Work Pictures!

I have been at my 'new' job now for 2 months (yeah only one more to go for benefits to kick in!) Here are photos of a Friday trip to get lunch, bridge building and destroying (check out all the fishing weights it took to bring down my team's bridge!) at our training day and one of the office (I'll take more when the construction is finished.) My desk is in the front of that secion on the right (you can see my bag in my chair.)

In the car we have Shelly driving, Sharlene taking the photo, Vang and Howard in the middle row, and myself, Tim, and Alvaro in the very back.

Whose idea?

We helped some good friends move this weekend (within their complex) along with 13 others! What makes this unique is that just a year and a half ago we all moved here and unloaded all our moving trucks/cargo boxes - ALONE. Now we are a sort of unit, almost a family, and it feels great to be able to ask people for help. Here are just a couple of pictures I snuck in while moving boxes. And yes, it was some one's idea (one of the guys) to lift the bed over the railing. Sorry I don't have a picture of it in action. I can tell you the bed made it safely. The other picture is after the move and Lulu is happy we are finished (before I snapped the photo her head was resting on Ellen), so is Baby Alli (whose mom is ducking out of the photo).

More Spring Pictures

The weather in Northern California continues to be beautiful. Here are pictures of a street I drive on daily, a flower in our yard, and another sunset.

Things I noticed this weekend...

1. I'm borderline obsessed with squeezing in summer time events.
2. I have been bitten by the travel bug and am busy dreaming.
3. I haven't posted in a while and people are reading my old, boring posts.
4. 75 degrees is great to be outside in, but warm to drive your car in on the freeway.
5. I'm tired of cleaning up after my cat and dog - no more poo please!
6. I can't let Bob do the grocery shopping. I'm not sure what I fear, but I just can't give it up.
7. I have A LOT of books I have started and haven't finished.
8. I LOVE the tree outside Bob's study.
9. I still have allergies.
10.I want a spring break too.

Turkey Visit

I hope this works! This is my office and the visit from a neighborhood turkey. My boss is the one that chases it out of the office.

Terrible

It seems to be the word of the week (and it is only Wednesday!):
1. How I felt about my test Monday.
2. My reaction to the finding out about the Governor of New York.
3. My online scrabble games (yes I am addicted).
4. The use of High Fructose Corn Syrup in EVERYTHING.
5. My eating habits when Bob goes away for a conference.
6. How I feel about my parents losing a calf and possibly losing the cow in the same week.
7. The weather forecast for tomorrow (in comparison to the last 2 weeks). I hope Bob took a coat to Boise, it looks even worse there!
8. Measure 13 and what it is doing to the California schools. The 8th largest economy in the world should not have the worst schools (least amount of $$ per kiddo) in the US. (RIght now they are ranked 46th in student spending, and that is before the cuts mentioned this week).
9. The price of diesel went to $4.09 a gallon yesterday. When we bought our car in 2003 we paid less than $1.50.

I want to feel...

Like this! And I did after getting each Pass letter.

On April 30, 2007 I started the painful process of taking my licensing exams. Tomorrow, I take the retake of the one I failed. I feel like I know the subject better than before and I wish I could say that I'll know by tomorrow afternoon. Instead, it will be more like 4-6 weeks before I know. Hopefully I will pass, can do the Snoopy dance, and then move on to the State exam. Check back in a month!

Sleak, Sexy Study

Bob's study gets cooler and cooler. Check out what MAC has come up with for a slim, wireless keyboard. Part way through last year we took a free door and made it into a nice big desk. Then came the book shelves (we had run out of room for the 25 or so more books he has at the end of each term) and then the new laptop and the chair. So now the 22" monitor and the wireless devices complete the setup. I did ask him if he was going to be twice as productive now, and he only chuckled in response. Almost makes me want to me a grad student.

(Here is the study from Fall 2006 when school first started. Now all the book shelves go to the ceiling and have lights that shine down from there.)

Ah Spring

Spring seems to come very early in Davis and with the most colorful sunsets. We've even already had days in the 70s. Here are pictures from the end of February (on a drive home and on a walk with Lulu and Bob in our neighborhood.) Today I was lucky enough to have a site visit in the lovely weather!

PDST

Daylight savings, seems like a great idea. But I really don't want to get up before the sun starting next week :( Right now in Davis the sun rises at 6:35 and it is great, nice and daylight when my alarm goes off.) But starting Sunday the sun will rise at 7:30am, ouch!

Playing House

Most of the time I want to bake, make dinner, have the laundry and dishes (do themselves) done and I feel like I am playing house. I suppose I kind of am. Maybe it feels like playing because I only get the opportunity on the weekend? Sometimes I joke around with Bob about getting my 6 years off (I know he hasn't taken 6 years off, he is working obviously, but this is how I joke, because if I was at home I am sure I would have plenty to do as well.) The thing is though, I like my life pretty much how it is. This is a big step. I'm not sure there is more I am meant to be. Shouldn't I have the burning desire? I'm talking about the 'B' word here. Shouldn't I want one by now? Shouldn't I want to be the 'M' word? Everything in society seems to scream it at me. Please don't take this wrong, I love my friends' kids, my niece, and my nephew. But sometimes I wonder if I'm just different and most of the time it just leaves me feeling lost. Am I alone here?

Deep Thoughts

1. Remember that from SNL in the 90's?
2. Is this really the place to post them? (a friend hinted at a deep blog topic based on the fact that most of us have been slacking in the blog-o-sphere lately.)

There are a ton of questions that float in and out of my head every day (just ask my poor husband, he has to field the ones I mention out load. Once on a road trip he had to ask me to not ask any questions for an hour.) I just can't ever remember what they are when I sit down to type! Instead here is something that came up yesterday that I am still thinking about because of my obsession with food (please note: not FOR food, but WITH food.)

I went to a burger place here in Davis for lunch Friday and my co workers were raving about how the burgers are made fresh daily. Now, you know I'm not a big meat eater, so I had a garden burger that I am pretty sure was previously frozen, but shouldn't all of the meat burgers EVERYWHERE be made fresh daily? It shouldn't be a luxury, but a constant. Believe me this is not a topic I take lightly (food and food sources) and one of my wishes on my past blog probably should have been for my own farm. I guess I still don't know, vegetable, lavender, blueberry or what type of farm I want. I considered telling you also that I want my own commune (and I guess I now am) but it wasn't a wish because I really don't want to give up on society. My thoughts on this are complicated and hard to explain and most of the time it is a little joke I have with some close friends. I just love the idea of being in a beautiful place with friends and family that share the same idea of living and being able to live off the land together. I know, I'm a hippie at heart. Maybe I should go to a commune for a vacation, then I would probably realize how much work it is and change my mind. It may also squash my other dream of a farm, but until then, I love the ideas.

I'm in the midst of studying for another exam, but I hope to also post on spring time in Davis and Bob's new, sweet office set-up, soon.