Wingfoot's Meanderings

Vote!

2008-10-30T09:11:00.002-07:00

3 days and counting...

2008-07-30T13:01:00.002-07:00

Yea, I suck.. I know...

2008-04-10T09:12:00.001-07:00

Long absence...

Lots of stress...

Pics to come again...

NEW JOB!!!

Less stress...

More to come..

There's Nothing There?!?!?!

2007-07-09T16:51:00.000-07:00

For the past few weeks we have been in contact with the builder and trying to get a hold of the crappy HVAC company that put in our venting system. The problem? The register or vent in the office (South/West facing corner room with two windows) has absolutely no airflow coming out of it and the vent in our master has a tiny trickle.
Well, after several weeks of waiting, scheduling a duct cleaning company to come out, and 30 minutes of arguing with the HVAC company just to get an appointment for them to come out and look at the problem....they finally came out and found the problem. Due in part to cutting holes in the ceiling of the garage and pouring over the pictures I took of the house in the framing stage (i didn't have as many angles as I would have liked). The two problems. The ducting in the garage that leads to the master is restricted to about 1" of flow space in the crappy flex ducting they put to bend around a beam that should not have been done, because they could have gone straight up. Then the kicker. There is ducting from the office to the wall and down the wall of the living room to the garage....and then nothing. Nada, Zip, Zilch. There is a 15 ft gap between the end of the duct feed to the smaller ducting going up the wall. Absolutly nothing there. Might explain some things. They are suppose to come out tomorrow to fix it, so hopefully we will finally have A/C in the two hottest rooms of the house by the time it gets to 90 Deg tomorrow like the forecast says.
No update on the driveway...plans are still in for review with the city.

Lights in the clouds

2007-06-27T21:37:00.000-07:00

I was at my old boss's house for dinner this evening and for about an hour from 8 to 9 pm there was constant lightning in the distance. It lit up the sky about every 10-20 seconds. The weird part was that there was no thunder and no rain where I was. Its still about 85-90 deg outside. I have never seen anything quite like it before. Today has be an absolutely beautiful day. A gorgeous sunrise and sunset followed by a light show. Now, as you have probably already guessed (if you don't know already) I am not in Seattle right now. I am down in Southern Arizona for work. It is over 100 deg during the day and doesn't really cool down much at night. This is my second week straight down here and I am ready to be back in Seattle. Due to the length of the trip, I stayed down for the weekend. I didn't want to stay here in the hot weather all weekend, so I drove through 116 deg temps north and west of Tucson to San Diego, CA for a few days. In addition Rissa flew down from Seattle early for meetings she had on Monday in Cali. So we got to relax in SD for the weekend. It was cool and beautiful and we got to see friends and family. I would like to post pics of the lightning, but I don't have a very good camera for night lightning shots down here with me so you'll just have to imagine it...:)

Speaks for itself

2007-06-07T13:26:00.000-07:00

I found this a bit ago here...

You know you are a TiVo fanatic when....

2007-06-06T17:02:00.000-07:00

So a couple of weeks ago we were still trying to get internet and cable tv access. It was taking a while because of the new address, then a problem with the cable line, and then a problem with the cable modem. We were finally able to get TV service, but the cable modem wasn't working properly. Next question was how to get the HDTiVo up and running? Now, if you don't know much about TiVo, when you set up a new cable service (in this case, two cable cards for HD!) it has to call into TiVo to get the program info. Well, we don't have a land line and the internet wasn't working. So what did I do?... I plugged my cell phone into my laptop, tethered it to the internet service provided by 3G from Cingular, set up internet connection sharing on the laptop to the Ethernet port, connected the port into one of my Gigabit switches, and told the TiVo to search for a connection...and what-do-ya-know! It worked! :)

Just thought I would share. Thank goodness for unlimited data on the cell phone...I think the data usage that month was something like 75 MB...:) I don't even want to know what that would have cost if I was on a pay per use plan.

Now thats just wrong!

2007-05-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

So it cost me more to fill up my BMW Z4 roadster then to fill up my Diesel Jeep Liberty ...
Thats just wrong....

BIODIESEL BABY!!!

My Jeep is more earth friendly then my little roadster...hmmm.
They get about the same gas millage though.

:)

Don't Worry...Be Happy

2007-05-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

Summary of last two months:

*Lots of Travel for work.
*Closed on the house. (Almost didn't...see next line)
*Builder poured driveway, we drive up in jeep and slide back down.
*Highest stress ever experienced in our lives for a month.
*Convinced builder that the driveway is WAY, WAY, WAY too steep.
*Still don't know how it got approved by the city.
*Builder in the progress of getting engineering plan (that he should have done in the first place) to the city to modify the grade of the road and the driveway to make it more realistic.
*Fire department comes by and says "Stairs for you!"...builder required to build stairs from the road to the house due to the steepness of the driveway.
*Designed and partially implemented back yard landscaping so the dogs have grass and not mud to run around on (for our sake and theirs).
*Fence to be constructed starting May 22nd.
*Finally in the house with the generous support of our friends (and a few hired pros to pack the truck and haul the big stuff up the driveway)
*The Beagles Love it and are now able to run in and out of the house and not going stir crazy in a 1 bedroom apartment! (and we all know they come first)...
*The view and the house are AWESOME. Now we just have to be able to get up the driveway...I know...technicalities.
*Still no stairs or fixed driveway...soon hopefully.

I will take more pics and upload them as soon as I have internet access. (Stupid Comcast).
:)

More later

Tile work

2007-03-17T14:46:00.000-07:00

More pics...tile work and floors are comming along.

NewHouseTileWork

Brace Yourself...

2007-03-10T13:35:00.000-08:00

I know...it seems impossible. But it looks like a real house now! (still no driveway..soon tho.)

HouseAccents

Interior!!

2007-03-07T22:08:00.000-08:00

So alot has happened lately. (still no driveway...it has been delayed due to a conflict with the neighbor about dirt level issues). Paint. Slate. Hardwood. Cabinets. Doors. Garage Doors.

Its coming along.

Interior Paint

Flooring and Doors

Drywall

2007-02-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

Its starting to come together. Drywall is in progress...

HouseDrywall

Barack Obama officially announces Candidacy for President

2007-02-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

Those that have been following things lately would know that this was already in progress, but yesterday Barack Obama [wikipedia.org] officially announced [bbc.co.uk] that he is running for President [slashdot.org]. He is young and new, with not a lot of experience in Washington, but I think that may be a good thing.
In his speech, he said this...

"I recognize that there is a certain presumptuousness in this, a certain audacity to this announcement. I know that I have not spent a long time learning the ways of Washington, but I have been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington have to change."

It will be interesting to see how things progress over the next several months as we learn more about his positions on various topics. I am very intrigued by what he has to say.

Another very interesting point is that he is most definitely on the cusp of technology. He has launched his web site: Barack Obama For President.

Further reading thanks to Janece :)...

Obama: Time to reclaim America's promise [cnn.com]

'Call to Renewal' Keynote Address [senate.gov]

House Progress!

2007-02-03T12:59:00.000-08:00

Insulation has been installed with drywall supose to start next week.

Plus...we got the Jeep up the driveway :)

New House Insulation

House Update

2007-02-02T08:56:00.000-08:00

On another note...

We met with the builder yesterday to work out some of the things we have paid for and determine what we own him...etc. Although we didn't get complete answers on numbers yet, we have things a little more organized now. Our updated move in date is March, 15th. I don't think it will happen by then, but I do think it won't me too much later then that...probably closer to April. They have started the rockery on the south side of the house as well as on the sides of the driveway. The driveway is also more graded and he hopes to poor the concrete soon. We also just got signed off on inspection, so the insulation should start in the next few days and the drywall won't be too far behind. So there is finally progress! :)

On a sadder note, I won't be able to play my xbox 360 for a while...I got the Red Lights of Death. Hardware failure. :) Its going in for service as soon as I get the box from them to mail it in.

Not much else to report. I will take more pictures of the house as the driveway and rockery get closer to being finished.

Not surprised in the least..

2007-02-02T08:42:00.000-08:00

Scientists Offered Cash to Dispute Climate Study [slashdot.org]

Also,

How ExxonMobil Funded Global Warming Skeptics [slashdot.org]

And, to compound matters:

Congress Hears From Muzzled Scientists [slashdot.org]

More:

Scientists agree: Humans causing global warming [seattlepi.nwsource.com]

These and many, many other reasons are why I didn't vote for Bush and completely support this movement...I just wish it wasn't in the 11th hour:

Move to impeach Bush gets local push [seattlepi.nwsource.com]

Winter recap

2007-01-25T20:38:00.000-08:00

So I thought I would post a few of the better pictures that I have taken so far this winter. Needless to say we have had a bit of snow. It has been absolutely awesome. The dogs have really enjoyed it too.

Here yea go..enjoy.

Winter 06/07

Crazy day

2007-01-25T08:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was an interesting day. Work was not all that eventful and we left later then I was hoping. The plan was to go home, get the dogs, stop by the house, take the dogs to the Marymoor dog park to get all their energy out, grab some food, and go swimming with our friends in Issaquah.

In actuality when we got home the builder called and asked if we could come by the house because he had some questions. It was perfect timing because we had just gotten home and we were about to throw the dogs in the car and head to the house anyways. We ended up being at the house for over an hour talking with the builder and going over a few things. All in all it was perfect because we hadn't both been at the house at the same time in a while, so we were both able to go over a few things that were better to be on-site to talk about. Progress is picking up. They are starting to grade the driveway and have partially leveled out the back yard. He has a better idea now of how the driveway will work and he even decided to put in a turn around pad at the top of the driveway next to the stairs against the embankment. This is excellent, because we were talking about asking him if this was possible, but it was HIS idea...so that means it doesn't cost extra! :) He said drywalling should start early next week, so I am thinking either late next week or early the week after... :)

Due to the time we spent there through the sunset, of course it was almost dark by the time we got to the dog park. Needless to say, the dogs didn't get as much energy out as we had hopped. We went from there to Whole Foods to get a few more items off of our list. We went in a different way then we usually do and this is where they day gets even weirder. I ran into a good friend and her husband that I knew from college! Now mind you college, PLNU, was over 1300+ miles away in perpetually sunny San Diego, CA. So I was very shocked to say the least. She was a Physics major, so we both spent a lot of time in the same building (Science Building) since I was a CS major. Plus her husband was the room-mate of another CS major that I graduated with (all 3 of us that year). They are living up here now (after being in many different places around the US) and what is even more funny is that they live about 5 minutes from where our new house is. Weird. Now, I do have to disclose one thing...she grew up on Camano Island, so the chances of seeing her up here are greater then your average Joe, but still. Very awesome. We got their number and hope to connect up soon. YAY! More friends! :)

The Great Thaw

2007-01-24T13:22:00.000-08:00

It seems that we are thawing out up here in Narnia...errr...I mean Issaquah.

Not that I am complaining about the 3rd snow storm in two months with over 10in. in Issaquah that lasted for over a week. :) I love the snow!

Hopefully this means that progress on the house should pick up. We'll see.
Current date from builder: March 1st, I am thinking April or May.

Anyways, back to work.

House Pictures!!!!!

2006-12-22T21:08:00.000-08:00

So I finally have posted more pictures...sorry it has taken so long. I have two groups, but the first is a combo of several visits so there are some duplicates that show different stages. Enjoy.

Roof and more framing

Painted Exterior & Seattle Sunset

Sycho weather

2006-12-20T12:01:00.000-08:00

During the last two months we have been hit by some insane weather. Freezing temperatures (low of 18 in late Oct), record rainfall (15in. in November), 8in. of snow after Thanksgiving (60 bus accidents on that day), and a wind and rain storm that reached over 100mph gusts in some areas last week. We were without power at our apartment from last Thursday evening until Sunday morning (12/17/06). We still do not have cable or Internet access and there are still over 100,000 people in Washington without power and trees are down everywhere. There was a madrona in the back yard of our new house that came down and BARELY missed the house. The good news? We now have a better view of Lake Sammamish from our new house! :) Several trees went down that are in our line of sight to the lake. WooHoo!

Speaking of the house, I am way far behind on getting pictures posted. I will hopefully be able to do that over Christmas break. Exterior painting is mostly done. Plumbing is mostly done, HVAC is kind of done however they need to fix some things and we have our own HVAC guy (Aarden Air) comming out to add return air ducting and will be adding A/C sometime after we are in the house (before the heat of summer :) ). Rough Electrical is done and gas piping is going in today. One of our French doors was ripped off its hinges in the storm, so that will have to be replaced. All in all, things are going well. Current estimate for getting into the house is mid February.

More to come

Oh, btw...did I mention I love the weather up here in Seattle? :) And that's not sarcasm either!!

Its Cold and Wet up here...In case you hadn't noticed

2006-11-30T08:17:00.000-08:00

Yea...just a bit. Snow. Ice. Rain. And lots of it. It was 18 deg on Tuesday night. Can I just say I love my Jeep? We have not been hindered by the weather at all...except for the side effect of having to navigate around hundreds of cars abandoned on the sides of the roads and blocking half the lanes going up hill. And mind you we live on a plateau right now...so we have a steep hill. When we got home at 8pm on Monday night we were only 1 of 2 or 3 cars that were able to make it up the additional hill to our apartment complex. Needless to say the dogs had fun....they LOVE the snow. :)

And this just in from the Seattle PI:

The National Weather Service has confirmed that November is officially the rainiest month in the Seattle area in at least 115 years. The weather service officially started collecting records in 1891. As of midnight, the amount of precipitation collected at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was 15.59 inches, according to the agency.

That amount shatters the December 1933 record of 15.33 inches, which was collected at the Federal Building in Seattle.

Good times!! :)

Quick Update...

2006-11-25T10:55:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a while, but we have been busy with the house. I am sitting at the Crossroads in Carmel, CA at the Carmel Valley Coffee Roasting Co leeching off of the free wifi. Through this you could gather that I am in Monterey, CA for Thanksgiving. We left on Tuesday morning at about 10am in the Z4 and 16 hours later (2am) we pulling into Monterey. We were pelted with rain through south Washington and most of Oregon. I5 south was not the road of choice, but due to the desire to make it to Monterey quickly, it was the best route. The coast is always the most fun, it just takes longer.

Quick update on the house...and I will post pictures as soon as I get a chance...
Roof is finally on, rough plumbing is in, we met with the electrician on friday and he starts this next Monday, the fireplace is installed and the heating system was in the process of being installed when we were there on Friday. We get to make an appointment with the cabinet guy when we get back and I have to get speaker cable and dig up my HDMI cable for the electrician.

Side note...there is a humming bird fluttering 2 feet from my foot... It is sunny and cool down here in Monterey at the moment...great weather to have the top down. Now the only problem with driving the Z4 down is the weather...we are actually getting a little worried because I just found out that there is forecast for snow and freezing temperatures in Oregon and Washington...so I think we will have to leave asap on sunday to head back north. I do not yet know what route we will take. I would like to take I5 because it is the quickest, however we may have to take the coast due to possible snowy conditions in the passes in Oregon. The good news about all this is that there is snow forecasted for where we live next week! :) We just have to get home before it dumps!!!

Anyways..Happy Thanksgiving and I will post more later...

Priceless

2006-10-09T08:43:00.000-07:00

600 Miles and two tanks of gas: $55

A room with a view on the Oregon bank of the Columbia River: $100

The wind through your hair at 122 MPH on wide open Yakima Valley back roads: Priceless

One track mind

2006-10-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

I know that I have been pretty much posting only about the house lately. I know that I am kind of in a rut. But hey...what can I say. I don't have a ton of other stuff going on right now. Just work and the house.

I am however very glad fall has arrived...I thought it would never come. The dogs are liking it too, they have more energy and run more at the dog park. A few weeks ago Zanni came down with an upper respiratory infection. It was pretty bad...hacking and coughing and such all the time. Of course Bailey got it too, so they were quarantined from the dog park for a while and I had to find alternate places to take them for walks. I did pretty well though and we got out quite a few times. They are better now after two weeks worth of anti-biotic.

Not much to mention on the house. They were suppose to put the trusses on last week (they are on the lot), but when the crane guy came and looked at the incline he said "I don't think so". Therefore the builder had to do some leveling which he was going to do, but hadn't gotten to it yet. The crane is suppose to be back tomorrow and they framers are going to take advantage of the situation and build the fireplace flue on the ground and have the crane lift it into place when it comes. Sounds like a good idea to me. Now my concern is if the crane guy wouldn't work with the slope that was there, how is the builder going to fix it so that we can even get up our driveway? We'll see.

Another funny thing about this whole process.... We are putting natural lodge pole timbers in the living room as the supports for the gluelamb beam that will be natural and span the kitchen/dining area and mark the transition to the living room. The builder said a few weeks ago that he didn't know where to get them, so I took that on. I have contacted and ordered 10' poles from a guy we found off of Hwy 2 in Sulton,wa (Sky Valley Wood Works). We have already purchased lodge pole night stands from him to go with our lodge pole bed. It is just weird that I am on task to get the support poles for the beam that is holding up our top floor.

Anyway, I don't have any more pictures at the moment. I will take more when more stuff happens and I will post the Duval sunrise pics soon.

Soaked House / Top Floor

2006-09-23T15:50:00.000-07:00

Fall has arrived! Its cooler, the colors are starting to change and rain has come! Its awesome!

They are now working on the top floor, plus the trusses & roof should be going on next week sometime. The builder is trying to get it buttoned up before it rains too much more.

20060921_HouseFraming

Sep 21, 2006 - 20 Photos

I took a few morning fog pics a few weeks ago and I will post them soon.

Pictures Galore - House and boating trip

2006-09-08T23:15:00.000-07:00

So i went crazy this time and uploaded all of the pics I took (instead of editing them and picking a few) to Google Web albums. Its in beta, but it seems to be functioning well.

Here we go... [click on the pics to go to the album]

House: Framing for garage - Floor 0

New House - Floor 0

Sep 2, 2006 - 11 Photos

Boating trip on Lake Washington with the Volts

Lake Washington Boating

Sep 3, 2006 - 25 Photos

House: Framing for main floor - Floor 1

New House - Floor 1

Sep 7, 2006 - 15 Photos

YeeeHaaa!

2006-09-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

All is well! There is progress on the house! We climbed a ladder and walked around in our living room. Its finally coming together. I have pictures and will post them tonight hopefully. The garage (Floor 0) is fully enclosed (with framing) and the flooring and frames for Floor 1 are in place. We even looked out the window, (that will be changed to French doors {framers got confused} our builder assured us) that will lead out to our front deck off of the dining room... The view will be awesome!

Also, our new Whole Foods opened last Wednesday. It is 5 minutes from our new house and it ROCKS. We are stoked. It is 1 minute from the dog park, so going there will be very convenient and they have lots of cool stuff at this new one. Juice bar, Gelloto bar, various other food bars, Japanese bar.... It is AWESOME. Its big and laid out very well.

Anyway, more to come...Picture soon

Mountain Twisties Tour

2006-08-30T21:26:00.000-07:00

This last Sunday we went on our first event with the Puget Sound BMW Car Club. This event was called the Mountain Twisties Tour.

A titbit from the description: "...clear skies should reveal Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens for at least a short while. That is, if you can take your eyes off the road. You see, this Tour is not about the scenery, but instead is all about the roads. Without question, the twistiest, longest, least crowded roads in the State, featuring endless second and third gear corners."

Needless to say it was a blast. We met new friends, drove 431 miles, and flew through some mighty tight corners. :) It was a beautifull day for a drive...cool in the morning and warm in the afternoon. Come monday morning, my arms were rather sore. :) I have never had so much fun on the road before! :) Bellow are some pics of the event. There were about 28 cars in all and 6 Z4s.

Mt. St. Hellens

Frames!

2006-08-30T21:24:00.000-07:00

Foundation anyone?

2006-08-11T22:17:00.000-07:00

So I was going to post a few pictures I took last week of the forms. But then I thought....why? When I can post pictures of the foundation itself! :)

Why?

2006-08-04T00:08:00.000-07:00

Why can't we just all get along?

Why is violence and anger the first response?

Why is PEACE such a foreign concept?

Why do so many people have to suffer and die?

Why are our efforts and time and money spent on war and vengeance and destruction instead of on education and people and creation?

Why is there so much hate in this world?

Stupid Unions...

2006-08-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

So they were supose to pour more of the foundation yesteray...
except there was a kink [wslc.org] in the process.

I have a few more pics...I will post them soon

Sunset a few weeks ago

2006-07-24T21:43:00.000-07:00

This is a pic of a sunset from the top portion of our apartment complex a few weeks after we moved in. The apartment complex is on a hill that faces east and the cascades...but the top crests the hill we are on...and you can see past Lake Sammamish, past Bellevue, past Lake Washington and into the skyscrapers of downtown Seattle. This was looking that direction with some dynamic clouds and a beautiful sunset! :) Enjoy.

Forms Appear!

2006-07-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

Some Forms have appeared on the lot this last Saturday. The foundation is suppose to be poured this week (yea I said that before). So we'll see

Our house is the forms to the left, the right house that is framed is the house next to ours

Looking at the lower part of the forms for the foundation

Looking at the foundation (to be built up) for the right garage.

Looking at the forms for the left garage...the front door entrance is off to the left out of the picture.

So you think you can ride the tour?

2006-07-20T07:32:00.000-07:00

Yea. Um no. The pro riders sure make it look easy. Every year before the tour blazes through France, a ride is organized that sets anyone up for it against one (just one) stage in that year's Tour, called L'Etape du Tour [letapedutour.com]. This year? Stage 15. L'Alpe d'Huez.

Ouch.

7500 insane people rode it this year. 1500 didn't finish.

But don't take my word for it. Read about someone that rode it....and cry.

The Tour de France Almost Killed Me [Slate.com]

House Updates

2006-07-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

Not much to mention. There hasn't been a bunch done lately. The builder called us mid week to let us know they are about to lay the foundation. So hopefully that will happen soon. The lot has been excavated and is ready for the foundation to be layed :)

More pics....

The framing on the left is the house next to ours...the framing in front is the house accross the street from ours...This pic was taken from the lot looking down.

The Jeep is pointing at our lot.

The framing on the right is the house next to ours.

Tour de France: Stage 11

2006-07-13T10:06:00.000-07:00

Floyd Landis is now in the Yellow jersey. Hincapie has fallen way back.

This tour has been very interesting, with the Yellow jersey bouncing around to all sorts of riders. I think it is good that one rider is not dominating the race. Its an open field and anything can happen.

In case you missed it. Landis announced that he has been having hip problems since a crash in training back in 2003 and is scheduled to have surgery after the tour.

I REALLY Love Seattle (part 2)

2006-07-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

We went down to San Diego this last weekend for a wedding. It was a long time coming, even if it was short notice on the date side. It went well and was fun. We had a blast being able to talk to a lot of people we hadn't seen in a long time. Lots of friends came in from the various places we have split to and it was great to talk to friends and professors from PLNU.

Now the downsides....

It was HOT...as in 81 Deg at 7am. (disclaimer: Point Loma was nice and cool (all relative of course)! Always has been...That's the only reason I was able to stand San Diego for 5 years...)

And then there is the unexpected. Even though San Diego is close to LA, it has been historicity a great town. There are lots of good restaurants and fun things to do. Good movie theaters. The Zoo and Wild Animal Park are a blast. Balboa Park is awesome and The Old Globe is there that offers very good theatrical productions. Seaworld is fun and the beaches and piers are abundant. That all still holds true, except for one thing.
The mentality has changed. I have never been yelled at, flipped off, cut off, run down, glared at, and had just general animosity directed at me more in a 3 day period in my life. There are now AT LEAST 20 minutes of commercials and trailers at the beginning of movies. Gas is expensive, homes are expensive, movies are expensive. But there is good Mexican food at least! My question is this... WHY? I will never, ever live in Southern California again in my life. We will visit again and go down to see friends, but that is all. Oh, and I almost forgot...don't use your turn signals in San Diego. Instead of letting people know you want over so that they will let you in, a turn signal seems to be a notification to other drivers to speed up and make sure you don't get in front of THEM.

Now I understand that no place is perfect and all cities have their downsides, but to me, Seattle is a great area.

Did I mention I love Seattle?

I Love Seattle....

2006-07-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess I should say I love the Pacific Northwest. Oregon to Whistler. The trees, the ocean, the rivers, the mountains, the snow, the rain. The Colors. And of course the random changes in weather.

The last two weeks have royally sucked. HOT. Did I mention it was HOT? 90s..high 80s. Ich. (of all times to sell the house WITH the A/C!)

And then WHAM.

At 4am on the 4th, we (all 4 of us...Beagles included) sat straight up in bed awakened by the loudedest and most grippingly strong rolling clap of thunder I have heard in years. It was awesome. It even rained. All on the 4th of July! :) Yesterday was the first cool day we have had in two weeks. The ground was wet when we woke up and there were clouds in the sky. The bike ride I went on in the morning was awesome. It got warmer in the afternoon and cleared up some, but not too much. The clouds were still hanging around come fireworks time. I don't know what it was like at the major fireworks locations because we went to a friend's house and watched their cul-du-sac's local display. But this is what I am used to. I grew up in Monterey, CA where 60% of the time the fireworks were half in the clouds. :) It was a good forth.

Real. Actual. Progress! With proof!

2006-07-04T15:43:00.000-07:00

Its actually for real! We really are building a house. :) The lot is finally starting to be cleared. Bellow are some before pics and some pics I took today.

Original Shot - Looking up the lane. Our house is the second lot on the right

Sunset from Lake Sammamish that night.

Today: Looking up the lane. The first lot with the foundation is the other house the builder is working on.

Today: Grading the lot.

Today: Looking down from the lot.

Cool Tour Tracker

2006-07-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

I ran into this cool gps/google integrated tour tracker this morning. Its pretty cool...
Google Maps Tour de France Tracker

Tour de France 2006 - Stage 1 - George Hincapie in Yellow!

2006-07-02T12:17:00.000-07:00

The 2006 Tour has started, amongst controversy and major hopefuls being pulled from the race. The prolog went well, with two US riders in the top 3 after Thor Hushovd (Norway) took the first stage. I am excited now tho, because the chance that George Hincapie could take the tour is much higher now with Ullrich and Basso out. He is definitely due, sitting behind Lance for the past 7 years. I just don't know if he has it in him. We'll see. Hincapie is starting strong in the 2006 Tour. Now the question is, is it too strong? Is he pushing to hard too soon? Only time will tell. See the specifics here: Tour de France 2006 - Stage 1

On another note..

2006-06-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

Pun intended.

I duno if any of you have ever heard of Relevant Magazine, but they are a great Christian magazine for those interested Emergent style of worship and forward thinking. They also have a relatively new section called Relevant TV where they focus on all kinds of Christian and Secular up-and-coming music. Through this and other sources I have been able to keep up with some of the new great Christian artists... everything from country to hard rock.
One such artist is Anberlin. I had not heard of them before, but they have a new album out that Rocks...literally. So check them out if you like good Christian Rock.
Other good artists to check out are: Falling Up, By the Tree, Tree63, Casting Crowns, Skillet, Kutless, ReliantK, Lifehouse, Sanctus Real, Switchfoot, David Crowder Band, Delirious, FlyLeaf, MercyMe, Jars of Clay, Newsboys, Pillar, SONICFlood, Thousand Foot Krutch.

Also of note...Petra is no more. They have retired. Its a sad day, they will be missed.

Meeting with the builder...

2006-06-09T10:21:00.000-07:00

We had a pre-construction meeting with our builder on Wednesday. It went very well. We walked the lot and talked about what trees will go, what will stay and he got input from us about the slope of the driveway as well and how high we wanted the house... The lot is on a slop, so he could cut down and put the house lower or build up the dirt around and place the house higher...we opted for the latter because it will give us a better view. One of the really cool things is that we will have input along the way for things like grading and rockeries (on the back side for retaining wall...all depending on how the lot gets finally graded). We have a protected growth area in front of the house, which means we get to (have to) keep a few trees in the front of the lot, which is fine by us.
Also, one of the options we had, that we gladly chose, was to have an open wood beam on the main level (9ft ceiling) that allows the kitchen/dining/living area to be fully open. This beam will be natural wood and we will have timber (real trees) as the two posts in the kitchen for support. The original plan was to have a Glulamb Beam. While we were at the lot on Wednesday, we saw a few large, straight trees that had been felled on the lot next to ours that the builder is working on as well. So I asked...

So about the open beam...would it be possible to take one of those (*pointing to the logs lying by us*), and mill it to be our open beam?

His response was this...

You know, I was just starting to think about that too, so I'll talk to my mill guy and let you know.

SWEET
:) Our builder is awesome.

New schedule (rough dates):
June 12th - clearing/grading starts
July 1st - Framing starts
December 1st - Completion

It will probably slide some, but I just hope we can get in by Christmas...

More to come as it unfolds.

Progress!

2006-06-06T08:29:00.000-07:00

Yea, so during the final junk/odds-n-ends moving process on Saturday, we got a call from our cool realtor Andy with word that he has been in contact with our builder. Finally, permits are completed and everything is good to go. The site is scheduled to be cleared late this week or early next week and we have a pre-construction meeting planned for Wednesday afternoon. The meeting is to walk the lot to see what trees can be saved and to get an idea of what the final grade will be like, as well as to confirm all the requests/changes/additions/selections we have made over the past few months.

It is perfect timing, because now we can focus solely on the house and we are only 10 minutes away from it! :) God is good. We had an opportunity to move a while back and didn't end up proceeding down that path because it just didn't feel right. Everything about this move has been awesome and has fallen together easily and efficiently. That is one of the many reasons we know we are making the right decision.

All out

2006-06-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

The sale of our house has closed, money deposited (YEHA!), and we are out...never again to be in our old house.

The apartment is packed...there are boxes everywhere. It is a nice area tho and the dogs seem to like it and are getting used to the noises. The only thing that sucks? No Air Conditioning...I really like my A/C. :)

Our place backs up to a rock wall and has grass off of the patio. Thus I have on order (delayed...suck) two sets of metal pet pens that I am going to link together and put up around the grass and patio so that we can let the dogs out without putting them on leashes every time. So that will be nice. We still have to clean out the garage so that we can fit the Z4 in it. Lots to do, but we are tired so it may take a bit to get organized. I have one thing to admit... as much as I hate moving and the fatigue that goes with it, I have been feeling more alert because of all the activity and exercise (moving boxes and such)... so I just need to keep that up.

Chaos Reigns!

2006-05-30T10:55:00.000-07:00

We are moving. Need I say more?

I hate moving...

*sigh*

Movers come on Thursday. We are doing our best to get fully packed and furniture dis-assembled. 1/2 goes to storage, 1/2 to our apartment...(our 925 sqft 1bd/bath + den apartment). Its nice tho. :) I just hate this part of moving.

More later...if we survive.

New sound experience...

2006-05-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

I have been running sound for my church almost solidly for the past 3 years. We have gone from school gym, to school gym, to finally our own location. It has been a fun experience and I have learned a lot. I have been humbled by how much the worship team, pastors, and congregation have consistently conveyed how much they appreciate having me around and how much they enjoy the quality of the music and the mix that I am able to produce. Let me put it this way... if there is a special service, or a Holiday service coming, I can pretty much assume that I have been scheduled to run sound. We have been able to train a fair number of people and have gotten a lot of nice, new equipment over the years. There are now several ppl that are doing a decent job and have contributed a lot to the system and setup. I now feel that I can release the reigns and let them proceed without me. Don't get me wrong, I love the church and the people there. We have developed a lot of awesome friendships and media/tech team is great to work with. I just feel like my skills could be used better somewhere that really needs the help to get things going.

That place is Seattle Family Church. They are just getting started and they really have a good thing going. Its small, but fun and very much centered on doing what they can to reach as many people for Christ as possible. The people getting it running are a splinter group that have come from a few different churches in the area that want to head is a slightly difference direction and go back to the basics of worship and ministry. That all being said, they are doing it right coming from a tech side. A lot of startups scavenge for equipment and limp along with crappy quality stuff for a few years and build as they go. Not so for SFC, they have gotten some good deals and have some contacts within the av community and so have been able to get good prices on rentals and great prices on good equipment. One such piece of equipment is this: The Mackie TT24. It is by far the best mixer I have ever worked with. I went to rehearsal last Saturday, jumped on the board and ended up running sound for that night's service. Now, mind you I have only
work with a digital board once before. The thing is a dream to use. It is amazingly powerful and almost infinitely configurable. I would recommend it to anyone. It has 24 analog channels and 24 digital inputs. It has almost everything and it sounds awesome.

All in all, I have found a place where I fit in and can lend my expertise to help them leap forward and get a good thing going.

Curious Tidbits from my family's blogs...

2006-05-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

Here are a few cool things I thought I would spread from my cousin's blogs:

The need for Ethanol as an alternative fuel

Life Lessons on "The Freedom of limitations"

New house on East Lake Sammamish

2006-05-10T10:50:00.000-07:00

I know I am on a posting rampage, but here is a few more tidbits.

Our new house is on the East side of Lake Sammamish, Wa about 5 minutes south of Redmond, WA. It is not in a development, it is a small builder building on a few lots he owns in the area. It is up a hill in the trees with a partial view of Lake Sammamish west through the trees and of cougar mountain south. We don't know the full extent of the views because it hasn't been built yet. It is smallish (1580 sqft), which we like, and it is 3 stories (including garage). The lot was suppose to be cleared late march/early April, but that hasn't happened yet. We are suppose to close August 30th, but that won't happen. You may be asking..."What the...". But we don't care. Its pretty much our dream house. We have massive control over almost everything...fireplace, rock on front, floors, slate, countertops, cabinets, molding, colors, windows, skylights, open wood beam in kitchen/dining/living greatroom with log timber posts, etc... So if it takes a while and we are crammed into an apartment for a bit...we don't mind so much.
Here are some specifics:

Listing

Floorplan
(kinda, its a little different from this: the kitchen/dining/living room on the main floor is all open with an island where the furnace/water heater/fridge is on the plans. The deck will be off back instead of the side and the half wall next to the powder room is not there. Also on the upper floor, there is a skylight in the master and master bath.

Weekend trip to Orcas Island

2006-05-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

This last weekend, when our house went on the market, we packed up the backpacks and the dogs and headed on the ferry to Orcas Island. Our original plan was to go backpacking up trail 1002 (Taylor River/Snoqualmie Lake Trail) to Snoqualmie Lakes. It probably would have been a fun trip but the conditions were iffy and there is still snow around which would have been fine...But we were exhausted from the last 2 weeks of getting our house ready to sell. So we went to Orcas. :)

I had forgotten what it was like to camp in a state park. I grew up camping at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park with my dad. I always loved it and still love to camp. But I think my preferences for camping have changed a bit. I like backpacking....it's quieter, more open, less people, and no cars. So our first night in Moran State Park was less then exciting. On top of that, I guess fishing season just started (don't really keep up with that), so it was quite busy... and loud... and there were other dogs (some not so friendly). Therefore we were unable to let Bailey and Zanni off leash...which was a pain. Don't get me wrong, the area was beautiful and if you like car camping its a great place to go. But I don't think we really like car camping anymore.
Needless to say, we did some searching and found Obstruction Pass Park. Its not much of a hike (.5 mi) and its NOT in Garmin's MapSource Topo mapset, but it was awesome. The short hike goes down from the parking lot, along the sound to a beach. There are 9 decent size and private camp sites with the sound of lapping water 50 feet away. Its an awesome little park and we were able to let the dogs off leash because there were not many people there. Another cool thing about it is that is it one of many waterfront camp sites on the Cascade Marine Trail. This is something we have been wanting to experience sometime soon. After we get settled in our new place, we are going to get new touring kayaks and spend a week or so kayaking around the San Juan Islands, stopping at the campsites along the CMT. It was a blast to experience one of the sites on the CMT. It did rain all that night and into the morning, but us and the dogs had a blast. I will post some pictures when I get a moment to pull them off my camera.

WOW

2006-05-10T10:22:00.000-07:00

So...wow. Our house went on the market last Friday. We got back from our backpacking trip late Sunday evening and met with our realtors on Monday afternoon. Here is the status:

10 + offers

We have sold the house and are in mutual acceptance with inspection complete.

We got a fair amount over asking price.

We are amazed.

God is good.

Now we have to be out by June 3rd, and so begins the mad rush to find an apartment for however long it takes our new house to be built (its a little behind schedule).

Our House is now on the market

2006-05-05T08:16:00.000-07:00

So I know I haven't posted in a while..but we have been up to a lot. We bought a house down in Sammamish, WA. It is just south of Redmond and is on the East side of Lake Sammamish. I can't show you much yet due to the fact that it hasn't been built. Construction is a little behind (like it hasn't started), but the original completion estimate was August 30th (yea right). It will slide, but that's ok. We are planning on getting an apartment for a bit after our house sells. So we are being flexible. It is an awesome house, its a small builder and its not a development. This means we have control over almost everything! And it has a partial view and beach rights! :) I will post more later, but the main reason for this posting is to get a link to our current house out on the web for you all to see. Here it is:

(not active anymore)

We have spent the last several weeks working on the house and its looking great and ready to go finally. Anyway, I have to get going because we are heading out for the weekend to go backpacking/camping.

Last Whistler trip of the winter (most likely)

2006-03-19T22:04:00.000-08:00

We went up to Whistler again a few weeks ago with some friends and their 14 month old boy Ian. It was a blast hanging out with them and flying down the slopes (the snow was AWESOME). Here is one of several pics I hope to get up soon.
BTW- I will post more about the house as soon as I know more. We hope to get by the property and snap some pictures soon.

Whistler trip # 2 of ? for 2006

2006-03-16T11:30:00.000-08:00

We have gone to Whistler a ton of times. Here is one of many, many pictures...that I of course have not done anything with. This is from 7th Heaven on Blackcomb looking at Whistler.

Yea, its been way too long

2006-03-16T08:57:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I have posted. Obviously. I will hopefully be keeping up a little more here in the future. The reason? We bought a new house that has not been built yet. Construction is suppose to begin in a week or so and I will be taking pictures periodically and posting them here with status. It is located on the East side of Lake Sammamish, south of Redmond and east of Bellevue, WA. It is going to be awesome! :) We can't wait. This is roughly what the house will look like, with some changes (skylights, Kitchen/Dining/Living is a great-room, deck off back...and a few others). Sammamish House Floorplan

Biking season is starting to wind back up. I road a little over a week ago for the first time this year. It was a lot of fun, but I am out of shape...duh. My friends and I are planning on riding Flying Wheels again this summer, so we will be riding more soon to get ready for that. There is talk about riding the RSVP which is a two day ride from Seattle to Vancouver, BC, Canada in early August. I don't know yet if that will happen or not.

More later...

Uptime for Win2k, 2k3, XP, & NT

2006-03-16T08:33:00.000-08:00

So I have been using Unix and Linux a lot more lately because of my job. This has been good because I had gotten a little rusty and I enjoy the Linux environment. Recently I was trying to determine the uptime of one of our windows servers without having to search the Event logs for the last time the machine rebooted. Unfortunately windows currently does not have a command like "uptime" in *nix. However, I found something that is almost as good. Drop to a command prompt and type:

> net statistics server

It will output something like:

*****
Server Statistics for \\[your machine name]
Statistics since 1/9/2006 11:09 AM
...
*****

Not quite as pretty, but hey it works... :)

Hi...

2005-09-13T14:19:00.000-07:00

Hmmm, so I guess its been a while. Two words: ME BUSY.

Yea, that pretty much sums it up.

Where was I....

oh yea...the STP. So it was intersting to say the least. Alot more hills then I expected.

hmm, brb...more in a bit...

Quote of the day....

2005-09-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

On my personalized google front page today sat this quote:

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.
- Sir Francis Bacon

I thought it was interesting and worth repeating.

Cleaned and Tuned up

2005-06-29T07:39:00.000-07:00

I picked up my bike from Gregg's Aurora bike shop yesterday evening. Its now all tuned up and clean with new rear break pads and new "vanity plates" (the top head of the Ultegra break/shift levers) that were mutilated in the crash. The tune up was free, which was nice, because I bought my bike there a few months ago. I was also able to get a free full bike fit done to adjust everything on the bike for an optimal ride position. It felt much better at the end of the fit, so we will see how it feels on a long 85 miles that we will do this weekend. Also, pictures are available from the Flying wheels ride. They are very small, but I am going to get the cd (kinda pricy tho) and get hi res images to print myself. Here they are:

Flying Wheels Pics

Word of the Day: Concurrent

2005-06-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

Word of the Day for me:

Concurrent

The explanation of my current tasking priorities. :)

An object lesson on the correct use of a helmet.

2005-06-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

Well, it was bound to happen sometime. We were on our normal Saturday morning ride on the 25th, about 20 miles in and up near Marysville when it happened. The culprit? Railroad tracks. The problem was, they were not perpendicular to the road, they were at less then a 45deg angle. We have gone over them before, without issues...but not this ride. We were at a steady 18/19 mph pace flying down the road and I thought I attacked them at the correct angle. Apparently I was wrong. I felt my rear wheel slip on the first track of the second set of tracks and there was nothing else I could do. I went down pretty hard, kissed the asphalt and rolled a few times. My left side took the brunt of the impact. I hit my shoulder, my arm and hand, my side, my leg and of course my head. Above all I remember the impact of my head/helmet on the pavement.

It was an interesting feeling because it felt like it was mostly in slow motion. The funny part of the fall was that as I rolled I saw Micah, who was right behind me before the fall, go flying by and over me. He was able to avoid me for the most part and only run over my foot, which didn't hurt at all. Amazingly he was able to un-clip and launch himself off and over his bike and stayed upright. I don't know how he does it, but he is amazingly agile.

We stayed there for about 20 minutes while I shook it off and then continued our ride for a total of 42 miles. Nothing broken and my bike was ok. My helmet is cracked tho and the worst pain I had was in the left of my palm and my little finger. Apparently I jammed my hand into one of the tracks as I went down, from what Micah said. After the fact, he said it was an odd feeling to watch me go down because he felt like it all happened in slow motion and that it took him a long time to reach me even though he was right on my tail at the time. When we talked on Sunday he said that he thinks it is almost worse to watch someone else go down then to go down yourself. Hopefully I won't have to watch one of them go down anytime soon.

I feel like I have been beaten up and I was pretty stiff the next day. But I am recovering pretty well and I am ready to get back on my bike so that I can keep in shape for the STP. I will pick up my bike tonight from the shop because it went in for a tune-up and check over that was already planned so that it will be in good shape for the STP. Hopefully there carbon fiber is fine and there is no major damage. I will be getting a pro bike fit tonight as well. I am looking forward to that. I will keep you posted as things develop and I will post the photos from Flying Wheels as soon as they are available.

A side note: For all of you out there skeptical of wearing a helmet....just do it. I would have had a serious concussion and probably a skull fracture if it wasn't for my trusty helmet. $80 is a small price to pay for avoiding a major hospital visit.

Flying Wheels: Accomplished!

2005-06-28T07:16:00.000-07:00

We did it in 5.7 hours of ride time...6.5 hrs total with stops. We averaged 17.8 mph. And we still had energy left at the end. I was pretty impressed with our little pack. There were four of us that rode together for the entire ride, so we were able to work on our drafting abilities. All in all, we had a blast. There were some times during the ride that we felt beat, but we were able to recover. What we found interesting, looking back on the ride, was that we all "bonked" and then recovered at different times during the ride. This turned out to be a good thing because when one of us was hit, the others were able to carry him until he recovered. The one thing I have to remember is to eat enough at regular intervals and not when I am starting to feel the affects. It wasn't an easy ride, don't get me wrong. 10 miles into it, we started going up hill... and it was a decent set of hills. The other kicker was that after 80+ miles of ridding (the last 50 of which had been nice easy rolling hills and flatland), we hit the Issaquah/Fall city road and proceeded to climb for the next 3 miles up onto the Issaquah plateau...that wasn't the most fun of climbs...but we made it and it was mostly down hill from there after the last stop.

It was a great ride and increased our confidence of our ability to ride the STP in one day. Yes, it will take us 13-14 hours which is a long time to be in the saddle, but the hills that were in the Flying Wheels ride, will not be nearly as bad in the STP (or so I am told). Its less then two weeks now. Its coming up quick!

No turning back

2005-06-15T20:41:00.000-07:00

Guess What?

I have registered for the Flying Wheels Summer Century in Redmond that takes place this Saturday, the 18th. 100 miles on a bike with 1500+ other ppl. :) Should be interesting. I will be ridding it with two of my good friends, Micah and Dominic. I am feeling pretty confident about it tho. Why you ask? Well, last Saturday the three of us went on an 82 mile ride which took 6.25 hours. We left from Snohomish and road down to the Burke-Gilman Trail in Woodinville, then to Redmond and off to Issaquah, next we attacked the I-90 corridor and landed ourselves in downtown Seattle and headed back up to Snohomish through Bothell. It was a long, but very fun ride. The only downside was that the last two hours of it were in poring rain and the temperature dropped to below 50 deg. We had a blast though and we are looking forward to this Saturday. This will be my first official bike ride with numbers and staff and lots and lots of ppl.
But it doesn't end there. I have also signed up for the STP (Seattle to Portland) ride that takes place on July 9th and 10th, well just the 9th for us. We are going to do it in one day. Probably 14+ hours starting at 4:45 am. 200 miles.....yup...its going to be a long day. But I am committed and ready for it. :)

Have a great day.

And the adventure begins

2005-06-15T20:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I have officially started at Boeing. It has been interesting so far...lots of new things to wrap my head around. But it looks like it will be fun. I spent some time in one of the labs today working with a few guys on fun hardware stuff. The one thing that I am not so sure about yet is the commute. It has been long, so we'll see if I will get used to it or if we will look into moving further south. We'll see. I am excited to get rolling more into the job, it should be fun. I do miss my previous job because of the short commute and the fact that I was working in a field that I am much more current and experienced in. But its a challenge...so that should be a good thing. I'll keep ya'll posted. (all two of you)...:)

Move along....

2005-06-06T07:46:00.000-07:00

These are not the droids we are looking for....move along.

Cool new tunes

2005-06-03T12:27:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across a new band today. This group, FlyLeaf is a rock band out of Texas that has just appeared on the music scene. Great music, if you like alternative rock. There are only 4 tracks on their debut EP, but songs are rich and dynamic. Check 'em out....

Wow

2005-06-02T08:34:00.000-07:00

Wow...three posts in two days. Err, I guess this would make four. Hmmm, probably won't last long. :)

I should just get up...

2005-06-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

I have this habit of being tired in the morning and just wanting to hit the snooze button for an hour (or more). Part of it probably is related to the fact that I don't HAVE to be up at a certain time...it just means that if I get up earlier and go into work, then I get to come home earlier. I am a night owl and I really fight this early morning stuff, but it works better with Larissa's schedule and i'm going to have to do it soon enough if I want to commute with her to Boeing every morning. I guess I just need to get over it and get up when the alarm goes off, right? Easier said then done. Sometimes I just feel so tired, I just want to keep sleeping....even though I wake up every 10 minutes when I hit the snooze button...that can't really be good sleep, I know...but it feels so much better.
The last few weeks or so I have been waking up briefly at 5:45. Not every day, mind you, but several per week and its almost always 5:45...not sure why. I think I heard somewhere once that you should get up when you wake up like that and not go back to sleep because it will make you more tired and make it even harder to get up later. I suppose I should start trying that.....maybe it actually works....who knows.
I woke up again today at 5:45 and although I didn't get up right then...I did get up at about 6. I even rode my bike to work today and got in by 7. Not to shabby. I am even pretty alert and awake. Maybe I should try this more often....

Weekend Adventures

2005-06-01T15:58:00.000-07:00

We have been up to a few things lately. Two weeks ago on Friday, we both ditched out early from work, grabbed the beagles, and met up with our friends Kyle and Katrina, their son Ian and dog Rain and then proceed to the Snoqualmie-Baker National Forest for a short afternoon day hike. It wasn't that far but we hiked up to a lake and back in light rain and a few thunder claps. It was a fun quick trip. I have a few pictures that I will post soon hopefully.
This last weekend we took Friday off, got all of our back packing gear together and headed up to Lake Wenachee with the dogs to the base of the Phelps Creek Trail/Spider Meadows trail (trail 1511). Larissa and I and the dogs hit the trail at about 1pm and made it to Spider Meadows at about 6 or 7pm. This trail is about 6 miles long (to the point that we camped, it can be a lot longer) and has about 2,000 ft of elevation gain. It was a blast. There ended up being a fair amount of patchy snow on the trail, even though the area got up into the low 90's the two days we were there. If we had known that the many rivers we crossed were as high as they were and that the snow was that prevalent, we would have worn our gators or taken sandals for the rivers, but hey it was kind of nice to have wet feet in 90 degree weather. The trail for the most part wove in and out of the forest along Phelps Creek, so the heat wasn't that bad unless you were in the sun. We spent the night In Spider Meadows and hiked back out the next morning. Next time we are going to go for more then one night, as you take almost the same amount of gear, just more food. We all had a blast and the beagles slept for almost the next 3 days. :)
I promise I will post pictures soon, I got a new lens for my camera for that trip, so I was able to take my digital SLR and a good do-everything lens, which made taking an slr easier.

Finally, a start date

2005-06-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

It has taken a while, but I finally have a start date. June 10th will be my first day at Boeing. I would have started on May 27th, but my boss here at my contract job asked me to stay on longer because we are having a code release to production on June 3rd and they need me to be around to help fix production bugs. He also asked if I wanted to come on full time, which was a really nice thing to hear. I decided to stick with the Boeing job though, because I really want to get back into the networking and systems side of IT. I am looking forward to it, but also unsure of how I will be able to handle the commute. The job is down in Kent, WA and we live up on the north end in Bothell. My wife has done the commute for a while now, but I am not that fond of traffic. We will see how it goes and if we need to move further sound as the next few months progress. We will be able to commute together tho, which will be nice.
I am also a little nervous because I am jumping back into to a field that I have not spent a lot of time in during the past several years. I have been a web developer now for 5+ years with networking and systems work as a side item both for work and as a hobby and I have gotten a little rusty. I have really enjoyed the contract job that I have been at recently because I feel I have a great grasp on the technologies and the ppl I work with are really impressed with my knowledge and capabilities. With the Boeing job I will be jumping back a few steps and be the learner in a sense....which will be interesting. I have been used to helping other ppl get going and understand things about the project we are working on here currently and it will be an odd switch to be on the other side of that for a while with this new job. I am sure I will do fine, I am just nervous.

The ball is rolling.

2005-04-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

Well, the ball has begun to roll. I got the offer in the mail yesterday and called and accepted it this morning. I have to fill out a few forms and to the customary drug test, but after that its just a matter of waiting for verifications and paperwork to be completed. A few weeks they said. Which is totally fine by me because we have a code release deadline on the 21st of April. I want to stay here at the wireless contract job until that is done, so I am not leaving them in the middle of it. I don't think we will make the 21st personally, but we'll see....and if we don't, we'll have it done soon after.
The job market in Seattle, WA seems to have really picked up. When the job I am currently in came up, I had had 5 interviews and 4 offers in a 2 month period. Since I started the contract job, I have gotten probably 8 calls from ColdFusion developer positions and just as many emails. I am surprised that there is such a strong demand for ColdFusion developers up here in the heart of Microsoft. Interesting, but cool none the less. Anyway, must code.....

Yea, yea....its been a while

2005-04-08T12:49:00.000-07:00

So a fair amount has happened in the last few weeks. I just need to remember to update my blog when stuff happens....:) So I took the wireless contract job up here in Bothell, WA. It was difficult at first to leave home and work at a different location. The job has gotten better then it seemed the first few days which is good. It has been interesting and challenging, which I have been longing for. The beagles haven't been too excited about being left at home all day, but they are doing well. We put in a dog door in our laundry room wall so they are now able to go in and out all day long. We still have some work to do in the yard to confine them to a smaller area so the risk of them escaping will be a lot lower.
Good news though. I just received a call from the aerospace staffing and there is an offer in the mail for the second really cool aerospace job that I interviewed for. It will be working with networks and hardware and software systems, which I have been wanting to get back into. I am really looking forward to it. We have a code release here in the next few weeks so I am going to stay here at wireless until that is done and then switch to the aerospace job. It should be fun. The only downside is the distance, the new job is in Kent, WA. Rissa and I will commute together, so that will be nicer, but we will see how it goes being that far away from work. We may look into moving further south...I duno...We'll see.

On another note, the weather up here in Seattle, WA has been changing quite a bit. Mt Baker got over 100 in of snow in 10 days. Therefore, Riss and I played hooky this last Monday and went up to Baker to Ski. We had a good time and the snow was great. We had not made our way up to Baker yet, so it was a fun to check out a new mountain. I took some pics and again I need to post them...soon hopefully. Anyway...I had better get back to work, or at least grab some food.

Good Music

2005-03-18T11:57:00.000-08:00

Side note....I recently re-descovered a radio station that I use to listen to while in college. It's a great radio station for good modern Alternative Christian music (ie: Jars of Clay, Kutless, Falling Up, Switchfoot, By the Tree, FM Static, Relient K). The plus side is there are no comercials. :) (unlike the very anoying Spirit 105.3 here in Seattle.) The only downside is that they don't have any local stations in Seattle, WA. At least they have an online stream....

Life sure is interesting....

2005-03-18T11:09:00.000-08:00

New War of the World's trailer is out....Looks like fun! :)

War Of The Worlds - Teaser Trailer#2 - Large

So....Life can be interesting. I have been working remotely for a company in San Diego for the past 2.5 years and work has been getting slower, repetitive and largely boring. Time to make a switch, right? Yes, of course. One problem....I have been blessed with WAY too many options. I have had 4 interviews (plus one more next week) in the last 2 months with 3 offers. One I turned down, one I accepted, and the third I got today. What to do? I start my new job on Monday, this one with a local wireless company doing web development work. The other offer is from a VERY large Seattle aerospace company (Guess who?) :) and the interview next week is with that same company, just a different group. Fun, Fun, Fun! :) I guess. I don't mean to sound ungrateful...I am really blown away at how many companies want me and that is really awesome...its just happening all at once. I don't quite know what I want to do yet, but I will figure it out soon enough. I want to get started in this new position and see how it is before I make any decisions. The Lord has really blessed my wife and I, and I need to remember to step back and be thankful. Life is sure interesting...But it is good!

Also, we went with some friends and our dogs over Stevens pass this last weekend to Leavenworth, we had fun checking out hiking and climbing options over there. I have a couple of great pictures that I will post when I get a free moment.

Hopefully this posting thing will be a somewhat regular occurrence...we'll see. :)

Hello World

2005-01-31T16:12:00.000-08:00

Hello World.

Soon to come will be (hopefully), daily posts with the various pictures I have taken over the years, as well as pictures I will try to take regularly. I will expound on life and my adventures. I hope it turns out fun! :) I will also offer my pictures for sale soon. Check back in a little bit to see more.