Month: February 2011

The three entry a month goal is being put to the test at month two… that can’t be a good sign. Sadly February hasn’t offered up many journal-worthy moments, but a handful of highlights from the last two weeks include:

• On the twelfth Khalid flew into town from DC with his wife and three-month old son and met us for dinner at a very, very Chinese restaurant (“wow, they finally translated the menu to English”). The newborn has mad hair and slept through dinner, while the two grown-ups were fun as always.
• Audrey and I went for a very fancy dinner of lobster, oysters and New Zealand elk at the Saddle Peak Lodge for Valentine’s Day, and despite my lack of proper refinement we made it through the meal without being thrown out. Any place with wild game on the menu is worth a visit, but if you decide to dine at this amazing restaurant be sure to bring your gold, platinum, and corporate cards with you.
• The every-other-week in Utah schedule continues – last week was spent in snow and temperatures in the teens in Park City, while this week the LA weather is in the 60s and the commute consists of the walk from my bed to my desk. When in Utah, the Best Western I’ve been staying at in the town of Coalville is far enough from the ski slopes that the guests aren’t the most active bunch – one of the hotel staff just about jumped out of her skin when she walked into the workout room and saw me stretching, exclaiming "I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone in here".

Things may stay a bit slow through March and April, although the current work contract could potentially end on April 30, leaving the possibility for adventure during the very beautiful month of May…

I’ve spent the past two weeks in Park City, Utah, trying to remember what warmth felt like – the temperature bottomed out at -17°F, and my first night involved a forty mile drive through a snowstorm on roads that caused a pickup truck in front of me to fishtail for a good thirty seconds before the driver was finally able to regain control. Luckily I had been given a Chevy Aveo by the rental company, a car that was apparently designed to handle as much like a boat as possible during inclement weather; I was fairly relieved to eventually arrive at the hotel alive and in one piece.

The work this time around has thus far primarily been technical project management, which means lots of meetings, spreadsheets, and tasks other than coding – it will be nice when/if things move on to design and programming, but in the mean time I am the master of the SWAG.

Outside of work, last weekend was spent in Carmel visiting Audrey, who was working on a studio in the downtown area. A free room in Carmel is all good, and when she wasn’t working we enjoyed the scenery and some good food. I attempted two runs while there, but a note for anyone considering doing the same: one of the reasons why Carmel is pretty is because of the evil, evil hills that will sap your will to live should you decide to do some jogging. The 17 Mile Drive is much less appealing when you realize that the first mile is all uphill.

In addition to Carmel, last week included a trip to meet Aaron, Dave Pugmire, and Dave’s family for dinner. The Goob was driving from Vail to San Francisco after spending the winter snowboarding, and Dave lives in Heber, twenty miles outside of Park City. I’m not a big fan of kids, but Dave managed to make a couple of good ones, and we enjoyed a fun dinner and a nice trip out to Heber’s ice castles before I had to head home.