Thanksgiving week on the road

What do you get when you mix a week off work, a friend's wedding at the beach, a fiancee 400 miles away, a mother 180 miles from where you spend thanksgiving, and the most horrendous traffic you have ever seen??

Geographically (and cartographically), it looks like this



About 40 hours of driving time when it was all said and done. Traffic was INSANE on I-81 today and after a complete standstill on I-81 at Wytheville we came back via I-77/I-64/US-29 (8 Hours).

Also, worth mentioning, after driving all the way to the beach I had the wrong address and missed the wedding. HA! But I did get to make it to the reception :)

Pittsburgh

So I've been in Pittsburgh for the past couple days and it's been an interesting experience. It's amazing that I lucked into landing in Reston for my relocation because I didn't like Boston, I didn't like Pittsburgh at first glance, and I have a feeling I won't like New York... I guess I can respect the history and character of the towns, but there's something I don't like about them. But I've warmed up to Pittsburgh.

We had dinner tonight at The Church Brew Works which is an old church (a historical landmark, no less) and it was amazing. I don't know if it was the battered brie with apple and fig chutney or the pierogies that take the award for best food, but it was an amazing dinner. The beer was delicious as well and had a definite microbrew taste. http://www.churchbrew.com/


Mom is in Italy and is blogging about it on her blog, http://deantheslp.blogspot.com/

I am so glad Mom is over there and took advantage of the opportunity to go. You can't be frivelous with money, but you gotta live life. Look at our stockmarkets... even money markets (commercial paper) are having problems. Our government, perhaps to its fault, tries to make our lives secure, but you never know what's going to happen (and I personally don't believe throwing $700bn at the problem fixes anything). As they say, only two things in life are certain: death and taxes.

I'm engaged!

I had to write the post before this one because I knew I was going to propose and I was about explode, so I had to talk about how I met Mandy, and explain why I proposed. She is my best friend, a truly caring, thoughtful, loving person and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. Basically, if there's anyone I want to argue with until I die, it's her ;)

So I proposed, the picture is NOT staged. I hired a photographer, Tori, to capture the moment and I think it turned out better than I ever hoped it would. Oh, and because you only get engaged once (or so I plan), it's a Tiffany ring!!! I got the best ring money can buy (and now we know why I freelance night and day) :D








So yea, here's to me and Mandy :) My best friend and the love of my life!

The Obligatory Update

As a general rule, noted through the archives of my blog, when I haven't blogged in a while something is going on.

I've been so busy I haven't had time to turn around. I'm freelancing on top of my day job to try and save up some money and have been working around 14 - 16 hours a day and around 30 hours on weekends. It has been intense and I have learned a lot. That's work, and that's enough of that.

I'm madly in love with Mandy. It's been really interesting and it defies anything I thought love for me would be. I can't put into words the way she makes me feel... I had this mental image of the woman I wanted to find... Nice hair, great smile, laughs at my jokes, driven and motivated, an achiever, lover of God, and generally a caring person. You can't just walk down the street and look at someone and know that they have those qualities. You have to meet someone and get to know them, or try to. I went out with a lot of girls in 2007 and none of them could relate to how I handle my relationship with God... none of them, I felt, really got me. I'm a giver and a doer. I was pretty sure that I would spend the rest of my life trying to achieve someone else's affection, feeling like I had to do acts and spend money to earn their affection. And then at a christmas party I was hanging out with my buddy, talking about girls no less, and the whole room went quite and the door opened- a bright light shining in... ok, gag, no, but really, out of the whole room and all the comotion and saw this girl walk in and walk right past us to sit with her friend. I immediately started elbowing my buddy Dan and asking "who IS that?"

He didn't know, and neither did I, but thanks to me being an idiot and asking to sit with her and "the cool kids" and got her name and convinced her to play wii bowling with me before the night was over. Love at first sight... HA!

So like all relationships between 20-something-year-olds we became friends on Facebook and I stalked her was very interested in her. Wondered who the guy was in her photos... wondered if I would get to spend time with her... wondered when I would see her again.

We ended up seeing each other a couple more times and went to an Angels & Airwaves concert, which was hilarious because it took 5 guys 20 minutes to convince me to call and ask her to go and I paced the floor the whole time. Of course, it went to voicemail and I played it cool ;) We went, I tried to stand next to her the whole time, her friend knew what I was trying to do and tried to make her stand next to me and she was oblivious to the whole thing. It's cute now, it was a bummer then.

I finally worked up the nerve to ask her our for coffee and one thing led to another and a month later we went out for a wonderful sunset on the roof of my office building. I had wanted to watch a sunset up there for over a year and it finally happened (with Mandy to beat it all). We akwardly posed for a photograph as I was scared to put my arm around her...


And I asked her out.

Life hasn't been the same since. I moved to DC, got a new job, didn't get to see her, and it's been very, very stressful.

But I get to see her in 4 days, brief as the visit may be, and we're going to go out for a wonderful dinner.

I guess that's the thing that makes Mandy so special... I can see us both old and gray... I can see her the mother of my children... and I love taking her out and doing stuff for her because she truly appreciates it. More than any other girl I have ever met.

We have this inside joke about butterscotch. She told me that some people are like butterscotch suckers. It's the last flavor to get picked out of an assortment. On valentines day I asked if I could be her butterscotch, and she said yes. She's my butterscotch... the last one picked. And I don't mean that in any negative way. It's like saying you'll find what you're looking for in the last place you look. No point in trying another when you found exactly what you want...

So if you made it this far without gagging, and your name isn't Mandy Wood, congrats. Sorry, but I'm in love ♥

Sucker City

I love National Lampoon and Mad Magazine. This time MM has outdone themselves. This is pure genius!



Read the whole article at The Consumerist

Rainbows are a conspiracy... California is the land of fruits and nuts, afterall

We don't know what's in our water and the government is responsible for all the low altitude rainbows...

http://www.break.com/index/insane-rainbow-conspiracy-lady.html

But she's from California and based on the recent decision to disallow Christian school courses credit when applying to a UC school, I don't have much faith in the intelligence of Californians.

My Pillow

That picture is of my pillow. The brown spot isn't makeup from my mistress, nor ground-zero of a fart gone awry. It's a burn mark. There are 2 of them. The pillow with the sham that was UNDER this pillow has a hole burnt all the way through it. See the picture below.




Too tired to stay at the desk last night, I plopped in the bed with the laptop and webcam (and therefore Mandy, albeit virtually ;). While stretching cords across the apartment, I tossed a double-halogen, under cabinet light fixture in the bed with me. Discovering it was too bright, I only had it on for a few seconds before turning it off and tossing it aside. As our conversation ended (as Mandy decided she didn't want to watch me sleep) we signed off and I tossed everything in the bed beside me and went to sleep.

I woke up sometime around 9:30 or 10 and groggily found my phone and fumbled to send a text message then rolled over on top of all that stuff that was still there. Without thinking I pushed it all further away and sprawled out to continue my slumber. I remembered the weather forecast and debated getting up to go for a bike ride and glanced at the window to try and see the sky out of the cracks the blinds when I thought I saw smoke. Convinced that I must have had allergy eye mucus or something slimy on my eye I wiped them and looked again and there was a lot more smoke. I sat up and then smelled something burning. Followed by verbalizing my excitement with some choice words I started digging through covers and cords to find the pillow with the sham on fire and the burn mark on the pillow next to me. Moving those (read: throwing them across the room) I found the culprit... That halogen fixture was on, and on the highest setting, too. I don't know when I bumped it to flip the rocker switch, but my guess is it wasn't much sooner than this episode happening.

Totally random and I figure it's blog worthy... This could have been a very bad morning haha!

A sample of what I do now...

I spend most of my days building flash engines to display data feeds from our custom CMS in a visually interesting manner. And I sneak on here to post ;) This is one of the more complex engines I've wrote and features my transition engine to manage mask placements to reveal the next image. More on that in another post...

Tech Specs:
65k due to 2 embedded fonts, no preloader
700px x 210px
dynamic images and text from our webservice
8 sec auto cycle if more than 1 image
ActionScript 2.0

Anyway, here's the link: http://www.leetrout.com/featuresEngine/

My Sweet Baby

What can I say? My baby's got sauce ;)

This is why I like where I work

We got this internal email the other day...

Just thought I’d share a cool story with you. Yesterday afternoon while I was still in the office, I had a sales call with a prospective client.

My contact was very excited and impressed with SiteOrganic, and wanted to move forward with two Websites. She told me that she would go back to her executive team with a recommendation, and that they would probably have to spend some time finding the money in their budget.

Right after that conversation, a young family came into their Dallas office to thank them for the services they had received. They left a card. After the family left, my contact opened the card. Inside was a cross with scripture around the edges, and the word “Trust” in the center. The note was written: “Please use these funds for an upgrade to your Website.” It was a check for the exact amount needed for SiteOrganic.

She called me with the news this morning from her car, and was beside herself. Definitely a praise!

The morning commute...

I HATE crossing traffic. I don't see how people ride in traffic on a bike. Hopefully my confidence will build up over time. I was 2 inches from catching my left handlebar on a pole as came on the sidewalk from the street with too much speed. I feel like I'm going to get run over if I don't get across the street in less than 3 seconds...

Anywho, I'm at the office. Took a little longer because I stopped to help with an older gentleman that wiped out. The consensus among the lay was that he had a concussion based on a nice crack in his helmet (which would have been his head if he hadn't been wearing it) and dilated pupils.

Mission: Office and Back Completed

I left the office at 1:20 and was standing in the front office at the apt complex at 2:05. I walked up one of the streets instead of riding but pushing the bike kept the distance goin', official distance is 12.4 miles and total ride time was 1:20 which means it's about 40 minutes one way in my current condition. I would like to see that under 50 minutes, or 25 minutes one way. Then I'll be in direct competition with driving as far as commute time goes. I also rode back in the rain. Most of the trail in Reston is under high voltage lines and the sizzling / crackling makes me think about brain tumors and lightning strikes...

Today's summary:
It can be done and I can do it even if it isn't efficient to stick to streets with sidewalks.
Riding in the rain isn't bad at all.
Riding on pavement after a breif rain in the summer is miserable.
I'll have to keep some powerade at the office and initially plan on my commute taking 1 hour one way.
The office has a shower and lockers big enough to use clothes hangers.
Stuart with WFI thinks I'm a hoodlum who broke into the building and doesn't believe my company actually exists in the building... "Edge Media you say?"
I saw more people at the office building today then I do on weekdays...

And then there was a bike...

The Specialized Crosstrail Sport is now mine. Never being able to escape the desire for a mountain bike, the people at Specialized made this just for me. It looks like a mountain bike, it feels like a mountain bike, yet has greater on road performance (so says the bike shop) with a commuter frame. It's a "hybrid" bike. Front shocks with lockouts, 24 speed, 29" tires, on a 58 cm frame. There's no comparison to Uncle Ben's Trek I borrowed last summer.

Of course, as I knew going into this, it's never just the bike. I needed a helmet, computer, water bottle, and shorts came highly recommended. Suffering from the "do it right the first time" (which usually means bells and whistles in my head) I agreed with myself that I would buy the basics. With the exception of an insulated water bottle (I think I still have Ben's and I need to get that back to him) I got the most basic computer and helmet. The computer only counts time while the wheels are rolling which ended up being something I really like. As for the shorts... I'm trying to imagine myself in spandex. I think of guys I've seen with their garbage all smashed in spandex offering me the rare glimpse of what sculpture might have been like if Picasso gave it a go. I wasn't excited about the idea. Or the thought of how I would look in spandex period. It was bad, nothing good would come from this, but I asked, "Guys keep telling me to get padded shorts and to Vaseline my junk". Expecting a mixed reaction of maybe and some laughter I was responded to with a matter of fact "don't use vaseline we have better stuff and check out these shorts". Further discussion revealed that since I won't be doing 40+ miles a day I don't need to worry about chaffing but the shorts help on anything over 5 miles. I'm still skeptical because these shorts are $90. Told that I could return them with tags and no smell I took a pair. This is starting to be like snowboarding... everything from one brand and why do I like black?

So I'm sitting at the office, feeling like crap, smelling bad because I was too excited to go ride to remember to put deodorant on when I jumped out of the shower, and burning UP. It was 81, felt like 91 at 11 am. I'm gonna drink around 64 ounces of fluids before I head back and the expected temp around 3 is 91, feeling like 100. I guess I picked a good day to try this all out.

It took 40 minutes of rolling time, 6.5 miles, and around an hour to make it in. This accounts for me waiting at crosswalks, going the wrong way on the wrong street, and a 7 minute break because I thought I was gonna have heat stroke. Did I mention I'm wearing all black? But alas, I'm here and now "it wasn't so bad" hahaha. We'll see how I feel tonight... The shorts are AMAZING and definitely worth the money if I do this every day. Will I? Maybe if I get up at 7 and ride in before it gets hot. I can't lie, while not a tree hugger, I like thinking that I am doing my part to make this a better place for all of us.

Oh, and the W&OD trail is really crowded! Here's a google map of my routes. Click on the lines to see the route description and distance.

View Larger Map

Thinking about the gas...

It's sad to think about the cost of gas and therefore the cost of driving my Jeep to work and back...

17 MPG
$4.ll / gal
10.2 miles round trip
$1 toll fees round trip
((10.2 / 17) * $4.11)+$1 =

$3.47 per day
$24.29 per week
$105.84 per month

Just driving to and from work.

I keep trying to justify buying a bicycle by saying I would ride it to work and that it would pay for itself and I hadn't really done the math. By the numbers, I would have to ride the bike 7/12 months for it to pay for itself in fuel savings. If I committed to not spending more than $100 a month on fuel then It would pay for itself in 3½ months.

On the set of Transformers 2

On my way to the movies tonight I stumbled upon the filming of Transformers 2 at the Air & Space Museum. My phone take craptastic pics, but here's a shot of the set with Bumblebee and another Autobot in car form in the parking lot... And after that are a couple pics of the camera jib / crane inside. They said they'll be shooting tomorrow but I highly doubt that since this part of the movie takes place "after hours"... and all their equipment and power distribution is already being set up...

I LOVE living here. I wouldn't happen upon the filming of a major motion picture on my way to a movie in Johnson City!

Washington, DC??

Sorry for the delays in blog posts... I just got off the phone with Verizon. They're coming to install my internet access on Monday. I'm surprised they working on a holiday... I'm soon to have 15mbps fiber to the house :D

Anywho, since I blog for two major reasons, broadcasting info with the world and archiving my life (especially major events), and anytime there's a delay means something big is happening, here's the scoop...

I'm living and working just outside Washington, DC now. (NOVA as they call it). I am a flash developer for Edge Media, Inc. I hope anyone who knew me in college gets a kick out of me working for Edge :D You can see our custom CMS at www.siteorganic.com

I can't give God enough thanks and praise for this opportunity!! And although there are days that are rough, my dreams are coming true and I haven't really accepted it. I remember reading Annie Parson's blog back in Jan/Feb and imagining what it would be like to just up and move. Now I know!! :D

A part of me feels like Fievel hahahaha!

It's been amazing and I couldn't have made it without the support of my friends and family! It was really nerve-wracking and stressful and Mandy was right there for me the whole time. She's a keeper I think... :D

So yea, little mouse in the big city and loving every minute of it now that I'm here. Let's hope Verizon comes through for me and I get my net access Monday and I don't covertly type blog posts on the office computer...

Chattanooga

Went to Chattanooga last weekend! Had a blast!!!!

We're all in trouble now...

I came in tonight to find this offline message in my inbox...

9:21 PM Dean: TADA! I set up my own blogspot....check it out http://deantheslp.blogspot.com (geez, I hope it works)

Look out!

Oh, and Mom, go sign up on facebook.com