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Moving to San Diego August 7, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : San Diego , 5 comments

Sorry, I missed my cue from Colin a few days ago. As I wrote in his comment, life has been pretty busy and I’ve more or less pushed blogging to the side.

The big news is that in a month and a half, I will join Adrian and call California my home. It’s a state that I never imagined myself moving to. The weather was always attractive, but the traffic and the cost of living have always dissuaded me. Plus, my entire family lives on the east coast.

So why am I moving? As many of you can guess, I’m moving out there to live closer to my girlfriend Chelsea. We’re both pretty excited to live in the same city and not live on our cell phones anymore. BTW, unlimited in-network Verizon minutes were a Godsend.

I’ve waited this long to post the information because of my job. I’m not sure if anyone at my current employer reads this blog, but I wanted to wait till it was public there before I went public here.

You probably want to ask me for a lot of details and I unfortunately am asking the same questions. My target week to move out there is the last week of September. My last day of work is August 17th. In between my work in Pittsburgh and moving, I’m taking two trips: backpacking in the Pacific Northwest, and an annual fishing trip in Central Ontario with my family. Then, I’ll stay a week and a half in Pittsburgh and then move out. It looks like I’ll live in the Pacific Beach area of San Diego.

I currently do not have a job in San Diego, though I do have some leads. So if you know anyone looking for an embedded software engineer, you know who to call. I’ll try to post developments as they come. It’s an exciting time because I never lived outside of Pennsylvania. I was born in Philadelphia, raised in Pittsburgh, and went to school in State College. San Diego will be quite different, but it will be good.

More details to come….

Hand me another ‘arn July 3, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : Pittsburgh, Photography , 1 comment so far

Pittsburgh nostalgia from seventy years ago. It’s good to see the ‘arn being a mainstay back then. The ad is a bit more refined than the metal bottle campaign they started a few years back.

And speaking of iron…A couple days ago, my girlfriend and I were talking about friendship and the verse in Proverbs that says “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another”. For the life of me, I couldn’t pronounce that sentence without the Pittsburghese blunting my tongue. The descent continues!

Cool Bicycle Hats June 3, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : Cycling , 1 comment so far

I was manning a table for my friend at the Union Project this morning for the annual Highland Park community festival.  And the booth across from me was selling pretty sweet bike hats.  I picked up a couple and you should too.  They go by the name of spoke punchers.

European trip planning with Google MyMaps May 24, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : Travel , 5 comments

I finally checked out Google’s My Maps feature to try and plan a tentative Europe trip that two friends and I plan to do in August. We’re not sure about the time frame (or if we’re actually going or not), but I thought the sooner we devise a plan, the sooner we’ll purchase a ticket. I also hope to garner some wisdom from the blogosphere. None of us have seen much of Europe, so we’re not sure where to visit. Our current thoughts are Eastern Europe, and it would hopefully span two weeks.

Here’s the map. Let me know if anyone has any thoughts.

Why I have not been blogging in more than a month May 14, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : Friends , 8 comments

You, one of my ten loyal blog readers, have probably got into the habit of humming the tune Where have all the Blogposts Gone? when you have visited this site. And you probably won’t believe the answer if I told you.

The reason is a ladyfriend in San Diego and her name is Chelsea. The mindful reader will notice that my previous post was about a last minute visit to a friend in San Diego. At the time of that writing, I didn’t want to say more and compromise my real intentions of visiting San Diego.

Chelsea is a friend of a friend and we met at our friend’s 2007 New Year’s party in Allentown, PA. It’s funny because we barely talked at this party. It was probably less than fifteen minutes and neither of us had an interest in each other. She even jokes about that when I was leaving, she said goodbye and put her hand on my arm as a friendly gesture. I apparently took on a look of semi-revulsion and looked away. While this still remains to be disputed, I thought she was a sweet, godly gal, and that it was nice meeting her, and that I’d probably never see her again.

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But before I left, I asked if she would send a draft of the book she was writing. It was one of the things that piqued my interest about her. She liked the idea so I sent our mutual friend my email address a few days later to pass on to Chelsea.

This email started a three month email correspondence. It started off at a weekly frequency talking about all sorts of stuff. And around middlemarch, the frequency of emails picked up until it reached a daily rate. On March 23rd, a day after my birthday, I asked if I could call her on the phone. She said yes and we talked. The first phone call was 4½ hours. The next one was 1½. The next one 5½. Needless to say, the intensity level of the cross-gender friendship kicked into a higher gear and something needed to be said.

And that’s what happened on my last blog post. I was sitting at work on Monday morning and thinking how the upcoming weekend would be the best time to visit her - the friendship’s at the right place; it was her spring break (she’s a teacher); and it was her birthday weekend. So I talked to a couple friends to make sure that I wasn’t crazy and that I wouldn’t freak her out, and then called her up a few hours later. I surprised her as she ate mixed nuts at her kitchen table. Though a little shocked, she gladly gave me the go ahead. I flew out there five days later. It was the trip that started us to refer to each other as “us”.

A lot has transpired in a month and a lot has been learned. There’s more to tell of prayers being answered and the gospel changing hearts, but I need to save those stories for another day. I just want to say that God’s really good and I really like this woman.

One Ticket to Paradise April 4, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : Travel, Friends , 5 comments

In a somewhat impulsive decision a couple of days ago, I bought a ticket to San Diego this weekend to spend four days out there to visit a friend. It looks like the trip will come at a great time because it’s supposed to snow in Pittsburgh this weekend.

The price for the ticket ended up being a Godsend. I started looking at 5 PM on Monday evening and prices were well above $500 for a round trip ticket for Saturday to Tuesday. I continued to scour the net, hoping for a better deal. Two hours later, I found a round trip on Expedia for $210 for the exact dates I wanted.

And then I found out later that my friend was praying for ticket logistics and a cheap fare so that I would still be a good steward of my money and not blow several hundred dollars on a plane ticket. Imagine that!

1040 is Finished! March 18, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : House , 1 comment so far

I finally completed by 1040 tax form after about 10-12 hours working on it.  The most difficult part was figuring out the tax basis of my rental property.  And if you’re a first time landlord trying to figure out tax deductions, I highly recommend Every Landlord’s Tax Deduction Guide.  It’s straightforward and simple and cuts through all the legalese of the IRS tax publications.

In other news, my kitchen and second bedroom are finished as far as the floors go.  Much accomplished this weekend.

The Ides of March March 15, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : Christianity, Friends, Music , add a comment

Middlemarch has closed a couple of doors and opened some new ones. Our bowling team bowled our last game of the Winter season this past Monday. It was our first time that we made it to the playoffs. Unfortunately, we lost pretty badly. It was a good year for all of us. Since the weather’s getting better, we probably won’t join again until next Fall. We plan to enjoy a season ending celebration at the local Steak ‘n Shake.

Also, our 29-week Bible study on Acts ended this past week as well. The study exceeded our group’s expectations in many ways. We started as a group of four friends who wanted to study the gospel and the church. Over the course of ½ a year, we grew to nine people, who became fairly good friends. It’s interesting to see how friendships are knit together when you commit to each other on a weekly basis. Our last time together gave us a chance to reflect on the study and its major points.

One of the things that continually resonated throughout the book was the centrality of Jesus and his mission. In the first study, we read a quote from John Stott that read to the effect that many think the gospels are about Jesus and the book of Acts is about the church. But, as we came to see, both books (in fact, the entire Bible) is about Jesus. The gospels are about Jesus’ living ministry through his body in the incarnation, and Acts is Jesus’ living ministry through his body, the church.

Unfortunately, it was bitter sweet for the study to end because I won’t continue with them (at least regularly) in the future. I’m hoping to help start a group at my church.

Middlemarch also means that my eMusic subscription gets recharged tomorrow. Last month’s decisions included the following:

Claudia Died March 8, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : Travel, Cycling , 2 comments

After countless recommendations from friends and family about getting a new car, Walter’s automotive confirmed their fear last Monday. My car has been past due for an inspection for a while now, and I knew there would be some issues bringing it in. I didn’t expect the car to be that bad. Unfortunately, the mechanic found that part of the subframe had rusted out which would be incredibly expensive to fix for an 11-year old Mercury Sable that had 167k miles on it.

The car has done me well, so it’s bitter sweet to part with it. The engine and transmission are still running great which makes it bitter. But the recent issues with it will be sweet to finally be rid of it. I’ll probably end up donating it.

This leads me to figure out what to do for transportation. In a rather rushed decision, I declared March to be a bus/bike month. I just bought a new furnace for one of my tenants and I’m not looking to invest (rather divest) in a car. With Spring around the corner, the idea of bussing and biking around is not that bad of an idea.

Getting to work is suprisingily convenient. The pickup for the bus is a seven minute walk from my house, and it drops me off right in front of my workplace. I’ve taken it the last few days and I enjoy it immensely. I’ve been able to sleep, chat with passengers and the busdriver, read, and stare into the ether. Also, it’s about the same amount of time as driving because it uses the busway. So there’s no traffic for the first third of the route!

And I’ve also tuned up the bike so I can start biking places. I finally fixed my flat tube that I had from last year. It turned out to be a small chip in the tire. So, I took it out to the North Side last night for landlord class. The temperature dropped considerbly last night. The other day, I purchased a balcava from the new Trek store near my house, which helped out tremendously.

The ride to class wasn’t that bad. It was the ride home that was the killer. For my hands, all I had were my fingerless bike gloves. I thought I was going to get frostbite on the way home. But I thankfully made it home and enjoyed some half-off appetizers with Chad at the Sharp Edge.

The tricky circumstances that I still have to iron out is picking up big things (like say, from Home Depot) and visiting my parents. Stay tuned!

Bedroom 1: Before & After March 2, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : House , 5 comments

I wish I had better before & after pics, but I unfortunately do not. I hope to take more of the rooms that I’ll work on next. These before & after pics are of my bedroom. As you can see, the before picture is a grungy green carpet that had a similar tone to stale vomit. I actually think I saw this color when I was shopping for one. To spruce up the place, we picked out a color from Sherwin Williams called “Milk Pail” and refinished the floor with two coats of Minwax polyurethane.

before

My friend Garrett recommended to me that unless I was looking for a particular color to my floor, I should just polyurethane it. This idea is good from many different angles. It’s cheaper to do this. It’s less time and energy. And it brings out the natural color of the wood. I’m glad we went this way.

after

A week from now, we plan to do the kitchen and the other bedroom. I’ll try to get some better pictures.

Note: The pictures were taken at different places within the room. The second photo was taken from inside the closet.