Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Surrealism
I realized yesterday that I have been out of the hospital for just over 3 months. Exciting! Can I just point out that my life right now is nothing I would have expected, say, 4 months ago? 4 months ago it was December, and I'd only been dating Kyle for like a month. I had a job, and that was basically my life. Pretty boring. Since then, I've almost died, spent 2 weeks in the hospital, had more of doctors than I can stand, and gotten engaged. I'm moving in with T and BJ this week until I get married in June. Then I'm moving to California! Are we sure this is really my life?
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Home Again
The trip back to Provo was pretty humdrum. We got a really late start (actually, we got fairly late starts every day, but we weren't about to set alarms, now, were we?) and didn't leave Mike's until 1:30 pm. So this is a pretty pointless post, since nothing particularly adventurous happened, but I thought I'd put up some more pictures. If nothing else, I had to post one of the weird power towers in Nevada...
...and some crazy fog...
...and some cool clouds.
We got home about 3 am local time, so it was a very long trip and we were both exhausted. But we made it, and we're both happy about the way the whole trip went.
...and some crazy fog...
...and some cool clouds.
We got home about 3 am local time, so it was a very long trip and we were both exhausted. But we made it, and we're both happy about the way the whole trip went.
Doin' the Touristy Thing
Although we were done house-hunting, Kyle and I decided to stay in California for one more day and go into San Francisco. I'd never been, and it was very fun. There was a lot of stuff we didn't get to do, but we'll get to go back after we move.
One thing I really wanted to do was go to the beach. I've never been to a Pacific coast beach, so I thought it'd be fun. We were directed to Shoreline Park, near Google, but it turned out to be nowhere near the shore. We did drive around the Googleplex, though.
Next stop: the Golden Gate Bridge. This was super cool. We drove across it, and I took tons of pictures with a lot of window glare. The good ones came after we'd reached the other side and got out at the viewpoint:
It was really cold and windy (despite the temperature being in the 90's out in Sunnyvale and Livermore for the last two days), and we were glad we'd left our jackets in the car. We were still in shorts, though, so it was quite chilly. And the wind had a lot of fun with my hair. It was out of control. But we decided to walk back out to the middle of the bridge, which was rather longer than I'd expected.
And by the time we got back again, my hair was...well, see for yourself:
It actually only took 10 minutes to brush out, though, which was far less time than I'd expected.
It was really sunny while we were out on the bridge, but as we were getting ready to go back over, there was a bunch of fog rolling in:
We drove down Lombard Street next, which is out-of-control hilly. And down Crooked Street, which we found by accident. It was totally insane, and Kyle's mad at me for not getting a video while he was driving down. But look at this picture:
Yeah. It was nuts.
Lessee...we also found Coit Tower, which is basically just a really tall tower overlooking the bay. We didn't go up it, but there was still a good view from its base. And then we headed over to Ghirardelli Square, which I'd never heard of, which Kyle thought was a crime. We saw some trolleys, but didn't ride because, well, it was freezing. That's one of the things on our list to do when we go back. Kyle wanted a hot fudge sundae at the Ghirardelli shop, but it was, again, freezing. So we opted for hot chocolate instead. I got caramel sea salt hot chocolate, and it was quite tasty. Though the salt was a little weird.
After that, we headed back to the house. We grabbed Panda for dinner (had to make sure it still tasted good in California!) and watched a movie before turning in.
One thing I really wanted to do was go to the beach. I've never been to a Pacific coast beach, so I thought it'd be fun. We were directed to Shoreline Park, near Google, but it turned out to be nowhere near the shore. We did drive around the Googleplex, though.
Next stop: the Golden Gate Bridge. This was super cool. We drove across it, and I took tons of pictures with a lot of window glare. The good ones came after we'd reached the other side and got out at the viewpoint:
It was really cold and windy (despite the temperature being in the 90's out in Sunnyvale and Livermore for the last two days), and we were glad we'd left our jackets in the car. We were still in shorts, though, so it was quite chilly. And the wind had a lot of fun with my hair. It was out of control. But we decided to walk back out to the middle of the bridge, which was rather longer than I'd expected.
And by the time we got back again, my hair was...well, see for yourself:
It actually only took 10 minutes to brush out, though, which was far less time than I'd expected.It was really sunny while we were out on the bridge, but as we were getting ready to go back over, there was a bunch of fog rolling in:
We drove down Lombard Street next, which is out-of-control hilly. And down Crooked Street, which we found by accident. It was totally insane, and Kyle's mad at me for not getting a video while he was driving down. But look at this picture:
Yeah. It was nuts.Lessee...we also found Coit Tower, which is basically just a really tall tower overlooking the bay. We didn't go up it, but there was still a good view from its base. And then we headed over to Ghirardelli Square, which I'd never heard of, which Kyle thought was a crime. We saw some trolleys, but didn't ride because, well, it was freezing. That's one of the things on our list to do when we go back. Kyle wanted a hot fudge sundae at the Ghirardelli shop, but it was, again, freezing. So we opted for hot chocolate instead. I got caramel sea salt hot chocolate, and it was quite tasty. Though the salt was a little weird.
After that, we headed back to the house. We grabbed Panda for dinner (had to make sure it still tasted good in California!) and watched a movie before turning in.
Pretty!
We spent Monday looking at the apartment complexes Kyle had found that had good ratings. Unfortunately, neither of them will know their availability for July until the end of May, so we were only able to get as far as filling out applications. If they have room for us, they'll call us. Both places looked quite nice, though, and we decided we'd be happy in either one. Hopefully at least one will have room for us, though, b/c we weren't able to find anything else we liked.
We spent some time both Monday and Tuesday just looking around the area. Kyle had already scouted it out, of course, but I hadn't. Out by Livermore, and especially between Livermore (where Kyle's job is) and the Mountain House area (where we're going to be looking for a house), there are tons of hills. And it's quite green. I really enjoyed the wind turbines. So fun!
Downtown Livermore has a bunch of fun stores and fountains and such. Anybody know what this flower is? It was growing on several trellises, and I really liked it:
There are also bunches of vineyards out there (apparently, Livermore was CA's first wine area), which makes for cool scenery, too:
Oh, and there were tons of wildlfowers growing around the highways (though I didn't get any pics of those). But here's one more picture of the countryside:
We spent some time both Monday and Tuesday just looking around the area. Kyle had already scouted it out, of course, but I hadn't. Out by Livermore, and especially between Livermore (where Kyle's job is) and the Mountain House area (where we're going to be looking for a house), there are tons of hills. And it's quite green. I really enjoyed the wind turbines. So fun!
Downtown Livermore has a bunch of fun stores and fountains and such. Anybody know what this flower is? It was growing on several trellises, and I really liked it:
There are also bunches of vineyards out there (apparently, Livermore was CA's first wine area), which makes for cool scenery, too:
Oh, and there were tons of wildlfowers growing around the highways (though I didn't get any pics of those). But here's one more picture of the countryside:
Voyage to CA
I already posted some about the trip out to CA, but here's a wee bit more. With pictures!
I found a ghost town labeled on Kyle's map, so we decided to go visit it. Of course, we never found any such thing. We did, however, find a fully operational mine. Wikipedia later explained to us that the old town was covered by the tailings of the new mine. Oh well. Our first hint that this town was no longer ghostie:
We, of course, kept going. But we turned around before we got to the guard checkpoint thingie. It was not, however a wasted trip. On our way back to the highway, we passed this most excellent sign:
Awesome.
This was my first trip to California, so I had to document my first view of it:
It was a lot more tree-y than I had expected. And especially after several hours of Nevada, it was very lush and green-looking. Beautiful. And sunset as we were driving down into the valley was gorgeous:
Let's see...we got to Kyle's brother's house at about 10 pm, making actual drive-time about 13 hours. We were exhausted, so we grabbed dinner and then turned in for the night.
I found a ghost town labeled on Kyle's map, so we decided to go visit it. Of course, we never found any such thing. We did, however, find a fully operational mine. Wikipedia later explained to us that the old town was covered by the tailings of the new mine. Oh well. Our first hint that this town was no longer ghostie:
We, of course, kept going. But we turned around before we got to the guard checkpoint thingie. It was not, however a wasted trip. On our way back to the highway, we passed this most excellent sign:
Awesome.This was my first trip to California, so I had to document my first view of it:
It was a lot more tree-y than I had expected. And especially after several hours of Nevada, it was very lush and green-looking. Beautiful. And sunset as we were driving down into the valley was gorgeous:
Let's see...we got to Kyle's brother's house at about 10 pm, making actual drive-time about 13 hours. We were exhausted, so we grabbed dinner and then turned in for the night.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Are they high-altitude cows? Do they require more water?
I'm writing this from sunny California, my future home! In case anyone was wondering, Kyle and I made it in just fine. Adventures and pictures from the trip will be forthcoming (just not this morning). We got to Kyle's brother (Mike)'s house about 10:00 pm, then went to In 'N Out for dinner. Very tasty. We came back to the house and I spent the remainder of the evening trying to dodge the webcam Mike has in his living room. I hate cameras! But it's lovely here, all green and gorgeous. And 80 degrees outside!
Things that brought home to me that I was nowhere I was familiar with:
We've had a bit of a slow start today, but we'll eventually get going and on to the main event: finding somewhere to live in July. Kyle found a few apartment complexes online that we're gonna check out. (The current plan is to rent an apartment for 6 months or so while we find a house. That'll give us more time to get together a down payment and figure out financing and such, as well as finding somewhere we really love.)
Now, however, it's time for a shower. More stories to follow!
Things that brought home to me that I was nowhere I was familiar with:
- Humid air. Kyle turned the a/c to just air and we got a big shot of humidity. I actually coughed and choked a few times (just a little bit) before my body adjusted to breathing wet air.
- Fog. We saw a big patch of it just off the road, and I was all sorts of thrown by it. I haven't seen fog since we lived in St. Louis, and I was so floored I kept asking really intelligent questions like "Where did it come from?"
- Palm trees. We came down out of the mountains and around Sacramento during sunset, which was beautiful. But the palm-tree-shaped silhouettes were unexpected.
We've had a bit of a slow start today, but we'll eventually get going and on to the main event: finding somewhere to live in July. Kyle found a few apartment complexes online that we're gonna check out. (The current plan is to rent an apartment for 6 months or so while we find a house. That'll give us more time to get together a down payment and figure out financing and such, as well as finding somewhere we really love.)
Now, however, it's time for a shower. More stories to follow!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Issues
Apparently, I have trust issues. I went in to work last week in Orem and got this error message when I tried to login:
I'm sure there's a technical explanation for what that means, but I thought it was hilarious. Seriously? The trust relationship failed?! Awesome.
Anyway, I had tech support come fix it. Something about my user profile going rogue and needing to be reset. Which, of course, meant that I had to set everything back up again. Brilliant.
Today, I asked Annaleise to enable remote access on my new SLC machine. She tried to login and got the same error! At least my lack of trust is consistent, regardless of machine or location, right?
I'm sure there's a technical explanation for what that means, but I thought it was hilarious. Seriously? The trust relationship failed?! Awesome.Anyway, I had tech support come fix it. Something about my user profile going rogue and needing to be reset. Which, of course, meant that I had to set everything back up again. Brilliant.
Today, I asked Annaleise to enable remote access on my new SLC machine. She tried to login and got the same error! At least my lack of trust is consistent, regardless of machine or location, right?
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