First week of Christmas
6 years ago
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Maybe it's just the Statistician in me...
This could be just new to me, but have any of you heard about Google Analytics? It's a service that Google does for free that keeps track of all sorts of information on your website. It's pretty basic, but still interesting. I can see it being more useful for a company website, but I enjoy it for our blog!
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Mount Rainier the Beautiful!
We went to Mt. Rainier yesterday and everything people have told us about it is true. It is absolutely gorgeous! I can't get over the lush green trees, wild flowers, rivers, lakes, and soooo many bugs! I'm glad we brought bug spray, although we both managed to still get bit. It was so much fun though! It took us about two hours to drive there and we went hiking to this place called Upper Palisades Lakes. It was 7 miles round trip and it gave new meaning to the phrase "uphill both ways". My body definitely feels it today! We left our home around 9 am and got back at 5 pm - 5 hours driving, 3 hours hiking. The hike was absolutely beautiful. There were lots of pretty lakes along the way, wild flowers, and lots and lots of pine trees. The weather was also perfect for hiking! We had brought jackets just in case it rained, but we didn't need them at all. We highly recommend going to Mt. Rainier if you ever are up in Seattle. It is definitely worth the drive! Even if you aren't much for hiking, the drive itself is really pretty.
Surprisingly when we got home I had a lot more energy than I thought I would. I worked on my poster the rest of the night and Trevor read Harry Potter and straightened up the house.
Here we are on the top of the mountain at the beginning of the trail.
These are our silly faces.
Mt. Rainier
Trevor among the wild flowers.
Here's a closer look...
The hills are alive, with the sound of music!
Trevor by a waterfall.
Just beautiful!
Lindsay pointing the way we're going to go.
Sunset Lake
"Trevor... take the picture fast so I can swat this bug!"
"Eat your heart out Flagstaff, Arizona!"Saturday, July 28, 2007
How to NOT have food storage...?
So Trevor and I are leaving Seattle in 3 weeks, which means that we need to get rid as much of our food before then so we don't have to transport it back to Provo but still be able to eat in the next 3 weeks. We have had a difficult time this past week shopping and only buy food that won't last that long and still be able to eat decent meals. We are so used to buying in bulk and stocking up on things. Hopefully there won't be a catastrophe anytime soon. Because we don't have much food in our home, we came up a new recipe for dinner tomorrow night... rice, leftover stir fry, Mexican frozen vegetable mix, instant mashed potatoes, chili, yams, raisins, and coconut all mixed together. Might as well toss in the rest of the sprouts we have.
I'm making it sound worse than our situation really is (I was just joking around about that meal by the way...). We do have food, but we are just used to having lots of options for what to eat, and we don't have that right now. Anyone have any suggestions of meals we can make that aren't too expensive (food prices here are starting to get to me), too many different ingredients that result in storing more food, and still relatively healthy? I think I just need some fresh ideas for meals. We are going grocery shopping on Monday! Hooray!
I'm making it sound worse than our situation really is (I was just joking around about that meal by the way...). We do have food, but we are just used to having lots of options for what to eat, and we don't have that right now. Anyone have any suggestions of meals we can make that aren't too expensive (food prices here are starting to get to me), too many different ingredients that result in storing more food, and still relatively healthy? I think I just need some fresh ideas for meals. We are going grocery shopping on Monday! Hooray!
Friday, July 27, 2007
Thank you Amazon.com!!!
Trevor and I have enjoyed benefits this week from Amazon.com. I think they're wining and dining us so that they can get Trevor to forgo his education and start working at Amazon ;). On Wednesday, Trevor's recruiter took all the interns and their wives from BYU to a really nice Italian restaurant (well, nicer than we would ever go to). It's funny, because we both felt that our meals weren't that spectacular, but we think we just ordered the wrong things. Although, I must say that the dessert was phenomenal! It was the best-tasting part of the meal.
Yesterday, Amazon paid for us to a Mariner's game! It was the first time that Trevor and I have been to a major league baseball game. They first had a get-together before the game with drinks and appetizers. Apparently they didn't order enough food for the number of people that were there and a lot of people didn't even get any food. Luckily we got there early enough.
Here I am standing on top of Safeco Stadium with Seattle skyscrapers in the background.
We had pretty good seats... way up in the top! It was a lot of fun.
We left at the beginning of the 9th inning because we didn't want to stay up too late and wanted to beat the crowd. It's a good thing actually, because the Mariners were losing 3-2 when we left, and the Oakland A's scored three more runs in the last inning winning the game 6-2. It was still an exciting game though. We thoroughly enjoyed it!
Saturday we are going to Mt. Rainier. We'll tell you more about it later.
Yesterday, Amazon paid for us to a Mariner's game! It was the first time that Trevor and I have been to a major league baseball game. They first had a get-together before the game with drinks and appetizers. Apparently they didn't order enough food for the number of people that were there and a lot of people didn't even get any food. Luckily we got there early enough.
Here I am standing on top of Safeco Stadium with Seattle skyscrapers in the background.
We had pretty good seats... way up in the top! It was a lot of fun.
We left at the beginning of the 9th inning because we didn't want to stay up too late and wanted to beat the crowd. It's a good thing actually, because the Mariners were losing 3-2 when we left, and the Oakland A's scored three more runs in the last inning winning the game 6-2. It was still an exciting game though. We thoroughly enjoyed it!
Saturday we are going to Mt. Rainier. We'll tell you more about it later.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Harry Potter - The IMAX experience!
So I'm sure everyone is just chomping at the bit waiting to hear a review of Harry Potter at the IMAX theater! :) Here is my take on it: (I don't feel like I'm giving much away if you haven't read the books, but if you're worried about that then don't read this)
It was great seeing it in the IMAX because the sound was amazing and obviously it had a very big screen! They also had the last 20 minutes or so in 3-D! Way cool! I have to be honest it was a little blurry at times, but I thought the 3-D part was a cool addition to the movie. It didn't have anything that was jumping right in front of your face like most 3-D movies, but it changed the depth perception and made the characters on the screen look like they were right there.
As far as the actual movie goes, I thought they did a good job condensing the entire book into a movie (they left a lot out, but they got the main story line well). I thought all the actors did a really good job and it was really entertaining. The time went by so fast I couldn't believe I had been sitting there for over two hours. For some reason, I didn't find Voldemort as scary-looking in this movie. I think the death-eaters (followers of Voldemort) were scarier-looking to me.
There are a lot of interesting scenes in the movie where, to music, they show a lot of snippets of things happening, they do a good job showing what's going on and how things are progressing in a short time. There's so much going on so quickly that you don't have time to get bored. I think the book was darker than this movie is. In the book, Harry is very angry and yells a lot in the first half. They've toned this down in the movie. Harry is definitely frustrated in the movie, but doesn't lose his temper so much.
One curious removal from this movie was Quidditch. There isn't a single reference to it.
The scariest parts I felt were at the very beginning and the end (if you've read the books, you know why). If I had watched it when I was younger, I probably would have been scared from it, but I get scared easily and have learned to close my eyes during those parts (come to think of it, I did close my eyes for a brief moment at the beginning of the movie...). I think it would not be so intense if you were to rent it and had the remote in your hand during a few select scenes (those at the beginning and end). The only other scary thing (more surreal than scary actually) I can think of is that there are epileptic -seizure-inducing sequences where we see into Harry's mind.
I guess I've been focusing a lot on the "scary stuff", but it's really not like that the whole movie. I just wanted to give a review for those who are worried about the PG-13 rating. There is nothing else inappropriate in the movie I noticed (except one brief kissing scene, but I wouldn't call it inappropriate).
Hope this helps if you were wondering whether or not to see the movie (or what to expect)!
It was great seeing it in the IMAX because the sound was amazing and obviously it had a very big screen! They also had the last 20 minutes or so in 3-D! Way cool! I have to be honest it was a little blurry at times, but I thought the 3-D part was a cool addition to the movie. It didn't have anything that was jumping right in front of your face like most 3-D movies, but it changed the depth perception and made the characters on the screen look like they were right there.
As far as the actual movie goes, I thought they did a good job condensing the entire book into a movie (they left a lot out, but they got the main story line well). I thought all the actors did a really good job and it was really entertaining. The time went by so fast I couldn't believe I had been sitting there for over two hours. For some reason, I didn't find Voldemort as scary-looking in this movie. I think the death-eaters (followers of Voldemort) were scarier-looking to me.
There are a lot of interesting scenes in the movie where, to music, they show a lot of snippets of things happening, they do a good job showing what's going on and how things are progressing in a short time. There's so much going on so quickly that you don't have time to get bored. I think the book was darker than this movie is. In the book, Harry is very angry and yells a lot in the first half. They've toned this down in the movie. Harry is definitely frustrated in the movie, but doesn't lose his temper so much.
One curious removal from this movie was Quidditch. There isn't a single reference to it.
The scariest parts I felt were at the very beginning and the end (if you've read the books, you know why). If I had watched it when I was younger, I probably would have been scared from it, but I get scared easily and have learned to close my eyes during those parts (come to think of it, I did close my eyes for a brief moment at the beginning of the movie...). I think it would not be so intense if you were to rent it and had the remote in your hand during a few select scenes (those at the beginning and end). The only other scary thing (more surreal than scary actually) I can think of is that there are epileptic -seizure-inducing sequences where we see into Harry's mind.
I guess I've been focusing a lot on the "scary stuff", but it's really not like that the whole movie. I just wanted to give a review for those who are worried about the PG-13 rating. There is nothing else inappropriate in the movie I noticed (except one brief kissing scene, but I wouldn't call it inappropriate).
Hope this helps if you were wondering whether or not to see the movie (or what to expect)!
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Birthdays always come once a year...
Trevor took the GRE on Thursday and did well on it. Whew! We are BOTH glad that's over! There are just a few things left that he has to do to get his application complete. Hooray! We also found out this week that Trevor received a scholarship from BYU for next year! We feel very blessed right now.
On Friday night, we went to Red Robin for dinner. We only go twice a year--on Trevor's birthday and my birthday. We are going to Cold Stone Creamery either next week or the week after. That's another place we only go twice a year. The ice cream is way too rich (and expensive) for us to go any more than that.
After dinner, we decided that we just couldn't wait for the boxed set of Harry Potter to come out (it comes out September 18th), so we decided to go and buy the 7th book at midnight. We were going to go to Borders or Barnes and Noble, but you had to reserve it or wait until at least 1:00 am. Not gonna happen... So we saw that they were selling it 40% off at QFC (Kroger store) and went there instead. There weren't that many people there, and we were the first ones in line to buy it at midnight! We stayed up that night and read the first chapter out loud together. Then we decided to both read it at the same time, but individually so we could read faster. So Trevor will read a chapter, then I'll read a chapter, and then we can talk about it and what we think is going to happen. It's great! We are really enjoying the book so far.
Saturday was a very relaxing day for us. We didn't do a whole lot, but that was the point--it was relaxing. Trevor made omelettes for breakfast and they were soooo good! Trevor is such a good cook! I feel so blessed to have a husband who likes and wants to cook. Then I opened birthday presents (did I mention Saturday was my birthday?) and Trevor got me the "Best of the Monkeys" CD and the DVD "Persuasion" (Jane Austen). He was also going to buy me some clothes so we went shopping downtown. I couldn't find anything (at least in our price range) so we decided to go shopping when we get back to Provo or in California or Arizona. In the evening, Trevor made fajitas for dinner and hot fudge brownie sundaes with turtle brownies and Spumoni ice cream for dessert. I was in heaven! We also went to Sam's club to get gas and just walk around the store. I love to window shop so it was fun for me to get out and look at stuff. It was a good birthday all in all. We are going to see Harry Potter 5 in the IMAX theater on Monday also for my birthday. We were going to go on Saturday but they were all sold out. They even have the last 20 minutes of the movie in 3-D! We are way excited!
I can't believe we are going to be here only 4 more weeks! Time has flown by. We've really enjoyed our summer here. We are planning on going to Mt. Rainier this coming Saturday. We've heard it's beautiful.
Our internships are going well. I'll let Trevor discuss his, but mine is getting better and better the more I understand what people are talking about. I've learned so much about immunology and just how things work at the HVTN. It's also nice to start seeing some of the finished products that I have been working on this summer. I've also started to walk home from work, which gives me a good 40 minutes of walking each weekday. I'll have to take pictures and give you the tour so you can see the parts of Seattle I walk past on my way home. I was going to do it on Friday, but it was raining, and I didn't want to give you a false impression of the weather ;o). In all honesty, I just didn't want to get my camera wet.
Well, until I write again, I hope everyone has a great week!
On Friday night, we went to Red Robin for dinner. We only go twice a year--on Trevor's birthday and my birthday. We are going to Cold Stone Creamery either next week or the week after. That's another place we only go twice a year. The ice cream is way too rich (and expensive) for us to go any more than that.
After dinner, we decided that we just couldn't wait for the boxed set of Harry Potter to come out (it comes out September 18th), so we decided to go and buy the 7th book at midnight. We were going to go to Borders or Barnes and Noble, but you had to reserve it or wait until at least 1:00 am. Not gonna happen... So we saw that they were selling it 40% off at QFC (Kroger store) and went there instead. There weren't that many people there, and we were the first ones in line to buy it at midnight! We stayed up that night and read the first chapter out loud together. Then we decided to both read it at the same time, but individually so we could read faster. So Trevor will read a chapter, then I'll read a chapter, and then we can talk about it and what we think is going to happen. It's great! We are really enjoying the book so far.
Saturday was a very relaxing day for us. We didn't do a whole lot, but that was the point--it was relaxing. Trevor made omelettes for breakfast and they were soooo good! Trevor is such a good cook! I feel so blessed to have a husband who likes and wants to cook. Then I opened birthday presents (did I mention Saturday was my birthday?) and Trevor got me the "Best of the Monkeys" CD and the DVD "Persuasion" (Jane Austen). He was also going to buy me some clothes so we went shopping downtown. I couldn't find anything (at least in our price range) so we decided to go shopping when we get back to Provo or in California or Arizona. In the evening, Trevor made fajitas for dinner and hot fudge brownie sundaes with turtle brownies and Spumoni ice cream for dessert. I was in heaven! We also went to Sam's club to get gas and just walk around the store. I love to window shop so it was fun for me to get out and look at stuff. It was a good birthday all in all. We are going to see Harry Potter 5 in the IMAX theater on Monday also for my birthday. We were going to go on Saturday but they were all sold out. They even have the last 20 minutes of the movie in 3-D! We are way excited!
I can't believe we are going to be here only 4 more weeks! Time has flown by. We've really enjoyed our summer here. We are planning on going to Mt. Rainier this coming Saturday. We've heard it's beautiful.
Our internships are going well. I'll let Trevor discuss his, but mine is getting better and better the more I understand what people are talking about. I've learned so much about immunology and just how things work at the HVTN. It's also nice to start seeing some of the finished products that I have been working on this summer. I've also started to walk home from work, which gives me a good 40 minutes of walking each weekday. I'll have to take pictures and give you the tour so you can see the parts of Seattle I walk past on my way home. I was going to do it on Friday, but it was raining, and I didn't want to give you a false impression of the weather ;o). In all honesty, I just didn't want to get my camera wet.
Well, until I write again, I hope everyone has a great week!
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
BYU's parking adventure!
So I left my jump drive at work on accident... guess I won't be working on my thesis tonight. Instead I will post another cool link on our Blog! This is for all those who went to BYU at one point or another and had the experience of parking on campus. Trevor and I thought it was really funny. We hope you enjoy it!
This parking lot shown by the Tanner building is no longer there even. According to Aaron Miller (our cousin) they are supposedly building a parking garage for graduate students and faculty (hopefully not just faculty). Did you hear they also want to put parking meters south of campus? I stilll think the best solution is to charge for parking permits (currently they are free for all students). I'm just glad we live close enough to walk to campus...
Monday, July 16, 2007
A Day in the Life of Trevor, Part 1: Morning Rituals
Trevor's heavy eyelids refused to open as Lindsay called him to try and wake him up. Lindsay had been awake for an hour or so and by this time Trevor was sprawled out on the bed in a million different angles haphazardly tangled in the bed sheet. After a few moments and hearing at best an audible groan, Lindsay came closer, sat on the bed and said, "Come on Trevor, it's time to get up, I've got to catch my bus. Let's pray."
After another groan Trevor, tightly holding his eyes shut, rolled his numb body over the side of the bed and landed in a kneeling position with the sheet still wrapped around his body. He resembled something of a mummy. "Okay, I'm up."
They prayed. Afterwards, he managed to sit up and open his eyes, only to close them again and start rubbing them. Trevor looked at the clock, "6:58… Lindsay, you're leaving early. Okay, be safe, have a good day at work. I love you."
"I love you to." They mutely kissed, smiled at each other, and Lindsay rushed out the door to catch her first bus.
Trevor stood up from bed, still rubbing his eyes and gradually working his hands throughout the rest of his face. Finally, things started coming into focus.
He decided on hot oatmeal instead of cold cereal for breakfast. Much more awake now he pulled out a cheap but sturdy sauce pan that had come with the apartment and set it on the stove. He reached up, opened the white cupboard and pulled out the bag of rolled oats they had purchased in the bulk food section of Metropolitan Market. They were surprised to find food so expensive in
After breakfast and filling his dirty dishes with water to soak, he hopped in the shower, dried off, put on deodorant, got dressed, shaved, brushed his teeth, put gel in his hair and did his hair. With time left for some morning reading and study, Trevor grabbed his shoes from the closet by the front door and headed out for work.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Catching up from the 4th of July till now...
So, backing up a little bit, our 4th of July celebration was really nice! We made blueberry pancakes, went on a 3.5 mile walk along the ocean, ate barbecued ribs (it was really a treat for us!), baked French fries, and brownies and ice cream (one of our all-time favorite desserts). We then went up on our roof to watch the fireworks, but there were so many people up there, they were all drunk, and there was unwholesome music in the background. We didn't feel good being in that atmosphere so we left and watched the fireworks from our balcony. We actually had a pretty good view from there. It beat dealing with the traffic! Oh, one thing I remembered was that on our walk, we discovered this tiny little "secret garden" park about two blocks from our house. It was absolutely beautiful with so many different types of flowers. It's finding these little gems that make being here so much fun!
This past Friday night, we went to the Temple and we were going to eat at the cafeteria, but due to traffic we didn't make it in time. So we decided to just go somewhere else. So we started driving on the street going past the temple and kept driving, and driving, and yes driving some more through lots of residential neighborhoods. It was really pretty with lots of trees and parks, but we didn't see anything commercial for a really, really long time. When we finally did, the only restaurants we saw were "Tuna House" and "Best Wok". What a great selection! Luckily, before we had settled on going to 7-Eleven, Trevor spotted a Subway in the distance. We decided that was our best bet. We just couldn't believe how hard it was for us to find a restaurant off of the freeway exit. Oh well, at least we had a scenic drive!
Yesterday, we spent most of the day studying--Trevor studied for the GRE (which he is taking on Thursday, please keep him in your prayers!) while I worked on my thesis and poster for the NESSIS symposium in September. Last night we rented "Monster House" and thought it was pretty good. It's one of those movies where I didn't expect a whole lot, so I enjoyed it more. I don't know if it is too scary for little kids (I get scared easily so take it for what it is worth).
Trevor and I also got callings in our ward today! We are nursery workers again! Yea!!! We are excited to have a couple of times in the nursery before we leave. There are about 16-20 children in the nursery. That 's quite a few more than the 3-4 in our last ward, but I'm sure it will be fun.
This past Friday night, we went to the Temple and we were going to eat at the cafeteria, but due to traffic we didn't make it in time. So we decided to just go somewhere else. So we started driving on the street going past the temple and kept driving, and driving, and yes driving some more through lots of residential neighborhoods. It was really pretty with lots of trees and parks, but we didn't see anything commercial for a really, really long time. When we finally did, the only restaurants we saw were "Tuna House" and "Best Wok". What a great selection! Luckily, before we had settled on going to 7-Eleven, Trevor spotted a Subway in the distance. We decided that was our best bet. We just couldn't believe how hard it was for us to find a restaurant off of the freeway exit. Oh well, at least we had a scenic drive!
Yesterday, we spent most of the day studying--Trevor studied for the GRE (which he is taking on Thursday, please keep him in your prayers!) while I worked on my thesis and poster for the NESSIS symposium in September. Last night we rented "Monster House" and thought it was pretty good. It's one of those movies where I didn't expect a whole lot, so I enjoyed it more. I don't know if it is too scary for little kids (I get scared easily so take it for what it is worth).
Trevor and I also got callings in our ward today! We are nursery workers again! Yea!!! We are excited to have a couple of times in the nursery before we leave. There are about 16-20 children in the nursery. That 's quite a few more than the 3-4 in our last ward, but I'm sure it will be fun.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Birthday Specials
I don't know how many of you know about these birthday specials, but I thought I would share them with you anyway! Maybe someone else knows of specials and can share them as well!
Cold Stone Creamery: Get a free love-it size of ice cream! We go every year and split one between the two of us. You have to sign up for the club and print off the coupon, otherwise I don't think they will give it to you.
Red Robin: Get a free meal on your birthday! It works similar to Cold Stone Creamery. They give you a two week window in which you can redeem it and you need to sign up for the club. I would recommend using your "spam" email account because they email you other stuff throughout the year as well.
For those in Provo/Orem, there's Tucanos Brazilian Grill. I've never signed up for it, but you also get a free meal for your birthday.
Any other fun deals people know about? (It's my birthday next week, which is why I have this sudden interest in birthday deals)
Cold Stone Creamery: Get a free love-it size of ice cream! We go every year and split one between the two of us. You have to sign up for the club and print off the coupon, otherwise I don't think they will give it to you.
Red Robin: Get a free meal on your birthday! It works similar to Cold Stone Creamery. They give you a two week window in which you can redeem it and you need to sign up for the club. I would recommend using your "spam" email account because they email you other stuff throughout the year as well.
For those in Provo/Orem, there's Tucanos Brazilian Grill. I've never signed up for it, but you also get a free meal for your birthday.
Any other fun deals people know about? (It's my birthday next week, which is why I have this sudden interest in birthday deals)
The rain in Spain falls mainly in Seattle...
(Really June 24th)
Hello Everyone!
We just wanted to let everyone know how we are doing. Things are going well. Our internships are going well and we are still enjoying getting to know Seattle better.
Yesterday (Saturday) we went to the Pacific Science Center with another couple in our ward who are also up here for an Amazon internship. It was a lot of fun! One exhibit that was really cool was a butterfly house which had approx. 600-1000 butterflies in it!
We also saw a lot of dinosaur fossils and skeletons. The museum has a kids focus but still was a lot of fun. They had a lot of interactive displays, cool animals to look at (like the naked mole rats who can chew through concrete!). Trevor road a bike on a large metal loop like 20 feet in the air!
We also saw this really cool fountain right by the Science Center. It is definitely a great place to go when it is hot outside!
Trevor even tagged the dome without getting wet (well, he didn't get soaked).
Last week we also went to the Seattle Olympic Sculpture Park which has some pretty interesting sculptures. We really liked a tree replica made out of stainless steel and some cool benches made to look like eyes. Another cool one was called a typewriter eraser which I think looks like a wheel and Trevor thinks it looks like a pizza cutter. What do you think? I don't think it looks like a typewriter eraser, but maybe I just haven't been experienced enough with typewriters. (Pre-computer folks, any input?)
One thing we have learned about grocery shopping here (maybe we have just got unlucky a few times) is that we always have to check our receipt and make sure they charged us for the right produce. Almost every single time we have gone, they have charged us for the wrong type of tomato (the one not on sale of course) or the wrong onion (also the one not on sale). Even though we have been unfortunate in this, yesterday due to coupons, sales and a miss-scanned-onion-refund, we got two gallons of milk, 6 yogurts, an onion, four tomatoes, 6 peaches and 8 plums all for $5.50! We feel it made up for previous overcharges.
I (Lindsay) had some good news this past week or so. My graduate advisor submitted my Master's thesis abstract to the NESSIS (New England Symposium for Statistics in Sports) and it was accepted to be presented as a poster! I am traveling to Cambridge, MA at Harvard to be at the conference on September 29th! I'm just relieved I don't have to actually present a talk. People can sometimes be ruthless at conferences like this. This will give me an extra push to work really hard on finishing up my project this summer. I'm almost done with the actual project, now I just have to write it up.
I (Trevor) am enjoying work! Just last week I got a new assignment which I'll be working on for the next couple of weeks. I'll tell you more about next week when I learn more about what exactly I'll be doing. Actually, come to think of it, it's kind of top-secret... so I'll be vague. In other news... I've been assigned a whole bunch of inactive people to home teach, most of which either don't live at their addresses any more or aren't interested in the church, but we did manage to set up an appointment with a young inactive guy who happens to also work at Amazon, so I'll see how that goes this week.
Well, we love you all! We're having a swell time in Seattle and we're looking forward to seeing (most of) you at the end of this summer!
Hello Everyone!
We just wanted to let everyone know how we are doing. Things are going well. Our internships are going well and we are still enjoying getting to know Seattle better.
Yesterday (Saturday) we went to the Pacific Science Center with another couple in our ward who are also up here for an Amazon internship. It was a lot of fun! One exhibit that was really cool was a butterfly house which had approx. 600-1000 butterflies in it!
We also saw a lot of dinosaur fossils and skeletons. The museum has a kids focus but still was a lot of fun. They had a lot of interactive displays, cool animals to look at (like the naked mole rats who can chew through concrete!). Trevor road a bike on a large metal loop like 20 feet in the air!
We also saw this really cool fountain right by the Science Center. It is definitely a great place to go when it is hot outside!
Trevor even tagged the dome without getting wet (well, he didn't get soaked).
Last week we also went to the Seattle Olympic Sculpture Park which has some pretty interesting sculptures. We really liked a tree replica made out of stainless steel and some cool benches made to look like eyes. Another cool one was called a typewriter eraser which I think looks like a wheel and Trevor thinks it looks like a pizza cutter. What do you think? I don't think it looks like a typewriter eraser, but maybe I just haven't been experienced enough with typewriters. (Pre-computer folks, any input?)
One thing we have learned about grocery shopping here (maybe we have just got unlucky a few times) is that we always have to check our receipt and make sure they charged us for the right produce. Almost every single time we have gone, they have charged us for the wrong type of tomato (the one not on sale of course) or the wrong onion (also the one not on sale). Even though we have been unfortunate in this, yesterday due to coupons, sales and a miss-scanned-onion-refund, we got two gallons of milk, 6 yogurts, an onion, four tomatoes, 6 peaches and 8 plums all for $5.50! We feel it made up for previous overcharges.
I (Lindsay) had some good news this past week or so. My graduate advisor submitted my Master's thesis abstract to the NESSIS (New England Symposium for Statistics in Sports) and it was accepted to be presented as a poster! I am traveling to Cambridge, MA at Harvard to be at the conference on September 29th! I'm just relieved I don't have to actually present a talk. People can sometimes be ruthless at conferences like this. This will give me an extra push to work really hard on finishing up my project this summer. I'm almost done with the actual project, now I just have to write it up.
I (Trevor) am enjoying work! Just last week I got a new assignment which I'll be working on for the next couple of weeks. I'll tell you more about next week when I learn more about what exactly I'll be doing. Actually, come to think of it, it's kind of top-secret... so I'll be vague. In other news... I've been assigned a whole bunch of inactive people to home teach, most of which either don't live at their addresses any more or aren't interested in the church, but we did manage to set up an appointment with a young inactive guy who happens to also work at Amazon, so I'll see how that goes this week.
Well, we love you all! We're having a swell time in Seattle and we're looking forward to seeing (most of) you at the end of this summer!
Another previous post...
(This was from May 28, 2007)
Hello Family!
We know it has been a while, but it has felt like ever since we got to Seattle we have been running around being so busy! Here are some of our observations so far about Seattle:
* First of all, everyone was right, there is soooo much to do here! We've also noticed the cost of living is higher here, but we know we need to take advantage of the time we have here and do fun stuff even if it costs money. (Like spending $2.39 on a hazelnut truffle from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory...)
* Seattle is one of the greenest cities we've been to. It's like the Garden of Eden here, no joke! Utah is going to seem so barren when we get back!
* It does rain here, but it doesn't rain hard. It is almost misty-like. We also came at a good time, and don't think we will have near as much rain during the summer.
(This was taken right by Pike Place Market)
* People here are really trendy. They dress trendy and they are really into "health foods" and love organic stuff. We went to this one super market called "Metropolitan Market" and as Trevor put it, it's "yuppie" and very expensive. It's like Trader Joe's meets Albertson's. They've got organic stuff, regular stuff, and a lot of store-made artisan stuff. It's kind of fun! We'll head back when we have a craving for their $5 three-inch cheese cakes... (We hope you know we're joking...)
* It's been really nice to live downtown because we have a great view of the ocean and we can walk to a lot of our destinations. That's good because it costs money to park anywhere downtown (parking is really scarce). Downtown buses are free so we can ride to our work for free that way (just make sure you listen for your stop or tell the bus driver your stop or you'll end up in Mercer Island... ask Lindsay...)
* The city does have it's panhandlers, but overall it's not somewhere you'd be afraid to take your kids to.
* There are so many cafes and most of them are Starbucks (there are a hundred Starbucks within a 5 mile radius of where we live!). You can probably buy coffee within two minutes of wherever you are... We figure that Utah's replacement for cafes are creameries.
* There are also a lot of people with dogs. People are always walking dogs wherever we go. (There's even a dog park three blocks from where we live!)
* Seattle is very culturally diverse. Lindsay and I like to go on walks through the city, and last Saturday we stopped by a mall to get lunch. We were surprised to find an Indian food restaurant in the food court! We settled with some tasty Caribbean food.
* There are a lot of different events going on in Seattle. Last Saturday, we went to the Cheese Festival at Pike Place Market. We have never eaten so much and so many different types of cheese before! People were there from all over the world I think--They all had accents at least.
(Me in front of Pike Place at the Cheese festival)
* We're also happy to find that there are a lot of hiking and places to explore close by where we live. We drove like 15 minutes north to a place we'd never been to in Seattle to a public park the likes we'd never seen. It was like a mini national park. We were driving through a neighborhood and BAM! suddenly we were surround with lush green trees and thick plant growth.
The park has day hiking trails, a beach and even a spot designated for flying model airplanes! We walked through the forest there and were in awe at the landscape.
Another piece of good news, Lindsay FINALLY got an internship!!! It only took hours upon hours of searching, but networking helped tremendously. She is going to be working at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center--specifically with the HIV Vaccine Trials Network. She's just so excited have this experience and work with Ph.D's, MD's, MPH's, and other MS's! The lady that interviewed her said she publishes around 10-15 papers a year! She starts work on June 4th.
I'm (Trevor) about to start my third week here at Amazon.com. It's been a really fun experience for me. For one thing it's interesting to experience the work culture and how a big company functions. And on the other hand, it's like no other company I've heard of. It's very lax here. No one wears a suit and a tie, everyone just wears whatever they want. The company believes in being frugal, so they don't own any of the buildings they use, and the furnishings they use are very minimum. The funniest part is that all of the tables at Amazon that are used for work (computer desks, receptionist desks, conference tables etc.) are made out of doors! I'm serious! There aren't door knobs sticking out from the top and bottom, and the latches haven't been carved in the door. They're just sturdy lightly polished flat wooden doors. I'm working with the subscriptions team. We're in charge of all of the services that manage any product that has a subscription attached to it (for example, Amazon Prime and Unbox). I'm really enjoying myself and like my culturally diverse coworkers. (More about them later...)
Well, we should probably get going now. We hope everything is going well with everyone. We will write again soon.
Love,
Lindsay and Trevor
Hello Family!
We know it has been a while, but it has felt like ever since we got to Seattle we have been running around being so busy! Here are some of our observations so far about Seattle:
* First of all, everyone was right, there is soooo much to do here! We've also noticed the cost of living is higher here, but we know we need to take advantage of the time we have here and do fun stuff even if it costs money. (Like spending $2.39 on a hazelnut truffle from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory...)
* Seattle is one of the greenest cities we've been to. It's like the Garden of Eden here, no joke! Utah is going to seem so barren when we get back!
* It does rain here, but it doesn't rain hard. It is almost misty-like. We also came at a good time, and don't think we will have near as much rain during the summer.
(This was taken right by Pike Place Market)
* People here are really trendy. They dress trendy and they are really into "health foods" and love organic stuff. We went to this one super market called "Metropolitan Market" and as Trevor put it, it's "yuppie" and very expensive. It's like Trader Joe's meets Albertson's. They've got organic stuff, regular stuff, and a lot of store-made artisan stuff. It's kind of fun! We'll head back when we have a craving for their $5 three-inch cheese cakes... (We hope you know we're joking...)
* It's been really nice to live downtown because we have a great view of the ocean and we can walk to a lot of our destinations. That's good because it costs money to park anywhere downtown (parking is really scarce). Downtown buses are free so we can ride to our work for free that way (just make sure you listen for your stop or tell the bus driver your stop or you'll end up in Mercer Island... ask Lindsay...)
* The city does have it's panhandlers, but overall it's not somewhere you'd be afraid to take your kids to.
* There are so many cafes and most of them are Starbucks (there are a hundred Starbucks within a 5 mile radius of where we live!). You can probably buy coffee within two minutes of wherever you are... We figure that Utah's replacement for cafes are creameries.
* There are also a lot of people with dogs. People are always walking dogs wherever we go. (There's even a dog park three blocks from where we live!)
* Seattle is very culturally diverse. Lindsay and I like to go on walks through the city, and last Saturday we stopped by a mall to get lunch. We were surprised to find an Indian food restaurant in the food court! We settled with some tasty Caribbean food.
* There are a lot of different events going on in Seattle. Last Saturday, we went to the Cheese Festival at Pike Place Market. We have never eaten so much and so many different types of cheese before! People were there from all over the world I think--They all had accents at least.
(Me in front of Pike Place at the Cheese festival)
* We're also happy to find that there are a lot of hiking and places to explore close by where we live. We drove like 15 minutes north to a place we'd never been to in Seattle to a public park the likes we'd never seen. It was like a mini national park. We were driving through a neighborhood and BAM! suddenly we were surround with lush green trees and thick plant growth.
The park has day hiking trails, a beach and even a spot designated for flying model airplanes! We walked through the forest there and were in awe at the landscape.
Another piece of good news, Lindsay FINALLY got an internship!!! It only took hours upon hours of searching, but networking helped tremendously. She is going to be working at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center--specifically with the HIV Vaccine Trials Network. She's just so excited have this experience and work with Ph.D's, MD's, MPH's, and other MS's! The lady that interviewed her said she publishes around 10-15 papers a year! She starts work on June 4th.
I'm (Trevor) about to start my third week here at Amazon.com. It's been a really fun experience for me. For one thing it's interesting to experience the work culture and how a big company functions. And on the other hand, it's like no other company I've heard of. It's very lax here. No one wears a suit and a tie, everyone just wears whatever they want. The company believes in being frugal, so they don't own any of the buildings they use, and the furnishings they use are very minimum. The funniest part is that all of the tables at Amazon that are used for work (computer desks, receptionist desks, conference tables etc.) are made out of doors! I'm serious! There aren't door knobs sticking out from the top and bottom, and the latches haven't been carved in the door. They're just sturdy lightly polished flat wooden doors. I'm working with the subscriptions team. We're in charge of all of the services that manage any product that has a subscription attached to it (for example, Amazon Prime and Unbox). I'm really enjoying myself and like my culturally diverse coworkers. (More about them later...)
Well, we should probably get going now. We hope everything is going well with everyone. We will write again soon.
Love,
Lindsay and Trevor
Starting our life in Seattle
(This is actually from June 10, but I don't think everyone read it and this way we can keep all our journal entries together.)
Hello to our dear wonderful family!
We just wanted to write you and let you know how we are doing. We are enjoying the weather here even when it does rain. We are also enjoying the amazing luxury of having a washer/dryer and dishwasher in our apartment. I still can't believe how wonderful it is--it's going to be somewhat hard returning to our old apartment in Provo (but we can certainly make the transition).
It's really cool here because on the first Thursday of every month, a lot of museums are free in the downtown Seattle area. So this past Thursday we went to what is called "Experience Music Project" where they had different eras of music (hip hop, Disney, alternative, rock-and-roll, a Jimi Hendrix memorial, etc.). It was pretty cool; I especially enjoyed the Disney section and seeing the jacket Dick Van Dyke wore in Mary Poppins and the original piano score/music written for Aladdin's "A Whole New World". They also had a Science Fiction section separate from the EMP that was really cool! (I think apart from the Disney Exhibit, we enjoyed the Science Fiction Museum more - Trevor) We saw the outfit and actual rocket worn in the movie "The Rocketeer", the gigantic queen mother alien used in the movie "Aliens" (it really was gigantic!), the NASA outfit worn by Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes" and the orangutan costume used by the villain, and various other cool costumes, masks, guns, etc. used in filming sci-fi movies.
Last week we went to the Seattle Art Museum which was a really cool experience for us. They have a lot of different kinds of art: modern, Lamanite/Nephite era, African, Asian, Greek, Crusades, and other types that I can't remember. They also portrayed art through many different mediums such as video presentations, music, sculptures, armor, porcelain, clothing, ceremonial headmasks, etc. One really cool display was 9 actual white ford taurus' suspended in air rotated in different directions simulating a flip of a car. They had these bright beams of light flickering out from it. We kept thinking "Leah Florence would really like this place a lot!"
(Trevor here...) In the past two weeks I feel like I've gotten a better grasp of what I'm working on at work, because of this I'm enjoying my job more and feel like I'm able to get more done. One thing interesting about the group I work with is that we have a few things that we do periodically. Every Wednesday we have have a "Team Lunch" and go somewhere as a team to get lunch. We've been to American, Greek and Chinese places all within walking distance of our office! Downtown Seattle is really diverse and interesting. Everyday around 3 or 4 we play a couple games of foosball ( a.k.a. table tennis), I'm not all that good at it, but I feel like I've been getting better lately. I like the people I work with and everyone is very willing to help me out and help guide me through what I'm working on. When I'm not at work I spend my time doing fun things with Lindsay, reading (on the bus and at home; so far I've read The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass, The Magician's Nephew and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Click on the links for some shameless self promotion...), studying for the GRE, and programming a game I'm working on called Koosh (I'm trying to make a Mario-ish game from scratch using Java). I'm really enjoying the chance we have this summer to relax a bit and enjoy Seattle.
I (Lindsay) am really enjoying my internship at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center: HIV Vaccine Trials Network. I have learned more about the human immune system in one week than I ever thought possible for me. It has been thrilling for me, though, to work with people who are working to save the lives of so many people to prevent the spread of HIV. I didn't realize that about 60 million people have the virus and 20 million have died from AIDS so far (those numbers are rough estimates and I've heard different numbers from various sources here). What I am currently working on is basically trying to figure out how many people they need for a particular clinical trial to test if it is possible to have a universal vaccine that will work for all the different strains of the HIV virus. Another project I am going to start next week concerns the screening process they go through to find people to participate in the vaccine clinical trials. They want to know basically where do most people get disqualified to participate, what is the best way to recruit people (newspaper, radio, e-mail, etc.), and other demographical information on a site-by-site basis. It's really exciting and I feel so blessed to be working here.
P.S. Here is our view from our balcony (This is where the cruise ships dock on the weekends)
Hello to our dear wonderful family!
We just wanted to write you and let you know how we are doing. We are enjoying the weather here even when it does rain. We are also enjoying the amazing luxury of having a washer/dryer and dishwasher in our apartment. I still can't believe how wonderful it is--it's going to be somewhat hard returning to our old apartment in Provo (but we can certainly make the transition).
It's really cool here because on the first Thursday of every month, a lot of museums are free in the downtown Seattle area. So this past Thursday we went to what is called "Experience Music Project" where they had different eras of music (hip hop, Disney, alternative, rock-and-roll, a Jimi Hendrix memorial, etc.). It was pretty cool; I especially enjoyed the Disney section and seeing the jacket Dick Van Dyke wore in Mary Poppins and the original piano score/music written for Aladdin's "A Whole New World". They also had a Science Fiction section separate from the EMP that was really cool! (I think apart from the Disney Exhibit, we enjoyed the Science Fiction Museum more - Trevor) We saw the outfit and actual rocket worn in the movie "The Rocketeer", the gigantic queen mother alien used in the movie "Aliens" (it really was gigantic!), the NASA outfit worn by Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes" and the orangutan costume used by the villain, and various other cool costumes, masks, guns, etc. used in filming sci-fi movies.
Last week we went to the Seattle Art Museum which was a really cool experience for us. They have a lot of different kinds of art: modern, Lamanite/Nephite era, African, Asian, Greek, Crusades, and other types that I can't remember. They also portrayed art through many different mediums such as video presentations, music, sculptures, armor, porcelain, clothing, ceremonial headmasks, etc. One really cool display was 9 actual white ford taurus' suspended in air rotated in different directions simulating a flip of a car. They had these bright beams of light flickering out from it. We kept thinking "Leah Florence would really like this place a lot!"
(Trevor here...) In the past two weeks I feel like I've gotten a better grasp of what I'm working on at work, because of this I'm enjoying my job more and feel like I'm able to get more done. One thing interesting about the group I work with is that we have a few things that we do periodically. Every Wednesday we have have a "Team Lunch" and go somewhere as a team to get lunch. We've been to American, Greek and Chinese places all within walking distance of our office! Downtown Seattle is really diverse and interesting. Everyday around 3 or 4 we play a couple games of foosball ( a.k.a. table tennis), I'm not all that good at it, but I feel like I've been getting better lately. I like the people I work with and everyone is very willing to help me out and help guide me through what I'm working on. When I'm not at work I spend my time doing fun things with Lindsay, reading (on the bus and at home; so far I've read The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass, The Magician's Nephew and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Click on the links for some shameless self promotion...), studying for the GRE, and programming a game I'm working on called Koosh (I'm trying to make a Mario-ish game from scratch using Java). I'm really enjoying the chance we have this summer to relax a bit and enjoy Seattle.
I (Lindsay) am really enjoying my internship at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center: HIV Vaccine Trials Network. I have learned more about the human immune system in one week than I ever thought possible for me. It has been thrilling for me, though, to work with people who are working to save the lives of so many people to prevent the spread of HIV. I didn't realize that about 60 million people have the virus and 20 million have died from AIDS so far (those numbers are rough estimates and I've heard different numbers from various sources here). What I am currently working on is basically trying to figure out how many people they need for a particular clinical trial to test if it is possible to have a universal vaccine that will work for all the different strains of the HIV virus. Another project I am going to start next week concerns the screening process they go through to find people to participate in the vaccine clinical trials. They want to know basically where do most people get disqualified to participate, what is the best way to recruit people (newspaper, radio, e-mail, etc.), and other demographical information on a site-by-site basis. It's really exciting and I feel so blessed to be working here.
P.S. Here is our view from our balcony (This is where the cruise ships dock on the weekends)
Some cool links...
So the other day Trevor was showing me this really funny website called "Will it Blend". They take objects that typically don't go in a blender (like an iPod) and see if they can blend it. They have really powerful blenders and it is amazing what they are able to blend (that's why I asked you mom where your mixer was from, it is the same company!). Maybe we are just strange, but we found it fascinating. My favorite was the glow stick one. I'd say it's good advertising for their product don't you? They are located in Orem, UT.
Here is the glow stick video:
Here is another video for your enjoyment (this explains our blog title). Be prepared for something really really random! It's funnier when you watch it with other people and it's like the fifth time you've seen it (so don't feel bad if you think it is not so funny).
There are more I want to post, but Trevor wants me to wait and we will post them later. Stay tuned for more cool links!
Here is the glow stick video:
Here is another video for your enjoyment (this explains our blog title). Be prepared for something really really random! It's funnier when you watch it with other people and it's like the fifth time you've seen it (so don't feel bad if you think it is not so funny).
There are more I want to post, but Trevor wants me to wait and we will post them later. Stay tuned for more cool links!
Our First Posting!
I feel like I'm copying everyone else, but I have to admit how much I enjoy reading other people's blogs and this is the fastest way to communicate to family members how things are going in our lives. Trevor wanted to create a "Choose your own adventure" blog (one in which you could follow us through our daily lives!), but he didn't have the time to program it. He even tried using a program called flex to create a website, but that also was taking too much time. So we decided to go the fastest and easy way and use blogspot.
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