After work last night, we headed out to Cottonwood Springs Campground in Joshua Tree National Park with our Obsession telescope to do some stargazing. We got there and had the telescope and tent set up by 9pm. It was one of the clearest nights we've seen out there so far. It was also nice and cold - still some snow left around the parking from the winter storm that passed through last week.
We spent this weekend (Nov 16th) in Wisconsin surveying an 11 acre piece of property ( in this area ) that we are considering buying. It is actually quite a neat location with a large, steep hill occupying most of the acreage. After the whole mess and fall through with the Mill property, we are looking for a new place to build a home - Anne really likes it and I could go either way. It will be a difficult construction project if we go through with it, but the views from the top are great - it is one of the highest points in the area with the southern view direction being nearly flat to the horizon. It took about three days to complete the entire thing thanks to Anne's sister who was able to get us the surveying equipment. Luckily the weather held out and except for being cold, we didn't have much snow or bad weather. There was lots of walking up and down the hill carrying various pieces of equipment and after three days, I was spent. Hopefully it all works out!
Santa Rosa Plateau. It had been raining on and off the past couple
day so the trails were damp, but only muddy in a few places. Not many
people out here today, so we had the park to ourselves except for a
couple coyotes running by.
We spent the day today traveling to Wisconsin via Denver and MSP.
We're here for the weekend to land survey a potential new area to
build a home. Our "plan A" hasn't turned out so good due to politics,
local opinion, and red tape (you can read about it @ www.OurModernHome.com
). The post below is a picture of the area we are looking at.
Went for a 11.5mi run this morning at Santa Rosa Plateau. It's finally starting to cool off in the mornings now. It was nice and cloudy but kinda humid (my sunglasses kept fogging up). Saw 5 tarantulas and two deer along the way.
just 2 1/2 feet long.
Roadtrip Day 15 - Flastaff to Home - 6,100 miles since we left!
0 comments at Wednesday, June 18, 2008
We headed west passing back through Flagstaff and down through Sedona, around Phoenix and back on I-10 to Riverside. We finally made it home - 6,100 miles, 15 days, and only 1 speeding ticket!
Road Trip day 14 - Durango, CO to Flagstaff, AZ via Grand Canyon
0 comments at Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Flagstaff.
Later, we passed through the town of Ouray on the the 550 (going south). Leaving town, the road climbs a snaking path up the side of the mountains with huge drops of the side just a couple feet from the road with no guardrails. Too bad it was dark during our drive, it seemed like it would have had really cool views. There were still lots of deer along the way and we finally got to Durango around 11pm. We stayed in the
Durango Doubletree hotel with the Animas river just a few steps from our room balcony.
We left Bigfork and started our 1,400 mile drive to Merrillan, WI. The drive is nice through western Montana, crossing the Continental Divide but starts to flatten out by the eastern boarder and startes to get pretty boring. We made it to Glendive, MT (just near the Montana/North Dakota boarder) where we stopped for a few hours sleep before continuing the rest of the way. We finally made it to Wisconsin late in the afternoon.We started off today with a run up the "M" trail just east of the University of Montana campus. It was windy and cold, but it was still a great but steep run. The picture is of Anne and me just below the M. 
Interestingly, the University of Montana is the home to the
Skaggs School of Pharmacy UM - I graduated from the
Skaggs School of Pharmacy UCSD at the University of California San Diego. Missoula seems like a really cool town, I think if things don't work out for us building a home in Wisconsin, this might be a place we would consider moving to.
From Missoula, we headed North towards Glacier National Park. Along the way, we drove along Flathead Lake which appeared bright emerald green due to the rain clouds overhead.
Although we didn't plan on it, we side tracked to the Hungry Horse Dam. This dam was built in 1953 to create a reservoir on the south fork of the Flathead River. It really is a beautiful dam with the way it is situated in the steep valley and the reservoir behind it. This was the best part of our trip so far.
Finally, we headed up to Glacier National Park which was just a few miles away. The road through the park was closed just 16 miles past the entrance, so we were here just a short time and then headed to Kalispell, MT where we are staying the night.
Tomorrow we'll be going to see Anne's cousin in Big Fork, MT and then making the longest leg of our trip so far - from Big Fork, MT to Merrillan, WI.
We left the hotel this morning and took a drive through Teton National Park and then over to Jackson just a few miles away. We drove around the town for a while and actually came across a pair of modern loft style home that we saw on the television show "What You Get For The Money" last year.
After Jackson, we headed to Rexburg, Idaho to see the
Teton Dam museum. I'm sure nobody would be surprised to hear that I got a speeding ticket along the way. I was going 65 in a 55mph zone - the court date is set for July 1st in Jackson which I'd love to go to, but the $90 fine is just a little cheaper than returning to Jackson.
The Teton dam (an earthern dam) was completed in 1975, but started to develop leaks on June 6, 1976 just 8 months after its completion. The leaks lead to the dams failure later that day completely releasing the 240ft deep reservoir beh
ind it and flooding several small towns down river. The remnants of the dam are still in the river valley and you can drive up to an overlook just above it (picture).
From Rexburg, we drove 300 miles to Missoula, Montana. The drive was really nice and the views in Montana were the best we have had yet - Giant green rolling hills giving way to dark snow and cloud capped mountains behind them. It rained on and off pretty heavily along the way but the traffic was light and we made it quickly around dark.
Two weeks ago we received our new telescope - an Obesession Telescope 18" Ultra Compact. We placed the order for it two months ago from Obsession telescopes with an estimated delivery date of June 1st - it arrived two weeks ahead of schedule. We spent half of a day unpacking the 4 boxes, reading the instructions, and getting the telescope set-up inside our house. The 18" UC is really well built and the attention to detail is readily apparent. When fully assembled, the UC slightly shorter than a Classic 18" Obsession, but much lighter and more transportable. When pointing at the zenith (straight up), the eyepiece is just too high for our eye level so we have a small folding stool to reach that level.
weather we've had lately. Really cool clouds down by the mountains.
last week (2nd time for the season) and was feeling really good today
and I was really happy to be out running. I have jury duty this week
so we'll see if I actually have to go.
for a while but getting a desktop was not an option and the Macbook Pro was just too big (I haven't had the need for an optical drive on a laptop for years). Going to Windows Vista was something I was unwilling to do since it seemed that many of the programs I had were not compatible. Other than the security issues, there didn't seem to be anything Vista really improved over Windows XP. So, when I saw the Macbook Air it was enough to get me to switch from my OQO Model 02.
After a month of using it, I can't see myself ever going back to Windows. OS X just works and is so much fun to use. I did miss the ability to maximize a window with just a click, but with Expose and Spaces it works out just fine.
The MBA is built so well! Small, light, the screen is bright and the full size keyboard is really nice to use. The MagSafe power adapter is great! For those who haven't seen it, the end of the power cable that attaches to the laptop does so magnetically. Just bring the adapter near the power port and it is drawn into position. Additionally, the power brick is so small I can wind the cord up and stick it into my pocket!
I've never really liked touch pad mouse controls but the Multitouch pad on the MBA changed all that. Using two fingers to scroll and the pinch zoom is awesome. However, adding the program Mac Scroll makes it even better - now the finger scrolling is like the iPhone kinetic scrolling - great for reading long web pages or navigating through pdfs or Word docs. It is completely worth the $19 for the program but really is something Apple should have designed the multitouch pad to do from the start.
Overall, I've never been happier with a computer purchase. I'm hoping that Apple will produce a Mac based tablet computer in the future because that would be ideal for me.Death Valley 30k (18.6 mile) trail race - ouch! twisted ankle!
0 comments at Saturday, February 02, 2008
The race started out with a short downhill then up a steep 800ft climb over Red Pass then descends around 5000ft over the remaining course, the entire course along a 4wd gravel road. I was doing great (around a 7 min mile average) until just before mile 5, when I stepped on a loose rock and twisted my ankle really bad. I ran a little more thinking I would be able to run it off but it just got more painful and I could tell my ankle was starting to swell. My choices were to stop and wait to be picked up (probably a few hour wait) or to just finish. Being as stubborn as I am (and hating to wait for anything), I kept going the 13+ miles to the finish. My pace really slowed and every step was painful but I didn't want to quit. The views were worth it as the trail descended into Titus Canyon where the rocky walls come out of the ground and go more than 100 feet straight up around the narrow road, sometimes less than 20 feet wide road! The trail winds through the canyon for around 5 miles before quickly emerging out at the top of an alluvial fan where you can see the final 3 miles to the finish line. I really limped the last few miles and was relieved when I finally crossed the finish line to find my ankle swelled up to the size of a grapefruit! Anne and her sister finished about 45 minutes later and it was nice that they got to run together.
Overall, we had a great time and the event organizers did an amazing job at putting the whole thing together. I finished in 11th place with an 8:01/mile average pace. I'm already looking forward to running it again next year.
The house was built in an older neighborhood near Stanford University and entirely open (except for a couple of small rooms) and we were allowed to walk throughout the house (with shoes off) There are no pictures of the inside since we were asked to not take pictures. The whole house was amazing, with the exterior and some interior walls made of concrete. The entry walkway had a water feature that drained into a small koi pond that went both inside and outside the house (a glass divider prevented someone from breaking in through it). The floors were heated with a radiant heat system and were either left bare concrete or finished with carpet or wood. The kitchen and baths had concrete countertops - you'd think that maybe there could be a point where there was too much concrete, but with the colors and textures chosen along with the window layouts, it was actually really nice inside. Overall, it was great of the owners and Fu-Tung to allow the public to view the house and see what a wonderful house this really was. (picture below is of our kitchen and of the concrete countertops Anne and I made).
we went to phoenix this weekend to visit anne's aunt and her mom who flew out from wisconsin. we drove the audi allroad (first long trip) - it doesn't get great gas mileage but it sure is nice to drive. friday we hiked the trail to the top of squaw peak opictures). it's only a little over 2 miles but a good workout since it is pretty steep going up. last time i was up there was 10 years ago when i lived in arizona so it was neat to do it again!
