scoop

As you might have noticed, I haven't been writing much for the past month or so. I work on the computer all day, and when I get home, I read the blogs I love, but I have been giving my wrists a break.

To fill in the gaps on some of the missing moments, I might be repeating myself a little to give the details.

My wonderful Aunt Velora passed away on Sept 12. I flew to Utah last minute to attend her funeral. It was a great service and really tough for me to lose her. We were good friends.

A few days after I got back, we had tickets to see AIR in concert. (I recommend checking out the video of them on Mark's blog.) It was the first concert we ever went to together and my first since 1997. It was a really cool experience.

Ryan was in LA the next day and we hung out and went to the beach for part of the day. It was dad's day, so I had a rootbeer float for him.

The following weekend, I went to Boston on business.


It was a pretty city and I got to take a "Duck Tour" in a WWII amphibious tank. We drove the historical sites in the city, and then drove right into the Charles River and boated the historical sites from that view. I learned a lot at the conference about catastrophe modeling and gave a presentation to my work group on it this last week. (Which went pretty well.)

A few days after I got back, Jennifer and Stephanie came out to visit. We took Stephanie to Universal Studios Horror Nights for about 10 minutes. It was so scary that we had to leave. (I think Stephanie will not forgive us for a long time.) They had really good actors in really good makeup with chainsaws and lopped off body parts, some of whome come up and try to lick your face. I want to go back.

Well, we did go back, just not during Horror Nights. We went back during the day for the regular Universal Studios experience. (I had no idea they had such good rides.) We went on Mummy and Jurrassic Park over and over and over (and over...) and we had two day passes, so they were able to go back to the park (I had to work)... but I would have enjoyed "...one more time" on Mummy. There were virtually no lines the day I went. They were in town for nearly a week and we had so much fun that it was hard to see them go. More sand Castles.

This weekend, Mark and I took a road trip to Long Beach. We also went through Compton as though it was a drive-through safari. We wanted to see gang-bangers selling drugs and other dangerous things. It was disappointing, because it just looked like many other LA neighborhoods. No bullet holes or anything. Lots of rims and tires.

Anyway, tomorrow is Mark's 30th Bday. We are going to another concert, Rilo Kiley, and having a party on Friday.