Fitbit sleep tracker

Some of you already heard this, but Jeran gave me an early Christmas present. Sort of. A few weeks ago he was in bed sleeping or about to be asleep and I came in to go to bed (a.k.a. read a book). When I sat down on the bed he told me I should go get the pink wrapped present from under the tree and open it. "Now???" I asked him. "I think it would be a good opportunity for this one." he said. I got up, shuffled some stuff around and asked, "Really, I should open it now?" "It would be more conducive to opening early," he said, or something like that but he definitely said conducive. So I went and got it and brought it into our room and opened it up. Yay! Just what I've always wanted! A fitbit activity and sleep tracker. Jeran went to sleep and I got my fitbit all set up and read how to use it.  

The next morning, Jeran came into the office where I was working and asked if I had opened a Christmas present. Apparently he had seen the wrapping paper in the garbage can, looked under the tree for the present of the appropriate size and wrapping to match the stuff in the trash, and not finding it, came to ask me if I'd been opening presents without him. He was pretty confused when I told him what happened. Oh well. Give me presents in your sleep all you want, Jeran, I won't complain.

Anyways, that was just the lead-in to what I really wanted to show you and talk about and that is the awesomeness of the fitbit's sleep tracker. It's interesting and useful (I guess) to see your steps taken each day but what I love looking at more is the sleep tracking. When you are ready to go to sleep you hold down the button to start the timer and until you push the button again in the morning, it records that time as sleeping and records the movement in a different way to show you how much you stirred/moved, indicating your waking up patterns through the night.

So without further ado, here is an example. Namely, my own sleep tracking for last week. Super awesome, huh?! I would have no idea about my sleep patterns (or lack thereof) without the fitbit because I'm  unconscious for most of it.

Anyways, I like it a lot and am glad I got to open it before Christmas. If anyone else has a fitbit and wants to be fitbit buddies, let me know or add me as a friend on fitbit.com

Key Largo Thanksgiving

Over Thanksgiving week we decided to take a trip down to Key Largo, Florida. My sister Jessica came with us and we had a great time. We did some scuba diving/snorkeling, laid on the beach at our hotel, went to Kennedy Space center and the Miami Zoo.

Jeran and I drove down a day early so we could go to Kennedy Space Center before picking Jessica up from the airport. We stayed in a nice little family resort in Daytona Beach called Viking Lodge. The next day we went to Kennedy Space Center and saw lots of awesome stuff there. Jeran really liked the Saturn V rocket. It was pretty amazing.

Then we drove to Ft Lauderdale and picked Jessica up and got some groceries. We drove down to Key Largo and found our hotel. The next morning we left to go diving and snorkeling and it was quite chilly. The boat people kept saying that it was warmer in the water. We got to the first dive site, Christ of the Abyss, and got in and it was definitely not warmer. It was quite chilly and a bit murky.

Jessica liked this first dive site. It was her first look at the reefs and there were some very shallow reefs and fish that she could see right up close, and she wasn't too cold. Jeran and I didn't like the first dive so much because it was turbid enough that visibility was quite low and it was too cold to be comfortable, even with our full wetsuits. We didn't see anything awesome, mostly just shivered along looking at the little fish and wondering where the statue was- we didn't want to miss the actual site there. We eventually found the Christ statute and it was interesting to see it underwater with hands reaching up to the light. 

When we got back on the boat, it was just as cold as underwater, maybe colder with the wind. Jeran and I weren't too impressed with Key Largo diving at this point. We went to another dive site about a mile away and got in the water. This time, the water was warmer than the air and it felt quite nice. This was a wreck site called City of Washington and there were pieces of coral-covered ship strewn all about as you swam around. We saw a big grouper and lots of big barracuda all over the place. I saw a green huge moray swimming around trying to find a hole to hide in. They are so creepy.

After those two dives, we went back to the hotel and got cleaned up. The hotel owners had invited all the guests over for Thanksgiving dinner (about 30 people) so we went over there and waited and socialized. It was pretty good and interesting to talk with and listen to the other guests from such different backgrounds. The food was pretty good and we got to try deep-fried turkey. It's good, but not good enough that I would want that instead of regular cooked turkey. We ate homemade key lime pie, made by a lady who has lived there for a long time and with key limes from a tree she planted, so it was very authentic and delicious. Outside their house, which is adjacent to the hotel, they had some green lights that shown onto refracted sheets and caused there to be sparkles all over the house exterior, patio, trees, and yard. It was pretty neat and beautiful.

The next morning we went back out on the boat. It was just the three of us and the boat captain. We went back to near the site of our second dive. As we approached and tied up to the buoy, we saw a lot of sea turtles swimming around near the surface. We got in and saw some sea turtles close up. Jessica swam with some and we watched one eat jellyfish. Jeran and I dove along the reef and Jessica snorkeled around. While we were apart Jessica saw two sharks! Probably a reef shark and a nurse shark. We saw some lobster and some pretty neat reefs and more barracuda.

It was much warmer this day and the waves and wind were quite calm. For the second dive that day we went just a short ways off to a different section of reef. It was so beautiful and peaceful.

The sun was shining and warm so it was a pretty nice boat ride back. We got cleaned up again, and laid on the lounge chairs on the beach and read our books and napped a bit. We also cooked two delicious meals that day, pineapple chicken sandwiches and pizza. We went souvenir hunting and saw the African Queen boat (it's pretty small). We hurried back to catch the sunset from the beach and caught the tail end of it in these pictures.

Our dive the next day got canceled due to high winds and waves so we went to Zoo Miami instead. It was pretty good. The gibbons were entertaining and the rhinoceros was amazingly huge. My favorite was the okapi because it was right up by the fence and paying attention to us and sticking it's tongue out to reach the shrubs. It was so silky-shiny and beautiful. After that we stayed one night in Jupiter, FL (where we were supposed to have dived that day) and then drove back to Atlanta to take Jessica home and see Aunt Kara.

It was a lovely Thanksgiving and I'm thankful we could do take such a fun trip!

Trunk or Treat

We went to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat this year, or as I was always accidentally calling it, Trick-or-Trunk, which sounds a bit more sinister.  Our ward does this every year but we had never been before. Jeran and I dressed up this year and decorated our trunk and handed out candy too.  Jeran isn't big on dressing up but I proposed an idea he just couldn't pass up.

We were astronauts.

And our trunk was the moon.

It was pretty sweet.

In case you're wondering, here are some details on the different pieces.

The Portable Life Support Systems (PLSS) units, are the backpack-like things the astronauts carried to provide them with oxygen and perhaps a few other features. Ours were made from a few cardboard boxes pieced together and painted white (just white primer rolled on). We printed a flag, an Apollo mission patch, and the Water Reservoir Recharge label and used spray glue to attach them, and the straps were made from an old shirt and stuck through slits with dowels holding them in place.

The helmets were made from papier maché. The forms were punch balloons with cereal box bases around the neck area. I actually had to make three helmets because I had two punch balloons but one of them had a slow leak. I discovered this half way through applying the paper mache and attempted to keep it alive until it dried by frequently reinflating it, but it ended up drying more like a shriveled brain than a helmet. 

(Aside: The failed helmet was really pretty weird looking and I thought it would be great or something else although I couldn't think what, but apparently Jeran is grossed out by wet paper mache and the paste, so I just threw it out. See the picture at the very end of this post.) 

So after the first set was dry, I deflated the good balloon and made a second with that. I used newspaper strips with flour and water paste, with white paper on the outside layer to make painting easier. I cut out the face holes and some shoulder divots and we spray painted them white. Jeran painted a red stripe on his to indicate that he was the mission commander.

This is the Luner Excursion Module (LEM). Jeran made it from cereal boxes and a balsa stick. He spray painted the top and covered the bottom in shimmery copper scrapbook paper. It looks great!

The suits were just white pants we already had and I got two long sleeve white t shirts at Target. I figured we would want to glue things on them and didn't want to wreck any of our own shirts. We had a flag on the left arm, the NASA patch, the Apollo mission patch, a name, and several valve covers, which were really milk, salad dressing, syrup, etc. caps that we collected over the past month or two and painted red and blue. We hot glued or spray glued these all on. Jeran also got the red arm bands as the mission commander.

Ta da! Houston, we are go for launch!


For the trunk, we got black butcher paper (or bulletin board paper) and put that up around the edges, with glow-in-the-dark stars taped to it and a print-out of the earth from space. The lunar surface was a gray fitted sheet wrapped around our trunk liner with a few bowls and soccer cones underneath and some light colored rocks from Michael's strewn about. (Aside: I can't believe how hard it is to just "find" rocks around here! Growing up in Utah, we would just walk outside and have millions of rocks of every color, shape, and size to choose from. Here I have to beg or buy rocks.) We were pretty happy with how it all turned out and it was really fun getting everything ready. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Here is a picture of the failed helmet.

Failure vs. Success. Apparently it is quite important that the underlying object stays about the same size while  the paper mache is drying. I guess if we'd had a third party, someone could have been a pretty scary alien with that on their head.

Overdue Book Report

Wow. So apparently I haven't posted about the books I've read since the end of April! I would have guessed July or so, but apparently it's just been so long I couldn't remember at all - hopefully I remember how I liked the books! So here we go:

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
This YAF or juvenile fiction book was okay. I was a little confused by the monster, but I think you are supposed to be (is it real or isn't it?). The underlying issues and message were important and good. It's about a boy who meets a monster that is the yew tree from the church graveyard across the street from his house. It helps him deal with the difficult challenges in his life and accepting reality. 3.5 stars

Blackout by Connie Willis
I loved this book! It is based partly in the not too distant future at Oxford University and also in WWII London. In the future, there is a time-traveling history department at Oxford where professors and more experienced students can travel back to certain times and places to experience and witness them for themselves. Three young historians travel to London during WWII to observe some supposedly safe historical events and encounter trouble and mysteries as they strive to return home. 5 stars (maybe 4.8 stars)

All Clear by Connie Willis
In the sequel to Blackout, things are happening that throw what the historians know about how time travel works into question. More historians attempt to rescue trapped historians from WWII-era London, but have they done the supposedly impossible and changed history? Have they lost the war for the allies? 5 stars, even better than Blackout.

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
I had not read any of the Lord of the Rings books before, just The Hobbit, which I didn't really care for.  I really enjoyed The Fellowship of the Ring and I can see why most people thought the movie was very well done. 5 stars

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
I liked the other books I read by Connie Willis so much that I sought out another and I was not disappointed by this one. Similar premise, but this time a historian travels to medieval Oxford. Mysterious illness threatens the whole operation. Did the Black Death somehow get transmitted to the future? Connie Willis researches her history very carefully and I learn so much about the different time periods from these books. 5 stars

How I Killed Pluto and Why it Had It Coming by Mike Brown
I really got on a lucky streak because here is book #5 in a row that I just loved! This book is awesome and I really enjoyed it. It is non-fiction page-turner written by the astronomer whose discoveries led to the demise of Pluto as the ninth planet. I learned a lot about astronomy, the life of an astronomer, and what happened to Pluto and why, the scientific publication environment, and on and on. We are reading this for book club this month and I'm excited to discuss it next week. 5 stars.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values by Robert M. Pirsig
Yawn. Okay, not really. It was usually interesting but it was: a) not at all what I thought it was going to be, and b) very philosophical and loquacious. The main thing that kept me reading it was the mystery about Phaedrus and the fact that I was listening to it while cooking and the like, and not actually reading it which I find takes more effort to stick with a book you don't love. 3.5 stars

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
Due to no fault of this book, I could not finish this book, even though it would have been a pretty quick read. I went though a reading drought here where I just didn't feel like reading for a month or two and this happened to be a book I had intended to read when the drought started. I might try it again some day. No rating yet.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
The tail end of this book also fell in the reading drought so while it was not a bad book, I didn't finish it but I did get 3/4 of the way through. It was also not a bad book, just one of those kind of slow, multi-generational cultural experiences that I feel you have to be dedicated to finish or enjoy. Or maybe it was simply the drought. Either no rating or 3 stars.

Famous Men of Modern Time by John H. Haaren
And by "modern times" he means modern enough that people have kept written records of the people. Kidding (somewhat), but it is not what I expected when I saw "modern" but apparently it is a quite old book. This is a collection of information about various historical figures that the author deems important in some way. Probably my favorite was about Lorenzo de Medici, who was a Renaissance Italian ruler who did great things for literacy and books. 2.5 stars

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
This is an excellent fantasy story that is mostly a mysterious hero telling his life story to Chronicler. Kvothe tells the beginning of the story of how he became mythically notorious. 4 stars

The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
The second book in the Kingkiller Chronicles following The Name of the Wind, this continues the story of Kvothe's adventures and magical training. There was a little material in this book that would hesitate me to recommend it to everyone, but not too bad or detailed. It was just disappointing after such a clean first book. Unfortunately the next book is not out yet. Boo! 4 stars.

The Elements of Small Business by John Thaler
For educational purposes, to brush up on stuff that I vaguely remember learning in my business classes at USU. This book is pretty good on the bare basics of starting a small business. 3 stars

The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch): Lessons from a Life in Feathers by Caroll Spinney
This is a series of anecdotes and stories about what it is like to be Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. It includes details about the muppets design and how they work, what Big Bird has been involved with, and the evolution of Sesame Street. I think it is written in the format of stories in each chapter intending to support an inspirational message or life lesson, but it holds to this so loosely that it is really just an autobiography of his work as Big Bird. 4 stars

Heaven Is Here: An Incredible Story of Hope, Triumph, and Everyday Joy by Stephanie Nielson
I have mixed feelings about this book. It has been years and years since I have been so emotional about a book, but I think many parts of this amazing story hit home for me. However, parts of it also had me alternately rolling my eyes and almost gagging enough to annoy me with it's sickly sweetness, probably to juxtapose the author's "before" and "after" life.  This is the story of Stephanie and her husband's tragic plane crash, from which they were left with massive burns and other injuries. It tells of the huge physical and emotional trauma that played out for months during her long recovery and rehabilitation. I would recommend reading this book, but just keep in mind that it is an emotional roller coaster. 4 stars

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen
This was a fun twist on Pride and Prejudice, but as someone pointed out in book club (yes, this was our book club book!) the best parts definitely come from Austen and not zombies. I didn't really like any of the Asian flair that was added because everyone supposedly went to get combat training in an Asian nation and bringing a bit of that back to good old England with them. There weren't as many zombies as I expected and it wasn't very gross except for one line in the whole book. 3.8 stars

The Entrepreneur Equation: Evaluating the Realities, Risks, and Rewards of Having Your Own Business by Carol Roth
Another book about small business, this time focusing not on how to make a successful small business, but on an even more important matter: should YOU start a small business? This book discusses what having your own business is like, who is most fit for that, and whether you are that person. It was quite interesting, as it explores why most small businesses fail, or at least fail to thrive and grow. 4 stars

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey
As opposed to there only being one line of real gross-me-out-ness in P&P&Z, this book was chock full of yuckness and gag-worthy vicious monsters and dissection detail. It is about a boy who takes over his father's job as assistant to a Monstrumologist. They discover that these man-eating monsters, once only a foreign problem, have sprouted up much, much closer to home. They work to rid the land of these horrific monsters and discover how they came to be there in the first place. 3 stars (would have been perhaps a 4 if it weren't so gross).

August and some of September

Hello again. This has been a weird week for me. There were many things that I wanted to do: exercise, stick to a healthy menu, do crafts with Mary, go to the Relief Society Activity, maybe go to the biscuit-making ward activity, get lots of work done, etc.  However, I decided to get sick instead. Nothing too dangerous, just a cold that was just serious enough to cause me to miss doing mostly all of those activities. It's still around now and I'm hope hope hoping it isn't going to turn into sinusitis, but having already had that once this year, I'm pretty familiar with the symptoms and it may be on the verge since I have a good amount of head congestion with little in my nose.

Anyways, one of the thrills of working at home is, unless you are really debilitated, you can work right through most sickness. Sometimes this is actually nice because you can be productive and take your mind off how yucky you feel and how you can't/shouldn't do things with other people because you don't want to spread the love. This would have been one of those times when work is a good activity to occupy me if I weren't in one of those work lulls when I am waiting on information, files, etc. to come back to me before I could do much work. Oh well. I did end up watching the first two seasons of Downton Abbey, making chicken soup for myself, and laying in bed.

We also finished watching a really great show that I would recommend to pretty much anyone. It is called Avatar: The Last Airbender. It is an animated series that was on Nickelodeon a few years ago. There are three seasons and we watched them all in the last few weeks. I really liked this show. It has little details that I really like, it is funny, and the whole story is engaging and interesting. You should watch it. They have it on Netflix.

Jessica came to visit over Labor Day(-bor) weekend. We went canoeing at Cane Creek reservoir in Orange county. We were hoping to see some bald eagles but alas. We did see many turtles. a heron or two an egret, and some little fish. We were the only canoers on the water (that we could see) but there were quite a few fishermen in little electric motorboats. There was a tree that from a distance looked like it was just growing out of the water in the middle of the lake. When we got closer it turns out it was on a very low-lying peninsula of land that was partially flooded. The tree still looked pretty sweet.

Mom and Dad also came to visit for a day or two. We went to dinner and shopping and church. Sadly I did not take a single picture.

I went to the dentist and had no cavities. I like getting my teeth cleaned. I remember when I was younger the hardest thing about the dentist was keeping my mouth open so long. Now it takes most of my concentration to keep my tongue from following the dental hygienist's hands around with my tongue. I'm sure they are used to that but it seems so weird and should not be so hard to keep it down out of the way. Anyone else have this problem? Or even think about this...?

I also went to the optometrist and my prescription has changed slightly. I need to get new glasses. Last time I just got new lenses in my ten-year-old frames and I think I need cuter ones so if I don't want to put my contacts in one day, I won't feel silly going out in glasses.

This post is probably misnamed because I can't really think of much that we did in August. Probably just same old, same old. Jeran gave a department seminar presentation and did awesome. That's about it.

Olympic Level Cheese

Okay, this is a little different. Maybe a bit weird, but that's just how I roll. Life is funner that way (or if you prefer, "more fun").

I have never been very good at cutting nice even slices of cheese using just a knife. They were always really fat on one end and really thin on the other, or lots of quarter or half slices, etc.  Ever since the 2012 Summer Olympics, I have really improved.

I know the Olympics seem unrelated to cheese-slicing, but a little Olympic effort can go a long way. It started one day near the end of the Olympics. We were watching... something, maybe gymnastics or diving or something and I ran into the kitchen to make a sandwich. My first slice of cheese was a typically uneven off-the-edge half slice - "It's a 4.5!" ; my next was quite a bit better - "8.3!". You get the idea. I haven't stopped judging my cheese slicing ever since. Jeran even got in on it once or twice, producing a few good scores and a few bad scores. That is what makes it so fun - in our house at least, it takes real effort and a bit of luck to get a freehanded, perfect, thin slice of cheese.

There are many factors to take into account when rating a slice. Is the slice complete? Is it even in width all around? Are the corners sharp? Is it the ideal thickness? Did you use good cutting technique (pretty objective since I don't know a "proper" technique)? And so forth.  And as an added bonus, sandwiches and hamburgers and whatnot are easier to eat because I don't have one-inch pieces of cheese falling out all over.

Look at what a little incentive can do!

July 2012

Hi again. Just an update to prove we are still alive.  Life is proceeding at it's normal carefree pace. We have been doing the usual stuff, that is, work and eating and sleeping. We have also been watching quite a bit of the Olympics which is very fun, although I wish they didn't show it all so late at night!

My work is going well and I'm enjoying it - usually - and keeping busy most of the time. Jeran is working also, and while I'm not sure if he's enjoying it much,  he's working hard to get things done.

Jeran had a birthday this past week. I made a really delicious root beer float ice cream cake. It was pretty easy. It's basically white cake mix plus root beer and vanilla ice cream. While I was assembling it Jeran commented from the other room that it was sounding pretty sketchy based on the frequency of "Oops!", "Oh nooo!", "Aaaack!", etc. coming from the kitchen. Mostly it was really hard to get the cake intact out of the pan so maybe next time I'll use parchment paper or something. So the cake was looking pretty poorly when it was assembled, but then you top the whole thing in whipped cream and it amazing hides the worst flaws. And it's frozen so something that may have fallen to pieces stays nicely hard and stuck together. Anyways, this cake was forgiving and it was a success and I'm still enjoying the leftovers.

We got to go spend a weekend in Atlanta with my sister Jessica and Aunt Kara. Jessica, Jeran and I went to the Georgia Aquarium, which is always awesome, even though there were about a billion people there. The sea otters were really active and leaping in and out of the water and wrestling and chasing each other and just being funny - they were the highlight for me. I think for Jeran it was the giant tank with an underwater tunnel and huge viewing side containing sharks, whale sharks, manta rays, guitarfish, groupers, and lots more. He also enjoyed talking to the aquarium employees about diving and interesting dive sites.

Then we had Chick-Fil-A complete with Georgia peach milkshakes. Yum. After a nap, we went to Stone Mountain and despite the occasional raindrop and ominous clouds, climbed to the top and surveyed the beautiful area. It's a very nice view because although there are lots of buildings nearby, there are so many trees that you can't see many of them, although farther off you can see the huge Atlanta skyline.  After eating the sandwiches we packed for dinner and hiking down, we parked it on the wet lawn to wait for the laser light show. We ate snacks and watched the show and then headed home to dry off. It was a fun weekend.

I can't believe it is August already. 2012 will be over before we know it and then we'll be in an odd year: 2013. Not odd as in even/odd, but strange. 2013 sounds like a strange number for a year. Oh well.

Random Facts: I like potatoes. I like air conditioning. I like clouds and trees.I need to paint my toenails (opinion?). Some crossword puzzles are hard. I like summer but spring and fall are nicer to enjoy. I do not like calling the season "autumn" because that seems to me to be referring only to colored leaves and pumpkins. 2013 is not really a weird number, but it is an odd number.

Back from Vacation!

Many of you may not know that we just got back from an awesome, week-long Caribbean vacation. We didn't even know that we were going on vacation until about 3 or 4 weeks ago, so it was a bit spontaneous. We took a scuba trip to Curaçao in the Caribbean. It is a small island next to Aruba just north of Venezuela. Apparently the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved in 2010 so now Curaçao is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and most people (at least at the resort we were at) spoke Dutch to us until we told them we needed English. 

Our main reason for taking this trip was to do some scuba diving. We did two boat dives every day and on some days did another shore dive or two. It was very windy and pretty choppy out on the ocean in the boat. I got a little seasick the first day or two but after that a lady in our group gave me some Bonine for motion sickness and it helped a lot. The diving was great. We saw so many fish and I was astounded at how many varieties of coral there are on the reefs there! We saw barracuda, sea turtles, french angel fish, parrot fish, rock fish, trunk fish, trumpet fish, banded shrimp, lion fish, sea stars, seahorse, a giant lobster, spotted eagle rays, several varieties of moray eels, snake eels, flounder, flamingo tongue, squid, a flying gurnard, lots of flying fish, and various other Caribbean reef fish.  The weather was lovely and we enjoyed the beach and being outdoors a lot. There were lots of lizards all over the place, including little geckos that would fit nicely on a quarter.

Here is a selection of pictures from our trip. It was hard to narrow it down to this many! I'm going to put more on Facebook, so look there also in a day or two.

Probably a spotted moray eel.

Tugboat

A parrotfish. They eat coral and were very numerous and had many color variations.

A lionfish. We saw many of this invasive species.

Chain moray eel.

Flamingo Tongue. This is a snail that turns it's mantle out over it's shell.

Spotted Eagle Ray

Puffer fish

Swimming spotted eel

Shrimp-like creatures.

Spotted eagle ray

Moray eel. These things were scary!

Snake eel

Raaaaawwwwr!

Tarpon

Saba tugboat

Flounder

Squid

Iguana