Poker & Lightning McQueen

Sorry for the delay in TX trip pics, just didn't get around to finishing the posts. So, where was I? Thursday, alligators, then came good mexican food and a large margarita. Friday was full of small home repairs and preparations for Luke's birthday party. Mom and I went running again and then spent quite some time at the grocery store and then preparing food. Josh and Lisa, Todd and Scott, Hope and Ayden came over for a BBQ and some poker.

L: Dad, Rob and Luke M: Josh and me R: Todd and Lisa

Saturday was Luke's birthday party at a local park. The theme...CARS. Good movie, if you haven't seen it.

Welcome to Radiator Springs, complete with Fillmores organic fuel, Ramone's paint jobs (hence the face painting/stamping) and Flo's V8 cafe.

Luke swimin' at the "Car Wash", Dad grillin' and Rob smirkin'.

Lightning McQueen pinata, Luke pulls the ribbon to release the candy and then gets the cake!

Presents and Alligators

Ok, I'm back. I've been back in the field out in Fallon for a few days. It's hard to find time and energy to post when you work 13-14 hours per day. Anyway, look at the spread of present I had on my birthday!

And now, onto the Texas trip. We got in late Wednesday and Thursday, after Mom and I went for a run, we packed a picnic lunch and headed to a state park that I now forget the name of...a little help here? All I know was that there were rumors of alligators around this swampy/pond-filled park and I wasn't too thrilled about it. I'm a tree-hugger, I like animals, but I don't like most reptiles...mainly snakes, but alligators are included in the "untouchables" list for me. After eating, we took a little walk around these ponds that were there...passed many people and they didn't seem to have large chucks of flesh missing and all appendages were attached, so, I thought how bad could it be? Bad, was my answer. Flipping alligators everywhere!! Lurking in the scummy water hiding out waiting to surprise a walker-by. Luke wanted to find them...check out him and Mom. The first alligator we came upon was in retrospect rather small (pic next to Mom and Luke)...

...but look at the size of these stinking things!! I wouldn't go near them! These pics are courtesy of Mom.

I preferred the turtles. Check this guy out...he's stranded perfectly balanced up on that tree stump. And the cool trees with spanish moss.

My Birthday!

Hey all. Today marks me another year older, as of 2:10am this morning. I awoke at 6:15am quite tired from my especially long travel day home from TX yesterday. I spent more time sitting at the Salt Lake City airport than I really care to think about again...on the order of 5-6 hours. Planes were malfunctioning...messing business. Anyway, home safe and sound from TX and it was a good trip. Although I forgot my camera at home and cannot download any of the pictures I took, Josh very graciously gave me a CD of all the wonderful pictures he took over the last few days. He is quite the photographer. I'll be sure to point out which pictures he took. It's no secret I like to present things to you all in the order in which they occurred, but here's a family pic that Josh took until I can get my camera downloaded.

End of vacation

Well, my time in TX has come to a close. Rob, Melissa and Luke left to take Mom and Dad to the airport and I'm left in this very large house to get my things in order before Josh and Lisa come to pick me up. It has been a very nice trip, more details and I'm sure many pictures are to come in the following days. For now, I have quite a long travel day ahead of me...gonna love that 3.5 hour lay-over in Salt Lake City! Talk to ya'll when I'm back in NV...and on my birthday!

Changing climates

After a small blizzard last night, this is what my back porch looked like this morning.

Sure hope Rob and Melissa's back porch doesn't have any of that white fluffy stuff when I get down to Texas tonight!

Last ride

Yesterday was my last day of snowboarding for my first season. Mt. Rose closes this coming weekend, but I'll be Texas. I actually went by myself, as Justin was in Boise, and I'm happy to report that all bones are still hole and all appendages are attached. It was a good 4 runs and I'm happy to end the season on a good note. Let hope I don't forget anything when next season rolls around!! Now...I need to find a way to water ski all summer!

The Oasis of Nevada

TGIF!!! What a long week. I logged in 54 hours this week, 14 of which were on Monday alone! I spent most of the week in "The Oasis of Nevada", otherwise known as Fallon. Just over an hours drive east of Carson City on the Loneliest Highway (Highway 50), Fallon is a big agricultural area completely irrigated by Carson River water held back within the Lanhontan Reservoir (which has high levels of mercury...part of the Carson River is actually a superfund site). The delicious "heart of gold" cantaloupes they grown are awesome! Anyway, there is a big child leukemia cluster in Fallon and we've been doing research out there since the late 1980s. Here is a link to an article that just came out in the "Nevada Silver and Blue" magazine specifically on the project we were out sampling for this week. On the last page the guy I was working with, Ralph, is mentioned. What they forgot to mention was '05 masters grad, Jena Green. Read the article, you'll understand. Here's a few pictures to illustrate my week...lots of farm animals out there too!

Sampling well at a dairy farm. The water from the well is used for the cows drinking water.

Goats and the sheep, I mean goat dogs, at a residents house were we sampled his well. A cat kept jumping into the back of our lab truck too.

Recording field parameters at the Native American arsenic treatment plant.

Grandma Green's Easter cinnamon rolls

Every year Grandma Green used to make these cinnamon rolls for Easter. They were soft, gooey and sweet. I got the recipe of my Aunt Elaine and tried them this year...all 7 pans of them!! With a big family, it was never hard to go through 7 pans, but I had to give quite a few away. Anyway, they came out looking like Grandma's but didn't taste quite right to me. If I would have baked them a little less to get that soft texture instead of the more cake-like texture and then made a little more sweet gooeyness to go on top they would be more like Grandma's. Notes for next year!

Weaving palms

Look Dad, I remembered how to weave the palms!!

Crazy clouds

Check out these crazy clouds over the Mt. Rose ski resort from last Saturday. We've had this funky weather system over the last few days with odd cloud coverage. BTW, I came down the scary slope I couldn't bring myself to do the week before!