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.