If we had a Marriage, These Would be its Thoughts

Traveling is so fun

September 21, 2010 12:17 pm

We’re on our way to Utah. I get to recruit at BYU again and with the addition of a plane ticket for Jess we get to have a brief partial vacation for very little cost to us.

At the moment we’re sitting in the airport. Today I had the privilege of refusing to go through the back-scatter machine and instead receive an unceremonious pat down. What a waste of time and money. I wish everyone would refuse to use the back-scatter machines so that they would be forced to get rid of them (or make them mandatory, which is probably more likely I suppose).

The pat down was as much of a joke for security as any other process currently in place. As far as I can tell it’s simply designed to be more awkward than the back-scatter machines so that people will just put up with the machines. It’s a normal pat down (actually I’m fairly certain I’ve received more thorough pat downs going in to concerts) with the addition of touching the bottoms of your feet and swabbing your hands with chemical detector swabs.

It certainly wouldn’t be remotely difficult to conceal something past the pat down I received. When will sanity and cost-benefit studies again be used to guide our decisions as a country?

Om-Noms?

September 17, 2010 10:40 am

Kyle and I finished off the last of our wedding M&M’s on Wednesday. We’ve just kept refilling the smallest of our kitchen canisters and eating them. (I suppose now we’ll have to put in rice or something equally boring. Less tasty.)

You can see in the picture that some of them said “June 23, 2009,” but some also said “Kyle & Jess.” We had them special ordered to give away at the receptions, and Kyle’s mom and sisters put them into those super cute tins and tied the ribbons on them (which I bet was way fun). There were TONS, ‘cuz we originally ordered 15 pounds (5 pounds cream, 5 pounds blue, and 5 pounds mixed with the printing on them (because it is ridiculously and outrageously more expensive than just getting a custom color!)). But then they sent us the wrong color of blue, so by the time they sent us another bag of blue, we had 20 pounds of Om-Noms! We just mixed them all together and it was grand. But there was a lot.

And Tianna just told me she may still have some. We’re thinking about ordering more each year on our anniversary. They’re just such fun!

Striving for Cosmic Consciousness

September 9, 2010 7:52 pm

I had my first tai chi class tonight! Yep, like this:

Only, y’know, indoors at my doctor’s office. See, my neurologist recommended it. In her words, migraineurs “tend to be rather high-strung,” so anything that helps with stress will often help with migraines, too. I figured it’s worth exploring.

It’s a six-week class with one class a week. I was really hoping it would be full of old people recovering from hip-replacement surgery, but alas. Although I am the youngest one there, they’re mostly in their forties, I’d guess. Though one woman has had both her knees replaced, so that’s something!

The class was fun. The movement is very smooth and flowing, very low-effort. Actually, my knees were really hurting b/c it’s done with your knees bent the entire time (I don’t know how Knee Replacement Lady’s going to cope!), but maybe this will help strengthen them. We’ll see. Anyway, I had a good time. Now I just have to practice!

Google’s Instant Search – Now Active (for some)

September 8, 2010 9:40 am

I did a search a moment ago and was surprised to discover that real-time searching is enabled for my account. This is apparently Google’s big announcement today. It’s kind of neat; no more hitting “Enter” or clicking “Search”.

It doesn’t seem to be active for everyone yet. I pulled up a different browser without logging in to my Google account and there was no real-time searching there.

The name they’re using is “Instant Search” there’s an option next to the search box to turn off instant search:

Labor Day!

September 7, 2010 5:40 pm

Kyle’s been wanting to get outside and do some hiking, so I agreed to go on a hike yesterday. Of course, then we had to pick a trail. Kyle wanted to hike Mount Diablo, but couldn’t understand why I balked at the 7-mile length. To explain briefly: I ruined my lower joints (ankles and knees) dancing by the time I was 17. Add in that I am in lousy physical condition, and I am not at all certain I can walk 7 miles. Of course, Kyle knows these things, but as we have never been on a hike together, he doesn’t fully understand them. I talked him down to a baby-level trail in nearby Sycamore Grove Park instead. We’ll work our way up to Mount Diablo.

We set out on the trail at 10:30 (foolishly late, as it was to be blisteringly hot), Kyle with the camera and me with my right knee and ankle all braced up. It actually wasn’t too bad in the shade, but there was precious little shade to be had. I practiced being larger than the local wildlife so it wouldn’t attack me. And it must have worked! We got home safely.

Here are some of the pics Kyle took. The first is just walking along the trail:

I loved the shape of the grass growing along the trail, and Kyle turned it into a cool silhouette:

We had to turn around early, though. On top of a hill, we came across a building foundation and stopped to rest for a bit. While Kyle was taking some pictures, I took my shoes off to assess the blister situation. My socks had been rubbing on my heels all along, and I knew my ankle brace was making the situation worse (I had already adjusted it once the best I could), so I was considering taking it off and seeing how that would work out for me. When Kyle finished up, he suggested we turn back rather than hiking another mile, considering the state my feet were in. I felt bad about cutting down his hiking experience even further, but agreed eventually that it was probably for the best. And I think it was—I have the biggest blisters on my heels I have ever had (and as a dancer, I’ve had some large ones). But who knows? Mebbe we would’ve seen something awesome in the next half mile that would’ve made it worth the pain!

The real question, of course, is why these exact same shoes didn’t cause me any problems walking around all day while we were in Florida. And we have no ideas. But it just reinforces our plan to get me some real hiking boots (at least, if I’m to accompany Kyle on these mad treks he wants to pursue!).

We got back home around 1, I think. Later on, Kyle made bread! And it was tasty.