Entertainment for Today

Had a spam email earlier. Didn't know it was spam. I only looked at the subject line and read:
"big peckers for sale"
I laughed out loud and proceeded to tell my co-worker about it. The email title wasn't so funny but it caught me off guard and my reaction was funny.

A few minutes later I hear said coworker:
so how much were they?

A few minutes later we're working with a guy who's a real piece of work. He's totally cocky. After the guy leaves, I comment to co-worker:
Right there was the big pecker.

Maybe it was one of those "you had to be there" moments. C, did I get the story right?

umm, good

I'm a simple girl, especially when it comes to food. This morning as I dropped the kids off, mom invited me to stay for breakfast. As usual, I was in a hurry to get to work and thanked her for the offer. So, like the awesome mom that she is, she made me breakfast to go. Where I come from, almost anything can go in a flour tortilla. This morning on my way to work, I thoroughly enjoyed a fried potato burrito with bacon. I know you may not think its anything extravagant and its not. But I love fried potato burritos. It was so perfect... even though I didn't stick to my "diet" for the morning.

With that said, its my boss' birthday and he brought donuts... if you're gonna sway from eating healthy, you might as well make it worth it, right?

To be fair to the neighboring office, I really do enjoy my time there. I made myself at home and found a corner cubible with a lap top. It made it much easier to work than trying to take over the boss' office. Everyone is laid back and has fun together.

It wouldn't surprise me if in the near future I would end up helping them out one day a week or something like that. If it weren't an hour drive, I might volunteer to do it more often.

Update from the office

It's so good to be back in my own office, even if its been absolutely stir crazy all morning.

Again

In neighboring office helping again. It's been fun. I like the people here. But an interesting thing today, I've heard 3 card gambling stories in the past hour... and all at seperate times with seperate people who walk through. Crazy

Bummer Dude

Remember this post? I was so excited to submit a poster knowing that I had a good idea and the extra cash would be helpful in buying the new scrapping toy I want. Unfortunately, I got word today that I didn't win. Bummer dude! I gathered from the email that the winner has quite the artistic side. I'm curious to see what her poster looks like. I might have to compare the two and let you guys decide who should have won... that is unless hers is amazing.

Update from the land of Oz:

Okay, I'm not really in the land of Oz, but it sounded like fun. I'm actually kinda sorta at home. I'm actually working in a nearby office this week helping them with some contract paperwork, planning and reporting. It's an hour drive from my house but fortunately I get to stop at our area office (about 7 miles from my house), get one of their vehicles and head to the flat lands. My miles and time driving are all on the government dime. Here are a few highlights from this office experience:

• I already know the staff here. I made plain to the boss here that I didn't appreciate feeling like I was expected to answer the phone when the secretary was out. HELLO, I'm NOT the secretary and I don't even work here.
• Planning is so much easier when working in the flat lands.
• Being able to work [almost] interrupted allows me to get a lot more done.
• This office is much smaller and I'm working about 3' from the next guy compared to having my own corner to hide in at my regular office.
• The boss here is receptive to change and makes a point to ask me if I need anything. I appreciate a little feedback from him.
• People here cuss like sailors... maybe worse. Lots of swearing and using God's name in vain, which I don't appreciate.
• Woo hoo, I might be saving a few dollars on gas this week.

I'm starting my day early and ending late (which is normal for me) to give me more time here. I get back to town just in time to pick up Scott and head to Vacation Bible School. Here are a few highlights from my week with the 3-Pre-k kiddos:

• I quickly learned that God has not gifted me to teach 12 preschool kids!!!
• I had one little boy pee his pants twice last night... and he's potty trained.
• The creators of this material must not have realized that 3 and 4 year olds can't read.
• It is way cool to hear Scott rattle off the different verses for each day.

With the hours I'm working followed by VBS with preschoolers, it shouldn't surprise you that I'm whipped each night when I get home. Last night was the first night this week that I was able to stay awake while Ryan and I prayed together before bed!

Fun at Work

Thoughts from today's outting:

• When a client introduces you to his wife and says "this is who I call up at the office all the time for assistance", don't expect her to be thrilled. Maybe she expected me to be 60 or extremely homely looking. As it was, I was dressed for the field and not to go out!
• Just because the track hoe made a path through the field, doesn't mean you should follow it. There may be partial logs that you get hung up on.
• When you get hung up on the above mentioned log, it might push the engine up which affects the fan and makes a horrible noise.
• Thank God client was home and heading out to the site.
• Skid loaders come in handy for "towing" type of needs.
• Contractors can be liars and (what's the word I'm looking for here) . No, he's not the cheapest contractor around. No, he can not buy us lunch, even if he is just trying to be nice.
• 5 hours in the sun = red face
• Bug spray helps with the sweat bees. Those darn things were about to make me crazy!

Seine

Seine (noun) - 1. a fishing net that hangs vertically in the water, having floats at the upper edge and sinkers at the lower.

Some days, I do really interesting things and today was one of those days. A quick stop between appointments at the local trout hatchery and I caught a glimpse of an interesting project. When we had all the flooding, the hatchery flooded. Fish were out of their raceways and downstream. Fishing near a hatchery recently has proved to be quite a catch. Today, the guys were using a seine to gather some of the fish from the overflow pond and put them back into the raceways. The trout are raised at the hatchery and then put into nearby cold water streams. In previous seining events, they've gathered over 25,000 trout. Today was another venture to save some fish to be returned to the cold water streams. It was really cool to watch it all happen. Check out these pictures:

First you start with the seine which is weighted on the bottom and has the floaty things at the top. You line one edge of the pond with it.

The boys swam the end of the seine across the pond to create a huge net

Then you begin to pull your net in, hoping its full of fish

Once you have the fish in a confined area, you can begin to fish them out. In this case, they were removed with a net, put into the trucks that usually deliver them to the stream, taken to the raceways and put back into their homes.

Contest

I'm not one for contests online to earn a few bucks. But I received an email weeks ago about a poster contest through my agency. When I read the slogan for the poster, I immediately thought of the perfect picture to use. I just submitted the poster I designed (keep in mind, I'm not a graphic designer but I'd love to be) this morning. The deadline is fast approaching. I'm hoping to hear in the next month if I'm the lucky winner of a $300 cash award (granted it will be $150 by time they take out taxes). Whew, I'm nervous and super excited. I hope mine stands out amongst any others and gets chosen!!!!!!

I used this picture that I took back in January of 2003 when I was in Nicaragua on a missions trip. We were teaching the locals how to compost and garden so they could feed themselves rather than starve. It was a sad situation but encouraging to teach them to provide for their families. The little girl was a daughter of a couple that came from Oregon to help with the class. The man was a local leader (educated engineer) that was there to learn. Amazing experience.

Update from the Office

I updated my "Another Day at the Office" post with pictures. Click here to check those out.

Another Day at the Office

Just another day at the office, only I got to go outside. I had a 930am appointment but the sky was dark and full of clouds. I decided that walking a mile of stream in the rain wouldn't be fun so I opted to cancel the appointment. As the day continued though, I wanted more and more to go outside. Okay, I have tons to do in the office and I'm so behind on things but I really needed to do my stream stuff for Kristy. As I was stuffing my face with a late lunch today, I decided to head out. It was awesome. These are the moments when I love my job. I took my wildlife coworker out with me and we saw some really cool stuff.

As we got down to the creek, an owl came flying out and scared the tar out of me. As we were standing there talking about the owl, I noticed a bat hanging from a tree branch in broad day light. We stopped and snapped a few pictures. We saw frogs, tad poles, racoon waste, and lots of dragon flies. We saw blue clay and lots of springs coming into the stream. The erosion along the stream bank was sad to see but amazing to think what the power of water can do. It was a mile walk in hot and humid air. While we walked, we heard the thunder in the distance.

While heading back to the truck, the thunder roared in the distance. Up over the hill, we could see the storm coming. It wasn't a moment too soon that we finished up. Within minutes, it was pouring down rain and I couldn't really see the road to drive. As I traveled down the highway slowly with the radio turned on, we heard the weather service mention the two storms in the area and that we should seek shelter. Well, too late now. We had shelter from the stream, and although the truck kept us dry, didn't provide much protection from other storm issues.

Back in town where the storm had already passed, we could see that plenty of water dumped on us (as if we need any more storm damage and flooding). The ditches looked like mini streams running and everything was soaked. Fortunately we were fine and the hail was tiny enough to not cause damage!

Flowers

I got to my desk this morning and there was a small bouquet of flowers on it. It was awesome. My coworker has amazing flower gardens that she's growing to make her wedding bouquets. She decided to share some with me and I'm so excited to see the color on my desk. How fun!