Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Where did all the blog posts go?

In case you didn't notice, a lot of my blog posts are currently missing. In anticipation of Big (shhh! SECRET) Things that are happening in the next few months, I'm doing some fall cleaning. Don't worry, I'll be back within a few weeks.

And yes, I did survive yesterday's earthquake! It actually was kind of fun.

Fall, Y'all Giveaway!

Wow; I never imagined that I would get this many comments. Due to a variety of reasons, an executive decision has been made, and this giveaway is now closed as of 8AM PST on Wednesday. Thanks for playing!

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

It's my first giveaway EVER as a blogger! Shannon, over at Rocks in my Dryer, is hosting the "Fall, Y'all Giveaway" -- the fall version of one of the biggest "carnival" giveaways out there in the blogosphere. (Right, I know. I just used the word "blogosphere." Sorry.)

So what am I giving away? I recently came across an extra copy of the book The Call by Os Guinness. As I am just now starting to get into the book, I can personally say that it's a good one. If you want to check it out, you can find it on Amazon here.

How do you win? To be entered, please leave a comment on this post and include the name of the book you read during high school that was your favorite. I'll close the comments on ... just closed, sorry!, and I'll pick a random number/name out of a hat on Saturday. Please make sure that your email address is accessible in your comment (as in, if you're not a blogger, please leave "joebobsmith [at] gmail [dot] com" in your comment as well). Offer is open to US residents only, and I'll pay postage! Oh, and I'll throw in a copy of one of my favorite mix CD's, so you can also include the name of your current favorite song if you'd like.

So, come out, come out.... and comment! I know everyone likes free stuff.

(Oh, and if you're interested in entering other giveaways for other cool free stuff, check out the Fall, Y'all Giveaway link above!)

Monday, October 29, 2007

Home again, home again.

I'm back from the Big City and currently buried knee-deep (actually, probably at least chest-deep) in work. I'll write more later about what it's like to visit a place you just moved away from 2 months ago. (The short answer: interesting but really weird.) Happy Monday to all!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Reading material.

I'm heading to the Big City this weekend to see T (Thursday through Sunday!) I am not happy to be exchanging this gorgeous, sunny 85 degree weather for rainy, grey 45 degree weather, but my excitement about spending the weekend with T makes up for the less-than-optimal weather.

I am quickly becoming a California girl.

But I don't want to leave you with nothing to read while I'm gone. So here are several fun, interesting and/or thoughtful links for your reading pleasure:
  • If you've seen the news recently, you've probably heard about the Southern California wildfires. Mary has been blogging in the midst of the fires, and she has some incredible pictures. Check them out.
  • Poignant post about rain that reminded me that sometimes hard times make you feel more alive.
  • Has everyone found Postsecret? If not, you can find it here.
  • Curious about what the life of a PhD student is really like? Please check out PhD comics. You can find the latest comic here, and some of my favorites (that are very, very true to real life) are this one, this one, this one, this one, and this one.
  • Last but not least, my next new recipe to try. It's that pumpkin-y time of the year!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

On being green.

I had a haircut appointment yesterday in the Big School's downtown at 10am at a new place. Well, new to me since I'm new to the area. Since it wasn't that far off campus (please note that the Big School's campus is over 8000 acres! So "off-campus" a good walk.), I decided to bike there and then to work instead of driving there and back before biking in to work. I felt very, very "green" today as I biked into downtown, and also very happy to have survived my first bike ride off campus! It also was a gorgeous, sunny day where I could bike in jeans and short sleeves very comfortably, which helped. The only bad part of the whole excursion was realizing that I had to put my bike helmet on over my newly cut and styled hair.... oh well, better safe than not!

But seriously, I felt like the environment loved me.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

SO COOL.

I finally sat down and tried the "photo stitch" program that came with my digital camera. It's an incredibly simple way of creating huge, sweeping landscape-type pictures that are actually a combination of multiple pictures.

It is perhaps the coolest thing EVER.

Here are my three photo-stitched pictures (click on the picture to enlarge it):

From the Bonnevile Salt Flats

At Muir Woods National Monument:

Sunset over the entire Bay Area while camping this past weekend at Mt Diablo State Park:

Monday, October 22, 2007

Camping!

What did you do this weekend? Something fun?

I went camping!

If you know me, you know that I'm a beginning camper. As in, I like to camp but only at real campsites where I'm not required to hug a tree. Which is an opinion that I was threw out when a few guys in the lab started talking about us all going camping. Thankfully, the great state of California has some incredible state parks with beautiful, well-kept campsites...

... including a park that is supposedly the largest state park in California, and which has (again, supposedly) the largest viewshed (area of land you can see from one point) in the world, next to Mt Kilimanjaro. Plus it's only an hour away! So off went the entire lab, on our first California outing.

First thing after setting up our tents: hiking! We went up to this ridge first:

Where T(m) found out where helium balloons go to die.

Me at the top of the ridge at the beginning of the hike:

Between the ridge and the summit, I found my new favorite tree in all of California under which I want to have a picnic:

And finally, we made it to the top! Here I am with M with one of the beautiful vistas behind us (looking south).

And now with the view looking towards Nevada behind me (and lots and lots of wind!)

Our two fearless camping organizers (J and T(m)).

The whole group at the very top of the summit.

The view of sunset from under my 2nd favorite tree on the mountain.

A better view of the sunset.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Sunset! (Sightseeing, part 3 of 3)

(Last in this three-part, long-overdue series of my birthday weekend events!)

The last super-fun, totally-California thing that T and I did when he was here was going to the beach to watch the sun set over the ocean. We'd watched the sun rise over the Lake before I left the Big City, and now we were pumped to see it set over the Pacific. We found a great bench at Super-Close Bay overlooking the water, and.... ta-da:





Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Tall, tall trees (Sightseeing, Part 2 of 3)

(Side note: This is the 2nd of 3 posts from my b'day weekend escapades.)

Once we got to the north side of the Big Bridge, our destination was to see the redwoods! We only had a little over an hour to spend there, so we just did the quick loop around the main section of the park. I would love to go back and spend a lot more time there someday!

Here's T by the entrance to the park:

We stopped to take a picture by the tree along the main path that has most of its innards hollowed out. It seemed a little too cheesy to actually stand inside the tree for the pictures, so here we are in front of it:

Look how tall the trees are! This picture doesn't even do it justice.

The tree that we're standing in front of here is over 1000 years old!

View of the trees when you look up:


Monday, October 15, 2007

Sightseeing! (Part 1 of 3)

(Side note: This and the next 2 posts will be fun photo updates from my birthday weekend... in September. Better late than never, right?)

I finally got to go on my first CA sight-seeing adventure the weekend that T was in town for my birthday! I definitely do think that the entirety of where I live is absolutely gorgeous, thus I hadn't noticed that I had not left it during the first three weeks that I was here. Hence it was unexpectedly really fun and exciting to get out and drive up the peninsula. The first part of our adventure involved driving across the Big Bridge on our way up to a national park (that'll be post 2 of 3), which was SO COOL. Not only was it featured in the opening credits of Full House, but it also used to be the world's longest and tallest suspension bridge. Plus you can see practically the best view possible of downtown from there.

Here's the view from the car as we were driving up to the bridge (T was great and drove so that I could take pictures and look all around!). Sadly there was a big bug smeared on my windshield, which kind of hurt the pictures, but here it is anyway.

The view looking up as we were driving under the first pillar going north.

And while the view to the right back at the city was amazing while we were driving across, all the security bars (that keep you from falling off the bridge from the sidewalk) got in the way of my pictures! I couldn't get a picture of the city through the bars but I did manage to get one of The Rock:

Once we crossed the bridge, the scenery was beautiful. Ever since moving here, I'm continually amazed at how amazingly gorgeous the natural beauty of California is. Seriously.

When it was time to drive south across the Big Bridge, I finally got that picture of downtown that I couldn't get before.

(I still might like the Big City skyline better...)

I also managed to get the picture below, which is probably my favorite of all the Big Bridge ones! Granted, all of the pictures were from a moving car. I definitely want to go back sometime soon and actually walk across the bridge (or at least halfway and back) and hike around in the hills on both sides of the bridge in the parks. Anyone want to come visit and go with me?

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Freeeeeeeeedommm!

That's right. I was Bravehart for the "Revolution" party (if you remember, the theme was "dress to represent freedom"). I even had a sword! I had a blast putting together my costume with some plaid Walmart fabric and blue face paint. I was joined at the party by E supporting the women's working revolution, shark J, Besty Ross-inspired flag R and many, many more incredible costumes, especially M dressed up to look like Willie Nelson.

*In case you're curious about the shark costume and how it represents freedom, please watch the clip below. The shark costume (sewn by E) represents J's freedom to be obsessed with the movie "Eagle VS Shark." (Well, and sharks in general.) Please watch the trailer... it looks hysterical!




And... drumroll please.... the highlight of the evening was most definitely getting the first ever triple-Jennifer picture! Here we are in all of our freedom-ified splendor:

Hopefully we'll get another three-way Jennifer picture sometime soon when I don't have a blue face...

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Thoughts on life in the CA.

That's right. The CA. As in "the 5" or "the 101" or "the..." (insert any highway or interstate number here); that's apparently how we roll out here.

Maybe that's why the tv show was called "The OC" !!

Random, interesting (to me, at least) things have happened here recently.

First, I finally broke down and canceled my Verizon cell phone. I figure since no one's accidentally called it in the last week or so other than my dad (please change your speed dial!), everyone got the memo that I got a new number. I am now officially an AT&T-only cell phone user. The whole 2-cell phone thing was wearing -- I'm not sure how Spencer does it (The Hills, anyone?)

Second, I saw a car with a license plate that was only 6 numbers higher than mine!! For those of you who don't live in the CA or know its license plate scheme, it's 7 characters in a number-three letter-three number pattern. They assign them as sequentially as possible, although since they hand you the plates while you're at the DMV, they can't be exactly sequential down to the second you applied for CA plates. Anyway, I saw a car that had the EXACT SAME license plate number as mine, plus 6. I don't know why that was so fascinating to me, other than that it meant that person was probably at the same DMV as me on the same day.... but it was really exciting at the time. (Heck, I still think it's kind of cool.)

Third, the weather here has been absolutely crummy lately! I mean, one day, it looked like this outside while I was biking to work...

... and it stayed like that for a whole HOUR, misting on me! I mean, seriously... isn't life in the CA supposed to be ALL sunshine and palm trees? That being said, it legitimately is cooler here than I thought it would be. I got a Stanford hooded sweatshirt right when I got here, thinking I wouldn't wear until November at least -- I've worn it approximately every other day since I've been here.

Fourth, I've switched almost exclusively to gChat and away from IM. gChat is like IM but feels significantly more "grown-up" to me than the IM that I associate so clearly with my first year of college when you would hear the dings of messages being sent back and forth as you walked down the hall to the bathroom. gChat. Just do it.

Last, I'm going to a party on Saturday night where the suggested/required attire is "Dress to represent Freedom." Any suggestions?

Friday, October 5, 2007

Happy birthday to me! (~2 weeks ago)

(In the continuing spirit of catching you up with my life.)

My birthday was 16 days ago, and it was an eventful day! I passed my Big School Quals that morning, and then T came into town that afternoon for the weekend. It was definitely one of my favorite birthdays thus far. Here's a picture of us from the weekend:

Did you notice my necklace? It's new! It was my birthday present from T, and I love it! I think I've worn it every one of these past 16 days. Seriously. In case you can't see it very well, here's a close-up picture from the website.


It was made by a friend who has a jewelry-making business. In case you're in the mood for some pretty jewelry (or just "window" shopping), check out her site! Everything there is gorgeous.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Quick update.

  1. Sorry if my "Unpacking/Unpacked" posts below are kind of confusing. I'm about a month behind in posting pictures and things like that, which I could've explained more clearly. Hence, yes, my roommate is here (and has been for almost a month), and she's great. Several other belated posts with pictures from my birthday weekend will be coming soon.
  2. While I definitely think that my scratchy throat this morning was due in part to my fan being on "high" last night, it came back later this afternoon along with a feeling that I might be getting sick. Awesome. Time to mainline some OJ.

When will I learn?

Living in a new place means figuring out all the little things.

Like what level (low/medium/high) to put the fan on at night. I don't have A/C, so all of my cooling comes from outside. Interestingly, there's also less humidity here than there was in the Big City, and I've learned that if my fan is on too high, I wake up completely dry, with a sore, scratchy throat. Thus I've been playing around with my fan levels to see if I can find the level that gives me good noise (there's also a picnic area right outside my open window where people tend to congregate) but that doesn't dry me out.

I realized last week that the "low" setting of the fan was perfect. The outside noise was drowned out, and I then wake up refreshed but not dry.

However, ever since realizing this, I continue to accidentally put my fan on "high" about every third or fourth night. Like last night. And then I wake up dry and with a scratchy, painful throat. I know it'll go away during the day... but still, when will I learn?

Unpacked!

Alright... I'm back.

Believe it or not, I did manage to get all of the boxes from the previous post completely unpacked and put away by the end of the day on that Sunday. It was no small feat, and I took these "victory" pictures once I was done. Imagine that you're standing in the middle of living room and rotating counter-clockwise.... and this is what you'd see:

Look at my comfy chair and how well my pillows match the provided couch:

I also managed to find a temporary home for my window:

Our kitchen doesn't have nearly enough cabinets, so I had to be creative about dish storage:

And look! This is the same kitchen as before, believe it or not:

I also got my bedroom completely unpacked:

It feels a little bit ridiculous that I brought my big dresser with me, but I managed to fit it into my room...

And that concludes your final tour of Jennifer's Brand New, Teeny-Tiny apartment. I hope that you enjoyed your visit and that you are amazed at my incredible, rapid, mad unpacking skillz.

Hahaha.

Just kidding!

Overall, I'm just really, really happy that everything managed to fit into the place. There's still some creative organizing that needs to be done to figure out how to make the most of every single spare square inch we have, but we're working on it. Oh, and I still have one last box of random stuff from my hall closet in the Big City that I still need to unpack. Maybe this weekend?

Happy Thursday to all.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Unpacking!

As promised, I'm finally posting pictures of the last few weeks here in California! I figured the best place to start would be the crazy, hyper-speed process of unpacking. My roommate "moved" in on Sept 7th (a Friday), but thankfully she just picked up her keys that day and wasn't actually moving in until the following Monday. As Murphy's Law predicted, my stuff didn't arrive until the very last day of my promised delivery range -- Saturday, Sept 8th. I had forgotten the following truth until they started lugging my stuff up to my 3rd floor apartment:

I have a ton of crap.

Not that I mean any disrespect to any of my stuff, because it's all nice and perfect for me... but I have a lot of it. It didn't seem like a lot in my old apartment in the Big City because I had cleaned out almost half of it and had twice as much room. But once all the boxes were moved in, I could barely move around to get stuff unpacked!

See here's the living room:

... and the view into the kitchen:

Yes, it was a little bit (um, ok, LOT) out of control. I agree. And if you're wondering what this space looked like with nothing in it, please see this post for pictures.

I also used the then-empty 2nd bedroom to stage all of the boxes filled with stuff for my bedroom and the various 57 boxes filled with books while I unpacked/organized them:

I'm not sure if you can tell, but those boxes are easily neck-high on me. Seriously.

After a late delivery on that Saturday (the movers left at 4pm, and I hadn't had lunch yet that day), I did actually manage to get some stuff unpacked Saturday night with a lot of help from a new friend from church. By the end of the night, my kitchen was at least "unpacked":


Curious as to how I managed to fit everything into the apartment? Especially considering how everything needed to be unpacked before my roommate showed up on Monday?

To be continued....

Please stay tuned for the next installment of this crazy life.