Get Me Outta Here!

Life has been way too busy as of late...lots of traveling for fun and work, home projects, garden projects, saying goodbye to friends (they didn't die, just moved to Italy)...and I'm reaching a new level of exhaustion.

Had to make a work trip down to my Ohio plant this week - it had a big, big problem that needed to be addressed ASAP. Over the course of 3 days, I have put in almost 50 hours at the plant and we are still going (working from 7am - 9pm). Oh yeah, I'm writing this on Saturday - from the plant!!! And the bad news is that I have to come back to the plant tomorrow morning/afternoon before driving the 6-7 hours back to Buffalo. And then it is back to the regular work grind on Monday. I'm so fried, I'm crispy.

The only saving graces: repairs went very smoothly, working with nice people and having another female engineer on site for the majority of the time.

Back to work....

Off to New Orleans

Sorry for the lack of updates lately - work has been pretty busy and I haven't been motivated to get on the computer at home.

There's not too much to report. Nick and I have been doing some spring cleaning and some house projects. Nick is currently de-popcorning the ceiling in our larger guest bedroom. And I have been busy organizing / cleaning rooms in the house that have been neglected too long. What inspired the cleanup? My parents are coming for a visit in a few weeks and my MN girlfriend(s) are coming for a visit at the end of May. It's been excellent motivation!

I'm heading to New Orleans tomorrow for Jenn's "bachelorette party." I'm excited to visit a new place and I'm super excited to have some great food! I'm not sure what's on the agenda for the long weekend, but I'm sure it will revolve around food :-) I will be sure to post some pictures once I return...

Nick is going to hang out in Buffalo while I'm gone. I think there are plans to finish off the guest bedroom and probably watch "his" TV shows in peace :-)

I Never Win Anything...

I got an interesting email at the end of the work day...

Turns out, the girl who never wins any contests or giveaways won a really, really nice necklace from Lucky Magazine. Lucky is one of my favorite magazines - it's all about clothes, jewelry, housewares, shopping - go figure! Anyway, they were having this gigantic jewelry sweepstakes at the beginning of the year and I put my name into the mix. I never dreamed that I would actually win something since I only put my name in once. So, it's a necklace by Helen Ficalora. I don't have an exact picture of it, but the magazine rep told me it's a flower charm (with a diamond!) on a gold and diamond chain! Here's the closest thing I could find on her website...



I cannot describe how excited I am! I immediately called Nick and he asked if he could give it to me as my one year wedding anniversary gift. I laughed and then very sternly told him "no." :-)

The P Word

A strange thing happened at work about a week ago. A person that I know that works in the IT department of the company I work for came into my office. He asked me if I had a blog and I told him yes. I asked him how he knew about it and he told me it came up in his Google Alert. At the company I work for, they set up Google Alerts to monitor when people mention or use the name of the company I work for. The people in IT can then go to the website where my company is named and see what people write about them. Very big brother is watching...

Needless to say, this person in IT highly recommended that I remove any "P" words from my blog so I can't be spied on from work. Therefore, my company will now be referred to as "P".

Montana

While we were in Montana over Christmas, a professional photographer came out to take pictures of the cabin and the family. Here are a few of the pictures...

The Cove

This weekend, Nick and I went over to a friend's apartment to watch "The Cove" with several of our other friends. Nick and I had no clue what the movie was about and we were looking forward to a low key / relaxing night. Whew, we didn't know what we were in for...

"The Cove" is a documentary (just won the Oscar last night) on the mass slaughtering of dolpins off the coast of Taiji, Japan. It is one of the most gruesome and heartbreaking things that I have ever seen. The film documents a team of people that are determined to film and expose this slaughter. And they definitely had their work cut out for them - the Japanese fishermen and the town are extremely protective of this event and go to great lengths to hide what they are doing. Of course, the team prevails in getting the footage and it is extremely hard to watch. I pretty much had my eyes covered thru most of it. What little I did see made me cry - big crocodile tears. It was terrible - the lack of respect or care for these incredibly smart and self-aware creatures - I don't have the words to properly express.

I would recommend seeing the movie, just be prepared. I feel like some of the images I saw will stay with me for a long time. Oh, and the movie will probably leave you hating Japan - which isn't really fair as most Japanese don't know of the dolphin killing. But you definitely feel like "Roshambo"ing some of the people in the movie (like that South Park reference, Dad?) while watching it.

This is for you, Mom

This one is for my moms - she's only met one of my Buffalo friends (Jenn) and I'm pretty sure she's dying to be able to put faces with names. Anyway, this is a shot of us on a wine tasting tour. From left to right: Katie (from MN, has the Italian boyfriend that works at Praxair), Jill (went to OU, mother to baby Avery), myself and Jenn.