Frantic Week

This week has been a little frantic. The proposal for our grant was due this Friday, and so we did everything we could to get it ready. We read it many, many times. We changed sentences, added new paragraphs, played with formatting, added images. It was also interesting to see all the other documents that we needed to supply with it. Still, it is done now, and I am glad for that. It turned out pretty good. Now to just hope that it will be accepted. We won't know for almost half a year... so, now to just wait.

Other than that nothing really special happened this week. I did get accepted for an internship with Google. I will be doing research on authentication. I will be working out of Mountain View. It should be really enjoyable. I am certainly looking forward to it!

Emily also got home this week. She is enjoying the wonders of American life again :) It has been good having her close. I still have to wait another two weeks before I go and see her, but I am glad that we don't have to talk to each other at inconvenient times of the day!

Anniversary

This Saturday was the one year anniversary of Emily and I beginning to date. It is too bad that we are so far apart. Still, we had fun. I sent her a fudge cake (something unheard of in China) with “Happy Anniversary” printed on it. Then Emily cut and ate it while we talked on Skype. Her roommates were there and took pictures of my and her together, and even some of me pretending to eat cake over Skype. It was really silly. Still, it was a lot of fun. It has been a good year together!

I also interviewed with Google this week. Last week I passed the technical interviews, and now they are trying to find a team that matches my interests for a summer internship. I talked to two different teams this week and things certainly seemed to go well. Hopefully I can get the one I want, but we will see :)

Other than that I have just been writing. We are currently preparing a NSF proposal. It would be so wonderful if we got it. It would help me fund all my work and equipment over the next 3 years. It would probably even allow me to get paid more than I do now. Besides, NSF grants look great on a curriculum vitae. So hope with me that I will get it. If not, it was still nice to really plan out and describe the work I am interested in doing. It will help me write my dissertation proposal next year.

And that is my life. Hope you enjoyed!

Funding Proposal

Well, not much has happened this week, so I thought I would just copy the post I wrote into another one of my blogs: So this last week I have been working on writing up a funding proposal for a NSF grant. It has been different. I have never needed to do something like this. It has been really hard, and at times I worry I could never do well enough. Still, I keep pushing through. If we got this grant it would pay for all of my schooling, computer equipment, and hopefully get me a larger salary. Right now I make just enough to get by on. It would be nice to make a little more, so that when the time comes I could support a wife, and that I could put a little into savings every month. And that is pretty much all that happened. Oh yeah, I also build a new file server this week. I am having some problems with its raid drivers, but other than that everything is good. It has 9TB of space, and so I plan to put backups of all my files, as well as all my DVDs and Blue-Ray discs on it. So, it was fun setting that up. I also transfered the hard drive from my old XBox to the new one I was given this summer. Now I can play around with the connect :)

Updates

So, I haven’t written in a while. That is because nothing very exciting has been happening in my life. Life goes on day by day, step by step.

Recently I have been working on getting a paper ready for publication. It is hard to guess how people will react to our paper. We are righting win the area of usable security. The problem we run into is that most security people refuse to think in terms of usability. They want perfectly secure systems, but the truth is that no one uses systems like that. None of us are perfect, and there will always be mistakes. We need to stop living in an imaginary world, and instead be practical. If there was only someway I could convince them of that.

The paper is going well though. I feel that it communicates our points well. I have also been working on my master’s thesis. It is really hard work. I am doing proofs of an authentication protocol. The hard thing with proofs are that they are hard to incrementally make progress. Until you can see how to proceed there is little you can do. I guess I will just keep shipping away at it.

Emily and I are also doing well. Over the last several weeks we have had a couple of date nights. A couple months back I sent her a package that had a bunch of videos. I also sent her stuff to do s’mores with. For our first movie night we watched Inception together. It was really fun. In the middle of the movie we stopped and made s’mores. It is great to be able to have dates even when we live so far apart.

We have also been watching Emma. It is always interesting to see how Victorian England lived life. I certainly enjoy the idiosyncrasies the characters have. It has been a lot of fun!

Still, it will be good to have her back in the USA. She has just one more month of her program left. It will still be a few more weeks after that until I see her, but it will be nice just knowing she is closer. It will also help us Skype a little easier. The internet in China is very flaky, and sometimes talking with each other is hard.

 

And that is how life has been. Overall, it is really good. I hope this update helps everyone keep up. I will try to write more. I will try and do interesting things so I have something to write about

Life as normal in Provo

Well, nothing much as been going on these last two weeks. It has just been work as always in Provo. It is nice to be back though, everything is familiar. That does come with the downside that it is far too easy to be lazy… not that I would ever do that …

Probably the only really special thing that has happened was visiting the FLSR (where I used to live) last Sunday. It was so wonderful to see many of my old friends. They all seemed to be doing great, and that made me really happy. It was also great to chill with Pasha a little bit.

Other than that though, nothing much happened. I did watch BYU lose twice, but I don’t really want to talk about that. I will try and do something cool this next week so I have something to report on!

Coming home and conference

I didn’t write last week since my journey home had only begun. A week ago was spent rushing to finish my project. We demoed it, and it went rather well. I then rushed to get packed up and ready to go, while also training the person that is taking over my project. It was a little crazy, but I got finished.

I then headed home. At first everything was good, but around Yakima my car started to act up. At about 2500 RPM it would feel like the engine was misfiring. Any faster or slower and it was fine. Strange. It wasn’t a big problem, and so I kept going.

Unfortunately, right in the mountains before La Grande, OR my engine really started struggling. I ended up having to pull over and stay in La Grande for the night. Luckily it let me have internet, and I was able to talk to Emily. She had been traveling, and so I hadn’t been able to talk to her for a little too long, so at least there was that.

On Saturday I got up and tried to find a shop to look at my car. Unfortunately, none of them had time. I checked my fluid levels, and topped them off. All my lights were off, so I tried going again, but when I got to the freeway I started having the same problems. In the end I turned around and spent the weekend in La Grande.

It wasn’t actually too bad. I really dislike just sitting in a room, but not much I could do. At least, like I mentioned, it meant me and Emily could talk. All the time I get to talk to her is precious since she is so far away. Church was also really good. The ward was very friendly and the lessons were good.

On Monday I finally managed to get my car fixed. It turned out to be a 14 dollar part, that cost 215 dollars in labor. Go car! Sometimes I feel like my car is going to be the death of my savings account. The rest of the drive to Weiser, ID was smooth. I was in Weiser to visit my grandma. It was good to spend sometime with here. I got to help her do some stuff in the yard. Overall, it was great to just spend some time with her.

On Tuesday morning I drove the rest of the way home. It all went pretty well. I even got to stop and see my dad on the way home. I was glad to spend time with him as well. I finished my trip in rush hour. When I got to Orem I made us some hamburgers. They were so yummy. I cooked the cheese in the middle of two patties that I had folded into one.

On Wednesday and Thursday I started repacking all of my stuff and getting back into work. It all went pretty well. I still have far too much stuff, but I am slowly paring it down and getting it organized.

Thursday night I went with Rob up to the cabin. I helped him with some repairs and cleanup over the weekend. I also did some work. It is really nice that there is Wi-Fi up at the cabin.

 

I also really enjoyed watching conference this weekend. I felt that I learned a lot. What stood out to me the most was the importance of standing for the Lord in all places and at all times. Too often I find myself a quite party to activities I should stand up against. I am certainly going to try to do better after this conference.

I also like the emphasis on families. I love how Elder Oaks was about as straightforward as can be. He made it very clear what was right and what wrong. I love it. If parents would turn away from their selfish desires, families across the world would be better for it!

I can’t wait until I have a chance to review conference again. It was truly a great session. I am glad that the Lord has given us prophets and apostles to lead us in our day and time.

Quick Update

Sorry I didn’t write last week. It is just that nothing too interesting has happened. I have had my nose to the grind stone working away. I have just three more days of work. I present Wednesday evening, and after that it is just getting ready to come home. It has been a good time at Microsoft, but I am also excited to be coming home. This place is just not the same without Emily.

It has been a depressing two weeks with problems with the BYU team. *Sigh* I really wish they would play a little better. Well, just our offence. I am actually rather pleased with our defense. They play extremely well! Go Cougs!

So that is an update from me. Hope everyone is having a more interesting time than me

Amsterdam and Back

Well, I survived my trip to Amsterdam! It actually went pretty well. I must say Europe was very different than I was expecting. Everyone seemed to smoke, which surprised me the most. Other than that it was an interesting mixture of new and old. It didn’t feel quite like a new city, but also not quite like an old city. A very interesting experience.

I didn’t do too much sight seeing, since I was there to present at the conference. The one place I did go was the Anne Frank house. It was really amazing. It was a lot bigger than I always imagined. What would have been really hard was the need to be unseen and unheard all the time. Never going outside would have been killer.

I really like the museum because its focus was on hope and changing the world for the better instead of just remembering tragedy. I feel that often when we remember the past we just try to feel bad about it. In contrast the Anne Frank house was all about telling the story of a girl that was able to accomplish her dreams even in great persecution. She hoped that she could publish her journal, and that its words could change lives, and they certainly have. Things were not easy, but she had a goal that she worked through in spit of any challenges she faces.

I also like the story of her father. Even though Otto ended up losing his family he never devolved into a stupor of hate. Instead he just wanted to help the world do better, and not fall again into such hatred. He truly is an amazing man, and one whom I look up to now. It was a really good experience.

On Tuesday I gave my presentation. It went well. The conference itself also went well. None of the rooms were air conditioned, and adding that to my jet lag, it was really hard to stay awake. Really hard! I managed only with the help of afternoon naps.

On Thursday I took off. My shuttle never came (the driver actually lied about trying to come), and so I had to taxi to the airport. The airport was also interesting. The security checkpoint was right at the gate, and I even saw guards walking around with SMGs. It was crazy! Very different. Anyways, here are some pictures from Amsterdam:

My hotel

 

Breakfast. That is a pancake with peaches, mandarin oranges, and vanilla ice cream.

 

They have very intricate balconies for an apartment.

 

American fast food is every where in the world!

 

Cigarettes were everywhere. Smoking seemed to be the national pastime. Young, old, male, female everyone was doing it!

 

The buildings were really cool. Their were also canals running through the city. They were really nice.

 

Even with the crazy security in the airport I was able to make it safely home. I didn’t experience too much jetlag on getting back either. I was very happy with that. The rest of the week nothing much happened. There was a great talk by Elder Holland for the CES broadcast on Sunday though. If you haven’t seen it (married people) you should certainly go and watch it (http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/watch/ces-devotionals/2012/09?lang=eng). It was just great!

On the Plane

I am actually writing this post from thousands of feet up in the air. I am lucky, and my plane has a power outlet, so I can use all the time sitting to take care of a bunch of writing tasks that I needed to accomplish. Go me!

 

This week has been the first full week with Emily being in China. She was actually in Guilin. That is probably the most beautiful part of China. When she talks about it to me it reminds me of all the good times I had there. She is really enjoying it.

On the home front I have continued to use MyFitnessPal to track my eating and my workout. It is going well. Some fun things did happen though. On Friday my 3 mile run turned into a five and half mile run when I got lost. That was made even worse by the fact that it was after dark and I didn’t know the area at all. It was a bit scary, but oh well.

Another fun story was on Thursday. I had started the day in church clothes since I was going to the temple. I also brought workout clothes to take the gym. When I get to the gym and change into them I realize that I didn’t bring my running shoes. Well, obviously running in my church shoes wasn’t going to happen, so what was a boy to do? Solution! I could ride an exercise bike without shoes! So I wore my shoes up to the bike, took them off, and biked. It actually worked out fine, but I sure did look funny

Other than that, nothing too crazy has happened. This morning I got on the plane to Amsterdam. I won’t have time to do much exploring of the city, but whatever I do get to do, I am sure that I will tell you all about it!

In the meantime I am on the plane and enjoying the entertainment. I have already watched Men In Black III, The Avengers, and now I am watching The Vow. It has been fun. I feel guilty watching this much TV, but I guess there isn’t much choice when you are stuck in a plane.

Terrible

I have decided, I am terrible at being consistent in my blog. I admit I have a good reason though. During the week I am busy with work and forget about my blog. On the weekends I spend all my time with Emily. So, can’t really complain about that… But, now Emily is away in China and I should be better at writing my blog!

So I last wrote to you the week I tried to ride my bike to work. I have to admit I haven’t been so great about riding since then. I truly meant to, but everything has kept coming up. First it was the YSA conference. Then there was my conference, and then there was working 12+ hour days so I could spend more time with Emily before she left. In the end I am sad to say I didn’t live up to expectations.

Anyways, I attended my first academic conference two weeks ago. It was the USENIX Security conference, one of the top three security conferences. It was a very different than anything I have been to before, but it was still very enjoyable. There were a lot of good talks. It was a little hard to break into the circle of people that already knew each other, but that is something I just need to try harder to do.

The best part of the conference was when Emily came down to see my on Thursday. I hadn’t seen her in a little over 2 weeks, and it was great to get to spend time with her! We walked around Bellevue a little bit, and then watched Howl’s Moving Castle. It was such a fabulous way to spend the day.

That weekend I got to go up to Emily’s house. We had a lot of fun. We made cinnamon rolls. We went out on the Jet Ski. We went tubing. We soaked in the hot tub. We ate delicious food. It was a really great weekend! Emily also introduced me to the movie Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. A very strange movie, but a fun one. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.

The following week was hard, since I wanted to spend time with Emily. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I worked over 12 hours each day. I did this so I could take Friday off of work, and spend more time with Emily. On Thursday I drove up a little early and surprised Emily by coming to see her at work. It was actually pretty cute. When she saw me she was speechless. Quite the problem for a demonstrator at Costco It was fun to watch her not knowing what to say

On Friday we started the day getting her brother and sister off to their day-camp. We then went and walked the Narrows Bridge. It is a nice bridge and the view from on top of it is very pretty. Not as pretty as Emily, but still… After that we went to watch her sister perform in the day-camp orchestra.

After that we picked up her brother from camp, and then it was time for Emily to say goodbye to her family. They were headed off to take her brother Coulter to BYU, and they wouldn’t see Emily again before she left for China.

After she said goodbye we headed off to spend the weekend with Jason and Alysha. We didn’t get to their house till pretty late in the night. There we picked up some pizza, and then they showed us around the town a little bit. We went to this really nice area next to the lake. It was a lot of fun.

The next day everyone slept in a little bit. Emily and I then made waffles for breakfast, while Alysha and Jason went to buy fruit to put on the waffles. It was a great breakfast.

We then went around the town some more. Eventually we drove over to Tryon national park. There we walked around a bit. It was a lot of fun!

Then it was time to get the swimsuits on. Jason and Alysha have access to a swimming area on the lake. It was great fun! The water was just the right temperature. Couldn’t think of a better way to spend the afternoon.

We then went to Dang’s Thai for dinner. It was really good food. We then went to a candy shop, got some specialty sodas, and went home to watch the Hunger Games. Jason had used his mad Redbox skills to get us one. Go Jason!

On Sunday morning Emily and I packed up and headed back home. We attended her ward for the last time before she would leave. We then spent the rest of the evening together just talking. Man, I love talking to that girl It is great to have someone that you could just talk to all day

On Monday Emily and I went to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. It was really cool. It is so amazing what the artists were able to do with just glass. They had glass that looked like metal, glass that looked like birds and butterflies. On some of the exhibits they shines a light through the glass, and it was beautiful the patterns that we could see.

The coolest part was that we were actually able to watch a visiting artist fire and blow several different pieces. It was cool to see the accuracy and precision that the artist demonstrated. It was truly amazing. It was a good way to spend the day together.

At night we went to eat burgers. I know, this doesn’t sound like the most romantic last night together for me and Emily, but when you’re going to be in China for four months, a burger sure does sound good! We went to a place called Tanglewood, where her brother had worked for a little bit. They had really good food, and it was a lot of fun.

We finished the night by watching Mirror Mirror. It is a fun reinterpretation of the Snow White story. We both really enjoyed it. It was then time for me to go to a motel for the night (her dad was at the hospital that night) and so we had to part

Tuesday was a hard day, since it was all about getting Emily ready to leave for China. It was good to be able to spend the last bit of time with her. At the airport I was really getting chocked up at seeing her leave. Even now it still feels surreal that I won’t get to be with her for another four months. It seems like in just a little I’ll get to see her, but then I have to remind myself that this is not the case. So sad.

Well, in the end she left, and I drove home. Over the next three days Emily and I have gotten talk a lot over Skype, and that has been wonderful. It will be a little harder for the next week, because she is away traveling while in China. That will mean that we can’t spend as much time together talking  Nevertheless, I know that she is going to have an amazing experience in China.

The only other big thing that has happened is that I have started a new diet. Jason introduced me to a program call MyFitnessPal.com. It makes tracking calories super easy. I am actually pretty excited about using this tool. Dieting and exercising are not necessarily that hard for me, but measuring and reporting are. And without the measuring and reporting eventually my plans always come apart. I think that since I have an easy way to view my progress and caloric intake things will go a lot better. I’ll try and keep everyone apprised of how well that goes.

Well, that is all for this installment. I’m sorry I didn’t write more about this last week, but I have been writing for about 45 minutes, and it is now time for me to go to church. See you all later!

P.S. I am super excited for BYU football to start up next Thursday!!!

The week I tried to ride my bike to work

Last week I decided that this would be the week I tried to ride my bike to work! Oh yeah. I was pumped up. On Monday morning I got all ready, went to my bike, and found that my tires were low. Really, really low. No problem I though, I’ll just pump them up. Unfortunately, I could not get my pump to work! Instead I hooked my bike up to my car and drove to work.

At work we have a nice bike pump and I was able to inflate my tires. It is a good thing I did it there. I didn’t realize my tires were supposed to be pumped up to 100PSI. I never would have gotten close to that with the hand pump. Regardless, I rode home. The ride actually went really well. I had to walk for a bit on some of the hills, but nothing too bad. I was actually rather proud of my self.

On Tuesday I had to ride my bike to work, since my car was still at work. I got on my bike, and within minutes I was feeling sick to my stomach. My mistake, I ate breakfast right before I left. Unfortunately, right after breakfast if I do any physical activity this will be the result. I thought I might have gotten over this problem, but I turned out to be very wrong. Coupled with some bad hills, including one that goes up for 1.5 miles without ever letting up, it was a terrible bike ride. It was killer.

I have to admit, at that point I wanted to give up riding to work. Regardless, I want to get in shape for me, and also so that me an Emily can do some fun hikes when she gets back from China. So I decided to stay the course.

Unfortunately I will have to wait until next week to ride again. On Wednesday I went to the temple, so riding my bike wasn’t really an option. On Thursday I was going to ride my bike home from work, but then I freaked out thinking that I had left open my garage door at home! So I rushed back home, bummed that I had missed out a chance to bike.

On Friday I was going to bike again, but then decided to go to the regional YSA conference instead. That turned out to be a lot of fun. It was what I did this Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It was a good way to spend my time. I was able to reconnect with some people I have not seen in a long time. I also got to meet and make some new friends. A great way to spend the weekend. On Sunday we even got to hear Elder Ballard speak to us. It was a great talk.

 

And that was my week. Next week I will only get to ride my bike on Monday. The rest of the week is my first research conference! I won’t be presenting a paper, but I am still excited. It should be fun. I’ll let everyone know how that turns out!

Dark (K)night

On Monday Emily and I went and watched The Dark Knight in IMAX. It was a lot of fun! It was a really done movie, and of course watching it with Emily was great. I have gotten to the point where pretty much nothing in movies surprise  me anymore, so I enjoy watching how into movies Emily gets. It is like I get surprised almost vicariously

After that we got dinner at Chipotle. I know it is fast food, but I still love going there since it is something we don’t have in Utah. We then went and tried to look at stars, but of course we live in the Pacific Northwest, and so that clouds block everything. Sad, but it was still great to get to have a date night with Emily.

 

This week has been a little sad though. Emily left for vacation with her family early (flight left at 6:30AM) Wednesday morning. I feel blessed to have the internet, and so we have been able to skype twice since she left, but it is still been hard not having her here. It was the worst yesterday, when I realized that I would have been at her house for the weekend if not for the fact that her family was on vacation.

I guess though that I need to get used to it. Emily doesn’t like to think about it, but she is about to leave for China. So for the space of about four and a half months I won’t get to be with her. True, we will still have Skype, and that is wonderful, but it is just not the same. It will be hard, but hopefully it will bring us closer together instead of driving us apart. That is my prayer and hope in the least.

 

Well, that is my short little post for this week. Sorry that nothing more blog worthy happened this week. At least I am writing again! I am going to try and start biking to work next week, so you can expect to hear how well that goes next week. Pray for me, it is a 2 hour round trip with a lot of hills. I might just die without everyone’s prayers

Finally, some news!

It has been a month and half since I have updated my blog. I’m sorry about that. Things have been a little crazy. Nearly all my free time is spent with Emily, and so I haven’t had a chance to update my blog. I’ll try and do better though. So, lets see what has happened…

 

June 10 – 16

This week we had a Bob-BQ. That is like a BBQ, except that you finish the night by watching What About Bob?. It was a ton of fun. A lot of my family was there. The steaks Emily and I made turned out great. It was also Emily’s first time watching What About Bob?. It was a great night.

I moved out of my apartment on Tuesday. Emily went home on Thursday. It was sad to see her go, but luckily I was going to get to see her again in just a little over a week.

Unlike the rest of the week my car had some serious problems. I tried to get the AC fixed, and on Monday I got it back. Unfortunately, the new AC died on Tuesday so I had to take it back in on Wednesday to get it fixed. On Thursday I had it since we were waiting for another part, and on the way home it completely died. I had to have it towed to the shop. So annoying. It wasn’t until the next week that I found out what was wrong. It turns out they nocked some cables loose while fixing the car. Luckily it got all taken care of, and I currently do have a working car.

 

June 17 – 23

This week started with getting me to Washington. On Monday and Tuesday I attached a hitch and bike rack to my car. I also loaded up the car with all my stuff. Everything fit in pretty well.

On Wednesday I started my drive. As I was driving I got an email saying they weren’t expecting me till Sunday. Oh no! Luckily I was able to get everything straightened out.

On Wednesday night I stayed with Grandma in Weiser, ID. It was a lot of fun to get to spend the evening with her. The next day I drove to Yakima, WA. There I stayed the night, and drove to Bellevue. My key wasn’t ready for pickup when I got there so I chilled in the library. I then moved into my apartment. It is really nice, though a little far from work.

On Saturday I finally got to see Emily again! I got to go to her brother’s baptism. I even got to stand in the circle when he was confirmed a member of the church. It was really awesome to meet her family in this way.

After the ceremony we went around town. I actually realized I had been her before, precisely when I attended the WA YSA conference during my first internship. it was really cool to know that it was the same place.

Besides Emily’s family I also got to meet her paternal grandparents as well as her aunt. It was fun. That night we went on a boat ride, and finished the night by going to Panda express for dinner.

 

My new apartment

Grandma, and food from the trip

My car’s nicer cousin

Emily’s family at the baptism

 

July 24 – 30

On Sunday Emily and I watched a movie called Something the Lord Made. Besides for a little language it was an amazing movie. It talks about early cardiac surgery on babies. It is an amazing story. I certainly recommend it.

On Monday I had my first day of work. Everything was pretty normal, and within the week I was up and running on my project. I was happy how well things went. It was a good week at work, but who really wants to hear about my work

On Tuesday Emily came to visit me. We went to the temple to do baptisms. After the temple we went to dinner at a Thai restaurant It was really good food. I finished the night by showing her around Microsoft and my house. She then had to go home which was the only sad thing during the week.

Emily wasn’t able to have me come and visit her this weekend, so instead she came and visited Saturday night. We decided to eat inside, but first had to go shopping. We ended up making some chicken salad. It turned out well. We then watched a movie and just enjoyed getting to spend time together.

 

July 1 – 7

I went to my own ward for the only time I have had gone so far. The bishopric is different than when I was here last, but I did recognize several members of the ward. I was feeling sick so I didn’t go out of my way to say hi to people, but that is just how life goes sometimes.

This week I took two days off and were able to spend Tuesday night to Sunday night at Emily’s house. On Tuesday we went to an Indian food restaurant she loves. She then took me around Gig Harbor. It was great to get to spend time going around town, seeing the places she loves the best.

On the fourth I tried to go water skiing. I still didn’t manage to get up, but maybe in the future I’ll finally get it down. I also go to go on the get ski, and that was a lot of fun. We then helped get some stuff for dinner. We then watched fireworks from the hot tub. Eventually we moved to a blanket on the ground when the hot tub got to be too much. Overall it was a great night!

On the next day we met up with Jessica Stewart and Serena (Wen Yuan). We went to Seattle with them. We first went to the Pacific Science Center. We also went to Pike’s place market. It was a lot of fun. We finished the afternoon by going to an Asian store in Seattle’s Chinatown. It was a lot of fun, and great to see food I haven’t in a while. I got some Lichi so that Emily could try it. It turned out that Wenpei (Emily’s younger brother) also loved them, and so he ate most of them After shopping we returned to Emily’s house and made dinner. We then went out on the boat. Finally Emily and I took them back to their house. It was a really fun day.

On Friday we went to the zoo with Emily’s cousin Beth and her little sister Grace. It was fun. We got to watch the walruses being fed, and that was pretty awesome. We also got to see polar bears and a bunch of other fun stuff.

During the rest of the day we kind of relaxed. Emily and Beth went knee boarding. I also read a book called A Thousand Suns. It is a pretty good book. It talks about life in Afghanistan for the last forty or so years. Certainly a great read. At night we built a fire and roasted marshmallows.

On Saturday Emily and I went to Seattle and participated in PuzzleDay. This is an event at Microsoft where you solve puzzles. It was really fun. Emily did wonderful. We were the two best solvers on our team. Unfortunately that was a bad sign since we weren’t that great . Our team ended up in about 72nd place

After the main event we went to Steamers in Tacoma. It was really a good place to eat. We then walked between the ocean and the railroad tracks. It was a lot of fun. We finished the night by watching How to Succeed in Business Without Even Trying. I love that movie!

 

Pictures from the Zoo

July 8 – 14

At work things continued to go well. Nothing to really report there. On the weekend Emily and I went with a MSR group and visited Mount Rainier. It was a lot of fun. It was crazy hiking in the snow. It was so warm and bright, it was just unreal. It really was a fun time. I guess that is to be expected when you have a girlfriend as wonderful as I do. I love that she loves to be active and do all these things

To end the night we did the most manly thing we could think of. Yep, you guessed right, we watched Pride and Prejudice. It is the newer version and I have wanted to watch this version for a little, so it was a lot of fun.

 

July 15 – 22

On Wednesday Emily visited and we went to the IMAX at Pacific Science Center to watch the new Spiderman movie. It was really fun. First we checked out the center itself. One of the coolest part was the butterfly cages. There were so many butterflies, and you just got to walk through them. They were awesome! Afterwards we got dinner at Dick’s, and finished by actually watching the movie. It was so great to be able to spend that time with Emily!

On Friday I went to visit Emily again. As soon as I got to her house we hoped into her house and drove for another two hours. We went to Ensign park for a campout with her YSA ward. It has been a while since I have been camping, but it was great fun. At none point we even got to look at stars. There was such a great view.

On Saturday we went tubing down the Yakima river. We ended up going nine miles. It took us three hours, but Emily and I were together the whole time, so it was a great way to spend the afternoon It was pretty tame, but it was still a lot of fun. Emily and I did seem to have a knack for hitting the sides, but that just made it a little more fun.

After we got finished we drove back to Gig Harbor. Since it was a three hour drive from where we got off the tubes we stopped in Auburn to visit the Super Mall. We walked around inside, and even did some shoe shopping. It was fun to watch Emily get so excited about shoes We also visited a cool candy store. I got Emily a giant jawbreaker. Earlier she had mentioned that she never go to have one when she was young, and so as soon as I saw it I had to get it for her. We also got other candies that we loved from when we were children.

After that we finished the rest of the trip back to Gig Harbor. It was great. I was a little sunburned, and so didn’t feel like doing too much. For this reason we decided to watch To Live. This is an incredible Chinese movie that really helps you feel for what happened during life in Communist China.

On Sunday I made Emily some chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. I then helped prepare some stuff for her families lunch. After lunch we went to church. It was a great meeting. After that we came home and just spent some time with each other. We finished the night by making an apple pie. Emily’s family has canned pie filling, and we were able to use that to create a fresh pie. It was a lot of fun. It also tasted really great.

 

And that brings my blog up to date. Sorry that it was so long. I probably should have split it up a bit. In the future I plan to try even a little harder to keep it up-to-date.