Winter C Function

The first C-Function of the semester was appropriately Winter themed. I was impressed with the ice sculptures commissioned for this event.

Does this look familiar?

Snow Street Parking

There is an unspoken rule in Boston regarding shoveling a street parking spot - if you shovel the spot, it is yours. These claimed spots are typically marked by a folding chair, cone, or recycling bin.

Basically, when you shovel your car out from 24inch of snow to drive to work, you leave a marker in your spot indicating that the spot is yours. No one takes it! Quite an honor system! I first learned about this from my brother who lived in Boston for 4 years before I came to the area. As I was walking around I noticed a bunch of chairs sitting on piles of snow next to parked cars and remember that these are used to mark the spot when the car leaves.

For those visiting during the snowy season... don't park in these spots!!!

Back in Boston

Since December 17th, I have driven 3300 miles across the country from Seattle to Boston (there were a few other trips in there putting the 33 day driving total to more than 5000 miles). To my surprise, over 97% of the 3300 mile trip was covered in snow, culminating with the most snow on the ground in Boston.

The streets are much narrower than I recalled due to the large amount of snow. Cars parked on the street are "pushed" inward due to the piles of snow on either side. It's a very good thing I was in my Ford Explorer rather than in a U-haul like the first time I moved to Cambridge.

Here I am, ready to bike to class!

A nice shot of one of the MIT undergrad dorms as I head to campus over the rail road tracks for the first time in a long while.

Klipsch Appearal?

I made my usual visit to Klipsch (my previous employer) while home in Indianapolis. I'm lucky to have many good friends in that office so it is always a good visit. On the most recent visit, I was given a pair of Klipsch Ski Gloves. These were used during the extensive design/development/testing that went into the Image S5i Rugged Headphones.

These sweet gloves that will be very handy for the Boston snow!

Indianapolis!

I'm back in Indianapolis for a while... more specifically, my parents house in the suburb of Plainfield. But the city is just a short 10-20 minute drive away. During Christmas I was able to connect up with a lot of long time friends both in and around the city. Here are some pictures I was able to snap.

The worlds largest "Christmas Tree" on the Circle in Indianapolis. I'm not sure how a concrete monument with lights is considered a Christmas tree, but it makes for a nice picture!

Here's the civil war memorial! It's beautiful on the inside!

I've been working on my thesis in my downtime. I usually try to do this in a library. I was downtown and decided to head to the central library... a really cool "old meets new" library.

My laptop in the west wing of the library... taking on the thesis one page at a time!

Expert Gift Rapper?

I'm somewhat proud of my gift wrapping this year. As my family will tell you, I typically take gift wrapping pretty seriously. I typically focus on disguising the gift more than making the wrapping look nice. This year, I decided to go for the complete opposite. There is very little disguising going on here, but I must say, it looks nice!

Can you guess what is on the right?

On the Road Again, Again!

Dad and I had a late start on the first day. We decided it would be a good idea to change my brake pads, as they were grinding metal on metal (thanks to Chris for lending his tools and driveway space late Sunday Night). We also decided to pick up a set of tire chains in anticipation of snowy mountain passes. I knew if we didn't have chains, we would need them, but if I bought chains, we certainly wouldn't need it. We crossed 7 mountain passes with areas designated for chaining up tires, and as predicted we didn't need the chains.

Though we didn't need the chains, there was plenty of snow. I estimate about 2150 miles of the 2300 miles of land we crossed was snow covered, making for a beautiful drive!

The 11 hours of driving through sand and salt on the first day did quite a number on my Explorer (165,000 miles and counting).

We got an early start on the second day and watched the sun rise on the horizon.

We drove past the last mountains the morning of day two, leaving plenty of flat land ahead!

If you have ever driven I-90 through South Dakota, you have certainly seen signs for Wall Drug. We had to stop!

2300 miles, 37 hours of driving, 3 days, one fun trip!

Goodbye Seattle

Before I left Seattle, the city gave me one last view of Mt Rainier (as see a few blocks from my apartment). Look close along the horizon on the right and you'll see the huge mountain/volcano!

One last view of Elliot Bay.

Although I've been to this park about a hundred times, I've never had my picture taken there! One last day for a good picture in front of the Seattle skyline!

Here I am about ready to embark on the 2300 mile drive. Luckily, my Dad was able to snag a last minute cheap plane ticket to Seattle and join me for the 37 hour drive!

Goodbye Seattle... for now???

Gingerbread Men

Yeah... I baked these. I had my last team meeting at Boeing and decided to go above and beyond the usual snack bringing duty that I bestowed upon myself as a co-team leader.

Feeling festive I bought the gingerbread mix at Trader Joes. I followed the directions for cookies and as I rolled the dough out, I suddenly realized the potential of the thin dough in from of me. Without cookie cutters on hand, I grabbed a knife and started cutting - completely liberated from the conformity of standard cookie cutters I was able to make mix and match gingerbread men.

Pick a hat - top hat, baseball cap, or beanie

Choose arm position - normal relaxed at the sides, one hand up waving to a buddy, or the both hands up fist pump!

I then noticed my ginerbread men we basically shirts and pants with heads, so I decided to add some arms, legs, feet, and hands... making a much more realistic gingerbread man (far left).

I finished it off with the running gingerbread man (upper right corner)

Merry Christmas!

Whistler!

With only two weeks left in my great internship at Boeing, I decided that I had to visit Whistler before I depart the Northwest. We drove up Thursday afternoon, which quickly turned to night as it gets dark around here at 4:30pm. Thus I arrived at Whistler with no idea of the views around me.

We woke up with this view from our hotel room... that's the gondola that takes you up the mountain! I couldn't see much due to the clouds, thus at this point, I felt as though this would be just another mountain with groomed snow. We jumped on the Whistler gondola and headed up.

We then hit a nice warm up run and jumped on another lift, going up even higher. As we climbed the sun started to show through the clouds more and more until we climbed above the clouds! It was breathtaking!

At this point, just look at the pictures, because my description doesn't do the view justice!

It looks like a different planet up here!

I'm on top of the world!!!

We spent most of our day snowboarding literally above the clouds on snow that hadn't been touched by anyone else this season (they just opened the lift that goes to the peak for the first time this season). I had to completely re-learn how to snowboard in all of the thick fluffy powder snow. It was so nice to cruise silently through the soft stuff... and when I fell it was like falling into a soft cold bed.

Then we had to ride all the way down to the valley. We'll just say, it's was a long way with lots of breaks. Here's a view from below the clouds with the sun lighting up Whistler Village below.

Day 2 on the mountain was perfectly clear! Here's the group in front of the Olympic mascot!

The valley on a clear day! Awesome snow, awesome view.
After an awesome weekend, I had the privilege of driving us home on a beautiful afternoon. I now see the sights that I missed on the drive up due to the darkness. We were greeted back into the county with a lovely sight to our right.
Whistler... a really amazing place to ski!