I'm a big fan of open source software, so I always try to use Firefox and Thunderbird whenever possible. However, when I got my new work laptop, I decided to try using Microsoft solutions (Internet Explorer 7 and Outlook 2007) instead, because they are supposed to be much improved by competition with Firefox and Thunderbird. But after about a month of struggling with Outlook to get it to do what I want it to do, and IE7's ugly and non-intuitive interface, I've decided to switch back. And I'm glad I did. Now I can edit my Google calendar from within my email program, and I got rid of the annoying security pop up every time I access my NRL email. Outlook has this fancy-ass contacts system, and I could never access or organize it very easily. Thunderbird has a much simpler contacts system. And my biggest Outlook complaint of all...I couldn't even search my email! I think Outlook was trying to index all the email on the NRL mail servers! The only bad thing about Thunderbird is that it doesn't read all my RSS feeds properly, but at least I can organize them the way I want, unlike Outlook. As for Firefox, it has such a simpler user interface than IE7, and looks better too. I don't know why everybody just doesn't switch.

My car just passed 100,000 miles, so I took it into the Nissan dealership yesterday for a tune-up. It cost me $600, but they did do alot of stuff. It's all things that I could do myself, but I just don't have the time to take care of it all. It took them three hours, but it would have taken me at least one whole day to do it all. Anyway, they also gave me a list of things that should be fixed, which is good to have. And they gave me a free Nissan Versa to drive for the day.

I hope everybody had a great Labor Day weekend. Kelly and I rented a cabin from the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club in southern Pennsylvania. It seemed so far away, but it was only like a two hour drive. Gunner had a blast running around the forest. I would post pictures, but Gunner chewed up the power cord for my wireless router on Thursday. Luckily I had a backup router, so at least we can connect Kelly's PC online.

Another week, another weekend. Time seems to be just flying by. Days pass way to quickly at work. And Gunner is as feisty as ever. We took him to the Vienna dog park and he had a blast chasing and being chased by other dogs. Kelly and I try to spend a lot of time with him during the weekends to make up for working so much during the week. When we walk him, we try to go by a playground (there are a lot of them out here) so he can run around. He even goes down the slides on his own! We could never get Ed to do that.

Kelly and I saw Superbad today. It was really funny, in a dry, subtle sort of way. The way the characters interact with each other and the things they say are pretty hilarious. We saw it in this really old multiplex theater that's close to our house. I doesn't have stadium seating, or even cupholders in the seats. And the seats are partially leather, so they squeak every now and then. But the awesome thing is that nobody goes there, so it's less stressful for us, which is important to us nowadays.

There are too many bugs here!

Windows Vista still sucks, but my data turns out to be fine. I have to just remember to turn off the thumbnail view before I open my data directory. Vista Explorer still crashes when I try to drag and drop files, though.

Let me just state or the record that Windows Vista sucks, Sucks, SUCKS! It is slowly corruping my TEM data every time it tries to "index" my files. Afterwards, I can't open or delete them!

It's been a hectic few days, so I'm very glad the weekend is here. In grad school I only had to worry about one research project. At NRL I'm working on three different projects! Then on Thursday the tread came off my front passenger tire while I was driving on the beltway. Both my front tires were almost bald, and the DC freeway system is not in the best of conditions. The tire still holds air; it's just missing the tread. But when the tread came off it ripped everything out of my wheel well, including the wires to one of my side blinkers and the valve to my windshield wiper fluid tank. You can imagine my initial panic when I pull over and see a whole bunch of liquid pouring out of my car. I stopped by a tire place in Alexandria yesterday and got a pair of new tires, but that set me back almost $300.

Today Kelly and I went and saw the Simpson's Movie. It was actually funny. It wasn't as good as one of the classic Simpson episodes, but it was much better than recent Simpson episodes.

I finally got my office on Thursday. Now somebody else is in limbo for a while, but I'm all set. I moved all my stuff in, but I'm still waiting on my new computer. I guess it had to be reordered on Wednesday because the initial order did not go through for some reason. The guy said he was going to get overnight delivery, but I haven't heard anything about it yet (although I was busy on the FIB all day Friday).

The weather has been really nice here lately. Sunny and not to humid or hot. So much more comfortable now than in AZ.

I'm going to apply for beamtime at the Canadian Light Source in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I was checking out the website, when I found the online synchrotron status webpage. It seems someone in Canada really likes Star Trek.

I met up with my friend William and his girlfriend yesterday. We ate at a good Ethiopian restaurant in Georgetown. It was nice to catch up, especially since he's moving to Ohio soon. And, as per his request, here's a picture of our new backyard. Yes, it is frickin' huge.

Kelly and I had a great day today. This morning we took Gunner to Great Falls National Park on the Potomac and walked him around. The falls are really cool, and there are miles of trails to explore. Then we went and got sushi for lunch at this place in downtown Falls Church. Then we went and got library cards and the regional public library that's within walking distance from our house. It was a lot of fun spending time with Kelly, and decompressing from a stressful week. I really like where we live now, and there are lots of things nearby that weren't that convenient in AZ. Although now there are things that aren't nearby, like good Mexican food.

Kelly and I met up with Eulynn and Victor this weekend in DC. We ate at this awesome Vietnamese restaurant in Georgetown. Then we walked around a bit and ended up at a bar called Brickskeller that has like a thousand different kinds of beer from all around the world. It was a lot of fun, but we stayed out late and were very tired by the time we got home.

We also got our new VA drivers licenses. They look so much crappier than AZ drivers licenses, and neither of us are happy with our pictures. We did a bunch of shopping too, now that I've been paid, so our house looks a bit more organized. Now that that's over, we don't have to waste our weekends running errands or unpacking.

Happy 4th everybody! This week both Kelly and I started work. NRL looks like most military bases I've seen (I have a few uncles in the armed forces, so I've seen my fair share of military bases). I'd post a picture, but there are no cameras allowed on-site. I'm not even supposed to bring my laptop in. But I have to bring it in to work until my new computer arrives (I'm getting a new Sony Vaio laptop with a docking station, wireless keyboard and mouse, and a 24" LCD monitor). I don't even have an office yet until some science director guy gets back from vacation next week to officially assign me one. The weirdest thing so far is that most of the administrative staff leaves at 3PM every day. And I still have personal stuff to do to get us fully settled in here, like registering our cars in Virginia, and getting insurance policies. Hopefully I'll have most of that miscellanea done by the start of next week.

Sorry for not posting in a while, but an awful lot has happened in the last two weeks. Needless to say, Kelly and I are now residing in Falls Church, Virginia, a suburb of Washington DC. We drove both our cars from Arizona to here over five days, and I don't know if I ever want to do that again. We've been staying in an empty house, but the movers will show up tomorrow morning with all our stuff. We have been pretty busy cleaning up the place. I guess the owners moved out two days before we arrived and say they didn't have time to clean up the place. The carpets hadn't been cleaned and the walls were all dirty. And the owners had some sort of shaggy dog because there is wiry gray dog hair everywhere! But we've gotten it looking pretty presentable by now. Plus a handyman showed up yesterday to rip up the filthy carpet in the sunroom and replaced it with a clean, painted cement floor.

This article makes me mad. People should not be punished for trying to use alternative energy sources.

There's an awesome Wolfgang Tillmans exhibit at the Hirshhorn Museum in DC.

Thursday I had some free time in the afternoon, so I went over to Woodlawn Plantation, which was right across the street from my hotel. The grounds were very well-tended, and aside from the main house, there's also a Frank Lloyd Wright house on the property.


Next to the mansion house there was a tiny pool with tons of tadpoles in it.


There were also a few Southern Magnolia trees on the property. I didn't realize that the magnolia was a tree and not a bush. They were just beginning to bloom, but only near the tops of the trees.

I saw six homes today. This is the one that sounded good to me, so I made plans to see it first in the morning. I also stopped by again later in the afternoon, after my expectations had been calibrated, and I decided to apply for it. It is smaller than the home we are renting now, but compared to other homes in the area, the price for the size is a great value.

Pros:

• large yard (and it's fully fenced)
  
• semi hidden from street (although that slope might be trouble for our cars in the winter)
• largest living room and laundry room I've seen all day
  
• has a nice sunroom extension in back
• has large storage shed in back (in very good condition)
• Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Starbucks, and video rental store in walking distance down the street
• very near Metro station, and right on bus line (which goes to Metro station)
• just a few miles south of Tysons Corner malls
• backs up to Pimmet Run creek, so only neighbors on the right and left
• very close to major freeways (495 beltway and 66)
  

Cons:

• small kitchen
• small bathroom with no toiletries storage
• the two bedrooms combined are about the size of our current bedroom
• one lane parking along side of house (no garage)
• the slopes in the front and back yards might make mowing the lawns a pain
  

I'm blogging from my hotel in Mount Vernon, Virginia. According to internet reviews, this place is supposed to be a shithole, but I guess the owners have remodeled it over the past two years, and I think it's not that bad. My room is actually pretty nice, if small. I was surprised to walk into the place and see this huge courtyard in the middle, so I thought I'd post a picture. The hotel has free wireless, as you can probably guess.

Early tomorrow I'm meeting up with a realtor to see the rental home in Falls Church I like the most, then I'll head over to Fairfax and check out this other place. I'll be meeting up with another realtor in the afternoon. However, if the first home turns out as good as it looks on the internet, I may not have to. We'll see, and I'll keep y'all posted.

I keep forgetting to blog about camping Memorial Day weekend. It was basically Kelly's and my last chance to camp in AZ before we move (less than a month away!!). We went with Kelly's parents, her brother, Ed, and a family friend, to a place we know just north of Strawberry on the Mogollon Rim. I think Strawberry is one of my favorite Rim towns, and I have many good memories from there. It was also Gunner's first time camping, and I think he had a blast.

Anyway, there were plenty of animals, so I got a chance to test out the macro mode on my camera.