summit to sea, part 1

Saturday I participated in an SMR training event. The focus was on winter skills and navigation. It was my first time on snowshoes and I had a blast! I enjoyed getting to know some of the team members a little bit better, and here’s something I’m pretty excited about: I got an invite to go ice climbing next weekend (using technical tools and skills to ascend the vertical face of a 200’ frozen waterfall inside Sequoia Natl Park)! I’ll certainly be posting more on that if it works out.



Also, I was issued a nifty little handheld GPS/radio unit to keep for as long as I'm part of the team. Members are encouraged to use them on their own adventures so that they're always familiar with their operation and control. These things don't eliminate the need for traditional orienteering skills with map and compass, but they sure are useful for things like finding/marking locations, determining altitude, and keeping in contact with team members and HQ.

summit to sea, part 2

Two days later (today), I was at the beach in a T-shirt. I had to travel to The Superior Court at Grover Beach. When your clients are charged with crimes while vacationing at the beach, then obviously you have to go to the beach to represent them! And while you're there, might as well stay and hang out a while, right? I drove up the Pacific Coastal Highway (PCH) from Pismo to Morro, and thoroughly enjoyed the outing. These pics were taken with my phone, since I forgot my camera. I'm pretty happy with the resolution on them- it far exceeds the pics my old phone used to take.









I'm definitely liking the fact that I can go snowshoeing at almost 8,000' and then be back at sea level to go surfing or whatever, in the same week, all within a couple of hours from home.

amazon swim

Anybody up for a little swim? In a few days the world's greatest long distance marathon swimmer is going to attempt to swim the Amazon River, not from bank to bank but from source to estuary, a distance of 3,375 miles. And he's planning to do it in 70 days. Sounds pretty crazy right? This won't be his first big river though. Martin Strel holds records for being the first and only person to swim the Danube, Mississippi, and Yangtze rivers, among others. Check out the details or at least watch the promo video clip at http://www.amazonswim.com/?page=Intro. It's intriguing.

"As a young boy, I was beaten a lot by my parents and schoolmasters. This no doubt contributed greatly to my ability to ignore pain and endure..."-Martin Strel, Guiness World Record holder

I logged on to AOL to check my e-mail today, and this guy's story was one of the headlines. He's definitely nuts, and I'm definitely going to be checking that website from time to time to see his progress. I think he'll make it.

The feats of this swimmer sure do put my little hike into perspective...

some interests and goals

It's still January so I'm going to go with a "it's not too late to post New Year's resolutions" stance. Actually the things below aren't so much New Year's resolutions as they are just some current interests and long range planning ideas. I scribbled this list back in December because I was feeling like there were a bunch of things rattling around in my head that I was going to forget if I didn't jot them down. They're not prioritized or in any particular order.

• Get into snowshoeing- within the next 3 months
• Whitewater kayaking- 6 months
• Motorcycle- 2 years
• LASIC (corrective eye surgery)- 1 yr
• Handgun and concealed carry permit- 1 yr
• Sequoia Mountain Rescue- (already doing, yay! =)
• Soccer/Ultimate/gym (some kind of regular exercise)- another one I can already check off
• drum or guitar lessons- 3 yrs (figure I shouldn't get a drum set while I'm still in an apt)
• Buy and fix up a house- 3 yrs (so I can get a drum set)
• Learn Spanish- 3 yrs (bilingual people are cool and seem smart. plus, it could be a big asset with my job)
• Get plugged in at a local church- 3 months
• new car- 2 yrs (Fiona's fine but I'm still enamored with WRX's and VW hatchbacks)
• move the rest of my stuff from PA to CA- 6 months (hopefully this will happen if M&D come to visit, maybe in Feb.)
• Find a wife or girlfriend- within the next 30 or so years

I realize that this list is oriented mostly towards the superficial and material. Like I said, it's not prioritized, nor is it comprehensive. My relationship with the Lord comes first and foremost. I want to be more involved in ministry, both through a local church and by supporting my friends who are in missions. I also want to be a good attorney. I'm finding that law school doesn't quite prepare you 100% for the practice of law, and I'm used to being able to take pride in my work. There's a significant learning curve with what I'm doing but I think I'm making progress. And as always, my family is the most important thing in my life. If I achieve nothing else in 2007 I hope I can stay close with each one even though I'm the farthest away.

And on a completely different note, here are the most recent pics to be pulled off my camera...

This was taken from one of the office windows, on a very clear day. Oftentimes you can't see the mountains at all. Actually these are still just foothills. The High Sierra, beyond these hills, isn't visible from the Valley.

This is my new phone. It's much thinner and smaller than my old one, with a lot more features (including the red touch-sensitive music controls on the front flip). What's not to like?

Also, Verizon gave me a free month of their internet and streaming video service, so I can check my e-mail from my phone for a few weeks. pretty cool!

West Coast fast food

There are a whole slew of different fast food joints around here that the East doesn't have. Here are a few I jotted down:

-Sonic
-Carl's Jr. (really good burgers- reminds me of The Jackson House burgers)
-Green Burito
-Del Taco
-El Pollo Loco
-A&W's
-In & Out Burgers
-Jack In The Box
-Baja Fresh
-Panda Express
-El Gordo Express

You'll notice there's a lot of Mexican food =). There are also some different drink places, like Kiva Juice and Jamba Juice (good smoothies). And some of the Starbucks out here have drive-thru's. No Dunkin Donuts though, which I miss because they started carrying these awesome "White hot chocolate" drinks which are really good. I haven't noticed any other Eastern franchises that aren't represented out here, although I've only seen one Wendy's, which is a shame because Wendy's used to be a lunchtime staple.

holidays '06

okay, I'm back, and I have a lot of catching up to do.

My flight home for Christmas wasn't scheduled for departure until almost midnight on the 24th, so I had most of Christmas Eve to finish up shopping, do laundry, and pack. It was a fairly relaxing day, all except for the part of the day where I stepped outside to throw something in the dumpster and discovered that the door had locked behind me. My wallet, cell phone, and keys were all inside. I had left the TV and the heat on (yeah, I was splurging since it was Christmas Eve). The apartment manager was nowhere to be found, and I had a plane to catch!

Long story short, I got some hanger wire from a neighbor, climbed up onto the laundry room roof and from there climbed onto my balcony, where I used the wire to jimmy the latch on my sliding glass doors. This solution solved my immediate problems, but has made me all the more interested in looking into renter's insurance, in case anyone else has similar ideas.

My travel to and from PA was just like my dating life: uneventful and hassle-free. I actually made it to and from LA in just a couple hours, although directions online predicted 3.5! And on one leg of the trip, the passengers barely outnumbered the crew so I had a whole row to myself.

The highlights of my time at home were relaxing with my parents, hangin' out at my sister's, "Buckin' Bronco" with the nephews and niece, and games and restaurants with friends. I can't believe I had wondered what I was going to do for nearly two weeks. I was booked! But although busy, the vacation was restful overall. I slept in and stayed up atrociously late too, which of course is singularly unproductive but what vacations are all about.

I'm back in Cali now, and not sure which place to call "home" anymore. But it doesn't really matter, I suppose. It's not like I have no place to call home- I have two =). I feel really lucky to have such awesome family and friends. Happy 2007 y'all!