I updated my Maps page to include some trails I’ve mapped on a site called Gmaps Pedometer. This site lets to map a route, calculating distance and calories. It even takes elevation into account! This is pretty handy for tracking my calories burned which I started doing on SparkPeople a few weeks ago. I also track my nutrition and calories consumed. At the moment my goal is to lose 10 pounds by the end of the year. My SparkPeople page is BlueValhalla.

For Earth Hour this year, Mary and I decided to make a candlelight dinner. We got a late start, so we actually had to make dinner by candlelight (picture on right). Good thing we have a gas stove. We decided to make something simple: pasta. We made some multigrain penne and a spicy red pepper sauce with chicken sausage. With that we had some left over broccoli and some raw snap peas. To top it off, we had chardonnay and some sort of German mountain cheese (I’m not sure what that means, but it was tasty). We had everything out of the fridge and ready to cook by 8:25PM. The pasta and sauce were cooking and the wine was chilling in a bucket of ice when we turned out the lights.

Dinner was ready around 8:50. We ate by candlelight (picture on left). It was quite romantic. We enjoyed it so much that we decide we should do it every week (though maybe that was the wine talking). By the time we finished of dinner (and the bottle of wine) Earth Hour was over. With the lights on there was nothing left of Earth Hour except dirty dishes and an empty bottle of wine (picture on right). We’re looking forward to doing this again next year.

There are a few more pictures in the Earth Hour 2009 gallery.

It looks like I’ll be moving on to the next phase of my professional career. I’m not sure what that will be, but it will most likely not involve Aptility. Nate and I had some discussions earlier this week and came to the mutual conclusion that we should go our separate ways. Nate will continue on with Aptility, and I wish him the best of luck.

For now I’ll be spending my time figuring out what I want to do next. That means I’ll probably be spending more time at Panera Bread and various cafes with friends like Ron and Khoa. I’d still like to do something in the clean tech space, but mobile applications are also a distinct possibility. Time will tell, or as my sister Sue keeps reminding me, “one day at a time.”

I forgot to mention that on Thursday I saw the dermatologist for a simple procedure to remove and annoying skin tag from my right eyelid. It was fairly small, but at times I could see it at the edge of my vision, and it seemed to be growing. The procedure lasted all of 90 seconds: a shot of a local anesthetic, a quick cut with a scalpel, and some cauterization to seal it up. The doctor is sure it’s just a skin tag, but she sent it to the lab just to be sure.

This morning I went hiking at Mission Peak with Mary and her hiking crew. It was the first time I went hiking for a while, but I did ok. My knees didn’t bother me much, but a blister on my little toe slowed me down at the end. I guess I’ll need to toughen up so we can do some backpacking this year.

After hiking, we went through Alviso to visit the white bunny we discovered last weekend. Apparently the people we saw there trying to catch it last weekend did not succeed and it also turns out there are two bunnies! They are really cute (see picture on left). We didn’t seem them on our first pass by, but we dropped off a little spinach and went to Don Edwards. After a walk around the park, we went back and waited near where we had placed the spinach. We saw one come out and eat some of the spinach. After a while, Mary got out of the car and made a successful attempt to feed the bunny. They seem content with the local vegetation, but they seemed to enjoy the spinach a bit more. We know we shouldn’t feed wild animals, but we haven’t decided what rules apply here. They seem quite content in their new home, but they definitely stick out like a sore thumb. It’s hard to say how long they will manage to avoid predators. At least they found a nice home borough excavated by the local ground squirrels. I have more pictures of the bunnies in my gallery.

After our visit withe the bunnies, we came home to watch the Collegiate Rugby National Championship match between Cal and BYU. The match was played at Stanford, but I was too lazy to go to the game. I chose instead watch it on the internet on the new USA Rugby Network. I only caught the second half, but it was already over by then anyway since Cal was up 45-0. Cal went on to win their fifth strait national title, 59-7.