Re:Creation

A few days ago, our community here in Palo Alto had a conference call with Millard Fuller, whom you may remember from my entry a while back on Koinonia Farms. Millard founded Habitat for Humanity after being at Koinonia, but was recently fired from the company he started for “philosophical” reasons. The way he tells it, he was trying to put more money back into housing projects, whereas the rest of the board was trying to become a Big Corporation.

Anyway, the conference call was the result of some chance interactions that several in our community had with Millard (which, incidentally, were the reason I heard about Koinonia, etc…), and the purpose of it was to see if there were any good ways for us to partner with Millard’s new organization, the Fuller Center for Housing. This new company aims to help people who are “too poor” for Habitat to work with.

Continue reading ‘The Fuller Center for Housing’

Google just released a special add-on for their maps service today, in honor of the anniversary of the first moon landing.

I was looking at all the different landing sites, and I was surprised to see, as I looked very close, that the moon is actually made of yellow cheese! Who would have thought?

Thanks, Google, for this huge contribution to modern astronomy.

Ever since I was a child, up until about the time I left for college, one of the great loves of my life was reading. I proved this love in a very obvious way: I read all the time. Whether it was in the car on the way to school, sitting in class after I’d finished my work, during lunch time, waiting after school, in between classes, on an airplane… Wherever it might be, I had my nose stuck in a book.

I didn’t really read for edification, but more for enjoyment. While I had a love of learning and of the sciences and all that, I stuck pretty much to fiction, except for a couple years in grade school and junior high where I read every book in the library on astronomy, every book on codes and ciphers, every book on programming languages, and every book on origami. While that sounds like a lot of books, it pales in comparison to the number of fiction (usually trade paperback) books I read.

I stayed fairly well within the bounds of the Fantasy/Sci-Fi genre, occasionally dabbling in YA fiction and the more popular non-fantasy fiction like Tom Clancy novels or Michael Crichton novels. On average, I would probably read a couple hundred pages a day of this stuff, so I very quickly became acquainted with all of the authors I was recommended or found on my own in the library.

I’m not sure why I was attracted to this genre. Maybe it was that when I first learned to read, some of the first books I tackled were the Chronicles of Narnia novels, and the magic of those experiences drew me into worlds that were created to be very different from ours. Maybe I empathized with the main characters of fantasy stories, who usually had some sort of mysterious hidden powers which set them on a great adventure, because I fancied the same thing was true of myself, albeit in a very earthly and more boring way. But anyway, I’ve never figured out if I really liked fantasy because of who I was, or if I became who I was/am because I read fantasy. Probably both are true to some degree, but whichever wins out, we were a good match.

Indeed, my first read of The Lord of the Rings, in 5th grade I think it was, was a life-changing experience for me. I recognized in those novels a creative act so profound and imaginative and detailed that I immediately knew that I wanted to emulate it, whatever it was. The vastness and beauty of the world and stories Tolkien created had a very deep impact on me, and all the more so because of the linguistic ingenuity and toil that went into developing the languages that he did.

While I had dabbled in codes and cipher languages beforehand, it had never occurred to me to create an artificial natural language, with its own complete evolutionary history, grammar, morphology, lexicon, and all the rest. Of course, I began on one of these immediately. I’ve since lost all my work for that, and the one or two that came after it, but the point is I’ve been working on languages as a creative, not an educational, exercise ever since then. While this is a pretty big example of how I am dramatically different (in an odd way) than your average American because of the books that I read as a youngster, it’s certainly not the only example.

The main thing my love of reading got me, almost by accident, was a facility with words and putting them together in correct or interesting ways (depending on how I needed to use them). Without ever taking a writing class or wanting to (English was my least favorite subject, though I always made the highest grades in it), I became a good writer. For a young student, anyway. That ability may have left me completely by now, or may have dulled in comparison with the bright stars that are my excellent peers.

So it is surprising that, after beginning at Stanford (even, to some extent, after moving to Florida the year before), I pretty much stopped reading for entertainment entirely. Part of it was my newfound hobby of exploring Christian philosophy and apologetics, which lent more to reading non-fiction texts, but I think a good deal of it was that I started to hang around people more, instead of retreating to a room by myself with a book. While I have fond memories of that particularly comfortable action, I guess I decided that I was just too big of a nerd, and I needed to learn how to make friends and have winning social skills, or something like that.

Then, with the move to study philosophy at Stanford, I spent so much time every day reading philosophy that I had no desire left to open a book, even if it was one that I’d been wanting to read. Also around that time I began to take physical activity much more seriously. I got into running and rock climbing and began to devote much of my free time to those pursuits. They opened up a new and entirely enjoyable world to me of physical discipline, which I’d never been particularly turned off to, but rather had never got into because I was (and everyone told me I was) the “nerd type”. Team sports were therefore out of the question in high school, because people would expect me to suck at them and not give me a chance to improve, so I ended up actually sucking at them. Maybe that’s why I got into climbing and running first–individual sports where I was my only judge. There is much comparison with others in those sports, of course, but you rarely let others down by sucking. Anyway, I ramble.

The point is, my life began to take a much more well-rounded shape. I am very happy for this, and today, four or five years later, I feel that my mind is sharp, but also my body is in the best shape it’s ever been, and allows me to engage by myself and with other athletes at a decent level, at just about any activity (disregarding my current sprained ankle).

We were moving houses in Orlando the other week, though, and so I was unpacking my library of books into bookshelves. Each one that came out was like a little bit of nostalgia, reminding me of the time that we were friends. Some of the books even seemed to sulk accusingly, wondering where I’ve been. It triggered a bit of a lament, that something which was so important to me, and which I still long to spend time with, has been sort of shoved to the back of my personality. I don’t think this is really lamented in my community, as no one else really seems to have been the bookworm (though many of us are nerds, of course), so there’s also a sensation of loneliness when I regard this current lack of mine.

I didn’t stop reading absolutely completely, of course, and I was very glad to be spending most of my reading time studying philosophy, which I love. It did mean that I would read something like 4-5 novels a year, instead of 40-50 (during my most bookwormy days).

One of the other things I miss about reading a lot of good fantasy stories is the way that they hook into my memories along with music. This fact about music and story was one of the first things I realized about myself when I first began to self-reflect heavily. I can listen to a CD that I used to listen to when reading a particular book, and somehow it will bring back a flood of associations with that story, but also with the time in which I was reading, and whatever else was going on in life then. Actually, I’m not sure if I really like the fact that many of my memories are tied up in stories rather than reality, but on the other hand I don’t want to dismiss the importance of story in our lives that way.

At any rate, much of that is to say that I am looking forward to not being able to run or play sports for the next month in some ways, primarily because it means I might be able to catch up on my reading. You see, various family members and others who knew of my love for books never actually stopped giving them to me as gifts, even though I’d stopped having the time to keep up with them. So I’ve got a whole bookshelf of stuff that I’m sure is really good, but I never got around to it. Hopefully that will happen now.

As a matter of fact, I’ve spent some good time pretty much every day in the last couple weeks doing some reading. I never used to work through more than one book at a time until I got to college (mostly because I read them so quick there was no need to), but I’ve been working on a few. I just finished El Alquimista, which is the Spanish translation of The Alchemist, originally written in Portuguese by Paulo Coelho. It’s not so much a fantasy story as a fairly short fable with a great story and message. I read it primarily because it was in a genre that I enjoyed, and because I felt that I should work on my Spanish. It actually marks the first novel that I’ve read cover to cover in Spanish, so I am proud to have done that (even though it was rather short). For some reason the translation of it is much, much easier to read than the translation of Harry Potter that I’ve half-heartedly picked up now and then. Anyway, I’ve also read the English version of this book, and it comes highly recommended.

I also just finished a book that Dan got me a couple years ago for Christmas, called Tales Before Tolkien, edited by Douglas Adams. It’s a collection of short stories by authors that Tolkien liked, or that influenced him, or that were his contemporaries, and things like that. Of the 20 or so stories, there were only a few that I didn’t really enjoy, and it was cool to see what “fairy tales” were like before Tolkien really catalyzed the “fantasy” genre.

As you know if you’ve been reading this blog for long, I’ve also been very slowly working through A Kierkegaard Anthology, edited I believe by Bretall. It is fairly heavy reading, but every time I commit time to it, I feel that I am immensely rewarded. In fact, of all the philosophers/theologians that I have read, I feel a very curious kinship with Kierkegaard. Maybe it is his insistence that he is a poet which I resonate most with, or maybe it is his whole-hearted devotion interacting with his genius that I long to emulate (with whatever fraction of genius it is that I have).

In any case, he is almost singlehandedly restoring my faith in the Bible as a text which remains deep and mysterious and fruitful for me to continue to study. I just read a portion of Works of Love, for instance, where he expands on the exhortation, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”. In 20 pages, he said so many interesting and deeply true (I believe) things about love that every now and then I had to shut the book and my eyes and just process. I don’t want to blindly follow whatever he’s saying, but when I read something of his and feel that I really understand it, I can’t help but thinking that it is both insightful, true, and what’s more encouraging. On the whole, I think the repudiation of him in the current Christian culture (as the father of Existentialism or whatever) is pretty much unjustified and a result of a shallow understanding of his thought (though I’m not yet a scholar, of course).

So, I’m feeling hopeful as regards reading, and I’m already wondering what it is that I’ll pick up next. Perhaps the new Harry Potter–Nyffy and I are going to have a series of reading parties with that one, I think. Stories like that are especially fun to read aloud (though maybe not as fun as The Chronicles of Narnia, because Rowling’s writing is so modern; it just doesn’t sound like one is reading an old fairy tale), so Nyffy and I enjoy trading chapters to read while the other smokes a pipe–another thing that Lewis and Tolkien bequeathed to us.

Well, there it is–an ode to the place of reading in my love and a pledge not to forget it entirely in the name of “balance”.

Over the past couple weeks, this server has been experiencing some major issues. As the guy who’s supposed to be running the thing, these major issues have been quite trying for me.

**What follows is a rather uninteresting account of some nerd stuff**

Continue reading ‘Travails of a Fledgling Sysadmin’

That’s right–we finally have a home! After 8 months of bumming around Palo Alto and East Palo Alto, crashing with friends, and sleeping in my sleeping bag, I am the proud (if somewhat cynical and ironic) new resident of an old but well-kept apartment in Palo Alto. I’m living with 4 other guys from my community, as we were able to get two 2-bedroom places right next to each other, and indeed in the same building as our beloved married couple.

Ever since the idea for the large community house in East Palo Alto didn’t pan out for a number of reasons, I’d been more discouraged about our interactions for the coming year, but now it seems my fears were unfounded, since we’re basically all ending up in the same building anyway, sans 1 or 2 in a house about a quarter of a mile away. So really there’s not a lot to complain about. We are in ritzy Palo Alto of course, paying an exorbitant number of dollars for rent, and far from the realities that most of the world experiences. But, we hope that we’ll remain untainted by the glut of rampant capitalism that surrounds us (please don’t take that too communistically) and not get too sucked into Silicon Valley culture and indolence (while affirming and remaining inspired by the innovation and other great properties of the place).

I’m also excited to be back close to my Stanford stomping grounds, which is great for running and cycling and playing on Stanford-owned fields and courts (which we do quite happily even though none of us are really students anymore. In fact, I was driving over from EPA about once a day, whether to visit people or play sports or whatever, and that was about the only driving I was doing since I work at home. This means of course, that on an average day I will no longer need a car, since I’m within a mile of all these places! That’s good news for me.

Of course the talk about sports is a bit ironic, since a week ago I was playing Tennis with Justin and had a little fall which resulted, I thought, in a broken ankle. After 6 hours in the emergency room, I learned that it was only a bad sprain, which was quite a relief, but still puts me out of commission for about 4 weeks. I was even on crutches for a few days, which was a new and interesting experience for me, and which I rather liked, but it made just about every action take twice as long. I also learned a great deal more balance, as I had to take my long showers whilst standing on my left foot the whole time.

Another great irony of the week is that our move in day is today (Saturday), but am I even in California? No, I’m in Wisconsin. I left on Thursday for Florida, and braved the airport sans crutches, hobbling along rather self-consciously, as the only way I can currently walk is to not bend my ankle but treat my leg as a big stump, from hip to heel. I spent one night in Orlando, then had another day of traveling with my family to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where I’m sitting in my hotel room at the moment; we’re here for my grandmother’s 80th birthday party.

But it’s ironic because moving in in Palo Alto was to be one of the crowning moments thus far of our little community, and a very symbolic act, and because it took us about a month longer to get a place than planned, there was no way to avoid being gone for the move in. Ah well, the other guys are taking care of things while I’m gone.

So, there’s a lot of excitement right now, and I am looking forward to getting back and setting things in order, and finally feeling like I have a home in California. I’ll be sharing a room with Justin, which will be a little tight, but will hopefully also have my own little desk area downstairs where I can keep all my computer and work paraphernalia (which is a massive amount of trendy technology, let me tell you).

Well, I just wanted to celebrate that important milestone in my life at the moment. Here’s to the coming year!

For our celebration of America’s independence this year, a few in our community went up to an apartment in San Francisco to hang out and experience the fireworks shows. While waiting for these shows, we had the opportunity to watch the critically-acclaimed independent film, Aliens vs Predator. It was truly amazing; I’ve never seen the mix-two-sci-fi-thriller-worlds-and-everybody-dies genre so full of promise!

After the fireworks, we watched a slightly different film.

Continue reading ‘Koinonia Farms’

Welcome to my e4:online weblog! I am not sure what I will be writing here at the moment, but hopefully many things of great importance. I may also copy over some entries from my old Excelsis or jonathanlipps.com weblogs, just to have some data here. Well, stay tuned!

I’m sitting on a plane right now, from Dallas to San Jose. This is something I’ve done quite frequently in the past few months, between all the family events going on at home and flying back and forth for Teleios (the company I now work for–it’s the same one as before, we just got bored of our old name). I typically hate this particular leg, since it’s a decently long flight east-to-west (4 hrs), and since it consists primarily of businesspeople, who of course are all Platinum or Executive Platinum on American.

This latter fact means a few things: (1) when you pre-board Plat/E.Plat folks, the whole plane basically gets on at once, which defeats the whole point of the boarding-by-group system, (2) every time I try to upgrade to first class for free (something you can do occasionally as a Platinum), 50 or so other people have already put requests in, so it is inevitably impossible (I know, poor me, no first class…), (3) everyone’s the trendy on-the-go business traveler with a huge laptop bag or pack, along with an oversized roller bag. All of these things have to go into the overhead bins, of course, which means if you’re not cutthroat with your boarding procedure, you’ll end up with nowhere to put your own huge laptop bag and oversized luggage. Anyway, just some minor annoyances that you wouldn’t even notice if you aren’t a part of corporate traveling culture (which I suppose, ironically, I am a part of now).

The more important part about being on a plane is this: of all the places in the world that I typically go, I get the best meditating and thinking done on planes. Something about sitting by a window looking out onto invariably-beautiful scenes (unless we’re completely in a cloud), having my ears filled with white noise (or listening to good music really loud, which is more often the case), and having nowhere else to go… well, something about it makes my mind sink deep into my soul, where they can meet and hang out for a while.

Oftentimes they’ll invite my heart in as well, but this is generally only if I do get the first class upgrades and it’s late enough in the day for me to be drinking (as I am right now, incidentally. I always order the same drink on plane flights–vodka and coke. Today when I ordered it, and I suppose it was only about 10:30 in the morning, I got a funny look from the flight attendant. I suppose it’s not a common drink to begin with, and no doubt the whole AM thing had something to do with it. Well, that’s what I get for flying east-to-west, I suppose).

But I keep rambling; and, since I have roughly 3 more hours to write this entry, I will probably continue to do so. Reader, prepare yourself! Gird thy loins with the belt of blog-patience. Either that, or secure thy hands with the gloves of clicking-the-back-button! (Sorry, too much World of Warcraft recently…and the Bible, I guess. Breastplate of Righteousness: 600 armor, +8 agility, +7 stamina, +3 fire resistance)…

–break–

…actually, I didn’t keep writing this on the plane. I was sitting next to a young woman who looked about my age so we started up a conversation and ended up talking for the remainder of the flight. We talked about everything from philosophy to religion to ethics to family to love to relationships to truth to community…well, as much as you can talk about these things in 3 hours. Definitely the best random plane conversation I’ve ever had…

But enough of the hard-to-follow skips through time in this entry. My point was about airplanes and how they are for me a place of solace, rest, and meditation. I suppose it is ironic that I was writing about that just as I entered into a conversation, which by definition would make solace, rest, and meditation impossible–but irony or no, what transpired was much better than whatever I would have gained by a few hours’ solace.

Nyffy did a graphic design project a while ago that connected various people’s places or moments or experiences in which they tended to feel a sense of transcendence. Unfortunately I missed the cut-off date for submission to his project, but I was planning on writing about airplanes, how they are for me a place where transcendence is immanent, where life is (for the moment) pure and I can be honest with God and myself. So I cherish the times spent in the window seat, listening to music and pondering and looking out at the big world passing below, seeing memorable landmarks, like Half Dome or the Grand Canyon, or old or current residences of mine.

But all of the foregoing is merely a longwinded preamble (a pre-ramble, I should say) to the original point of this post, which has not yet been divulged to you but which I have had in my crafty mind from the beginning. Yes, the point is none other than to let you, my faithful reader, know what has been going on in my life! Do hold the applause till I am finished; I know all of you were awaiting this information whilst seeing who could hold her breath the longest.

In short, the last 5 weeks or so have been incredible, primarily because each weekend I’ve been able to do something reasonably awesome with close friends. First (and this may have been covered in my May update) there was a trip to Santa Barbara, which consisted of much outdoors time, bouldering and bushwacking and scrambling through rocky terrain, following rivers upstream and diving from heights into clearwater pools… Not to mention beach volleyball and Jack Daniels, cigars, and spiritual conversation in hot tubs. [Pictures]

Not to be outdone, weekend #2 took 8 others and myself to Pinnacles National Monument, a few hours away, for a day of climbing and hiking. Dan and I introduced some of our friends to outdoor sport climbing for most of the day, then we had an intense hike to the peak of a nearby mountain to catch sunset over a beautiful valley to the east. [Pictures]

The following week, my boss Pavi came to CA for the Apple Developer’s Conference, but we spent a lot of time hanging out in Palo Alto and San Francisco, coding, talking about life, talking about community, looking at the future, and generally having a good time. I’m hoping that that good experience will convince him and my other Teleios cronies to move out west.

That weekend (June 11-13) was Stanford’s 2005 graduation, and so there were a number of parties and events I went to to celebrate my friends’ successes. I was very graciously invited to Dan’s family graduation dinner, which was of epic proportions and quality. Yet even more exciting was the day of graduation itself, which went something like this: 5 or so of us guys went and rented a large moving truck, put on wifebeater undershirts with our codenames on the back and “Su Madre Movers” on the front, and headed to campus.

We were all accoutred for the task (which was soon to be at hand) in various garb. My uniform, apart from the shirt, consisted of a trucker beer hat, aviator sunglasses, headphones, and cigarettes, one of which I tried to keep lit and in the general vicinity of my person for the remainder of the day. Others sported the “gangsta beanie” or the classic 70s headband.

Thus prepared, we took our behemoth of a vehicle to campus and proceeded to scour various residences for booty. Not the rear-end kind, mind you, but that wonderful treasure coveted by pirates. In our piratey case: anything of value, but mostly furniture. We stopped at every dumpster on campus (which has a considerable area), finding gems here and there such as couches, mattresses, vacuum cleaners, breadmakers, unopened bottles of vodka, baseball bats, desks, and the like.

Encouraged by this success, we decided to start going into residences and ask those moving out if they had anything to donate. Often we were greeted by skepticism, but even more often people seemed happy to unload all the things they hadn’t been able to sell before moving out. This was no doubt due to the professional look of our “Su Madre Movers” shirts.

At the end of the day we had two truckfuls of items of various worth, which we may use in our new apartment, or which we may try and sell on craigslist. More importantly, we had a day of incredible fun, riding on the back of a moving truck over speedbumps and around corners, smoking cigarettes, stealing things from Stanford students… We even had one very brave female join us for most of the day, and she has accordingly now garnered almost enough cool points to be an honorary Su Madre.

[Pictures]

The next weekend (actually, the next Monday), I drove to Yosemite with Jenna, Emilee, and Em’s brother and dad. We were planning on doing a night hike of Half Dome, which is one of my favorite things to do in the world, and which I’ve written about on two other occasions. On our way, there was some doubt as to whether we would actually be able to do the night hike (as opposed to a day hike), because we needed to be back early on Tuesday. Thankfully, I was able to convince everyone that we would be OK doing it at night.

We spent the day eating lots of food and resting up, and then finally started on the trail around 11pm. The four of us made a good pace, but there was no hurry since we had a lot of time until sunrise. All the sections of the 8.5-mile uphill trail were familiar to me, having done it quite a few times before, and so we made our way with no more difficulty than the trail would have provided in the daytime.

As in previous times I’d done the night hike, we’d timed it well. The previous day had been a full moon, so she was still out and bright. In fact, it was the brightest and clearest I’d ever soon it on this hike, so I knew we were in for a treat at the top. It was, unfortunately, very cold, and though we’d brought many layers of the appropriate type of clothing, the extremely strong wind and at times sub-freezing temperatures were a little uncomfortable. Our early start time proved to be a disadvantage, as we got to the top long before sunrise and had nothing to do except sit and freeze. It is amazing how little you feel the cold when doing the hard aerobic workout that hiking half dome is, and amazing how much you feel it when you stop.

The sunrise came in due time, and actually earlier than on any other day of the year, for it was the summer solstice. The beauty moved me deeply, as it always does, and I felt at home in the alien granite landscape. Time was of the essence on this particular trip, however, so we had to be on our way, after firing up the stove and having some hot chocolate and oatmeal.

We made it back down by 8:30am, where Emilee’s dad was waiting to take us four weary hikers back to Palo Alto.

[Pictures]

Not to be tied down, I left a few days later for Orlando, along with my guitar. You see, I was flying home for a very special occasion–the creation of another Nyffy! That’s right, Nyffy was getting married and passing his very odd last name to a very awesome (and fortunate in all other respects) lady. As part of the specialness of the occasion, I’d tried to write a song for them, which they ended up wanting performed at their wedding.

I drove up to St. Augustine, on of our favorite places in Florida, on Thursday, along with Andy. We met up with Chris and his groomsmen and had an awesome night of hanging out at the pool, eating Pizzalley’s and drinking beer. Someone woke me up on Friday and told me we were going to the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Jacksonville, and so all of us ended up there around lunchtime. We took a tour of the facilities, which was capped off by some free beer and many A-B advertisements. An interesting expedition none the less, and good fresh beer.

Wedding rehearsals tend to happen on Friday, so we did that, and my brother Dav drove up with his new djembe to play along with me. There was a rehearsal dinner, much roasting and talking, good food, and all that should be there the day before two friends start their new life together. The 10 or 12 guys who’d come up to see Nyffy off stayed up late for a very awesome (and confidential) time of sharing and encouragement (and of course, Jack Daniels).

The next morning was a time of practicing the song I’d written, for the infamous Jason Killingsworth had arrived with his own acoustic axe, and I had to teach him the song we were to play. Long before we were really ready, the wedding actually happened, and it was a wonderful ceremony. Chris and Anne’s pastor from Gainesville gave a moving little homily on marriage, the old organ guy was right on, and there was much crying in the audience (even, I am glad to report, during my song…which seemed to be executed at the high standard which Chris and Anne deserved).

The reception was joyful and full of good food and drink, great conversation, and of course some crazy dancing. The young men did the customary deface-the-newlyweds-car thing, unfortunately in a not very clever and blatantly crude way…but what can you do? I drank way too much beer while staying mostly sober, and then all of a sudden we were lighting sparklers and chasing the bride and groom to their shockingly sexified chariot. We all said our goodbyes, and I gave Chris a slightly tearful hug, then they were off!

Luckily for me, I have just a few days to see Chris and Anne again, since they are moving to Palo Alto, of all places! Chris got an internship with Ideo here in town, so I am looking forward to living closer to him than I ever have before. World domination will be just a few steps away. That, and all the great beer that I am sure we will brew.

Driving home from St. Augustine was not in any particular way relaxing, however, since the next week in Orlando was to be full of work and unpacking. You see, my family had been building a house near the airport, and it had finally been completed just that weekend. So all of our free time was taken up moving boxes and unpacking them. The house is very exciting however, particularly for me and my brother, since we convinced my parents that it would be a good idea to make the upstairs bonus area studio-ready. That is, it consists of two rooms separated by a pane of glass, so we have a recording room and a control room. Dav and I also just bought a lot of new sound equipment, studio foam, etc… So we are looking forward to putting out some great new Splendour Hyaline music soon.

Anyway, the week was full of driving to and from Teleios downtown (which is a much longer commute from the new house, unfortunately), coding at work, hanging out with folks from work, and unpacking. I got very little sleep, up until the morning I got on the plane back to Palo Alto, which is where we began this story.

Well, I apologize for the play-by-play here…just some things I know I’ll be glad to have written later on. This truly was a string of awesome weekends and weeks in between, and here’s to hoping that I’ll wrote some more interesting things soon!