The Whole Green Family

So many pictures were taken over the last week, but I think I'll start with one of the whole Green family (the immediate family). Ain't we a good looking group?

Home for the Holidays

Hi all. Just a quick hello from family Christmas central. Mom and Dad's house is quite full with everyone home, but Christmas was great fun and we've been able to visit with most of the family. The Cypher's Christmas Eve was at Aunt Becky and Uncle Jeff's and Mom and Dad hosted the Green's Christmas here last night. I hope you are having a wonderful time where ever this Christmas has taken you.

Tomorrow, tomorrow...

...I fly home, tomorrow. It's only a day away! Well, most of the laundry is done and I'm frantically trying to finish my 2005 scrapbook to bring home, so just need to pack tonight. Say a prayer that the Denver storm isn't sitting over Chicago tomorrow evening. Chicago is crappy enough to fly through, I don't need to be delayed.

I joined St. Teresa of Avila catholic church here in Carson City back in October. Last weekend I bought a nativity set from a gentleman after church. He said they were hand-crafted by Nicaraguans...I told him about my cousin, Manon, who worked for 2 years down there. Turns out he knows Manon and even worked with her while in Nicaragua. Crazy. Anyway, here's a shot of the Nativity and my small, yet surprisingly cheery, Christmas tree.

I won't be at a computer tomorrow, so this may be the last post for a few days...probably until after Christmas, so to all my loyal blog readers...I wish a truly Merry Christmas and the warmest wishes of holiday love.

Two...and speaking of reindeer

...days till I fly home. Well, I had to tell Justin goodbye this morning before work because he is leaving to drive down to Vegas to spend Christmas with his family. It was not easy to say goodbye...actually it was downright hard. Next year he's just gonna have to come with me. Maybe have a part Vegas and part Butler Christmas....anyway I didn't like having to say goodbye.

On a happier note, I found a reindeer the other night. Check him out!

Three...

...days till I fly fly away. As I was driving back to my townhouse yesterday morning to meet the plumber (my water pipes froze Monday night...not hot shower for me), I heard this Christmas song on the radio that was so funny that I found it hard to keep Libby on the road. Now I know that it won't be nearly as funny just reading the lyrics, but you'll have to sing it to yourself. Just remember to sing it with a southern drawl...I was listening to the country radio station.

Leroy the Redneck Reindeer

Well you've all heard the story

About Rudolph and his nose

Well I'll tell you a Christmas tell

That never has been told

Well you may think you've heard it all

But you ain't heard nothin' yet

About that crazy Christmas

That the North Pole can't forget

Rudolph was under the weather

And had to call in sick

So he got on the horn

To his cousin Leroy

Who lived out in the sticks

He said Santa's really counting on me

And I hate to pass the buck

Leroy said Hey I'm on my way

And he jumped in his pick-up truck

When Leroy got to the North Pole

All the reindeer snickered and laughed

They never seen a deer in overalls

And a John Deer tractor hat

Well Santa stepped in

And said just calm down

Cuz we all got a job to do

Like it or not Leroy's in charge

And he's gonna be leading you

(Refrain) And it was ~Leroy The Redneck Reindeer

Hooked to the front of the sleigh

Delivering toys to all the good ol' boys

And girls along the way

He's just a down home party animal

Two Steppin all across the sky

He makes jingle bells with the rebel yell

(Last refrain line) And made history that night

Before that night was over

Leroy had changed there tune

He had them scootin a holf

On every single roof

By the light of a neon moon

Santa wrapped his bag with the dixie flag

He as having the time of his life

You could here him call Merry Christmas Ya'll

And all of ya'll a goodnight

Refrain repeat

Four...

...days till Christmas travelings begin. Rob and Luke get there today!

Here's a shot of Justin and Willy from Saturday when we were out sampling up at Tahoe.

Five...

...days till I leave for Christmas

Yesterday's events have left me more sore than I have been in many many moons. My wrists, my for-arms, my quads, my stomach muscles and most of all my butt. That's right, my butt. It's rather uncomfortable sitting at my desk today. What, you ask, is the reason for my discomfort? Well I'll tell you....my first day of snowboarding. Justin has worked hard getting me ready for this day and equipped with a season pass to Mt. Rose, new snowboard boots and a Burton board, I set off up the lift for the first time yesterday. My first run down the bunny slopes (and I don't know why they call them bunny slopes....it didn't feel like a warm fuzzy bunny to me!) was filled with many falls, the first of which came as I attempted to get off the chair lift. BAM! Ouch. Justin taught me the basics of attempting to always stay on an edge and keeping your weight balanced over the board...it's just those little kids that are flying around everywhere I don't know what to do other than bail in order to not hit them! After the first run, I went on a first-timers 1.5 hour lesson. Good move. With only one other person in the lesson, it was very helpful to get some close attention and recommendations. By the end of the lesson, I was able to get back up on the board after falling on my butt (which is extremely difficult, hence my stomach muscles hurt) and go down the hill and stop, for the most part, without falling. Not bad for the first day. Very very tiring though.

Justin took a few videos of me, but I don't know how to post them, so all you get are still images.

If you can't tell, I'm the one with the long hair and khaki snow pants.

Focus, focus, focus!

Justin took the other higher lift up and skied to one of his sampling sites while I was in my lesson. The right picture shows the view from the top.

Eight...and one fun Christmas party

...days until I take flight toward the east!

Last night's USGS Christmas party was pretty fun. I was thoroughly impressed at the number of people who chose to dress up. A few people said they thought I was kinda ballys to send out the e-mail to a strong "jeans and t-shirts" kinda establishment, but thought the way I worded the e-mail was done in such a way that it did not seem I was requiring a dress code, but still left them with the feeling that they just might dress up. Mission accomplished! It was fun to see all the people I work with all dressed up.

Left: Justin and I(with the tie I bought him!) Right: Me, Lynn (USGS guy and the MC for the night) and Justin

Me and my good friend, Teresa

We did a white elephant gift exchange too. Basically we were supposed to bring a wrapped gift of something around the house that we was not needed, but did not know what to do with. The origin is from somewhere in India, I think...the white elephants were revered animals so killing them was a great sin. So the king used to give them as gifts to his enemies. Because they could not be killed and costed so much to care, for their enemies basically turned to financial ruin because they were stuck with with big elephant. Interesting tid-bit. I had a whole stack of postcards I didn't know what to do with and was gonna get something funny to go with it...it ended up being 4 pairs of crazy teeth and a pair of handcuffs! Pretty funny to see people fight over who got them!

Nine...

...bottles of beer on the wall. Doh! I mean days till I go home for Christmas!

Tonight is the USGS Christmas party at the lavish (ha!) Pinon Plaza. Good food, but it's still a casino. We convinced some people that this should be a dress-up event. Time to pull that little black dress out of the closet! I helped Justin pick out his suit last night. No dancing that I know of, although we were tearing it up swing dancing in Justin's kitchen last night! The community college is offering a spring semester class to learn 3 different types of swing dancing. Pretty sure we're gonna sign up. 12 weeks (2 hours per week) of fun dancing? How can a class get better than that??? And the homework will be done at a night club!

Ten...

...days till I go home for Christmas.

This week seems to be going quickly...that's good. Work has been busy; I'm doing a switch back-and-forth from two projects. One is basically a big literature research project on 5 different valleys in Nevada. People from CA, NM, AZ and of course NV are doing this in their states too. The goal is to compare the water-development history between already urbanized valleys to see if we can make some sort of prediction on what may happen if a relatively un-inhabited valley starts to be developed. There's a lot of that going out out west. I've already complete Eagle Valley (valley where Carson City resides) and now I'm working on Carson Valley (just to the south). I still have Truckee Meadows Valley(Reno-Sparks area), Spanish Springs Valley(to the north of Reno) and the Las Vegas Valley. It's kinda neat because I'm learning a lot about the area and the history too. I have to do a cultural history of each valley.

My other project, which is what I'm working on this week, is a numerical ground water model of a small area in South Lake Tahoe, CA. For those of you who know the area, it's in Stateline...where Heavenly ski resort is. I have a model from the mountain front down to Lake Tahoe and about 2.5 km wide. I'm constructing the model from scratch straight from the MODFLOW manual, so it's been challenging. Hopefully it pays off because now that I know all the input files pretty well I'll be able to trouble shoot the problems. We're trying to model the transport of urban runoff and the nutrients from it so we know how much and where it discharges to Lake Tahoe. Keep Tahoe Blue!

Eleven...

...days till I fly home for Christmas!

Oh and notice my addition to the blog site just below my picture. I had it at the bottom of the entries for a while, but I decided it didn't get enough attention.

12 days of Christmas countdown

I know, I know there're actually 14 days till Christmas, but it's only 12 until I get to fly home! I'm really looking forward to being home at Christmas time and getting to see everyone...Even Rob, Melissa and Luke. (Maybe even Sidney, I haven't heard the final word yet).

How many days till you get to start celebrating Christmas?

Heading south

Heading down to Lost Wages, NV this evening in preperation for a 2 day local grid refinement ground-water modeling training class. Should be good and I'm gonna hang out with a fellow UNR/USGS hydro grad that got placed in the Henderson office. See ya on the other side!

Just a cool shot of a stormy sky moving in across from my office.

All in the name of holiday cheerfulness

This year I decided to put up Christmas lights on the front of my townhouse. The idea of using your porch light to plug in the strings of lights is awesome, so I can turn them on and off from inside. Anyway, I don't own a ladder tall enough to reach above the door of my place, so I had to improvise with Dad's famous little red cooler on the top of my two-step step stool. In sock-feet to avoid more unstableness, I finally got the lights up. Nothing too crazy, just something to show my Christmas spirit! :o)

Snow in Eagle Valley

The first winter storm has settled into Eagle Valley (name of valley Carson City sits in). On my way into work this morning, I couldn't help but pull over to the side of the road and take this picture. It's still snowing a little, not much is laying for long. The higher moutains, I'm sure, are coated...I just can't see them yet since they're still in the clouds!

Just a little snow on the Virginia Range to the north of Carson City.

Thanksgiving with the Huntington's

Since I left Butler in 1999 I've spent Thanksgiving with many different people, but this year I spent it with the Huntington's. We all helped to make a fantastic meal that sucessfully stuffed me to my seams. I plan on eating some more here in a little bit for lunch!

Justin shows off his carved turkey!

Mrs. Huntington and Justin make the gravy.

I hope whoever you were with and where-ever you were, that you all had a peaceful and happy Thanksgiving.

Award winning Thanksgiving dessert

We had a "TurkeyFest 2006" potluck dinner at work last week. I made a pumpkin trifle...I won first place in the dessert category!! Tomorrow I'll try my hand at making my first ever pumpkin pie. It seems like it will be easier than the trifle!

Justin's parents are driving up today and we'll all be making a grand feast tomorrow. Then it's back to work on Friday...do most of you all have Friday off as a paid holiday? All the state workers around here do, they call it "family day". I suppose I can't complain too much...the new director of the USGS gave us all a 2 hour early dismissal today! hahaha

HAPPY TURKEY DAY TO ALL!

Justin's Fieldwork at Tahoe

Sunday Justin, Willy & I did a round of fieldwork up at Tahoe. It was pretty chilly up on top!

Willy & I up near the Mt. Rose ski area.

Blurry pic, but it's still cool. Willy was carefully trying to make is way back across Incline Creek.

Shut up and SING!

So the Dixie Chicks concert was a BLAST! The live show sounded better than their CD's, I think. Except for some bitchy ladies behind up and a drunk one in front, it couldn't have been better!

This is Anna and Sooz on the way to the concert.

It was a bummer the show wasn't sold out. I guess some people still don't like them because of the whole London incident. People have a right to free speech! Anyway, a number of songs on the new album "Taking the Long Way Around" addresses what happened and I guess The Chicks released a documentary about the whole thing last Friday. A few comments/stage lighting tricks lured to it at the concert, as well.

Random updates

After work tonight I'll be heading to Reno to meet some girlfriends. We're driving to Sacramento for the Dixie Chicks "accidents and accusations tour!! Woohoo!!

In other news, after getting a Carson City library card, I realized I can use the internet at the library!! At least I can sort of keep up with other peoples blogs if I go to the library once a week. Really, I think I should go to the library once a week anyway. I think a lot of people would be better off if they went to the library once a week. Don't you think?

Drag Races, Day 2: Finals

I'd come back to the drag races sooner or later. Although I was told to wait until I got approval for which pictures to post, but I'm tired of waiting, so you'll get my choice of pictures. I don't know how to post video clips, unfortunatly, because I have quite a few. But here's the pics:

"The Strip"

Under the awnning of a tractor trailor, working on a top fuel car. Crazy that all the stuff you see comes in the truck. The cars travel in a compartment in the upper (meaning vertical) area of the truck.

"The Sarge"--nickname of the driver.

Warming up the tires.

Riding a Harley!

This one is for you, Luke!

Justin's dream Harley!

And last, but not least, hanging out with some of the luxury campers!

Happy belated Halloween & 100th post

I've made it to 100!! Still can't see anything I post or read any comments, but I'm still posting!

Just a belated Happy Halloween! My ghosts on the new shelves inside the front door. :o)

Since when are black bears brown?

In the most recent USGS newsletter and familiar photograph was given a new twist. Back in July I had a post about my work I did in Yosemite and Kings Canyon National Parks. An article was written for the newsletter about that trip with this picture with it...

I found out that the bears Mike and I did see were actually black bears. It looked like really shaggy brown fur to me. Can black bears really have brown fur?

Drag races; final day of qualifying

Justin and I went out early Saturday afternoon to pick up our tickets and decided to take a walk around inside. Within 5 minutes of walking through the gates, Justin's eagle eye found his brother, Brandon, and niece and nephew, Destiny and Jadon. We hung out with them for the remainder of the day.

Scene from our seats looking toward the starting line.

And then down the strip. Nice view, eh?

This one's for you, Josh! That is Jadon standing there.

Doing a little tailgating until the top fuel races started again. Brandon, Destiny and Justin.

Top fuel UPS dragster.

Leaving Nitro Alley for the evening.

Travel update

Leaving for Las Vegas tomorrow morning. Libby's first drive down south. We and Justin's whole family have tickets to the drag races on Saturday and Sunday. Hopefully I'll be able to post while I'm down there.

...damn federal employees can't stop looking at porn...

Hello to all. My long absence from the blogging world was of no choice of my own. You see, I don't have a computer at home (I'll come back to that) and I spend a small piece of time during the week to update my blog while at work. Recently that privilege was taken from me as very strict internet usage policies were implemented across the Department of the Interior's entirety. This was in response to a few damn federal employees that haven't figured out that streaming video from porn sites while on Uncle Sam's clock is not a good work practice! Others think it is alright to keep up-to-date on their second business of selling merchandise on eBay while at work. Therefore, we all have to suffer by being blocked from all internet sites capital hill thinks are inappropriate. Apparently blogging is included in the list. Somehow I was able to access the log-in site today. :o)

Ok, back to the home computer. A very generous friend at work and her family are looking to get rid of an old (3 years old) computer. I excitely said I could help them dispose of it. So, soon I will have my own home computer that I can blog to my heart's content. Hoping I'll be able to update before I get the home computer/internet set up, but if not....bye bye for now.

Stormy sky, Autumn & Season's first snow

One day last week I got in Libby to leave work in the afternoon and noticed the sky over the mountains on the west side of town. It was a cool day outside, although I never know what it's doing because I have an interior office....grrr.

Don't focus on the foreground...check out the clouds over the mountains.

And the storm produced the season's first snowfall up high. Justin and I were up on Saturday to do some sampling.

Justin extracts the rain water from a collecting jar he has out in the woods near Galena Creek.

Down at lower elevations (Galena Creek, shown here) it still looks like fall. I miss the other colors though. Yellow is pretty much the only fall color you'll see around here unless someone planted a non-native in their yard.

Still decorating

I've lived in my townhouse for almost a year and a half now, yet I'm still trying to put things on the walls. When I first walk into my front door there is a large white wall there that stares me in the face. For quite some time a large bookcase stood there, but when Mom and Dad came out to visit last December, Mom and I did some rearranging, which left me my white wall. So I finally found something I liked. Simple, but artsy.

Here's me trying to hang my new shelves. I do really good with hanging pictures...but when two screws/nails are needed I just can't seem to hang it straight. Justin decided that he should finish hanging the rest of them.

And the final shelves from just outside the front door. Now I just need to find some cool stuff to put in them.

Oh, and my mirror by the door! Now I finally have a place to hang my keys!

Effectively the Ground-Water Specialist

Saturday night, Justin and I attended a retirement party for the guy Don I've been training with for the last 6-8 months. He was the ground-water specialist for the NAWQA unit (NAtional Water Quality Assessment Program). Yesterday was Don's last day...which means today I'm the official NAWQA ground-water specialist...EEK! Here's a picture we of the entire NAWQA unit that we photoshopped a few newer people into. :o)

Spring Hunting

Last weekend, Justin and I went up to Mt. Rose and did some spring hunting. The topo maps say there are at least 4 of them in his study area and he wanted to sample them. So, equipped with a topo map, a GPS unit and our mountain bikes, we set off in search of some springs. Mind you I've had a mountain bike all my life, but have done very minimal true mountain biking. My toush just doesn't seem to like it much. The first on we found was just by chance because it wasn't on the map...Justin just noticed water coming down the road slope and we followed it up the slope.

Doesn't look like much...but there's water coming out of the ground there!

The view from the first spring looking up to the summit of Mt. Rose.

After a very rough start to my mountain biking experience, we stop for a photo-op. Nice view of the north end of Lake Tahoe. Although I got better at the biking off-road thing, it seemed that no matter how wide the trail, if there was one rock in the road I was SURE to hit it!

Then we ditched our bikes and tramped down this hillside to where the GPS unit said the second spring was...grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Sure enough, there was a spring. The water was coming from underneath these rocks.

Justin was a happy camper. Notice the stream channel from the spring in the foreground.