SHIELD: Pilot

You can't really tell from this blog, but I watch a lot of TV. Some might say a scary amount. I love the long form story-telling and character growth that you get to experience watching a TV show grow and evolve over years. I like the anticipation of waiting until the next week to find out what happened. And I like seeing how different shows comment on or fail to comment on a variety of social issues.

My television tastes are wide and varied. I loved silly, escapist TV, like last year's The Carrie Diaries (which I still think has one of the more nuanced and thoughtful depictions of a teenager coming to terms with his sexual orientation), True Blood (vampires and cliffhangers!) or the new show Sleepy Hollow (time-traveling Ichabod Crane! Also one of the most racially diverse casts currently on television). I like happy comedies like How I Met Your Mother (which has a lot of fun playing with structure and time) and Parks and Recreation (honestly, one of the happiest, feel-good TV shows around). I also enjoy some harder-hitting dramas, like Justified and The Americans which deal with, respectively, trying to break free from your parents' legacy and what it takes to make a marriage work.

But I'll always have a soft spot for Joss Whedon's shows. I grew up watching Buffy (and then Angel) every Tuesday night, and made it a point to catch both Firefly and Dollhouse when they were originally airing. I'm beyond excited to have a Whedon show to look forward to on Tuesday night's again, even though Joss' brother and sister-in-law will be more in charge of the day-to-day running of the show. But since that team was responsible for most of my favorite episodes of Dollhouse, I have every confidence in them with this new show.

All of this brings us to the point. I've sort of been wanting to talk about TV on this blog like I do with books. I watch way too much to comment on everything (that would be a full time job). But I figure I can handle a single series pretty easily. And what better series than Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (hereafter, SHIELD)? I'm sure there will be some cool things to talk about as the series progresses.

But for now we just have the pilot. I've gotten the impression that I'm more pleased with this show than a lot of people. I think disappointment was to be expected, though. There was so much hype since this was announced, that there was just no way it could live up to those expectations. Add in to that the fact that Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Marvel, Disney, ABC, and probably countless other people all had a vested interest in their vision for this show and you end with something that was perhaps a little too broad. When you also consider the fact that Whedon is historically pretty bad at pilots (Firefly being the exception), and the show can only get better. (Hopefully.)

So yeah, I'm pretty optimistic. There are some strong characters here and hints about backstories that will help flesh out the walking stereotypes we saw in the pilot. Agent Ward has some serious family issues. Something happened to drive Melinda May away from fieldwork. It was heavily implied that Skye erased her own identity for some reason. And there's the central mystery of how Coulson was resurrected (maybe Tahiti really is a magical place). When the show gets a little room to breathe and finds its focus, I bet we'll end up with something excellent.

Of course, I genuinely enjoyed the pilot, too. Sure, J August Richard's character had some pretty awful dialogue. His speech at the train station was too broad and obvious, likewise his scene at the factory. Neither had that Whedon flavor that I've become so enamored of over the years. But his line about living out his origin story made me laugh. And Skye's insistence that "With great power comes...a lot of weird stuff" was a nice call to the fact that the Avengers legally have to separate themselves from Spiderman.

The thing I'm most interested in seeing developed is the antagonism between Skye and Ward, which will, of course stand, in for the transparency vs security debate. Whedon is aware that with the recent trial of Private Chelsea Manning and the whole Edward Snowden debacle, this is very much in the forefront of a lot of people's minds. And he has the perfect vehicle with which to explore it. Then again, this is also the part of the show that I can see falling completely apart.

Whedon is anti-establishment. This has been a theme in his work as early as Buffy (with Buffy fighting against big bads like The Mayor and Adam/The Initiative, and ultimately rejecting The Watcher's Council). Mal Reynolds was fighting against The Alliance (Big Government) while Echo and her friends were taking a stand against Rossum (Big Corporation). Even in The Avengers, there are hints that S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't the altruistic organization it claims to be.

The show, however, has to do its best to make S.H.I.E.L.D. the goods guys. Or at least, Coulson and his team. They're the protagonists that we need to be rooting for, and I want to see lots of coll superheroes and superhero-related shenanigans. Whedon is going to have to find some middle ground between the individual and the establishment. He's going to need to get better about articulating Ward's and Coulson's sides in this debate, so that Skye can reasonably justify working with them.

Ultimately, I worry that this will become a rehash of Angel's fifth season. Don't get me wrong; I love Angel's fifth season. In my opinion it's the best season of that show. But I want to see something different from SHIELD, something more nuanced than good guys vs bad guys. S.H.I.E.L.D. may be shady, but it's no Wolfram and Hart, and I'd hate to see it become that over the course of this show. So here's hoping we get some interesting morally grey area and good debate about the need for secrecy in some cases versus the right to knowledge in others. Where should that line be drawn and who ought to decide that? That's what I'm hoping to be able to talk about with this show.

That and the adorableness of Simmons. Did you see her face when she welcomed Ward to the team? Or when the alien tech actually started dripping? I can already tell she's going to be my favorite, even if I have trouble understanding half of what she says. That's what subtitles are for, though, right?

Soup 2: Sherried Tomato Soup

I fell in love with tomato soup years ago. Not when I was a kid, but shortly after college, when I hurt my jaw. I was on a liquid diet for several months and tomato soup became one of the main components of that diet (along with Jamba Juice, scrambled eggs, and protein shakes). It's about time I learned how to make it.

I found a recipe online at The Pioneer Woman's blog. It looked simple, and I loved the tone and pictures in the post, so I decided to try it first. Plus it has the added bonus of having lots of sherry and cream. How can you go wrong with that?

On Saturday evening, I began cooking the soup, taking pictures and cobbling together a blog entry as I went. The whole thing was pretty great if I do say so myself; it even included a few Alice in Wonderland inspired witticisms. Unfortunately, just as we were sitting down to enjoy the soup, we lost power. The lack of wifi meant that my Blogger app couldn't sync up with my online account. And for some reason this meant that Blogger ate my wonderfully constructed blog post. So you'll just have to click through that link up there if you want pictures and the recipe.

Suffice to say that the soup was delicious and super easy. It took about 45 minutes to pull together, and that was when I was taking time to take pictures. With better timing, I could probably get it down to half an hour, which makes it possible to make this almost anytime I want it.

Dress Shopping, Take 1

My mom is coming out at the end of the month for the Official Wedding Dress Shopping Trip. Unfortunately, this coincides with one of Nordstrom's trunk shows. They don't allow customers to make first appointments during trunk shows, because they want the customers who do show up to have some familiarity with the designer on display. To get around this, I scheduled an appointment two weeks early and Sarah and I went out to look at dresses.

The whole thing was a bit strange. I tried on 3.5 dresses (one wouldn't come all the way up). Luckily, one of the one's I liked happened to be from the designer doing the trunk show. So we were able to schedule an appointment while my mom's in town. But I wasn't particularly thrilled with any of the dresses. And now I'm actually considering heading off in an entirely different direction.

I may end up canceling the second appointment that I went through so much trouble to land in the first place. But that's all part of the process, right? At least I have a better idea of what I want now. I actually have my eye on one dress in particular, though I have yet to try it on. Hopefully I'll get a chance to when my mom's here.

Soup 1: Chicken Stew

This is the recipe that came with my Dutch oven, so it seemed like the perfect place to start. They wouldn't use anything too complicated for an introductory recipe, right?

Here's everything that goes into this soup

Stew ingredients. The owl (Hedwig) holds salt

Actually, the recipe only calls for 1.5 pounds of chicken meat, which is supposed to be two bone-in breasts. But they don't make chickens that small anymore, so I ended up with nearly 2 pounds of chicken.

First you sauté the veggies for a bit.

Carrots and onions. And it didn't even take me forever to chop them

I was surprised by how little basil I ended up needing. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup, which is less than half of what I bought. I even added a little extra, because why not? I'll need to find a way to use the rest of the basil before it goes bad.

1/2 cup of basil...if you smush it down

When the veggies are tender, stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, broth, basil, and bay leaf.

It's starting to look like stew

Then add the chicken and try to submerge it. Bring it to a boil. Then reduce the heat to a simmer for about 25 minutes (until the chicken is cooked through). Since the chicken breasts are too big to actually be submerged, you need to turn them occasionally. One of my breasts was big enough that it needed more than the recommended 25 minutes. So I covered the stew and cooked it for five more minutes.

I got the smallest breasts at the store and they were still too big

Once the chicken is cooked, take it out. Fish out the bay leaf and throw it away. Add the kidney beans and let the stew simmer and thicken while you cut up the chicken.

It's all coming together

Discard the skin and bones from the chicken and chop it up into bite-sized pieces

I didn't get quite all of the bones out, but it all worked out

Toss the chicken back in the pot. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until you're ready to serve.

Stew: Officially a success

This smells so good, and it was a perfect accompaniment to the football game.

New Tech

I'm several years behind the trend, but I finally got a iPad. From which I am writing this blog post, as a matter of fact.

Since I got the iPad from work, I'm mostly supposed to be using it for work. But given the nature of my job, that's rather difficult. So I've mostly just been playing with it and using it to make my own life easier.

The first night was pretty rough. This is the first apple product I've ever owned (aside from an early generation iPod) and the OS is very different from the Windows and Droid OSes I've become accustomed to. I spent several hours on the couch yelling at the iPad while Kevin laughed at me. Why is there no back button? Why do I need to enter my credit card info to download Chrome? How do I get rid of all these apps I don't want? Why is everything wiggling now? What do you mean you need my password again? I just entered it five times in a row.

But I persevered. I continued to play with the iPad and get used to a new set of shortcuts. One of my coworkers showed me a few things that I never would have figured out on my own, like locking the screen position and the need to close apps manually to save battery life. And slowly the good started to outweigh the bad.

There are a lot of things that are easier to do on the tablet than on my phone. Some apps, like blogger, work a lot better. As do most websites. I've been really impressed by the battery life, too, though I suspect a lot of that is because I don't have 3G. Being tethered to wireless networks has been more than adequate for my needs, though.

I've been getting some work functionality out of it. I can use it to take notes in meetings which has been surprisingly useful. And hooking up my work email means that I rarely need to bring my laptop home with me anymore, which is definitely a plus.

It hasn't all been perfect. There's still some functionality that I wish was present. Most importantly a sticky note or check list that I can stick on the home screen. I've gotten in the habit of leaving to do lists for myself on my phone's home screen, which ensures that I see them every time I use my phone. Having it hidden away in an app makes it too easy to forget about which makes it pointless. The home screen is also less customizable than I prefer. It doesn't let me just put apps anywhere I want or add calendar and weather widgets.

I also wish I could turn the GPS off, which is probably more of a paranoia thing than anything else. I can still be tracked through the wireless networks I'm connected to. But something about this device knowing exactly where I am all the time is a bit off putting, especially when apps that have no business knowing my location - things like IMDB and Netflix - then have access to it.

Still I can see the tablet replacing a lot of what I've been using my phone for. I'm considering downgrading to a dumb phone the next time my contract comes up for renewal and using the saved money to get a tablet. I'll probably switch back to a droid OS in that case, since it would have the customizability I'm currently missing. We'll see how things go in the next few months. 

Epic Weekend

Last weekend ended up being incredibly busy. A lot of things I'd been looking forward to all happened at the same time. It was all really fun, even if my house is still a bit of a disaster area.

On Saturday night, a group of us went to see The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring at Wolftrap. This is a special event where they pull the music track out of the movie and a live orchestra and choir perform all of the music. I got to see The Return of the King this way when I first moved to Virginia a few years ago. It's a pretty awesome experience.

We sat on the lawn, which meant we were able to bring a picnic dinner and our own wine and beer. However it also meant that we couldn't see the orchestra or the choir that was performing. Their performance was so seamless that it was easy to forget they were there at all, which made it even cooler whenever we did remember.

The performance was for only the theatrical version of the first movie, complete with an intermission to give the musicians a break. It's a good thing they didn't show the extended edition as I'm not sure we would have lasted until the end. I always forget how long these movies are until I'm actually watching them.

On Sunday a bunch of us went to Reston for the Great Grapes Wine Festival. This is basically a really big, really long wine tasting. A bunch of local wineries come and provide tastings of anywhere from 3 to 10 wines. Knowing that this would involve a bunch of drinking, we took cabs to and from the festival. Then we ordered pizza and watched the 49ers game so Zach could sober up for the drive home. After a couple of games of beer pong, that is.

The 49ers ended up doing much better than the Redskins, who played their first game of the season on Monday night. Zach and Sarah came over for the game, which was pretty disappointing. Our defense just could not get it together against the Eagles in the beginning and we let them score far too many points. Apparently we rallied in the last quarter and very nearly came back to tie it, but I had already fallen asleep by then. Next week should go better. And hopefully the week after that will go even better, as I won a pair of tickets from work. It'll be my first time actually attending a football game, so they better play well.

On Tuesday Kevin was scheduled to umpire a few games. This had completely slipped my mind until I came home to a blessedly empty house. Getting an evening all to myself was a nice surprise after the intensity of the previous few days. I made the most of it by eating scrambled eggs for dinner and falling asleep at 9:30.

Daydreaming About the Honeymoon

It didn't take too long for Kevin and I to decide that we wanted to go to Ireland for our honeymoon. We've been talking about going for a few years now, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Kevin went once in college, so he has an idea of some what's really cool and what's worth skipping. My main goal is to spend at least one night in a castle.

We've been playing around with our schedules and seeing if it would be possible to extend this vacation to last two weeks instead of one. At first I scoffed at this idea, sure there was no way I'd be able to be away from the office for that long. But now it's starting to seem like a real possibility.

Of course, two weeks in Ireland is quite a long time, and means we'd be doing a lot of just hanging out. I'm pretty okay with that, but part of the fun of travel is doing and seeing new things. Turns out we solved this problem pretty easily by adding a second destination.

On the way home from Ben and Autumn's wedding in California, Kevin and I had time to grab lunch at the airport. The television was playing a travel show that was pretty obviously aimed at children - a group of American teenagers were exploring Barcelona. It was silly, but there was nothing else to watch. And it peaked Kevin's interest. A few days later we tentatively added Spain to our honeymoon plans. With a possible stopover in Paris in the middle. It even adds a nice touch of symmetry to the honeymoon, since I've been to Spain and Kevin hasn't.

Things are still very much up in the air. We have only the vaguest idea of how this is all going to fall in to place. But in the meantime, it's a lot of fun to dream about what we're going to do. Though we should probably start planning this all sooner rather than later. And I should probably start brushing up on my Spanish.

Habit Forming

I think I've managed to finally settle into an exercise routine that works for me. I've been going to the gym pretty regularly for the past four months. I still have yet to lose any weight, but the bigger victory here is that I haven't gained any weight. And that I can knock out twenty push-ups like it's nothing.

My whole schedule is anchored by my weekly session with a trainer, who is worth every penny. He routinely kicks my ass, and knowing that I'm accountable to him helps me get to the gym even on days when I don't feel like it. Aside from that I usually go and lift weights at least once a week. Twice if I'm feeling especially motivated. And I do cardio 2-3 times a week.

Intervals have been a complete revelation for my cardio workouts. They keep my heart rate at a more reasonable level so that I can get a full workout in without feeling like I'm going to die. Now that the weather's cooling down, I've been looking forward to running outside rather than on the treadmill. I've gone back to the very first week of the C25K program and have no real intention of moving beyond that until it starts to feel easy.

Strangely, the thing that has made it easiest for me to stay on track has very little to do with working out. On the days when I go to the gym after work, I completely miss rush hour. I get to ride a mostly empty train home, and I actually end up saving quite a bit of money on my commute by not traveling at peak hours.

I've also noticed some slow, subtle shifts in my diet. Regular exercise has given me more energy, which has made me more willing to cook. Especially during the week. So I'm starting to eat more veggies and less processed food, which is at least a step in the right direction. I can't handle huge changes in diet, because I know I'll eventually revert right back to my old ways. I think this will be more sustainable and will ultimately lead to an overall healthier lifestyle. Even if it ends up taking a while.

This has basically just been an update to say that I'm still on track. That track may be moving more slowly than I initially hoped, but at least I'm moving in the right direction. The results aren't really visible yet, but they're there. I'm trying hard to keep that in mind.

Local Friends

By the time we got back from vacation, three of our friends had moved to DC. Jen actually moved in July, and Zach and Sarah moved while we were still in California after the wedding. It's exciting to have them all here, and my social calendar has absolutely exploded because of it. I used to make plans once every two or three weekends; now I have something going on nearly every weekend for the foreseeable future. It's fun, but it's also exhausting.

I'm finding that I need to readjust and do a better job of carving out time to just sit on the couch and recharge. I got good at this in college, when I made sure that I took an hour every day to sit in my room and watch TV by myself. Of course that never ended up being enough alone time. After every semester I would collapse on my mom's couch for a week, unable to even think about making plans with my high school friends until I was too bored to stay in the house anymore. And it takes me a while to get really bored.

I overdid it a bit the first week everyone was here. We spent an evening down in the city helping Zach and Sarah unload their UHaul. Then Kevin's family came over for dinner Saturday night and everyone went out to brunch on Sunday. Somehow the rest of the following week was completely nonstop until I accidentally snapped at Kevin out of exhaustion. Then I spent six hours reading The Hero of Ages on Friday and felt much better.

Since then I've been better about pacing myself. I have to turn down the occasional invitation, even if I really want to go, so that I don't overextend myself again. I'm also trying to slightly adjust my weekday evenings so that they're more relaxing, resulting in more energy on the weekends. So far this has been pretty successful. I miss out on some of the fun, but it's worth it to fully enjoy the time I do spend with my friends.

California Vacation

I really need to start posting about life events again. There have been some good ones this year. I love going back and reading older posts, so I definitely need to make some newer ones. For prosperity and nostalgia and all that. And what better place to start than with the absolutely ridiculous wedding we went to last month?

A couple of friends of ours from college had a four-day wedding extravaganza out in Carmel, CA. They rented out an incredible farm for the weekend and invited Kevin and I to stay on site with them and several other people. This was pretty magical as it meant we didn't really have to worry about transportation too much. I could drink as much as I wanted and the farthest I had to make it at the end of the night was to the top of a hill. It was like being in college all over again.

The bride and groom scheduled a wealth of activities that meant we were never in want of something to do. Or something to drink. The festivities began when we arrived shortly after noon on Thursday. We were handed beers and headed down to the lawn for bocce ball and wiffle ball. People were trickling in all afternoon, which made the game of assassins rather one-sided. New arrivals barely had time to track down their targets before they were taken out by people who'd been waiting and plotting for hours.

Kevin and I took a short nap in the afternoon to help with the jet lag and general lack of sleep. And I was impressed by how long we ultimately lasted on that first day. We made it all the way through the BBQ and the bachelor/ette parties before collapsing at around 10:30.

Going to sleep early also means waking up early, and we had time to eat bagels and play some games before other people started stirring. In the late morning everyone piled into cars for a "hike" that was really more like a stroll along the beach investigating tidal pools and skipping rocks. Then it was into Monterrey for food and beer. Thanks to the miracle of Facebook, we were able to track other friends arriving for the wedding and ended up pulling together a pretty big group for dinner while the wedding party did their rehearsal.

We also spent some time at the aquarium in Monterrey, which completely lived up to my expectations. The octopus was awesome, climbing all over its cage. There was a psychedelic "Jellyfish Experience" that was a ton of fun to walk through. And we go to see the feeding in the kelp forest, which was clearly aimed at small children, but fun and informative nonetheless.

Photo Op at the aquarium

After dinner we went back to the farm for dessert, drinks, and beer pong. Once again I fell asleep fairly early (I have a hard time staying up past midnight no matter what time zone I'm in) but everyone else had a truly epic night. Zach even sprained his ankle during a game of beer pong (Kevin swears it wasn't his fault), bringing back even more college memories.

Saturday was the day of the ceremony, and contained two cocktail hours (sandwiching the ceremony itself), dinner, dancing, a port bar, jello shots, a waffle bar and, towards the end of the evening, a mac-and-cheese bar. The macaroni and cheese was absolutely possibly the best idea I've ever seen. As always, the evening eventually devolved into beer pong and stolen bottles of champagne. And, as always, I fell asleep hours before anyone else.

We had the best table at the reception dinner

On Sunday everyone gathered for a hungover brunch and mimosas. It was delicious, but sadly lacking in protein of any kind. After eating, Kevin and I bid the farm goodbye and headed north to spend a few days with Danielle and Eric at there new (ish) house.

Danielle and Eric spoiled us rotten with all kinds of good food, including a trip to an incredible fondue restaurant. We played more beer pong and other games, watched Buffy and True Blood, and toured the Winchester Mystery House. All in all it was the perfect end to a ridiculous weekend. And it means that the next wedding is ours. I don't think we'll measure up to this one, but I'm sure everyone will have fun anyway.

Fall Goals

Back in the Spring I set myself a goal of running a 5K. It didn't end up panning out, although things went really well for the first several weeks. I liked having something to work towards. Partly because it gave me something to write about other than books. So I've decided to set myself a goal for the Fall that will hopefully give me fodder for this blog. And it's something else I've been wanting to do for a long time.

I'm going to learn how to make soup.

I bought a Dutch Oven back in March, because I felt like we needed one. Since then I've used it less than five times, which is a shame. That thing is not only awesome; it was expensive. I really want to get some more use out of it. Making soup seems like a pretty perfect way to do this.

Soup is perfect when the weather cools down. It fills you up and makes you warm. And as easy as it is to buy the Campbells cans, it has to be even tastier when it's been made fresh. The fact that it should keep for several days is another plus. I love having leftovers during the week.

There's a bunch of different kinds I want to make. I'll probably start with a basic chicken-noodle, since that seems easy. But then I want to graduate to the ones that you have to run through the blender. Creamy potato or tomato soups. I already found a recipe for a bright orange curry-carrot-squash soup that looks both delicious and festive.

I'm hoping to have time to cook a batch of soup every week or two. We'll see how that plays out with the million other things I have scheduled for the fall. But even if I only do this a handful of times, I'll consider it a success. Assuming the soups taste good, that is.

Back to Planning

Kevin and I more or less took the summer off from wedding planning. Once we secured the venue and sent out save the dates there wasn't a whole lot else we could do immediately. We talked about some things and have ideas about the direction we're going in with others, but for the most part we did nothing other than fantasize about the honeymoon.

Now that the weather's cooling down, we're starting to ramp back up. Which means that you can (hopefully) expect semi-regular updates about the process.

For now we've contacted a photographer and are in the process of arranging an engagement photo shoot. I've made several appointments to go wedding dress shopping. My mom's coming out for a weekend at the end of the month and she, Kevin's mom, my Doctor of Honor Sarah, and myself will all head out and try to find a dress. I even sort of have an idea about what I want. So here's hoping I can find the dress of my dreams without too much hassle or frustration. Or money. But I'm starting to be a little more comfortable compromising on the money front. We'll see what happens.

Once we have engagement photos we can set up our personalized site through Belmont Place that will allow our guests to book rooms for the weekend. I'm pretty excited about that part. And then we have to figure out music and food and flowers. Man, I barely even know where to start with flowers. But it will all come together in the end. And even if it doesn't, at least we'll end up married.

Wedding Hair

When I was nine or ten my dad's youngest sister got married. We all flew out to Arizona for the wedding, about which I actually remember very little. I was in charge of handing out bubbles to all of the guests, so I didn't really pay attention to the ceremony. But one thing stuck out clear in my mind. My aunt wore her hair in this absolutely gorgeous, twisty up-do.

After the wedding, I remember my dad complaining that she should have worn her hair down. She never wore her hair up, he argued, and she ended up not looking like herself. I didn't care about that; I loved what she'd done with her hair. But hearing my dad's reaction was one of those moments that had a huge impact on my life. Far more than it should have.

That's when I decided to start growing my hair long. It's when I taught myself to braid my own hair and began experimenting with clips and elastics. I looked forward to the Renaissance Festival every year, where I could get my hair professionally braided, and I would typically maintain the braids for 3 or more days. I knew I wanted a fantastic up-do at my wedding, and I also knew that I didn't want to disappoint my dad by doing something abnormal for me. So I made elaborate up-dos the norm.

My experimentation has faded some in the past years. I usually don't want to spend a lot of time on my hair in the morning, which is strange because I never minded in high school. But I do have a handful of styles that are easy for me to put together in the five minutes it takes the kettle to boil every morning. I wear my hair up far more often than I wear it down these days, so I seem to have achieved the goal I set for myself all those years ago.

All this is to say that I'm already thinking about how I'm going to wear my hair for my wedding. I'm looking forward to having some awesome, elaborate braids straight out of a medieval fantasy. Something like Daenerys Targaryen's hair in Game of Thrones. It's one of the things I'm most excited about in this whole process.