Thesis Bound, Degree Found

I received my official, university, hardbound copy of my thesis in the mail a few days ago. It still makes me sigh with relief knowing that it's finished. I'm not exactly sure what to do with it except put it on the bookshelf for my kids to marvel at later. At least it has color pictures to admire.

I checked my records a few days later on BYU's website and it showed I had not yet received my MS. Seeing as how 1, the thought of doing any more work on my degree makes me ill and 2, I was hired (and salaried) on condition of receiving that degree and they have since contacted me asking for some hard evidence, that made me a wee bit anxious. A letter from my advisor has, for the time being, satisfied my employer, but since the official graduation date I have been checking the website frequently in anticipation.

Today I was pleased to be presented with the words "No Current Programs. Completed Programs: Computer Science BS, Computer Science MS". I'm pretty sure nothing can go wrong at this point. I'll feel even better when my transcript is sent to my employer and I have physical possession of my diploma. Not that the paper means anything, but I think that's the last piece to finally make it all seem "done" to me.

But they'll suffocate!

Here's a good quote I heard in a meeting today that can be wonderfully taken out of context:

"These guys are producing a good bit of gas, we might want to shut them in."

Lawn Services

Around here, the grass grows fast. Optimally, I would mow the lawn once a week. Realistically, it's more like 1½ to 2. I was planning on mowing on time last Saturday, as it had been about a week since I last mowed, but then the rain started. "No problem," I thought, "I'll just do it some evening early next week."

Sunday came, and it was a beautiful day. After church, we went on a walk around the neighborhood and passed by our neighbor on the way back, who was starting to mow his lawn. "It's Sunday," I thought, "I'll get to that tomorrow." Little did I know what my obedience would cost.

There's a reason the grass grows so fast -- it's because it gets plenty of moisture. It rained on Monday. It rained on Tuesday. It rained on Wednesday. It poured on Thursday. The weather finally cleared up today, but I'm thinking I might as well wait until Saturday now. The grass has already been ridiculously long for a while now anyway, one more day won't hurt, right?

Hold on, let me check the forecast...Hm. Looks like tonight's my night!

Anniversary Thoughts

Amber and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary a week or so ago with an early trip to San Antonio, and dinner at Outback Steakhouse (without a wiggly baby) on the actual day. These last two years have been really good. We did our time as "poor" college students, we created a perfect child, I got my Master's degree, I got a good job, we bought a beautiful house, and things are working just like I always imagined and expected, including my marriage.

Amber recently posted her thoughts about our anniversary and I would have to agree -- I don't feel like it's been hard work at all. This is the way I always thought my marriage would be. We feel completely comfortable with who we are; there are no pretenses, there is no overt selfishness, just a desire to make each other happy. We communicate, we tell the truth, and we agree to disagree on unimportant differences of opinion. We naturally find a balance of labor and adjust it as needed, both long- and short-term. We're happy because we have someone with whom we can share everything, and who wants to share it.

Maybe I was unnaturally prescient as a child in what to expect from marriage. Only recently have I felt that the person everyone sees is what I really am on the inside. This is what I've been waiting for; I've always wanted to be a married adult. Instead of disillusionment after the initial newlywedded bliss, I feel a reassuring comfort in my pedantic existence. I love coming home to play with my baby girl and trade thoughts with my best friend. Going out is almost a chore.

I used to worry that I'd eventually tire of being around the person I married. After two years it hasn't happened. Maybe Amber's right and I'm the only guy in the world that doesn't irritate her and the only guy she could have ever married. In that case we were incredibly lucky to have found each other. Maybe we just have enough of the qualities necessary to make a good marriage. Maybe we enjoy what others call work, or maybe we just know enough to avoid it.

In any case, I'm happier now than I've ever been and I'm peacefully content with my life. Marriage is fun, not work, and I look foward to many more anniversaries.

Windowless Office

It's been a while since I've blogged. That's not particularly noteworthy, except that this time I have a list of things to blog about, I just haven't had a computer.

On Monday of this week I transferred to another position at work. For the last 6 months or so, I was working in a department that didn't really need me, I wasn't doing what I wanted to do, and I had a hard time scraping up even that kind of work to do. When my supervisor left for a position working closely with the developers, I told him to put in a good word for me and a few weeks later I received notice that I was moving. Overall, it is a very positive move. I'm going to be doing software development, I have plenty of work to do, and there are 3 other BYU grads in my group. I think I'm going to be much happier here.

There are some trade-offs, however. The temporary problem is that my move requisition wasn't filed in time, so my computer has been at my old location for about a week now (I should get it tomorrow). For the first few days I could only read documentation when a workroom computer was available, rearrange my office, and try not to look awkward sitting around with not much to do. Just like old times. Luckily, I've been able to borrow a laptop from the team lead so I can now do at least some work from my office.

The office is another drawback. I no longer have my 5th floor window office. Many of the office at this location have windows, albeit small ones, but as the newbie to the team I got the inner, used-to-be-a-storage-room office. I can't complain too much, seeing as how I don't have to share it with anybody and it has a door, but I miss seeing the rainstorms come and go... ...and watching the cars drive by (and get pulled over)......and seeing random things like a guy climbing around on his fire truck
Perhaps the worst part is that I now have a 50% longer commute, spending about 45 minutes on the road in each direction. Thank goodness for our hybrid. A lot of that is on the highway where speeds average around 60 so I'm getting above 48 mpg.

PS - The first picture is one I took during a lunch on the top floor of a very tall building downtown, not the view from my office unfortunately.

Anniversary Trip

Our second wedding anniversary is today (I might post more tender, squishy things about that later), which inspired us to get off our homebody rears and do something interesting. I took off Friday and we spent a long weekend seeing the sights in San Antonio.

We left Thursday evening and made the 3.5~4 hour drive to San Antonio without incident. Olivia was her usual sweet self and didn't give us too much grief. I was thoroughly unimpressed with San Antonio upon arrival. I hadn't realized how much smaller it is than Houston and it definitely has a more rural, Texan feel. We drove across town and stayed in the luxurious EconoLodge.

On Friday we spent all day at Sea World. I wasn't sure how long Olivia would last, but we stayed from 10 to 7 and really enjoyed ourselves. We got up close with the dolphins, sea lions, and baby belugas, watched a 4D pirate movie, ski show, and trained-animal show, and of course saw multiple Shamus. We went to the morning and evening shows of that. I think my favorite was the evening sea lion (and walrus) show, where they parody all the other shows. It was really funny.

At the aquarium	Jellyfish (and us on right)
Lion Fish	It was a hot day
But Olivia was happy	Fer cute
At the beluga stadium	Shamu
At the sea lion show	Still happy at the end of the day

On Saturday morning we drove into town to see the Alamo and the Riverwalk. The grounds at the Alamo are beautifully kept and the exhibits were good. We had fun learning about the history of Mexico/Texas. After that we walked over to the Riverwalk, a scenic shopping and restaurant area lining the river that's down below most of the streets. Olivia was kind enough to take a nap and we had a nice stroll. It's a really cool area. After that we picked up some lunch and headed home.

On the Alamo grounds	Olivia on a cannon
The way I frame pictures	The way the guy behind us in line does
Along the outer wall	The Riverwalk

Edouard disappoints

We successfully weathered our first tropical cyclone, but it was an anticlimactic experience. As I predicted, Edouard was too weakly named to become a good storm, although I was wrong about how - it was more "weak and drizzly" than "lightning and flair". It hit land earlier than expected and never gained enough strength to become a hurricane. Although it passed right over us, it was a tropical storm in name only by that point, just dumping rain on us all day. I didn't even have to stay home from work.

The good news is that we had all of our emergency supplies already prepared, so we were ready if anything had happened.

On a related note, I think they should seriously consider replacing the oddly-spelled Edouard on the Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Names with the name Eliot, just so that when it becomes a tropical storm it can be abbreviated TS Eliot.