Carmen and I are moving! Big step for us. We’ve been at our current place for about 5 years now and it really feels like home. But, we’re ready for something new and something a little bigger. Our current place is big enough for us now, but we’re thinking about the future and we see ourselves needing a bit more room (mom, dad, kids are still years in the making so don’t get too excited ; ).

Our new place is a large 2 bedroom. The rooms break down like so: small-to-medium sized kitchen with an additional spot to fit a small-to-medium size table, very large living/dining room with enough room for a full-size dining space and a couch and a couple of chairs, a master bedroom with huge walk-in closets and a second guest bedroom/office for carmen. We don’t have 4 bathrooms any more. Sorry. Also, we don’t have a huge claw-foot bathtub : (. Just one regular old boring bathroom, but it’s all we really need. The master bedroom and the living/dining room both have huge bay windows with a large ledge for sitting and enjoying the view. They’re connected by two large french doors. The french doors are pretty ugly, so at some point we’ll be changing those.

We’re moving in on September 18th! Enjoy the photos (sorry for the sideways shots)! More to come after we move in.

Here are a few photos of my first day at work inside the capitol. Enjoy.

We went on a short hike near the horse stables. It’s absolutely gorgeous there. Large parts of the area are protected from commercial or residential development. So it’s really pristine, which is amazing considering it’s close proximity to San Francisco. The views up there are breathtaking. The ocean breeze blowing on your face over the golden hills. Birds chirping and jack rabbits hopping all over the place. It’s so beautiful and cinematic you feel like you’re in a movie.

A new part of the Lands End Trail recently opened up that we’ve never been on. It leads down to “Rock Beach” which is aptly named. It was filled with rocks and these giant old logs and posts that looked like they belonged to some old ship from a distant land. The weather was beautiful that day and it was nice to hang out and enjoy this little hidden pocket of San Francisco.

I had a recent trip to the east coast for business. It was an exhausting trip but fun in it’s own way. I started out flying to Baltimore on a Wednesday morning. I arrived at the Baltimore airport around 6pm. I got on the shuttle to the rent-a-car terminal and picked up a car. I drove into Baltimore downtown (about 45 minutes if you make a few wrong turns like I did) and arrived at my hotel around 8pm. After settling into my room I went back outside to look for a place to eat. The hotel had a nice restaurant but it was too expensive for me.

I found a nice place that served cajun style catfish with mac-n-cheese, some greens and sweet tea. I felt right at home. The people there were very friendly and it was a nice way to wind down. By the time I was done it was late so I went back to the hotel to sleep.

The next morning I woke up at 6am eastern time (for my body it’s 4am pacific standard time), got my stuff together and drove to Frederick, Maryland to visit one of our clients at Creative B’stro, Clym Environmental. We’ve been working with them for over a year now but we’ve never met face-to-face. It was nice to put faces to voices after all this time. I arrived right at 9am as planned and we worked until about 2:30pm.

Then, I drove back to the Baltimore airport to drop off the car. That was about an hour and a half drive, maybe more, I can’t quiet remember. I took a shuttle to the main airport from the rent-a-car terminal. Then, I took another shuttle to the train station terminal. It’s nice having a train station right next to the airport. From there I rode a train to New York City and got off at Penn station. It was a really nice train ride. Pretty smooth and relaxing. I also had a nice conversation with an interesting lady that was sitting next to me. That really helped the time go by. Once I arrived in NYC, I walked about two blocks to my hotel, The New Yorker.

When I arrived they said that they have bad news and good news. I said okay. They said the bad news is we’re over-booked, but the good news is we’re upgrading you to a suite for free. I said sweet. Nice guy.

The hotel room was very nice, not huge, but the view was fantastic and the bed was soft. The bed being soft is really the most important part. The pics are from my view in the hotel room.

After getting settled in my room and I went back outside. It was absolutely freezing cold outside. It made my bones cold within minutes. I’m not use to this kind of weather. I wished I was still in San Francisco at that moment. Anyways, I walked a few blocks until I found a cute little local italian place to eat. I ordered a pizza and the most expensive bottle of beer I’ve ever paid for. $6 for a bottle of Sam Adams. Absolute rip-off. That’s New York for you I guess. It’s definitely more expensive than San Francisco across the board. The pizza and beer was good. My wallet was empty but my belly was full so I was happy enough.

By this time it was pretty late and I was exhausted so I went back to the hotel and went straight to bed.

I woke up the next morning around 9 o’clock and got my stuff together and walked over to Penn Station. I took a train to Princeton Junction train station, about an hour or so ride. During the train ride I opened up my laptop and tried to get some work done. During the latter half of the ride I got a little too focused on my work and ended up missing my stop! Not good, I was worried about getting to my meeting with J&J on time now. I got off at the next stop and walked outside and found a taxi.

I asked the taxi driver what it would cost to get to where I was going and he looked up in his book and it said $75. Ouch. I told him I can’t afford that and I proceeded to get out to catch a train back to Princeton Junction. I was bluffing but that’s part of the haggle. He said wait, how much can you afford? I said, $40. He said how about $60, I said fine, Let’s go! (I was in a rush).

Along the way we visited, or I should say he talked and I desperately tried to understand what he was saying. Strong accent. Along the way he found out I was going to need a ride back from J&J’s office to Princeton Junction train station. So he ended up offering me the ride to the office for $55 to try and get my business on the way back. In the end I took him up on the $55 but he didn’t accept credit cards. I had to pay his friend on the telephone who then paid him. A pain in the ass. It worked though and I recently checked my credit card statement and all is well. Of course, on the way back to Princeton Junction I called a cab company that did take credit cards. Poor guy. He meant well but I just didn’t have any cash on me. I gave it all to the italian folks in NYC who served me pizza and over-priced beer.

Well, I was finally at J&J’s office. I had a slew of meetings and all of them went pretty well considering the circumstance. The folks at J&J were changing offices so a lot was in shuffle which made for some half hazard meetings. It was fine though. Everyone at J&J are first class people so it was pleasant and productive despite the shuffling about.

Afterwards I took a taxi from the office to Princeton Junction train station and then a train back to Penn Station in NYC. From there I walked over to the taxi cab line, I saw that it was long. I waited 30 seconds and  then walked a block over and caught a taxi instantly. Tip: if you’re ever in NYC, don’t get in taxi cab lines, they’re for people who like waiting in line or just don’t know any better. You’ll be there for hours.

The taxi driver drove me to JFK airport in just the nick of time. I arrived and proceeded to the self check-in system. It wouldn’t let me check-in because the flight was closed and about to take off. I got somebody who worked at Jet Blue and they opened it back up for me. Thank you Jet Blue! I then quickly proceeded through security (no lines!) and was on my plane within 15 minutes from arriving at the airport. I got lucky, which was good because it was the last flight Jet Blue had to San Francisco that night.

I finally arrived back in San Francisco on Friday night at 11PM PST time. I was so tired I just took another taxi back home. Normally I take BART or a shuttle, but I just couldn’t do it. I needed to be back in my bed with my Carmy.

Exhausting. Anyways, I hope you like the pictures!