Spring cleaning pt 1

The carport has been a mess. There was some broken plant pots, a grill without its cover, an exercise machine waiting to be pulled inside, etc. Nevermind it hasn't gotten cleaned in at least a year, so all the leaves/dirt/etc has built up too.

But its clean now :D. It took me and Christine 6 hours to go through and pitch/keep, clean, organize, and put back. It was even raining, that makes cleaning things somewhat tricky.

Now to get that stuff to sell on craigslist, and the house will be 1 step closer to being clean!

Come on Easter...

And not for the religious significance.

We're going to DC for the weekend, hopefully the cherry blossoms will be in bloom with nice weather. I'm looking foward to driving up, Its been too long since the last good drive.

Plus it should be some good people watching :D

surprisingly productive weekend

It was decent weather, but a bit cold. Too much to take the canoe out on the water and enjoy it. So what did I do?

Saturday (the unproductive day):

- Got out of bed at ~1pm

- Watched some NCAA basketball/Dirty Jobs

- Nothing, nothing, nothing

- Played poker in the Senate Chambers at NCSU

Sunday:

- Out of bed maybe 11am

- Watched some NCAA basketball, emptied dishwasher

- Gave Kevin a bath

- Went for a walk with Christine at Yates Mill Pond Park

- Got rid of some big items via Craigslist

- Organized and cleaned 1/2 of the den.

- Did 3+ loads of laundry

So to recap:

- was social

- enjoyed the outdoors

- vegged

- bathed dog

- cleaned and emptied Den

- laundry

It was a good weekend :D

[/gloom]

Its been rainy and cloudy and cold for almost a week now. But today, the sun came out, finally. I was surprised to see it coming into work, I almost forgot what it looked like!

Now if I can get out of work early enough to enjoy the sun more often, that'd be nice. I got home and had a 15 minute walk with Christine and the dog when I got home. It was nice :)

long day

The last few times I've seen the sunrise was when I drove to the RDU airport to catch flights to Boston. Before that, I don't even remember the last time.

I saw one driving into work today. Daylight savings time can suck it in the morning, but is oh so nice in the evening. At least if you leave work before 7:45, past dusk.

At least it was a productive day.

Can you, canoe?

Nice weather is great. It means I can ride around with rolled down windows and take my canoe out on the lake!

Yesterday I went on Lake Raleigh, a small lake on Centennial Campus. I was surprised that the parking lot wasn't completely full, but there were only 1 or 2 spots. So I grabbed the spot and took down my canoe off the top of my car and got in the water. Note that this was the first time I had used my canoe with the new car, so the logistics weren't vetted; it wasn't pretty to watch just me load and unload the thing.

Once I was on the water, it was great. Paddled around the lake, saw all the ducks/pigeons/herons and even 2 swans (or large geese, not 100% sure really). Apparently some crud has been drifting into the lake, I saw 2 at-the-street type garbage cans and a basketball on the shore, and when I got to the shallows probably a hundred cans/bottles settled on the lake floor. From the lake, I could even see the top of the Raleigh skyline with the moon just over top. It was quite picturesque.

Today Christine joined me, and we went to Jordan Lake. A spot to the north end of the lake that my father and I used to fish at, so I knew it would a good place to launch and still be sheltered. It was a windy day, and I warned her that canoes aren't great on really windy lakes especially if there are motor boats. She didn't listen of course, imagine that.

We went with the wind to the north for awhile, darting in coves, circling a fish attractor buoy, and ran aground to stretch the legs. The way back was fun however. We darted across this part of the lake (again with the wind) and cove hopped. We started getting tired and it was getting late, so we started heading back. Well this was on the other side of the lake, and into the wind. There were waves pushing 1' from trough to crest, and Christine was in the front. She was bobbing up and down, and a few times the bow actually was under the crest of the wake she says. There were a few times I started getting nervous - but we had our safety gear so the worst that would happen was a swim in the cold lake and waterlogged cell phones.

When we got back and ran ashore to get to the car, all that water flowed towards the back where I was. There was much more than I had expected, easily a few gallons. Not enough to sink or anything, but enough to know she was getting soaked.

She'll listen to me about canoeing more now I bet. It was a fun day for the both of us, it was really nice to be out on the water on such a nice day.

yay nice weather

I love driving in nice weather. 70s is perfect; not too hot, not to cold. You can have your windows down, sunroof open and get just the right amount of chill. But still nice enough to wear just a t-shirt or shorts, and enjoy the outdoors.

Today was one of those days. Unfortunately I was stuck at work for most of the day. But the drive home, right around dusk, was nice. This weekend is supposed to be nice too, so its finally time to take out the canoe!

I hope it stays like this for awhile, because really don't like the Carolina muggy hot summers.

Oh, and the Alt Nation countdown debuted today! w00t!

Ask and I shall receive?

Driving home from work today (in the winter wonderland - in NC - in March - during NCSU's spring break?!?) I was listening to Alt Nation, per usual. Starting this Friday at 6pm, they're doing a countdown (I think its the top 16 songs this time?).

I need to bitch about things more often here, it seems to work!

Stupid Alt Nation, bring back a countdown!

I've been a Sirius subscriber since 2004. My dad bought a new car which came with a 2 year subscription. He didn't want it and wouldn't really use it, so he gave it to me. I used it (it comes in REALLY handy when on long road trips or if you want more of a variety in music to listen to) and have kept the subscription alive until a few months ago.  My clear favorite channel was Alt Nation, they play alternative rock music, and they're been good about playing newer music.

I bought a Vibe last September after my PT got totaled (rolling a car isn't as fun as it sounds). It had a built-in XM radio. This was after the merger was approved but before anything had been done about it. I started listening to the XM radio alternative to Alt Nation and was dealing - Lucy is what is was called. It was ok, but I wanted my Alt Nation back.

Last fall they merged the channels, and Alt Nation was on both Sirius and XM! But some of the merger was some programming was cut. They used to have a nice countdown of the top 21 requested songs. I'd use this to download the songs I liked, and could look up the list online. They don't have it anymore, so that source of "oh yeah, I like that song I need to download it" is now my memory.

My memory isn't so good about little stuff like that. Or bigger stuff sometimes too, especially when I'm driving in the car on autopilot.