I Hope We Get Clobbered By This Storm

I my goodness. I hope all of this moisture and cold air slams NM! I want our winter weather. It's been so unseasonably warm. I heard on the radio that this December has been the warmest on record. I really hope January is cooler! I'm also looking forward to hitting Sandia and maybe Santa Fe Ski Basin a few times.

 

Here's a screen shot of the moisture I hope we get!

NM Weather

I am so excited about this weekend! First thing, the weather has been
magnificent! It rained all day yesterday and all night. Meanwhile, as
the crow flies seven miles to the east we received 21 inches of snow!
It's been cloudy and frosty all day. We needed this moisture badly.
Tomorrow is the New Mexico Bowl on ESPN. I really hope that they show
the snow covered mountain on tv.

Sent from my iPod

Driving In Portland, OR

Driving in Portland was really fun. I especially liked driving though this section of freeway where there are a bunch of bridges in a row. I hope to drive on this freeway again soon!

I Wish I Was In Space

It's the end of the day and I'm still thinking about stats and such. Weather and sizes of cites and stars. I'm dreaming now. I wish I could listen to Oh Darling by the Beatles while floating in space while and looking at the earth. I would be in some sort of space craft, of course. That would be nice.

The other night I was dreaming (while awake) that there was a bridge that spanned the Atlantic Ocean from the USA east coast to France's west coast. I was thinking about how the material used in constructing this bridge would have to be some type of super material. I was also thinking about how there would be little bridge towns along the way. There would be fueling stations and restaurants and hotels. I dream about this bridge while I lay in bed. I also dreamed (while awake) about a bridge that would go over the Rocky Mountains (the Rockies in New Mexico). This bridge would go right over Truchas Peak. I think that drive would be pretty nasty in the winter. I'm guessing there would have to be oxygen stations too. Ya know, folks who aren't used to 14,000 feet could get altitude sickness. I don't actually think these things could be accomplished...but it would be sweet if they were. 

Here are some random screen shots of what I look at during my free time. 

I'll Bing It

Last night I was watching The Great American Race, or The American Amazing Race. I can't remember if that's what it was called. Anyway, there were three teams and they were riding in cabs in Los Angeles looking for clues to finish the race. All three teams were panicking, looking for a computer screaming, "Google this!", or Google, that!". To Google something means to do an internet search using Google.com. I feel like Google has made it look like their search is the only reliable search engine. I used to feel that way. I wouldn't bother searching with Yahoo, or MSN, or Alta Vista. I used Google. I've always been one to like things that were not in popular culture, and dislike things that are in popular culture. There is probably no good reason for me to do this. But I think this way anyway. So, I think I'm done with Google for the most part. I still love Picasa, and Chrome. Searching for things on the internet I'll go to Bing though. The Bing app on my iPod is great! Maps on Bing for iPod are so much better than the default map app. The thing I hated the most about the map app that the iPod came with is the fact that I couldn't rotate my map. 

Maps Are Fun!

It looks like maps.google.com has manned up...sort of. When you zoom in on satellite view, things are a bit more clear. Microsoft still has a crisper looking picture on the really zoomed in maps. Google still has the street view that is amazing. I checked out the street view of the Sandia Peak road and it's quite awesome. I wish it would snow soon! I hate this warm weather!

I Wish My iPod Could Take Photos

I wish my iPod could take photos. I guess I could just get an iPhone. If that was the case then I would have to pay a monthly amount of about $78. That's not worth it to me. An economist would say, "this amount is more than he is willing to pay". Willingness to accept and willingness to pay--those were fun chapters. So I'm happy with my little device at the moment. I'm in a Starbucks now. The reason I wish I had a camera on this device is so I could take a photo of all of the interesting looking people in here. I feel like the crowd here was casted for a breaking bad show or something.

There's something about being at a Starbucks this time of year that makes me feel more festive. Two years ago we (Lindsey and I) went to the Starbucks on the Plaza in Santa Fe with Erin, Jessica and Ryan. I think there's still a few photos floating around Facebook of that Starbucks visit. I loved that night. We rode the Rail Runner to Santa Fe. It wasn't very cold in Albuquerque but it was bitter cold in Santa Fe. I think it was about 12°F. I remember walking from the train station and walking into the Starbucks and just enjoying my girlfriend's (at the time) company. Last year I was actually working at the Starbucks in downtown Columbia. That was a blast! I didn't like it at the time, but now I realize that I really enjoyed being the only person awake in downtown Columbia at 4:30 am. It was below zero at times and I could see the bright Mizzou dome. It was an experience I'll never forget. Our time in Missouri is an experience I'll never forget. I loved walking around the MU campus. I loved driving from Moberly to Columbia every day. I lived Gumby's Pizza. I loved the Tin Can. The diverse crowd that came into my Starbucks was great too. I kinda miss Missouri sometimes. Albuquerque is great. I'm still restless though. I think Portland is going to be in my mind for a destination within five years. I feel like I would know Lindsey better if I knew more about where she's from. We've done NM, OR should be next.

Christmas blend isn't bad this year! What a wonderful Saturday.

Here's what I am currently listening to.

Weather

This is terrible! I hate seeing that it's going to be warm and dry. I guess I should move away from New Mexico then. I don't feel so bad though. Denver is going to be warmer than us here in Albuquerque. 

It's Like Sim City

Some Photos I Liked

Run2

Went for another run.. It's kinda sad that the sun is down by 5pm. It's now 5:38 pm and it's almost completely dark.

I think I did q bit better this run than I did the last run. I accidentally cleared my time, but I know it was 18 minutes, something. My pulse was 180ish bpm. I ran from Truman and Marquette to Carlisle and Marquette. I know it's not that cold, maybe 50F, but I felt the cold air in my lungs. It was nice. So, that's all. Relient K is what I was listening to. I love those guys!


Sent from my iPod

Roads

Check out Madrid's roads! They just go every which way. It kind of makes me think that the Spanish don't know anything about building roads. The roads in Madrid remind me a bit of the roads in Santa Fe, USA.

Snowboarding

This is the strangest thing... I'm getting an insane amount of hits from Sweden. It makes me glad that people are finding my blog somehow. I think it might be a mistake. I wonder if these folks from Sweden are actually reading what I have to say? It's been a really strange day all together anyway. The weather isn't right. Everywhere in the country is experiencing wet, cold weather. Even Florida has cold weather today. Us in New Mexico, we have warm weather. I didn't even wear a coat this morning. 

I want to get excited about snowboarding too. It's really hard for me to get excited about it though. I feel like the snow would be crappy... I'm also worried about the money part. Snowboarding is expensive. I never worried about this before. We're tentatively planning a trip to Durango on the 17th. Just wanted to check out some stats of the mountain. According to their website the summit is 10,822 ft above sea level. I thought it was higher than that. They receive 260 inches of snow each year. That's a good amount, but look at it compared to Wolf Creek's 465! Wolf Creek is great, but if you're looking at spending more time in the town, then I would prefer Durango to Pagosa Springs. So I'm excited that this might happen! I just need to get my board and my boots back from my brothers. I gave them away last winter because I thought I would be in Missouri for longer. I hope they'll give them back. 

I'd also like to check out Taos sometime in my life too. I've been there once a long time ago. I was forced to rent some skis. I was terrible on the skis. I remember thinking that Taos wouldn't make sense on a snowboard anyway. There were those stupid moguls everywhere. I hate moguls. Lift tickets are $70 at Taos! Lame. Angelfire would be great to check out this winter too. They have always had a great terrain park. Although, I think I'd probably injure myself on the terrain park now if I tried. I'm excited to see where December and January head. 

Also, here a cool site I found with awesome maps of mountains. http://3dskimaps.com/

Emailing Photos w/ iPod

I wish I could send multiple photos in an email with my iPod. I can't, I can only sent one at a time. It's kinda lame. Here is a playlist I listened to during my run this morning. It's a great December playlist. I think it would be great if Winamp could be used as a player on my mobile device. Apple would never allow this though.

Weak Sauce

I went for a run this morning and I decided to keep track of the
stats, weak sauce as the may be. I ran from Truman and Marble(?) to
Truman and Stanford(?). I'm not sure of the streets, I'd have to get a
map in my hands. I wish there was an offline version of a map I could
download for my iPod. There probably is. It took me 15:18 to run that
far, whatever the distance. I did pass a runner on the way, I was
pretty proud of myself. I noticed a few things on my run-- crows are
pretty majestic creatures. I think crows are birds are too often
dismissed as pest birds. They are quite beautiful. I also noticed that
I love looking at the Sandia Mountains. They are some of the most
beautiful mountains in my opinion. So yeah, that's that. A 15 minute
run. Maybe I'll take a go at a 20 minute run tomorrow. The music
really makes the run, that and the scenery.

Sent from my iPod

Lunch Time

The Sandias are taunting me! I do not want to be at work today. I would much rather be on top of out 10,000 ft mountain. I feel sick... The day is getting better though. I'm at home on lunch and I'm making a lunch and hanging out with Diego and Floofy. I have 9 minutes until I have to go back to work. I wish I could hang out here the rest of my day with my pets.

Sent from my iPod

A Curious Day

I'm still asleep, I haven't had my first sip of coffee yet. The coffee I made this morning was pretty weak anyway, I'm sure Lindsey could confirm that statement. Today has already started off as a...curious day. We have another employee that is leaving. The short time I've been with this company, we have fired one, and three have quit. It doesn't bother me much. What does bother me is that it's going to warm up this weekend in Albuquerque. I'm talking about the weather. Most people would look at this as a good thing. I love the cold winter mornings. I like to go running in the cold too. I like the way my lungs feel when I'm breathing in the cold air. I haven't gone for a run in a while. I hate that my life has become a routine. I am happy overall. I have a wonderful wife. I have a great family. I have a job, and so does Lindsey. I am grateful for what I have. But I want to be wise with what time I have. It's just one of those days I guess. Life is so weird! Everything is constantly changing, but I seem to be standing still. I know I'm not, but I'm restless. I want to get out of Albuquerque for a day or two. I'd like to just spend the weekend in Santa Fe, or somewhere else.

Google Fail, Bing Pass

This is just sweet! I know Google is working on something similar... I'm really liking Bing maps.

Empanadas

Seriously? People already think we ride burros to work here in New Mexico. This story is funny still.

Clerk Stops Robbery With Empanadas

Evening News

This is pretty awesome. I'm on the Internet while not actually being connected. Lindsey and I don't actually have an Internet connection, but I'm writing my thoughts down in an email on my iPod and it will be sent tomorrow sometime when I encounter a wifi signal--probably at McDonalds or Denny's or a public library... So, my thoughts are recorded at 6:44pm on 28 November, but they won't be shared on the Internet until 29 November. It's insane to think that is slow in today's standards. To have something published twenty years ago would have take much longer, not to mention you would have to be a great writer. 

We have no Internet. It's not so bad really. We still owe some money to AT&T, so I'd like to pay that debt off first before we connect with Qwest. It will be nice to finally be connected again. The main reason I'm looking forward to being connected is instant watch on Netflix. I have also been without a mobile phone for the past five months. It's been nice and crappy at the same time. Its good that I've had some peace--it's nice being free from a phone while I'm driving and at work. On Friday this is going to change. I'm going to get a Cricket phone. The phone I'm going to get is a refurbished Samsung flip phone. I really don't care that it isn't an Android. I'll always have my iPod with me and my monthly bill will only be $35 a month. Good deal. I'm going to get back to my KOB newscast.

Sent from my iPod

Zac and Sara...

I get brief breaks here at work, and I'll take this brief moment to write myself an e-mail... It's a funny thing, when I write myself an e-mail it is posted as a blog. That's really what my blog is--it's emails to myself. I am honored if other people are looking at my blog, but I like looking back at specific dates and see what was going on in my life at the time.

Right now I'm thinking I would love to be on vacation. I'd like to be in a cabin right now, sipping on some great coffee in the mountains. That would be great. I'm also happy that I'm here in Albuquerque in an office where Ben Folds is playing out of the tiny speaker in my iPod. I'm happy with my life right now... I can see some improvements that have to be made, but who can't? Anyway, I'm just writing myself an email. This is all. 

This is totally true!

http://i.imgur.com/PhUGv.png

Maps

I have been getting a bunch of hits from Sweden! How cool! I get more hits from Sweden than I do from the US. I'm okay with that. I love Sweden. A few of my favorite bands are from there. The Refused, Blindside, and Millencolin. I hope to meet someone from Sweden someday, whether it be here in Albuquerque, or in Stockholm. 

So here's something not related to Sweden-- Bing has really stepped it up in the maps department. Here is a photo of a close up of downtown Albuquerque using Bing's "bird's eye view". It's pretty sweet! I just might start using Bing more. 

So tomorrow is Thanksgiving... Yum, turkey. I am ready for tomorrow, but even more exciting are the leftovers. Turkey sandwiches, turkey burritos, turkey pasta, turkey tacos..it's going to rock. I just can't help to think that other counties probably hate us for having such a holiday though. While we are gorging our faces with turkey, others are going without. I really hope this time of the year encourages us to give more to those to don't have much. I'm ready to see family and enjoy each other, I think that's equally as important to loving our neighbors. 

Lobos and Old Men

Item #1: Go Lobos! We were able to defeat Arizona State in The Pit. I'll bet it was crazy and loud. I can't wait to get in there and experience the newly renovated Pit.
Item #2: Old men with muscles look a bit strange.

Edmonton, Alberta

Edmonton, Alberta looks like a great place to visit. I would even like to visit in the winter. 

A Bit Warmer, MxPx

What a morning! Well, it's really nothing out of the ordinary. I woke up and it wasn't freezing. For some reason my furnace decided to stay on all night. We have had a problem with the furnace pilot flame staying lit. The other morning I swear I could see my breath. This morning was considerably warmer. There was even fog on the windows. I think the low last night was 29F. I don't know that it was this temp at my apartment, but it was around this temperature. My windows had a good deal of frost on them. I had to scrape my windows. Lindsey was wonderful this morning. She packed me a lunch and I made her coffee. It's all about team work... Well, when she was in the shower I guess Diego (our dog) was barking to get out to pee. I didn't hear him and he decided to go on the carpet. That was bad teamwork on my part. Other than that, our morning was really nice. I remembered my CD spools. I have been listening to the same 5 CD's over and over. ED FM is really pissing me off too. They used to play good music. Now it's some good music and then Areosmith and hair metal. I hate hair metal. El Calle 103 is good, but it gets old. 89.1 KANW New Mexico Music is great, but I think people in the office get annoyed at the Spanish Polka. I love it, and I jam it in my car on the way home. Plus NPR is great on the way home and on the way to work.
I did take the data (distance and altitude), for my drive to work. I am trying to display it in a graph in Excel. I like Open Office better. Stupid Excel. Any way, today has been great. I'm going to look through my spool of CD's and pick a CD... Maybe MxPx. Who knows!

Breakfast Burritos

Authentic Vietnamese noodles from Ta Lin market are the best on a Thursday morning. I'm rebelling against the standard eggs and bacon. I'm a weird person, I don't like bacon, or any pork product for that matter. I don't know how I feel about eating an animal that is smarter than a dog. I'm okay with eating cows, fish and turkeys, but pigs I just can't. Don't get me wrong, I love the bacon at Gold Street Cafe, but still, I feel like I've done something bad after I eat it. Oh my goodness, Gold Street is the best. I love their breakfast burritos. I love most breakfast burritos, but theirs is so freaking good. Java Joe's also has an amazing breakfast burrito. If I ever move away from Albuquerque, the breakfast burrito is what I will miss the most. I have thought about starting a "Bathrooms and Burritos" blog. In the blog I would rate different Burritos and Blogs around the city--well anywhere I would go. I don't get out enough to start this blog. The most over-rated breakfast burrito is Golden Pride's. It is over priced and kind of mediocre. The tortilla is delicious, but the rest of the burrito is "meh". This weekend I am definitely going to suggest a morning at Java Joe's. It's been way too long.

Java Joe's does coffee right. I have discovered great coffee. Starbucks helped me discover my love for good coffee, the thing is I found out REAL good coffee. Java Joe's, and Moon's coffee is my favorite in the city. I know Moon's roasts their own coffee, I can smell it every time they are roasting. (They're across the street from my office.)
I'm excited for this week and for this month. Lindsey and I are heading out of town. Somewhere in state. It's Lindsey's birthday this month and we're going to head out of town before the holiday rush. We want to head to Red River, NM and get a cabin. I'm going to try to book the room this Friday. If we can't make it there, I'd like to head to some mountain town. Maybe Cloudcroft or Pecos. Somewhere. I'm also excited for Thanksgiving. It's a good month.

Albuquerque Public Trans!!

I would be overjoyed if this light-rail was built. I wish we could vote on something like this. Maybe by 2030!

http://www.mrcog-nm.gov/images/stories/pdf/transportation/2030mtp/6_public_transportation.pdf

Joe's Photo of Me

Check it out! Joe's photo of me wearing a luchador mask was picked as photo of the day by the Alibi! Hahaha!

Good job, Joe!

Fourthousanders

It's a new day, a new week. We're back from Denver. How strange I feel right now. Reality has been weird to me. But here I am, I'm not going to complain about it. Denver was nice, really nice. Our friends are great. They allowed us to stay at their house and we visited and checked out different places in Denver. We had some local pizza delivered, it was good. We had some Indian food that I actually finished for breakfast this morning. We visited Great Divide brewery, great brew there. We discovered the "gastropub", which was actually reasonably priced. They had some fantastic french fries there. We had no good coffee, disappointingly. I am impressed that Denver has no major river running though it. Am I mistaken? Well, there's the South Platte, which I'm guessing eventually runs into the Mississippi. Some Denverites are so conceded that they would say that the head of the Mississippi is in Denver. Oh my gosh, I was reading the local Denver magazine. It's called "5280". They are so proud to be exactly a mile high. How funny. For me, a mile high is not such an accomplishment. I was born in a hospital over 7,000 ft above sea level... or maybe a little lower or higher. I don't know the exact elevation of St. Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe. So when we were asked, "are you having altitude sickness" by a local who knew we were from New Mexico I had to laugh on the inside. I have never had altitude sickness...except for maybe one time when we were in Angelfire, NM, but I still blame the powdered donuts.

I have a point to prove to myself. Maybe I'm just sad that New Mexico is over-looked so many times. The truth is, much of New Mexico is covered in nice forests, maybe not Pacific Northwest forest, but great forests none-the-less. We have many tall mountains, and they are not all in the north. Sierra Blanca is in the southern part of the state and it's nearly a 12,000 ft peak. Colradoans are obsessed with their "fourteeners". Don't get me wrong, their mountains are big and impressive, but let's just consider the form of measurement the rest of the world uses for mountains. Everest is 8,848 m, McKinley is 6,194 m, Mt. Elbert (Colorado's highest) is 4,401 m and Wheeler Peak (New Mexico's highest) is 4,011 m. So our two state's highest points are both "fourthousanders". In fact, 390 metres is not that far of a distance when it comes to measuring mountains. So thanks, Colorado for attracting all of the Texans, we'll take Wolf Creek.

Denver

We drove to Denver yesterday. It was a great drive. We were rushing to get out of town and we didn't leave until 1:30pm. We were planning on leaving at 11:45pm or noon. But we hit the road and made great time. We stopped in Las Vegas, NM for some water and Powerade. We continued on through the prarie of northern NM. By the way, the scenery is gorgeous on this drive. You can see the Rockie Mts to your west the entire drive. Raton pass was really interesting driving through. I think at the highest point we were at 8,000 ft. We stopped in Trinidad, which is a beautiful town. Pueblo was a bigger city than we though. Colorado Springs we stopped for food and gas. We made it to Colorado Springs on one ten gallon tank of gas. We ate tacos and then met with our great friends Mike and Jenna. We drank some great Colorado beer then went to bed. Today we will find some coffee then find my aunt and have some sopapillas. Yum!

Christ the Redeemer

I think I'm just going to trun this blog into a Google Earth touring blog... At least until someday when I can afford to actually go to these places.

Burj Dubai

The tallest skyscraper in the world! Over a quarter of a mile tall. Freaking nuts.

Culebra

This is how close we are to 14,000 ft Culebra Peak...

1234

I'm sitting here on my lunch break, sipping some green tea and thinking about our trip to Denver this weekend. I'm really excited! Lindsey and I don't have very many road trips under our belts. This should be really fun. Plus, we kind of need to get out of town for a bit. I feel like it's just a good release to get out of the day-to-day routine. If it was up to me I would take a vacation once a month. Twice a year or more I would like to fly somewhere far. I think this is an accomplishable goal. But the focus is on this weekend. We are heading out to Denver to visit our friends Mike and Jenna. When they lived in Albuquerque we would hang out with them quite a bit. When Lindsey and I first met, Lindsey didn't have her own place and we would hang out at their house a lot at that time.They are great folks and they like a lot of the same things we like. I'm really excited to see if Marble beer lives up the the "real" micro-brewery competition. There are like 9,000,000 breweries in CO, I've heard. So the trip will be about 7 hours or so, depending on traffic and how many times we stop for candy.

I was mapping the different routes to Denver and I stumbled upon something strange in the "street view" option on the route. It looks like Google is taking me through a time warp or something... haha! Wow, I can't believe I was able to convince Lindsey to marry me, I'm such a nerd. Anyway, here is the screen shot of this way cool Google Maps phenomenon!

Dos Equis is the New Beer Sponsor of Balloon Fiesta

Just in time for balloon fiesta! Haha! This cracks me up. Thunderstorms though thursday and showers on Friday and Saturday next week. I really hope it rains good, but I hope it does it in the afternoon. The mornings are really nice when it smells like rain.

Albuquerque is really buzzing this time of year. When I was delivering pizzas I would call hotels during this time of year and try to make reservations just for fun. Front desk people would inform me that I should have made my reservation months ago... It's also a time of year for hotels to jack up their prices way high. What are you willing to pay for a roof over your head and a nice warm shower in the morning? Well, some economist thought about this for the Albuquerque area durning balloon fiesta. Aparently peopel are willing to pay $160a night to stay at the Holliday Inn Express.

I might not make it to the Fiesta this year. I will definityly be chekcing out the Greek Fest though.

L.A. Map

Seriously, kudos to Google maps. But it looks like they still have some work to do... I can't wait to see what Google maps are going to look like in ten years! This is downtown L.A., CA. I must say that this would be really fun to drive on.

Google is Nice

It kind of looks like NM...without the ocean.

My Travels

Today I went to Vancouver, BC. I was going to Portland, OR first, but I think I had too many programs open on my computer.