Geek Habitat

Unfortunately, Hurricane Gustav is already a Cat 4 hurricane after having made landfall on Cuba, and the storm’s expected to strengthen to Cat 5 status as it moves back over open Gulf waters. At landfall on US Gulf coast, Gustav is anticipated to be a Cat 4 or 5 and the projected path leads straight to New Orleans’ doorstep. As a reminder, Hurricane Katrina was a strong Cat 3 when it made landfall, although it reached Cat 5 status while in open Gulf waters and officially ranks as the third strongest hurricane on record to make landfall on the USA.

Don’t get excited, it’s just a new bike ride showing up on my Build a Fitter Geek RSS feed, documenting the 13+ mile road bike ride I did with Justin and his father this morning. Feel good, although I am fighting a nasty caffeine withdrawal headache. Haven’t had any caffeine or Dr Pepper since around 2 PM Thursday.

I splurged on some new clothes from REI thanks to their end of summer sale, including snatching up a $150+ North Face Gore-Tex windstopper jacket for less than $50 and a pair of Vibram-soled $100+ Vasque hiking shoes for just $38.50!

The downer is the two comfy t-shirts I also scored during the sale are ridiculously tight in the arms, bustline and, well, everywhere. Enough is enough. The weight I’ve held on to since pregnancy, coupled with the 5 additional lbs. I gained due to not getting enough aerobic exercise, is weighing me down physically and mentally.

Haven’t downloaded the pics of the former, yet, but wanted to thank both Ford Motor Co. (via a Flickr/Twitter contact) and Google Lunar X-Prize (via @glxp on Twitter) for the free swag I’ve received in the past month. I rarely pick up swag anymore, not attending conferences and the like, so it’s noteworthy enough for a blog mention.

The Google Lunar X-Prize swag’s a comfy, soft black (of course, for geeks!) t-shirt. To learn more about the Google Lunar X-Prize, visit TheLaunchpad.xprize.org!

This is wonderful news. I wonder why we haven’t done more to protect our local (USA) environment then? This news just seems schizophrenic in light of his recent move to open up drilling in our own, long-protected offshore waters including those of Florida and California. Nevermind the fact we have watched Tropical Storm Fay camp out over Florida all this past week. Sink those wells, boys! :-/

Sara’s new words in the past week, all of which she can say, and all for the most part understandable by bystanders, not just Justin & I –

1. going
2. heidi (said like the name, but actually from an episode of Fraggle Rock where the Fraggles play hide & seek, shouting “Heidi….Hoooo” repeatedly. We’ll see if the second half of that gets me embarrassed in public soon!
3. pool

{Rest added later}

4. tent
5. backpack

I’m sure I’m forgetting a couple more new ones, but still, it’s difficult to surpass her early adoption of gigabyte and Google!