Lone Man #14

Work
Home
Busy...getting ready for Jill and CJ to come home!

Still haven't found Note #13

But I did find this shortly after Jill left, while I was cleaning up some things around the house:

That's why we need a cross-cut shredder ;-)

Lone Man #13

• Woke up to no power; thx #Irene
  
• Checked in with home teaching families and friends in the area
  
• Read; reviewed my lesson by sunlight =)
  
• Got ready for the day, grabbed a key for Plan B, went to choir practice
  
• Church
  
• Taught EQ
  
• Home, power back on, quick snack
  
• Home Teaching visit
  
• Run home, grab some green beans, head to dinner
  
• Dinner with Clint and Paul
  
• Sunday Phone Calls: Skype with Jill and CJ, talk to Dad, talk to Mom
  
• Blog
  
• Bed
  

Lone Man #12

• Started running errands at 7am
  
• Vacuumed a room or two
  
• Picked up a box from the Post Office
  
• Tested flashlights, in case Irene knocks out the power
  
• Boiled a big box of pasta to have handy
  
• Started charging extra batteries
  
• Did laundry
  
• Did dishes
  
• Watched Sherlock Holmes while folding laundry
  
• Talked to Jill
  
• Updated CJ's blog
  
• More house chores
  
• Got a phone call, asking me to teach the EQ lesson tomorrow
  
• Scriptures
  
• Start lesson Prep
  
• Lone Men Night Out in the Storm: Dinner with Clint, "where it all began"
  
• Safely home, talk to Jill, continue lesson prep
  
• Print off lesson stuff, get ready for bed
  

Lone Man #11

Work
Temple
Weather upgraded to Tropical Storm Warning
Home
Talk to Jill
Read
Bed

some insight scoop into the damage at the DC temple

Subject: Some additional information about the earthquake damage to the Washington DC Temple

Date Published: August 26, 2011
Date of Information: August 23, 2011
Source: Individual with access to the information, as reported by a second individual who had direct access by virtue of his position

Summary: The earthquake gave the DC Temple a good shake. Damage inside was minimal, but external damage was significant and required repairs - some of which have occurred. Structural engineers have been consulted and the temple is operating normally.

Source states that second individual had just entered an office on the 3rd floor of the temple when the earthquake struck. The rocking motions were strong and he braced himself in the doorway; he observed pictures moving on the walls and chandeliers swinging about a foot off center, each way.

The temple did a check of the patrons in the various rooms to see if there were any injuries and to inspect for damage. Inside, a few ceiling tiles had popped out of the guides in a few areas and several plastic caps that cover the fire extinguisher/sprinkler heads had fallen off. Pictures were crooked on walls and items slid around on tables. But as of August 26, no other significant damage has been observed within the building.

An inspection of the exterior of the temple determined that 4 of the 6 metal spires had broken off, about 8 feet from the top for the various broken spires. The pieces split into two as they came down, resulting in sections about 4 feet long. Two segments punctured the roof: a section over the bridge/walkway and a section of the main roof. These were repaired within the next day or two - in anticipation of the possible tropical storm.

Other pieces fell (or were flung) to the sides of the building.

• One piece of the spire fell next to the baptistery entrance and hit with such force that it make a good sized hole in the concrete and actually curled the tip of the metal spire in such a way as to resembled something between a shepherd's crook and the wicked witch of the east's toes as the curled up when Dorothy removed the slippers.
  
• One section struck the temple van, which is in the repair shop because the engine wouldn't turn over.

About 15 minutes after the earthquake, a sealing was performed.

The temple has been operating normally, but will close early on August 27 in anticipation of the severe weather system moving towards the area.

Lone Man #10

Learning and Meeting @ GU NSO
Why are Georgetown's colors blue and gray?

and a Tropical Storm Watch for the area

Lone Man #9

Found in the bottom of my stuff-to-be-dry-cleaned-hamper:

Things Jill loves about Jeremy: He loves me! (9/15)

Missing: 13

Lone Man #8

Some of my day:

• Got up, went to work, forgot to drop off the dry cleaning
  
• Talked to my brother-in-law who just returned from his mission
  
• Was fairly productive at work, until a little earthquake had us all out on the lawn. I helped give the scoop to my office mates as I searched twitter and local news on my phone.
  
• Building manager closed the office, so we filed back to the garage and headed home.
  
• TMo service didn't work, so connected via WiFi on the Bb and could send/receive calls again
  
• Checked in on home teaching families
  
• Took out the trash
  
• Dinner
  
• Scriptures and read the new Ensign
  
• Organized some work files
  
• Did an online writing assessment
  
• Read about "the 'quake"
  
• Talked to Jill
  
• Blogged and went to bed
  

Some pics:

Hook'n'Ladder made it around our dinky roundabout.

It made it through.

Good thing there weren't cars on the road...

Some Europeans with a news organization wandered over and started talking to some folks; we turned our faces and walked away...

Minor injury being treated

Another fire truck that drove past our buildings

Lone Man #7

Schedule

• Up and out the door for work
  
• Grabbed some eggs and cheese on the way home; forgot that I wanted some bread, too. Oops. Distracted by the new brand of queso on sale; bad call - not that great.
  
• Made dinner and watched Behind Taliban Lines (Frontline)
  
• Remote technical support for the family... (gotta love TeamViewer)
  
• Packed a lunch and cleaned up from dinner
  
• Scriptures, and caught up on some of the Sunday School lessons I hadn't read yet
  
• Tried some online personality assessments
  
• Updated CJ's blog
  
• Debated between book and random movie from netflix queue, grabbed both. Made a list of other things to read from the sources cited in the book.
  
• Talked to Jill and went to bed
  

Found the following note: Hidden inside the little container that holds the fingernail clippers:

Things Jill loves about Jeremy: I can always proudly say he's my husband. People think better of me when they hear that. (6/15)

Missing: 9, 13

Lone Man #6

Had a good, quiet, albeit lonely, day.

• Got up, ate, got ready
  
• Home taught a great little family
  
• Went to choir practice
  
• Went to church
  
• Came home, changed, and made a late lunch/early dinner
  
• Wrote a few missionaries
  
• Wrote some thank you notes
  
• Caught up on SeenOnTheRoad and blogged a little
  
• Plan my week
  
• Made lunch
  
• Talked to Jill for a little bit
  
• Scriptures
  
• Phone calls
  
• Get ready for bed
  

No new notes today...

Lone Man #5

How I kept myself busy today:

• Got up, read scriptures, got ready for the day.
  
• Went to the Post Office. Got Gas.
  
• Did a week's worth of dishes I've been putting off.
  
• Chop carrots for lunches and salads. Make lemonade.
  

  Aside: These small Kool-Aid packets were on sale, so we tried them. It feels wrong to need to pour 1 cup of sugar (or splenda) into a 2 quart "soft drink"....anyway

• Late breakfast of leftover blueberry pancakes.
  
• Hang up my suit coats I've left on the couch.
  
• Tried to renew vehicle registration online; realized I needed to get emissions.
  
• Read a few pages of Preventing Surprise Attacks while waiting for emissions test.
  
• Came home and renewed registration.
  
• Work on pre-registration stuff and pre-assessments (for school and stuff).
  
• Ate leftover breadsticks and tried canned Maryland crab soup for lunch (wasn't that great)
  
• Take out the trash.
  
• Go to the library and pick up a book for Jill.
  
• Unloaded the dishwasher
  
• Dealing with Twitter (Un)Support on a hacked account issue for one of my handles. It's incredibly hard to (1) get answers and (2) manage your personal data (ie, tweets) -- pondering closing them all down in a fit of frustration over data control / data liberation.
  
• Received 4 emails from the property management company for our apartment complex regarding service requests. Only problem: they weren't from me, and they were from 4 different complexes. Responded to each of them notifying their service center of the problem.
  
• Cooked dinner and cleaned up.
  
• GVidChat with Jill and CJ !
  
• Course planning and other prep
  
• Traveling salesman made the house smell like bad men's cologne; only had the door open for 15 seconds and had to run the a/c for about 20 to get rid of the headache. Good luck, guy...
  
• Read CJ her bedtime story
  
• Finalized course planning for the whole grad program. (Until I meet with my yet-to-be determined academic adviser, that is...)
  
• Spoke with Jill one more time
  

Didn't mean to have so many driving excursions, but hadn't planned on needing emissions (the e-mail renewal notification didn't tell me I needed emissions, so I only found out once I Notes found today -- (mushy/almost-TMI warning ;-) ) Pantry:

Things we love about Daddy: He is so smart! He thinks things through and knows how to make good decisions. (12/15)

Back of Preventing Surprise Attacks:

Things Jill loves about Jeremy: His hairy chest! =) (2/15)

In the freezer between some meals Jill left for me:

Things we love about Daddy: He gives the best hugs and snuggles. (10/15)

Need to find: 6, 9, 13

Lone Man #4

More notes I found around the house:

On the "homey" saying hanging by the front door (apparently I never look up when I walk in the door...):

Things We love about Daddy: He makes us miss home. (1/15)

On our multi-frame with wedding pics and baby pics:

Things we love about Daddy: He lvoes Mommy and everybody knows it. (5/15)

In my collar stays carrying case:

Things Jill loves about Jeremy: He makes me feel beautiful, amazing, and smart. (14/15)

Need to find: 2, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13

Lone Man #3

Some more notes hidden around the house:

Found in the medicine cabinet:

Things CJ loves about Daddy: He loves Me! (7/15)

Found in Good Night Moon

Things CJ loves about Daddy: He reads me bedtime stories and lets me sit on his lap. (8/15)

Found tucked in between the plates in the cupboard:

Things Jill loves about Jeremy: He loves to do dishes (or at least he loves a clean kitchen!). (3/15)

Lone Man #2

[update] this day should be #1 (8/16) - I just happened to write it later. I wasn't planning on counting the number of Lone Man days -- it started as just post #1, post #2 -- so I won't bother to fix it. I did add some photos below, though.

Went to the U.S. Marine Corps Sunset Parade on the grounds in front of the Marine Corps War Memorial with Chance & Jenny and Jaron and Tana.

The Commandant's Own and the Silent Drill Platoon put on incredible performances.

Very moving to hear the 21 gun salute followed by taps played by a lone bugler standing atop the massive base to the Memorial; it still gives me chills.

I tried to snap some photos with my Bb and snag a few seconds of video. Of course, Chance took lots of photos. Here's one he posted to his photo blog:

(click through for a larger size)

Been a busy day and a half, even being a lone man. If I have a moment I'll update with some of my shots.

Lone Man #1

Jill & CJ are out having fun with family out west. But they've hidden some notes around the house to remind me Things CJ/We love about Daddy.

Since they've left, I've found this note in the oatmeal container:

Things we love about Daddy: He knows hot to keep a secret - you can trust him with your secrets. (11/15)

I find this in my netbook:

Things CJ loves about Daddy: He lets me play with his keyboard - what a good sharer! (15/15)

And this in my suit coat:

Things CJ loves about Daddy: He calls me Goober! And it makes him smile. (4/15)

I'll have to keep my eye out for other notes! Love you both!

Yum!

Our food.

Baby's food.

Everyone cleared their plates. =)