Lions and Tigers and Hurricanes, Oh My!

All of a sudden, it seems like hurricane season has approached. When I left work on Thursday afternoon and when I checked on Friday morning, there was only one tropical depression in the Atlantic Ocean. Now that has turned into another and brought friends! Since this is my first hurricane season near the Gulf and I only have 2 weeks left in town, I'm really hoping that these storms avoid the Gulf and more specifically, our area. So far so good.

Lately things have been pretty calm around this area. Work went really well this week. I'm about 4 days from my final deadline for my big intern project so I've been spending a whole lot of time working on that. Last Tuesday we had a set of intern presentations in front of a lot of the big wigs at our plant. The assistant plant manager laid out a little competition. The top three presentations received $50 gift cards. Given that I'm competitive and in need of funds for the drive home, I was definitely focused on getting one of those top three places...and I did! : ) The presentation went well and I managed to get most everyone laughing with a cheesy joke.

Aside of telling jokes at work, all has been going pretty well. I got a chance to tour one of our units with one of the subject matter experts and hunt down some machinery I've been trying to validate. It was a great experience to get out into the field yet again and see what all is out there. The only downside is that it was SO hot outside! When I got back inside and downed several bottles of water, I realized that there was only one itty bitty dry spot left on my shirt. Lovely, eh?

Aside from work, this are going well here. I've been spending a lot of time with friends around this area. It's definitely been a good time and I'll miss them when I leave for the North. We're really been pretty busy this weekend with a farewell/welcome party of the outgoing interns and newcoming engineers, trip to the beach last night, and I got the chance to see "The TIme Traveler's Wife" with one of my friends as well. I managed to cook up a little culinary goodness for the party on Friday night with the help of some fresh fruit, chocolate, and bamboo skewers. Oh, and some marshmallows. The result was fruit fruit kabobs with a semi-sweet chocolate drizzle. They were a big hit!

Our visit to the beach last night was quite an adventure. It was my first time to the Gulf of Mexico so it was pretty cool to see. By the time we got there, the sun had set and the mosquitos had set in with a vengence. Between admiring the stars, sound of the ocean, and lights from all the offshore rigs, all of us were completely swarmed by some of the most blood-thirsty mosquitoes I've experienced in a while. We finally gave up due to lack of blood and came back into town to scratch our wounds.

All in all, the weekend has been pretty decent and I've been able to get quite a bit done (including packing for home). Now I just have to survive 9 more days at work, my final presentation on Friday, and hopefully avoid any hurricanes that may approach the Gulf.

Dear Michigan-Get ready. I'll be home soon. Love-Eva

It's hard to believe, but 3 weeks from today, I will officially be back in Michigan! After spending this much time away from home, I'm starting to get really excited to see my friends at home, at school, and all my family. I knew it was going to be rough staying away for so long and I'm glad I decided to come down here, but I will definitely be happy to get back.

The last week in Texas has been rather hot, but good. We've apparantly had a milder August than usual (it's only in the lower 90's instead of the upper 90's) so that has been nice. A lot of my projects at work have started to wrap up and before I know it, I'll be doing my final presentation. One very cool thing that I got to do with week was to take a little trip all day Wednesday with some of the other interns from work. We got the chance to visit one of the refineries in Houston, had a lovley lunch, and went to an Houston Astros game. I had never been to a covered/air conditioned ballpark so that was pretty cool to see. I learned at the game that the vast majority of people who attend afternoon ball games end up being retirees. This was pretty funny since there were two very opinionated older gentlemen sitting right behind me and about 20 grannies behind them. It was rather funny to see the older gentlemen trying to show off to the ladies. Things never change. ; ) Probably my favorite part of the whole time was BSing with the rest of the interns during our 3 hours of van time. We all get along pretty well so it was fun just to tell stupid stories, make bad jokes, and get some time to catch up on what each of us have been up to.

This weekend has been fairly relaxed around town. We had a pool party Friday night at a friend's house nearby which was interesting. There was definitely a girl who was chain smoking and pregnant there. I hope very much that in my lifetime I never see a pregnant woman chain smoking again. Beyond that mishap, the party was fun and it was good to relax with some of my friends from work. Yesterday I got my first hands on experience with a classic Southern crap boil. The place I went to managed to cook about 50 lbs of crab, a whole bunch of shrimp, fries, hush puppies, etc. To say the least, it was a feast. The crab was very good and well worth having to bash the shells with my fingers and the plate. By the time I got done attacking my plate full of crabs, I was almost completely covered in spices, oil and crab guts. I even managed to get some down my shirt. : / I'm glad I got the opportunity to try out new food, though! : )

Beyond all those events at work and this weekend, things have been pretty calm around here. One of my very good friends and ex-roommates from back home has agreed to fly down here and drive back up to Michigan with me. I'm very happy about this! : ) It's been really hard for us to connect since she's graduated so it will be a whole lot of fun seeing her again. True to form, I've already booked her flight and two of our hotel rooms for the trip. I just have to figure out what we're going to do for lodging in Cincinnati then we will be all set!!

This coming week should be pretty decent. It will be sad to have my roommate move out this Wednesday, but I know she's ready to get away from this small town. A lot of my friends will be finishing up their internships in the next 2 weeks so things will start getting a lot quieter around here. Pretty soon I will have to start packing and getting all my stuff together for the big trip home. I'm hoping to donate anything I don't need from the apartment and hopefully go home with less stuff than I came with. We'll see if I can manage that. It may take some serious effort, but I'll definitely make it happen.

That's about all for now. Back to doing laundry and getting my stuff taken care of so that I'm set to go for the week!

Mmmm...Kabobs!

Grilled Teriyaki Beef and Veggie Kabobs

Homemade Apple Dumplings

Yum! : )

Less Than a Month Left! .... : )

Greetings yet again from Texas! Things are well here in the South. The temperatures have started to rise yet again as we welcome August. Going outside has become almost unbearable without a sizeable frosty beverage of sorts. My usual garb of flame retardant clothing hasn't helped much with the heat. The fibers enjoy quality bonding time when it's hot (which is good because it keeps us from getting burned), but that quality time also makes for some serious sweating. Mmm...the joys of the heat.

Beyond complaining about the weather, things are going pretty smoothly. Work is starting to wrap up as I prepare for my final review and the big move back home. I am VERY lucky because one of my close friends and long time roommates back home has agreed to fly down and drive back home with me. Assuming her boss is 100% in for letting her off work for a few days, we should be good to go! : ) I can't wait to catch up with her and get my butt back up north.

On a side note before I talked a little bit about last week, I had a total nerdy engineering moment last night. Our deadbolt on the front door has been mildly intolerant of letting us in or out of the apartment lately. After a frustrating 5 minutes of struggling with the door yesterday, I managed to fix it well enough to be able to enter and exit without cussing a bluestreak in front of the zillion little kids who roam our apartment complex. My fix? Pam cooking spray and a leatherman. A true engineer turned foodie tool kit! I may have to peridoically Pam the front door a few times before we leave, but for now our deadbolt is working just fine.

This last weekend I managed to high tail it out of town for a few days to visit my good friend in Baton Rouge yet again. True to form, we managed to do a decent amount of cooking and relaxing. I was able to get into town early on Friday afternoon since I had Friday off (yaaaay 9/80 schedules!). After being filled in on my friend's chaotic work schedule (the poor guy has been swapping between 1st, 2nd and 3rd shifts for over a month now!), we got the chance to go out to dinner and the new Harry Potter movie with four of his friends. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed good 'ol 'arry Potter. i know it's lame, but I'm a big fan of the books and the movies seem to get better every time. I'm currently reading the 7th and final book. It's very good and I'm about 400ish pages in out of 750. I've already designated tonight as a Harry Potter night. : ) NERD ALERT!

Saturday and Sunday were pretty relaxed for us. We slept in, did some reading, watched "Turner and Hooch" (such a funny movie) and caught up on each other's lives. It's always great to get a little quality time in with other northerners who have mysteriously ended up in the deep south.

Speaking of being a crazy notherner, I've decorated my poor officemate's white board even more lately. As of right now it has his general mood forecast (it's been stuck on "Enter at your own risk" for about a month now), a spartan helmet, a disco dancing spartan helmet, a 2 humped desert racing prawn (an inside joke with one of our Saudi engineers), and now a list of Michigan-isms. Here's a few examples:

You Know You're From Michigan When...

• You know what a pasty is. (YUM!)
• You have a favorite hockey team.
• You drive over the Big Mac instead of eating one.

There are many more, but I can't quite remember them off the top of my head.

That's about all for now! I'll post some pictures of our culinary creations in a minute.

Photoz

The only picture I took at the lake house the other weekend....

One of the six dogs. This is Scout. All of the boy dogs liked him a naughty way. Poor Scout.

Say Yah to da UP, eh? Or...Hey Y'all to Tejas...Take your pick!

Belive it or not, I have survived yet another week in the great state of Tejas. Since my last entry, things around where I'm currently living have been pretty normal. I've been working out religiously, spending my token 40 hours/week at my internship, and trying to spend time with friends before school starts. At work things have been pretty steady. I've been trying to inventory some of our rotating equipment which has been an adventure in itself. Since our plant is many many years old, things have changed hands and changed formats so many times that some of our lists have become a bit inaccurate. As a result, I have been given the task and opportunity (if you want to be optimistic and call it that) of making this collection far more accurately documented. So far this whole endeavor has actually gone quite well. I'm yet to throw any computers in the general direction of the wall or trash can so that has been a plus. In addition to that, most everyone I've hit up for information has been pretty easy to squeeze data out of.

On the flip side of my life here, I've been able to spend a decent amount of time enjoying the gym. Anyone who knows me well also knows that I am proud of my obsession with the gym and exercise in general. Surprisingly enough, I didn't even really start lifting weights much until last week. I've mostly just done cardiovascular exercises and left it at that. It has felt good to get a little lifting in yet again in preparation for the lifting I plan to do back at home. I've definitely enjoyed getting my cardio endurance up significantly again. It feels good to be able to walk out of a spinning class and still be able to stand up and breathe. It's definitely an accomplishment.

This last weekend I was able to tag along to a fellow intern's family's lake house about 100 north of where I live. It was great to have the opportunity to meet new people, get back to nature, and spend a few days caring about nothing other than a lake, some food, and how much sunblock I need to pile on to stay un-lobster-fied. (I know it's not a word, but if you've seen me with a sunburn you know it's a reality.) From Friday to Sunday, we got the chance to cook many awesome meals, spend two afternoons on the lake, and enjoy some quality game playing time around the house. In addition to having many people up at the house, we also had a grand total of six dogs -- a Weimereiner, three labs, and two German shorthairs. The dogs were totally ridiculous, but it was nice to have them around. Probably the scariest part of my weekend was going out on the jet ski with my friend's step-sister and her friend. I ended up sitting in the back of the jet ski while the driver tore it up. Needless to say, I did not fall off, but I think the girl in the middle couldn't breathe for 90% of our ride because i was bear hugging her the entire time. My legs are also incredibly sore from squeezing onto the jet ski like my life depended on it. In retrospect, I probably could have induced far less pain on myself if I had just fallen off the jet ski, but at the time my #1 focus was not going flying and for the most part, it worked. It definitely felt good to get a break from the usual for the weekend and I am very appreciative that my friend's family and friends were so welcoming to my pale Northern self.

Aside from my adventures near and far from town and challenges at the gym and at work, I seem to be surviving living far far away from home pretty well. I have to admit that of all my "far away" experiences so far, this is probably the one that I've missed home the most during. I guess I had a decent amount of homesickness in Ireland because of some challenges I had with my host family, but I think the bulk of my homesickness here has come from missing many of my cloest friends and family memebers who are still up north or, in some cases, all over the US or even the world. I know that before I know it I'll be right back home and wishing I was away again, but for now it makes me a little sad that I can't drop in on my close buddies for a good laugh. In retrospect, I could technically fly home for a weekend before I get done, but I would prefer not to have to do all that traveling when I'm just going to be home in 5 weeks anyway. I guess it's kind of like what they say about relationships...when you're in one, you dream of being single because of the advantages of being unattached, but when you're single, you do just about anything to be in a relationship because you may miss some of the perks of having someone around. Either way, you're still dreaming about something you don't have at the time. In the same way, I've been dreaming about the perfect weather in Michigan, seeing my friends and family, and being able to enjoy some of the perks of Michigan summer. But I also know that if I was in Michigan right now I'd be cursing the cool nights because I'd feel like summer was going to pass through my fingers before I could enjoy it, my family would be driving me a little nutty, and I'd be wishing I could visit other places while I had the time. What a paradox.

I guess that's about all for this week. It looks like I'll be making another trip to Baton Rouge this weekend so hopefully I'll have some more yummy food pictures to post!

Time Flies

Yet another week has passed in the land of gators and mudbugs. That leaves about 6 weeks left until I venture back home. Lately things haven't been too eventful around here. Work has been pretty steady and I've been enjoying my evening workouts and hanging out with friends. This weekend has been pretty calm as well. Friday was my day off so I got to enjoy some much needed R & R. I was also able to pick up a gig tutoring one of my co-workers' daughters for her upcoming math exam. Saturday was pretty calm as well. My roomie and I went to see "My Sister's Keeper". It was probably one of the saddest movies I've seen in a while. The waterworks didn't quite match seeing "P.S. I Love You" the first time, but they were definitely in one of the Top 10 of Waterworks Shows. The other highlight of our day was hitting up a pool party with some of our friends.

Beyond all that, things are pretty normal here. I'm starting to looking forward to coming home in a few weeks. Now that a lot of the "new Texas smell" has worn off (that smell is a lot like bad gas from all the sulfur) I've been missing seeing friends and family back home. Plus it'd be nice to not sweat just from breathing. I know that the trade off is going to be way more cloudy days and a whole pile of snow in a few months, but when I get home in a few weeks I'll be okay with that. Until the snow falls of course. Then I'll be ready to move again.

Time to get some of my errands done for the day and get ready for another week at work.

Half Way There (But Where is There...!?)

It's hard to believe it, but I've officially been working in Texas for 7 weeks now and have reached the half way point of my internship! Reflecting back on my experiences so far, living down here has actually be better than I expected. I've gotten to do things I never thought I would, met a whole lot of fun people, and have just been pretty happy in general. Even though I've moved far away to places where I don't know a soul and survived before, you never know what is going to happen somewhere new. It makes me happy that I've been able to make this experience my own yet again. : )

Now let's get down to some of my adventures this past week. One very fun part of my Monday last week was getting to meet up with one of my bosses from school to have dinner and catch up. It was great to see her and the restaurant we went to had really good food! It's a little surprising sometimes how nice it is to meet up with a person from your life at home while you're far from it. We had a great conversation and it was totally worth spending part of my evening driving back and forth.

As far as work goes, this week was pretty normal. I had my midterm review on Wednesday which actually went really well. My bosses really took it more as an opportunity to help me communicate my progress and less of an opportunity to tear me a new one. That is always appreciated. I like that I know what my group is expecting of me my last 7 weeks and what I can do to get everything completed.

Hmm...one very cool event that I was able to particiate in this week was the Soulsafest put on my City Dance Center in Beaumont. This is event is a combination of a workshop during the day and a social dancing/performance event at night. The way the workshop went down is that there were 4 hours of classes (samba, salsa 1 & 2, and hip hop). I ended up doing all the classes except for samba since I got a late start getting to the dance studio. The teachers were great! We have Salsa Eddy and Lucia D (I don't remember her last night at the moment) come in from Houston to teach and then to perform later on that night. Eddy taught the salsa classes and Lucia taught the hip hop and samba classes. They definitely did a great job and I think everyone who attended their classes felt totally welcome and like they learned a whole lot. I had never actually taken a class in hip hop or salsa so it was a great experience! Our hip hop class learned part of a routine for "Boom Boom Pow" and our salsa classes learned about 9 salsa moves to use on the dance floor that night. To say the least, I was TOTALLY pooped after 3 hours of dancing.

After recovering a little back at home, a couple of us met up at a southern cuisine restaurant for the social dance and performance portion of the night. Probably the best parts of the performance were Eddy and Lucia dancing salsa and also Lucia's dance company doing a samba with full Carnival head dress and a whole lot of glitter. We also got to dance before and after the performance to some salsa, merengue, reggaeton, and a few other kinds of Latin music that I can't remember off the top of my head. It was a great time! Even while I was driving home I was thinking about salsa beats. It was kind of like how after you get done ice skating, you still feel like you're gliding for a while. In the same respect, it took at least an hour for me to recover from thinking in terms of salsa.

That about sums up my weekend. Today is a lazy day around here. I just need to take care of some stuff around the apartment and hopefully get some errands done so that I have groceries for the week. Plus I need to recover from some of my aching muscles. Dancing all day then dancing all night in heels definitely wears you out!

This coming week should be pretty calm around these here parts. I have Friday off so I still need to figure out what I'll be doing for the long weekend. Beyond that, it's all open for interpretation.

Austin's Still Weird...We Checked.

A view from one of the Woodburn House's Porches

Phew! What a weekend! I'm proud to say that running off to Austin for the holiday weekend was definitely a great adventure. Thanks to the wonder of 9/80 schedules, I was able to take a 4 day weekend and have my mom fly down to Texas.

The first thing on the agenda on Thursday afternoon (after driving like a bat out of hell to get to the airport at the right time) was to pick up Mom from the Austin Airport and check into our B & B in Hyde Park. Here's a picture of the Woodburn House where we stayed:

Woodburn House B & B

Way cool, right? This house was pretty amazing! We had the entire 3rd floor to ourselves which included a huge bathroom with whirlpool tub and two bedrooms. One bedroom had a king-sized bed and desk then the other had a TV and sofa along with a twin bed. In addition to the fun room, the proprietors of the B & B were super nice and made aaaamazing breakfast! The other people staying there were really nice, too.

Now back to Thursday. After getting settled in at the B & B, Mom and I went out to find some dinner, do some shopping, and I got to surprise Mom with something I've been working on for about a month. Mom's favorite massage therapist moved to Austin about a year ago so I googled her and organized a massage appointment on Thursday night. I wanted it to be a surprise so after we got done shopping I just drove over to the yoga studio and when Mom asked where we were going I just said I had to run a quick errand. Mom was SO surprised when we walked into the studio and her MT was standing there. Then she was even more surprised when she found out that I had scheduled a massage. : )

Friday was our main adventure day. We checked out the Stevie Ray Vaughn Memorial, walk the River Trail, checked out ZIlker Park Botanical Gardens, had lunch at Guero's, shopped at SoCo (South Congress Ave.) and went on a long walk around our neighborhood. Our final excursion of the day was checking out the Whole Foods Headquarters. Holy food heaven! That place was amazing! We even ate dinner there! Here's a preview of some of my garden pictures.

Saturday and Sunday were a little more relaxed for us. Our main outings included visiting IKEA (complete OD on Euro home furnishings), Oasis on Lake Travis, and the Texas History Museum. The Oasis was really impressive! That pretty much sums up our weekend! My computer is running out of battery so I'm off to charge it and continue on with getting ready for work tomorrow. More pictures to come possibly!

Is It Hot Enough for You??

Greetings from the South! I sit here today with even more adventures to report on and with much more significantly sunburned skin than I had last time I wrote. This last week has been a total whirlwind with work, traveling, and getting things in order.

The biggest work activity I had this week was attending an intern kick-off event about 100 miles away. While it was great to get out of town, after driving 8+ hours the weekend before the event, I wasn't too enthusiastic about clocking another 4. Unforuntately, I caught some stress on the way to my hotel because I was planning on picking up a friend from the airport and waited around for an hour to find out that his flight was delayed enough that waiting any longer was futile. While that stunk, I had the opportunity to call several of my friends and family members to catch up with them. The other stressor was that when I arrived at the hotel I was hungry, but wasn't able to eat due to a series of events until about 11 pm. I'm not a huge fan of being super hungry so that naturally wasn't awesome for my mood.

The other stressor for that trip was losing my keys until 5 pm the next time. Turns out they were just in the pocket of my bag. Silly me!! The actual kick-off event went quite well. I got to catch up with friends working for my same company in several locations and also meet some new people. It was fun to see people I met at onboarding a month ago who can now give feedback on their projects and experiences with living somewhere new. I even got to catch a yummy Greek meal with a friend from high school. While the trip as a whole was pretty stressful, there were definitely some perks to getting away from my small town and seeing friends.

The rest of my week at work was pretty quiet and allowed me time to get in a good workout at the gym and catch up on some sleep. On Friday afternoon I was so tuckered out after work I passed out for about 1.5 hours. In that time I rocked some REM sleep and had a random dream about a shark. It had something to do with being in a huge pool and the person in front of me didn't believe there was a shark coming our way because their back was turned to it. I'm not quite sure how I managed to dream about something as random as sharks, but that was what I dreamt about. Aside from about one night a week, for the last 5 or so months I've been having incredibly vivid dreams. The other night I had one about getting an IV in my arm and was actually in physical pain in my dream. I woke up when i couldn't handle the pain and looked over at my arm to find it painless and without any odd holes.

My main adventure this weekend was going canoeing/kayaking with about 20 people from work at a creek 30 miles north of where I am staying. Even though it was super hot outside, we all managed to have a great time splashing around in the creek. I ended up renting a kayak to alleviate a spot in a canoe for someone else and was very happy with my decision. Kayaking is definitely a great time and a worthwhile activity. The way our trip was setup was that we had about a 4 mile stretch of creek to cover. We did the first 2 miles in about an hour, stopped for lunch/to cool off, then finished up the last 2 miles. There was definitely a significant difference between the two lengths of creek. The second half had way more shallow sandbars that required getting out of the boat or grunting your way through so it was quite a bit more strenuous. There were also several more trees over the creek so maneuvering was a bit more difficult. I'd say if the water was 1-2 feet higher the entire trip probably would have been better for actual canoeing. Other than that, it was really nice to get out in the sun and be outdoors without a flame retardant suit on.

After getting done with canoeing, quite a few of us came back and had a little pool party. We all had a fun time and enjoyed the cleanliness of chlorinated water. By the time the sun set, any of us who were pasty enough to get a solid sunburn were glowing like a light bulb. My sunburn is a combo of a deep face burn (minus where my sun glasses were), some funky lines on my legs, and some lovely stripes on my shoulders. None of it hurts too bad, but I definitely look pretty funny. I'm sure I'll get a number of comments tomorrow at work about my brightly sunburned face.

That about sums up my weekend down South. I'm very excited to meet up with my mom is Austin this weekend so explore the town with the motto "Keeping it Weird!" After my last trip there a few weeks ago, I've been looking forward to participating in even more activities around town and checking out more of some of the super yummy food Austin has to offer. Hopefully I'll get some fun shots to post on here next weekend so y'all can see what kinds of trouble we got into. : )

A Few More Weekend Shots

Mmm..manicotti!

Sans Cheese

Just About Ready!

Close Up of the Apple Pie

Bob the Neighborhood Punching Dummy Sporting His New Shades and Swimwear

A Foodie Weekend

Before I hit the hay for yet another hectic week at my internship, here's a summary on some of the weekend events for y'all.

Thanks to the beauty of 9/80 work weeks, I was able to have Friday off work and catch up on a little sleep. As a result, I was also able to spend a little bit more time at our friends' weekly BBBQ (the extra B is meant to be there). The guys made lots of shish kabobs which turned out pretty well. My roomie and I brought a pan of brownies and a few extra beverages to keep our thirst quenched since the average temperature around here at night is still around 80 degrees (yaaaay sweating).

The highlight of our BBBQ adventure last week was definitely dancing salsa around the kitchen with six other people. There's nothing more fun than convincing male engineers to dance! Especially something involving hip movement. Some guys get it...and some look like they have a steel rod connecting their hips to their shoulders. Kudos to the guys in this work that give dancing of any sort a try. Girls notice that you're trying even if it's awful and needs practice.

After a solid 8 hours of sleep Thursday night (yesss!), I got ready to venture over to Baton Rouge to visit one of my Northern dojo family friends. It was great to catch up with him and meet some of the friends he's made while working down there. We both agree that moving down here practically requires a passport. We have endless stories about witnessing creative acts of driving and hearing "Is it hot enough for you?" every time someone spies that we're from the North. Yes, it is hot enough for me thank you very much!

Saturday was our main adventure day. Since the heat index was over 100 F, we decided to do something that involved air conditioning and cooking seemed to be the best choice. Here's what was on our menu for the day:

• Manicotti -- Noodles and sauce made from scratch with sausage in the ricotta filling and ground beef in the sauce. All topped with some provolone cheese.
• Fresh Apple Pie -- Made from scratch. Apples from a fun little produce market down the road.

Here are some pictures from the results:

Saturday was also a good day for movies/TV. I watched Taken for the first time. Let me just say that Liam Nieson is a total BA! That movie was fantastic. The way they connected the small details was really great. I was at the edge of the couch for a solid hour clutching the nearest pillow. I probably looked a little strange, but it was well worth it. The other movie for Saturday was my second viewing of The Hangover. Of the random party/guy flicks this one is probably one of the good ones. It's definitely random, sporatic, and profane, but that's what makes it good. To top of the two flicks from Saturday, we also watched a solid amount of the Food Network. Yay for having friends who are into food as much as you are! It helps when you're so stuffed from a huge home cooked meal that the food you're too full to start wanting to cook what you're seeing on TV.

The last adventure of the weekend (besides my adventures in traffic in the bayou) was catching up with a friend from high school. This is a true testament to the fact that I remember people/keep friends for a long long time. My friend and I went to summer camp together the summer before our sophomore year of high school on the west side of Michigan. Her big sister was my cabin's counselor so she became an adopted member of our cabin. We shared two weeks of summer camp together which included snacking on terrible amounts of junk food, suffering through hours of concerts and walking countless miles through the forest. Given that she is from Louisiana, it has been hard for us to see each other often. We met up again the winter of our junior year of high school, but since then have only really kept in contact through the powers of instant messenger and Facebook (whooo for social media!).

Today we were able to get together for a late lunch to catch up on the last...5 years(?). It's funny how time flys and how you can pick up where you left off after many years and lots of changes. We've both dealt with a lot and changed our lives quite a bit, but essentially we're still addicted to Gardetto snack mix, can handle living in the Michigan woods like champs, and truly appreciate hot water after a long camping trip.

My final adventure for the day came in the form of traffic. For anyone who is unfamiliar with Louisiana, there is a portion of land outside of Baton Rouge where normal roads are just not enough. There are about 20 miles of bridges across the bayou. Unfortunately, the westbound portion of these bridge had crazy traffic today. I think I sat in traffic on these bridges for at least a half hour going no more than 10 mph. Fun, right? The best part was feeling the vibration on the bridge as traffic from the eastbound side zoomed along. While talking to my friend, we concluded that if the bridge failed I would be in some serious poo-poo. About 15 feet below the bridge was some serious bayou action. I'm talking mudbugs, gators, a variety of leaches and a smattering of parasites that could make itch for days in all sorts of terrible places. Luckily, the civil engineers knew what they were doing when they built that bridge and my air conditioning pulled through so the drive home was successful. For anyone who is in around the Bridge City area, definitely try driving over the bridges in the evening when all the lights are on at the refineries/chemical plants around there. It was a really cool sight from the top of the bridge.

I guess that just about wraps up this last weekend. More updates to come as events unfold!

Keepin' Austin Weird

I guess it's about time I put in my report for the week.

Work went well last week and I was able to escape small town Texas for lovely Austin to meet up with a good friend from school. We stayed at the Hardin House B & B about 4 block from University of Texas at Austin. It is a private girls' dorm during the year that is converted to a B & B during the summer. It was a great deal. Hardly anyone was there, the breakfast was yummy, and it was an easy walk from UT.

We got in on Friday night before dark just in time to watch the Redwings get defeated by the Penguins and gorge ourselves on wings. The wings were great...the results of the game were not. : / Saturday was our big adventure day. We walked around UT and sweated out at least 5 lbs a piece. After that, we opted for something with a little more air conditioning and hit up the Round Rock Outlet Mall up in Round Rock about 20 miles north of Austin. We all know outlet stores are a girls' best friend! I managed to find a few good items and so did my friend. She managed to snag a cute fleece shell jacket. I know it's crazy to contemplate buying a jacket when it's 100+ degrees outside, but it'll definitely come in handy when we move back up north in the fall. The other highlight of our afternoon was enjoying crepes in Downtown Austin. If you get a chance, definitely try one of the Norweigen crepes down there! It was fantastic! : )

The last part of our day was probably the most exciting. Austin was completely invaded by just about every avid motorcyclist in the state for the Texas Bike Rally. In addition to seeing bikers all over town, while at 6th Street on Saturday night we got a big 'ol taste of Texan biker culture. There were literally hundreds of bikes up and down 6th Street showing off their LED lights, revving their bikes and riding up and down the street. I figure there were three competitions going on that night. 1) Who had the loudest/baddest bike. 2) Who had the hottest chick on the back of their bike. 3) Who had the biggest differential in attractiveness between the balding, overweight biker dude on the bike and his eye candy holding on for dear life on the back. It was quite a sight. We got a good view of the street at the Iron Cactus while enjoying the boiling heat, the Texas-style crab cakes, and some chocolate mousse. Yum!

After dinner we continued to explore some of the 6th Street culture. It was hot, crowded, and super loud! We managed to find a great club that had a see-through floor and an open air roof. The DJ was great as well. Dancing was a good way to work off all that great food! Needless to say, we returned to our B & B in time to enjoy a midnight snack and pass out cold in our beds.

Sunday was devoted mostly to traveling back across Texas, but before leaving we got a chance to hit up the Austin Visitors Center. We managed to find a Texas patch for our good friend, a Father's Day gift for my dad, and a few cheesy postcards that I could send back to family and friends.

Overall, our weekend was a success. It was my first chance to get out of town since I got here so I was very happy to have a change of scenery. Next weekend I'll heading in the other direction to visit another friend from school who has settled far from home as well. It should be a great time! : )

That's about all for now. I'll hopefully be able to snap a few more pictures during next weekend's trip to post on here. Beyond a few hiccups here and there like having to get my brake pads replaced and rotors turned down because of a little warping, all is well here in the south. Can't complain!

More updates to come...

Another fun lotus picture.

For anyone's curious about what 6 AM looks like down South...here it is!

Food Exploration for the Week

Here's a couple of fun things I tried while cooking this weekend.

All-Season Cranberry Sauce

1 bag frozen or fresh cranberries

1 c water

1 c sugar/Splenda

dizzle of honey (optional)

Combine ingredients in a sauce pan over medium to high heat until cranberries pop open. You can tell if sauce is done when juice/water combo turns bright red.

Use cranberry sauce on pancakes, in yogurt, or in combination with anything else that could use a mildly tart side-kick.

Another thing I tried this weekend was preparing taco meat with a some additives that you wouldn't normally put in it. Here's what I did.

"Southern" Style Taco Meat

1 lb lean ground beef

1/2 jar of salsa verde (tomatillo based salsa)

1/2 c of Texas BBQ sauce

several dashes of Louisiana Hot Sauce

Garlic Power

Fresh Ground Pepper

Chili Powder

1/4 c water (because my meat was still frozen when I started cooking)

Steak Seasoning

Santa Fe Style Rice Mix (I had a 90 second microwave kind that I just threw in)

I let all this stuff simmer until it was boiled down to perfection then put it on whole wheat tortillas with lettuce and cheese. It was very yummy! : )

Hope you enjoyed my food sharing.

1st the Worst, 2nd the Best, 3rd the Nerd the Thunderbird...

I don't know if this title truly fits my experience so far, but it's still a fun title. Yes, I have officially survived my 2nd week in Texas and will be commencing my 3rd week day after tomorrow. Overall, my 2nd week was considerably better than the 1st. It was nice to stay in the same area for once. I literally did not stay in the same place from May 19th to the 27th. A solid 9 days of being a pro-mad...Mom's new word that combines professional and nomad.

Anyway, here are some highlights from the week. Work is really starting to feel more comfortable. One thing that I really like about my job is that whenever you see someone, you shake their hand and greet them. I know it's small, but it is actually a great change of pace. At home many times if you don't know someone well enough to hug them, you go through a little awkward moment during introductions where you don't know if you should hug someone, shake their hand, or just smile. Here it's a little more defined. Shaking hands is as common as saying "hello" here. Kind of a cool thing.

I think the main reason I'm starting to feel more comfortable at work is that I've been able to spend more time in the field with my co-workers figuring out what is going on at the plant. Instead of just being told about distillation columns or cokers, now I can actually look up close at some of the mechanics of them and actually picture what's going on. Another big help has been spending time in our machine shop. Our machine shop does service on a large portion of our mechanical systems and the guys over there have been incredibly accomodating when it comes to explaining what is going on in a pump or compressor.

Since we all know that I'm a big fan of heavy machinery, I'd like to announce my top 3 favorite pieces of big equipment for the week.

1. First Place goes to the "Evil Sisters". These diesel engines are nearly 2 stories tall and look like an automotive engine on steroids. They are no longer in commission, but just imaging the power they can put out makes me a little week in the knees (...nerd alert).
2. Second Place goes to a very special gas turbine generator. In comparison to the 1" motors I'm used to, this bad boy boasts a stator size of nearly 8 feet. Say hello to "Suck, Squeeze, Burn, Blow...and Generate" at its finest!
3. Third Place goes to a hot little number. Over a thousand degrees to be exact. This sweet little heater has a flame taller than me and can pack enough heat to melt even the coldest heart.

Now that flexed my nerdy muscles for the day, I'll focus more on other stuff going on around here. Outside of work, I've been spending many hours at our local gym enjoying free group fitness classes. Last week alone, I attend a yoga/pilates, spinning, and kickboxing class. All of them were really good. I felt like Gumby after the yoga/pilates, a sweaty mess after spinning, and a big 'ol pile of goo after kickboxing. It's been 2 days since kickboxing and I'm still super sore. This morning as I tried to get out of bed I not only made old lady noises, but I also teetered back into bed because my calves were so sore. Yay for getting used and abused at fitness classes. : ) Hopefully I'm come back to the Mitten looking buff and slightly tan (okay, sunburned).

Other highlights of the week have included hanging out with other interns/full-timers at our weekly BBQ or BBBQ as the guys call it, having Friday off (yaaay for 9/80 schedules), and attending the Buu Mon Lotus and Bamboo Festival. Check out some of my best shots of the day...

What's That Again...?! I Know You Just Told Me...

Well, here starts my 2nd week of work down South. I'm continuing to work on my "y'alls" and trying to perfect my Texas accent. It's kind of funny, but I take a certain pride in my Michigan accent a bit even though I catch myself with a drawl every now and again. It was the same way in Ireland. For the first 2 weeks, I started getting a hardcore Irish accent and even thinking in my head with an Irish accent, but after a while I reverted back to my old ways because it reminded me of home. We'll just have to see what happens as time passes. Either I'll come home with the most ridiculous southern accent ever (mixed in with Michigan, Cincinnati, Yooper, and Irish) or I'll sound like I did the day I left home. Who knows..

Anyway, my weekend was fairly uneventful, but slightly productive. I got my first real Texas sunburn while sitting outside writing/reading and waiting for my laundry to get done. It was nice to get a little sun even if my back is itchy now. I needed to get rid of the ridiculous tan lines I got in Cincinnati as well. Anyone who saw those tan lines can attest to how ridiculous they were. Completely lame and uneven. Other than my getting a "tan", most of my weekend was spent relaxing and multi-tasking on the internet. I'm proud to say I updated my resume to reflect some recent changes in GPA, projects, and my internship. Along with that I finally putin my submission for the SWE Region H Collegiate Emerging Leader Award (I hope I get it this year!!) and made sure that our SWE section put in its financial report. All is all, not a bad list of accomplishments for a lazy weekend. Plus there was an extended gym trip in there.

For anyone who is truly aware of my sleeping habits, let me amaze you by saying that I have successfully been to work by 6:30 AM since I've started my new schedule (okay, so it's only been 3 days, but that's a big deal for me!) and made myself go to bed by 11 PM at the latest. I even got to work at 6:15 AM this morning. I truly hope I can reform from my 12 AM - 8 AM sleep schedule to something like 10:30 PM - 5:00 AM (gack) so that I don't muss up my work by being late all the time.

Hmm...I got a chance to check out my gym's group Yoga/Pilates fitness class today. It was totally killer and awesome. I felt like Gumby afterwords and think the class could really up my flexibility fast. Next week maybe I'll do the spinning class before it...it'd be mild aerobic suicide, but I think I could handle it. Time to take on the engineering gut! That that caffeine, college food, and too many hours in the EB!

The only thing really left to talk about for this week is prospective road trips I have been thinking about. My top options look like they are going to be:

• Austin, TX
• San Antonio, TX
• Houston, TX
• Dallas, TX
• Galvaston, TX (Maybe?)
• Baton Rouge, LA
• New Orleans, LA

If anyone has any other suggestions let me know! I have a feeling I'm going to have the mad urge to get out of town soon enough. Including this weekend. It sounds like there may be some stuff around here so I guess if I pack a few fun events in staying won't be bad. We'll see.

That's about all I have to yack about! I'm alive and well and still super strechy from yoga! : ) It's still hotter'n heck down here and today was the 1st day of hurricaine season (oh crap), but I'm keepin' on keepin' on. Adios!

I Survived!!! (For Now)

I would just like to report that I have survived my first week at my new internship! It has been quite a week. Between driving almost 500 miles for work purposes (wow, I didn't realize it was that much) and trying to keep my learning curve as steep as possible, it has definitely been full of new experiences. I even got to try gumbo! Though I can't talk about specifics of my new job, I can say that it is definitely going to be a challenging opportunity. I'm completely out of my element in a new industry, climate, and culture to say the least. So far so good though. I've been really enjoying the new gym I joined, tried to embrace saying "y'all" at least once every hour or so and have been proudly rocking my new flame-retardant suit at work.

I guess that kind of gives y'all (there's another y'all use for the day) an idea of how things are going thus far. I'm hoping to schedule some road trips soon to visit friends so hopefully I'll have some good pictures and stories real soon.

The Roadtrip

Well...I'm here! It only took five days, 16 armadillo roadkills, 100+ reminders of my new company logo, 1300 miles  and ~40 Waffle Houses, but we made it! I just wanted to take a few minutes to jot down a few fun stories from the road. 

Day 1 & 2:

As mentioned earlier, before we even departed on our trip, I got the sinus infection of the century. This wasn't exactly the best start to a really long road trip, but we made it work. Our first stop along the route was in Cincinnati to visit several of my friends there. Getting to go back was great! After living there for a few months while doing a co-op, my affections for Southern Ohio grew immensely. I think it was mostly because the friends I made there were outstanding. It also helped that places like Penn Station and Graeter's Ice Cream make my

 taste buds extremely happy. Anyway, it was great to go back and have a few more adventures. 

My road tripping buddy even got to meet some of the outstanding friends. Some of the highlights of the stop included going down to Newport for the day to watch the riverboats go by, an incredibly uneven suntan I got from resting my arm out the window, being reminded of Cincinnati traffic, and snoring loudly while my poor friend wanted to chuck me off the side of the air mattress. Okay, so that's a little scarcastic. It was great to hang out with friends and I'm happy to have been able to spend ti

me a place I hold near and dear to my heart. 

Day 3

This part of the trip included the most driving (about 8 hours) and the beginnings of our armadillo road kill sitings. Surprisingly enough, the driving wasn't too bad at all. Kentucky and Tennessee are gorgeous states to drive through for the most part! All the hills and rock formations by the roads are great to look at. And let's face it...it's way more exciting driving through there than it is through central Ohio which is flat, flat, and more flat. We were lucky enough to not encounter too much traffic which was real nice as well. Overall, a solid day of driving.

The place we went to dinner in Mississippi is worth dropping a few lines about. This little pizza place has a presidential seal on the wall because according to google reviews, George Bush liked the pizza so much, he go one of his guards to run over there after their meal and give them a presidential seal. We even saw the seal! 

Day 4

This day of driving was pretty much just a general tour of Mississippi. To be quite honest, it wasn't too exciting. All the exciting stuff was after we reached Baton Rouge. We stayed in BR with a friend of mine from college and also got to catch up for a bit with one of my driving buddy's friends. The highlights of our stay included walking around the Mall of Louisiana, going to Tsunami in downtown BR, and having my friend make us a fantastic breakfast!! : ) While in the Mall of LA, I was introduced to one of the most ridiculous massage chairs I've ever seen. This this definitely had a mind of its own. Our dinner at Tsunami was fantastic. We got to sit out on the patio overlooking the Mississippi River and take part in some great conversation. It's always great to catch up with old friends and introduce new friends to how crazy you and your friends really are. Best of all, our breakfast the next morning prepared us for the final leg of our journey to my final resting place in Texas. 

Day 5

This last day of driving was our shortest part of our journey, but it also included the most overall time driving through the bayou. I'd say that at least 1/4th our drive was on bridges. We also learned that in Texas, bridges are suuuuuper tall! Aside from the Mackinac Bridge, I've never been on bridges quite that tall. It was a little like being on a rollercoaster. Though a little scarier because you're the one driving the car. 

Overall, the most ridiculous part of our entire trip happened in a matter of a few minutes as soon as we arrived in Texas. After meeting my new roommate and getting settled into my new apartment, we went on a mission to find groceries, a gym membership, and other essentials. Our first ridiculous incident came in the form of a total fail by my GPS. My GPS accidentally steered us down the wrong way of a one way expressway. Good job GPS. : / Before we could get creamed by oncoming cars, we turned back around and went the correct way down the street. 

Not far from this little detour, we were sitting at a stop light. The truck next to us had a full set of hydrolics and as we watched, proceeded to drop the back of the truck into the ground. After the initial crack, the truck then proceeded to creep forward, allowing the back bumper of the truck to scrape across the pavement. At this point, I realized that I'm definitely going to need my passport to live here. 

Our next incident was far scarier. As we were about to stop at a light, a motorcyclist in front of us started losing control of his bike and fell/slip a few feet down the road in the lane next to us. Luckily, he was wearing a helmet and was able to avoid any cars. We all immediately stopped to check on him since he had some fairly significant road rash because he was wearing a t-shirt and shorts. I'd just like to include an aside here to thank all of my motorcyclist friends who ALWAYS wear a riding jacket, helmet, gloves, riding boots and long pants. You guys (or gals) rock. 

After making sure the motorcyclist was okay, we continued on to the HEB to grab some groceries. As we were about to park, a girl who looked about 11 years old was running to her car after her mom. As she ran, her shorts pretty much fell down right in front of us. If everything is determinted by fate or luck or change or whatever, I don't know who decided it'd be a good idea to have us get mooned by a little girl. The problem was, they were parked right in front of us so we had to try and keep from laughing as to not completely humiliate this girl. By the time we finally got out of the car, we had to hold each other up just to walk into the store we were laughing so hard. 

I'm not quite sure how we survived our road trip, but we did! Many thanks to everyone at our stops who provided us with a place to sleep and good conversation! Starting tomorrow I will have to begin what I refer to as "having to be a big kid". I'll have orientation all day then it's back here to start at the plant. Wish me luck! 

So Far So Good

I'd just like to report that our road trip down south is going well! We made a stop over in Cincinnati for a few days to visit some of my friends from a past internship and have no continued on south. Driving so far has been pretty good! Nothing too exciting along the way. Except of course our first armadillo road kill spotting!! An ARMADILLO! It was quite sad looking! We named in Bogart so that Humphrey (the Half-A-Dillo) would have a friend in armadillo heaven. The story of Humphrey is rather long so I won't go into detail. It has something to do with a motorcyclist friend, a rather unfortunate incident, and my odd ability to make up stories about how narcoleptic armadillos bite the dust in Oklahoma. Yes, I'm odd. 

Anyway, all is well and my wonderful friend who volunteered to drive down with me can still look at me without feeling ill (I hope..). My sinus infection is even getting better. It no longer sounds like I have bees up my nose. Though it was reported that I snored last night. : / Sorry! Hmm...other highlights of our trip have included a happy visit to the Ohio River. It has been almost 10 months since my last encounter with the Ohio River. I've visited its buddy the Mississippi River recently, but left it alone. It was good to be reunited and watch B & B Riverboats float down between the many bridges of Cincinnati. Like usual, no trip to Cincinnati was complete without stops at Graeter's Ice Cream and Penn Station!

That is about all I have to report so far. The trip is going well and I am alive! For anyone who saw me a few days ago when I was at the worst of my sinus infection from H-E-Double Hockey Sticks, no worries because I'm feeling much better. Time for a little relaxation before bed. We have five hours of driving tomorrow and hopefully so touristy fun at our next destination!  

Oh, the Power of Zithromax!

Since my last post, I have had a substantial amount happen. I've finished up all my coursework (yes!!) of my penultimate semester, had to reinstall Windows on my computer (with help from a CompE friend), completely moved out of my apartment and back into my parent's house, and somehow managed to come down with the sinus infection to end all sinus infections. And now I am about to start packing because in 24 hours I will be moving down south for my summer internship!

I hasn't quite hit me yet that I'll be leaving home for the next three months in the next day. I guess I'll be able to be eased into the idea while road tripping the 1300 miles across the U.S. with my good friend. We'll be stopping to visit a few friends along the way including a few of my work friends in Ohio! : )

As I am clearly still a little fuzzy in the brain from too much cold medicine, I will continue my entries later on this week as we reach our check points. Wish me luck! This is going to be an adventure!

D-O-N-E Spells Get Me Outta Here!

It's official! I have finished Finals without too much mental or physical pain! It's a little bitter sweet since a whole lot of my close friends are going to be graduating, but I wish them all the best. In about 8 months I will be following in their footsteps at Breslin.

In addition to finishing up my classes, today I also added a new electronic gadget to my repertoire. Thanks to the help of my bosses @ The Center, I was able to purchase a Flip Video to add supplemental videos to my career blog! (http://www.spartanjobseeker.blogspot.com) Plus I can use it to send videos to my friends and family at home or wherever they will be. Kind of like little video-grams to prove that I'm still alive and well while I'm far far away from home.

Beyond all that jazz, things are quite uneventful around campus. The crowds are starting to clear out and even the gym was empty at 7 pm on a Tuesday night. I'm just a few details away from getting everything wrapped up for the year AND being ready to move! Yaaay! : )