Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Stacy and Clinton - where are you???

My group leader is in major need of Stacy and Clinton's help. The woman is seriously fashion impaired.

Now granted, I've yet to see her wear something even "decent." When I interviewed with her, she had these fakey turquoise contacts (which she wears all the time), and a pants/shirt combo that was just too tight. She's not huge, but well, she's not exactly 21 with a hot bod anymore either. In fact, she's ~38 with a 2 yr old and is still carrying the baby weight. But I digress.

We were meeting with a senior technical guy all day today in preparation for a mtg with a client that's tomorrow. I'm wearing a brown linen eyelet skirt (hangs just below the knee) and a lace necked cotton shirt. Slightly casual, but cute and nice. and WORK appropriate.

My group leader shows up in a tan MINI (micro mini?) skirt and a tan long sleeved beaded knit/ribbed top. She sits down and the skirt is so short, you can almost see up it. Then at some point, she scoots her chair over to this white board and is facing me (and sr technical dude), still sitting in her chair with this TINY skirt and I swear, you could not help but look right on up her skirt. It was horrible. Awful. Then I sat there hoping she had the sense enough to at least let this thing be a skort. I have no idea if it was, but I prefer to think of whatever item of clothing I saw under her very tiny skirt was in fact part of her skort, rather than processing the fact that I just saw my boss' underwear during a meeting.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Working hard at home!



I'm working from home today due to flooding. Damn cats aren't helping though - all they're doing is sleeping, and consequently, making ME sleepy! And then I try to put stuff on them for a stuff on my cat photo, and they freak out, which only makes me more distracted with the goal of getting a photo worthy submission.

Yup, getting lots of real work done here!

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Elk, Bears, Mountains and Crown - Montana June 2006

What more could you ask for! If you don't feel like reading the following novel, pictures tell a thousand words! Erin's Flickr Pics - Pages 1-3

I flew out to Billings a few weekends ago for the weddings of one of my college friends. This was basically the last time the 5 of us will be together, b/c two of the crew are moving to Africa for work (yeah.....).

Anyways, commentary on moving aside, I was very excited to head back to Montana as I hadn't been back since my Glacer backpacking trip in 2004. I decided to get a cabin in Cooke City Thurs night and spend Thurs and Friday exploring Yellowstone and the Beartooths. The rest of my friends were a)lame and b)bridesmaids and had to attend the rehearsal Friday, so I was solo for my adventures. Which I loved.

I'd been to Yellowstone/Beartooths twice before. The first time was for a Field Ecology course in college, where we spent a week camping, hiking, learning in the area. Which was bad ass. However, I didn't see anything remotely touristy. And my last time we were there, it was January and we didn't have snowmobiles, so again - no tourist attractions. I decided that this time, if I wanted to see it, I would stop, no matter how "cliche". Old Faithful, check. Geysers, check. Yellowstone Lake, Check.

I got my car at 11 AM Thursday and made a beeline west on I-90 to Livingston, then down to Gardnier to the park entrance. Make kick-ass time - was in the park by 2 PM. Woo! I loved seeing places I've been before with fresh eyes, noticing new things along the way. And since it was the first weekend in June, there weren't too many people (aka idiots) out. Woo! I'd drive and pull over is something was picture worthy. Take a short hike if I felt like it. I had crazy good timing with seeing wildlife and attractions. I pulled up to Old Faithful 15 min before it went off, not even knowing when it was supposed to go. Yay! I can check that off my list. I also saw (from a distance, thru a scope) a pack of 4 wolves with a kill (sweet!) and 3 black bears (close enough to see them w/out binocs [which I'd stupidly left at home] but far enough away where you wouldn't get hurt).

Total wildlife viewing tally:
Bison (tons), elk (tons), white tail deer (tons), 2 bighorn sheep, 1 trumpet swan, 1 blue heron, 3 bears, 4 wolves. Good day!

Some picture highlights from Thurs:





















That was all from Thursday. Needless to say, I was a wee bit tired. Got to my hotel at 9:30, ate at 10 Pm. Woke up to the annoying sounds of highway construction at 7, was on my way out by 8 AM. Stopped in Cooke City for some coffee, asked the store owner about some good "quick" morning hikes before I had to head back to Billings. He recommended Trout Lake back in the park, then some stream behind this lodge just outside of the park "there's no trail, but if you follow the stream back for a mile, there's a nice waterfall."...

So, I went to Trout Lake first. Very nice!



I drove around the park some more (more killing time, I know its rough!). Then I tried this "waterfall" trail. It consisted of bushwacking thru hills with some pretty big downed trees. I managed to scratch my legs 3 times (so badly blood ran down my legs - two weeks later I still have a scab on one of my legs), then I saw fresh bear tracks and scat, so I decided to turn around...





Got a sammich in Cooke City, found this nice little waterfall (below) off the side of the road and had a lovely picnic lunch before taking the Beartooth Highway back to Billings.



Some pics of the Beartooths (some of my fav mountains)







Rolled back into Billings at 4 PM. Went to the rehearsal dinner, then out. Much craziness ensured. My friend H got very drunk, then decided to make out with the greasy guy with a comb-over. I so wish I had my camera, b/c she still doesn't believe me!

Saturday morning, we all headed to this tiny salon west of Billings - it was like the MT equivalent of the place in Steel Magnolias. Just bizarre. Anyways, I was the only one of the group who wasn't a BM, so I did errand running, which... whatever.

Then the wedding - they had a cash bar, but we were smart enough to bring 3 bottles of crown. Which about 6 of us managed to drain thru the course of the evening. Anways, the wedding was fun, slightly bittersweet, and beautiful.



The next morning, however, was not so pretty, thanks to the 3 bottles of crown and the fact that we went out afterwards and closed a bar down... But, this is true to how our group usually is, so it was nice to go out with a bang! However, in the future, I will do my best to not fly home hungover ever again, b/c it really, really sucked.

So, that was the last trip of the summer. Now all I have to look forward to is my 2.5 weeks in New Zealand over Thanksgiving! Wooo!

Reno trip

So, this would be a lot more vivid if say, I'd written this post right after I got back instead of a month later..... but all you really care about are the pictures anyways...

Erin's Flickr pages - Reno is pages 5 - 7

I needed some R&R between jobs and my HS friend Rochelle had M-W off, so with my handy dandy free ticket (me looove Southwest Airlines!) I booked a trip out there for 5 days to visit. And go gambling. And camping. And stock up on Moose Drool.

So, Monday we just vegged, went to the casinos that night. She went thru her allotted $40 like water, I played for ~1 hr and only lost $10.

Tues we decided to take her dogs and go camping in the Sierras. Now, I like dogs, but I don't actually own dogs - and camping with 2 very large dogs is well, different. Especially when you are all sleeping in a 3 man pack tent and the biggest dog (Griffin, 120 lbs) decides to use your torso as a pillow.



I can't remember where the heck we camped now, but it was by Truckee, CA by a set of 2 reservoirs off an old forest service road. Very isolated and pretty. Unlike anywhere I've camped in TX (except for Big Bend). I was a happy camper.

Pretty Sunset:






Wednesday we woke up, ate, packed up and took the dogs to the lake to play:



Had a nice picnic lunch lakeside, then headed back to Reno.

Thurs, Ro had to work, so I rented a car and decided to head to Tahoe. Because if you absolutely *have* to kill some time, then Tahoe really is a pretty good place to go. I know, it was rough, but I was a trooper. So, more photos!











Thurs night we made tacos, drank Moose Drool out on the patio. I miss cool, dry nights. Friday, I went back to Houston... Booo!

It was really one of my better ideas to head out that way to play. I came back grounded and relaxed - not to mention I got to hang out with one of my best friends and see mountains!

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Further evidence of my freak magnetism

I had to go to Atlanta for a safety coordinator training session. I have never had so many safety-related trainings for a job ever. Its craziness. Anyways, they flew in several ppl to our Atlanta office for this training. Our instructor (regional safety mgr for the company) was an hour late, claiming he forgot about the training. And he also was happy to report that at least he wasn’t hungover today, b/c he’s had to teach this class hungover before, and he sure didn’t think that was too much fun. Professional, huh?

Anyways, training was supposed to end at 5 PM, and I had a flight back home for 9:30. Well, despite starting an hour late AND taking an hour lunch break, we finished at 3 PM. A group of 5 of us decided to head back to the airport and try our luck at booking earlier flights. It was me, another girl named Erin, a guy from Florida who was cool, and 2 people from Ohio who were older, and well, socially challenged (a man with terrible teeth who kept fishing for work saying he was very good in the field, yet couldn’t figure out how to calibrate sampling equipment…. and a woman who just got her ears pierced 5 times 3 days ago, to prove her 15 yr old daughter “wrong” that she was indeed cool enough to have multiple holes in her ears….)
I was lucky enough to get an earlier flight, but we still had a few hours to kill, so we went to a restaurant for beers and food. We had a decent time eating and chatting. Then it was time for me and the other Erin to leave for our flights. We all left the restaurant at the same time, stood around saying our good-byes. The Ohio woman (fueled by her Long Island Iced Tea during dinner) hugged the 3 of us younglings good bye.

Then the guy takes my hand. I thought he was going to shake it. Um, no. I do not have that kind of luck. He takes my hand and KISSES IT. I just stand there. He said that I had the furthest to fly, so that’s why he kissed me. The other 2 younglings stood as far away from him as possible and did the kind of handshake where your fingertips barely touch.

I’ve never wanted to wash my hand with OCD tendencies more in my entire life.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

this goes under the "only this could happen to me" file

I was just in the ladies room, and the lock for the stall door got stuck "locked". Like the threading in the latch got stripped or something. So, I had to wait for ppl to leave the bathroom before I got on the floor and shimmied out from under the door. I barely fit.

I am *so* special.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

home..... what's that?

Sorry for the lack of updates, I really haven't been home much. I still owe a post on my adventures in Reno. And I just got back from Montana for a wedding, and have plenty of stories/pics to share. But I don't seem to have much time these days, and once again, I'm oot this weekend to swim in the Danskin Triathlon. So, I'll do my best in the next few weeks to at least do a photo post, b/c I took some damn fine pics this past month.