Not Guilty.... but really guilty....

This past week I had the "opportunity" to serve on a criminal case. It was a sexual assault case, which made it rather uncomfortable, I must say.... Well it ended up that there was no real evidence much more that the testimonies of the two people and of course their stories were VERY different. It took almost two days of deliberations just for the jury to come to an agreement, because we all knew the guy was guilty, but the district attorney brought up very serious charges on him and there wasn't enough evidence to be "beyond a reasonable doubt" on all of the charges, and so according to the law, we were forced to acquit him. The only ones happy at the end of the trial were the defendant and his awful lawyer. Every juror said that they would have convicted him if they had tried him on a less specific law (like a more general sexual assault law). Well, this experience taught me that we really are innocent until proven guilty and that when charges are brought up on a person, the prosecutor should not aim too high on the charges and should choose a law were there is enough evidence to convict. It was kind of a downer too that I spent my anniversary on a jury and the case turned out bad... :b .. . .. .

Our Little Goalie

April here in Southern California is pretty cold... just ask Anabelle.

Wagon Time!

We came across a little wagon... Anabelle loved getting pulled around by dad, and dad got to release some pent up aggression from all of those sleepless nights....

Being a Dad... the greatest job I've ever had!

This past year has been tough, being my first year in grad school in a field I didn't study as an undergrad. However, since I just passed my quals a month ago and only have to do research this summer, this past month has been great. Since I go to the lab early in the morning and try to work for 8-10 hours each day 5-6 days each week, I've promised my family that I wouldn't work when I came home (something I had to do all the time when I was taking classes and TAing). Now everyday when I come home and play with Maria and Anabelle. Maria sometimes suggests that we go out as a family for an hour or two when I get home. The day we took this photo we went up to Scripps Lake (next to where my brother's family used to live) and played together at a park next to it. Anabelle and I had a blast going down the slide together and playing in the sand. I love being a dad!

Independence Day... The Day my Tripod Lost its Independence

We went to see the fireworks on the south end of Mission Bay, near Sea World on July 4th. I was excited to try some photo tricks with our camera, but once Anabelle saw it, she said "Thanks dad for the new toy!" For the rest of the night she ran around the park we were at with her BaBa (stuffed lamb) in one hand and her tripod in the other.... needless to say I got to take fewer photos than I hoped.

New Weeee!

Anabelle goes nuts whenever we walk by a slide, or weee as she calls them, so Maria couldn't resist buying her one when she found one for $20. We put it on our deck area, so now whenever we open the blinds we hear "WEEE!! WEEE!! WEEEEEE!!!! PWUEEESH!" (pwueeesh is how she asks please)

Nate and his Qualifying Exam...

Well, I only had a few days to study for it after I fininshed my finals for spring quarter... bad time for a qualifying exam.... Well, I had my qualifying exam this morning at 9am (oral exam that my department gives at the end of the first year, in which they decide if they want to keep us). All of the professors finally showed up at ~9:10am. They were supposed to ask me about my research (and I was hoping to kill some extra time on that), but they decided to jump right into the questions. The first professor asked me a few questions about Fick's laws and had me solve a few diffusion questions. Fortunately they were all directly from the class I took from him last winter. Then the second professor (who taught a cell biology, which everyone was supposed to take, but I got them to waive despite the fact that I've never taken the class before...) started to fire away... I stumbled a little at first when she was asking about the methods used to discover aquaporins. The third professor tried asking questions about solution thermodynamics, a topic they don't even offer to the students, but that I had several years ago, but didn't understand... all he had to say every time I spoke was, "don't go any further, because you're just digging yourself deeper." He did finally ask a question at the end about time scales of a dyanmic mass-spring system. The cell bio professor finished up by asking a few last questions about the problems with implanting embryonic stem cells. Fortunately, I'd read about the associated issues in the past few days when I read ~2.5 chapters of the textbook. When they asked me to step out while they discussed my standing, I thought they might ask me to study thermodynamics again and then retake the exam or make me TA a class at best, when I walked in, they shook my hand and congratulated me on passing, then told me to get a thermo book and read it... I'm really glad they passed me, since my adviser said they were failing a surprisingly large number of students this year!
I came home tonight and found that I guess someone else knew I passed... I found a 6 pack of beer on my doorstep! (With a thank you note from a neighbor I've only met the other day when I found their keys in their mailbox, so I returned them) I'm sure glad that I was babysitting for a friend when they dropped the the 6 pack off... That would've been awkward saying "thanks, but I don't drink." Well, to the trash bin they go!

Nate's Top 9 from the Past 9

I always hate it when I'm reading a friend's blog and come to super long posts.... well, I don't learn from others' mistakes well, so here's a long post... I was thinking today about how my life has been so blessed with good things, great experiences and not-so-fun learning experiences... It's been 9 years since I finished highschool (good riddance), so I want to count down my favorite 9 experiences, periods of time, etc. since I wouldn't trade these past 9 years for anything.

9. Getting accepted into graduate school... that was a relief in Feb 2006 when I found out that I wouldn't have to find a job in sanitational engineering (garbage man) after all... however, I wouldn't wish the first year of grad school on even my worst enemy...

8. Summer studying in Israel, Jordan and Egypt (1998). Just after high school I studied at the BYU Jerusalem Center for a summer (my GPA never fully recovered, though...)

7. BYU - while I never intended on going there, I would not trade my educational experience with any other school... I had great teachers, true friends and expereinces I couldn't have had anywhere else. Best 6 years I've ever spent (I think I overstayed my welcome, though).

6. Family time and Road trips in Utah while at college there and in Washington while working there in 2005. I loved the countless trips to weddings, to national parks, and trips to nowhere in particular, but just to get away. I loved all of the trips with family or just the two of us .

5. Internships in Seattle and D.C. and living with Maria's family during it.

4. 2 years in Spain... While I struggled the first 6 months, the remaining 18 were the best 18 months of my life. I loved every day being able to get up and serve the people in Spain as a missionary. I loved the community service I participated in, the free smoking cessation courses I got to teach, the youth I got to help in the rough parts of town, the elderly people I got to serve, and most importantly the opportunities I had to share my testimony of how Christ is our Savior and that His church has been restored on the earth.

3. March 15th 2006... I hadn't been back from grad school interviews in Boston more than a couple days when Maria woke me up that morning, excited and nervous saying "Nate! Either I just wet the bed or my water just broke!" That was the first of what still seems like endless sleepless nights and continual chuckles about all the cute things Anabanana does and says.



2. July 25th 2003... I mean the 26th! sorry!... (quote from a mission reunion that got me in trouble)

1. Every day with my girls... I love them both with all my heart