New Digs

Well, this isn't exactly an episode MTV Cribs, but I did just move, and thought I'd brag a bit about the swanky new digs I find myself occupying. It's taken the better part of 2-3 weeks to get moved in and even as unpacked as you'll see in these photos, so there's still work to be done.

So let's start the most important part of the house: the loft/my office area. That is a nice L-shaped desk you might say. ROUND.

As Ben Reitz famously put it: this is where the magic happens. You can't see it, but that window is encrusted on the outside with spider webs and grossness.

This is the view looking down from my desk into the living room. There's a sweet wood beam obstructing the view. I climbed out on it this evening and it easily supports my weight. The cats like it too. Lisa says of the beam "there are so many ways a drunk person can injure themself in our home!"

This is the main floor/living area. If you were to look up and to the right of where this was taken you would be looking at the loft where the previous photos were snapped. Looking at this photo, it looks a bit shopped, but I can attest that we aren't living in photoshop.

Living room, shot from the opposite angle. The house is constructed on the side of a hill so the first floor is at tree top level, which makes for a nice view. We are rather like Ewoks. Living among the trees.

Here's the deck that's adjacent to the living area. You can have tea out here. Or Red Bull. Or Scotch. I dunno what people drink out here, but the mosquitoes are bad enough at night that I don't say out here.

This is the view looking out the back of the property. That path in the foreground is the Raleigh Greenway, which is a paved walking/biking trail, which is pretty nice. I have been on it once so far. Gotta get my Greenway on. That truck came with the place. We just park out there for shits and giggles.

Here's the basement. As you can see, we poop out cardboard boxes instead of regular stool. Like the truck, the pool table came with the place and is deliciously usable! The couch was free and leather so it's now the rec room recline-o-matic.

Also in the basement, our bikes and a real dartboard (with dangerously pointy darts!). The dartboard came with the place, our landlord removed the white circus elephant that came with the place at our request. I haven't become an ace at either pool or darts yet. I have, however, become pretty good at putting holes in the wall to either side of the dart board.

Behold the guestroom. It is poorly lit. But if you ever want to stay with us, this is where you'll be confined/hosted. The window isn't broken, we just have a whiteboard over it for ... some .. reason. Why the heck is that whiteboard covering the window? Seriously people.

There are two more bedrooms, and like a jillion bathrooms (aww geez it's gonna be raw keeping all of them clean). I couldn't get photos of the bedrooms since they're rather dark, not unlike the guestroom. But they're pretty standard/boring. Basically just rooms with beds in them. Woopety doo. The cool part is my desk area. I mean, did you see that sweet loft? Yeah. That's what I'm talkin' about.

So yeah, when something OTHER than moving happens I'll probably blog about it. Right now that's essentially everything that's been happening the last week or two.

A Bike, Two Hikes, and a Canon S90

As the title suggests, I have acquired several items in the last month and gone on two sweet hikes. First, my soon-to-be father-in-law gifted me a sweet bike that I'm going to be using for exercise just as soon as we make the move to the other house and the adjacent greenway is more accessible. Anyways, check out this bike, it's pretty sweet:

As you can clearly see, it's a sweet bike. Oh yeah, and those lens flares weren't photoshopped, that's just what it's like to look at the bike. Because it's that pro. I'm actually kind of concerned that it's going to make it difficult to ride since it's so bright. On the other hand, I don't need any lights or reflectors ...

Second, as mentioned in my last blog post, I have purchased a new camera. After a bit of research I concluded that there just wasn't going to be anything in the fit-in-my-pocket class that would match DSLR photo quality, regardless of price. So after browsing around, I settled on the smallish Canon S90, which is the older version of the modern Canon S95. I tend to take most of my photos indoors and so low-light picture quality was really important. Even with the D40, it was difficult to get crisp indoor shots. So here is what I settled on:




As you'll notice, it's still sort of beefy, it's not wafer-thin or nothin', but it does stop down to F2.0, it's a 24mm instead of a 35mm, which gives it wider perspective, and although it's a pain to work them, there are manual controls for everything. Generally I've been pretty impressed with the its performance so far.

The other big news is that I went on two big hikes, one in Virginia, one out in Salt Lake City. The former was with Eric and Erika, two of Rebecca's college friends, the latter was undertaken with Nick and Scott. The Virginia hike was about 1700 feet of vertical elevation gain over 4 miles, the Salt Lake City hike was slightly more than 3000 vertical feet of elevation gain in the same 4 miles. As a result, the Salt Lake hike was a lot harder! Here are some of the photos:

Eric and Erika before setting off, their Dog (Atla) did the entire hike with us!

The highest point in the hike, Atla can be seen wrestling herself free from Eric's vice-grip.

Becca and I posing on the cliff. There were no moms present to tell me not to get close to the cliff! Yay!

Scott giving the camera his best Tourist pose right before leaving for our Salt Lake Trek, it was highly effective!

This is about 30 minutes into the hike. The trail went straight up the hill at at 45 degree angle. We're resting here.

About 3 hours in (total hike time: 8 hours) and we're all sweating buckets. We took 18 liters of water with us and drank 14.

Me at 9,000 ft above sea level, you can't see it well, but the lake is in the far distance in the upper-right corner of the picture.

Both hikes were loads of fun. The SLC hike was the best, because it was so extreme, and I had really missed hanging out with Nick and Scott. I had never done a hike before where I was hitting my physical limit for most of the ascent, and that definitely did it. I think it's partly due to the elevation, partly to my lack of fitness, and partly due to the grueling nature of the trail. On the way back down our knees were in serious pain, and it took me two days to stop walking around the house like a grandpa. The soreness was immense.

We're moving to the new house in a week, and I'm continuing my GMAT prep. Rebecca got into a competitive chorus here in the Raleigh area, and my job search continues. Until next time!