Friday, May 25, 2007



If ever you are in WV, check out Nelson's Rocks preserve, it is a private climbing/hiking preserve on some spectacular sandstone fins rising some 200 feet above the forest floor. We didn't cross this bridge, as we didn't have the appropriate via-ferrata equipment, but it would have been super sweet. Jennifer wasn't so keen, but I was jonesing for a trip across the cable bridge.



The goal destination was Seneca Rock in eastern West Virginia. It is a truly wicked rock feature.


When there are rocks, I like to climb them. Unfortunately, I'm waaay out of practice. My huge cyclist ass weighed me down.

I hate to say it, but I REALLY appreciate casual Friday. We received an email marked Urgent! yesterday with a reminder that we could wear jeans AND sneakers in to work today. I honestly heard three, “Woo-Hoos” from various parts of the cubicle-ville behind my shelf/desk. I realize that my job isn’t that bad, and I am actually doing valuable work, but isn’t it more fun to hear someone complaining in a funny way than simply enthusing on some piece of BS? So onward I bitch. My biggest problems are twofold. Problem number one is that I have been suffering from the earliest stages of carpal tunnel syndrome. The marathon computer lab sessions at the end of the semester a few weeks ago put some hitch in my getalong that typing and mouse-using really aggravates. Nothing else really bothered it too much, though I suppose drywall mudding last weekend didn’t do me any favors. My desk here at DVRPC is waaaay to small. It is just a built in shelf about 2 feet deep, hanging off of the wall in the hallway. We had to fight for chairs with cushions on them, and there is no space for the keyboard on the desk. I type with the keyboard in my lap. Problem number two may be more serious. It seems that I don’t actually like working. The 9-5 is sucking my will to live. I don’t really mind the work, but it just seems like I should be able to do it on my own time frame and from the comfort of my house. I’m just typing up a report, I don’t see that it should require that I sit at this shitty desk for hours at a time. Plus, I don’t like tucking in my shirt.

On the good news front, I’m actually getting paid for this, which is quite the novelty after so many months in school. My dad also just shipped out a bike for me to “demo”. It’s a totally sweet Cannondale, and it will be even sweeter when I get it fitting right. It seems that bike manufacturers seem to think that guys over six feet tall would have actual shoulders. Not so I say! I think that my shoulders are somewhat narrower than the average 12 year old girl’s. I’m cool with this though, it makes me more aerodynamic!

I may even get around to bottling the beer that I started brewing many months ago. It is high time for some tasty home-made beverages to come out of my basement. I’ve just been too damn busy to get-er-done. Tonight is the night, nothing shall stand in my way, except maybe my goddamn wrist.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

I will soon post some spectacular pictures of our most recent mini-vacation, but as I'm at work right now, killing time until I actually have to do something, I'll be brief.

Jennifer and I drove down to Shenandoah National Park last Wednesday and hiked about 5 miles of the Appalachian trail, camped and then headed to Seneca Rock in West Virginia for some hiking and a wee bit of rock climbing. All in all, I thought that West Virginia was one of the more scenic places I've been out East, but I can hardly imagine how anyone could live there. If you're not a logger or a farmer, there isn't a whole lot to do. Pretty country though, verdant meadows, clear streams, no bugs (yet) and rolling mountains with some really wicked outcroppings of various rocks sticking like dinosaur fins up into the air. Sweet.