The Long Distance Empire Strikes Back!

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

It is a dark time for the Amit Misra. Although the Fortran Translation has been destroyed,  crazy CA hippies have driven Amit Misra from Scotts Valley, CA and pursued him across the galaxy. Evading the dreaded (Hippie) Imperial Starfleet, a group of freedom fighters led by Durandal the Bunny has established a new secret base on the remote ice world of Seattle. The evil lord Marinda Misra, obsessed with finding young Durandal, has dispatched thousands of kisses into the far reaches of space...

(Word substitution:
The Rebels = Amit Misra
Death Star  = Fortran Translation                

Imperials = crazy CA hippies

Hoth = Seattle

Darth Vader = Marinda Misra

Hidden Base = Scotts Valley, CA

Luke Skywalker = Durandal

Hoth = Seattle

Remote Probes = Kisses)

If that doesn't sum up the entire week for us, then I honestly don't know what will.  

For donating money, Mom & Dad
got a tile for each of their kids to
be put in front of the library entrance!

On Monday we went to the new Scotts Valley Library (which Marinda's parents basically built with their own sweat and tears) and it's so unique!  I guess that should be expected from a library that used to be a roller-rink, but it is really cool.  They even have a video game area in the teen section!  Scotts Valley, kudos to you.  You've found the best way to get teenagers in the library and reading : video games.  "Yeah, I love the library," said a local teenager.  "I've played wii bowling for like, 8 hours every day.  Or at least I did, until I found this block-type thing with writing on the back and front.  I tried putting it in my xbox but it didn't work.  I'm still trying to figure out what it is."

On Tuesday we went to the beach with Ben and Debbie, the 2nd most adorable couple ever, right behind Durandal and his igloo.  They have so much fun together!  Pretending to be a turtle, Durandal climbing on top of it...and that's pretty much it.  Anyways, we went to the Santa Cruz boardwalk and wharf, where high school I-need-a-job workers, tourists, and smelly sea lions live.  For those who don't know, the Boardwalk is basically an amusement park on the beach.  We walked around, ate some good ice cream at Marini's, and got to know each other a lot better.

Meanwhile Amit was busy working on his Fortran code.  And he finally finished the translation from python into Fortran!  "It's sort of therapeutic," he said when asked how it went.   "I do my stuff, then go in and find the problems, and then I fix them.  So I'm sort of like a surgeon, or a superhero.  Or a superhero who does surgery.  Not even superman can do that."  Right...

So the end of Tuesday was like the end of Star Wars Episode IV.  But then darkness struck...Amit flew back to Seattle!  Perhaps not quite chased away by crazy hippies, but apparently he has a job or something.  Since then he's been holding down the fort in Seattle, which has been surprisingly not awful.  Apparently there's some sort of heatwave going on for the rest of the country?!?!  We suppose there's one here too, the temperature's 78 right now.  Nevertheless, we can't help but be reminded of the dark days of our relationship where Marinda and Amit were in a long-distance relationship for over a year before getting married.  In fact, it was so dramatically scaring for Marinda that she could only be comforted by getting a pedicure with her mom.  Ok, maybe it was actually just a fun mommy/daughter thing, but it definitely helped take her mind off of the fact that her husband left her.

Amit has been spending lots of quality time with our bunny while working from home.  Why from home, you ask?  Because he went in to work on Thursday, having not seen his advisor for around 3 weeks.  He asked her if they could meet sometime.  She said essentially "I'm really busy today, and I was planning on working from home Friday and Monday, so we could either do a telecon or just meet Tuesday."  So they will meet on Tuesday, and he's been working from home.  And that's really all that's been going on with him.  (FYI, for Seattlers reading this, Krua Thai's Pad See Eew is fantastic!)  Back to the bunny - he keeps licking Amit's feet.  Amit's worried he's going to turn carnivorous one day and start eating him.

Marinda has been spending most of her time hanging out with her family and helping out with the house.  Last Saturday she got to help out Debbie in shopping for missionary clothes!  With good prices and an amazing personal shopper, Debbie had an incredible experience.  "I don't know what I would have done without Marinda!"  Debbie was reported to have said, or something very much like that.  "It was no big deal," was Marinda's alleged reply, "It wasn't like I didn't get anything out of it, she bought me Subway!"

Tune in next time for the Return of the Jedi, when Lord Marinda uses the force (of airplanes) to bring Durandal to her.