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Safety first!
Work has this really awesome deal that if you spend $100 on safety related goods, they reimburse $50 of it. Awhile ago I bought a pair of motorcycle gloves for $70. A bit expensive, unless you get half of it back! Yay!
Well we got an email reminder that we had to have our forms in by monday. I am in training way away from my home office (40 miles round trip and $8.50 in tolls - yipee!) so I decided to go up and turn in the form late today. But I had to buy $30 more worth of safety gear. They are very flexible on what is safety related - so far the only thing they haven't covered is ammunition - which I still think is totally safety related!
Based on the recent events I have endured in Houston, guess what I bought instead for my safety? If you guessed this:
then you know me pretty well! The little one will be travelling with me, the big one will stay in my apartment. My company rocks!
Dad-in-Law - don't worry I still plan on not flipping people off. =)
I am Crying
My phone took a fall from the second floor in front of my apartment. It works (amazingly) but is badly damaged. I will update my blog later, I am too busy crying.
Satur-daze
We get up today and go to Wal-Mart to buy the rest of the goodies for Tom's gift box. I found the most hilariously retarded Christmas toy. It is a chicken wearing a reindeer costume with little bells. It dances around to the Chicken Dance - needless to say the dogs hated it! They barked at it and Natalie tried to attack the poor thing.
Later we took the Vette up to get it washed. We had a 30 minute wait while they washed it so we took the doggies down to a nearby pond to swim. Those two are about spoiled rotten, but they just have so much fun! Well right before we left, Eliza decided to do her usual trick - rolling her face and body around into the ground. Bad news for her - the ground was covered in burrs!
She had about 20 big ones stuck all over her. She had a clumping around her ear that had pinned it back to her head. A few in the beard and groupings around each elbow (do dogs have elbows). I was going to cut them out because it looked like it was hurting her to get them out, but Matt managed to get them out - what a good Dad!
Selling the Vette
We've been trying to sell the Vette for awhile - longer than when we were trying to rent out the house. It's paid off, so it's not like it is bad that it's taking so long, but it would be nice to be done with it. Well it finally looks like someone is interested in the Vette and going to come check it out / buy it tomorrow. This means we need to put the finishing touches on it, like cleaning it, etc.
Well on the way to the Waffle House, the Vette decides that it wants to stay with us and starts acting up. Murphy's Law, right? Check engine light comes on, but then goes off again. It hasn't given us a lick of trouble in six years, so we think maybe it is a fluke? If it doesn't do anything else, we will chalk it up to irony. Matt does take the tires in to get rotated and balanced, then goes to work replacing the brakes:
Well I want to watch a movie, but Matt wants to finish the brakes first. So I decide to kill time by giving Eliza a bath. This is her first bath in the Wylie house, and it's actually nice - the shower and toilet are in their own little room so she can't easily escape. It's one of those showers with three knobs - hot, cold and the bath/shower knob. Well I'm soaping her up, she's loving her bath as usual. When it comes time to rinse, I am filling up the pitcher of water and decide it's too hot - I turn the cold knob on and get blasted with a stream of water from above. Not the right knob apparently. We are both soaked by the time I get the shower turned off. Nice! We finish our bath and after drying off I go tell Matt how smart his wife is. =)
I think he likes to know I do as many stupid things as he does. What a pair we make.
Thanksgiving Part 1
Part one of Thanksgiving this year was at my parent's house in Weatherford. It's a bit of a drive over there and the girls slept most of the way over - not knowing what fun they were about to have! We got there and said hi to everyone. I hung out at the parent's house for awhile catching up on the news while Matt took the girls down to the stocktank to swim. Even my parent's dog tried to swim, though not very well.
Most of the family showed up: 1 grandma, 2 uncles, 2 aunts, 3 cousins, 3 little ones running around, and 4 doggies. The little girls were cute, they really liked Matt and playing "with" him. Virginia nicely put a pillow behind him, and Destiny put her pink blanket over him so he could nap. How cute!
This is Matt showing off his amazing domino stacking abilities. I may have taught the girls that jumping up and down can cause dominos to fall - I'm the bad cousin.
Since it is so close to Grandma's birthday, my parents got her a Christmas tree with a huge bear attached to it. The tree was bigger than she was! She really liked it, and I snapped this too cute picture of her hugging her tree:
What is really surprising is that I didn't take any photos of food considering how much I love Thanksgiving (and Christmas) dinners! Yum!
Be Careful What You Wish For...
Matt has a friend named Tom. Tom and Matt met in the Marines, where they were both stationed in the same place several times. I have met Tom several times, and he is a really great guy. He joined the Army after leaving the Marines, and is now a Blackhawk Pilot in the Army. He's also currently in Iraq. He hasn't been there that long, I think a few months at most.
Well I decide I want to send Tom a care package but don't really know what to send. I wanted it to be a surprise, but was totally clueless. So I broke down and asked what to send. He said that they buy most of what they need and lots of groups send them candy, magazines, and such. He said getting any kind of mail is good, but getting mail with cookies is great. Tom wants cookies, so I will make him cookies.
The cookie caper started today. Matt and I hit the grocery store to buy the ingredients. I bought the biggest bag of flour in my life - I needed at least 15 cups based on all the recipes. I went over to Brittney's to start baking at 12. (She is as obsessed with baking as I am) We should have taken a picture of her kitchen, we had all kinds of ingredients lined up all over her kitchen. She had to finish homework, so I started the cookie making without her.
I made the cookies that had to chill first, so by the time I was actually baking, she was done. Needless to say we weren't done baking until about 11 that night. We made 6 kinds of cookies - Sugar Crinkles, Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheels, Oatmeal Raisin, Peanut Butter, Lemon Kisses (lemon cookies with hershey kisses inside) and Gingerbread Men. Whew! They all tasted pretty good, though I'm not sure an of us tried the Gingerbread (I'm not a fan!). Whatever Tom doesn't like he can share, especially since we are sending a thousand cookies - or so it seems.
The doggies had fun, but didn't really contribute that much. I took pictures of them while Brittney was in class to pass the time. I'm not going to tell you how Brittney dissed my photo making abilities because it is too painful to repeat. Anyhow, here is an adorable picture of all three dogs, irregardless of the shutters that did not open all the way. Eliza is next to me - so surprising!
Once we get the cookies home, we get to work on packaging them. Matt and I bought a vaccuum sealer. I've always wanted to get one and this was a perfect excuse! Well we got a gimpy one that doesn't automatically seal, so you have to hit the seal button for it (we will be exchanging it!) We are so paranoid about getting enough of a vaccuum before sealing it, but before it smashes the cookies flat. We did pretty good until the gingerbread cookies. It was sucking the air out and then these horrible snapping noises started, a few gingerbread guys lost their arms before we got it to stop and seal. The cookie look like they will make it over there pretty well though - we made them in small bags so the rest will hopefully stay fresher!
By the way, this is what my husband does when he has a vaccuum sealer to play with...
Yes, that is Oscar's shoe...
Driving to Shreveport
Finished up my presentation last night. I made notes of what I am going to say for each slide - whether or not I remember to say it... Matt even went to the store to buy ink to print of a copy of me to look at on the way to Shreveport. What a great hubby!
Well Brittney and I are in the car driving to the meeting. She's driving (obviously) and I am supposed to be looking over my notes. But I'm not. I think I am okay enough to wing it. I mean this stuff was my thesis, so it's not like I don't know it. We're both looking forward to our free lunch and then hitting the casinos after the talk. =)
I'm a bit nervous. I am really hoping that I get a cool rock sample for doing the talk - it's not like I am getting paid or anything - and these people are paying to see me. I feel so cool!
After the talk...
It went well. I mean I got nervous (which is typical) but I remembered almost everything I was going to say and alot of people came up to tell me they liked it, and it was a good job. The guy in charge emailed me afterward to remind me to turn in my miles for reimbursement and told me if I ever wanted to do a talk again I would be welcome. That's a good sign, right? =) I even got my rock I wanted!
Well after that stressful event was over, Brittney and I hit the Casino! When Matt and I went for my 21st birthday, we went to the Hollywood Casino. APparently the Hollywood casino is now the El DOrado - so we went there! We both started with $20 and hit the slot machines. I love the slot machines! I'm such a purist too, I have to use quarters, not cards, and I have to pull the lever - pushing a button to make the machine work is soooo cheating!
I was my rocking awesome self on the slots. Brittney's destiny as a gambler was not fulfilled, she ran out of money pretty fast - luckily I was doing well enough to keep both of us afloat for an hour and a half. Eventually we ran out and went to the bathroom to wash our hands - they were disgusting:
The other part of Shreveport I was looking forward to was the slurpie bar I had seen two years ago but not gone in. I told Brittney it was by the casino - under the bridge. I found the casino, then the bridge, so we went on our way! After the gambling, we walked over to see if the bar was still there. It was! It's called Wet Willies...
And it's not open on Tuesdays! Wait, what??? Not open??? It is like my Mexican Bakery Claudia's all over again. Every time I get excited about something and tell everyone and make palns to go they are closed! So not cool!!!!
After a small tear for my slurpie, we walked back and got a Snickers cheesecake instead. We will go back and I will get my slurpie! Girl's Night in Shreveport!
A Case for Lotus...
I have this really big presentation Tuesday that I am very nervous about. Of course I am also procrastinating, but no surprise there, huh? Well I finally get down to business after Brittney leaves this morning. I had “started” it a few days ago, but only had two slides done. I go to open the file and it won’t open. Weird, but not a big deal since I only finished two slides. I open a new one and get to work.
The presentation is based on my thesis work, so it involves a lot of copying and pasting from the pdf of my thesis. I get all the figures copied over. This has been so strenuous that I decide to go take a nap. Whew!
An hour later I get back to work (again) and then think that maybe I should check and make sure this file opens. So I save it, then close it. Then I open it… nothing. It won’t open. Bad news… I have a momentary panic attack. I spend a long time trying to figure out what the problem is. Boils down to the fact that I have the ability to make ppt files, but once I close them, I can’t reopen them. I can email them to other people and they can see them, but I can’t. Yes, I tried repairing the files. Yes, I tried system restore.
It will be ok, I just won’t close the file until I am done. I can’t seem to use backgrounds either, but I can add that in later. Then it dawns on me none of my files work, not Word, not Powerpoint, not Excel. This means I can’t look at my old presentations for help. Another mini panic attack before a stroke of genius leads me to downloading a ppt viewer! So I can view files, but no copying and pasting. All this technology around and I am having to write down all the information on all of the slides. *sigh* After about the fifth slide, my handwriting looks more like chicken scratch and I think maybe I should have been a doctor afterall…
So I now hate Microsoft. Hopefully reinstalling my whole computer will fix things, though I think that is probably what started this whole mess. Cross your fingers that I won’t have to shoot my computer! =)
Shrimp Peel ‘06
There was a social event for the Houston Geological Society this Saturday at the Sam Houston Race Park. I conned Jason (from work) and Brittney into going with me, thinking we were going to meet all these people and make great connections. Not so much… but the shrimp and horse races were awesome! =)
Brittney and I looking totally cute in front of the racing gates - look they are in the background behind us:
Jason and Brittney posing in front of the stands, or whatever it is called at a horse race, I wasn't paying that much attention!
Guess which two people were having identity crisises, not to mention gender confusion...
The horses racing by... very fast! And no comments about blur - I was trying to get a picture before the battery died!
The ambulance never won a race, even though it had more than 100 horses under the hood. (Can't take credit for that corny joke, by the way...)
Weekend Hijinks
Brittney came to town this weekend, on Thursday evening. We spent the evening eating sea trout (yum!) and catching up on Grey’s Anatomy. Brittney threatened me for erasing last week’s Desperate Housewives, even though she knew the best part already. Friday she met me and some of my co-workers for lunch, and even got a mini-tour of where I work after lunch. Now when I am writing her emails talking about this or that she will be able to visualize. I told her I couldn’t show her any actual data or I might have to kill her… ha-ha… no seriously.
Friday night we could have gone out and had lots of fun, but we both decided watching movies at home would be just as fun and probably cheaper. We watched The Break-up (hated the ending) and In Her Shoes. I had read the book for that one, but the movie did a pretty good job. It’s a movie about two sisters who are completely different, to which both of us can relate.
Saturday morning we went to the dog park. Eliza actually remembered how to swim fairly well. There were at least three noteworthy dogs there. The first was a little white poofball that would run to the water, get a little bit wet and then bouce backward 3’ in the air and run around like a spaz. Later we saw the poofball and the lower half was caked in mud…. Nice! A big dog started chasing the poofball and it launched itself into the lap of a guy sitting on a bench nearby… not the owner either!
There was a dog who loved the water. I threw a tennis ball in the water for Eliza and she swam toward it. Suddenly the water exploded all around her – this dog had run from who knows how far away and leaped into the water at the tennis ball. This freaked Eliza out of course and she came back right away. A bit later it happened again, but this dog literally dove in the water, head went under and everything – it was a better jumper than Natalie.
The third was an unknown type of dog named Jengo. Jengo was cute, if not real smart. Jengo tried to swim in the water after a ball but didn’t really know how to swim well. He was more vertical than horizontal and was only really good at splashing water around. Five minutes later we look over because everyone is yelling at Jengo. Jengo has leaped into the middle of the pond and is stuck. He is treading water, but not going anywhere and started to get very freaked out. I figured I would give his parents two minutes and then I was going to go pull him out. Luckily his dad finally realized Jengo would drown before making it back and walked in to retrieve his dog. The poor guy was soaked from the waste down. Jengo stayed near the side of the pond after that.
During out drying off time, we sat at a bunch of benches where other owners were doing the same thing. We were talking to the other dogs, petting them, etc. Suddenly I realize I haven’t seen Eliza in awhile. I look behind me and she is sitting in the grass 10 feet away facing away from us. I call her name and she looks over her shoulder and purposely looks back away from us again. Everyone thinks its hilarious my dog is mad at me, and I have to go over, love on her and apologize. Yes, my dog is that neurotic!
On the way back from the park we saw this weird inflatable thing in a mall parking lot. I’m still not sure exactly what it is, but I think I will have nightmares about it. We finally decide you go in the thing, and the entrance is a big head wound. Who designed this thing???
Here's a close-up of the freaky head:
Brittney did something else exciting, but I think I will let her tell you that story…
It is Cold!
I'm not actually sure what day this was...
It was really cold outside one day this week. I was freezing while walking Eliza in the morning. Well this is actually kinda exciting because I can wear my scarf! I grab a hat for my head too. I get to work and decide to leave the hat in the car - it's not that far of a walk to the building. I get in the building, ride the elevator up and walk into my workroom.
Jason sees me and immediately laughs at me. Dangit it's cold outside! People from Montana/Michigan obviously do not understand that anything below 65 is cold! Jerk!
I'm kinda glad I left the hat in the car... =)
Who Searches For That???
I really like my web hoster. The software is pretty easy to use and jam packed full of features. Most of the features I don't use, and some of them took awhile for me to discover what they are.
But my favorite gizmo soon emerged as the web stats! I can look at how many people visited my site, how many new people, what country they are from, what IP address they used, and what sites were visited most - though not especially who say what. What Fun!
Last month the entertainment was what countries hit my blog. I had hits from Japan, UK, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Canada. This month there is a hit from Germany - which is odd - and one from a server in Antarctica. (Whoever you are - email me!)
I was also enthralled last month to notice if you type the keywords 'Oily' & 'Geologist' into yahoo or google, my site pops up first! Yay! I know it's pretty unique, but it's still awesome in my book. But then a weird thing showed up today.
Someone searched and found my website using these keywords: 'Nutterbutter' 'Cookies' and 'Turkey'... What??? I am so confused as to who is looking for that combination and also pretty sure I have not said turkey in the same sentence as nutterbutter, but I suppose I could be wrong.
Nutterbutter Cookies Turkey
Weirdo!
Married Life
Spent the weekend close to what normal people do. Went to bagel shop for breakfast. Walked around World Market. Then when he went to work, I cleaned his room and bathroom – I even changed the toilet seat and light bulb in the bathroom. I was super wife! Picked him up for dinner and then when he got home we watched a movie.
And what a movie it was – V for Vendetta was a really good movie. One of the best parts was the breakfast that made in the movie – twice! It’s called eggs in a basket and it’s where you cut a hole in a piece of bread, put it in a frying pan and then crack the egg in the bread. Fry it up all together and you have the best breakfast ever!
Sunday morning I get out of bed without waking Matt and go to the grocery store to get the goods. He wakes up to me making Eggs in a Basket. I made breakfast for everyone and it was just as good as it had looked!
The best part is Matt came back to Houston with me since it was his weekend. I got to see him 5 days in a row! Almost like a real married couple!
Surprise!
I decided to drive home and surprise Matt. It wasn’t my weekend, so I planned to be as sneaky as possible. I had to talk to him a few times on the phone to be un-obvious. The first time I played it off like I was driving home from work – well I was! Home! The other times I tried to make as little road noise as possible, but I was forced to drive over rumble strips at one point on 45. I tried to talk load at that point. =)
I stopped by his parents to say hi and kill some time before he got off work. I ended up getting to his work close to quitting time. When I saw people coming out I walked over and stood by his motorcycle. He was alarmed to see someone by his bike, then confused that it was a girl, then surprised it was his wife. He seemed pretty happy to see me – yay!
Camping Trip
Friday:
We drove until we got to Arkansas and finally got hungry enough to stop and eat. (Brittney was probably the hungriest since Matt fed her breakfast to the dogs…) I found a State Park on the map to stop at to eat but it wasn’t so much a park as a weird place with a bunch of people dressed like they were from the Civil War. We still aren’t sure exactly what that place was, but there was nowhere to eat. We ended up parking next to some railroad tracks and making sandwiches. Good enough for me! Brittney and I ran the doggies while Matt pulled out the food. (The CR-V was packed to the brim since everything had to fit in the back, but it fit!)
We got to Ouchita State Park at a decent hour and set up the tent. The firewood we got kinda sucked, and in our effort to get our meat packets cooked we ended up charring the meat to the bottom of the foil. I was hungry enough I didn’t care, but I’m pretty sure even the dogs didn’t want the bottom. Anyhow we decided to go to Wal-Mart to buy another fishing pole for the morning, since we only had the one. We looked at the poles like we were experts – as if! I am finally decided between two, crouched down with them across my lap. I put one up and as I do I shift the delicate balance and the other pole (in a plastic package) flips up and smacks me in the face. It really hurt! I put it back and grabbed a pole that didn’t attack me. I go fishing for sympathy and get it – apparently I am bleeding! Stupid Pole!!! We leave after I spend a good 10 minutes picking out cool lures. (Do they lure fish as well as they lure me???)
We head back to the camp. I promptly fall into the tent and get into my sleeping bag – it is cold! Brittney and Matt make hot water bottles to put in the sleeping bags to keep us all warm. Those things worked like a champ! Take boiling hot water, pour it in a Nalgene bottle and close it up – tight! Must be very tight! Then throw it in the bag with you – awesome!
Saturday:
We stopped on a little island for a while. The dogs didn’t even wait until we threw stuff in the water, they just started jumping in and swimming. We tortured Natalie a bit by throwing big sticks in and holding her back until Eliza had a good head start. Natalie cannot stand being held back. She acts like you are murdering her. It’s so sad, but kinda funny. We tried to fish for awhile here, but mostly weeds.
Eventually we get back to the boat and head back. We try to fish in a few spots. No luck. We finally find Quartz Island, a little island covered in quarts crystals. Brittney and I decide it’s not really within park boundaries and grab a few samples. I grab enough to do a rock tumble with. I hope some of them turn out good! We return the boat and then walk around fishing from the side of the lake. No luck. We accept defeat for the night and go back to make dinner.
Sunday:
We are driving back to the park down an old timber road when we see a little dog on the side of the road. I say we have to stop – it is starting to rain and it looks so little. I go grab the dog and bring it back. I can just feel the ticks on the poor thing. Eliza of course freaks out. I let her sniff the dog and she calms down. When I get the puppy in the light, I see it is a she, and not a puppy, just a little dog who has had puppies recently. But she has a collar and a tag. We wrap her up in a blanket so we don’t get ticks everywhere and drive her home. The guy is glad we brought her back, but the whole situation was kinda weird. We are driving toward this Junkyard and thinking of creepy movies – not helpful!
By the time we get back to camp it is raining well. We decide we can’t cook in the rain – the fish recipe needs oil and oil and water don’t mix. We decide that we can cook in the vestibule if we are careful. And it is somehow decided that I am the cook. I am dry and the cooking in the vestibule makes it pretty warm. The dogs are in the tent because they are not smart enough to get out of the rain. I am cooking edammame when I realized it is pre-cooked and all it needs is a heating. I pass it to the other two. I am too busy trying to cook in unusual conditions.
A slight breeze kept blowing my hair around. It was annoying because it felt creepy. Well at one point I reach up to tuck my hair in and a spider goes from my ear to my cheek. I grab it and fling it away and then yell spider! Unfortunately the other two interpret this as Fire! I repeat spider, and they freak out and run at me. I finally get “Spider” across to them and they both scold me, while laughing nervously and trying to figure out how big a mess there is from when the edammame was dropped. Edammame was fine – landed perfectly. Well they crawled in the tent, I finished the fish and passed it through. It was a nice cozy dinner, even with the scariness!
Monday:
After getting back to Dallas, I downloaded the pictures then headed back to Houston. It was a long day, long drive back but it was totally worth it. I ended up buying The Sweet Potato Queen’s God Save The Queen book on CD. Man those books are hilarious! One of these days I am going to have a SPQ party and make the food from their books. So unhealthy, but sounds so good!
Near Death Experience
I was on a work field trip and went back with the car that left early so I could get a head start to Dallas - since I hadn't packed the car yet for the camping trip. I don't mean to gloss over the trip - it was super cool and I will post pictures, but that's not really what this blog was about. The “early” car got me back to the south Houston area around 4:30. Just in time for the madness that is Friday rush hour. Well I just had to get across town, no big deal, right?
BIG DEAL!
There was a wreck, then it was cleared, but that didn’t seem to improve traffic much. I was in the popular (ie: jammed up) lanes that were exiting to 45. After taking about an hour to move 5 miles, my blood pressure was beyond what even I thought possible. The cause of this was not just the traffic, but the jerks that were driving in the unclogged lanes and then cutting over at the last second. I mean I don’t want to be stuck in traffic either, but you have to be a totally soul-less person to get in at the exit. Which should have been a warning I suppose…
Car after car cuts in – not only violating human rights, but crossing two sets of double white lines in their unholy quest to get ahead in life. One guy cut in – one car in front of me. He would not have made it in front of me, and I let him know this with my horn. You know how every person has a breaking point? This was mine. I had been patient, sat in traffic for an hour to go 5 miles! But I still had to go to North Houston, drop off this rental car (that was almost out of gas!!!) and then go home and pack, then drive the 4.5 hours back to Dallas!!!!! Breaking point has been reached and surpassed long ago. So I apologize now for my upcoming actions.
I see a white pick-up doing the jerk thing and cutting across the big whited out triangle and driving in the shoulder. So I lose it. I stick my hand out the window and flip him off. I swear I have never done that before (except once in HS) at least not to where people can see… The guy flips me back off – apparently he doesn’t realize he is so in the wrong! Should end there, but oh no – I pick psycho guy to flip off!
Watching in my rear view mirror I see the guy is starting to get out of his truck! WHAT?!? Oh no! Traffic moves a bit, he shuts the door. Traffic stops moving, he tries again. Lucky me! We aren’t really moving much, just enough that every time he tries to get out, we move up enough. There is a car between us thankfully. The truck tries to get over onto the shoulder, so I scoot over too – no way he’s getting next to me. The guy keeps up the psychotic-ness, so I finally decide that I don’t really need to take 45 – I need to get away from this guy before something worse happens.
Like I said - not many places to go. Did I mention that I am freaking out? I have never been so scared in my life! I am watching traffic and I time it so I can get over two lanes and fast. Truck follows me, of course. I am studiously avoiding eye contact, but I glimpse over when I get over the two lanes. The truck is aimed at my car like he is either going to cut me off or ram me. Oh crap! Then he jerks the wheel and drives away.
I’m not sure if he had decided I was scared enough or he hadn’t realized I was a (dumb) girl. Either way it was over. It took me another hour or so to calm down. I was entirely grateful I wasn’t in my actual car so this guy couldn’t stalk me. I can’t tell you at all what he looked like, but he scared me to death. I’m still a little paranoid about white F-150’s.
My advice? No flipping off people in Houston. Ever.
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Then after I finally got everyone together, we took a family photo. We really don't have a whole lot of family photos - especially considering how many of us there are!
