Movin', wife's birthdayin', brother-in-law entertainin', doin' my part to get New Orleans hooked up with some reliable levees... It's been a busy past couple months for me.
I did go to the Sasquatch festival in May, which was awesome. Highlights include: Tegan & Sara, Okkervil River & the Presidents of the United States of America (still rocking). A good time was had by all!
I also saw the Grand Canyon for the first time since I was 9. I was much more impressed by it this time.
As I mentioned in the first bit, the wifey and I did just complete a move. We have left the confines of our cozy luxury apartment by the Biltmore for an older house in a "historic" (the term is relative here) neighborhood, closer to central Phoenix. It is my anticipation that the light rail will bring more businesses and fun to this area, but we'll have to wait and see...
Randomly, I've been tossing a few thoughts around in my head, which I would like to share with you:
- Discovering new podcasts is awesome... Especially when said podcasts are not "current events" oriented and therefore the archives are not outdated. I listened to 7 episodes of Radiolab in a row yesterday while chugging away at my desk.
- What the hell Africa? How could so many countries sit around and do nothing while Mugabe so brazenly steals yet another election in Zimbabwe. Of course, we didn't do anything either...
- I'm looking forward to my 5-day long weekend. The wifey and I will be celebrating our first wedding anniversary this weekend, with a trip to Santa Fe, NM. Finally, a chance to relax and enjoy eachother for days on end... 'bout time!
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Where have I been?!?
Instead of writing a lengthy post explaining my absence, let me recount it quickly, and get it over with:
The wife and I went to Ottawa to visit my dad. Fun fact: Ottawa is the capital of Canada. You'd be surprised how many people don't know that. They should have followed Mexico's lead and just named it "Canada City"
We also went to San Diego. Congrats to Mr. & Mrs. Akst. Congrats also to Miles & Melissa and James & Anna. This year was looking to be a slow one for weddings. Thanks for cramming a couple more in!
The D-back home opener (pics soon) was fun. Hot dogs, beer and cotton candy are always a good mix.
I was also sick and bedridden for a couple days. Sadly, I don't have pictures of that.
Okay, now back to the present.
The wife and I went to Ottawa to visit my dad. Fun fact: Ottawa is the capital of Canada. You'd be surprised how many people don't know that. They should have followed Mexico's lead and just named it "Canada City"
We also went to San Diego. Congrats to Mr. & Mrs. Akst. Congrats also to Miles & Melissa and James & Anna. This year was looking to be a slow one for weddings. Thanks for cramming a couple more in!
The D-back home opener (pics soon) was fun. Hot dogs, beer and cotton candy are always a good mix.
I was also sick and bedridden for a couple days. Sadly, I don't have pictures of that.
Okay, now back to the present.
Monday, January 28, 2008
The long-delayed trip recap...
Excuse the delay, graduate school has been less than fun this week. Let me inform you that our trip to Utah was a blast. The snow was great and the my birthday was celebrated in style. I learned, upon returning from Puerto Vallarta, that it was illegal to carry more than one liter of alcohol per person in Arizona. What kind of stupid rule is that? What say should the state have if I choose to walk around double-fisting bottles of Jaeger? Despite having a almost a full liquor cabinet locked away in our suitcase, no one was hassled upon our return to the state, so I'm suspecting they are lenient on this law.
I was told by my friend TJ that the resorts we visited on our trip were not the best Utah had to offer, but we didn't notice. Our first couple of days were spent at Powder Mountain. The trails we empty most of the time, and the lift lines were almost nonexistant. I've seen bigger crowds on Mt. Hood on a Tueday afternoon. All this made for a great time exploring.
Recent snow had left everything nice and soft, which assisted me in convincing Kochanie to hit the Black Diamonds with me. It also probably made Juli's first couple days of There's also a section of the mountain that is only accessable through a short, 200-yard hike which I managed to check out once. Juli's boyfriend risked AMS to join me, and for that I thank him.
It snowed heavily Sunday night, and we woke up to a nice layer of 18-inches of fresh snow. So, after packing up all our gear, we headed down to Park City to check out The Canyons. Located right across the street from Olympic Village, this resort is nice. We traded short lines for slow 2-seaters at Powder Mountain for clusterf**ks at the high-speed quads and gondolas. But the snow was great, and the runs were a lot more exciting.
Juli seemed to get the hang of snowboarding, and we even allowed her to join us for a ride down. Not to say we didn't have to wait 5 minutes for every minute of riding for her. At least she didn't run into a tree. Her boyfriend did though, and let's all hope all his ligaments are okay... although the prognosis is not good. At least he managed to pull it off on his last run of the trip. Although, I suppose any time you injure yourself, it's the last run of the trip.
Enjoy the pictures...
I was told by my friend TJ that the resorts we visited on our trip were not the best Utah had to offer, but we didn't notice. Our first couple of days were spent at Powder Mountain. The trails we empty most of the time, and the lift lines were almost nonexistant. I've seen bigger crowds on Mt. Hood on a Tueday afternoon. All this made for a great time exploring.
Recent snow had left everything nice and soft, which assisted me in convincing Kochanie to hit the Black Diamonds with me. It also probably made Juli's first couple days of There's also a section of the mountain that is only accessable through a short, 200-yard hike which I managed to check out once. Juli's boyfriend risked AMS to join me, and for that I thank him.
It snowed heavily Sunday night, and we woke up to a nice layer of 18-inches of fresh snow. So, after packing up all our gear, we headed down to Park City to check out The Canyons. Located right across the street from Olympic Village, this resort is nice. We traded short lines for slow 2-seaters at Powder Mountain for clusterf**ks at the high-speed quads and gondolas. But the snow was great, and the runs were a lot more exciting.
Juli seemed to get the hang of snowboarding, and we even allowed her to join us for a ride down. Not to say we didn't have to wait 5 minutes for every minute of riding for her. At least she didn't run into a tree. Her boyfriend did though, and let's all hope all his ligaments are okay... although the prognosis is not good. At least he managed to pull it off on his last run of the trip. Although, I suppose any time you injure yourself, it's the last run of the trip.
Enjoy the pictures...
Friday, January 18, 2008
I'm going to Sundance!
Well, not really. That's a bit of a stretch. I'm going snowboarding in Utah the same weekend as the Sundance Film Festival. As I mentioned in my last post, this weekend is my birthday weekend, so ostensibly that is the occasion for the trip. The whole Sundance thing is a bonus.
We're staying quite a bit outside of the SLC/Ogden/Park City area, so I doubt we'll be experiencing the true excitement of the festival. Nevertheless, I'd like to check it out, if only briefly. Since there is only really one participating theater (albeit, a very cool one) nearby, in Ogden, our film selection is limited. One possibility is this little gem, directed by Tom Hanks and starring his son, Colin, and John Malkovich. Could be worth seeing.
Since this is the "premiere" of the movie, we might even run into some celebs, right? Meeting Tom Hanks would be pretty cool, especially if he's got any good secrets to tell me. Maybe if I bring my oversized piano along, we could roll it out and do a duet!
Either way, if I don't run into any celebs at the movie, I suppose if I got booze-up enough and went off on a tirade about "One more year of Bush!", I'd say there's a good chance Sean Penn will show up to add his own incoherent rant.
Yeah, that would be sweet.
We're staying quite a bit outside of the SLC/Ogden/Park City area, so I doubt we'll be experiencing the true excitement of the festival. Nevertheless, I'd like to check it out, if only briefly. Since there is only really one participating theater (albeit, a very cool one) nearby, in Ogden, our film selection is limited. One possibility is this little gem, directed by Tom Hanks and starring his son, Colin, and John Malkovich. Could be worth seeing.
Since this is the "premiere" of the movie, we might even run into some celebs, right? Meeting Tom Hanks would be pretty cool, especially if he's got any good secrets to tell me. Maybe if I bring my oversized piano along, we could roll it out and do a duet!
Either way, if I don't run into any celebs at the movie, I suppose if I got booze-up enough and went off on a tirade about "One more year of Bush!", I'd say there's a good chance Sean Penn will show up to add his own incoherent rant.
Yeah, that would be sweet.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
So this is the New Year...
…and I don’t feel any different. The Mrs. and I didn’t quite know what to do for NYE, since all our friends were still out of town, so we followed Tim’s golden rule of drinking: When you don’t know where to go, go to the Irish Pub. I’ll spare you the details of NYE, mostly because I don’t remember much past 12:01, but a good time was had by all.
Before the New Year, we came back from the honeymoon. We had a great time down in Puerto Vallarta, and despite the partly cloudy weather, I managed to turn my usually pale white skin that nice shade of pink/orange I like so much. We went horseback riding through the forests to a waterfall, hiked the jungle to a secluded beach, and drank plenty of tequila related drinks, of course. All in all, it was a much more relaxing trip than our first honeymoon (two weddings means two honeymoons), and the people down there were just great. Hooray for the all-inclusive! As an added bonus, I found out upon arriving back in the U.S. that I might be making another trip down South to Guadalajara in a month or so to conduct some business... cross your fingers!
Now that I'm back to reality, it's time to face up what I've accomplished in 2007 and decide what I'd like to accomplish in the new year. This year was a particularly busy and hectic year for both me and my wife. Our travels spanned seven countries and multiple states, and included visits to both of our families as well as numerous friends. We recieved visits from siblings and friends. We had serious plumbing problems at the house we bought, which we then fixed, while at the same time continuing to remodel it as well. We then turned around and put the house back on the market, a market that has turned out to be one of the worst in years, so that we could move. Phoenix became our new home and we both got new jobs, with which we both are very satisfied. I started grad school. We began training for a 1/2 marathon. We somehow managed to fit in some hiking, biking, snowboarding and camping, as well. Most importantly, we got married... twice!
So, how do you follow a year like that? Kochanie and I both agree that we would like to calm down... just a little bit. Not the travelling or outdoor activities, but essentially we would like to simplify our day-to-day lives. That means more relaxing and less worrying about money, jobs, living - essentially staying in one place for more than a year. So, just for the hell of it, I present to you:
Norf's (hopefully not too ambitious) 2008 resolutions:
- Take the GREs and apply formally to ASU
- Continue successfully in graduate school (4.0 GPA)
- Complete the Rock'n'Roll 1/2 marathon without walking... or pooping myself
- Become a professionally licensed engineer in both Arizona and California
- Travel to Canada, Mexico, Italy and Honduras
- Maintain better correspondence with old friends
- Make new friends
- Drop a pant size
Okay, so that's the list. Talk to me in a year, and I'll let you know how I've done.
Before the New Year, we came back from the honeymoon. We had a great time down in Puerto Vallarta, and despite the partly cloudy weather, I managed to turn my usually pale white skin that nice shade of pink/orange I like so much. We went horseback riding through the forests to a waterfall, hiked the jungle to a secluded beach, and drank plenty of tequila related drinks, of course. All in all, it was a much more relaxing trip than our first honeymoon (two weddings means two honeymoons), and the people down there were just great. Hooray for the all-inclusive! As an added bonus, I found out upon arriving back in the U.S. that I might be making another trip down South to Guadalajara in a month or so to conduct some business... cross your fingers!
Now that I'm back to reality, it's time to face up what I've accomplished in 2007 and decide what I'd like to accomplish in the new year. This year was a particularly busy and hectic year for both me and my wife. Our travels spanned seven countries and multiple states, and included visits to both of our families as well as numerous friends. We recieved visits from siblings and friends. We had serious plumbing problems at the house we bought, which we then fixed, while at the same time continuing to remodel it as well. We then turned around and put the house back on the market, a market that has turned out to be one of the worst in years, so that we could move. Phoenix became our new home and we both got new jobs, with which we both are very satisfied. I started grad school. We began training for a 1/2 marathon. We somehow managed to fit in some hiking, biking, snowboarding and camping, as well. Most importantly, we got married... twice!
So, how do you follow a year like that? Kochanie and I both agree that we would like to calm down... just a little bit. Not the travelling or outdoor activities, but essentially we would like to simplify our day-to-day lives. That means more relaxing and less worrying about money, jobs, living - essentially staying in one place for more than a year. So, just for the hell of it, I present to you:
Norf's (hopefully not too ambitious) 2008 resolutions:
- Take the GREs and apply formally to ASU
- Continue successfully in graduate school (4.0 GPA)
- Complete the Rock'n'Roll 1/2 marathon without walking... or pooping myself
- Become a professionally licensed engineer in both Arizona and California
- Travel to Canada, Mexico, Italy and Honduras
- Maintain better correspondence with old friends
- Make new friends
- Drop a pant size
Okay, so that's the list. Talk to me in a year, and I'll let you know how I've done.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Much accomplished
I started this (second) blog with the idea of actually keeping up with it, and I haven't really done that very well so far. I promise I have good reasons for my absence, along with a few bad ones:
- I took the final exam for my very first graduate school class at ASU, and apparently did great! Final grades were posted late last week, and I somehow managed to get an "A". This is good news, because I have to persuade my employer to pay me back for each class as I pass them and this ensures 100% reimbursement.
- Made a trip up to Pinetop, AZ a few weekends ago. It rained the whole ride up there, and when we arrived it was dark. We woke up the next morning to about an inch of snow, which in Arizona is significant We did some hiking while we were up there, as well as just relaxed. It was a good trip, given the stress of family Thanksgiving.
- I've been charged with redesigning the website of the Phoenix chapter of Engineers without borders. The current website is a bit... inadequate. Stay tuned for some changes. I'm also taking on some responsibility for some fundraising projects that should be pretty time consuming as well.
- Ewa and I bought bikes a while back, and we recently found a nice, chill bar a few blocks away. We've been incrementally testing our ability to bike after enjoying a few pints. Don't worry, we've equipped the cruisers (actual "cruisers", check out Ewa's ride) with lights for nighttime riding.
- I've been playing around with Shelfari, thanks Ike.
- Been runnin'. I ran 7.5 miles this past Sunday.
- Finally, I've set up a Flickr account. Check out pictures from the trip to Pinetop, if you'd like. More pictures once I upgrade to a pro account... Merry Christmas maybe?
-Watched: Futurama: Bender's Big Score - Too much Futurama in too little time. Hot Rod: Mind-numbingly retarded. Superbad - Mind-numbingly hilarious. Beowulf - 3D CGI = Sweet-Jeebus!
So, as you can see, I've been very busy. I didn't even mention holiday parties and christmas shopping! We all get busy this time of year, so I hope you all can cut me a little slack.
Happy Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa, etc.
- I took the final exam for my very first graduate school class at ASU, and apparently did great! Final grades were posted late last week, and I somehow managed to get an "A". This is good news, because I have to persuade my employer to pay me back for each class as I pass them and this ensures 100% reimbursement.
- Made a trip up to Pinetop, AZ a few weekends ago. It rained the whole ride up there, and when we arrived it was dark. We woke up the next morning to about an inch of snow, which in Arizona is significant We did some hiking while we were up there, as well as just relaxed. It was a good trip, given the stress of family Thanksgiving.
- I've been charged with redesigning the website of the Phoenix chapter of Engineers without borders. The current website is a bit... inadequate. Stay tuned for some changes. I'm also taking on some responsibility for some fundraising projects that should be pretty time consuming as well.
- Ewa and I bought bikes a while back, and we recently found a nice, chill bar a few blocks away. We've been incrementally testing our ability to bike after enjoying a few pints. Don't worry, we've equipped the cruisers (actual "cruisers", check out Ewa's ride) with lights for nighttime riding.
- I've been playing around with Shelfari, thanks Ike.
- Been runnin'. I ran 7.5 miles this past Sunday.
- Finally, I've set up a Flickr account. Check out pictures from the trip to Pinetop, if you'd like. More pictures once I upgrade to a pro account... Merry Christmas maybe?
-Watched: Futurama: Bender's Big Score - Too much Futurama in too little time. Hot Rod: Mind-numbingly retarded. Superbad - Mind-numbingly hilarious. Beowulf - 3D CGI = Sweet-Jeebus!
So, as you can see, I've been very busy. I didn't even mention holiday parties and christmas shopping! We all get busy this time of year, so I hope you all can cut me a little slack.
Happy Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa, etc.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Ah, to be back in NoVa.
Coming back to visit brings nostalgic feelings, as one would expect. While Vienna and the surrounding area are constantly changing (What's with all the gigantic houses on Park Street?), it's still the same old, same old as well. Amphora, Vienna Inn, Anita's... they're all still there. I'm also still glad I left.
One thing that was totally new to me this time around was the family situation. Suddenly "staying at my girlfriend's parents' place" turned into "visiting the in-laws". The logistics of the visit hasn't changed, per se, but the familial connection is now different. I'm still getting used to the idea.
All in all it was a nice visit. I didn't accomplish everything on my list, but I got to run the Turkey Trot 5k and eat some chili dogs, so I'll consider it a success. I also got to arrange a rare meeting with my friend the blanktop chronicler, who I thought was either dead or sober. Both thoughts are horrifying.
Oh yeah, did I mention UVA sucks? Go Hokies!
One thing that was totally new to me this time around was the family situation. Suddenly "staying at my girlfriend's parents' place" turned into "visiting the in-laws". The logistics of the visit hasn't changed, per se, but the familial connection is now different. I'm still getting used to the idea.
All in all it was a nice visit. I didn't accomplish everything on my list, but I got to run the Turkey Trot 5k and eat some chili dogs, so I'll consider it a success. I also got to arrange a rare meeting with my friend the blanktop chronicler, who I thought was either dead or sober. Both thoughts are horrifying.
Oh yeah, did I mention UVA sucks? Go Hokies!
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