thehowe_v7.1

For the past week I've been canoeing with friends & family up in Canada. For the most part, the trip was pretty uneventful. With a few minor exceptions.

Like, for example, how on the drive up, at 3:00 in the morning, we hit a horse. Well, actually two horses. They had somehow gotten loose and decided it would be a good idea to cross the road in front of us. Nobody was hurt, but a car was totaled and two canoes were ruined. Good times.

Then there was the hotel we stayed at that night. We're fairly sure the receptionist was high. First she gave us smoking rooms, which was understandable. Then when we tried switching one of the rooms, she gave us keys to a room that was already occupied. Then when we got another new room, the sheets were dirty. Good times.

Then there was the portage we did on a day trip once we were in Quetico. The water was a little high this year. High, as in over half the portage was up to my knees in water and had a current running through it. Good times.

Like I said, and uneventful trip.

(All kidding aside though, we had a great time, modulo a little bad luck here and there).

As usual, I've been lax in updating during the summer months. I'm interning out at Microsoft this summer, out in Redmond, WA. I have to say, I'm really enjoying the experience. I was a little worried coming in, because the team I'm working for... well, let's just say their product isn't the most exciting in the world. Luckily, my project has turned out to be very cool. I can't really talk much about it, so I guess you'll have to take my word on it.

Another change for me this summer has been getting out to do more hiking. So far I've only been able to get out two weekends, but I've really enjoyed myself both times, so I'm planning on getting out as many weekends as I can before I leave.

Michigan's kind of a funny place when it comes to weather. During the summer it's a hot & humid hell, during the winter months it's mostly slushy and miserable, and during spring it's wet & full of allergens. For 9 months out of the year, it's just about the worst place in the country to be.

On the other hand, Fall in Michigan is perfect: cool temperatures, brisk breezes, the color of changing leaves, fallen leaves crunching under your feet. It doesn't get much better than that. I'm heading home for a long weekend in a few days, and while I'm there I'll be making a trip out to good ole Uncle John's Cider Mill with the family. We'll get some donuts & cider, then go home and carve pumpkins. It'll be great.

I remember in High School, Fall was the end of the cross-country season, and it was the only time that the activity of running approached something that could be called enjoyable for me. Maybe it was because it was the end of the season and I was finally getting in shape, maybe it was because I always function better in cool temperatures, but either way it's almost enough to make me miss going out for a good run.

So, it occurred to me that I hadn't updated in awhile. I'd say I haven't done anything, but that wouldn't be strictly true. Last weekend my parents flew into town for the weekend to visit. On Saturday we drove about two hours north to a little port called Anacortes or something like that, and took a ferry out onto one of the islands off the coast and did a 5-hour sea kayaking excursion. It was a lot of fun - perfect weather, saw lots of wildlife (harbor seals, various starfish and jellyfish, even some orcas in the distance), and it was a hell of a lot easier than canoing.

After we drove back Saturday night, we got up Sunday morning and went on a 4+ hour hike at Tiger Mountain just outside of Seattle. It was a beautiful hike - awesome forest, a pretty damn rough hike. We gained roughly 2500 feet of elevation in about 2.4 miles - but over half of that (1300 feet) was in the last approx. 0.8 miles. Needless to say, it was pretty damn steep. We had some great views of the city and the surrounding mountains at the top, after which we took a slightly easier (but longer) trail down. My legs were sore as hell at the end, but it was worth it.

After the hike we came back to the apartment, showered, went out to dinner, and then went and saw Batman Begins at the local theatre. It was the best Batman movie ever. The villain wasn't the coolest (nobody beats Jack Nicholson as Joker), but it was the best representation of Batman I've ever seen on screen. I may even go see it again this weekend - we'll see.

What else... not too much going on this week. My project at work is progressing nicely, and it's been getting more satisfying as I get deeper into it. We've got an Intern rafting trip this Friday, so that should be fun. In about two weeks, on the 6th, Ashley is flying out to visit for a few days, so that should be a blast. I'll have to figure out what we're going to do, though. Going up in the Space Needle is a given, but beyond that there doesn't seem to be too much to do in Seattle. Ah well, I'm sure I'll think of something.

Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, I added a PhotoAlbum to the site, which is updated with what few pictures I've taken this summer. Enjoy.

Well, we got back from Canada today. I have to say, it was quite a trip. During the first day we managed to get stuck behind a bus-full of boy scouts, and lose a machete and a good pair of boots. Fortunately, after that the trip improved. We had great weather, with only one really rainy day. After that first day we managed to lose the boy scouts and pretty much had the lakes to ourselves, which is unusual for this time of year. Mosquitos were bad most every night, but that is to be expected. Biting flies were really only bad the last night, when we foolishly decided to camp on a beach. However, we consequently got to see an awesome sight: thousands of huge dragonflies came out of the woods to feed on the biting flies. It was really quite amazing to watch.

Now that I'm back to the real world, things are starting to accelerate. Workers are coming in Friday to start tearing apart our bathrooms, although thank God someone vetoed my parent's decision to do both bathrooms at once (in the process putting the only showers in the house out of commission for over a week)!

Well, I went bowling with the Holman Pool staff tonight. I bowled pretty crappily, but I had a pretty good time. I'm considering doing something which I don't feel at liberty to discuss. Suffice to say I'll either end up making an ass of myself or making my life more complicated than I prefer. The question is, what are the probabilities associated with the outcomes? I should get out my Math 425 notes. Hmmm... I'll have to ponder this matter further while I'm in Canada.

Speaking of which, I leave to go canoing in the Canadian boundary waters just north of Minnesota in a few days. On the downside I'm going with my family, but on the upside we're also going with a family from Ohio that we've known forever and go with every year. It usually ends up being a blast, and I have no reason to suppose it will be different this year, so I'm looking forward to it.

Ah, springtime. The birds are chirping, the land is blooming, the air is warming.

...Goddamn nature, trying to ruin my bad mood. Good thing old man winter bitch-slapped mother nature with some blistering cold this week. It almost got enjoyable out.

Location: Approx. 30 minutes outside of Helsinki

Well, I am sad to report that I was wrong: my last post was totally inaccurate. We did a little shopping in the town center of the suburb of Helsinki that we're staying in yesterday. I won't go into details, but suffice to say that my last post was proved wrong.

On a completely different topic, we did a little bit of something called "Orienteering" today. Ilkka, the brother of the former exchange student (that lived with my dad's family) that we're staying with, is a competitive orienteer. It's a sport where you are given a topographical map, a compass, and a list of "control points" you have to find - best times win. Well, anyways, we went on a little nature hike with him today, and he had Troy and I determine what path to take to get to control points he wanted to get to. It was actually a lot of fun. Most of it was not on marked trails, which made things rather interesting. [Note - I was planning to scan a map showing the path we took, but I'm too lazy, so you'll just have to use your imagination.]