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Sunday, July 22, 2012

Vacation!

So I would easily say the highlight of the last few weeks was our vacation with my family.

Dave, Stella, and I flew out to Utah only one day after my parents were allowed back into their house. Their entire street had been evacuated due to a wildfire burning just up the mountain. Luckily, unlike in Colorado, this wildfire managed to be put out with no people or houses killed by the fire. I'm pretty sure there was at least one barn that got destroyed, but all in all that's really quite good.

So we spent most of Saturday helping my parents move stuff into the trailer so they could bring it up to Wyoming with us. We also met Jon and Delsa's puppy Daisy. She is really cute but definitely still a puppy. Then Sunday was church and family dinner and Monday we went up to Richards Ranch in Wyoming. Dad put us to work moving stuff and setting up camp. The Holyoaks joined us on Tuesday and the rest of the family joined on Wednesday. We had a good time hiking around the property and shooting and playing with the niecen and the dogs and taking the gator and the four wheelers around. We went into Afton a couple of times for milkshakes and to swim with the niecen at the hotel Grandma and Grandpa were staying at.

Stella did manage to not eat any of the chickens, although mom did give her the opportunity once, and thoroughly enjoyed all the outdoor running and swimming and such. The only real blemish on the week was Daisy instigated something under the table and Stella gave her the doggy equivalent of a black eye. Biting or scratching we're not sure but Daisy might bear the proof forever.

We did have to come back home eventually though. We were very proud of Stella for handling the flying very well. She did come home and sleep for about three days straight but we're pretty sure that was because she over exerted herself because she's lazy when she's at home.

Getting back to normal life took some adjusting but we might finally be back to the humdrum of our daily routine. On Saturday we went to a dinner theater in Woodbridge. It was actually really fun. The food was pretty average and the acting was pretty average and the singing wasn't anything stellar but it was quite enjoyable. We saw I do! I do! a play following a married couple from day 1 to moving into a retirement home. I thought it was actually quite true in its generalizations about marriage. Luckily Dave and I are still in our twitterpated newlywed stage.

That's about all for now. Guess we'll have to see what the next week brings!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

How bout that weather?

So I guess the big highlight of the last two weeks would be the weather! Record breaking heat wave and a majorly severe thunderstorm that knocked out power to more than two million residences and business in I think it was at least five different states. Not sure on that last one. But it was widespread and a lot of people affected.

Fun stuff first though. Last week was Kings Dominion with one of Dave's buddies. It was pretty fun we had a good time out in the sun and then we got to feed the missionaries that night. They were pretty funny.

We implemented a new software system at work over the weekend so the last couple of weeks has been about prepping for "Go Live" and we're finally there. All told, once everyone gets used to it I don't think it will be that bad. But for now it's difficult because so many of the people we work with are in other parts of the world and you can't be sure how much training they got and we don't get training on how other functions work to know how they use the system so it'll be an interesting adjustment.

Over the weekend Dave and I lost power during this heat wave. Massive (and sudden) thunderstorm knocked out our power around 10PM on Friday night. Good thing we didn't go try to see a movie, right? So it was pretty miserable at our place with no A/C and the pool was closed because of all the storm debris so there wasn't even that for relief. Saturday night I had a coworker get her power back and take pity on us so she let us crash at her house. Stella especially was happy to be out of the heat. It has to be really rough not being able to sweat.

Dave went shooting on Saturday (can't escape the heat so embrace it?) and got his very first tick. Which of course he made me pull out and then freaked out that I did it wrong. Really? There's only one way to pull out a tick. I was surprised he'd never ever had a tick before but I guess they aren't all that common in the southwest. Or so he says. It was the first time I'd ever pulled a tick off of someone though. Good thing I'm crazy and carry tweezers in my travel bag.

We finally got power back on Sunday night (they canceled church because the building had no power) although the lights in front of our complex are still out so for fear of my life I'm driving to work now. But by next week everything should be back to normal. We hope!