.the gpb kids.

The Beaver State

Posted by Mike - June 28, 2008 at 02:06:12 pm

Jules and I are in Oregon this week for a wedding. I just thought I’d drop a note and mention that it’s really pretty up here. Not too many flowers blooming right now, but the grasses are all very big and green (much to Jules’ dismay) and the weather has been pretty nice.

The other day we went for a local hike with Jules’ parents and family friends and once we we past the treeline it was like we were in another world. The trees and foliage were dense for most of the hikes, but some parts thinned out and you could see a hundred yards or so of foresty goodness.

Jules and I took the featured picture after the hike when we were waiting for everyone to catch up. More pictures soon perhaps!

Random Englishness

Posted by Jules - June 24, 2008 at 08:06:38 am

Mike and I flew into Oakland Airport around 9:30 at night. And in slightly more than 24 hours (24 hours and 5 minutes, to be exact), we will be flying out to portland. We are the poor man’s version of jet setters.

A joke the bus guide told us at the San Diego zoo:

Question: What do you get when you cross and elephant with a jaguar (or maybe he said some other cat)?

Punchline: A sports car with a very large trunk.

So I’ve been reading this comic that roughly translates to “The Honorable Knight Child”. Or “The Chivalrous Great Child” to some people, namely yesasia. Some of my shrink wrapped copies included wrap around slips of paper that say “WARNING: This articles contains material which may offend and may not be distributed, circulated, sold, hired, given, lent, shown, played, or projected to a person under the age of 18 years.” I think they really want to cover their bases. Anyhoo, I quite enjoy this semi historical comic- even my mom enjoyed it- she blazed through the first five volumes the last time she visited me.

A few months ago, I bought a pair of Snow Peak compact chopsticks that I could bring with me to school for lunches. They are made from recycled baseball bats. Mmmm.. sweatastic. Highlights from the instructions on back:

“We now use old baseball bats as material for our chopsticks. Imagine it, right now you could be eating off a bat that busted on a high and inside fastball; doesn’t that sound appetizing?”

The final step on reassembling the chopsticks to full size: “Now you are ready. Remember to slurp loud and never ever leave your chopsticks sticking straight up in the rice. Big party foul!”

Awesome.

San Diego and Graduations

Posted by Mike - June 23, 2008 at 05:06:08 pm

Jules and I are hanging out at the San Diego Airport waiting for our flight. We have two hours and we’re stuck in an area with a small book/magazine shop and a starbucks. Guess it’s gonna be no dinner for us!

We came down to San Diego for the weekend to see two of my cousins graduate from UCSD. Graduation ceremonies are brutal. For each one we sat in the sun for two hours roasting, listening to mediocre speeches and the names of ~1800 cheery soon to be ex students. Not sure if we got sunburned yet. I have to say that I’m glad my graduation was a small affair with shade for the spectators.

Something I thought about while watching the seemingly endless stream of new additions to the workforce was my own disbelief about graduating. It came in waves I suppose. I walked during my commencement. But then I had one more class to take over the summer. The end of that class was pretty anticlimactic. After that I got someone else to pick up my degree for me. But that’s just a piece of paper with a printed signature from the governator in a manilla envelope. Not even sure exactly where that is at the moment. I got a job with CNET later in the year, but I don’t think they ever checked to see if I had actually graduated. A few after that I got a job with Yahoo! and they did a full background check and I’m pleased to announce that in addition to actually finishing college, I have no criminal record.

Featured Produce of the Month: Cherries!

Posted by Jules - June 5, 2008 at 08:06:52 pm

summer time = cherry time! Yay! I had quite a few handfuls of delicious cherries at lab today, and now that I’m back at home, it’s time for another bowl. Mmmmm…

Yosemite With the Lindow Lab

Posted by Mike - June 2, 2008 at 08:06:07 pm

Jules invited me to go with her lab to Yosemite again over the weekend. I have mixed feelings about Yosemite. On one hand it is such a touristy place full of people, cars, pavement and garbage that you don’t feel like you’re really enjoying nature. On the other hand Yosemite Valley is such an amazing, awe-inspiring place that you can overlook the hordes of people.

The more popular trails to destinations like Yosemite Falls and Half Dome are lined with people, but on this trip Professor Lindow took us to Taft Point and Sentinel Dome which had very few people. For those of you who don’t like to hike very far, both trails are only 1.1 miles from the parking lot. The picture with this post is of Taft Point. From the edge there is a wonderful view the valley including Yosemite Falls and El Capitan. Apparently there’s a pretty good view if you look straight down too, but I didn’t get that close enough to the edge to look over. It made me queasy just seeing other people do it. It pretty much drops off to the valley floor.

Hiking around Yosemite made me want to take an extended backpacking trip. I’ve pretty much decided on going back to Desolation Wilderness. I went there for a trip once as a Boy Scout and I think about due for another one. I’m thinking late July or August. I can get Jules ready by then right?

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