Fun times with the family!

Well the house is super quiet now, I guess that is what happens when it goes from 7 people being here to 2. I had a great time with all the family. Played lots of ping pong and video games with Rob and Shannon. My niece Madi is absolutely adorable and a joy to be around. She is always smiling and laughing, when she isn't crying or sleeping haha. It was awesome to see my mom and little sister too since I hadn't seen them in a little over a year. Cleaned up today, did laundry, and the house is pretty much back to normal. Played tennis the last 2 days and worked out today; trying to get back in the groove of things. I also wrote 2 pages for my master's thesis, so I'm up to 14. I got 3 new books via Interlibrary loan(ILL) that should really help me. The ILL system is brilliant as it lets you borrow books, articles, and other things for free(usually) from almost any library in the country/world. Its very helpful.

When everyone was here we went to Palm Springs, Huntington Beach, LA, bowling, saw the new Harry Potter movie which rocked! It was weird knowing the story beforehand since in the past I had never read the books, but its cool to see how they translate it to the big screen. Also, last Sat. night I took my friends Jessica and Amanda to see Coldplay and oh man did we have a good time. They put on such a brilliant show, they definately rank up their with the best bands I have ever seen. It was by far the biggest concert I have ever been to, there was so many people there.

Well the big news for me is that I am definitely going to Hawaii! I bought my ticket yesterday from August 17- September 1. The cheapest listed price to Kona from LA right now is 550$, so I gave priceline a go and got one for 450$! 100 bucks cheaper! I guess priceline does work (this was my first time); its good for last minute and really expensive trips. Good connections and it is on United so good deal all the way around. The Morrisons are kind enough to split the cost with me and then they are going to pay me to do work out there for them. Sounds glorious.

Well the pictures above are of my cute niece and the coldplay concert. I guess this is all for now, hope everyone is good.

Viva Las Vegas

Well,

I had a pretty fun-filled weekend in Las Vegas. It was super packed because they had a UFC championship fight over the weekend too. It so hot too, we couldn't really walk around during the day since it was like 108 degrees. I had a lot of fun gambling and checking out some of the clubs though. I lost 150$ the first night, but won 100$ the second night; so I only lost 50 for the trip. Not too bad I think.

I bought and read the last Harry Potter book last week. I have to say that J.K. Rowling was able to do what few others can. She made each book progressively longer and better, and she did a really good job of tying everything together in the last book. I'm really excited for the Half-Blood Prince to come out on Wednesday.

In family news, Meghan (sister) and Maddy (niece) fly in tonight. This should be really fun, a lot of family is going to be coming here in the next week and it should make for quite a merry household.

I need to get working on my thesis here, Im going to go on Worldcat and order some books today. Worldcat is a wonderful thing, through the school library I can borrow books from universities all over the world. Its either free or for a small fee. Pretty helpful stuff eh? UCLA will definitely have a lot of good books, they have a huge African studies program. It should be free too since they are so close.

Have a good one.

Fate will not be denied

Congratulations to Roger Federer on winning his 15th Grand Slam! He outlasted Andy Roddick in an epic 5 setter at Wimbledone: 5-7 7-6 7-6 3-6 16-14! For those of you who know tennis; Wimbledon does not do tiebreaks in the 5th set, which means the two players had to go for an eternity with Roger finally prevailing.

Well, I have the fortune of having a very active family member who I have yet to meet on my mother's side of the family, who decided to set up a family blog so everyone can post and keep up on each other's news. I think this is a brilliant idea and have been actually contemplating doing this for my dad's side of the family. So depending on the success of this new blog, I might do it as well. I might also have some people visiting my blog now. This has served as my own personal journal for the last 8-9 months, but I definitely wouldn't find if people were reading it and keeping up on me and my life.

In any case, I think I will go blog over there in a minute and introduce myself to some extended family. Its crazy how you can be related to people, but never have met them or even know they exist. Family is truly a wonderful thing.

Heres to a beautiful day and a beautiful life.

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone had a great day enjoying our country's freedom. I celebrated on thursday by going down to Huntington Beach. I met up with a friend and we went hiking with another of her friends. Then we hung out drank, went to the beach, and went into the hot tub. All in all it was a really good time. They might come up next week and come spend a night with me out in Palm Springs, which will be fun. Tomorrow is my last day of work for the rest of the summer. Pretty crazy but Im looking forward to it, I have a lot of fun stuff going on this summer so it will be nice to get away from work for a few months.

Im going up to Las Vegas this weekend which will be awesome. I have a few friends from high school that are going to be there as well so it should be fun to meet up with them in Sin City. My little sister and niece fly in the day after I get back from Vegas, so the fun will be beginning really soon here. I've written about 10 pages on my masters thesis so far. 10 down and 90 to go haha. Its kinda discombulated and all over the place, but Im gradually narrowing down the topic. I just need to keep chipping away, 2 pages at a time and it will be done before I know it.

Most importantly, tomorrow is the Men's Final for Wimbledon. Roger Federer will be facing Andy Roddick for the 3rd time in the Wimbledon final (they met in the 04 and 05 finals). Im really proud of Roddick for making it and if it was anyone but Roger I would definitely root for him. However, Roger is chasing history. This is his 7th straight Wimby final and if he wins it will be his 15th Grand Slam, breaking his tie with Sampras and push him into Tennis immortality. Anyways, I hope everyone is doing great. Take care!