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Back Home Let me tell you, flying home during the summer is much less painful than flying home during the winter. This is actually the first time Ive flown in the summer since I came to college in 2007. My only experiences with airplanes in the last 2 years have involved delays, cold, snow, and angry angry passengers. Now, there was no cold, no snow, and slightly fewer angry passengers, but a slight delay. All things considered, though, it was a pleasant experience, littered with naps and tasty food. The flight experience was capped off with retrieving my checked bag off the carousel and, to my delight, it was the first one out! My parents and I left the airport, drove to my grandmas house a few miles away, and spent some time visiting with her there. Hi grandma! (She reads this, you all should say hi too, shes a nice lady! Youd like her.) After that it was an hour long car ride back home for dinner at McMenamins. If youre from Oregon and eat anywhere but McMenamins when you get back from college, youre doing it wrong. I had a double Wilbur with double cheese and double bacon, two apple ciders, tater tots, and an extra order of fries. Yum. No pictures though, it wasnt on my plate long enough to photograph. After dinner we finally made it to our actual house. After a rather vigorous greeting by the dogs I unpacked some clothes and flopped on the couch. Theres not a lot like flopping on the couch at home after a semester at MIT, something I didnt get to do last summer. I went to bed early and woke up early, to weather like this People in Boston will never understand what weather in Oregon is like. Its just as sunny, only not as hot, no humidity, and a pleasant trickle of breeze (MIT is also known as the windiest campus IN THE WORLD!) This summer Ive decided to work at home, working outside for my dad. No, Im not working for Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, iRobot, or any of those other MIT summer job places, Ive decided to take a hit to my resume and spend what is likely to be my last summer at home. This isnt to say I wont be working though, its just not mental or technical. Its physical labor of the purest variety. Ill be building fence, trimming trees up to 20, painting and caulking the exterior of our house, mowing fields, and generally being tired and sore. Honestly, after so much MIT, Im really looking forward to this. Heres a picture of my new best friend Ive already gotten a head start on the only technical task I have this summer, GPS mapping our property and identifying trees. My dad wants a layered view of our property and locations/types of all our trees. In what is an unprecedented cooperative effort between my Garmin GPS, Excel, Notepad, SolidWorks, Photoshop, and Adobe Acrobat, I think Ive come up with a method of mapping everything. The final product will be a multi-layered PDF. Ive slapped together a quick demo of a rough cut. The satelite overlay isnt there yet, nor are most of the trees, but the perimeter of the property is mapped, as well as a few of the trees (the ones pictured above actually). Ive taken bunches of pictures of home since Ive been here and have enjoyed exploring drawers and basement areas that I havent seen in years. In one drawer was a copy of our newspaper from when Obama was elected. I lold. Check out this headline You only wish your newspaper was as cool as mine. My desk is all set up with the gadgets Ive brought home from college. Unfortunately, I left the cords for my HDD in Boston, so Ive got the data but no way of accessing it. So thats me. Im all settled and ready for a tough summer of hard (but enjoyable) work. I start Tuesday. Hope you all enjoy your summers as well!