The not-so-SLO life

Teresa and I continue to be very busy. Teresa is now especially busy as she continues with her full-time job and has begun taking classes full-time at Cal Poly. She was admitted as a philosophy major during the summer term and completed one five-week course in the first half of the summer, but this fall has been her first full-time quarter. She is taking a humanities class comparing modern and classic culture, an ethics class, and a course on philosophical classics. Monday through Thursday all of her time is required by either work or school.

I changed my major from architecture to architectural engineering this quarter. While I continue to be interested in and appreciate the art of architecture, it is such a relief to not be constantly in search of creativity. As an ArcE major, I need more math and science courses, so this quarter I'm taking a math course for the first time in over a decade. Fortunately the math class, Differential Equations and Linear Algebra, has not been nearly as difficult as I thought it might be. I'm also taking a geology course, C programing for engineers, and several architectural engineering courses. At 17 units, this is the heaviest load I have taken at Cal Poly, but I'm doing pretty well with it (I might take 19 in the winter). Because this major is a 4 year program rather than the 5 year architecture, my anticipated graduation date is two quarters earlier than it was (now December 2009).

After living in Grover Beach a few miles south of here for our first year, we moved to San Luis Obispo to shorten our commute. We had a lovely studio attached to a home belonging to members of our church there and Teresa and our former land-lady have been friends since we first called to ask about the place. We are equally blessed in San Luis Obispo, renting a one-bedroom secondary unit in the back yard of the former bishop of the singles ward here. We are walking distance from school but in a neighborhood that is not overrun by college students. At nights on weekend you can hear that there are parties around outside, but none are too loud.

Mom came down to visit us with Joseph, Andrew, and Benjamin about a month ago. After they arrived on Saturday, we explored Port San Luis Obispo then roasted hot dogs and marshmallows on the beach. We also attended church, played games, and watched movies over the weekend. On Monday Teresa returned to work, I returned to school, and Mom and the brothers went to Monterey to visit the aquarium there. It was fun having visitors. If any of our other relatives want to visit us on the central coast of California, let us know.

The San Luis Obispo Stake is in the Los Angeles Temple district. In commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Los Angeles Temple, the First Presidency authorized each stake in the district to have a meeting in the assembly room of the temple. Our stake had our commemoration day a couple of weeks ago. Teresa's sister Amy also went through the temple for the first time that day, so it was extra special for us. The meeting in the assembly room was really neat. The temple president and his wife were especially glad to have our stake there because the are from our ward. A few members of our stake were in the temple district when the temple was dedicated. The temple matron, Sister Andrus, told us about her experience singing in a choir for one of the dedicatory sessions. We also heard some of the history of the temple from Pres. Andrus. While the Salt Lake temple has more floor space than the Los Angeles temple, no temple can accommodate more patrons in a single session. It was a wonderful day.

We're looking forward to the holidays. We will be in Sacramento for Thanksgiving again this year. We haven't nailed down Christmas plans, but are hoping to get together with Teresa's siblings; one of her brothers is working especially hard to get everyone together this Christmas. We love all of you and hope you have happy holidays and wish for a great start to 2008 for each of you.