Todd's Tatler

So I'm in an operating systems class. Its a good class. I enjoy going and learning. We have a lot of labs and two "big" projects. One is to build our own OS. No not write one ourselves, but get the source code and put together an OS with all the features that we want and then compile it. The other big project is to write an application for a mobile platform like the iphone or Windows Mobile or Google's Android. To get a C we can do a simple "Hello World" app which is really easy to do, hence the C. To get an A we can come up with something of our own and write the application. I decided to do a memory game for the Windows Mobile platform and I'm almost done. Everything works except for keeping score. At the moment you can only play a 4 by 4 square. I think that I might add an option for other sizes too, but probably after I turn the project in. The hardest part about writing it was learning the syntax to do it. C# is a weird language, but when you learn the syntax its pretty easy to do things. The other problem that I havent solved yet is actually porting the app to a phone. Right now it just runs in the emulator. Im anxious to see how it does on a real phone.

A couple of friends in the lab and my self are going to write an application for the iphone. The idea is to make some money. We just need to come up with a good idea for an application. It can be anything. One of the top ten apps for the iphone is called iFart, which plays different flatulant sounds. Thats it. And the creator has made close to a million. So if anyone has any good ideas send them my way and who knows, it might turn out to be a best seller.

Last week we moved. It was a great way to bring in the new year. I guess we really took the whole change thing to heart. New years day we got up early and started the move. Smart us we never went and got boxes so we used the ones we had on hand from different appliances. Amanda packed them up and I moved them out. I think I made three or four trips on my own and Amanda came on two or three more. By the end of the day we had successfully moved most of our apartment. Man was I sore. I dont know what was heavier, the boxes of books or the clothes that we left on the hangars to put right back in the closet. Maybe the clothes since they had my suits and stuff too. Since I'm a big guy I need a lot of cloth to cover me.

The second we once again got up early and made another trip moving. We had some guys from the Spanish ward come with a truck to help us move the big stuff. Amanda stayed in the old apartment and started cleaning. Within an hour or so we had all our furniture moved over. It was me and a 17 year old kid that did all the heavy lifting. The couch was the worst. I dont remember it being so hard to get up in that apartment. After we got the furniture moved I went back and started cleaning with Amanda. We got done that night around six or so and got all checked out. We did have one last car load in the car with things like the vaccum and the microwave and Amanda's plant but I was done moving things from the car so I left them there. That proved to be a not so good idea, especially for the plant.

So the next day we realize that we need a few things that were in the car so we decide to unload it. The temperature the night before was pretty low so everything was still very cold. We bring everything in and get to work setting up house. A little later we see this:


Apparently the plant had frozen. When I brought it in from the car everything was still standing upright so I didnt think anything of it. There was no hope in saving the depressed leaves so they had to be cut and this was the result:


Poor plant. Amanda was going to re-pot it since it was getting so big, but it doesn't need it anymore. I got our entertainment center all put together. Some of the plastic corner braces were busted so I had to go out and get some metal ones to fix it. Now its even more sturdier than it was before. I did a good job if I do say so myself. The rest of the third consisted of getting things kind of put in the right place but not all the way moved in. Stay tuned for the next installment.

So were moving. We signed the contract and got the keys today. I just got off the phone with the gas and electric companies to have everything moved into our name. Tomorrow we will go to the post office and have everything forwarded to the new address. Its a bigger apartment than the one that we are moving out of so that will help with the family size increase coming our way in a few months. Since we have the scheduled check out of our current apartment on Saturday, we get to move in at our own pace which is nice. My only concern is that we wont have cable, which means that it might be difficult to finish watching all the college football bowls. Other than that however, the new place will be good for us.

OK so they don't really have much in common. First the leftovers. I love 'em. Especially when there are good homemade rolls and some good holiday ham or turkey. We had a pretty good ham yesterday for Christmas dinner and some fresh baked crescent rolls. So for lunch today I had leftovers. It was very tasty. One of my brothers has the leftover sandwich down to an art, and even gets started before leaving the kitchen table. Just warm some rolls up and pop in the meat.

Now tonight we went to a cousin reunion. I guess all of the aunts and uncles here had just about all their kids in town, so a reunion was planned. It was good to see people that I haven't seen in a long time and mostly don't remember. There was alot of people there and alot of little kids running around the place. They took pictures of all the families that were present so we got ours taken too. It was also good to get out of the house, although the ice on the car was about an inch thick.

Merry Christmas!
It's been snowing here for a week. So we have a white Christmas. This is my first white Christmas, and I think it's overrated. Amanda is aghast at that comment. Just because it's white outside doesn't change the holiday it just makes everything wet when you come back inside.

This is our street. There must be about 10 inches of snow.


This is our neighbor's house. I'm glad that our apartment complex doesn't have these big icicles.



We had a quiet Christmas here in our apartment. We slept in figuring that it will be the last Christmas that we will be able to do so. Amanda made a tasty breakfast and we have a good dinner planned for later tonight. We are currently watching the timeless classic "A Christmas Story". It wouldn't be the holiday season without watching it.

Fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra