I'm Back... Well it's only been two years, seems like a nice interval between posts.

It's a funny thing that I always seem like the weeks roll by and nothing in my life changes, and I don't mean that in a bad way but if I were to run into someone I hadn't seen in a couple of months even and they were to ask what I'd been up to invariable the answer is "not much, same ol' same ol'..." Well after two years it seems like a lot has happened.

First I finished my masters program at State which is pretty cool that I get to start adding letters behind my name. I followed that up with the logical step of getting a new job, which now 18 months in is still going well.

Last July Sara and I decided to plunge into the housing market and bought a nice little house on a cul-de-sac in "Rancho Penasquitos!" (to be said in the voice of Jim Rome impersonating Hasksaw) the trials and tribulations of home ownership are surely worth their own blog entry (see you in two years). Looks like we timed it just right as soon after we bought the market took a sharp downward turn and looks like it will continue that trend for some time... we didn't buy at the absolute peak and we feel we still got good value, but most importantly like our house and are excited to make it our home.

And finally in even more recent news Sara and I got engaged. After 7 years of courtship I finally convinced her that we should take that next step... well not exactly but were are engaged now and that's what is important. The prospect of planning a wedding has me more or less mortified but we'll deal with that as it comes since we have no real date in mind and next summer already seems too soon to try and work in, so stay tuned on that front... you know where to get all the news as it happens... two years later...  ¶ 9:05 AM

  What's this a new post? yep... this will be quick but I figured worth its own post rather than a comment

In my last post I referenced that I was watching Arrested Development, a funny funny show, as such it is likely getting cut. I breezed through season 2 on DVD, one of the weird things about watching something so enjoyable on DVD is the disappointment I start to feel as I near the end of the series, especially when I know they won't be coming out with a new DVD for awhile (AD) or I don't have access to watch the show when it is usually on (Curb Your Enthusiasm).

Luckily I won't have that feeling for some time with my new favorite show "Lost." I know I am way behind the curve on this one but the show mesmorizes me, I just want to continue watching the show straight through. So much that Sara and I sent in all our netflix after watching them and getting the next 3 discs. Plain and simply there is nothing I would rather be watching right now. Except the football of course.

That's it.
  ¶ 4:47 PM

  Got em... Ahh I am hip to your jive

Here is part of part 2 of my Costa Rica trip, ie what was already written before this thing went on hiatus and more:

Day 4

Again an early start. We were slated for a Jeep-Boat-Jeep trip from La Fortuna to Monteverde. In my mind it was going to be something like the Disney Jungle Cruise, with some 4x4 work on either end through some nearly untouched wilderness. In reality it was a taxi on paved roads to a boat ride across the middle of a large lake, followed by a long bus ride on dirt roads past some farmland, nothing groundbreaking at all. However it is all pretty scenic (the whole country I mean) so even these seemingly boring changes of locale were actually interesting and enjoyable. After checking in we headed out in what would be the most exiting part of our trip, a canopy tour. If you don’t know what a canopy tour is it is basically a series of high tension steel cables strung up across a valley and through the forest canopy, you are then able to clip on to these cables and zip down and around the forest. The longest cables were something close to 800m, and you reached speeds up to about 35mph. It was an absolute blast, even the rain that started couldn’t keep us from having a great time, although it did sting a little bit as we were flying across some of the cables.

that is the end of what was written, now what else I remember...

Finished that day having a great fresh fish meal at some hole in the wall restaurant in town, one of the great things about Costa Rica as this trend continued, especially when those meals run like $6.

We spent the next couple of days near Manuel Antonio National Park, which was awesome teaming with monkeys, iguanas, even a couple sloths were to be seen, those thing rock. Staying at a hotel with beach front access also rocks. Just a great vacation, and I definitely want to go back, throw in some ocean fishing, river rafting, and sea kayaking and you got a great time...

So what else have I been up to?

I had a long summer filled with various trips, lake powell, england, utah, and vegas to cap things off (where I officially became old, 30 that is), but no I am paying the piper so to speak and constantly filling my time with school work, or my mind with guilt for not doing school work... not so much fun...

Also about a six weeks ago I developed some sciatica, basically my left leg felt like hell, after a couple of weeks though I was able to walk without pain (always a great accomplishment), and just in the last couple of days I have been able to run around again, and I played soccer yesterday for the first time in a long time, so that was nice, but today my leg is really stiff again, but it seems just like the muscles, not so much nerve related. I had some physical therepy sessions at school, which are pretty much the coolest, having someone work your body over is very nice. This was a welcome change from the initial doc I saw, who didn't really do anything more than hem and haw about it for a couple of weeks, well that and look at x-rays of my back. I feel like I am getting better though, and am anxious to put the whole thing behind me, hopefully it works out.

Entertainment wise, I am working quickly through the second season of Arrested Development, which is awesome and the first season of Lost which has me intrigued... this follows a blitz through Curb Your Enthusiasm season 4 which was fuckin hilarious.

All of which I have been watching with my new little surround sound system, which has me very pleased.

I also carved out a few guilty moments playing some Hulk playstation game courtesy of Mick, which is a blast... Thanks BFF Mick!

The Chargers are yo-yo-ing between kicking ass and breaking my heart, maybe I am just protecting myself but I think this year will end up with more of the latter.

All my fantasy teams seem to be just mediocre enough to stay competitive each week, hopefully the injury bug will leave my teams alone the second half and I can turn it up a bit...

I think that's about it... I'll see you all in another 9 months...
  ¶ 11:24 PM

  Costa Rica Trip (part 1)

You asked for it... you got it. Here is part one of the summary of my Costa Rica trip:

Day 1
Our flight out of San Diego isn't until about 1pm so we spend the morning getting our final packing done. We are off to the airport and after a stop over in Phoenix and the flight down to San Jose, about 5 hours I think we were on foreign soil. Special thanks to Teri's Aunt for setting up our itinerary which included just about everything, so when we showed up in San Jose there was our driver Victor with a little sign with our name on it (I felt like some VIP). Victor whisked us away to the bed and breakfast, where we arrived about 10:30 local time. This puts us at 8:30 San Diego time, and since Sara and I didn't eat on the plane we were looking for some food. After a quick walk down to the nearest restaurants only turned up closed kitchens, we were stuck picking up some snacks from AM/PM an inauspicious start our trip.

Day 2

Early rise (this was a recurring theme for the trip) after a quick bite to eat a bus showed up to take us out of the city to Arenal. A four or so hour bus ride later (another recurring theme) we were in this country town in the shadow of an active volcano. Although when we showed up it was pretty cloudy and you couldn’t see the top of the volcano, a little later it peaked through. Sara and I walked down to a local café and had some lunch, which was pretty good, and really cheap, like $4 for the two of us. Later that afternoon we took a taxi up to a resort built right up near the volcano that is known for it’s hot springs. They basically took the water from the hot springs and diverted it into their own man made rivers that braided down through this lush forested area, then they also had it going into some more swimming pool areas, with your requisite swim up bars and such. It was pretty sweet, basically jacuzzi’s and waterfalls everywhere, really relaxing. The buffet that was part of our package was mediocre at best, nothing noteworthy at all, and if we went back I think we would opt to just order some burgers or something from the bar. We were able to take a shuttle back into town and while we were waiting we made small talk with some guy who was probably in his late 40’s and rolling solo all over Central America, he was getting ready to head up to Nicaragua I think. Just the idea of it kinda freaked me out, but the guy seemed pretty ready for it, just kinda weird.

Day 3

Horseback riding. Another early rise, about 7:30 local time, with our bodies working on somewhere between San Diego time and Costa Rica time, it feels pretty early. After breakfast we wait in front of the hotel for the arranged transportation to pick us up… and wait, and wait. Once we are about 15 minutes late we talk to our front desk clerk, who makes a phone call and tells us it’ll be about 20 minutes. After finally getting picked up we take the one minute bus ride from hotel to the stables. Once we arrive (we can still see our hotel), there are about 20 others already perched atop their trusty steeds. Sara and I are hurried through filling out a waiver and placed on horses. Mine wasn’t a particularly large horse so my feet were not even that far off the ground. What “Po-boy” I think that was his name lacked in stature though he made up for in the moxy department, and then some. At one point my horse took a little nip at another horses flank, and was rewarded with a swift kick in the chest. After another couple of similar encounters I was pretty worried my horsie just wasn’t a team player. However we made it safely to the destination waterfall. It was pretty sweet and a dip in the river at the base was pretty refreshing, as it was about 85 degrees and really humid. It only took me about 2 minutes after getting out to be in a full body sweat again, awesome. After an uneventful ride back to the stable and a five minute walk back to the hotel we relaxed awhile before hitting downtown La Fortuna. Nothing too impressive about the walk around town with the exception of three kids of about 14 playing keep away with a soccer ball. The skill level and moves these kids had were just silly.

In our next episode Sara and Iwan go speeding through the rainforest on thier "canopy tour," encounter monkeys galore, Iwan has a "slow-off" with a sloth, and in our most dramatic rose ceremony yet...

  ¶ 7:41 PM

  What to say... Nothing major to report here, and there has been far too many everyday activities to try and list them all out.

My school is going pretty well, we are now well into the semester and I am getting back into the swing, had my first round of midterms, and they mostly went well, so that is good. The bad news is that the semester is really cranking now, it seems like we are covering lots of material fast, but without any other real commitments outside of school I should be able to keep up OK.

Tomorrow is election day, I have no idea what to expect out of that it looks to be a toss up, the real fun though will be when the results are finally reported then disputed then the courts start getting involved and this country doesn't have a Prez for like 3 months while they try and figure the whole thing out. If the US was a laughingstock to the rest of the world following the last election, I can't imagine the fallout from this debacle.
  ¶ 9:34 PM