Keep in Touch: June 2008

27 June 2008

Pamilia Lake Hike

Megan and I went on a very nice hike on Thursday. We've been meaning to do a lot of hiking/camping while we're between jobs but that hasn't played out due to baby stuff and job searches/interviews.

We went to Pamilia Lake. It is a short hike but is very beautiful and the trail is very nice. Before we got to the trail head we got a nice view of Mt. Jefferson...

Here is the trail head...

After about a half a mile we started hiking in patches of snow...

The patches became more and more frequent until the last half mile which ended up being all snow. We arrived and got to see the beautiful lake...

...and a closer view of Mt. Jefferson...

Here is the map...

View Larger Map

Here are the vitals...
Distance(Round Trip): 4.3 Miles
Trailhead Elevation: 3010
Lake Elevation: 3884

Here is how to get a trail on to Google maps...
To get trail onto personal Google Maps site:
1.) Find trail using topo mode at www.gmap-pedometer.com.
2.) Mark trail in gmap-pedometer and export to GPX (instructions are on the left)
3.) If you just want the route and not the markers you must delete all the "name" tags in the new file.
4.) Now convert to kmz format using http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/
5.) In your personal google maps click on import and select the kmz file.

18 June 2008

Five Weeks

Megan is five weeks pregnant. Below is an FAQ we've developed after telling some friends and family.

FAQ:
Q: Do you want a boy or a girl?
A: Both. Twins please.

Q: When is the baby due due?
A: February 19th. (According to Megan)
A: February 18th. (According to the lady at the Salem Pregnancy Center)

Q: How long is Andrew's license suspended?
A: February 18th.

Q: Do you have health insurance?
A: Don't you have any better questions than that?

Q: Do you have any morning sickness?
A: No. But my belly gets gurgley sometimes. (Megan's answer)
A: No. I feel fine, thanks for asking. (Andrew's answer)

Q: Is this a planned pregnancy?
A: Well, we planned to have sex. (We're both very happy)

Q: Are you going to find out the sex of the baby?
A: We might but you won't. (We want gender neutral baby stuff)

Q: Seriously, do you have health insurance?
A: Seriously it's a baby. Be excited!

Q: How does Oliver feel about this?
A: Woof.

14 June 2008

Transformer Bike Race

No, Optimus Prime didn't race Megatron on a bike. Although it would have been really cool if they did! On Tuesday, 3 June I went to see the Lehigh Valley Classic bike race in the afternoon and in the evening I went to the old Bethlehem Steel factory to try to see a helicopter or and explosion because they were filming Transformers 2 there.

The bike race started at 1300 but the racers didn't come by our seats, at mile 6, until about 1312. We sat on the biggest "climb" on the whole circuit. The race consisted of twelve seven mile laps and took a little under four hours to complete, that makes the average speed a little more than 27 mph. Unfortunetly the climb did not slow the riders much so they buzzed by and I didn't get a good look at the Peloton to see the few riders I could have picked out.

Every lap was very exciting to watch. About a minute ahead of the first rider three or four police cars would come by to clear the road. They were followed by a half dozen motorcycles that carried course officials. The motorcycles were followed by the Peloton, except for the laps when there was a break away. After the Peloton was gone thirty or forty team cars and other support vehicles would drive by.

Peloton...

Support Vehicles...

We didn't actually see any helicopters at the Bethlehem Steel plant but we heard them and we got to see the whole place lit up. The scene they were filming is a war in China between Transformers and Chinese at some kind of factory. As you can see from the below pic (which I didn't take) it is a pretty dismal place...

Here it is lit up on the night of filming...

I read in the paper the following day that the explosions happened at three in the morning. I am not sad that I missed them

13 June 2008

Dog Packs

Andrew and I are back in OR now, staying with his dad and a bunch of animals (Oliver, Molly, Baby Brother - dog dog cat). Marsha and Ellie are visiting family. The animals play together and I could just watch them all day. Oliver loves it there.

Just for tonight, we're house/dog-sitting for Jen & Brian. They have FOUR dogs. Two of them are giant. One is a great dane; another is a bullmastiff! Oliver joined right in, making it a pack of 5. He had a minor brush with the alpha-dog soon after they met, but is having lots of fun now. Again, I hope to post pictures soon!

Congrats Kate!

PA was great. I missed everyone so much. The big news from my sister...

She's pregnant! Congratulations Kate and Andrew! (Yes, her fiance's name is also Andew.) The baby boy is due October 1st. Kate and I took a beach trip on Monday. Here is a picture of Kate at Point Pleasant Beach, NJ.

I got to see both my brothers. Dan was appartment hunting when I arrived, and moved into his new place when I left. He's also been working out a lot more. We went on a jog, and he ran circles around me (must've been my jetlag). :o) Jamey's band has a new CD out - it's packed with energy.

03 June 2008

PA trip

Megan and I will be in Pennsylvania until 10 June. We are having a good time visiting family and friends from all over.

The day before we left Pohnpei I dropped our camera 3 feet onto a hard tile floor. Now it is unable to focus so we didn't get any pics of Hawaii or Oregon. I have since taken a few pictures using my new phone. We signed up with Sprint which seems to work well every place we've visited except a small pocket of Syracuse. Our plan is awesome. $30 per month gets us 500 anytime minutes, unlimited Internet access, unlimited text messaging, unlimited picture messaging, unlimited nights and weeknends (starting at 7pm) and unlimited sprint tv. For our "family" thats $60/month which is $10 less than verizons cheapest family plan and our plan has all that other great stuff. Because our phones have internet we rarely use the computer to check email. The picture quailty however leaves quite a bit to be desired...

That is Molly, my parents dog, and Oliver playing. I was trying to take a picture of Oliver grabbing Molly's leash and taking her for a walk.

Here is a picture of Yellow Fin Tuna. You can't read it but it says $9.99 per pound. In Pohnpei it was $2.30 a pound...

Here is a picture of our dinner in one night in PA...

As you can see the picture quality is not that great. I wasn't expecting too much but since I was without camera my hopes were high.

On 30 May a swarm of bees engulfed Megan's parents backyard. After three or four hours they settled on a branch. This was quite a spectacle to hear and see...

I took ten pictures and even got a chair and stuck my hand three feet away from the 'hive' and the above one was the best I got. So I got on the information superhighway and found this camera for $110 at Circuit City. They even had it in the store. The pictures are much better than the camera phone and much better than I expected out of a 110 dollar camera. Below are some samples.

Here are the phones we got...