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.

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.

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

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.

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...


The is Megan finishing her gift for Corynn...


Andrew and Tami enjoy a game of badmitton with a Super Shuttlecock...


Megan in Syracuse with Olivia...


Andrew, Larry and Megan at "The Boulder Field" in Hickory Run park...


"The Boulder Field"...


Megan eating a Rita's Italian Ice(Note the blanket. The temperature in the room was 77 F)...


If you'd like more information about Sprint Sero goto:

sprint.com/sero

Enter:

savings@sprintemi.com

as the Sprint employee email address.

Welcome back, now hurry up!

Megan and I arrived at PDX around 0700 last Saturday. The weather in Oregon was spectacular. We shivered a little bit, but were very grateful for the absence of humidity. Oliver arrived a few hours later but we weren't able to take him home until 1400 because he never went through customs.

***Culture Shock***
In Hawaii, Megan and I had breakfast at small touristy diner whose name escapes me at the moment. The waitress arrived to take our drink order and said, "What can I get you guys to drink?!?" The energy that poured out of her overwhelmed us. For a full five seconds Megan and I stared at each other with blank, semi-startled faces. After those long, painful seconds had passed I uttered "Water" in a barely audible tone. Megan added "Yeah, lots of water". The waitress probably thought we were stoned afterall, we were sure she was on crank. Our reaction was a mix of a long flight, culture shock and the fact that the waitress was extremely bubbley. In Pohnpei servers were very relaxed so our eating experiences were also very relaxed. We had a hard time enjoying our meal due to the waitresses energy and efficiently.

On monday I accompanied my mom to costco. I ended up driving home. At one point my mom said "why are you going 25?". I was in fact going 25mph in a 45mph zone. I never drove over 30 mph on Pohnpei.

On our flight to Pennsylvania we were more than shocked when the plane hooked up to the terminal after landing. As soon as the captain turned off the Fasten Seatbelts sign it seemed as though everyone exploded. Megan and I sat there stunned as people frantically grabbed for there bags in the overhead bins.

This isn't really culture shock but really shocking. Pohnpei lays about six degrees north of the equator. Throughout the year the number of hours of daylight only changes by about thirty minutes. The sun would set at about 1820 in December and about 1840 in June. We learned that if the sun is setting then it must be about 1830. This is no the case here, 45 degrees north of the equator. Not only do are the days longer but I also feel as though I have no concept of time.

That's all for now, I'm sure there will be other shocking things as the days go on.

Sidenote: I wrote this entire post from my new cellphone. Although it does have a full keyboard I'm sure there are more typos than usual.

So much news it hurts!

Honolulu, HI Friday 16 May 2008 0408 - Megan and I left Pohnpei on Friday 16 May at 1400. We arrived in Hawaii ten hours earlier (man, that international date line messes with your head). So for the first time since the end of July I have truly lightning fast internet, for free no less. It's pretty amazing, especially for a guy who spent the last 10 months looking at a computer screen for a large part of his income and an even larger part of his livelihood. Below are some short paragraphs about what's been happening in my life over the past few weeks.

On Monday 5 May I went to the veterinarian to get some papers for Oliver and get his second set of shots. While there I picked him up to find out that he weights about 60 pounds. I then walked home, about 2 miles, took a shower and got ready for school. When I was putting on my shorts my back decided it didn't want to bend over. The rest of the day I was in excruciating pain and that pain lasted for over a week. Except for the bare essentials I spent an entire week in bed. On Monday the 12th I finally started moving around and visited the doctor. She prescribed me some drugs that helped mildly. It's basically a stronger Ibuprophin, which I had already been taking. My current condition is that I can walk around without any discomfort but sitting in any way causes me discomfort. During our long plane ride I paced the aisles whenever possible. (Sidenote: if you're looking into getting a new MP3 player or Personal Media Player a good way to learn about them is to pace up and down airline aisles for an hour in the middle of a long, packed flight. It maybe a good way to become a suspected terrorist though too. Use with caution.)

Our first farewell party was on April 26. Since then we have had five other farewell parties of varying degree. Don't get me wrong, I love all the free food and the good company, but we spent more time with these friends in the past few weeks then we did during our entire stay in Pohnpei. We got to know people better because of these events just in time to wave good bye to them at the airport. We'll never know if, had these parties been thrown earlier, this could have drastically changed our experience in Pohnpei. This works both ways of course, we are not incapable of throwing parties or inviting people to dinner, so I take full responsibility for this. The unique thing about farewell parties is that people have an sense of urgency about them. After all, a farewell party is kind of a drag if it's thrown the week after the honorees have left.

As you may or may not know we've decided to bring Oliver to the states with us. He's a great dog and we consider him part of our family so we really couldn't leave him behind. Taking a dog from a developing country like the FSM to a developed one like the US actually isn't all that complicated. What is complicated is the fact that the dog's veterinarian plays a vital role and Pohnpei has no full time vet. There is one vet that comes to the island about once every other month for a day and a half or two days. He is the only vet to come so can pretty much charge whatever he wants. His prices weren't outrageous but his customer service left much to be desired, and we did plenty of desiring. Below is what is required and a vague recollection of how much it cost.

• Shots $60
  
• Health Certificate $25
• Examination $25
• Flea and Tick Meds - $15
• Heartworm Pill $8
  
• Vet Fee $45
• Dog crate $145
• Certificate of Origin $3
• Continental Shipping Price $608

As a new pet owner I am not sure if any of these prices are outrageous.

The day we chose to fly home ended up being Continental Micronesia's 40th birthday. This is celebrated by giving it's guests a ton of free food. And the food was REALLY good. Some of the best pastries I'd had in Pohnpei. Now I know where the $900 one-way ticket fare goes! (Sidnote: A one way flight from Pohnpei to Honolulu is about $900. A one-way flight from Honolulu to Portland is $240 and a one-way flight from Portland to Philadelphia is $120. Continental is the only carrier that goes to Pohnpei.)

We arrived at the Airport very early today(yesterday?), about 4.5 hours before our flight. This was due to the fact that Oliver was coming with us and we were told that this can take some time. One of my favorite things about Pohnpei is that everybody you know will probably come visit you to say goodbye. It was kind of like a seventh going away party but this time Continental catered it. We received quite a few thoughtful gifts, by the time we got on the airplane Megan had four necklaces around her neck two flowers in her hair and two crowns on her head. These crowns, made out of local flowers, are a local decoration much like a flower lay would be in Hawaii. In true island style there were quite a few people just showing up as the loud speaker was giving us a last warning to go through security. It was wonderful to see all of the smiling faces there to see us off.

One of the last days in Pohnpei I carried my camera around for a whole day and took some pics of life on Pohnpei. They are below with some descriptions.

24 Hours in Pohnpei

Tuesday

1600: Sitting in front of the fan after getting home from the park where Oliver gets his exercise.



1700: Our friends Ray and Sheffy stopped by to chat. Sheffy really likes Oliver, the feeling is mutual. Ray is a teacher at CCA, the high school megan briefly taught at, and Sheffy is his son. On their way to school in the morning Sheffy will regularly call out "Mr. Boes!" or "Mrs. Boes!".



1800: Sunset at The Village. Bruce and Joanne wanted to buy us dinner so we went to our favorite place in Pohnpei, The Village.

1900: Sorry no pic. I had the Macadamia Nut chicken, it was delicious.



2000: Stopped by Genesis Hospital to stock up on drugs!



Wednesday



0600: Slowly waking up, Oliver can be really calm in the morning. He can also be really crazy.



0700: Rice Crispies and Granola. My Grandpa C. taught me the joys of mixing cereals.



0800: 200 mg Celebrex. It's better than Advil, but not by much.



0900: Watching "Manufacturing Dissent". The laptop is set up right next to the bed on top of Oliver's crate. Over the past week I've probably watched more than twenty movies here due to a bad back.



1000: On my way to Pohnpei Utilities Corporation. The rain finally let up a bit so I can run my errands.



1015: I've always wanted a picture of this tank. It's Japanese from WWII.



1100: PUC. This is the building where we pay our water bill and buy power. I wish I could say the building looked better on the inside. I can't. Our water bill has never been above $5. We don't have a power "bill" but rather,we buy kilowatt hours from PUC. When we left the rate was about $0.44/kilowatt hour.



1200: Telecom. All telephone and internet communications are through the satellite on the right of the above pic.



1300: Lunch! Today we have scrambled eggs with sausage on a terrible looking but delicious tortilla and an orange.

1400: Finished movie. No pic. Not sorry.



1500:Oliver getting his afternoon workout.

Thats all. If you have a blog you should think about doing this. I don't know interesting it was for you the reader but from my point of view it was fun. I felt like I needed to do something interesting every hour or everyone out there would know how truly boring I am : )

Automotive X Prize

Today I'd like to plug the Automotive X Prize. This competition will award $10 million to the team that can create the best vehicle that is commercially viable and get over 100mpg. The best part of it is you can already buy a few really neat vehicles that will be in the competition.

Here is an article about the top ten competitors.

Want an electric truck?