After living practically next door to Bryan and Cat in New Orleans for a year, we each moved in different directions in 2007 — I went east to Knoxville, and they went west to Las Vegas. I went with them to help them move, but then I hadn't seen them in the year and a half since then. While planning our trip down to Puerto Rico for Christmas this year, Andrés and I managed to add a third leg to the trip to take us to Las Vegas for a few days on the way back to Knoxville. It was great finally getting to see them again, especially since Andrés was able to come too. The four of us hadn't hung out together in 2 or 3 years.

We visited The Strip, of course, but none of us is a big fan of gaudy largess, so mostly we did more fun stuff like play music, watch movies (not pictured), go sledding, and play paintball. A really fun trip.

And I've been fluttering all over the damn place.

Since my lease on my apartment in New Orleans was almost up and I planned to move rather than renew it, last month I set off on an 1800-mile roadtrip to check out the various places I was considering moving to. I decided on Knoxville, TN, for several reasons. I've really been wanting to live somewhere mountainous, and Knoxville is certainly satisfying in that respect. Andrés and Amy had just moved there for grad school and plan to be there for at least two years. Geographically it's within a few hours' drive of lots of the places where I have friends — Atlanta, Clemson, Raleigh. There is a healthy aviation scene in Knoxville — there are at least three good flying clubs with great rates, and there's a large commercial airport and a smaller regional airport and lots of private grass strips all over. It's a small city, so I have access to all the stores and resources I want, without having to deal with city blocks and traffic and nowhere to park.

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