Driggs: Thanksgiving in Idaho (11/24-30)

I hope everyone had a good Turkey Day (or Tofurkey if you are vegetarian).  Life here in Driggs is plodding along at a nice, steady pace and I spent the week fairly productively, and yet at the same time, I seemed to have a fair amount of time for myself.

On the work-front, my project for the TVCC is going quite well.  I've almost finished the site structure and layout and after I train one of the staff members on the CMS system they will be able to start entering data from the old website while I work on the design.  I might even get this all done ahead of schedule.  I shouldn't jinx myself though.  Let's just assume it will take more time than I think it will.  Most design projects do.  Heck, even alivenotdead launched about 4 months later than we had originally planned.

my room and work area

My exercise has been going well.  I've maintained my jogging program and my endurance and ability to run farther than I can spit is progressing quite steadily.  I went for 4.6 kilometers (about 2.8 miles) today, which was pretty good.  About 35% jogging, 65% walking.

the bike path that i jog along

I also checked out a judo class on Tuesday.  Pretty fun.  I'll probably go there regularly since it is walking distance to home and they only meet twice a week.  Still working on setting up a taiji practice schedule with that instructor though, and I've been investigating a local Yoga studio too. 

Monday I went to the gym and worked on my abs and back.  Then I was sore for 5 days and it hurt to sneeze.  Stupid abs and back.

My personal projects are going well too.  I spent some time this week going out and practicing some photographizing.  You can see some of the outdoor shots I took in my gallery here.  I'd like to chalk them up to my amazing skills, but to be honest this area is really beautiful so its kinda hard to take a bad picture.  Here are a few of my favorites ...

trees and horizon

amber waves of grain

red barn and home

this is fog.  (not smog like in hong kong)

amazing sunset

And of course there was Thanksgiving.  We had turkey and I made my mac & cheese from scratch.  A bit too much butter though and it ended up a tad on the greasy side.  I have enough fixings for another batch though so I'm going to make sure the sauce is nice and creamy and not quite so oily the next time around.

macaroni and cheese

turkey

Its interesting being out here and not really having any friends to hang out with.  I am being super productive with my work project, but at the same time it feels like I have tons of free time.  I'm catching up on a lot of random things I wanted to do, which is good.  Hopefully by the time I leave Idaho I will be all up to date.

I did go out on Friday night to drive around and see what is going on in Driggs.  It turns out ... nothing.  This town pretty much closes up around 9:00 or 10:00 PM, even on the weekends.  Definitely a change of pace from Hong Kong where half the events don't even start until 11:00 PM.  This suits me fine though.  I'm sort of a home-body.

Sunday I worked on some projects and in the afternoon checked out a local Mexican restaurant.  Holy cow it was good.  I haven't had Mexican food that good since the last time I was in Orange County.  I'm definitely going back for seconds.

I also watched a DVD with mom and Reid.  DVD watching has been a regular activity since I was able to finally hook up their TV and DVD player and I have my DVDs with me.  We will usually watch one after dinner before heading to bed.  My mom's favorite so far was "Ong Bak".

Mom and Reid watching TV

And thus ends the Holiday week.  December is tomorrow and it is a new week.  I will be busy but don't let that stop you from dropping me a line in the guestbook or as a comment to this blog.  Its nice to hear from folks!  ^__^