Words can barely describe the incredible beauty, awe-struck feeling, and intimate nature of the day hike we went on earlier this month.
Paradise is an area that has quite a few trails stemming from the trail head. Going through the pictures I have posted on Picasa you can get a small taste of what it looked like on that day, where we went, etc..
All I can really add is that we are going back in September (and maybe with Stephan-- a co-worker and friend) before the weather gets too cold. I am excited at the prospect of seeing the mountains and the trails on a clear day. The cloud cover we had on our way up was a real treat of course. You couldn't see anyone around (occasionally hikers caught up to us, or we caught up to other hikers.. but very very few) so it felt as if we were the only ones on the trail most of the time.
I have never seen anything like the glacial snows or the landscapes that exist there. It was my first real taste of hiking too.. and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
These are only a few of the pictures taken. Expect more to be added to a new album after the trip in September =D
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
Taking a Breather
Where to begin?
I ended up taking last Wednesday off (sorta.. I was still available by phone) in order to sleep in and attempt to avoid getting more sick and jeopardizing the hike Amy and I had planned for Thursday. To my surprise, Wednesday worked out beautifully. With plenty of rest, good food, and some last minute shopping for items to take on the day hike, I felt freaking phenomenal.
Wednesday night was a late night. We had to wake up at about 4 AM Thursday morning but neither of us got much sleep. Fortunately, after we got going in the early AM (by way of a home made breakfast sandwich and a stop to Sbux) we made excellent time up to the Paradise trail head. I'm not going to get into TOO much detail right now-- expect a full post with a new Picasa album. I'd be doing it right now, but work decided to fix the firewall rules to block remote desktop and all of my photos are already on the computer at home.
In other news.. I had my free 1 hour intro training with Brian at 24 Hour Fitness. The guy was great and showed me a lot of basic exercises to increase my core strength (which is terrible right now). The exercises I did on the previous Monday really kicked my ass, but I didn't feel the soreness until 2 days later. It wasn't a bad soreness of coruse, but holy crap he really showed me just how out of shape my mid-section is compared to the rest of me (legs are solid, and my upper-body strength isn't anything to laugh at =D ). I now have some fitness goals for overall strength and shedding a few lbs. I've laid some groundwork for eating healthier, so now it's just a matter of getting on track to meet the rest of my goals. Getting in shape will also help with more excursions up and around mountains, through parks, etc. in the future. Exciting!
A 5 day weekend full of adventure, relaxation, lunch with my Dad, some video games, some movies, plenty of sleep.. it was great times, and I look forward to my next 4 day stint in September. ^_^
Back to the grind though. Let's get this on call week out of the way!
I ended up taking last Wednesday off (sorta.. I was still available by phone) in order to sleep in and attempt to avoid getting more sick and jeopardizing the hike Amy and I had planned for Thursday. To my surprise, Wednesday worked out beautifully. With plenty of rest, good food, and some last minute shopping for items to take on the day hike, I felt freaking phenomenal.
Wednesday night was a late night. We had to wake up at about 4 AM Thursday morning but neither of us got much sleep. Fortunately, after we got going in the early AM (by way of a home made breakfast sandwich and a stop to Sbux) we made excellent time up to the Paradise trail head. I'm not going to get into TOO much detail right now-- expect a full post with a new Picasa album. I'd be doing it right now, but work decided to fix the firewall rules to block remote desktop and all of my photos are already on the computer at home.
In other news.. I had my free 1 hour intro training with Brian at 24 Hour Fitness. The guy was great and showed me a lot of basic exercises to increase my core strength (which is terrible right now). The exercises I did on the previous Monday really kicked my ass, but I didn't feel the soreness until 2 days later. It wasn't a bad soreness of coruse, but holy crap he really showed me just how out of shape my mid-section is compared to the rest of me (legs are solid, and my upper-body strength isn't anything to laugh at =D ). I now have some fitness goals for overall strength and shedding a few lbs. I've laid some groundwork for eating healthier, so now it's just a matter of getting on track to meet the rest of my goals. Getting in shape will also help with more excursions up and around mountains, through parks, etc. in the future. Exciting!
A 5 day weekend full of adventure, relaxation, lunch with my Dad, some video games, some movies, plenty of sleep.. it was great times, and I look forward to my next 4 day stint in September. ^_^
Back to the grind though. Let's get this on call week out of the way!
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Warning.. This is TMI
I really dislike it when I have to use the toilet at work.
I especially dislike it when I'm in there doing my business.. trying to finish brewing my mondo poo and some guy gets into the stall next to me and executes a Splatterhouse 5 situation on the John.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Double Bonus
This last weekend Amy and I were able to find some awesome hiking boots for the trip we planned this week. Famous Footwear had a "buy one get one half-off" sale for everything in their store. We ended up walking out of there with a good pair of Timberland boots for me and a killer pair of Hi-Tec boots for her at $120.. This saved us a TON of cash compared to buying shoes/boots at REI-- we don't need anything crazy like that until we are in much better shape AND are doing more difficult trails or overnight adventures.
Do you ever have that 'sick' feeling in the back of your throat? That kinda raw-ness of drainage or sickness onset that alarms you that you may fall ill soon? Unfortunately for me that happened last night and this morning.. but I'm going to do everything I can to hopefully stay healthy so I can still do the day trip on Thursday. *Crosses fingers*
I have 2 songs almost complete, and another 3 on the back burner, plus a few other ideas in my head. The music ramp-up has begun and I'm happy to say I hope to have some form of demo/EP out by fall. As far as the City Shadows release on CD-Baby and iTunes, keep checking back here for more information on that... I'm looking for some affordable printing for the CD artwork and CD duplication, so we shall see how that turns out.
Alrighty.. much to do during my 3 day week at work.
Later.
Do you ever have that 'sick' feeling in the back of your throat? That kinda raw-ness of drainage or sickness onset that alarms you that you may fall ill soon? Unfortunately for me that happened last night and this morning.. but I'm going to do everything I can to hopefully stay healthy so I can still do the day trip on Thursday. *Crosses fingers*
I have 2 songs almost complete, and another 3 on the back burner, plus a few other ideas in my head. The music ramp-up has begun and I'm happy to say I hope to have some form of demo/EP out by fall. As far as the City Shadows release on CD-Baby and iTunes, keep checking back here for more information on that... I'm looking for some affordable printing for the CD artwork and CD duplication, so we shall see how that turns out.
Alrighty.. much to do during my 3 day week at work.
Later.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Enjoying the Rain
Well I wouldn't call it rain and neither would most people around here or otherwise. Seattle sometimes gets this gray misty cloud spit (yes, cloud spit) going on. It's refreshing after some of the sunny days up here. Growing up in the desert really put me off as far as heat goes. While it's nice that I have built up quite a tolerance to hot weather, I certainly don't enjoy having to be in it. It's always somewhat.. exciting I suppose.. to wake up on a perfectly gray filtered-light day and see some rain or cloud spit.
Last weekend ended up being a bit disjointed. I was primary on call last week and we were still fighting off some nasties from a launch-gone-bad at work. I ended up having to help staff a 24x7 war room effort (much like the one I was in on the previous post). Saturday I woke up to a call about a system issue, and ended up working right up until I had to get going to our Factoria offices (where I usually work). I ended up pulling a 12 hour day that day.. not out of the ordinary on something as big as this when being primary. It was pretty low key for me.. mostly metric and KPI reporting since my applications were stable.. they wanted warm bodies and extra eyes if they needed them I suppose.
On the music front, I'm still working the plans to get my stuff out to iTunes and Rhapsody. Currently I am shopping around for printing services for the City Shadows CD artwork and tray cards. Once I am able to get a small run going I will be in a position to ship them off to CDBaby and other fronts.
Quite a few starts to songs have been made and I'm beginning to get a clear direction on most of the pieces I'm enjoying. From house, to ambient, to more down-tempo beats and audiological infections-- I hope to have enough content for a mini-release to hold over until the new(er) stuff really takes form and is ready for release. I have a back-log of about 2 years worth of music that has been on MySpace, UBER, and other places (including some people's gmail inboxes) that needs to see the light of day.
Alright.. back to work I go. My non-fat, 1-pump raspberry, white mocha with whipped is singing the sirens' song.
Last weekend ended up being a bit disjointed. I was primary on call last week and we were still fighting off some nasties from a launch-gone-bad at work. I ended up having to help staff a 24x7 war room effort (much like the one I was in on the previous post). Saturday I woke up to a call about a system issue, and ended up working right up until I had to get going to our Factoria offices (where I usually work). I ended up pulling a 12 hour day that day.. not out of the ordinary on something as big as this when being primary. It was pretty low key for me.. mostly metric and KPI reporting since my applications were stable.. they wanted warm bodies and extra eyes if they needed them I suppose.
On the music front, I'm still working the plans to get my stuff out to iTunes and Rhapsody. Currently I am shopping around for printing services for the City Shadows CD artwork and tray cards. Once I am able to get a small run going I will be in a position to ship them off to CDBaby and other fronts.
Quite a few starts to songs have been made and I'm beginning to get a clear direction on most of the pieces I'm enjoying. From house, to ambient, to more down-tempo beats and audiological infections-- I hope to have enough content for a mini-release to hold over until the new(er) stuff really takes form and is ready for release. I have a back-log of about 2 years worth of music that has been on MySpace, UBER, and other places (including some people's gmail inboxes) that needs to see the light of day.
Alright.. back to work I go. My non-fat, 1-pump raspberry, white mocha with whipped is singing the sirens' song.
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