This update is coming a little bit early, because my family is here to visit for the weekend! Though I am at school for most of the year, I am essentially almost always within a drive or train ride of home. This summer, however, I am far across the country and it is definitely exciting to see Mom and Dad for a weekend. We plan to go hiking in the Olympic Mountains, as well as in the Cascades. My parents are actually already in town, though they have been doing some touring around the city on their own while I do research this week.

As far as research, I have been using this week to figure out backward query processing. I have never worked with Markovian Streams, so I am really enjoying the fresh material from papers that Julie suggested. I feel exceptionally motivated now that I have a fresh project, though finishing it in the allotted 7 week time frame might be tricky. It is an amazing thing with research, there just never seems to be enough time.