July 12th
2009
written by Alonna

“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world
in the way they have been told to.” -Alan Keightley

Over lunch on an otherwise typical day, Ben and I made the decision to spend a year traveling.  I don’t know what started the conversation or why it happened that day, but all of a sudden we realized that our dreams weren’t going to just happen; we had to make the decision to pursue them.

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July 12th
2009
written by Alonna

As you can tell, we have a new website design.  I thought it was time for a new look, I hope you like it!

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June 14th
2009
written by Alonna

Our plan for Europe is to take one backpack each and travel around for 3 months.  We’re keeping our itinerary flexible in case we want to change our pace, hear of new places, or want to stay somewhere longer.  So although it’s guaranteed to change… here’s our initial plan of where we’ll go when:

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June 8th
2009
written by Alonna

Ben and I have some exciting news to share with you.  This summer, we will leave our jobs to travel the world for one year!

Lately we’ve realized that now is a great time to pursue some of the things we want to do in our lives.  We both enjoy exploring new places and seeing different parts of the world, and I’ve always dreamed of traveling for an extended period of time.  Working as engineers for the past several years, we’ve been able to save up enough money to make this happen.  Ben will be leaving his job at HP at the end of June, and I will be taking a one-year unpaid Leave of Absence from HP starting in July.

Some of the places we’d like to go include: Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Asia and Africa.  So far we have the following plans for July through December 2009:

  • July: Road Trip to Canada (1-2 weeks)
  • Aug-Nov: Backpacking in Europe (3 months)
  • Nov-Dec: Home and Family time in the US (1.5 months)

Over the next couple of months we’ll share more of our thoughts and travel plans on this site.  And while we’re traveling we plan to post photos and stories along the way.  We hope that you’ll enjoy sharing this adventure with us!

May 26th
2009
written by Alonna

We went to Moab for a weekend and met up with Ben’s mom.  It was GREAT!  Seriously, I can’t tell you how much I love this place…

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April 25th
2009
written by Alonna

Here’s a few random things I’ve been up to lately…

HP Ski Day at Bogus – Cross Country Skiing with my co-workers Soumya and Theresa:

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March 12th
2009
written by Alonna

I’ve recently discovered an excellent movie genre: Foreign Films.  They can be a refreshing change of pace from typical Hollywood movies, and I’ve especially enjoyed watching movies that teach me something about history or another part of the world.

For example, I recently watched a move called The Lives of Others, (more…)

March 7th
2009
written by Alonna

Last Summer Ben and I went biking at Bogus Basin Ski Resort outside of Boise.  Ben had the sweet idea of taking photos of the exact same locations in summer and winter.  We forgot to look at the summer photos before heading up to Bogus yesterday – but we took a bunch of pictures anyway and some of them matched up pretty well.  So, here you have examples of Bogus Basin in the summer vs. winter!

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February 28th
2009
written by Bullet-Point Ben

Alonna and I made an interesting discovery recently: there is no longer any need at all for cable TV.

The chief reason we were paying $45 a month in the first place is not so we could watch TNT or the History Channel, but because TV antennas suck.  Most of the TV we watch is the main channels – NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox – so we were basically paying to receive a crystal clear reception of these channels.  But here’s the thing: for 2 years we’ve been watching standard def television on our HD TV, and the experience is really grating.  Every time I check what it would cost to get these channels in HD, it’s in the $50 range.  That’s $50 on top of the $45 we were already paying.  But you can get most of those same HDTV channels with a digital antenna.

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February 7th
2009
written by Alonna

I just added a new ‘subscribe by e-mail’ feature to our website.  Just click on the SUBSCRIBE link on the black menu bar at the top of this page, and enter your e-mail address.  Then you will get an e-mail each time we write a new blog post!

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