Football via the tubes

So my wife is hogging the TV, and I can't watch football (yes we are a freaky family with only 1 TV. We have kids and I don't want them sneaking off to watch TV without us knowing.) So I'm watching South Carolina vs Vanderbilt on ESPN360.com. I'm also watching Redskins vs Giants on NFL.com. I'm also lounging on a couch drinking beer and writing on the internets. It's a good thing.

ESPN360 wants to install some MOVE networks viewer, and then doesn't load the video. I got it to work on my wife's Dell. Also, the audio drops quite a bit. It wouldn't work on my MacBook (Mac or Windows under VMWare fusion). ESPN360 has a lot of programming (both football and non). I didn't actually get to see the UCLA/Tennessee OT. They have it on replay. ESPN360 also allows you to "Tivo" the game and rewind to the beginning, pause & come back. You know the deal. Also, ESPN360 has a nice fullscreen view.

NFL.com has a nice viewer that doesn't install anything (blatant). It also works in Google chrome. The video is broadcast quality (I don't have HD, so no, it's prob not that great). NFL.com also lets you change between camera angles. This is nice, but you still hear Madden yapping away, & you can't see what he is talking about. It would be nice if these cameras had their own audio feed. Also, there is a lot of real estate on the screen that NFL/NBC is using for ads/social/information services.

In conclusion, I can't say that I like one more than the other. For a team I care about, fullscreen and video quality are important. If I'm just watching to kill time, or monitor a fantasy player, the additional features on NFL.com could keep me distracted. Does anyone out there have additional features from their cable provider, Sports on-demand? Replay? Addl information services? Let me know.

Alleged Traffic

So everyone says that the traffic in the DC area is terrible. And they are by and large correct. But it hasn't been too bad for me. For starters, I have kids, so I never go anywhere fun. That cuts down on the traffic problems. Also, my daughter takes the bus to school (she still thinks it's cool), so we don't have to have that rush in the morning.

I was driving into work (about 9 miles, or 30 minutes). I started taking a company-provided shuttle into work. It probably costs me an additional 15 minutes in the morning, no penalty in the evening. I usually listen to the podcasts that have accumulated on the iPod or actually do work (the shuttle has Wifi). This has the additional benefit of saving me gas and letting me act eco-friendly, rather than just admitting I'm too lazy to even drive myself around.

We tried driving into DC to visit the Smithsonian one weekend & got a parking ticket, so I'm currently mad at the district and refuse to support it with any more of my money. Reston has a bunch of beautiful walking/biking/sauntering trails; so on the weekend (especially on these glorious spring days) I feel pretty guily if I'm not outside enjoying them.

What to read???

Sorry for the delay in new posts. My family has moved in with me and it is bliss (as much bliss as 3 young kids can be :) We've been exploring the area, and of course found the local library. I've been using two new websites to help expand my reading & also to fill out all of the shelves and bookcases in the house.

Bookmooch is a book swap website, this helps you get rid of those books you thought would be great, but just don't want on the shelves any more. LibraryThing is more a literary (not in a snobby way) website that lets you upload your library, and tag it, look for other authors. My favorite feature on there right now is to look at users who have similar libraries and see what they are reading. It's a great way to find new books.

must get out of this hotel room...

So I've been caught in my schedule at work and the weekends are my only time to unwind. I've been caught up in March Madness, but I can't be in my hotel room any more. So what am I doing to see more of NoVA??? 

Geocaching. For those that don't know, this is basically a scavenger hunt using GPS coordinates. You can go to Geocacher and search by location to find a cache near you.

All of the caches I've found so far have been in parks, so I've trodden over many bike/running trails around here. So here's a quick intro to my morning. I park nearby and walk to the first set of coordinates. It's really loud from all the birds chirping and the water running. 

I figure out how to view my current lat/long (I'm using a Garmin Nuvi 350) and find the first cache under some rocks.

Success!!!! Now I'm official. I take a golf ball as a memento. I'm going to put it into the next cache I find and cross-polinate the caches like an bumblebee.

I'm psyched now. I move on to the next cache. On my way over I hear a woodpecker going crazy and I can see evidence of his previous work. I find the next location no problem, all I have to do is stick my hand in this dark log.

Now on to the final cache of the day. I thought for sure it was hidden in here

But I was wrong, I found this nearby. I don't think the chipmunks left it.

My new friend today ....

Week One and life to go

So I finished my first week at work. Not a whole lot to say about that. I've found a dry cleaner, BBQ place, and gas station close enough so I should be able to survive.  Monster energy drinks are consistently $0.50 cheaper in Virginia. That's a pay raise right there!! 

I spent the weekend house-hunting and ended up finding a 3 bedroom townhouse in Reston, VA. It's been recently renovated and it's at the end of the community, so there's plenty of green space for the kids to wear themselves out. I'm happy that's off of my list of things to do, but this is the second weekend in a row I've focused on moving. I need to get a weekend where I actually relax. I did watch Pitt in the Big East championships this weekend, but when they beat Georgetown I figured that wasn't the best time to go meet new people. 

The family and I have been keeping in touch with AIM and iChat. Our friends were nice enough to buy us USB video cameras, so there is a camera for the kids, one for my wife, and one built into my laptop. So I can tell my daughter to do her homework in realtime. Hurray!!!!

Getting Settled

I made the trip alive although I imprinted a nice ass groove on the driver's seat. I've made it through the first few days at work getting acquainted with the team and learning the basics, (Parking, traffic, coffee, desk). The place I'm staying at is a dive of a hotel. It's a corporate ghetto. The place is overrun with sugar ants, and you can't blame me because I'm not cooking. This is just motivating me to find a place to have the family move up.



I've been mapping out schools I think are acceptable for my kids, and so tonight I'm going to drive the areas to

1. See what the areas are like at night.


2. Find an unadvertised cheap rental in a great school district (hopefully).


3. Get out of my cage before the ants regroup and attack.


4. Get better acquainted with the area.

Bags packed and ready to go

So here's the lowdown on traveling light. I've got

1. One bag of cold weather gear (sweaters, jackets and so on)


2. One bag of casual clothing


3. One suitcase of work clothes


4. Two briefcases with important paperwork


5. One backpack with assorted computer gear

So 6 bags to last me 4 months. It didn't take too long to pack the car and everything fits in the trunk. When I was originally planning, I was looking at taking art and kitchen stuff to make my apartment feel more like home. My wife kept me right on track by telling me

"You will eat off of paper plates and miss us so you focus on moving us up there."

She's right, it helps to have someone keep you focused on the prize.

The back story

I'm a nerd living in West Palm Beach. I was contacted by a recruiter for a consulting job in Washington D.C. This is a company that I've always wanted to work at (because of my Strategic Management professor). I wasn't offered the position I was expecting, but I think that is going to help me grow in the long-term. Bonus!!!!

My wife and I talked about this at length. South Florida is a tough environment to raise kids because it is so transient. We were looking at North Carolina like everyone else, but this is how things worked out. She said she would stay in Florida to sell the house. That's the current plan.

This has been a hard decision for me. I'm leaving a great job, wonderful friends, my wife and family behind to "restart" our life somewhere else. Maybe our house will sell quickly and we'll all be together. I hope it does. It's just an additional stress on top of moving to a new city and starting a new job. I just wanted to share this time in my life so I can look back and laugh about how far we all came.