morrowlife

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Two straying onto the tracks, just a little too close to that oncoming train. I think that’s a clear violation of some safety standard or two. Fortunately, he made it okay.

No comments the last couple of days. I guess all my Loyal Readers are busy enjoying their Christmas break. As am I.

We hung around today. That’s about it. This evening, we watched two movies we had received for Christmas from Loyal Reader Number Four’s brother and then jacuzzified after dinner. Pleasant day. Tomorrow’s plans are open, but I believe they include leaving the house for at least a little while. I also need to get to some of my projects before there’s no holiday left.

Speaking of which, today was my sixth day off. Wow! I’m back to work one week from today.

About the movies. They sent us “cleaned up” versions, so we knew they would be acceptable. We received The Ultimate Gift and Touching the Void. The latter was a really intense true story of a two-man mountain climbing expedition that went very wrong. It was shot in documentary style, which was an interesting touch. Even though you know both climbers survived because you see them talking about it, you really wonder how they’ll make it. Very well done. However, I looked it up and discovered the original movie was rated R, so if you can’t find the cleaned up version, I don’t recommend it.

The Ultimate Gift was another intense movie for completely different reasons. Very touching, very heartwarming. The movie’s website treats it more like a way of life than a show. In spite of that, I highly recommend the movie, which was originally rated PG, so I don’t think they cut anything out of our version.

About the censored versions of movies. There was a company in Utah that made and sold them and had a pretty brisk business going. The movie studios sued them out of existence, so LRN4’s brother’s wife bought a bunch of movies during the closeout sale. I’m not sure why the studios shut them down, other than just to harass good people. They claimed the company was destroying their “artistic vision” or something like that. They don’t seem to mind destroying it themselves for the versions they show on airplanes and television, though. Totally irrational.

Anyway. Time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Twelve trying to decide whether to go upstairs or not. Be good or be naughty? Decisions. As I recall, she went up.

Fresh, new Great Art is on its way. I have a few good pictures from yesterday’s museum on the official Morrowlife Great Art Camera. I’ll try to get them downloaded to the computer soon.

Merry Christmas! We had a great day today, starting with presents, moving to good food, going on to pleasant company, and ending with a fun movie. We watched Ratatouille, which we received from Santa last night, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s about a rat who wants to be a chef. Where do they dream up these things?

Some of the Loyal Readers also went out to see the latest National Treasure (link warning: spooky National Treasure sounds) movie. They’re rating it somewhere between a B+ and an A. Loyal Reader Number Five interprets that as either a B++ or an A–. I’ll go with that.

Otherwise, not much to report. I was excited to get my little RC helicopter and it was going great until I seriously broke it this afternoon. I superglued it back together, and we’ll find out tomorrow if that fixed it. Otherwise, it was great fun while it lasted.

And I’m too busy enjoying the remainder of Christmas to go on. See you tomorrow.

Here’s the view from the top of the Clark’s Fork waterfall.

Merry Christmas Eve! It’s been a beautiful day here in Lardville – about 60 degrees and sunny all day. Well, the Weather Channel says it’s actually 56 degrees right now, but it’s getting late.

No post on Friday. It was my first day off work and it seemed like Saturday. So I forgot. Thanks to my old pal Anon for noticing.

We’re back from our Christmas Eve museum visit. This year we went to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. It’s a really nice museum. There are lots of cool locomotives and several other cars in a beautiful setting. One of my favorites was the Pullman car you can walk through. They have the back of the car set up for daytime seating and the front for sleeping. It’s beautifully restored, and the presentation is really cool. They have lights and sound outside of the car and something that shakes the whole car. It really feels like it’s moving. Very cool.

They also have a dining car you can walk through. Those things were really elegant – much nicer than the dining cars I’ve frequented on Amtrak. MUCH nicer. Loyal Reader Number Four read something that said those dining cars always lost money; the railroads used them as advertisement and competed heavily with each other for the best food and service. Those were the days. The ACE train isn’t quite that nice. But it gets me there and gets me back.

Otherwise, it’s been a pleasant weekend. Loyal Readers Numbers Three, Five, Six, Twelve, and Fifteen are staying with us and we’re having a great time. LRN5, LRN6, and LRN12 have to leave either Christmas night or very early the next day – the demands of employment, alas. We’ve baked cookies, had a nice day at church, done some last-minute shopping, and hung around a bunch. A good time is being had by all.

And we’re ready for Christmas! Except that Loyal Readers Numbers Five and Fifteen are out shopping again. Maybe they’re buying something for me. The world can only hope.

Time for Lasagna (link note: try not to pay attention to the first sentence of the second paragraph – yuck) and our annual Very Special Home Evening. So have a great night and I’ll see you on Christmas.

Here’s a Sequoia among some of its shorter cousins. Sequoia is the only word I can think of right now that contains all the vowels, not to mention that it has only two consonants. Can any of my Loyal Readers come up with any other all-vowel words?

The work year is over! I got home this afternoon at about 2:00 and have enjoyed the start of the Christmas break. I’ve already gotten a couple of little things done, as suggested by Loyal Reader Number Four. We took down and put away the crib and set up the new inflatable bed in the game/sewing/exercise room, and we fixed the white chair.

Part of the chair’s frame had broken, rendering it pretty much useless as a place to sit, even if it superficially didn’t look any worse than before. The springs were attached to this part, making it difficult to just replace. Instead, we made another piece, which we glued and bolted to the broken one. Then we screwed the whole thing back into its original position. It seems pretty solid and we think it’s back to normal. I don’t recommend my Loyal Readers jump on it, though.

I managed to escape from the chair job with only a cut on one fingertip, a puncture wound on the back of the same finger, and a knuckle rubbed raw. Not bad.

I’ve also ripped three of the remaining twelve Home Improvement DVDs. Gotta get those things done before their owner is ready to take them back home, which will happen in just a few days.

We have a new Loyal Reader! Welcome to Tom, our good friend and Loyal Reader Number Twenty-Four’s dad. Your new identity is Loyal Reader Number Twenty-Six. Check out your very own name over there on the right on the actual Internet! Wow.

And check out the web page LRN26 pointed to in yesterday’s comment. We have one of their switches controlling our outside lights – it’s a programmable timer that turns off a predetermined time after you turn it on (you can also turn it off whenever you choose, of course). It’s high-quality, easy to install and program, and perfect for our outdoor lighting. Highly recommended. Loyal Reader Number Four has some indoor applications in mind and I didn’t know about the indoor switches shown on LRN26’s Friends and Family website. We’re going to have to order a few of them. Thanks for letting my Loyal Readers in on the great deal, LRN26! Very cool products.

I have a couple of ideas for games to write for Android. Remember the card games called War and Crazy Eights? Neither one seems too difficult to write, and the great thing about War is that the computer could play it entirely by itself. Thus saving a lot of time. Loyal Reader Number One is busily working on an SMS application, which is a bit more practical but not much more fun, if you ask me. I think he’ll have something running long before I do. But maybe not.

No more tonight. Lots going on tomorrow. See you then.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Twelve in Loyal Pet Number One’s bed. She really takes over. Drives the dog nuts. Photo courtesy of the exclusive RAZR-cam.

Greetings from home! I felt like taking the sports car this morning and the train tomorrow, so that’s what I did. There was no rain after all on either leg of the voyage, so it went quickly. I’m off the train again tomorrow too – need to take Fluffy’s old home to work so somebody can take a look with the idea of buying it. The Fluffinator has grown so much she needed a new home, which she received as an early Christmas present. Hence, the old one has to go.

I got home a full two hours tonight before my Wednesday evening meeting starts. Plenty of time for a leisurely dinner and a little blogging. The boys are out caroling as this month’s YM/YW combined activity. Sounds like fun. They’re finishing up at the amazingly-decorated house in town. Loyal Reader Number One and I went to look at it on Sunday evening while the boys were at Loyal Reader Number Twenty-Four’s birthday get-together. It’s pretty cool. LRN4 told me the backstory of the house is that the guy’s wife was criticizing him for being something of a grinch, so he decided to reform in a big way. Mission accomplished.

Plans are firming up for the holiday break. Here’s a brief list:

– Finish the mousebot.

– Finish the Android tutorials and maybe try to make something interesting.

– Install the garage door insulation purchased today by LRN4.

– Do all the things on the Christmas calendar (museums, film festivals, cookie baking, etc.).

– Maybe help Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and Twelve move (the place by the cemetery isn’t working out for them).

– Replace the Miata’s headrest speakers.

– Do some reading.

– Finish ripping all the Home Improvement DVDs for my iPod.

– Maybe make something fun with the Arduino (mousebot v.2?).

– Play with my toys!

Only one more work day left!

As you can see, I’m out of material tonight. See you tomorrow.