If you end up with a window that's too large to fit on your screen and, as a result of the resize grip being in the bottom right of the window, you can't resize it, try this:
Hold the option key and click the maximize (+) button.
We woke up at 6am on Tuesday to drive to Augusta to meet with various people to see things we could rent while Michelle is at MCG. I had a headache when we woke up, and I had been up 3 hours prior to this throwing up. The drive, even if you're feeling great, is pretty dull. No variation in terrain, nearly constant velocity. You might as well go stand in a small room for 2.5 hours until someone opens the door and says "we're here, friend."
My restlessness lately has me worried about our trip abroad. I even felt a little itchy on our four hour flight out to Las Vegas last week.
We first met up with a realtor who showed us 3 homes. They were all pretty dilapidated, with worn cabinets and counters, and strange smells. The smells may be due to the homes sitting vacant with no A/C, but they don't make a great first impression.
We then drove to see some apartments/townhomes closer to campus on our own. Some of these apartments looked like projects from the outside, but they were decent on the interior. Better than the homes we had just seen, and very affordable.
Next we met up with a local guy that owns dozens of rentals in the area. He had a very nice duplex available. It was well lit, clean, decorated, and felt like something we'd actually buy and want to live in. His second unit was a little outdated on the interior and the ceilings felt too low.
After that we checked out a few official apartment complexes. They were clean, but I have a feeling we'd hear our neighbors a lot and the prices were more than that of the duplex.
We're opting for the duplex, but we haven't heard back from the guy yet, and I have a feeling he wasn't exactly sure when the current tenants were leaving (or if they're leaving at all).
The things we can now fall back should the duplex fall through aren't great at all, and driving back down for a day isn't really an option we want to have to use, especially with our trip coming up early next week.
The May 2009 issue of Inc magazine has a profile of Zappos. Tony Hsieh, the Zappos CEO, is on the cover, chilling, and the cover reads "Why everybody loves Zappos". I actually have two copies of this issue as a result of an address change after we moved out, so, especially after having been on the tour of Zappos' headquarters, I feel like some kind of fanboy, now helping their cause (maybe) by writing this post
Michelle read the profile before I had a chance, and she learned that Zappos offers free tours of their Henderson headquarters, just outside of Las Vegas.
Michelle and I are fans of Vegas day trips, so this seemed like a cool thing to try. We probably would have driven from my dad's apartment, but we only had the Yaris rental, and it was a little too small to fit my dad and grandparents, so we called Zappos to schedule a tour for that day.
Part of me assumed that there wouldn't be a huge demand for these tours, but I also felt a little pushy asking for a tour within a few hours of my call. The lady I talked to said they were almost full but that she'd call back and see if she couldn't squeeze the five of us in.
Most people that go on the tour are with another company, apparently trying to learn something cool from Zappos that they can take back to their own companies. The lady asked what company I was with and I had to mention we were just tourists, and multi-generational at that.
She called back within 45 minutes and said we were on for a 2:00 tour. At first I was going to try and meet the shuttle at The Orleans, but they said they could pick us up from the apartment, which was great (it's a block or two from The Orleans, but I think they might drive almost anywhere to pick up someone that's interested). We were told we'd be picked up about an hour before the tour.
Shortly after 1:00 the lady driving the tour bus called to say she was a little late and that she had to take "the big bus", which was a little slower. She pulled up and waved effusively, and we all stepped onto the mobile advertising platform, empty except for us.
The driver, as it turned out, was a young employee that worked in one of the customer service departments. Part of their job is to take quick jaunts into town from time to time to pick up tourists.
Dad chilling in the Zappos bus as we pull into the Henderson corporate building.
The Main Lobby
We arrived early, and ended up having to wait for 40 minutes for the other people on the tour to arrive. The lobby was decked out with interesting things to look at for this reason, and people were constantly coming and going, issuing salutations and wearing the stuff you'd see on any college campus.
The early PowerPoint business plan for Zappos (circa 1999), then called shoesite.com, detailing the frustrations of buying shoes in retail stores.
A cool place to work.
The lobby library. If you're on the tour, you can take a copy of any book. And these are pretty good books. An autographed copy of Chris Anderson's The Long Tail is framed above one of the shelves. Other autographs adorn the walls.
There's a collage of people that have Replied to All. They wear a dunce hat equivalent and pose for photos that go on the lobby wall.
There's also free bottled water and trail mix and popcorn for the wait.
After awhile the rest of our tour arrived. A few were from Netflix, another notable company. Our tour guide joined us. He had just graduated from college a couple years prior and had, for this week, the responsibility of giving the tours. It's a rotating job. He worked in the marketing and analytics department, bidding on keywords.
He held a white "Tour" flag and asked for a volunteer, but he seemed to look at me a lot while asking for this volunteer so I took it. At first I thought holding the flag would make me important to the tour, but, as it turns out, not so much.
Someone - a Netflix employee I think - asked which keywords had the highest CPM. Our guide wasn't sure, so he popped into this guy's office to ask. That guy wasn't sure either, but then again, it's a weird question. Of greatest note was the Heroes spoof poster.
We walked a hallway with various awards and records. They create a new one when they have a record-breaking day or month of sales, for example.
The Meeting Rooms
There are, of course, many meeting rooms in the building. Zappos gives each of their meeting rooms a name and theme. Here are a few we took pictures of.
I call this one The Boardroom. It probably has a sign stating the same, but I didn't notice one. This room is right outside the area where the CEO's cubicle is.
Michelle wants one.
The Places People Sit and Work
Everyone is encouraged to decorate their work area to their liking. Some departments have a theme, but mostly it seems pretty random.
The signs above are Tour Stops, with things the tour guide should cover as you walk around.
Michelle liked this: It's Candy Mountain, Charlie!.
The Cafeteria
The cafeteria has a selection of drinks and frozen yogurt. People on the tour can grab what they want, so we all stopped here and had some frozen yogurt.
The Doctor's Office
Zappos has an inspirational chiropractor on site.
While some other tour members were chatting about call response times, Michelle and I ducked into this office and put crowns on and took pictures. As it turned out, this is a tour stop, and pretty soon we were waiting for everyone to take their own picture. Afterward, you get a Polaroid taken by your tour guide as well as an inspirational planner created by the Doc.
The Bathrooms
Michelle took a picture of the Hydration Chart. Match your output to the colors on the chart to check your hydration levels. I'm not sure what the sign below used to say, but someone was angry, or out of paper perhaps.
The Developers
Of particular interest to me was the Development department, where all the software engineers work. They were all fairly young. Their workstations were adjustable, so a couple people opted to stand while working. Some sat on giant balls. A group of guys was discussing an IE quirk (who isn't!) Michelle and I found their secret bowling alley.
Somewhere on this floor was a whiteboard detailing their newly deployed platform.
The End
After the tour was over, we returned to the main lobby. Our guide handed out nice blue bags and encouraged everyone to take a free book.
On the ride home, our driver (not the girl from the ride to HQ) pointed to Air Force One as it landed. We took a detour around the airport but still hit major traffic on Las Vegas Blvd. We waited for about 20 minutes as police had blocked gates onto the field at McCarran. After awhile, President Obama's motorcade became visible in the distance.
By this time it was rush hour, and we had several other tour members we had to drop at the airport and at Encore, so it was a longer ride than it'd normally be.
Over all it's a fun tour if you have 2-3 hours and want to see something a little different. I really liked the free books, as I was able to put a dent in my to-buy list by claiming books from my dad and grandparents.
If you go, tell them Steven sent you. You'll get awkward looks, but deep down they'll know what you're talking about.
I found this about a month after it was originally posted, but here's a list of the best iPhone applications as compiled by PelFusion. Of note is my own little app, EatRight. Thanks!
Visiting the area around Mt. Charleston was a new experience for both of us. I've been up to the area before (on some less-traveled slope my dad, as is his fashion, drove his truck up to), but never with Michelle.
It takes 30-45 minutes to get to the base of the mountain from Las Vegas. Take US-95 north to SR-157 (Kyle Canyon). SR-157 climbs from about 2,000 feet to 7,000 feet, and then the trails begin.
We stopped at the welcome center for some information on the trails.
We opted for a hike up to Cathedral Rock, which is about 1.4 miles each way, and climbs to just over 8,000 feet.
The trailhead has a sign, and you can see, beyond and above the trees, the trail's namesake. You actually do end up on top of this, which is hard to believe when you're down below. Some of the signs on the trail are less than helpful. They feature two arrows, one pointing in each direction of the trail split and are labeled "<== Trail ==>". Uh, ok. We went the wrong way one time, and on our way back we saw a group of 3 girls coming down from the same wrong path. For future reference, the first time you see this sign you need to go to the left, down towards the gravel-covered loop.
Higher points on the trail offer views of the surrounding mountains. We also noticed a line of bent and broken trees. Some trees, still standing among the fallen, were missing branches below a certain point. It seems an avalanche or flash flood of some kind wrecked the area at some point a few years ago. Leave a comment if you know what happened.
Further up the trail we found a small waterfall. It's probably more amazing in the spring, but to be flowing (and have snow under it!) around the end of May was pretty amazing.
I scrambled up the rock by the side of the waterfall to see if the basin was deep and full of water. I left Michelle behind, so of course when I finally start to come back down I see her looking for me, mouthing something sweet about "don't go where I can't follow". I insist this isn't Lord of the Rings and we hug and continue the hike.
Much of the trail is gravel-like. It's an easy walk, but the broken rock isn't always the surest footing. We saw a few people on this trail, a mix of couples and various groups of women, some walking with their dogs. We asked one couple if we were on the right path, because it felt like we had walked more than a mile and the trail didn't seem to be anywhere near ending.
As the trail wrapped around the mountain and climbed higher, we found a second source of water, this time coming from a drain pipe (natural water, just re-routed).
We lost the trail a little at this point. There are several options going in different directions. We took a small trail up an increasingly difficult slope. The path was broken rock, and as we climbed higher we realized it'd be a bitch to come back down. I ran ahead to make sure we could do it and found that the path we were on joined the "official" path about 20 feet above our heads.
This is the official path. We were on the rocky slope off to the right.
We met the couple we had asked a question of earlier as they were coming down. We talked a little and the wife pointed out Mt. Charleston to us, in the distance. Her husband had led a church group up there before for an overnight stay.
We finally reached the top and had it to ourselves for about 15 minutes. The view is great, and you're encouraged to be careful near the edges as it's fairly easy to die.
Ski lodges and homes below.
The road leading into Mt. Charleston. Vegas is down in the valley.
Me, topside.
We saw a web full of caterpillars. We also saw chipmunks roaming around, and one ate a frito we dropped/threw at him.
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Our descent was rapid. It takes 30 minutes to walk down, and if you hop in your car and drive down the mountain you can essentially go from 8,000 feet to 2,000 feet in less than an hour.
This presented a problem for Michelle. She had a headache on the trail, and though we had a couple bottles of liquids, I don't think she drank enough. After we got back into town and stopped at Weinerschnitzel for food (novelty, old times), her headache seemed to get worse.
Back at my Dad's house she slept for 30 minutes and then we drove out into the heat to pick Renee up from work. The heat exacerbated her condition, and by the time we got back home she was nauseous. Soon she retched quite horribly. We were on the verge of taking her to the hospital, but she rested more and started feeling better after clearing her stomach.
While she was a little sicker than I was in Peru (at about 11,000 feet), she handled the elevation pretty well. What happened to her in the mountains seemed to be a product of rapid elevation changes, exertion, dehydration, and possibly food poisoning (or just too much grease). And then some nasty Vegas heat.
There's no entry fee to drive up the mountains, and there are plenty of awesome trails. Hopefully we can hike more of them later. It'd be great to be within driving distance of a good mountain range year round.
I'm Steven Romej, and this is my site. I'm a software engineer living in Atlanta with my wonderful wife. I'm interested in startups and web technology.
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