Weekly Update

Sorry the blogging has been a little sparse lately, but we've been busy! Here's what's been happening lately:

So it's official. I started working last week, and overall its been a good experience. I still haven't quite figured out what my niche at C+D is going to be, but I do know this much: I will be working in their VLJ (very light jet) program, and I will be learning a lot about composites. I'm pretty happy with it so far, seeing as how it's aerospace and I will be learning about something that interests me. I haven't actually started working as an "engineer" yet, and have been spending most of my time in the lay-up room learning how to fabricate composite thingys. So if you know me well at all, you will know that I've been enjoying it since I am actually making things. And if you have a spare $3.2 million in the bank and want to pick up your own personal Embraer Phenom 100 personal jet, you can rest assured that I could have been the one to make some of the parts. =)

This weekend was particularly productive. We got a lot done around the house, including finally hanging some stuff on the walls. So our house is slowly starting to look like some young-adults live here....rather than a couple of ramen-eating, futon-dwelling, spartan college students. We also went to a HUGE pumpkin patch, and picked out some prime candidates for carving. So now we're officially prepared for all the trick-or-treaters.

If you've seen the news at all lately, you'll know that quite a bit of southern California has been declared a state of emergency because it's burning to the ground. We're okay, and the closest fire is still and hour or two south of us, so we haven't felt the effects of it quite yet. You can still smell it, however, and visibility is down quite a bit during the day. Looking to the south there is a haze that is hanging it the valleys which kind of looks like heavy fog...but it's not. An interesting note though, I checked the weather report yesterday and it said this:



Yep, that's right....smoke. Not sunny, or partly cloudy, or even rain....but smoke. Now there's something that you'll never see in Ohio!

Adventures of Potato Man!

Travelocity has the Roaming Nome......we have Potato Man. Throughout our little cross-country jaunt, we took Potato Man with us and photographed him at various landmarks. The whole thing started as a little joke for Jessie's mom, and has since snowballed from there. So.....you can bet that our little tuberous friend will be accompanying us for all of our future excursions.

I uploaded all of Potato Man's pictures to a new album in our Shutterfly gallery, so you can check him out there. I know that they're not "new" pictures, per se, but there's still fun to look at. =)

Camping in the Sequoia National Forest

Jessie and I just got back from a wonderful weekend of camping in the Sequoia National Forest. The northern end of the forest contains the large, several thousand year old trees that you can drive through. While that definitely remains a must-see destination on our trip list, we actually stayed about 2 hours south of the famous trees, in the Kern River Canyon.

There a lots of pictures if you care to take a look, all of which have been uploaded to our Shutterfly account here.

It was a first time canyon camping experience for the both of us, and there are some obvious truths about canyons that don't really sink in until you're there: (1) the bottom of the canyon gets a lot less sun than the top, (2) therefore the bottom of the canyon is much colder than the top, and (3) because of the air temperature differences canyons are very windy. So with that being said, while the sun rises at it's normal time, it didn't actually get warm until around 11am! Also, it would start to get really cold again around 5pm....so really that only gave us a few hours of the day where we weren't huddled in our tent trying to stay warm. Despite our truncated days, we still made the best of it and had a lot of fun.

Saturday was our first full day, so we decided (being the adventurers we are) to hike/climb/crawl up the side of the mountain to the top of the canyon. We spent a good two hours clawing our way up the side, to then enjoy our lunch (almost) at the top of the mountain. The picture at the top is actually the view from our lunch-site, looking waaaaaay down onto our campsite. Sunday was much less eventful, as we decided to take it easy, read a book, and just enjoy the scenery of the Kern river.

All in all it was a great trip, albeit a bit chilly, and we would definitely go back later.

Jason Gets a New Job!

Well, after being in California for a little over two months I can finally say that I am about to be employed. Horray! After a lengthy interviewing process, I have recently accepted an offer for an engineering position from C+D Zodiac, located roughly 20 minutes north of us in Santa Maria. C+D is comprised of many facilities, located all over North America, and is one of the leading producers of aircraft interiors......from the behemoth new Boeing and Airbus jumbo jets, down to small corporate aircraft. The seem like a great company to work for, as they are growing quite rapidly, and I am really looking forward to doing something new. So, in the days ahead I have lots of paperwork to complete, drug tests, and all the other fun stuff that accompanies being a new hire. I will let you all know how it is going once I know more!

What the hell is that......

So, at roughly 6am this morning I stumble into the kitchen with my lovely wife in tow, when I kick something across the floor. "That's strange," I thought. Being the waining hours of the morning it was still pretty dark, so I reached my foot out for an investigative poke.

It moved.

I quickly snapped out of my usual groggy morning haze, and wondered why something the size of an Oreo was crawling across the floor. "Mouse," I thought, "wonderful." Only, I flicked on a light to be greeted by this:


"WHAT IN THE HELL IS THAT?! IT'S FREAKING HUGE!" A mouse would have been just fine. I can do mice, furry critters don't really bother me. In fact, in a weird sort of way, I rather enjoy the ongoing battle between myself and them (see California Ground Squirrels). Bugs are another story. I hate all things creepy-crawly, and have more than four legs. Jessie, who was as grossed out as I was, hastily tossed me a steel-toed work boot from the hall closet. I smacked it....twice. It kind of sounded like someone dropping raw eggs on the floor. So much for my appetite for breakfast.

Well, it turns out that this was our first encounter with a Jerusalem Cricket, more commonly known as a Potato Bug. The West Coast has new surprises for us every day....they sure don't have anything like THAT in Ohio! It turns out that they are perfectly harmless, and I probably could have just picked him up and tossed him outside. Oh well. Sorry Mr. Potato Bug, perhaps your brother will have a little better luck.....