It's an Exciting World

I got a Supershuttle to SFO and there wasn’t any complication in the flight.  I got to ATL and Jeff picked me up around midnight.  We headed back to his place.  The next day we went to our parents house and had a nice dinner.  It was Jeff’s birthday so we had a nice cake.  I got to meet Jeff’s girlfriend, and she was nice, cute, and smart.  Jeff and she seemed to get along really well.  The dinner was more or less meat.  There was a salad, but the primary food was chicken, pork, and beef.  There was also Red Lobster dinner rolls, that were delicious.  We also hiked up Stone Mountain, and it was cold at the top with a strong wind.  The view was fantastic.  We went shooting on Friday and I fired 2 dozen rounds.  We did 2 rounds of 5 shot competitions, with the first standing and the second kneeling.  I was barely better on both, with Jeff close behind.  Dad did the standing with us, and was way off.

Steph and I went to one of the restaurants that her friends and she used to frequent for dinner. I felt really out of place since I was the only SO there, and even when Sarah showed up I felt a little odd.  The conversation was entertaining and when it was all done Steph realized that they were all growing a bit apart.  I suggested that we could put more effort into hanging out with them, and she agreed that we should.

Steph and I went to Lee’s place for the little black dress and dapper suits party.  We got to have some good conversations with people, and a good number showed up.  I had some of the cider we brought and it was very tasty.  I didn’t drink much since I was the one who would be driving home afterwards.  When people started trying to watch a movie we headed out.  The movie was going to be Snow Piercer, and it wasn’t downloading.  The screen said it would be ready to play in 90+ hours at one point, which was pretty comical.

Steph and I went to Brian’s place for a long games day.  We met there with Adam, Chris, Nick, Tina, and Jeff.  Adam, Chris, Brian, and Nick decided to play a longer game called High Frontier.  I decided to play Glory to Rome and the others joined me.  I was able to control the ending of the first game, which was needed since Steph made an amazing engine, that nobody could go against.  I was barely able to end it before she could use it.  I ended up winning that game.  We played again, and Tina got out ahead and stayed there.  I wasn’t able to finish any buildings so I stagnated at the start.  I was able to get a good bit into my vault so I did get second, but Tina won by a good margin.  We then played Fire of London, and Steph won that game by a good bit.  Then we played Get Lucky! and after a few rounds of that we headed out.  The end of Get Lucky! was a little too unpredictable for me.

I met my parents in Phoenix, where we both flew in around 9am.  I was getting up much before them due to the time change so I was a little groggy when we got together.  We decided to meet up at the car rental building and we quickly got the car and headed to Sedona.  While there we went to see some petroglyphs, one large one in the form of a calendar.  We also went to a nice restaurant to get a good view of the sunset over the red rock formations of Sedona.  It was very pretty and the food was delicious.

We got to the canyon rim and spent the night.  On the way it was snowing, and when we got there it was pretty chilly.  We spent the night in a hotel on the rim, then grabbed breakfast before heading down.  There was a good layer of frost on the ground and some ice along the rim.

We got all geared up and started the hike by going through some really steep switchbacks.  We got to the first rest house and took a little weight off my dad so he could enjoy it more.  When we got to the second rest house, jeff took some more of the weight.  Jeff and Kim then told me to catch up and hurried off.  They really hurried, since I wasn’t able to catch them before hitting the bottom.  We were passing people like crazy, and I injured my knee on the final switchbacks before the river.  Luckily we were right near the bottom, and the injury only mattered a lot when trying to go down.

I really enjoyed doing some of these zoom series, where I take a picture of people, usually Jeff and Kim, at several zoom levels.  In the zoomed out versions the people are only several tens of pixels high.  I think this really gives scale to the canyon that is impossible to understand unless you go, and even then it is hard to really comprehend the size of it.

I was able to get some zoom series of my parents as well, and even the bright blue shirt disappears in the zoomed out picture.

I like this series for the beauty of the zoomed out picture, and the extra zoom level I did on the zoomed in version.

This zoom series is of the bridge across the river.  The bridge gives another landmark for scale that is nice.

The first night of camping was decent.  There were lots of people around at Bright Angel campground and Phantom Ranch.  There was also a cute little fox running around looking at which camp sites would have food that was easy to steal.  We locked all of ours up really tight, so he wasn’t able to get any of ours.  Kim and I shared a tent, with Jeff taking one by himself.  This worked out since he needed a little extra room.  I had a great setup of a beanie, an eye mask, and ear plugs.   This deadened me to the world, especially my dad’s snoring.  I was told that I snored a little myself both nights.

We got up early the next day and had a nice breakfast at the phantom ranch dining hall.  The food was great, but the breakfast was at 5:30am.  That was a little tough to get up for, but we also went to sleep very early.

We hiked out the next day and crossed over the second bridge.  I got a good shot looking back at my parents and sister as they crossed.  This part of the hike went along the river for a while before continuing up the south face of the canyon.

This bit along the river gave some of the best views, but it was really hard on my knee.

We got to Indian Gardens, and camped there for the second night.  Kim, mom, and I went out on the point and overlooked the river.  It was a nice view, but not worth the hike on my bad knee.

The next day I was really tired, and didn’t take many pictures.  Jeff went ahead to get the car and check us in.  I was next with my bad knee.  Kim followed closely after me, as she was carrying extra weight.  Mom and dad were about an hour after that.  We all made it out, and Jeff was by far the one in the best shape at the top.  I think I could have kept up if not for the knee.  I was in a lot of pain for several days afterwards, but it has started healing.

We drove back to Phoenix the next day, stopping off in Flagstaff and Tempe for food.  I ended up grabbing a hotel room for the night since my flight was the next morning.  The others had a midnight flight and went to the airport after dropping me off.  I got back to SJC and quickly jumped in the SuperShuttle back to my place.

It was a great time, but I doubt I’ll be doing something that ambitious again with the whole family.

This was an amazing book, just like Wired, but there were a few stretches taken to keep the story coherent.  I really liked the role the computer guy played in this book, and how he owned the rest of the world with all of them freaking out.  The twist at the end was a little odd, but not something you couldn’t see coming.

Audible Link

I played Galaxy Trucker with Tina and Adam, and won by a lot.  We did a new part of the expansions where you choose a card to be added to the deck and then that card applies to everyone when it comes up.  We ended up hurting ourselves more than the other players, but that happens.  I was also able to make a ton of money from cargo on the second round.  That went really really well for me, to the point where I would have gotten and extra $12 had I been able to keep the merchant from dying.  It was a good time, where I almost doubled Tina’s score, and she almost doubled Adam’s score.

This was a pretty interesting book, and how they handled time paradoxes was interesting.  I also liked that there was a good villain back story, and everything seemed pretty coherent, even though it was changing.  The separate time lines interacting with each other was very interesting.  I especially liked the way the main character had multiple time lines, and several characters knew the different Kates very well.  So even though she changed as the time line was rewritten, the people still knew the different versions of her.  I thought the main character from this book resembled the main character from Outlander in that she tries to be strong, but ends up needing a man to break her out of her troubles.  I’ll give Kate the benefit on this one, since it doesn’t happen all the time, and usually isn’t her fault, unlike Outlander.

Audible Link

Steph and I went to the Cal Ave farmers’ market, and had our customary Samosas.  I’m glad she got into that with me.  We were able to get the pumpkin bolani.  I was also able to send off my mom’s birthday present with a little something for my dad in the box.