Why I hate working late @ SIO

So many of you know that I work down at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography @ UCSD sometimes. This involves some very boring work in a lonely dungeon of a room. It is worsened by the fact that if I turn down the hall I am greeted by a wall of windows looking out over the beach and the pier. Combine that with the beautiful sunset and the idea of me still being here for another 3 hours and you know why I don't like being here in the evening.

**On a side note: This is what sunset on Nov. 9th looks like in SD- beats snow any day!

Easter Quake

In brief. Yes, we felt it - very much so. It lasted about 40 seconds and there was enough time for us to recognize it and leave the apartment. Yes it continued to shake for a few minutes after. Then we got to feel a few aftershocks. No it hasn't stopped, twice in the night it was strong enough to wake us up. Yes, we're safe.

And yup, we went straight to work this morning, cause in CA if it isn't currently shaking it doesn't count.

On 2 side notes:

1) It was 3x the strength of the Haiti quake and was ~100 miles from us

2) This is the 2nd strongest quake in CA in 100 years and the strongest ever felt in SD.

As for house vs work. I'd rather be at work. My building is 5 years old and thus is the most advanced in seismic safety, far superior to my crappy apartment.

~Chris

Freakin' Freezin'

Yeah it's cold here and if you don't think 50 is cold try rain, fog, no heaters and NO INSULATION!!! Apparently as the US economy goes down the crapper (there is a better name for this just watch till about minute 50 of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation), anyway as I was saying- as the economy tanks so does the exchange rate on sunshine dollars- heck at this rate it may be sunnier in Seattle before the beauty returns to SD.

Chris

And the mystery visitor of two weeks ago is...

Nick the Alfajor! Congrats to Nick on winning our lovely prize of a 10 days/11 nights trip to San Diego. Where he enjoyed sun, surf, sand, mexican food, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007, lots of time doing nothing, and of course lovely Knotts Berry Farm (home of the world famous Boomerang and The Jaguar). For more details on the exciting trip stay tuned as we recap the highs and lows of Nick, the now graduated from High School, Waite's visit to see his favorite sister and brother-in-law.
-Chris

Back in the Game

So aside from the lack of posts for awhile (funny thing is I have 3 incomplete posts just chillin') I decided to scratch down the happenings. I'm back in the game. What does that mean? Well see when I moved to SD I decided that I wanted to surf, no matter what. It happened, fairly quickly I might add. I bought a board within weeks and I was out within days and riding. Problem was I bought a damaged board. I know, I know, how bad? Well I thought I got it fixed with some Solar Resin- turns out there was more damage than I knew about. So I rode the pants off the board for about a year and change, then it happened- the bulge. See overtime you get seawater into the foam and it expands. So I had to bow out, sure I rode a couple more times, and it was all good, but in the end... yeah I had to stop riding. Then there was the whole getting boards to the beach, etc. that I just didn't have time to do, esp since I'd use the cherokee to transport, and it was a nightmare sometimes. So then we bought Blue Steel and found that we could get a Thule Roof rack through Chev for CHEAP. So we bought. And then I used some savings and a 20% off and got a surf rack- mind you this is the best rack I could envision: ease of use, secure, fast. It's sweet. So now the issue is no longer transport it's boards. So I took up my friend Natalie on her offer to buy her board. Now those of you who know me well know that I have a scar in between my eyes from a surfing accident- yeah well guess I bought the board that gave that too me. Figure it's part of me, and I it. So I ran it down to Joe Roper's and am having the nose fixed up on it some. Oh yeah, and we decided to utilize Costco's sweet softy sale. Got an 8' softy for next to nothing. So we now have 2 boards AND a way to get to the beach. So I guess it's not just me in the game, time to haul Lish out again. Plus, on the bonus side, Jeff has convinced me to go out some Sat mornings with them... we'll see how I do. Anywho, I'm back and ready to ride with all my free time, er something like that.

Resistance is Futile, OR My Gas is More Expensive the Your Gas

I have been holding out. Fighting, if you will. And I dodged the bullet one more time, but I don't know how much longer I can take it. I may have to do the unthinkable and put in $4/gal gas pretty soon. Currently the average in SD is something like $3.98. Too bad only Costco hits below that #. Seems that every where I look it's $4.03 or more. But I found a sweet little oasis of $3.95 where I barely could bring myself to put in 3 gallons- I did it mostly cause I needed to wash the windows and that was best way to do it. Good thing I did, cause it rained today- I didn't even have to wash the whole car just the windows and POOF! rain. I'm good. Now I just wish I could get the same kind of results with my science.

Raise in Rent

So when I always pay rent, the first thing I think is how I could be owning a house in UT or ID right about now. So imagine how much worse it was when we got the official news that our rent would be going up again, not too much mind you, but still that's a few hundred more a year. However, it all seems to even out. How you ask? Easy. I got a call from Michelle (my sister) it was currently snowing at their house in UT. Meanwhile I was down in La Jolla enjoying SUN and about 68, with a slight breeze, just enough to keep it enjoyable.
Well when you put it that way...
Maybe I will just shut up about the rent.
-Chris

Gettin' Rich with Sunshine Dollars

So recently we were playing BANG! (feel free to ask me for a good banging) with our friends Jason and Elise. During the out of control gaming we were talking about how poor wages were in SD versus costs of things like rent. It was at this point that Jason told us during his recruitment to his previous job he was told that even though the pay was not commensurate in respects to other locations/work, that they also paid in Sunshine Dollars (a la living in Sunny SD). That of course got me laughing and thinking simultaneously (a dangerous habit, I know). So when I was recruited to the BMS program here at UCSD they too talked of a lack of equal pay to cost but that it WAS San Diego. So was that the scientific way of saying, "Hey we'll pay you in sunshine dollars."
So as part of my goal to always save more I have officially opened up my SDSD account (San Diego Sunshine Dollars). Only question now is: Do I have to make a payment every time the weather is gorgeous? If so, how much? Can I buy my way out a gray weekend?
The irony of it all is how true it is. Alicia and I have often talked of the fact that if we'd have chosen to go to UW it'd be different. We'd own a house, I'd probably ski more, wouldn't surf, and oh yeah, people wouldn't just happen to want to come visit us for a few days. Interesting. That being said, we often talk of how nice it is having a beach a few minutes away, bicycling year-round, and the fact that I have palm trees out side my window. Oh yeah and the pay really is good here- if you count the SD ;)

Now to make everyone jealous, I had to go down to SIO to last week (Scripps Inst. of Oceanography (its part of UCSD just down on the coast more)), so I decided to take a few pix while I was there:

So this is about 50' from the building I work in. A great place to eat, as long as you don't want to go back to work any time soon.


This guy was making me jealous- wish I could join him, he looks lonely.

After the flood all the colours came out...

It was a beautiful day. Don't let it get away.

You know the irony of drought is that every time you hear about it, it rains. So is calling a drought the modern version of a rain dance? Does this make meteorologists no better than some crack-pot shaman? or ode sit make them superior because they can actually get it to rain? Either way I'm sick of the rain.
Yup in the last month we've had 3+ inches of rain. YIKES! The beauty of the rain is how clear it is after. Starting Monday it cleared up, now we have 75 and sunny. The ocean looks so gorgeous. I think in some ways it's worse because now I have to fight the urge to not work and instead play outside or ride or go surfing. Oh well, I guess you win some and you lose some.

On an unrelated note-

Thanks Shane for my new favorite BuzzBite Ya picture. This trumps anything you could ever take during the ride.

Christmas in San Diego

Okay...so Christmas in San Diego is not quite the same as it is in Utah. For one, there's no snow. But we've been able to start some traditions of our own, being here for the second year in a row without family. So yesterday I baked. I made some awesome sugar cookies. I'm a sucker for soft cookies and I found a recipe last year that puts every other sugar cookie recipe to shame. Anyway...we had Jason and Elise over to play some Wii and gratefully, Elise helped me to decorate the million and a half cookies I baked.



Last year, we finally got our own real sized Christmas tree. Last year we were fortunate enough to have my parents here to decorate it with us, but this year it was up to us, and so naturally, it took a little longer. But Chris's parents this year got us a tree skirt to match our Mickey and Minnie stocking we got last year. Here are some pictures of our final tree this year: