A much overdue update...(from Sarah)

We'll start this out with a nice photo of us in Switzerland.

Wow. I knew this blogging thing wouldn't last long. I'm picking it back up again right now! I think the big problem is that I update my facebook page and then don't have the energy to hit this page, there's only so much talking about yourself you can do. But this is for those of you without facebook pages, enjoy!

Things we've been doing the last few months (in no chronological order):

• We went to a Ben Folds show here in Houston a couple of weeks ago, it was awesome. I have done nothing but listen to his music since then.

• Kellen has been working like a slave in the lab, working up the geochron of his garnets. He's working with HF a lot and we are starting to get concerned that his latest cravings for milk could indicate that the HF is leaching calcium from him. We'll keep an eye on that. (I'm mostly joking, he is being very careful while working with dangerous acids).
  

• It will not surprise any of you who know me that I, a 27 year old girl from Washington State whose favorite television show is the West Wing, voted for Obama and was overjoyed when he won. No need to go too far into politics, but I'm happy that I'll be able to tell our kids that we watched history happen while in the company of good friends (we went to an election party at Mindy and Jason's). Also, you may be interested to know that Harris County, the county that encompasses Houston and its suburbs went solidly blue. That made me feel a stronger kinship with this city.

• We went to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver and saw Ben Kessel for a weekend. That was a fun, alcoholic weekend. We came back inspired and Kellen has brewed two new beers since then.

• Kellen's canoe has been fiberglassed and flipped over, so now the inside of the canoe is getting worked. I'm sure he can tell you more about that.

• We went on vacation! I spent a weekend in Copenhagen visiting my friend from college, Mike Baab, and then met up with Kellen in Switzerland where he was doing his masters field work. We spent a week trucking around the Alps and Lake Geneva. Blogger is the biggest pain when it comes to uploading photos. That's the largest reason it has taken us so long to post an update about it. If you want to check out our vacation photos, you can do so at Sarah's flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/88306486@N00/
  

• I, along with several of my girlfriends here in Houston, am completely obsessed with the Twilight books. We realize we're a little old for it and that it is a silly obsession, but it's been really fun passing the books around and comparing tales of not eating and sleeping while we read them. We're going to the midnight premier of the movie on Nov. 20th. We wouldn't normally be that crazy, but Catherine is leaving for her Spain vacation the next day and we don't want to leave her out! It should be interesting, since I have to got to work the next day, but I've done worse before (like the time I got the 7th Harry Potter book and stayed up until 4AM reading it, I may have a problem).
  

• Kellen bought me a fancy camera for my birthday. Here's a video I made with it, it is admittedly rough, but illustrates our idiot dog well:

• Coming up, our friend Jamey is moving in with us for a few months while her fiance learns the ropes of his new engineering job here in Houston. We're jazzed to have her around.

• The holidays should be fun. We don't really have a plan for Thanksgiving yet, but for Christmas we'll be in the Northwest, getting our visit on.
  

• Everything else is rather status quo, my job is fine, Kellen's school is good, the dogs are happy, our friends are great, our family is in good health.
  

We'll update again soon!