That time of year again.

Well. As I said above, it's that time of year again. School started up Tuesday the 26th. So, now I'm spending the vast majority of my available riding time stuck in classrooms. The week got off to a lovely start by raining monday, tuesday, wednesday, and thursday. Once that all stopped, the weather returned to normal Boone August weather.... A blistering 70 degrees with a perfectly blue clear sky.

Classes so far are going well. There was a little scare on tuesday night, as the powers that be decided to switch around the classes needed for my major. So, I had to go talk to my counselor and see what classes would transfer and whatnot... it appears that I'm still in good shape academically, and on schedule to graduate in 4 years (Total). So... that's good.

I'm taking some interesting classes this semester; My 3d Solid Modeling class is going to be a good time. In that class, we have a 3d Scanner, so for instance, you can put a coffee cup into the scanning box, and it'll laser-scan the cup into a 3d image which we can then import into our 3d modeling program (Rhino3d 4.0) To complement the 3d scanner, we also have a 3d printer. Yes. A 3D printer. We can create a 3D object in Rhino, and print it out on this machine. It uses thin layers of a plastic material as ink and can print objects from Rhino (or other programs). As an example, the teacher printed out a spiral staircase, and some other 3d shapes. It's pretty dang awesome.

Also, I'm taking Physics, City and Town Planning, Accounting (Part of a business Minor), and The History of Rock and Roll (Where we'll be studying Led Zeppelin, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, et. al. So, all in all, I'm taking some pretty awesome classes, and it should be a rather fun semester.

Virginia goes to the beach!

While Aaron was working super hard at Tipsy Taxi, I had a last hurrah of the summer at Atlantic Beach with my lovely sister, Martha and a guess appearance by the fabulous Jennifer. Not really enough pictures for a fancy picassa link, but...

Here is the beach house. Motto: great location and crappy beds since 1934.

And this is some rock art, care of Jennifer. She's going to be famous some day.

That's all for today. Since it's back-to-school time again, Aaron and I really need to be getting to our homework and such. Maybe he'll post soon and tell you about his super-cool classes this semester.

Home Trip

Well, we recently went home to catch the wedding of Emily and Scott. It was an absolutely gorgeous affair, the ceremony was wonderful, held at the Lexington Presbyterian church. The reception was at W&L at the Castle House where guests were invited to sign the border of a picture of the couple in lieu of a guest book (which was a nice change from normal... how many people really hold onto a guest book? But a picture... well, odds are, that'll get hung somewhere.) Food was excellent, from appetizers to the main course. The DJ did a good job paying attention to the guests and choosing music appropriate to the crowd that was dancing at the time. All in all, a wonderful time.

Here are (from left to right) Jennifer, Virginia, and Rachel

The Bride and Groom!
Jennifer looking like she's about to get a little touchy / feely.
Virginia's Parents cutting a rug. They were on the dance floor for the better part of the night.
Also while home....... I met up with Brennan, Newhall, Lisa, and Dusty (AKA D-MAX) and went for a nice ride. We started off with a tour around the county, before returning to our favorite little mountain. Videos of this part of the trip can be seen at the following address : http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=775334E47FEC3F2D

Maria's Visit!

Photo Album here : Linky

So... Maria came to visit. This is her 2nd trip to Boone, and luckily, this time, it's a bit warmer.

Here, Virginia and Maria sit in an old wagon up at the Green Park Inn in Blowing Rock. They have a nice little bar up there, and Maria sweet talked the bartender into giving her the Wednesday special's cheap Margarita even though it was Saturday. Good Job!

Here's the lovely Miss Priss. She was a trooper on Sunday. We walked / hiked up the trails at the Rough Mountain overlook off of the Blue Ridge Parkway.. for such a tiny dog, the distance we covered would be equal to us running the New York Marathon.
This little abandoned kitten was at the Altapass Apple Orchard. I wanted to bring it home. Virginia wouldn't let me. I don't want to talk about it anymore.
Ahh yes, the Linn Cove Viaduct... a model of engineering. Last year, things were so grown up around the area that you really couldn't get a cleean picture of the viaduct... so... this year, the brush/trees aren't as bad... so I snapped a few shots.
Virginia and I at the Orchard again... hanging out under an Apple Tree... oh yeah... she loves me like WHOA.

Holy Crap. Look at what it is....

This may not merit it's own post.... but... we went to Harris Teeter to see what free samples they had around the store, and out front, we saw this..... what a great day!

Art around ASU Campus

Campus Art Photos here : Linky

There are several new outdoor objects of art around campus, so Virginia and I decided to go for a nice little walk one warm afternoon to check things out.

Virginia with her angel's wings.. this was a pretty cool metal sculpture... painted blue... but it was thin enough that it would kind of wave/flap/sway with the breeze.
Virginia reading the descriptions of each piece.. it was rather handy that we had something explaining each piece.
This was our favorite, and the favorite of the judges... the brass key tags were used to keep track of Miners in coal and ore mines. After a particularly bad cave-in, some 54 men died in the mine, and their brass tags were missing at the end of the day.. it was a really neat exhibit.