Springtown Ward Christmas Programby Angie
16 Dec 2007
8:12 pm0
Today at church, we participated in the ward Christmas Program for Sacrament Meeting. There was a violin solo, a guitar solo, and a trio of sisters who sang, “Born to Wear a Crown.” Jim and I were both in the choir, which sang three hymns, and we also sang a duet: “No Room for the King.” We were both pretty nervous – I got the hiccups shortly before Sacrament Meeting started, and I was terrified that they would come back while we were up on the stand! Luckily, no such disaster occurred. Everything went great. After the meeting several people complimented us, and they were all amazed and impressed that my mom had written the song. Our Relief Society president enjoyed telling everyone that, because she had been sitting in the choir behind us, she could see that we were holding hands while we sang, and she thought that was the cutest thing ever. 🙂
This afternoon, Jim had to go to a presidency meeting for the Teachers Quorum, which overlapped a little with ward choir practice. I walked there on my own (our choir director, Brother Senecal, lives right around the corner from us), and we were about fifteen minutes into our practice when Jim arrived and joined the basses. They were very relieved that he “finally” showed up, since none of them are confident reading music, and Brother Senecal announced to Jim that, “It’s people like you that make ward choirs a success!” I love seeing Jim flattered and embarrassed and pleased all at the same time.
Happy Birthday to Meby Angie
15 Dec 2007
5:12 pm1
Today is my birthday! I got to enjoy breakfast in bed and a relaxing morning with Jim, and then we went to the Oakland Temple together this afternoon. This evening, we went to Strizzi’s – a fabulous Italian restaurant in downtown Livermore. Parking downtown is pretty tricky on a Saturday evening, so we had to walk a little ways. As we approached the intersection near Strizzi’s, we heard the unmistakable sounds of a motorcycle behind us. The rider pulled up to the stop light and we realized that it was Santa! From head to toe, he was decked out as the jolly old elf, complete with christmas lights on his motorcycle. He was waving and “Ho, Ho, Ho”-ing, even after he turned the corner and drove out of sight. I’m so sorry I didn’t get a picture of it – I tried, but I wasn’t quick enough. It was a very entertaining part of a very lovely birthday.
Last night was our Stake Choir Concert on Temple Hill! It was a great success and we’ve both really enjoyed the wonderful people we’ve met and worked with in the choirs over the last couple of months. We performed our whole program twice, and the second time it was video recorded. We kind of wished that it had been the first performance that they recorded, but they were both great, really. We’ve made a lot of new friends through the choir, and it’s been very fun to rehearse and perform.
Vroom…squeak!by Angie
12 Dec 2007
11:12 pm2
Cars can be so exasperating. We think our brakes need replacing pretty soon here and are trying to decide when and how to make it happen. Jim and his friend Justin were looking them over this evening and it looks like they’ve got another couple of months on them. With Justin’s help, Jim is thinking of replacing the brakes as a DIY project (it would save us hundreds of dollars – literally) …but just contemplating such a task made us both even more aware of how little we know about cars.
Justin has done home repairs before and worked on cars a lot with his dad when he was younger, but he doesn’t feel like an expert, either. He said it seems like those who know tons about cars remind him of a club – if you’re not “in the know” early on, it’s really hard to be initiated later in life. Where does a car-dumb grown-up with no mechanical savvy or spare car to take apart find herself some effective tools for figuring out how cars work, anyway?
The end.
A Close Callby Jim
11 Dec 2007
12:12 am0
Well, after having so many issues with my server in Utah the last couple days, I decided to move the Wishlist to my own server here in Cali. Less than 5 minutes after I got it up here, I tried to get back on my server in Orem, and my connection was dead. Fortunately, the transition went smoothly and only took a few minutes. (Otherwise I would have had to wake up Jon at 1 AM to go kick my server and reboot it.) Anyway, now that it is on my (apparently more reliable) server here at home, there shouldn’t be any more hitches. Have fun Wishlisting!
Wishlist Has Movedby Jim
9 Dec 2007
1:12 pm0
Well, the time has come sooner than I anticipated. For some reason, the account I had at DynDNS.org has mysteriously disappeared. This means that wishlist.ath.cx no longer exists. I am currently trying to get support from DynDNS.org to solve this problem, but in the meantime, I know you all can’t wait for this to be solved. Therefore, I’d like to announce the new location for wishlist. You can find the website at the all-new easier-to-remember (but more-to-type) address of http://wishlist.angieandjim.com/
Well, there you have it. I was going to give wishlist a new home when I upgraded it next year, but I didn’t really have a choice. While I was at it, I changed the colors a bit too. Let me know what you think. Sorry about the downtime. Enjoy!
The Coolest Wishlist Updatesby Jim
8 Dec 2007
12:12 pm0
Okay, I just finished two more update for Wishlist that I think are very cool. Now you can share reservations with other people and you can see all the activity that has happened since you last logged in. If people are currently doing stuff, just push refresh on the home page to watch the events keep piling up.
Have fun!
Another Wishlist Updateby Jim
7 Dec 2007
4:12 pm0
I’ve added a new update to Wishlist. Now you can add a dependent list to your account to allow you to make lists for children or others who don’t (and won’t) have an account. Check it out at http://wishlist.ath.cx/.
Working on my code made me realize just how old and poorly written it is. I don’t know how many more hacks like this it can take. I’ve been toying with the idea of starting over from scratch, but I didn’t have the time for it this year. I plan on taking this on next year, so by next Christmas, we’ll have a really nice shiny new website.