I feel like I should post something profound about my… 12 years in Pittsburgh. Nothing comes to mind. Well, nothing that I can easily summarize before I shut down this computer. Given that: My car is packed, my stuff’s in storage, and I’m about to shut everything down. In the next few months I have the daunting task of getting to know a new city, finding a new pace on life, building a new, local, circle of friends and resetting all those things that were forced akimbo by all this nonsense I’ve been going through.

Some thoughts for the morning:

1- My sister’s famous!

2- How refreshing for the eeeentsy weentsy vote margin to finally go to the democrats. Unfortunately, this means that the republicans will slide out of the limelight over the next two years, and we all know how fickle public memory is. Do you think the next senatorial campaign will be as easy, and people will remember the indignation that caused so many turnovers? I don’t think so. 2008 is going to be one. rough. year.

3- I need a line art comicbook style drawing of a guy in a suit hugging a tree, preferably at less than 200 pixels square. Will pay (but probably not until my next paycheck)

So, I finally got sick of not having an integrated photo thingie in my website, because quite frankly, the effort to find and install an integrated solution that would do what I wanted it to was just too bloody big. There are tons of freeware packages out there that are stupidly easy to install for anyone with at least a remote amount of serverside clue,and adapting one of those would just be a pain.

I spent this weekend in… well, Conneaut, Ohio. As middle-of-nowhere that it was, I nevertheless took a small wine tour (picked up a madly awesome riesling) and swung by an apple orchard that… well, I’ve already eaten all the apples if that’s any indication. It was the exact right way to usher in the Fall, by far my most favorite season, made n-times as good because it happened to involve a Megan. So yeah, I’m somewhat recharged, relaxed, and want to see if I can get a few things back on track.

I will shortly be headed out to drive to Ithaca to cringe as my sister gets married. I am taking with me a batch of quarg, two tupperware containers of quarg that’s not done yet (yay hot car), four pounds of cherries, a bag of peaches, some plums, my blading foo, my laptop, freelancing doccos, camera, phone, handsfree set, half my music library in CD format, iPod nano, digicam, digicam charger, a selection of cheeses from PennMac, maybe something from stamooli’s, Biscotti from the biscotti company, Clothes, toiletries, suadesoles, backpacking pack, packing bag, two pairs of hiking shoes, shoe polishing equipment, compass, passport, stuff to write letters with, and a partridge in a pear tree.

And apparently the driving route is taking me right through the Allegheny National Forest. Awwww yeah. Definitely a stopping point if the weather’s nice, on the way there or back

Here’s the skinny for those of you on a time budget:

Thursday: Dowe’s. Salsa. Friday: Frick. Hiking. Skipped Mage. Saturday: Blading (splat!), Shopping, Swing City. Sunday: Kitchen cleaning. New cheese culture. Chicken Swing.

It’s an interesting thing that I don’t think twice about committing close to a grand to a backpacking trip to the sierras, but have serious reservations about replacing my geriatric phone with a blackberry. I mean, seriously. Flight, backpack, boots, bivy sack, sleeping bag, knife, compass, food… it adds up. And honestly, I may very well not use most of any of this in the near future.

Fall San Francisco trip is starting to take shape. Looks like it’s cheaper to fly into SF rather than Reno, and go hit the JMT from there. I won’t really have any time to visit people, as I’ll rapidly disappear into uncharted (sortof) wilderness. And when I come back I’ll be more interested in soaking up hot springs than driving back to SF to meet peeps.

So yesterday I headed off to the big ritzy touristy area (Fisherman’s Wharf) of San Fran again in an effort to do two things: Alcatraz and present purchasing. I only had a limited timeframe, because I had to get out to the airport, check into my hotel, then get back in time for Salsa. So I traipse off, hit the Maritime Museum, grab some Ben & Jerry’s for breakfast and then hop on the ferry to the Prison. Frankly… not really worth the price, if you ask me, but now I can say I’ve been there. Still, I made the most of it and chatted with a bunch of random tourists, then head back across and swung by Ghiardelli square to buy some presents for my gracious hosts Adam and Rowan (since last night was the last night I stayed there), and for my lovely sister Rickie because I completely blew her off on tuesday.

I’m already late with this post, so I’ll just sum up.

Woke up, some homework, China Town, North Beach, Coit Tower, de Young, Beach, Dinner @ Claire’s. Managed to completely blow off my sister, so will be swinging by Giardhelli square on my way to Alcatraz to get her an apology (and myself one as well )

Today: Alcatraz, Giar, Check into hotel, chill with Cammies, Salsa at the Top of the Mark.