So instead of paying money for MobileMe or SpanningSync, or taking the round about steps to getting something similar worked out, I entrusted Google again and setup Google Sync.

The biggest part of this whole process was to finally organize my contacts. Between my SIM card, my Address Book, and my Gmail account, I had a whole lot of duplicates, and outdated info. I figured I should clean things up before syncing.

Anyway, the Google Sync part of the process was relatively simple but somewhere along the line I lost my ‘Most Contacted’ list from my gmail account. I don’t know quite sure how it happened, but I have a feeling it was my fault and not Google’s. I needed to clean that list up anyway. Unfortunately, not having my ‘Most Contacted’ list, my Google Chat did not display the folks I normally chat with. Manually, I had to go through and invite them all again to chat. The one thing I learned is that when they say back up your contacts, you should back up ALL your contacts and not just the ones you want on your phone.

Of course, it should be interesting to see what all comes with the arrival of the iPhone OS 3.0. It could change everything again. Though for right now, just hours after adopting Google Sync, I am pretty happy.

Anyway, I told my dad my budget and he went to his account on Consumer Reports to research the best overall camera for me. I wanted it all; clear action shots, close-up lady bug shots, low light bar shots, and the occasional wide open scenery shot. Oh and it had to be compatible with both Windows and Mac based computers.

He came back with the Canon EOS Rebel XSi (aka 450D) w/ lens. The suggested retail price was just out of my range, but I then found it marked down on a trusted website and put it in my shopping cart.

I have been playing with it off and on for about 6 hours now, and still have A LOT to learn, but I am pretty pleased as of right now.

When I arrived to my office, I found out that one of my maps had been published in the Journal of Surveying Engineering. Pretty cool. For some reason, I did not receive proper credit, but it doesn’t bother since the image itself has my name on it. My name won’t be linked to the journal in library databases, but I have a copy to show anyone that cares. I took a snapshot with my iPhone. You can’t read it, but my name is there.

Of course, no visit to DC is complete without visiting with my family and friends that are out there. It was nice to see them and catch up.

Iowa Cycling - Team Time Trial Warmup

Except for waking up earlier than usual, I had a pretty good time meeting members I had not previously met and taking photos for the Iowa Cycling website. You can see all the photos here at the Flickr pool.

In the Iowa City area, the apartment hunting process starts early and is quite brutal. This is mainly due to the demand created by the student population. This year there is an increase in demand as there are still many people that have been displaced by the flood this past summer.

Anyway, long story short, this was Abby’s first apartment hunt, we were back stabbed by SouthGate Management more than once, River City Property Management wants all your financial information, it is probably to good to be true, and Craigslist are where all the real gems are as long as you are willing to wait for them to pop up.

In the end, we found a nice little duplex that had pretty much all we wanted for decent rent check. My biggest quarrel with it is that it a 24 minute walk to downtown versus the 5 minute walk I have right now. Of course, biking the nice flat route is much quicker. We are both excited to move in, but I am also going to enjoy the rest of the time I have at my apartment.

Our bus is named the Perineum Falcon and so we went with that and called ourselves the Perineum Falcons.

(n) perineum (the general region between the anus and the genital organs) (Source: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/)

To briefly explain our name, a perineum can get quite sore during a long bike ride, and the ‘Perineum Falcon’ is to make a reference to the Millenium Falcon of Star Wars. It looks and often works like a piece of junk, but as Han Solo says that it “may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts.”

Anyway, one of our first projects in re-branding our team and getting ready for RAGBRAI was to launch a website bearing our new name.

You can either find it at perineumfalcons.com or pfalcons.com.

Way back on January 18th, I proposed to Abby at dinner at the Iowa River and Power Restaurant, one of the more elegant restaurants in the area.

I got down on one knee, she said yes of course, and less than 15 minutes after the proposal she was on the phone calling and texting all.

We are planning a small October 2009 wedding in the Iowa City area.

Some people believe that personal blogs are dying. I agree with them to a certain degree, and though I don’t plan to stop blogging all together, I have decided to change the focus of my blogging. What is the new focus? I don’t know quite yet. Just keep checking back to see what develops.

What I do know is that over the last few years, whitsitt.org has been my little corner of the web, and that you should always be able to find me here.