Some pictures from Mary’s trip to North Carolina and South Carolina.

What’s the deal with Spring this year? We haven’t had a breakout 70 degree day yet, just a long gradual warming trend. Yesterday we finally touched the low 60s. Just warm enough to open up the windows for the day, circulating some non-dog-smelling air through the house. I tried to dry some clothes on the line in the backyard in the afternoon, but they kept blowing off into the dirt. Man, it gets windy here. The dogs seemed puzzled when I made them stay outside for about eight hours straight. I guess they’ve gone soft after a winter of couch lounging.

So, I’m pretty sure that I’ve had my fill of Yakima. It’s nowhere near an urgent need to leave or anything, but if the car were loaded this very moment and we were driving away tonight, I don’t think there would be a huge wave of nostalgia either. I mean it’s definitely been a great little blip on the life timeline, but it might be time for another blip. I wouldn’t complain about one or two more years, but I wouldn’t complain about zero more years either.

Mary’s in Columbia, South Carolina right now with a friend who’s visiting grad school there. And while she’s telling me about how annoying it is driving in traffic again and waiting five minutes at stoplights, she’s also saying how watching someone else make a life-jump has motivated her to start looking at master’s programs again. Hey, I’m all for catalysts. Let’s bounce. Yo.

It’s fun to think about if nothing else. So the goal then is to find a college with a Counseling Psychology master’s program in a city that we can afford. Probably a state school to keep tuition in check, but that’s not a deal-breaker. Preferably a big enough city where I wouldn’t have too much trouble finding a job. I’d vote to stay near mountains all things being equal, but I suppose that preference plays second fiddle.

So, a couple options after an initial Googling (CA would be great, but we can’t afford it. OR came up empty for programs. No programs near us now that fit):

Colorado State U (Fort Collins, CO)

A year ago we couldn’t afford to buy a house in Ft Collins. Looking at real estate now though, I think we’d be okay. This would be an amazing place to live. We’d be halfway closer to Michigan and about an hour each from Rocky Mountain National Park and Denver. I couldn’t find a single job posting similar to what I’m doing now though (not that I want keep desk surfing, but it would pay the bills). U of Northern Colorado in Greeley also has a program (PsyD though).

U of Utah (Salt Lake City, UT)

I’d love to live in Utah. Even though I’m pretty sure I could track down employment, SLC might be a bit too pricey for home ownership. All the Mormons we play basketball and flag football with here though seem nice (in a sober stroller-pushing sort of way), so Utah’s probably pretty friendly. And Band of Horses sings a pretty phenomenal Great Salt Lake. So, you know, that’s good.

Western Michigan U (Grand Rapids campus)

Boooo lake effect snow/clouds! I have to be honest though, this would be by far the easiest pick of any college out there. Mary’s already been accepted and I think she could re-enroll without too much hassle. It’s a short 48 credits in a city we already know with houses in our old neighborhood going for like $60k. Mary mentioned that parts of the city of Columbia reminded her of GR, and seeing that made her sure that I would hate living in Michigan again. So, maybe, maybe, but having tasted this sweet western mountain air it’d be really tough.

I vote Fort Collins.

The thing about living in a valley partially surrounded by mountains is that you can’t necessarily always drive wherever you want to. Winter through Spring you’re kind of at the mercy of mountain pass conditions. It might be fifty degrees and sunny at our house, but have a couple feet of snow falling forty minutes away up in the Cascades. A little different than life back in Michigan where driving conditions are fairly uniform (if the road outside of your front window is clear you can bet all the roads are clear). Well the passes were finally looking sunny and dry yesterday morning so Mary and I headed off for a short day trip to Leavenworth, WA.

Originally a thriving timber community, Leavenworth’s economy slumped when the Great Northern Railway Company relocated out of town in the 1930s. Then fifty years ago some clever Leavenworth officials decided to spark the tourism economy by transforming the city into a mock Bavarian village. The whole town jumped on board and today every building you see there is clad in a Tudor-style exterior. I think it’s actually built into their building codes. So even gas stations, banks, and McDonald’s are following suite. It’s all very immersive and the alp-like peaks jutting up in the background add to the effect.

We spent a couple hours walking around the city, eating German sausage, drinking German beer, and generally just enjoying the nice weather. We also popped into a few of the shops and snacked on gelato and handmade chocolate. Pictured below, lunch at Munchen Haus.

Through the magic of the Internet I was able to spend a beautiful sunny afternoon perched in front of my computer screen following the Michigan high school wrestling team finals. There were a couple of live running blogs, a Twitter feed, and Lowell’s online radio station to attend to. Congrats to Rockford and Lowell.

URS issued a ridiculously nice yearly earnings report and fiscal outlook this morning and the stock price promptly spiked more than 23% today. One day, 23 percent, good grief! Revenues were up 87 percent during ’08 from ’07 from about $5.3 billion to about $10 billion. The backlog is still sitting at about $17 billion. ’09 is forecasted to be similar to ’08, with business building toward the end of the year and strong into ’10. Everything we’ve heard internally over the past six months has remained very upbeat, particularly related to business in the Northwest. Not that I own any company stock, but with all the financial news of crumbling corporations I guess it’s good to know that I’m working for a stable company. I have noticed that company job postings have dropped dramatically though. I suppose easing back on hiring is a smart way to keep costs in check. It used to be fun to scroll through the dozens of jobs in my field and run through the hypotheticals (hmm, transfer to New Zealand?), but these days it’s slim pickings. Still, hopefully there will be options again as the economy perks up.