Wow, do pageviews drop off sharply if you don’t blog for a while.
So after spending the last couple of weeks visiting family across the country–literally across the country, from Massachusetts to Iowa–I’m back here in good old Provo, Utah, surrounded by the mountains once again (I can just hear my grandma … “what’s so great about a pile of rocks?”).
Here were some of the highlights:
- Seeing my parents (yay!) and spending some quality time with them.
- Babysitting my niece and nephews and spending time with that side of the family.
- Beach bumming on the Cape Cod National Seashore.
- Eating fried clams and lobster in Wellfleet at Moby Dick’s.
- Playing Shanghai with my parents every night for a week and a half.
- Beating my brother-in-law at Settlers of Catan for the first time (he’s good!).
- Watching the entire Ken Burn’s Civil War documentary series.
- Touring Nauset Light and the Three Sisters.
- Touring the Cape Cod Potato Chip factory.
- Hanging out with Mom in Downtown Hyannis.
- Acquiring an awesome new Indiana Jones style hat.
- Going to church with a bunch of high priests sporting crocs.
- Picking Monsanto corn and getting the whole corn experience.
- Browsing a bookshelf of Ursula K. Le Guin novels I’ve never read.
- Getting a bunch of awesome new story ideas (see previous post).
- Taking the California Zephyr across the country–twice!
So yeah, it was a pretty awesome summer vacation. It’s good to be back in Utah, though. As much as I have a love/hate relationship with Provo, Utah really is my favorite place on Earth.
I’ve only been back a couple of hours, but it seems that it’s been an eventful two weeks since I’ve been gone. One of my former roommates ran off without paying his share of the utilities, after jacking up the AC all summer (lovely). After filing a police report, however, we may be able to get some of that back.
My tomatoes have been growing like CRAZY. Only one has been harvested, but there are dozens hanging off of the vines. Anybody want to make salsa?
As far as church goes, the ward boundaries have been completely rearranged. Seriously, the map looks like a shredder went to it. On our block, it’s us and the house two doors down from us (we think), then one of the apartments from Liberty Square, then another random house a block north of us. Crazy.
I don’t know yet if I’ll be sticking around in my current place for the fall or not. It’s a good situation, and the roommates are great, but the neighborhood is full of freshmen and sophomore college students. I need to find some more people my age to hang out with. Next month marks the beginning of the final year of my twenties, and I plan to make it count.
I got a lot of work done on Star Wanderers: Reproach (Part VII) while traveling on the train, but I still need some of my first readers to give it another read-through before I’m confident enough to publish it. Hopefully, that shouldn’t take too long–I’m shooting for publication before the end of September. Also, the print edition of Stars of Blood and Glory will hopefully be finalized before the end of the month as well.
That’s just about it for now. I’ll leave you with some folk music from the Caucasus Mountains, this time on the accordion:
Rousing stuff. I wish I could play the accordion like that.
Take care!
