http://www.popcornfarmer.com an unlikely place for a CS grad student. Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:40:58 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en One of our good friends and former roommate, Gal, was recently deported back to Israel due to visa issues. To commemorate his departure a group of us had a farewell dinner with a ton of good food and a liquid ton of good wine. ... http://www.popcornfarmer.com/2010/03/gals-departure/ After spending a few nights at my Dad's we went down to stay with Megan's family in Lynchburg for Christmas. We spent most of our time entertaining Megan's nieces who are quite adorable. http://www.popcornfarmer.com/2010/03/christmas-part-2-kiddies/ This Christmas Megan and I went down to Virginia to visit both of our families. We first stopped at my dad's (relatively) new house in the boonies (AKA Nelson County). Nic and Alison met us there the first night and we had a delicious dinner.  We had a few gifts ... http://www.popcornfarmer.com/2010/01/christmas-2009-part-1/ Red=Day 1, Blue=Day 2. View a larger mapThis is a long overdue post about the canoeing trip Megan and I took along with a group of my old highschool chums: Chris, Matt G. and Mike. The plan was an overnight trip from Dingman's Ferry down about 28 miles to the ... http://www.popcornfarmer.com/2009/11/an-ambitious-plan/ Last weekend my friends Bill and Aimee tied the knot in a quaint barn down in Jersey. The wedding itself was a lot of fun, with plenty of good food and some nice touches like a hot apple cider bar with various "adult" fixins. It also served as a great ... http://www.popcornfarmer.com/2009/10/barn-wedding/ I just got back from a conference in Big Sky, Montana. The conference hotel was up in the mountains at a ski resort, and although they were starting to get their first snow of the season, the slopes weren't quite ready yet. The scenery was quit breathtaking (especially ... http://www.popcornfarmer.com/2009/10/conference-in-montana/ Megan and I went down to Cape Cod for the 4th of July weekend along with our friends Bobby and Stefan.  It was right after my proposal defense, so I had a wonderful time just relaxing and forgetting about work for a few days. We've been having about a month ... http://www.popcornfarmer.com/2009/07/cape-cod-4th-of-july/ I did one sort of proposal earlier this spring, but on July 1st I defended my thesis proposal. I won't bore you with the details, but you can all imagine it as collection of groundbreaking work exploring how virtualization can be used to make computers more efficient, improve reliability, and generally ... http://www.popcornfarmer.com/2009/07/proposal-2-done/ This is a double post, also appearing on our wedding blog. A few weeks ago we had an informal engagement party with our friends in Amherst. We were lucky to have a beautiful spring day perfect for a barbecue and drinks in our yard. Between the 3 grills, 35 people, 2 ... http://www.popcornfarmer.com/2009/05/engagement-party/ Over Spring Break I proposed to Megan, and with a diamond ring as encouragement, she said yes! We haven't figured too much out about the actual wedding other than that it probably won't be until Spring or Summer 2010.  In the meantime, you can read about all the terrible exciting ... http://www.popcornfarmer.com/2009/03/engaged/