Hello From Mountain Country

Hello All, it has been too long again.

Amy and I are doing very well. We are adjusting to the Salt Lake area nicely and finding it full of nice surprises. I am stoked to be attending two concerts this month: The Airborne Toxic Event and The Arctic Monkeys. Both are at the top of my iPod not only due to alphabetical order, but also musical preference. These shows are going to be incredible!

I have been playing softball on Monday nights. Slow-pitch softball is great fun, even for a former hardballer. Fielding the ball is the same after all, and the short base paths make for a pretty fast paced game when you have skilled players. You get the occasional guy who takes it way too serious… Come on Beergutsky, get "Glory Days" out of your head and stop yelling at the umpire who is paid like an indentured servant. It is for FUN! That doesn't mean I don’t get competitive, because I do, it just means that a dose of reality could be beneficial for these people. Those are cub scouts in the stands, not Cubs' scouts.

Work has been great! I am working on a very big project that I get to make my own. For this reason I love spending time on it. I think I was born with an entrepreneurial (thank you spell-check) mind that really enjoys a degree of independence. Lots of structural engineering and FEA to do on this job. ANSYS is the software I am using primarily; it is pretty stellar I must say.

SLC area is pretty great. We have been up skiing a few times and the resorts here are exceptional. It is so cool to be close to all these great mountains. I think I may go this Sunday, yes, that is right, Sunday May 29th. The mountains also double as a great backdrop for the city. I am still mesmerized by them, something I hope doesn’t go away. This is a great place to live. Amy has been substitute teaching and has found some very impressive schools.

On a more serious note, there are some really good breweries down here. Epic brewing is probably my favorite, with Uinta a close second. Epic's IPAs are fantastic, and Uinta's barley wine is exceptional.

We miss all of our friends and family! Come see us!

Did you hear some wack-job thinks the world is going to end this weekend? I think Bruce Willis will save us… (cue Aerosmith)

Rip City and the Couve

So I have been hiding some news here on the blog, news that has now become public (flattering myself). I have accepted an engineering position at a different company up in Vancouver, Washington! Amy and I are really excited for this new adventure and moving to a new city, especially one so close to the always fun Portland. This company is involved in alternative energy, something I have always wanted to be a part of. I feel that it is a good fit for me, and look forward to starting there!

Amy and I are starting the moving process, which is as much fun as walking through gravel barefooted. Our excitement for the move is motivating us , but it is still not easy to make the move happen. We will be renting our house in Klamath. If anyone knows of someone needing to rent a house, let us know!

As for the move to Portland, there are many things we are looking forward to: concerts, sports, bicycling, beer (300 microbrews in Portland, more than any city in the world), and of course the awesome food. Having said that, we will really miss all of our good friends and our family here in southern Oregon. Please come visit us!

I know I keep writing about sports on my blog, but this truly is my favorite sports season. I am extremely displeased that the Wal-Mart of baseball has won another World Series. This will surely increase the cloud of smug that hangs over New York sports. Forget baseball until next year when the Giants face off against the Red Sox in the World Series. I know it is about as likely as Madonna joining the NRA, but wouldn’t it be awesome? Who would I be pulling for? Who knows, but I will probably look like someone with multiple personalities watching the game. Simultaneously cheering for Matt Cain and Jason Bay (this is not healthy).

Maybe it is good that I haven’t updated in a while. I have saved myself from making a prediction that has since been proven impossible. For the sake of limited disclosure, that prediction might have had something to do with a certain Oregon school having a shot at a certain national championship. Loud noises!

I attended the USC v Oregon game on Halloween. What a game! Autzen was so loud we all left without a voice and with ringing ears. The ducks broke the Trojans’ defense (insert condom joke), leaving no doubt who had the better team. I admit that, had Oregon been a publicly traded stock, I would have bought many shares. Then came Stanford… Oregon was heavily favored to win that match, but someone forgot to tell the Cardinal. Oregon lost the shootout and any hopes at a national championship. To quote an ESPN writer: “there are still some mathematical possibilities for U of O to go to the BCS title game, but I can’t figure them out, I didn’t go to Stanford.” He said something like that.

Even worse: losing to a school with a tree for a mascot. Ouch! Those evergreen needles are sharp and a nuisance to rake!

This brings up something that I think all west-coasties can agree on: The PAC-10 is tough. Every year we do this to ourselves. Someone is on top of the world after a huge conference win, only to be torn down the next week by one of the other conference teams. Your team is never safe in this conference. Now if we could just get the BCS respect we deserve and get people to stop thinking of us as “USC and everyone else”.

I also just wanted to say thank you to everyone who serves or has served in America’s armed forces. Your courage and dedication are a huge part of what makes me say I am proud to be from the United States. I know that a thank you from someone who cannot understand the sacrifice involved might appear incomplete, but know that even though I cannot fully comprehend the scale of sacrifice I do fully appreciate all the things you have done and continue to do for the U.S. God bless.

Itzbinawile

It has been way too long since my last post. My only excuse is that I have been suffering a paralyzing fear induced by the prospect of a Yankees vs. Dodgers World Series. Thanks to the Phillies for putting an end to my worries. I have never been a fan of the Red-hat Philadelphians but they are an endlessly better alternative to the Dodgers. The cause for my distaste for both the Yanks and the Dodgers is easily ascertained when you look at my favorite teams:

NL: San Francisco Giants
AL: Boston Red Sox

The Giants had a great season all things considered, especially when viewed alongside last years dismal performance. The Red Sox season ended in disappointment, but I am ultimately pleased with their success considering they were more injury prone than the Ducks’ quarterbacks. Enough baseball for now, go Phillies!

Cutting the Cable Update: The experiment can be considered a success so far, as we are happily rolling along without TV. Four years ago I would have cut internet before cable, and now I cannot imagine cutting internet. It has left me wondering; what did we do before the internet? Newspapers? Magazines? Their news is so yesterday or last month. Also, you can now watch TV on the internet, including sports, by using streaming sites like Justin.tv. Maybe this crazy World Wide Web thing has potential.

We made a trip last weekend to visit Ryan and Amy (yes, my good friend also married an Amy) up in Oregon City. It was nice to catch up with Ryan and Amy. It had been something like 2 years (minimum). It was a great trip and another reminder of what a nice city we have at the top of our state: Portland. We rode into town on MAX and walked through Pearl District, grabbed a beer at Life of Riley’s, and some good noodles at a restaurant with a name that has slipped my mind. Portland really needs a professional baseball team to usurp San Francisco as my favorite west coast city, but it is getting close.

Amy and I are still crazy busy. Hopefully I can get some time to update my blog more often! Later…

Misnomer: "Common" Sense

News from the future: The human genome has been completely mapped. It has been found that the “Common Sense” gene is recessive and occurs in an average of 1 in 612 specimens. It is even less common in some samples, including politicians, upper management, and Michael Bay films.

I played in a company softball tournament this last weekend. It was a really nice morning and aside from the guy taking it so seriously he must have thought there was a Cubs scout in the crowd, there were some really cool people playing. Calling Mr. Serious a “Tool” is an insult to all tools (apologies to Alex Rodriguez). Amy ended up playing on our team to make nine. She did a really good job standing in and all said and done, our team did pretty good. We played for the IS (Information Systems) department. Next year, everyone better look out for the Fighting Nerds! Talk about a one-two punch, these guys can remote troubleshoot your PC while hosing folks at the dish for underestimating their mouse-arm strength.

The Yankees have a 2.5 game lead this morning over my Red Sox in the American League East and the Giants are 6.0 games back in the National League West. Both my teams are atop the wild card race in their leagues, but I want two pennants! Seriously, would anyone miss the Yankees and the Dodgers? Rooting for either of these teams is like rooting for Wal-Mart. Does anyone think the sandbox they built in New York is part of a Steinbrenner plot to get more pinstripes in the record books?

I have not been able to get on the bike much lately. Amy and I have been keeping really busy with guests visiting, me working long hours, and Amy getting the painting bug. We have painted the master bedroom and are now on to the master bath. It looks great and I might post some pics later.

Listening to: I am way late to the game on this one, but for those of you who haven’t checked out Pandora internet radio, it is awesome and I am hooked. I have the app for my iPod Touch and it provides excellent functionality, custom stations, and decent sound. I have already discovered several new bands that I will be checking into.

Important lesson learned: This has sort of been the summer of me competing/participating in athletic events without any training or conditioning. This is problematic, as once again to start a work week off I walked like a knee replacement surgery patient two hours post op. You might ask “How is it possible that you are sore from playing slow-pitch softball for half a day? I mean John Kruk used to play 162 games a year and he has the same athletic build as an orange.” I have no good answer for you. I guess the lesson learned is that I need to get into shape!

Coming up: This weekend I am traveling to Bend for a concert at the Domino Room. Grant and I are going to see Rehab. It should be a great time, and Bend doesn't disappoint this time of year. I might just have to float the Dechutes!