"I'm writing to catch you up on places I've been"

Disclaimer: Please ignore the writing style or lack thereof in this post. It's pretty much just stream of consciousness.

As my the previous post mentioned, I went on a road trip with Emily to help her move back to Wellesley. I took Friday afternoon off and we hit the road after a quick lunch at Arby's around 2. We headed up US-1 to I-85 to I-95 en route to DC. We were leary of the traffic we'd hit around rush hour; however, it wasn't bad. We expected grid lock but as we grew closer and closer to the city we just ran into a little slow stuff but nothing out of the ordinary for any city. After figuring out where we were we drove around downtown in search of a place to park. We ended up in a parking garage around 6, unfortunately it closed at 9 so we didn't have much time. After parking we were both hungry so we sat off on a trek to find food. You'd think in a big city there'd be plenty of places to eat but apparently not in downtown. We walked several blocks and every restaurant was either an expensive chain that was actually open or a small chain restaurant that was closed. We were searching for local but finally settled on a deserted food court in the North Farragut Metro station. Dinner was disappointing and as my sister said, "sketch" but we made the most of it. After dinner we headed toward the mall and after a lot of walking arrived at the Washington Monument. We both attempted to take pictures but quickly realized that we needed a tripod. Below are a couple of my blurry shots which appear to be close to the proper exposure but just shouldn't have been hand held. Anyway, after a few shots of the monument we started walking toward the Lincoln Memorial and walked through the WWII Memorial which is what I wanted to see. Emily was excited by the Lincoln Memorial and enjoyed taking pics there as well. When were ready to leave we noticed we'd be cutting it very close to 9 if we walked back so we caught a cab and luckily refound the parking deck and retrieved her Tribute. After the sightseeing we hit the highway and drove north of Baltimore and got a room at a hotel for the night.

Saturday morning we got an early start and headed north on 95. Saturday brought 4 new states for me: Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. We considered driving through NYC but I decided that I'd probably have other chances to go for a visit so we made the decision to stop in New Haven for lunch and see Yale. We made good time around NYC and through the Bronx where there are cool, huge brick retaining walls around the highway no stinkin' concrete. We arrived in New Haven around 11:30 and drove through the campus and hit up Bulldog Burritos in downtown. We should have searched a little harder for a restaurant but whenever burritos are at stake Emily heads that way. After lunch we checked Barnes & Noble at Yale, Tech's version is way better. We then hit the road again and headed north on I-91 where the first sights of snow appeared just north of New Haven. We arrived on the Wellesley campus around 5 and then it seemed like Emily saw everyone she knew at Wellesley in the span of 5 mins (actually everybody knows her). She has a sweet dorm and I think is excited to be back. It was also good to finally see her campus for more than an hour and get a tour of the beautiful buildings.

We went to dinner in Harvard Square at her favorite pizza restaurant, Pinochio's and then stopped at Toscanini's for ice cream and sat on some chairs outside. Yes, outside in Boston in January. It was perfect weather in the mid-40s. Emily showed me her favorite places she discovered while living and working at Harvard two summers ago. I found the Car Talk studios again and got a tour of Harvard Yard. I just wish we would have had time to find the current This Old House house which is really close to the Square.

Sunday morning I flew from Boston to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Raleigh on Airtran because it was cheaper. I was dreading the flight over Raleigh but I took a nap and enjoyed having 3 seats to myself. The ATL to RDU leg was full as usual but with my window seat I just leaned against the wall and took a nap while listening to XM Classical and Clemson vs. NC State. After all the traveling I went to bed at 8 and got about 10 hours of sleep last night. Overall it was a great time even though I think we both got on each other's nerves regarding driving.

Photos from the trip

Updated Visited States Map

On the road again

I am roadtripping with Emily to Boston this weekend to move her into her dorm at Wellesley. Yes, she did decide to go back to Wellesley. I'm taking tomorrow afternoon off so we're leaving around 1 and plan on driving to DC to do a little sightseeing around dinner time. We'll probably get a hotel somewhere between DC and Baltimore and on Saturday we'll drive the rest of the way into Yankeeland. I'm hoping to see some snow, but the way the weather has been all over the country I'm not too hopeful. Other than getting to take a road trip and hang out with Emily I'll also get to shoot some photos with my new camera that Sarah and Bill advised me on and I'll be able to add some states to my visited states map. The one negative is that I'm flying Airtran back since it was way cheaper than other airlines, unfortunately that means I'm flying from Boston to Atlanta and then to Raleigh. Anyone have a parachute that they want to let me borrow?

Shrimp Part Dos

After having left over pizza for dinner last night I returned to the shrimp since I had some left. The beurre blanc essentially turned into butter in the refrigarator so I had to melt it in the microwave. It lost it's creamy consistency but still tasted the same. I didn't burn the toasted almonds this time and I actually got the pan flip to work! I think it worked this time because I didn't have as many almonds in the pan. Tonight I added brown rice to the mix and it was an excellent combination just as the recipe suggested. The beurre blanc over the rice and shrimp was great. I also had steamed green beans again tonight. Next time I make the beurre blanc in addition to less butter I'll probably also cut down on the shallots and maybe kick up the salt and pepper. It was a good but a little too oniony.

It really is satisfying having something turn out great. I definitely know why Emeril says "Bam!" when he gets it right.

Here's another bad camera phone pic of tonight's meal.

Mmm Mmm Good

I cooked a great dinner tonight if I do say so myself. I saw the recipe on the Google RSS reader that has daily recipes from a food blog called Simply Recipes. This is the second recipe I've tried and they've both been great. Tonight's dinner was Shrimp with Orange Beurre Blanc. Which basically is an orange juice, white wine, and shallot reduction with a whole honking lot of butter with shrimp. I also had toasted almond green beans and the ubiquitous baby carrots. Throw in a couple of whole wheat yeast rolls and a glass of 2004 Kris Pinot Grigio delle Venezie IGT and you've got a meal (I don't really know much about wine but the recipe called for it so I took a guess and it turned out to be pretty good for cooking and drinking).

I used to not like shrimp prepared in ways other than fried but my horizons have expanded and now I don't think of it as bait anymore. The only problem with this meal was the sauce, it was good but I need to kick it up a notch next time with more orange and maybe cut the butter some as it was too buttery. Now that I think about it, I think this is the first time I've tried to cook any French cuisine. I say that because the name sounds French and generally French food has rich sauces which this one definitely does. I guess one more thing I'd improve about the meal is having somebody to share it with because when something turns out great (or even bad) it should be shared, enjoyed, and even laughed about. Oh well at least I know have another recipe to add to my recipe box I got for Christmas.

Here's a bad camera phone pic of my plate. Check out Simply Recipes for a better picture.

New things

Emily decided at the last minute to return to Wellesley after a semester at UNC. While I'll miss having her 30 mins away I have benefited by her indecisiveness. I now have the queen bed and the dining table that she had in her apt. No more making fun of me for having a twin bed anymore.



At work today the IT guy gave me a second monitor so now I have dual monitors for surround Excel. I don't know why I got it before the rest of the people in my dept since I'm the newest but I'm not complaining. He also gave me a battery backup which I guess is nice but I don't know how often the power goes out. I'm officially the nerd of the Acquistions and Underwriting Department.

Out of the Woods

As my last post said, I went camping on Saturday morning at Stone Mountain State Park in Roaring Gap, NC. I knew going into it that the weather was going to be kind of rough. The forecasts were calling for 1-4" of snow and sustained winds of 30 mph with gusts to 60. I was looking forward to the snow but was kind of worried about the wind.

I arrived at the park around 12:30 on Saturday. It was bright and sunny but it was a day Winnie the Pooh would have been proud of, it was quite blustery. Stone Mtn State Park is 13,000 acres and has a road that winds through across trout streams and through rhodedendron patches and has several trail access points. After scouting the park I found a campsite, campsite 90. The individual campsite pads were really nice and provided a good place to base camp, the only downside was that they were all exposed in a valley with no trees. Perfect conditions for a wind tunnel and the end of which was my campsite. I should have known better but I always try to get as far away from the motorhomes and campers as possible to avoid generator noise. After much frustration I got the Clip Flashlight set up and in the process cracked a pole that was then further damaged by the heavy wind. I then proceeded to lash it together and that held for all of five minutes. I then splinted it with two extra tent stakes and that held until 3:30 AM (more on that later).







By the time I got everything set up it was about 3 and I figured I should get the Explorer organized with room for me to sleep if the conditions turned unbearable at night. I decided to attempt the hike up Stone Mtn. in the morning as it was getting late and was way too windy, so I took a break and did a little reading in the back of the Explorer. After a little while I was looking out of the window and saw something moving up the hill about 50 yards into the woods. I soon realized it was a group of turkeys. There were about 5 or 6 wild turkeys and one that appeared to be domestic because it was all white and was the initial reason I saw the group. I immediately grabbed my cameras and started stalking the group but they caught onto me and walked quickly over the ridge. In the woods it was much less windy so I did some exploring and enjoyed the time in the trees. After some time walking around I noticed the sun was starting to set so I decided it was time to figure out what I would do about dinner. I had planned for two dinners with some chicken and then pasta for another. I knew the pasta was out because the Whisperlite would have been blown away while boiling the water, so I decided to get some charcoal and a fire started. After about 10 minutes on the fire my pan was still cool to the touch due to the wind so I gave up and ate a PB&J pita pocket and some carrots in the back of the Explorer.





It was then time to get ready for bed since I wasn't going to sit outside in the wind and it was all of 6:00. After I got changed and in my sleeping bag I was actually pretty warm so I thought it was going to be a good night; although it took me awhile to fall asleep since it was only 6:00. At this point you've probably noticed that I've mentioned it was pretty windy and you're asking "So, how windy was it?" It was so windy that it blew my cooler over, blew my hat off my head when I had my back to it, during some gusts I had to lean backwards to stand up, and it was as loud as sitting next to the engines on an airplane for the sustained wind and even louder during the gusts. I wish I had a wind speed meter (whatever those are called) so I could be more precise but suffice it to say it was windy.

About 3:30 this morning I noticed the tent was flapping more and I looked through the vent panel and saw that my pole repair had partially failed. Luckily it was still holding somewhat because I was relatively warm in my sleeping bag and didn't want to get out and into the Explorer so I just stayed put and dug deeper into my mummy bag. I got up about 7 and the wind had partially weakend though the gusts were still strong. I struck camp and broke my tent again. In my frustration with setting up my tent on Saturday I got out my heavy duty stakes and hammered them in with my hand axe (yes I know you shouldn't do that) and this morning the ground was frozen and required pulling on the stake loops to remove them. One of the stakes was so far in that I couldn't see it and when I was pulling one of the loops broke. Needless to say, I'm going to find out how much Sierra Designs will charge for new poles and for sewing on a stake loop, I may just buy a new tent since I got that one for a good price at the REI Scratch and Dent Sale in 2003.

Anyway, after a breakfast of trail mix, again didn't feel like struggling with the wind to make oatmeal, I started driving to the trail head but before I got there I was stopped by trees that had fallen across the road during the night. The rangers were already working on cutting them up but I figured there could be more past them and it probably wasn't meant to be. On my way out of the park I saw 3 deer eating breakfast. After that I just drove around the mountains for a little while and then back to Raleigh.



There were a few flurries on Saturday but nothing stuck because, you know the answer, the wind. The temperature would have been perfect but with the windchill it was kind of unpleasant but I was prepared clotheswise so that wasn't too bad. Overall I'm glad I went because it's always good to get out in the woods. I wish I could done some hiking but I'm already planning on taking another trip out there probably in March.

More pictures here: Stone Mountain Camping Trip. More to come when I get the film developed. I'd forgotten how much I like taking pictures with a real camera.

P.S. All in the Family's 35th anniversary is this year and TV Land is having a marathon this weekend. It is a great show and was definitely before its time.

Into the Woods

It's a long weekend and I'm heading to the mountains! I'm going camping at Stone Mountain State Park (the NC version of Georgia's Stone Mtn without the Confederate carving and less touristy) and I really hope I see some snow. I'm leaving in the morning and will be back Monday. Send a search party if I'm not back by Tuesday morning for work. :)

Speaking of work, here's another quiz that was posted on The Hive. I do like trivia.

What Job Should You Really be Doing?

Your ideal job is a Quiz Show Contestant!


Salary : 3/10
Education : 2/10
Job Satisfaction : 7/10
Community contribution : 8/10
Pulling Power : 7/10
Uniform : 3/10
Total: 30 /60

Who am I?

Saw this quiz posted on The Hive.

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

From the South to the North

My department at work had a whopping four hour meeting on Friday to discuss this year's schedule and business plan. As a result of the meeting I now have a "territory" which means I'm supposed to keep up with what's going affordable housingwise in Georgia(!), Virginia, and Maryland. I'm headed to Atlanta for the 2006 Annual Application Workshop at the Galleria in early February so hopefully I'll get bold and be able to do cold introductions to developers to get some business. I'm getting better about talking to random people but it really helps to have some kind of in so I'll definitely be doing some homework before I head down.

In other news, I have been invited to speak on a real estate career panel by UNC Career Services. It's pretty cool to be asked, probably because I filled out the exit survey after I got my job, but I don't know if I'm experienced enough to contribute but the Career Services guy says he wants a recent grad's perspective so I guess I fit that bill. Our intern, who is a 2nd year planning student, said she was planning on attending but thought it was funny that I was going to be speaking. I told her I'd just defer internship questions to her. It'll be interesting.

Running up the aisles

Isn't it neat how at church after the children's sermon the kids immediately know where their parents are sitting? In a sanctuary with several hundred people it amazes me that they know where to go without wondering around.

Yes ma'am

Happy New Year!

I heard a story on NPR's Weekend America this afternoon about a Lakota tradition called Winter Counts that marked the winter solstice and the end of the year by a single simple drawing representing what happened during the year. While I'm not much of an artist, I got inspired to do a recap of the year since it was a relatively big one in my life.

In chronological order here are some of this year's high and lowlights:

• First girlfriend
• First kiss
• Started drinking (still haven't been drunk and don't see that happening anytime soon)
• Completed the real estate workshop project in Charlotte
• Finished my pathetic masters project
• Interviews for my first year job and subsequent rejection because they wanted "somebody more entry level"
• Graduated from UNC!
• First breakup, cue Neil Sedaka Breaking up is Hard to Do
• Actually used the four wheel drive in my Explorer to venture onto the sands of the Outer Banks beaches and didn't get stuck
• More interviews and rejections
• Hung around Carrollton
• Road trip with Josh to help chaperone the CPC youth group at Montreat
• Did some part time work for my dad
• Went to Katie and Joel's wedding
• Granddaddy had prostate surgery
• Got a great job!
• Moved to Raleigh
• Started reading for fun
• Went to Charleston, SC for my first business trip/conference
• Went to Ft. Lauderdale with my boss to represent the company at a conference and first time on a yacht (or as Tom called them Big Boats)
• First time working longer than 10 weeks
• Represented the company on my own at a function in Atlanta
• Mom was in the hospital with a bad virus but got better
• First time having my own Christmas decorations
• First time not having most of December off at home
• First New Year's Eve party at my boss' house and getting invited to another party because I say yes and no ma'am.