I honestly can’t recall what I got up to Monday during the day. Shopping maybe? At 4:30pm I got picked up by a friend, and we then proceeded to grab a couple more peeps for a trip out to eastern Washington, to Moses Lake. When I first heard of the place, how it was a popular area to go to and all that, I kind of envisioned some cross between Grand Lake and Silver Lake. But no, it’s a town out in the boonies, but it’s got its own charm. We arrived at around 7pm, unpacked at one of my friends’ mother’s place, then went off to play card games at a park. At 9pm we drove to meet the mom at one of the three good restaurants in town, which had half-price appetizers after 9. Good food, good company. I dozed through a movie back at the house, then dozed properly on an air mattress.

The next day we took off with our beach gear to chill on the lake. Found a roped off area for swimming, had some fun, got some burns, the usual. Got some more use out of Gram’s Stream Machine.

BBQ at the house, chillaxing with some more games, then the drive back to Kirkland in time to catch a fireworks show. The show was alright, didn’t hold a candle to Grand Lake’s stuff.

Wednesday I went out on a mass blind date arranged/coordinated/schemed by a friend in the ward. It was to an outdoor movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. (My back is still complaining to me of what I put it through, sitting up through as much as I could with no chair or pillows. I’ll be better prepared next time.) The date turned out to be one of the friends I’d just spent the whole break with out in Moses Lake, so our pool of conversation material was somewhat depleted.

Thursday was temple sealing night, followed by the traditional outing to DQ. (It’s not my tradition, my tradition is Panda Express. But no one else is ever up for it, so I have to bide my time till whenever I go on my own.)

Friday was Blind Date Night pt 2. I originally wasn’t gonna go, but due to a last-minute switch-up I went out with another good friend. We painted clay figures; in a week or two we can pick them up after they’ve been glazed and kiln’d.

Saturday I read some more of A Thoughtful Faith. Dad has a copy and sent me photocopies of essays from it on my mission now and then. Always loved the Liahona/Iron Rod talk, so I figured I’d just pick up my own used copy of the book on Amazon. The essay I read yesterday was by Richard Bushman, on why he doesn’t feel the need to justify his belief through some intellectual exercise. Very interesting stuff. I’ve tried a couple times to summarize it now but I’d say just go read it in Dad’s copy, it isn’t that long.

That evening I went out on my third date of the week to a friend’s concert, basically UVMCO-lite. This was the third one I’d been to, and it was real nice, all America-themed and suchlike.

Today I went out with some friends to a beach for some more chillaxing.

I’ll leave you with the contraption I devised to get my gameplay from my Switch streamed over the Internet. They make $X00 kits that encode HDMI and do all sorts of nifty stuff, but they never considered the utility of a chair, a fan, and a napkin holder that one could slide a phone into, with Skype/Facebook Messenger/Hangouts/Duo/whathaveyou running.

We have yet to see how it holds up in real life. Stay tuned.