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!