. On the other hand, some people are actually doing something about it. Of course, you can go too far.

See you tomorrow.

Here are (much earlier versions of) Loyal Readers Numbers One and Two headed down towards the Pennsylvania Waterfall prominently featured in last Friday’s post. I have another sneaking suspicion I’ve used this photo before too. Nobody can prove it, though. Part of my famous Camping series.

No post yesterday. I was sick. Came home early, arriving at about 12:30, and went to bed immediately. While I did get up a couple of times, I’m estimating I got about 18 hours of sleep. And I’m sleepy again already.

Thanks to good old Anon for noticing my absence. I can always count on Anon.

Rainy day today – big time. We’re supposed to have pretty steady rain for at least the next five days. I’m predicting the famous California drought will be over before March is out. Of course, that won’t stop our Masters in Government from imposing draconian restrictions, will it?

Large puddles abound outside the train windows, and the little creek we go by while we’re in one of our picturesque little valleys is absolutely raging. And very muddy.

Family members are starting to gear up for the Wedding of the Century in Las Vegas mid-month. So far, Loyal Readers Numbers Three, Four, Five, Six, Twelve, Fifteen, and I are planning to go, and Loyal Reader Number One has formed an exploratory committee. I’m really looking forward to seeing everybody. Loyal Reader Number Two is pretty sad to be missing everybody.

I haven’t seen much going on in the toilet world since our last update. Maybe I should have milked a few days’ posts out of that. In related news, though, the sewerage hippos are causing quite a stink.

Non-meeting Tuesday tonight. I should probably be making some Girls Camp calls, but I’m otherwise uncommitted. Maybe I should spend some of the time ordering that remote control I want. Also the extra phone charger.

Later – Ooma got here today! I set it up, and it actually works! Really well! I need to get an Ethernet splitter (if there is such a thing – if not, I need to make one and possibly sell them so others won’t have to suffer like me) and an expanded switch for the closet so I can set it up where I want it, but it’s currently set up by LRN4’s computer and working perfectly. We’ve ordered our phone number switched over to it, after which we’ll turn off Verizon for good. Should take about another month. In the meantime, the Ooma box is hooked up to an auxiliary phone, so we don’t have to give the temporary number out. But I’ll be happy to give it to my Loyal Readers if anybody wants to try it out. Email me!

Nothing else going on. See you tomorrow.