It hurts my brain to think about how insignificant we really are. I don’t think our brains are wired to truly comprehend such extreme distances or lengths of time. At least I don’t think my brain is.

It’s Monday night – about 6:30pm. My mom and stepdad, Allen, got to Vietnam safely at around 11:30pm on Friday night. They were tired, as could have been expected after about 33 hours door-to-door, but otherwise fine. Thao and I picked them up at the airport and got them checked into their hotel downtown, then [...]

It’s 9:18pm and I have had enough to drink. Mom and stepdad arrive at 11:30pm. Just over two hours from now. We will be there! Thao is at spa but on her way home.

Tonight. Dave had a flat after three loops, so I did one more by myself. He caught a ride with a passing motorbike – pulling his bike beside them. He SMS’d to say he’d gotten the flat repaired and was back on the road. In Vietnam, help is usually never too far away! My mom [...]

I just finished reading the book Drood by Dan Simmons. It’s about the last few years of Charles Dickens’ life – and is in particular a fictionalized version of the origins of Dickens’ last book, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” which was not yet complete when he died. Kind of a horror/mystery novel, which is [...]

11 days to wedding. Must. Keep. Fat. Off.

It’s Monday morning here. Rode 30km more last night. Good ride. Today is my off day. I need to go into school for a few hours to work on a draft exam and also to edit my slides for next week. I finished grading my class’ second midterm exam yesterday – much better results than [...]

Went over 30km tonight – my bike computer wasn’t working at first so not sure exactly how far. Haven’t ridden in a while – had a strange rash on my legs that required an antibiotic cream and pills to get ride of, so didn’t want to ride while that was going on. Ah, the joys [...]

Two more weeks = married. For realz. On Thursday we went back out to Long An (Thao’s hometown) for what was hopefully our final step in the Vietnamese government’s marriage approval process. Two Thursdays ago was mental health check at the hospital. This past Thursday was strange meeting with government official at justice department. We [...]