Back Again

Well, needless to say, it's been a while. Wow, its been since the first day of our trip to Spain. I know I said I was going to post a bunch while I was over there, but the internet wasn't as reliable as I had expected. Basically the internet was slow as molasses! When we were able to make it online we were only able to upload a couple pictures (which took forever!)

But the trip was a lot of fun even though I had to give up the internet for a few weeks! The first thing that I always tell people first is how amazing the weather was! Can you believe that we actually saw snow while we were there? Yeah! Normally the country is in the 90's and freaking hot but there was a freak cool front from the Arctic. I don't think it hit 72 the whole time we were there! We found out that we definitely packed wrong. We both brought only one jacket for the flight. Karen and I ended up buying like three jackets a piece while we were there. If you look at the pictures that Karen posted on Facebook you'll see them all because that basically all that we wore!

We got to see a bunch while we were there, more so than the typical tourist. All in all we took the country like a local rather than the tourist. We didn't stay in any hotels while we were there (except for Valencia). We got to stay with family members and friends who all stayed just outside of the towns that we were to visit.

Hmm... you know what? I think I am going to leave it there for now and continue the story tomorrow. Until then!

Leaving Florida!

Hahaha! Well I know it has been a couple days, but just blame it on my school!

I have been finishing up my projects as quick as possible so we could try to do some planning for our trip... little did I know that even though I tried to finish up as soon as I could on my projects, we would still be leaving Tallahassee a day late!

But now Karen and I are sitting in the airport waiting for our plane to board AND WE ARE EXHAUSTED! These next 12 hours are most likely going to be the most relaxing hours that we have had in the last month! And trust me, I am not complaining about having to sit in a seat for that long.

And for those who didn't know about what we are doing now, we are on our way to Madrid for the start of our summer vacation. Our plans (as of right now) are to hit up Madrid, Seville, Granada, Valencia, Barcelona, and then back to Madrid. It is going to be a whirlwind trip through Spain... Sorry... Espana! I need to get it right!

Its nice to be back guys! I will try my best to get a hold of the internet while I am there so I can keep posting! Until tomorrow!

Oh PS - that picture is our plane! It just pulled up!

Drenched (Day 21)

Alright! Three weeks down!

And this is ridiculous! I forget whether or not I wrote it yesterday, but this work on sketchup is going SO slow. I have been working on it solid for 12 hours now... hence the late post tonight. The worst part of all that work is that there is still a good amount to do still! The image I have here is what I have done so far.

Even though I am frustrated that I don;t have that much done, I am quite pleased with the things that I did figure out today... one of them being the cool facade on the building in the center of the picture. It is this second skin that is applied to the building which will reduce the solar gain and make it a "greener" building.

Church went really well today also! Karen and my good friend Nicole was baptized today... the first one at our new church! Nicole, if you read this, we are so proud of you! It is so nice to see people get baptized so they can start their new life! I also like how Genesis (our church) calls getting being baptized here... they call it "Drenched". They do such a good job marketing everything there!

Now that it is 11:45 at night, all I need to do is force myself to stay awake to keep on working on my project. Because of there being so much information on that model for Jacksonville, my computer runs so slow. Simply saving the project takes a good minute to do. Sketchup always works fine until I get to this point - where I am adding the little elements like the doors, railings, furniture, windows, and stuff like that. Each one of those things has so much data associated with it, it just drags my computer to a near stop. To be honest, I decided to write this right now because Sketchup froze while exporting the rendering that I will be attaching to this blog. Its fun how it all works out in the end though!

Well thats about it for today, considering if I write for much longer it will be "tomorrow"!

Interior Design! (Day 19)

Hi everyone! Happy Saturday! I wasn't kidding when I said that I would be going to sleep right after I posted. I did wake up around 10:30pm to just end up falling asleep on the couch while Karen worked on her homework. From there I woke up at 10am this morning! I felt so crappy, though! I don't know if it happens to everyone, but when I get too much sleep, I feel sick with a headache... I may just be weird, who knows?

Until about 5pm today, my trusty homework companion (Karen) and I just work on our projects. And at about that time, we went to our neighbors housewarming party at their new condo off Thomasville Road. They had moved over here for the winter from their home in the Midwest. The snow was getting too much for them. They have an amazing house! Honestly, its as close to something that Karen and I would have designed for ourselves without actually doing it ourselves! But yea, the apartment is really nice with a second story loft, nice modern kitchen and bathrooms... it was a good thing that we got out of there when we did because otherwise they may have had a hard time getting us out tonight!

Our neighbors, Randy and Allen, are really nice. They have been working on interior designing for years and they also had their own business where they sold furniture that they found along their travels around the world. It is just a shame that they are leaving for their summer home this Thursday.

I can't be too upset though, because not long after they leave we are too! 10 days until we leave for Orlando and 12 until we get on the plane for SPAIN! Woo-hoo! We have pretty much decided that we are going to wing this trip - meaning not planning too much. As it stands right now, the only days that are set are the days that we have the plane tickets for.

But thats pretty much it for today, its about time for more homework! Until tomorrow!

Hotdogs! (Day 19)

Friday Friday, So good to me! I will just start out by saying that I AM GOING TO SLEEP! It was such a long week! Most likely the most intense week so far of this whole semester. I got more done on my project, but still not done!

The ASLA Week ended up really well with this really good cookout just behind the school of architecture at FAMU. It is really nice hanging out with the Landscape Professors (even though I am not in the program) They are really cool and more down to earth than the Architecture Professors! I did take most of them as elective so they do know me. I talked with Dr. Duke about teaching next semester and he confirmed what I had already heard about the Dean having a graduate student teaching one of the computer classes because of the budget cuts.

But that was pretty much it for today! Until tomorrow!

Almost Done (Day 18)

I am so proud of myself! Today has been a really productive day! I finally finished my floorplans for the housing project in Jacksonville. 190 ROOMS! And I had to work out EACH ONE! Next I get to work on some really cool landscaping for the plaza. Personally, I feel lucky that I have my own consultant on this subject - my AWESOME wife, Karen!

I also got to see a presentation of Photoshop rendering... Had a little chuckle with it, though . They had this woman come in from a local Landscape Architecture office because she was "so good"... I think knew just as much if not more about Photoshop and rendering. But hey, everyone else got something out of it.

This is actually something that Karen and I were talking about yesterday. One of the School of Architecture's professors, Derek Ham, is leaving to get his doctorate at MIT next semester. The only thing with this is that he is the only tenured professor at FAMU that knows about new technology and computers. He was the only professor that kept the school some-what up to date. But now, there is no one. Most of the professors don't even know how to use a computer! I end up telling them how to do even the little things in class. This being said, I was considering asking to teach a class on this next semester. I will keep you updated on this!

Well thats all that really interested me today! Until tomorrow!

For Men Only (Day 17)

Well, just to let you know, this post is not for men only! This is just the name of the guys night at my church. It really nice - we get together and the pastor gives a message for guys. This time it was about being leaders. I really miss these nights. The last time we met was about 3 months ago. I think it is a great thing for our church to have. Mostly because it gets A LOT of new people to our church. I think there could have been at least 5 guys I had never seen before.

After guys night, we had... another guys night! A couple of friends and I went to get some wings after church and then went to watch Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail. I know I have seen that movie 100 times, but it never gets old.

Short of repeating the same things, went to school and stuff, school was fun, but nothing new!

Until tomorrow!