Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle

So, tonight something moderately interesting happened. Ok, so it was very interesting and really cool.

One of our neighbors works for a local GM R&D facility. He specifically works on hydrogen fuel cells. Well tonight he comes driving home in one of the fuel cell vehicles, a modified Equinox I believe, and starts giving test rides to some of the neighbors. I had never met him before but right around 8pm Kat was out working in the flower beds and he comes pulling up in the driveway asking if we'd like to give it a drive...

Uhhh....YES

So first off he shows us what's underneath the hood. Really not much but a big plastic guard over the fuel stack was visible since it's still in development. After he gave us a little overview of his job and the vehicle I hopped in the driver's seat and Katherine hopped in the back (like any good wife should...kidding sweetie!) and we took off. I took it kinda easy cruising around the neighborhood (you know, kids and all), but then we hit one of the main roads and he said, "Go ahead, punch it". So I did. Very impressive. Turns out, and I don't know why I didn't know this, that the vehicle is powered by electric motors and the fuel stack just converts hydrogen to electricity. The electric motor impressed me a lot with its near-silent operation and instant torque. I would definitely love to have a vehicle one day with it, regardless of the fuel source. The whole SUV felt really good and solid too, especially for being a sort of prototype development vehicle. Kudos to GM for putting together the car and for letting us drive it. I'm really interested to see where this whole alternate fuel push ends up.

What does everyone else think? Will a certain technology win out? Will there be a fuel of choice in the future or will it be somewhat of a mix of fuels?

Cleaning house

Well, next week we will have reached one year of home ownership. Is it what I thought? Not at all. It has been more work than I ever thought it would be. I don't know that it is different from renting a house, but we definitely have more pride in the place and try to keep it looking pretty nice, though you probably can't tell:) It's such a fine balance to clean house and enjoy house. When we get home from work, the last thing we want to do is clean, but if we put it off, it always winds up being worse when cleaning time comes. So, with all of the frustration with cleaning house, we have now devised a cleaning schedule. I know it's not for everyone, but I'm hoping it makes things manageable for us. Sorry if I come off as complaining, we are definitely blessed to have a house, we're just working through our first year of home ownership. I welcome any tips:)

Well, here goes...

After looking at John and Corrie's blog, I had to make one for Tim and me too. I've been wanting to create some kind of online journal/photo site to share our lives with our friends and family back in Texas, Pennsylvania, and across the rest of the country. Things may look a little rough and un-user friendly, but between Tim and me, I'm sure we'll figure it out. Feel free to comment on things, we'd love to hear from you:)