Let's get together, before we get much older...

Hey people! It's been quite a while!

There are some big changes coming to the Harrison household, but I'll let Pete make the official announcement about that. For now, in honor of this past weekend's journey down to the most perfect Mountain in all of Tennessee, and perhaps the world, here are a few of my favorite things.

The words that follow are Robert Frost's. The pictures are all mine.

Back out of all this now too much for us,

Back in a time made simple by the loss

Of detail, burned, dissolved, and broken off

Like graveyard marble sculpture in the weather,

There is a house that is no more a house

Upon a farm that is no more a farm

And in a town that is no more a town.

The road there, if you'll let a guide direct you

Who only has at heart your getting lost,

May seem as if it should have been a quarry--

Great monolithic knees the former town

Long since gave up pretense of keeping covered.

And there's a story in a book about it:

Besides the wear of iron wagon wheels

The ledges show lines ruled southeast-northwest,

The chisel work of an enormous Glacier

That braced his feet against the Arctic Pole.

You must not mind a certain coolness from him

Still said to haunt this side of Panther Mountain.

Nor need you mind the serial ordeal

Of being watched from forty cellar holes

As if by eye pairs out of forty firkins.

As for the woods' excitement over you

That sends light rustle rushes to their leaves,

Charge that to upstart inexperience.

Where were they all not twenty years ago?

They think too much of having shaded out

A few old pecker-fretted apple trees.

Make yourself up a cheering song of how

Someone's road home from work this once was,

Who may be just ahead of you on foot

Or creaking with a buggy load of grain.

The height of the adventure is the height

Of country where two village cultures faded

Into each other. Both of them are lost.

And if you're lost enough to find yourself

By now, pull in your ladder road behind you

And put a sign up CLOSED to all but me.

Then make yourself at home. The only field

Now left's no bigger than a harness gall.

First there's the children's house of make-believe,

some shattered dishes underneath a pine,

The playthings in the playhouse of the children.

Weep for what little things could make them glad.

Then for the house that is no more a house,

But only a belilaced cellar hole,

Now slowly closing like a dent in dough.

This was no playhouse but a house in earnest.

Your destination and your destiny's

A brook that was the water of the house

Cold as a spring as yet so near its source,

Too lofty and original to rage.

(We know the valley streams that when aroused

Will leave their tatters hung on barb and thorn.)

I have kept hidden in the instep arch

Of an old cedar at the waterside

A broken drinking goblet like the Grail

Under a spell so the wrong ones can't find it,

So can't get saved, as Saint Mark says they mustn't.

(I stole the goblet from the children's playhouse.)

Here are your waters and your watering place.

Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.

Ecce Quam Bonum.

Visiting a Vice Chancellor

Last week, Kate and I were able to attend the D.C. Sewanee Alumni reception for the newly elected Vice Chancellor, John McCardell, Jr. and had a great time talking to him.  While there, we also met several people from a few years ahead of us.  Suffice it to say, there will be a Mario Kart reunion tour some time in the future.

In other news, Kate and I ran 5k on the Rock Creek Parkway trail, and after walking to and from the trail from our apartment, covered more than 6 miles.  We were understandably tired after that.  Since we hadn't eaten in the several hours that were involved in that, we were also quite famished.  As anyone who has spent time with us in D.C. knows, that means it is time for the Diner.

Satiated and weary from our delightful run in the park, we made our way home to some Crimson Tide football.  ROLL TIDE.That is all that needs to be said.

Silver Linings

For a couple living in gentile poverty with only one wage earner in a stalled economy, it can seem like there could be no way for happiness to thrive.  That is not so.  We seem to have found ourselves in the midst of friends, and friends can do a lot to make you happy.  Tonight, there is a Sewanee alumni gathering that we are going to attend.  We will join roughly 20 fellow young Sewanee alums as we hang out, catch up, and make connections--just like we did when school resumed. 

Then there is this Saturday, when we go to the Old Dominion Brewhouse to join 50 or so of our closest friends for the Alabama Crimson Tide Football game.  Thanks to the National Capital Chapter of the University of Alabama Alumni Association, the entire place is overrun with crimson jerseys and t-shirts.  This Saturday will be particularly fun since it will be the Alabama-Florida game. $5 says the commentary will be dominated by Tim Tebow's legacy.  Roll Tide!

Finally, a real bright spot of where we live is the fact that great stuff happens here.  We'll be there, and we hope you come too.

-Pete

Rip Van Winkle stirs

Well.  Looks like the site kind of stalled out there.  Last post was before I graduated.  So, where are we now that a full season has passed us by?  In one of the more terrifying points of a young couple's life: staring over the edge on the rain-slick precipice of darkness--the job hunt.  It has not been successful, and anyone who has ever shared the difficulty of having a spouse sacrifice to put your butt through school so you can get a good job knows, not being able to deliver that good job at the end of that schooling is a MAJOR disappointment.

We're plucky, determined and eager to have an answer to "what's next?" Uncertainty of this level makes life hard to live, as we must settle for mere existence until that change comes.  As I said to a friend that was cheering me up on a particularly frustrating day of career searching, "It's a tough road and the only way to get off is to keep walking down the trail."  It doesn't change the fact of the matter that the search is hard, all the harder after the worst recession since the Great Depression.  And just because the times are hard does not mean that I have to like it.  But these are the "interesting times" in which we live.  That old Chinese curse is collecting its bitter due.

To keep myself from going mad, I have started another blog, The Inner Napoleon. This one is is more about my journey as a gamer--with a smattering of actual shop-talk on strategy.  Drop by, and if you have some words of wisdom you've gained from playing games, send them to me and I'll put you in a s a guest columnist.

I keep trying, trudging one foot in front of the other down this rugged, hostile path, thinking that each time the dust tears up my eyes in disappointment that this time, this time the mirage is real.  Every day, I keep expecting to be like George Clooney in "O' Brother, Where Art Thou?"  I will find my treasure, but it will not be the one I expected.

See you down the road, fellow travelers.

Eve of the Storm

Hello again,
Finals start for me on the 6th, followed by one on the 8th, and the last on the 10th. Then I have a paper due on the 13th... even though the Registrar's policy says papers are due on the 3rd. I don't want to be there when this pillar of the faculty comes down on the Registrar with his decision to have the paper due on the 13th. Beside the point. I finished the paper as though it were to be due tomorrow, so when the professor moved it back 10 days so students could come have meetings with him, I felt about three steps ahead of everyone else.

I've been duking it out with a pesky head cold, with its perfect timing for finals. I've virtually killed the beast now, just have to push those painfully slow final symptoms out of the body to be back to "normal."

There is no news on the job front. My efforts have been put on hold for finals, but rest assured that with 13 days until graduation from my last exam, I will have nothing else to do but search. Lets hope I get something soon.

Back to the mines.
-Pete

Tax week, gadgets and spring

Well folks,
This week has the dreaded "tax day." April 15th is Thursday. Have you finished your income taxes? We have and we are pleased to announce that we overpaid Uncles Sam and George and are due a refund.

In other news, unless you hid in the center of the Earth, you've heard that the iPad is out now--sort of. There are scads of articles out now, detailing the pros and cons of the device. There are further still that predict its success or failure. Given my technological needs, I will not be getting one at this time, and given some of its cons, I will like not get one at all unless I can't beat its price. I do find myself looking forward to the HP slate coming out soon, and I really have the curiosity bug over the Microsoft Courier and the Dell Mini 5. The summer should be interesting on the tablet front.

The other thing that techies and gadget geeks have been looking out for are the new versions of the iPhone and Android systems coming out this summer. As a consumer, I love watching titans of consumer electronics batter each other in mortal combat--I get the best deals that way. Sadly, because of the current job market, I will not satisfy my gadget lust until I get a job.

This week marks the end of the Washington, DC Cherry Blossom Festival. It was fun, but the crowds were mind-boggling. John and Susie Q. Public from generic Mid-Western city can really clog and bloat this already transportation-choked town. Poor Kate missed the fireworks because the crowds paralyzed the Metro, preventing her from getting out to see it. That was terrible, but it did let us check out the Capital Hill neighborhood. Its really interesting, and we'll take a look at it if I get employment up here.

Well, time for class before resuming my paperwork and job hunt. Wish us luck

-Pete

Tax man commeth

whoo hoo! the IRS is hiring again. I'm applying to every position they have for which I qualify. So far, that's all but one. Wish me luck!

I have also finished my class project, so now my attention shifts to the Final Exam (dun dun DUN!) on Saturday. After that, I move on to the take home exam that is due on the 30th. Then I have 15 days to write a paper, and fill out our taxes (ewwww.). After all that, things calm down for a week, then I have another paper to write, and three exams to be preparing for. Its just like work, only, sadly, education doesn't come with a wage.

In other awesome news: I'm volunteering for food prep duties this Thursday at the DC Central Food Kitchen. I think it will be a blast, and I'm looking forward to it. Did you know that soup kitchens are booked on volunteers for weeks in advance? Maybe that's just up here, but its crazy.

Finally, I've been working on the Couch to 5K running program. I'm in the middle of week 4, and my mean time is 24 minutes for two miles. I don't see an NFL contract in my future, but when the zombie apocalypse comes, I'll be zombie food rank two. I'll be safe from small children, the elderly, and fat zombies, but not if they have rascals.

Here's to rank 3.

-Pete

long time no see, stranger

So its been over a month. Wow. What have we been up to in all that time? For one, Kate got a job! We have experienced the trouble the nation has in finding work first hand, and I am still on the market. Several interviews, but so far, its been "maybe next year when the economy's better."

Second, we have a ton of photos, but we haven't been able to sit down and really load them up. Its a weak excuse, but when the option is to load photos or go to bed, we choose bed. We'll get them up at some point though!

Third, Hank had a scare that sent him to the vet. Apparently, male cats are very prone to kidney stones, so they need to drink lots and lots of water to, um, keep things flowing? Thankfully, since we've been to this rodeo before with Ivan, we caught the signs early. So early in fact that the vet complemented us on our speed. All told, Hank's ordeal cost 1/4 of Ivan's since we spotted it so early on.

Finally, its insanity for me these next two weeks. I have a project due on Tuesday, a final exam next Saturday, and a take-home final exam due on March 30th. I also have a paper due on April 15, but that's two weeks further out, so I'm not worried about that yet in my triage of schoolwork.

So sorry to leave you all hanging out there in cyberspace. Its been busy and its not letting up for a while.

'til the next train comes
-Pete

Umm...

Y'ALL.

We're supposed to get up to 30 inches of snow before this time tomorrow night. You read that right. THIRTY. This is simultaneously awesome and kind of terrifying.

Freakout aside, I concluded some time back that I am completely in love with the weather up here. It gets warm, it gets cold, it rains, it snows. But unlike the south, it doesn't usually get SUPER hot, there aren't usually tornadoes... you get the idea. AND, people actually seem to understand how snow works, and nobody panics whenever 3 flakes fall out of the sky.

But the threat of "Snowpocalypse: Part Deux" is enough to send even the normally calm D.C. folks scurrying to collect the big items-- you know the drill: milk, toilet paper, bread, and beer.

Thursday night, I went to the grocery to stock up for the weekend. It was maybe 5 p.m., which is normally an ok time to go because nobody's gotten home from work yet, but the afternoon shoppers are already home. It's a bad sign when you walk in the door and there are no carts available at the front because they're all being used. I pushed through the looming panic attack and fought through the crowds to get all my stuff. Just to paint a picture here, this Giant grocery store near us is pretty big and usually well-staffed, but for some reason there always seems to be a huge line, and this was no exception. All of the registers were open, and the line for each went through the checkout area all the way back to the end of aisles. Total chaos. After getting my supplies, I got in line and waited. And waited. And waited. When all was said and done, my new grocery shopping friends and I had stood in line for an hour and 5 minutes.

In other words, I had a lot of time to stand there and think, mainly about shopping and American grocery habits in general.

Most of all, "convenience food." Pre-chopped onions, cracker-sized pre-cut cheese, bottled water. I think all of these things are ridiculous, especially bottled water. It's kind of my thing to hate at the moment. (When I get particularly worked up-- like after standing in a grocery line for an hour-- I wonder why it's legal to even sell that crap. "Support the landfills of tomorrow! Two dollars for future garbage that's full of something you can already get for basically free!" No thanks. Ok, rant over.) Anyway, I was standing there thinking what a waste of time and money most of these "convenience products" are, and it occured to me-- I hate frozen chicken. I know, I know, it's cheaper to buy chicken breasts in bulk and freeze them, instead of buying a new package fresh every day. I know this, and I do buy it in bulk and freeze it. Because it's cheaper, and easy to do. Really, I just hate de-frosting chicken. But regardless, someday, I swear I will only use fresh chicken. And then some girl will watch me in the grocery store and be like, "Seriously? Is it that hard to put a chicken breast in the fridge to thaw?"

Meanwhile, the snow continues to fall. This is going to be insane.

Y'all, I don't want to see what the "real north" is like in the winter time. If this is D.C., I'm kind of afraid to ever see Buffalo.

Baby, You Can Drive My Car

I have this theory about some skill sets that are pretty much necessary for success as an adult. I think you can learn to do something adequately, but there are certain rites of passage that you have to endure in order to be really good at said skill.

Take for example, driving. I, like most Americans teenagers in the days before graduated licenses and age restrictions, got my learner's permit at 15. In those days, in Alabama, it should be noted that the only rules separating a learner's permit from a full-fledged license was that the driver in question had to be over 15 years of age and enrolled in school. Once one passed a ridiculously easy written exam, there were pretty much no rules, other than that there had to be a licensed adult over age 21 in the car at all times, and they *should* be conscious. (Yes, really.)

The minute I turned 15, I passed my written test with flying colors, got my little plastic card with my picture on it and restriction "Y" (I assume it stands for youth? I don't know), and proceeded to scare the hell out of my parents for the next year behind the wheel of my first baby, otherwise known as "Joanie the Little Blue Oldsmobile." "Joanie" was actually my dad's car-- a 1994 Cutlass convertible, in turquoise!-- but it was deemed the easiest vehicle in the family for me to learn on. (Yes, I named the car. Like, as if.)

The first real driving adventure I had was the night of my 15th birthday. I'd had my permit for all of 5 hours, but when we went out to dinner to celebrate, I drove. I don't remember much about it, other than that I think I screamed the whole way (probably a 10 minute trip.) The real test came a few weeks later, when my mom taught me to parallel park in front of our church one morning right before the service to keep us from having to walk 3 blocks from the other lot. Literally, I learned to parallel park in front of God and everybody, and if I may say, it's still one of the things I'm best at. I've taught several of my friends. I should put it on my resume.

Fast forward about 10 years to this past Sunday. The local chapter of our beloved alma mater's alumni club held a reception for the outgoing Vice Chancellor and his wife. (For you non-Sewanee folk out there, the V.C. is basically the university president.) The party was at a house out in Chevy Chase, Maryland, which is a very nice suburb of D.C. However, we did have one small problem-- the house was 3 miles from the nearest Metro station. Now, we walk a lot up here, but 3 miles is definitely a little far-- especially if you're trudging through the snow in nice clothes. Enter our hero-- the zipcar!

Zipcars may be the most brilliant idea anyone has ever had. Here's how it works. You fill out an application, they approve you and give you a plastic card that works like a key. When you need a car, you go online, pick one in your area, and reserve it for as long as you need. Hourly rates range from about $8 to about $13, depending on the car. Gas and insurance are included. So basically, for the bargain price of your $50 a year membership fee, plus your $8-13 per hour rental, you have a car at your disposal. Compare that to the $200 per month parking fee at our apartment building, plus the cost of insuring a car in a major city, plus getting new tags, plus oil changes, gas, etc. etc. etc... yeah.

Anyway. My love of zipcars aside, this was going to be the only way to get out to Maryland on a snowy Sunday evening. I arranged to get a car near Georgetown law school-- turned out I totally hated the car, but that happens sometimes. Not a fan of the new Honda Civic hybrid though. I couldn't see out of it at all. Anyway, I picked Pete up, and we were off on our merry way. Then we looked at the map, and saw that Google was taking us through probably the craziest intersection in the entire world-- Dupont Circle. If you've never been there, here's what it's like: Imagine an English roundabout... except instead of having one circle with a few reasonably sized lanes that everyone drives through in a (somewhat) orderly fashion, there's the giant circle, plus at least 4 lanes at any given point. Oh and also, there's a giant median in between them. Also, instead of having like 4 "exit" streets that shoot off from the circle, there are like 8. Several of which also have a big triangle or median blocking you from going down them the wrong way. As for street signs... wait... what are those? I don't think we have those here.

We joked that they should take down the one sign telling you to stay on the outside circle for New Hampshire Ave, or whatever, and just put up a big sign saying "DuPont Circle. Good luck."

Anyway.

We don't know the area well enough to re-route ourselves. I mean, I could walk all around Dupont if I had to, but since we almost never drive... you're seeing the problem. Going out wasn't so horrible because it was still daytime, and as such, the streets hadn't frozen. Coming back was a different story. I mean, clearly we made it back safely, but it was a nerve-wracking experience. We had planned to re-do the directions so we could avoid DuPont in the dark with the snow, but then determined that it was actually safer to be on the big roads that had been salted and plowed, and then driven on all day. (Side note, can we discuss how much it blew my mind the first time I saw a snow plow? I really don't think I had ever seen one before this winter.) Fortunately we didn't encounter much ice until we got back to the parking lot to turn in the car, and that was manageable.

I think I need a Girl Scout badge for that one. It could have a penguin on it, like the one I got in 5th grade for camping when it was below freezing, and it could say "I drove through DuPont Circle TWICE in the snow in an unfamiliar car that I couldn't see out of. BEAT THAT!!"

Last First Day of School

You read that correctly. We have officially passed the last first day of school ever in my academic career! Now to get that actual career going... *prods Congress* As for the day itself, there was nothing to report. As one of my fellow student-friends reported, it was long, uneventful, and uninformative. This however, its to be somewhat expected. The first week of class is add-drop period, so the class make up often is still fluctuating. Professors then spend most of the first class going over the syllabus. What time is left is spent painting the scenery of necessary background information for the course with a street sweeper.

Of far greater entertainment value is the Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor exhibit at the National Geographic museum. As a brief history lesson, the Chinese have known for some time the location of the burial mound of the first emperor of China. For reasons of cultural respect, they have never excavated the mound. What the Chinese didn't know until 1974 was that the mound wasn't the only thing the Emperor built as part of his tomb. Turns out that in the Emperor's time, the belief was that after death, the dead must be nourished or whither away; and rulers had to counsel and negotiate for their kingdom's continued good fortune with the spirits that controlled nature and other things. To be effective in his role in the afterlife, the emperor needed ceremonial representations of his earthly affects to defend himself and impress the spirits.

Fast forward to 1974. Farmers were digging a well for water 3/4 of a mile from the burial mound when they broke through the roof of a cavern containing broken terracotta statues of soldiers. They reported the find to the authorities, who took a deep interest in artifacts of the first emperor. Excavation began and 30 years later they are still finding more of the burial complex! In the area of the first discovery, archeologists have estimated that the emperor created an army of 7,000 men and horses and placed them in the most likely place for an attack in the afterlife--3/4 of a mile to the east of his burial mound, ready for orders.

Around his mound, archeologists have uncovered two defensive walls. Inside the outer ring of walls are offices for his empire's administration--including terracotta bureaucrats--stables for his army's horses, a smithy, entertainment halls and lodging for musicians, acrobats, and strongmen, and a special armory for his personal bodyguard. This armory is different because unlike the lacquered leather armor for the infantry, or the iron plates for the officers, these soldiers were armored in stone. The stone is believed to protect against spiritual attack, and would not decay like the other forms of armor.

The statues themselves are each a work of art. Archeologists have determined the probable method of construction as well as the fact that there were 8 facial templates for the soldiers, which the artisans then modified for each soldier to give each one its own unique face. The bodies themselves are in several positions to reflect the varying poses for the varied weapons and positions of the soldiers. There was a small modern fiberglass relief of the believed method of construction (solid legs, coiled terracotta for the chest and arms, and a separate head that was fitted into the neck after firing in a kiln), and a wall about the evolution of the reconstruction techniques since the 70s. Where the first warrior took months to complete as a giant, fragile, irreplaceable and priceless jigsaw puzzle; today the warriors' reconstruction is done first by a 3-D reassembly program on computer, greatly reducing the amount of time required.

The work continues for the excavation of the burial complex, and each recovery/discovery sheds greater and greater light on the world of the first emperor of China.

-Pete

Holiday Blitz Post-Game Show

Wowza what a chunk of time its been. In the three (3!) weeks that have gone by, it feels to us like two days. We've celebrated Christmas, rung in the new year, and have gone down to see the family and watch the best three and a half hours in television--the BCS Championship. Lets break it down, shall we?

Christmas Eve was topped with a fantastic celebration of church at the "midnight" service. For those not in the know, that's the service that starts around 11:00PM on the 24th and concludes with much fanfare and to-do shortly after midnight on the 25th with the celebration of the birth of a whee baby Jesus. And as only the Episcopalians can do it, there was a champagne toast after the service. The service itself was a blast, but even as two hard-core music nerds, the stuffing of four choral masses' worth of song into a singular service was a touch intense. Never let it be said that we didn't do a thorough job. On a side note, I would dearly love to be at a Christmas or Easter service where the sermon's main drift was "where have you been all year?" One of our priest friends joked about doing it, but he chickened out at the end.

Christmas Day was nice and low-key. We also technically had a white Christmas! No, it did not snow on the 25th, but remember the snow storm from the week before? it was all still around. We got some shots of the "dreaming of a white Christmas" scene, and followed it up with my parody "dreaming of a dismal, grey Christmas" in front of a sludge plowed drift. Good Times.

Then came New Year's Eve. We had a flight on New Year's Day from Baltimore--don't laugh, its crazy cheap and easy to get there--but that meant we really couldn't go very far out to celebrate. We even had to turn down an awesome party with our friends out in West Falls Church, which is most unfortunate since it was surely a grand time for all. Instead, we decided to go to the bar next door, which we can see from the window. Wow was that place crowded. It was so crowded that we had to toast in the new year with the melted ice from our drinks because we could not make it to the bar. Not a minute after the New Year, we decided to ditch the young collegiate crowd as we were not sloshed, deaf, or single. We headed back to our place and properly toasted the new year by packing our bags and enjoying pink Andre champagne. Alas, Sophistication, I knew thee well. Still, it was a good time.

Up we sprang the next morning, off on a journey that actually included planes, trains, and automobiles. We gingerly hiked with our bags to the Metro, which was apparently an odd sight. From there we rode out to the end of the line in Greenbelt, MD. Mind you, this was in a cold snap, so everything had a wonderful wintery look about it, so we enjoyed the trip. Once in Greenbelt, we hitched a ride on the B30: express to BWI airport. Once there, we marveled at how much we'd missed Arby's (Good thing too because we had it again for dinner). I guess we didn't realize how far from suburbia we'd really come. This time, the trip wasn't much to talk about, except for the fact that Southwest doesn't have assigned seats in their little planes, and our flight was so crowded that we wound up sitting apart.

Lastly, and most importantly to some, there was the modern godsend of college football. For those living under a rock, this past year, the University of Alabama was #1 in the nation to play for the BCS championship and the national title. We were in Birmingham, for the big day, and game-day was basically a statewide holiday. Everyone in the family, plus a few friends, came over to watch the TV--appropriately dressed in Crimson--and share in the emotional roller-coaster of the Championship game. We cheered and we moaned, we leapt and we argued, and in the end, we yelled for joy. Voices hoarse, and hands stung from well deserved high-fives, we rejoiced the night away in the Tide's victory.

We'll see you again in September, Tide faithful. Lets go for 14.

-Pete