Seattle report

I was in Seattle last week/end for some work and collaboration and a visit with my brother and SIL.  On Thursday, I was able to meet up with Peter Baloh (U. Lublianja, Slovenia), whom I haven't seen in almost three years,  and Kevin D'Souza (U Washington).  It was a pleasure meeting Kevin and enjoyed discussing research, travel, and life in academia.  (In the pic below, Nicole, Kevin, Peter.)

I did not enjoy singing karaoke that night, but they seemed to think it was pretty hilarious.  (I was forced.  I sang Love Shack.  There is video.)  ::groan::  At least they let this tall girl wear her heels.

On Friday, I was able to meet up with Terrell Cox and Serguei Endrikhovski, whom I met at CHIMIT '08.  They do super exciting research at Microsoft (or super exciting to me) and were kind enough to take some time to visit and show me their playground:  their new user research lab.  I think I may have been drooling.  It was great seeing them again and I hope to see them at this year's CHIMIT in San Jose. 

On Saturday and Sunday, I finally got out to visit Brett (my brother) and Lauren (his wife).  Brett also works for Microsoft and they have been there for two years.  I should note that I'm off their hit list now... Xavier has already been to visit them twice and this was my first trip. 

All in all, I loved Seattle, and will need to plan another trip up some time. 

A moment of silence please

... for my patron saint. 

Spring Break

Spring Break was last week, and it was great to see family and friends again.  I flew out of Salt Lake so I could spend a few days with my family before and after my flight.  I also met with Kerry (and fam), whose dissertation I read through.  (In totally different fields, we study a similar DV, and I basically nerd-ed out when I read it.  I'm so, so sad.)

I also had several days in Tucson and the sun was soooo good for me.  Pepperdine will basically have me smiling stupidly every day, which I'm down with.  It was great catching up with friends, in-laws, and of course Xavo.  He had been in Boston for PAX East and got me a present:

I'm a huge fan of Caia Koopman's art and she designed a pair of Oakley sunglasses.  I'm  probably not cool enough to wear them, but I don't care.  I heart them.

I also worked on some research when I was in town, which was a mix of panic/disappointment when some of the data didn't hold, then excitement when other parts of it did.  Yay!  Now to write it up and hopefully get a submission into HICSS.  Because everyone loves a conference in Hawaii.  :)