We were in Utah for our mission reunion, and figured we might as well visit our kids. But first, we had to stop in to see the vons.
We seem to have a growing number of friends in Utah, so in addition to our kids we have to decide who to drop in on. It’s a good problem to have.
Now that Kyra and Hannah have moved into the Villa with Zack, it’s easy to see all of them. Pepper and the girls had a fun day together…
… while the boys and I tested our new board game, Harbormaster.
It turned out to be pretty good! Of course it’s always better to play with nice printed cards and “real” pieces– it sure beats index cards and spare parts. We all agreed there were some things that needed to be adjusted, and came up with some new rules.
We also played a few hands of Ofrendas, which Ollie seemed to enjoy. Alex crushed us at least twice (notice all the cards he’s played).
We’ve only been home from our mission for a few months, but it’s already time for a reunion! Our mission leaders, the Merritts, finished their three-year service in June, and it’s traditional for mission leaders to host a reunion in October. We were excited to see our friends from San Diego again.
There were at least two hundred ex-missionaries there. It was awesome to see so many of them. Here’s a group photo:
In addition to the young ones, there were plenty of senior missionaries in attendance as well. Although the Merritts had planned a number of activities for the group, it didn’t surprise me at all to see that everyone just wanted to hang out and catch up.
Almost all of the original Valley Gang have finished their missions. We met up with the Calexico District, who we spent a lot of time with last July. They’re still just as awesome, although now they’re all in college!
Yeah, it felt a little odd to have a reunion so soon after ending our mission, but it was a blast. We’re excited for another one in the coming years…
Almost exactly two years ago, I closed down Zing’s office and collected a bunch of computer hardware that the team didn’t need any more. Among it was a stack of eight LCD monitors. Although they’re all at least thirteen years old, they work fine… they just aren’t terribly useful. Always loathe to throw away working gear, I’ve been thinking about what to do with them. Finally I decided to build a giant digital photo frame.
Pepper has a nice little 5×7″ one on her desk, and it’s fun to see pictures of family and friends. But how hard could it be to build a bigger version of that?
I went to work.
I bought a shadow box– basically a large, thick wooden frame. I had a custom photo mat cut to fit the shadow box and frame the monitor. Then I disassembled the monitor, leaving nothing but the LCD panel and some circuit boards. A spare Raspberry Pi from a closet completed the technical setup: it has HDMI output so I could just plug it into the monitor, bury everything in the shadow box, and run a cord to an outlet.
It turned out to be a little more complicated than that, but not much. I wired everything together, mounted the frame on the wall, and tested it with a nice landscape photo:
Of course one of the fun things about a digital photo frame is adding photos to it! I wrote some software (cleverly called “Framey”) that’ll check an email box for photos, download them, and add them to the random mix being displayed. My kids started emailing old photos. Thom and Katie sent some. The collection keeps growing, and it’s a ton of fun to see all these photos cycling through, with an occasional one that makes us exclaim, “Where did that come from?”
Alongside our driveway, we have a little tree nursery: a dozen tiny fir saplings.
We see saplings all over, but not usually in a group like this. I imagine not all of them will survive the winter, but in a few years I hope we’ll have some nice young vibrant trees here. And soon, a forest!
A few months ago my friend Kyle brought his massive version of Terraforming Mars to our weekly game night. It’s one of my favorite games, and I’ve owned a “standard” copy for years.
Kyle unexpectedly passed away a few weeks ago, and his wife has been selling his board games. She doesn’t play, and he owned hundreds of them– often high-end collectors’ editions. His Terraforming Mars game is the “complete” version: it has all the expansions, 3D-printed pieces, sleeved cards, and so on. His wife knew I love the game, so she contacted me to ask if I’d like it. She quoted a price that was a fraction of what it was worth, and I agreed. (Don’t worry, I paid her a much more reasonable price; I’m not going to swindle a widow.)
I picked it up today and pulled out all the pieces. Wow.
I love it. And every time I pull it out for a game night, I’ll think of Kyle. Rest in peace, my friend.
We’ve lived here for six years, and for all that time we’ve had a really nice shed halfway down our driveway. That’s about a quarter-mile from where we need it, so it’s always just sat empty. I have no idea why the former owners placed a shed there– perhaps they thought it would be useful to store a bunch of tools for the cherry orchard? In any case, we’ve been talking for months about how to move it up near the house.
The problem: it’s 20×10 feet and weighs several tons. Moving it a quarter mile uphill, navigating three sharp switchbacks, and placing it up by the house isn’t trivial. I talked to three friends who are in the construction business, and all three had different ideas. Then I talked to four contractors, explaining the situation and asking for their ideas. One grizzled old guy shrugged it off, saying it would be no problem to just pop the shed onto his gooseneck trailer and bring it up (he hadn’t seen the shed or our driveway, and his tone made it clear he wasn’t really interested). Another scratched his head because he couldn’t figure out how to fit it on a trailer that wouldn’t be too long for the switchbacks. A crane company said they could do it by hoisting the shed on and off a trailer– but destroying our driveway in the process because the crane weighs 40 tons. Finally, a couple of yahoos I was introduced to by a friend said they could attach wheels to it and tow it up the driveway with a skid steer.
After thinking about it for a while, we decided to give the yahoos a shot at it. Today was the day.
They showed up with their skid steer, a pile of lumber, and a couple of big wheels.
After jacking up the back of the shed, they attached the lumber and wheels. Then they looped a huge strap around the entire shed and lifted it. Ready to roll!
It took them over three hours to maneuver the shed up the driveway. Not surprisingly, the switchbacks were the worst, requiring constant twists and turns and adjustments.
Finally they were through the switchbacks and on the straightaway past the house!
They maneuvered it into position on the leveled gravel I’d laid about two months ago.
And almost five hours after starting, the shed had a new spot!
Now it’s only a hundred feet from the house, making it much more convenient for storing our lawnmower, wheelbarrow, piles of tools, and so on. Yay!
As I was thinking about designing a new board game, I decided it would be interesting to create a game for kids. Specifically my grandson Ollie. He’s four now, so he’s not going to be thrilled about whatever resource-management game I devise, but he’ll probably like a fun card game.
I did a bit of design work, sent the files to my favorite card-printing company, and today my new deck arrived.
This is Ofrendas, based on the Mexican traditions of Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. It’s actually a beautiful celebration of family, remembering those who have passed on. I created cards with cartoon grandparents, aunts, and uncles.
The game is basically Go Fish, but the objective is to collect matching ancestors to complete your ofrenda, the display where family photos are placed along with candles, candy skulls, and favorite foods. I threw in a few primo locos (crazy cousins) to spice up the game a bit.
I haven’t actually playtested it– I mean, it’s Go Fish— but I’m hoping Ollie enjoys it when we visit him in a few weeks…
It’s been a few months since we shopped for a new hot tub, and today was the delivery. A team of four guys manhandled the old tub off our pad and brought in the new one. They made short work of positioning it, connecting all the wiring, and testing the various buttons. Now it’s ready to go!
Of course it’ll take a solid day to bring it up to temperature, and it’s still pretty warm outside, so we might not actually use our latest addition for a while yet…
Every summer we zip across the lake on our jet skis to visit Wild Horse Island, the largest island on Flathead Lake and the home of four wild horses and a network of hiking trails. Today we decided to go to the highest point on the island, and set out on the trail. It wound through the trees and climbed up a long hill before going up a steep rocky incline to the summit. Pepper and Kyra decided they’d gained enough altitude, and stopped at a small outcropping.
Undeterred, I continued on. It was hard going because the grade was very steep, and there were a lot of loose rocks that slid underfoot. But I finally made it to the top and snapped a celebratory selfie.
The view from the peak is spectacular, encompassing much of the lake.
I made my way (carefully) back down to the ladies and we hiked back to our jet skis. It was a beautiful day to be out, and definitely a spot I plan to return to in the future.
