morrowlife

Here’s an old bear trap. I wouldn’t want to be the one to have to drag this thing out to the woods and release the bear.

Rough drive this morning. In fact, I never completed it. It turns out there were a couple of problems. First, there was a two-semi accident in the middle of Livermore. That had things snarled up pretty badly. Then a pickup overturned a couple of times in Dublin, spilling several bottles of chlorine on the road and breaking them, which caused chlorine gas to waft gently over the freeway. They closed the 580/680 interchange down for about four hours. I waited in the traffic jam for a little more than two hours and finally decided to give it up for the day. Had a nice day at home, although I spent most of it working anyway.

It was meeting night tonight. I have a Sunday baptism to prepare for, so we discussed the plans just a little bit. I have lots of work to do for that one – the full-time missionaries were going to propose an agenda for the meeting, which they decided not to do. So I will. Sigh.

Loyal Readers Numbers One and Two got the best scores on English and Math, respectively, out of their entire school on some test they took last spring. Today they both received little SanDisk MP3 players as a reward. How nice of them to do that. They both have iPods already, but these little things are really cool and will definitely have a use. They come with an easy-to-see screen, a built-in microphone, and an FM tuner and you put music on them just by dragging and dropping from your computer. And they retail for only $40. I haven’t played with one yet, but I’m tentatively recommending them. I’ll give a full report when I can get one of the Loyal Readers to let me play with his for a little while.

I spent a couple of minutes trying to add a slightly better CSS interface to Waterlogged. I was trying to copy something from the book I’m reading, and it wasn’t a perfect fit. I couldn’t get it to do anything, though. Maybe I need to restart the Mongrel servers after updating the code. I thought you didn’t have to do that with Rails, but I could be wrong, given our setup. I’ll have to give it a try one day Real Soon Now.

Time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Here are Loyal Readers Numbers One, Two, and Four enjoying their books in our campsite at Clark’s Fork.

It’s earlier than my usual blogging hour tonight. Got home at about 7:00, worked on the water softener (it won’t soften water, which is it primary – indeed, only – function), ate, and sat down to blog. The water softener did some more damage to my already-sore hands. Pity me, Loyal Readers. Hopefully, my sacrifice won’t be in vain and we’ll start getting some soft water now.

We won’t be buying any more GE appliances, that’s for sure. So far, we’ve needed repairs on our brand-new GE refrigerator (twice), dishwasher (twice and it needs it again), stove, microwave, and water softener (I’ve worked on it myself twice now). I guess the oven is okay. Never again.

It was the perfect afternoon/evening for open-air motoring on the way home today. And I mean perfect. It was clear, completely comfortable, and delightful. I pity all people with roofs on their cars. And I especially pity people with soft tops who didn’t have them down tonight. Fall is absolutely the best time for convertibling.

The new charger for my RAZR arrived today. It works fine, so I’m completely happy with the phone now. I’m not completely happy with WalMart, though. Their advertising said nothing about the pathetic, unusable charger that came with the phone. It was reasonable to expect a working, US charger, and they didn’t provide it. That’s just one more reason why I hate doing business with those people.

But I love my phone.

Time to move on to other things. See you tomorrow.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Twelve helping load the dishwasher – possibly her very favorite activity. Exclusive low-quality RAZR-cam photo courtesy of me.

No time to write about much – Home Evening went a little late, since our activity was in the spa. It sure was nice, though.

Fine weekend. I got a little bit of work done on a few cars – not much more than checking oil and air filters, but at least it was something. Loyal Reader Number Four and I also got the pool and pond filters cleaned. I sliced my finger pretty badly on the pool filter; fortunately, it’s healing quickly. I had been hoping to change the Sable’s brakes again to try to stop them from squealing, which they’ve done ever since I put Napa’s finest brake pads on. I’m going to switch to ceramic pads and see if they help. Anyway, I decided to put it off for another week due to the injured finger.

More news later. See you tomorrow.

Here’s one more shot of the Loyal Readers hanging around in the river at Clark’s Fork. You can see a little bit of waterfall in this one.

Well, the RAZR works in the real world, so I’m happy. I spent some time with my handy copy of Motorola Phone Tools this evening, creating and uploading several ringtones. I probably won’t use any of them much, with the possible exception of the Chipmunk Christmas song. That’ll be on there in December. My new charger shipped today. I’ve also discovered that the phone charges when it’s plugged into a computer’s USB port. Options!

It was a cloudy, cool day today. I took the Miata to work anyway, expecting the cool morning to turn into a warm, sunny afternoon. Alas, it was not to be. The drives were both comfortable anyway, with the heater on in both directions. Blow a little warm air in the face and the crisp autumn air feels pretty good. I definitely like open-air motoring best in the fall.

Loyal Reader Number Five decided today not to take the job at the accounting firm. She was supposed to start on Monday. They like her so much at the university where she’s temping that she’s decided to stay, on the theory that they’ll hire her permanently Real Soon Now. I think she made the right decision and just hope the permanent job works out. The money’s better and the benefits will be better when she hires in. Plus, they love her there.

I used the Bluetooth headset in the real world a couple of times today, and it’s even better than I expected. My cheapskate unit works just great. Its only weakness is that its LED is green and red, rather than the immensely popular blue. For the price I paid, I can live with that. And now I too can walk around looking like a lunatic talking to myself. No change at all!

Loyal Readers Numbers One and Two have gone on a scout overnighter and waterskiing trip. It’s not going to be as warm tomorrow as they previously predicted (current forecast: 78 and sunny), so I hope they don’t freeze in the water. If they do, it’s been nice knowing them both.

See you on Monday.

Here are Loyal Readers Numbers One, Two, and Four being hugged by a tree. Way to turn the tables on nature (link warning: 70’s commercial sound and video), Loyal Readers.

The RAZR’s here! I’m both delighted and disgusted with it. First, the disgusted part. Upon opening the box, I discovered it’s a grey market phone from Singapore. That’s really no problem, though, since at least they speak English there. It’s localized with UK English, but that’s okay too – only a couple of words are different and it’s kind of cute that way. However, the charger is quite another matter altogether! It’s a European charger with an incredibly chintzy (pre-broken!) US adapter that pushes the charger about two inches out from the wall, where it sags and nearly falls out of the socket. Not acceptable. Before just returning the phone, I decided to look online for the proper charger. They had them at Amazon for $1.39 (plus $5.95 shipping!), so I ordered one and decided to be happy. It should get here sometime next week, and I’ve super-glued the stupid adapter for now. If I ever start traveling back to Europe again, I’ll be prepared.

On the good side, the phone is really cool. It looks great, it works right, the camera works, and I already have it nearly set up. I’m still reading the manual, so I don’t quite know everything it will do. Don’t worry, Loyal Readers, I’ll know by tomorrow.

I got a nice leather holster-type case and the cheapest Bluetooth headset I could find with it. The headset works perfectly and the holster is great too. I discovered the phone can transmit pictures and videos to Bluetooth-enabled computers, so I’m going to have to try plugging my $5 Bluetooth USB connection into the Mac – if I can find it. Wait a minute; I’ll check.

– Time passes –

I’m back. I found it and plugged it in. Not only can I transfer photos to Curly, but it also synced my address books and calendars. I can also browse the phone from the computer and transfer files back and forth. Cool. Very cool. I’m kind of sorry I opted not to spend the extra few dollars having Bluetooth installed in Curly at the factory. I just never thought I’d want it.

Now that I have the hip, with-it phone from 2005, I’ll finally start getting the respect I deserve.

I stayed up way too late last night – was still trying to get the stupid Ruby on Rails application working right. It’s almost right, but I can’t get it all the way there. Sometime over the weekend, I’m going to delete everything I’ve done so far and start over. It’s my only hope.

Speaking of the business, Loyal Reader Number Five came up with an interesting product idea this morning. I need to spend some more time talking to her about it and also read the comments the other partners tell me they’ve left. They’re on my work email, so I won’t see them until tomorrow. I think she may have something good there. I’ll tell you about it later.

In the meantime, I need to get some rest. See you tomorrow.