April Visitors

Just as soon as I got caught up with writing, I fell behind again!

I managed to go climbing twice but then fell out of my jogging routine. There’s just no winning with this whole exercise thing. Now that the weather is (mostly) nice again I’m re-optimizing my commuting route to maximize time on my bike and minimize time on the Max, which I suppose cuts into blogging time. That means I now bike 3 miles on both ends of the train route. It allows me to skip the downtown section where the Max is painfully slow and stops practically every block.

Playing pool with Gerrit, Val, and Ben.

Our last week has been focused on maximizing our time with Gerrit and Val, who are visiting from Boston. We’ve been showing them the best of the Portland dining scene and hanging out with them in the evenings. Yesterday we showed off our back yard and patio by hosting an Easter BBQ (although Silke deserves most of the credit for the food). We don’t get to see Gerrit and Val often so it has been a real treat to have them here.

Impromptu Oceanside Weekend

Two weekends ago, in stark contrast to last weekend, we woke early to a glorious sunny day. As we sipped our coffee, we started to discuss the best options to get outside. Apparently everyone in the city had the same thought including Hendrik’s parents, who texted to ask if we wanted to go to the coast. An hour later we were all in the car speeding to Oceanside. Well, not really speeding because Harris was driving but the Harris-equivalent of speeding. It is nice living close enough to the ocean to be able to do an impromptu trip like that.

We all enjoyed walking along the sandy beach with Toby the dog and reading in the sun. I was again reminded that the Pacific is really cold when I went wading. Maybe some day I will learn but probably not. The water is just too irresistible.

The water is cold. Very cold.

Catching up

I’m so far behind on posting updates that I’ll never catch up so here’s a quick overview of the past few months.

• The week before Hendrik’s birthday, I went to Boston for the American Physical Society (APS) conference. I had a nice time learning about polymer physics and related topics, but I never want to fly to Boston in the winter ever again. I was nine hours delayed getting there and also getting home. On the bright side, I got to have dinner with Hendrik’s brother and his wife a few times and also see some friends from grad school at the conference. Boston was pretty cold and dreary; being there for a week made me happy that I chose UCSB for grad school instead of MIT.
• I saw Jurassic Park for the first time with my friend Bethany, who was horrified that I hadn’t seen such a classic movie so she insisted on showing it to me. We had tons of fun cheering for the dinosaurs and being impressed that the special effects still look so good more than twenty years later. My mom wouldn’t let me see it when it came out because she thought it would give me nightmares. Good call mom. Good call!
• We’ve been to two baby showers in the past month. I guess we’re old enough that we’ve graduated from weddings to baby showers. To my relief, baby showers aren’t just for women anymore so Hendrik got to come along too. Our takeaway: we are terrible at baby shower games. Also, true to his risk-averse personality, Hendrik loves to buy car seats.
• Other activities include St. Patrick’s Day at Hop House, a dim sum brunch, and jogging. I’ve progressed to a very slow 5k. I’m pretty proud of that and try not to compare it to Hendrik’s 6-8 mile runs. Sadly I’ve fallen out of my climbing routine and lost all of my upper body strength so I’ll have to get back into that.

Trying to bring some green cheer to our St Patrick’s Day fun.