A Summer-y Summary

Turns out that it's been forever since I've blogged.  I mostly blame getting a smartphone for that (yes, I just got one this summer) and Twitter.  And Facebook.  And social media in general.  And writing in my journal, which is exactly like blogging, except that I can be perfectly honest and candid without offending anyone.

So, I guess it's time to set some new blogging goals.  How about monthly? Maybe more often if I can.  For the between times, be sure to check out my Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ accounts, where I'll post my spur of the moment thoughts and ideas, and where I don't feel bad about forgetting to post anything.

A note on my social media policy: anyone can follow me on Twitter and see all my tweets.  Anyone can follow me on Google+ and see some of my posts.  Only people who I know in real life and I would call my friend (like I might give you my cell phone number) can add me on Facebook and see anything.  I think I'm essentially invisible on FB otherwise.

Back to the summer-y.

Baby Thor is huge now!  He can walk around (while supported by the couch, his parents, or whatever else he can climb up on) and loves climbing all the stairs we let him find.

My favorite thing is that he can now understand things we say to him (like No, Touchdown, and questions he doesn't know the answer to).  He is the cutest boy in the world and now I can't wait for football season to start.  (Thor, Touchdown! *Baby Thor throws his arms up above his head*) Maybe he'll learn to say words soon.  Then we'll be in trouble.

I spent the summer working at a temporary position ultimately for a pharmaceutical company called Actavis in their Salt Lake location.  It's been a real adventure and I've learned a lot about future careers.  (I will not spend the rest of my life conduct the same tests over and over on different products)  I somewhat surprised everyone by putting in my two-week notice, but when you're moving to another state there's not a real possibility of continuing your work.

I expect great things from you Wisconsin.

Speaking of moving to another state, we're getting ready to move to Madison, Wisconsin for graduate school in the next few days.  I have a vague idea of how cold the winters are going to get and how good the cheese will be.  At least those seem to be the only things my fellow Utahns know about the state.  All I know is that if your license plates say "America's Dairyland," there better be some incredible milk and cheese, to rival even the BYU Creamery.

Hayley and Sam took a trip to Oregon for a family reunion with Hayley's folks.  They had a great time, but it left like they were gone for way too long (10 days is a long time.)  While they were away, my 4th cousin from France named Christophe Doremus came to visit.  We had an awesome time, I found out that I can somewhat understand French, and I learned some basic vocabulary (breakfast, lunch, dinner, cake, ice cream, apple juice... we mostly had meals together.)  He and my parents took off to San Francisco and to Bryce Canyon, leaving me all alone on two separate occasions.  Worst days ever.  0/5 stars.  Would not buy again.

A Utah Railway train. Way different than Frontrunner.

I've been riding the Frontrunner train this summer, which has been a good adventure.  90 minutes each way
gives you a lot of time to think about life and the universe.  And restart my scripture reading habit - I read through the Book of Mormon again this summer.  And it helped me study for the advisory exams I'll be taking as soon as I get to Madison.  Did you know that there's no official publication to study for the ACS Analytical Chemistry exam?  Neither did I, and I'm confident that all my class notes from forever are packed up in a box somewhere at the moment.

But I miss seeing my family most of the day.  Leaving home at 6 am to be at work by 8 am, then not getting home until 7:30 or 8 pm makes for a weird loneliness.  It's hard to describe.  But getting to work as much overtime as I wanted was nice.

By the way, has anyone noticed that Pinterest is just Google Image Search except that you can save things?

Wow.  This ended up being a lot longer than I thought it was going to be.  I guess it's okay because I'm making up for months of no posts.

I watched the Saratov Approach on Netflix the other day.  It was really good, especially for an LDS film.  Go watch it right now and then come back to this.  Seriously.  It's only 100 minutes long or something.

And I'll be watching Guardians of the Galaxy soon.  That will be exciting.

You can tell that I'm running out of things to say by the increase of one-sentence paragraphs.  Let's call this the end for now.