Kevin and Cici

I learned by Googling that Kevin and Cici were the names of a Chinese couple who were murdered in the UK. All the Google hits for “Kevin and Cici” are of the incident. That is very tragic.

New Post

I was told I needed to update my blog.

So I did.

And . . . a Date

So, I have a date. Now, ’round about a year or so ago, this would be a huge deal. I have a date? With a girl? Haven’t done that in a while.

But no, not that kind of date. I have a wedding date. Celeste and I will be married August 1 in the Washington DC temple.

. . . and yeah, that’s all I got.

I am engaged

Okay, so there is probably no one reading this who doesn’t already know – because I told them in person or they found out through Facebook – but last Tuesday (December 30), I asked Celeste to marry me and she, for some reason agreed. Yay. We are looking at late July or early August, but beyond that have pretty much no details whatsoever worked out yet.

Giving Thanks, Only Really Late

So, I was going to post about Thanksgiving. I had taken pictures, so I was going to wait until I had those uploaded. Then I remembered that I don’t actually know how to upload pics from my camera to my computer, even though I have done it before. So I kept putting it off, but now better late than never.

So Wednesday Catherine and her boyfriend Matt came down from Philly via train, I picked them up. On Thursday they made pie, and I attempted to make fruit salad, the recipe my mother had made every Thanksgiving and Christmas for as long as I can remember. This is when I learned that whipped cream and butter differ quantitatively, not qualitatively. Still, the fruit salad came out great. We went out to Falls Church, to a house in which Celeste and Corinna were dogsitting, there were about a dozen or so of us. Much food was eaten.

Friday, I took Cath and Matt back to the train station. Saturday, I helped Kathryn, an old roommate of Celeste and Corinna from BYU-Idaho, move in with them again. I guess they are creating BYU-Idaho East out here or something. This weekend, Celeste and Corinna took the bus up to NYC for the lights and whatnot that I guess they do up here. I guess it is now truly Christmas time . . .

A Winner is Me!

So I alluded in my previous post to the fact that it is National Novel Writing Month. Well, I did it. I reached 50,000 words some time last night, which was before I was able to even officially verify my results. Since it is all about quantity of words, not quality, I am not ashamed to say that my story is complete dreck, but it is interesting dreck. (Anyone who wants a copy, just ask and I will email it.) So I will have my nights back, although the story was so easy it practically wrote itself, and I never needed to spend more than an hour or two per day.

Still, yay me! Now to work on my real life challenges . . .

Things I am Not

1. Dead. I realize that I have not put anything here in a while, but I never promised anyone (of the, like, three people who read this) I would update much. But here I am.

2. Very happy, or very sad today. Depending on who you ask, we finally have come out of the Dark Ages into a shining new future, or we are about to be plunged into a socialistic nightmare. Hogwash says I, even if I am the only person in America not to be too worked up. All due congratulations to president-elect Obama, but the fact of the matter is that I have trouble accepting any judgments made of him, when he hasn’t done a thing yet. he may be good. He may be bad. He may be average, which is okay. The country may get better or it may get worse, and it may do either of these because of him, or in spite of him. But I will not say that I can finally realize my worth as an American, nor that the End Times are clearly at hand.

3. Going to be getting out much this month. That’s right, it’s NaNoWriMo time, which for those not in the know means I am attempting to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. No, don’t ask me why. The point is, I will be busy at night after work. I am making good time so far but I want to pull ahead, that is the important thing.

And one thing I did: last Saturday, my best friend from high school,  Alec Mittiga, got married up in the Catskills, and I was a groomsman. I spent the entire reception blowing my nose, but here are some pics:

Halloween

At the reception

My favorite: I had my camera in my pocket. The whole place was muddy and cold, so they had put some mats on the path between the ceremony tent and the barn where the cocktail reception was held. The wedding party went over first and the photographer was still in the tent, so I was the only one to get this pic:

After the Wedding

I am Moved . . . to Tears

So, the move went okay on Saturday. I had to rent a van for the larger stuff, but no big deal. (Alright, yes it WAS a big deal, I kept getting lost and stuff trying to pick it up. Don’t rent from the airport if you don’t have to.) I am moved in and mostly unpacked, and my room is a lot smaller but that’s okay. It is of course a complete coincidence that my new place is in the same apartment complex as my girlfriend’s. That just happened to be the best place that was open.

In other news, happy first decade to my sister Molly!

I am Moving . . . Again

So, as (again), a handful of people might know, about a month ago I moved from the place I had spent nearly 2 years. I was living with a friend from the ward and his family, but I always intended it to be temporary. I found a place with someone from the ward. By astonishing coincidence, this place happens to be in the same complex as Celeste.

To my family: now that I have a blog, I will be updating you on the major events of my life here, rather than in comments on other people’s blogs.

Who designs this stuff, anyways?

Man, wordpress is aggravating. Besides the aforementioned inability to sort links or link categories, when I tried to crop my avatar photo, the area for cropping it wasn’t actually over the picture – I had to try to change the size of it without actually seeing it. Also, it wouldn’t accept a photo I uploaded. I can’t wait to discover what new and annoying “features” I will get.