Keeping Busy - Del in California

Basically, we've been busy.

And by we, I meant me. Though Darin was busy in his own way as well.

I had my first (and probably only) work trip to California two weeks ago. Was super excited because I got to learn a new piece of equipment (though we've had it for about 8 months, but alas) and be the 'expert' in my company. It made me feel appreciated in many ways - great feeling.

Headed out to Sacramento, CA on Monday after a nice normal flight from Denver. Got to the hotel and was floored by how nice it was!

I didn't really know what to do with myself.

But I noticed one of my all time favorite restaurants Chevy's was super close to the hotel so I ended up walking there for dinner. (Chevy's was (and still is I presume) a restaurant near the giant mall outside of Chicago that I would make people go to whenever we went shopping because they make their own tortillas).

*sigh*

After dinner, I went to the hotel and crashed.

My Mini-Vacation

Wow! A couch too. And I had two queens too.

***

The next week was super crazy hectic. I had to get up early (to get the free breakfast - waffles - and watch the World Cup game that was on that particular morning), get in a limo/town car, and drive to the place where I was taking my training - Auburn, CA. And then learn/work all day. Go back and exercise. And sleep. And repeat.

On Thursday (the last full day), we went to downtown Auburn and took a walking tour of the city. It was pretty fantastic!

The Courthouse

A Plaque.

Swallow nests.
Pretty awesome actually.

The Group at dinner:
Rodger, Rebecca, Me, Frank, and Keith

My dinner. There was foam. Foam.

Beets. Gorgeous (though I didn't eat it).

And there was wine. Oh, was their wine.

Friday afternoon, I decided that instead of flying back to Orlando, I'd head up (only like 2 hours by plane) to Seattle to see my family.

What a great idea! Dru and Lauren picked me up from the airport at 9:20 pm and the adventure began.

Lightning Strikes

Been meaning to blog - and actually have a few in line to go.

But, we don't have any internet at home because the house was struck twice by lightning while I was away.

Yes. Lightning.

Yes. Twice.

(Our neighbor saw it!)

The first strike (we think) hit the lightning-propellant system that the house has (basically the house is grounded) and no damage was done. Unfortunately it's only good for one strike. Oops.

The second strike came in through the cable and got the DVD players and the modem/cable.

The cable guy came out to fix the cable (right away. must. have. cable.), but the wireless was fried and we didn't know the modem was also fried until we got a new router... which didn't work last night.

So no pictures.

Sad really.

Will work hard this weekend go get everything set so I can share my trip.

And Jake/Maggie.

And the veggies!

Good thing is the garage door opener wasn't broken. Phew. Lots of the circuits in the house might still be fried - have to get an electrician in to double check.

Then we will be as good as new!

News to the Phone

Nothing super exciting is happening here.

This is a good thing.

Decided to share some old phone pictures with you.

Gotta put something on the good ole blog...

Last Magic Home Game (before finals)
Second row from the top.



Jake.
So exhausted from playing with Jesse, he just fell asleep.



First trip to the beach.
I sent this to my sister to make her jealous.



Our squash blossoms!
(From last week.)
And that's basil on the left side. Not broccoli.



Dolphins sayin' hi at Sea World!

And that's all I had. I'm off to California next week for a work trip and then a quick visit up to Seattle for a cherry-pickin' good time.

Will add photos when I get/take them!

VD Picnic

The company I work for had a summer celebration last Friday. I don't think it was associated with Memorial Day, but it felt like it.

We went to a near by park - and enjoyed the outdoors.

A great thing about the company I work for were the wide variety of foods we brought. We have a lot of foreigners - which meant fantastic food!

Food, table one

Food, table two

I ended up bring a nummy corn salsa (for the vegetarians), a pasta/fried chicken salad, and a dump cake with frosting my Mom had been telling me about the weekend before!

There was a lot of food!

After lunch, we had a volleyball game (see picture above). Man was that sand hot and messy. I got sand in places sand should not go.

But it cooled off and we enjoyed ourselves. I tried to get our CSO (Chief Science Officer) to bring a keg, but he wouldn't. He said he couldn't fit it on his motorcycle! Boo hoo. I guess it was a company party...

Nothing like a good picnic. Now I am craving homemade samosas. Drool.

A Proud Moment

Last year, we decided to plant a garden. Darin spend at least a whole weekend digging up a patch of grass next to the house (in the sunshine!) in Jake's fenced in yard. We decided he would be a good watch dog for animals and such. We got the seeds, the 1x4, and realized the wood we had gotten was treated and you weren't supposed to use it for gardening.

So we went and got untreated wood.

And it sat in the garage for over 8 months.

Oops.

When I was in California (a month or so ago), Darin actually re-dug the garden, cut the wood, and planted the seeds.

This was 100% Darin's.

Garden, Week 1

We also got some jalapeno plants from our neighbor Jeff. Those were the plants on the left front (near the wood). And then we waited for the plants to come in.

It was actually pretty exciting - mostly because Darin doesn't remember where he put what and kind of put too many seeds in.

Garden, Week 4

As far as we can tell, we have broccoli (back left), with zucchini over growing everything else (back middle) and something on the back right. Carrots maybe? In the front was the jalapenos, then the middle was another unknown, and then tomatoes (front right).

We water the garden twice a day.

And it's doing very well. Darin was very proud of his garden. We're looking forward to the zucchini coming in - probably will be pretty soon.

And then I can make zucchini bread!

I'll keep updating on the status of the garden.

Please think positive thoughts towards our garden growing, and Jake not noticing the veggies that will soon be popping up and/or lizards that might live there and/or dirt that might be fun to dig.

Another Beach Post

It's a tough life living thirty minutes from the beach.

Tough.

We've been the past two weekends. Just to get a little bit of sunshine and watch the birds.

Might have seen someone catch a shark. But it was little. Or so I tell myself.

But I still will go in the water to cool off - it's the perfect time of year for Florida sunshine.

Why don't you come visit?

Clemson - Hike and Clinton

After Friday graduation and a good night sleep, Cassie, Thadd, Jesse, Darin, Jake, and I headed out to Yellow Branch trails for a nice morning hike.

The weather was beautiful, the dogs were excited, and we were well fed on a great breakfast Cassie had made.

We let the boys get the the back - and were off.

Getting ready!

Are we there yet?

The fail safe map guide (in case we got super lost!)

I tried not to take too many photos - but alas. I did. Thankfully I only uploaded a few on here.

A tree. With my new camera.
You can tell the difference actually!

I was last so that I could run away faster if Jake/Darin ran into a bear.
Jake led the whole way. He's a hiking dog!

The waterfall! It was just beautiful!
Vastly different from the last time we were here with Bodie.

Cassie and Jesse
He turned out to be a hiking dog too -
once he got a little courage from watching Jake.

Jake digging to China.
So cute.

Jake was in his element. We let him off his leash and he explored the waterfall. Went up the rocks, swam in the water, fetched sticks, dug to China. It was amazing to watch!

Cassie and Thadd

Del and Darin

The group
One of my new favorite photos.
(look at Jake)

Hike back.

After the hike, we had a quick lunch at Schlotzskys (we were super craving it because it's like the only one around anywhere), a change of clothes, and we headed to Clinton, SC to the official graduation party for LaShan. We got a little lost on the way there (being like 45 minutes late - which was so unlike us), but got there in time to see her speech (which was super heart-felt) and eat.

Speech!

Man, was the food good! Ham and chicken, mac and cheese, green beans, rice and gravy. Super great - even took home some leftovers. And ate a couple of extra helpings of mac and cheese.

It was fun to see LaShan's family and her community. Everyone (us included) were so proud of her for her accomplishments.

Darin, Del, LaShan, and Cheryl

The two tall ones - we both had to remember not to slouch!

Afterward, we drove up to Greenville (after stopping for some fresh tasty South Carolina strawberries) to the downtown area and watched the Magic game. I love that town. Drove back to Clemson, talked again with Cassie and Thadd, and slept! Headed home early the next day to get back to Orlando for some R and R.

I just can't say how proud I was of LaShan (and my other friends who were/are in the same position). It truly was a great accomplishment and wonderful feat.