Travelling to Arizona

Well, we are getting settled in here in Arizona. The last week in Provo was crazy. Packing and moving can really drag you down during the Christmas season. I mean, we were pumped to get out of the dungeon, but the stress involved is killer.

The biggest success of the move was the retirement of Kristi's life size teddy bear, "Mister Hersey." I liked the good ole boy, but it was time to part ways. We looked at Kristi's graduation as a graduation from Mr. Hersey too.


The trip down to Arizona was pretty grueling too. Snow from the night before made the roads slick....We took a fun detour through a little town called Overton in Nevada. I actually got to see our tax dollars putting people to work too! The America Reinvestment and Recovery act has commissioned the repaving of some twenty five miles in a National Park (a.k.a. smack dab in the middle of no where). I think we saw about five cars in about a two hour strip of this scenic drive. Don't get me wrong, the new roads were beautiful. At some points there were islands for planting flowers and curbs that made it look like new subdivisions were going to spring up all over the place. I am so proud.



Well, Christmas was a amazing. We went to an assisted living community on Christmas Eve and sang. Extremely heart warming. On the 27th, Kristi and I celebrated our One year anniversary. Dad can't make fun of us anymore. We made it past the year mark! I am so happy to have Kristi as my wife. She is beautiful and caring. She is witty and intelligent. She makes me whole on so many levels. I look forward to a long life and beyond with her by my side. To all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Life in Transition

Well, I'm writing this on the eve of our one year anniversary. This first year has been a year in transition. Our nomadic lifestyle can be stressful, but to end the year we passed a huge mile stone in Kristi's life. She is a College Grad! I am so proud of this beautiful intelligent woman. She is kind and considerate to everyone; she's a diligent student and a patient wife. Unfortunately, BYU doesn't have a winter graduation ceremony, so Kristi didn't get the opportunity to walk across a stage and receive the credit and honor she deserves.

Luckily her family jumped in to fill the void and help us really digest this accomplishment. Kristi's dad put together a large dinner at Brick Oven with many of Kristi's extended family.







After the meal, Kristi's Dad and sister's slammed us with a surprise graduation ceremony just for Kristi! I recorded the speak they made her give on the spot, but the get up was the best.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

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New Blog and Website Alert

I know I'm making way too many blogs right now, but this one is going to be really important.

In the Diving Board you will see a link to my new China Blog. Kristi and I won't be leaving for a few months still, but I made it with my recent class project. Also, you ought to see what I've done with my class assignment to make a personal web page with sites about some of my interests. I've also made a site about Fuqing, so go learn a little about where we'll be living:

http://kirkhomepage.limewebs.com/index.htm

Google Wave

Well, I've been playing around with Google's newest creation. Wave is more than just a reinvention of email or instant messaging. Rather, it makes it possible to view a conversation as a document and a document as a conversation. Here is a video from some of the developers explaining some of wave's powerful functions:



It's still in preview form and so many of the features are still unstable, but I've included with his post a a video from a developer who loves Google wave. Listen to what she has to say:

Thanksgiving

Blogging Status

Well, I guess this home page will be the place where I update you on our status here in Utah. I guess the reason why I failed to right much on my old blog was the shear boredom that is my life (I feel like this awesome baby!). I figure it's hard to right about your life in an interesting fashion unless you have #1 talent, #2 a whole lot of drive to write.

I hope the second helps me to do better.

Thanksgiving Day

Well...

Let me walk you through the day. This year Kristi and I had no family to spend the day with, so we made plans with some friends of ours to prepare a huge feast (like a Viking Meade Hall style). It would be epic.

Our irreverently non-domestic household had the grand responsibility of making the following:

1. Three Pies - Two Pumpkin and my Dad's famous Chocolate Creme
2. Green Bean Casserole
3. Stuffing and...
4. Well, that's it. We couldn't manage much more!

We had never made any of these dishes, and, truth be told, we don't usually make any dishes. That's why this becomes such an epic story. We huddled together with a plan of attack. I would build the stuffing masterpiece, Kristi would defeat the casserole fiends, and then we'd jump on the desserts as a team.

Let me just say, our individual efforts led to hopeful success! The stuffing (easy as pie...hehe, that's funny considering) and the casserole (simple) turned out beautifully.

The pumpkin pies, however, were the beginning of our woes. At the end of side dishes, the kitchen was actually still pretty clean, but did you know that pumpkin pie filling starts as a liquid? The directions on our can of pumpkin mush said we had enough for two pies. We came prepared with two pie shells. Two cans of condensed milk and volumes of other ingredients later, we had about a gallon of liquid with the consistency and color of tropical V8 splash! Not what we expected.

We read over the directions a couple times a little confused. Did we make a measuring error or something? No, we obeyed to the letter...

Okay, I guess you have to bake it and then it will solidify as part of the baking process! Well, that turns out to be true. However, shallow foil pie pans have about the same strength as a paper plate. Not exactly the most rigid structure...

Needless to say we should have put the trays on the rack and THEN poured that goop into the pans. Instead, we tried to move them. Luck for us, the can that was supposed to make enough for two pies actually produced enough filling for about 40! We had two pies in the trays and about 20 pies worth, in combination, on our floor and burned on the inside of our oven. Our apartment looked like an ancient Greek sauna, minus the naked old politicians, and then substituting steam with smoke.

You think maybe an analogy with a smoke filled room would better? Fine, our house looked like...the foggy haze after an explosion. It was a mess; but although the battle was lost, we won the war!

The pies ended up tasting great, and even though I didn't stir the chocolate pie long enough for it to set, it too tasted very nice. All in all, the feast was a mad success. We ate like kings. and then I watched the Longhorns win...sigh...perfect. Thanksgiving is a holiday that I think almost gets under rated by our capitalistic focus on Christmas, but the truth is, Thanksgiving makes for an awesome time. Adventure awaits those gracious enough to seek it.