Thursday, June 22, 2006

Jacksonville

Ah. . . Florida. The big news from the Flick front is that I will be heading to Jacksonville, Florida next week. I will be heading down there to do GeoPak training (a third party software add-on to MicroStation). We have a Federal Highways Association project coming in that requires using GeoPak with MicroStation to do the roadway design. Long story short version - I need to know how to use it for work. So HDR is shelling out a crapton of money to get me down to Jacksonville for training. I leave Monday afternoon at 4:00. Because no one flies direct from Denver to Jacksonville, I have to have a 40 minute layover in the worst airport in the world - Chicago O'Hare. Then on to Jacksonville where I will land at 12:30 EST. My training starts at 8:30 EST. So I have 8 hours to get from the airport to the hotel, get some sleep, and still leave myself enough time to get to the HDR office down there. Lots of fun. I have training Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday all day and until noon on Friday. I leave Jacksonville at 3:00 on Friday. Then my adventure takes me to Washington-Dulles Airport in DC. I have a layover there before I head back to Denver. I guess DC isn't too far out of the way! They were going to send me through Fairbanks, but that fell through. I have never been to Jacksonville, so it should be a good time. I already checked with the rain dancers at work and they assured me that I will be there in between tropical storms. So the weather should be warm and humid. No hurricanes, I guess.

Monday, June 12, 2006

I feel like a Rosenbaum

Why might I be feeling this? Because I have waited almost a full month between blogs. It has been a busy month, though, so there is much to talk about.

First and foremost, I have moved out of my roommate-filled house and into my lonely-all-by-myself apartment. Don't get me wrong, my roommates were great. We seldom had issues and they always paid me for the utilities on time. However, there is something to be said for living by yourself. First, you never have to worry about who ate your food. It was you. Or the dog, but lacking the opposable thumb required to open the fridge, it is hard to place blame on the canine. However, the best thing about having a place of your own - the air dry. You all know exactly what I am talking about. You take a delicious shower. You are cleaner than you have been all day. You finish, step out of the tub, and walk right past the rack of towels. A few minutes and a couple laps later, you are dry as every and as happy as can be. (One important word of warning for all you first time air dryers out there - make sure the blinds are closed BEFORE getting yourself wet. It sure makes the neighbors uncomfortable when you realize the open blinds after a grand stretch.) That being said, it is a two bedroom apartment with one of the bedrooms acting as an office/foosball room.

I unfortunately had to miss the 2nd Annual Memorial Day Bike Ride/Reason to Get Drunk on Our Day Off Trip. As unhappy as I was to miss such an incredible event (I promise I will make it next year), I was having a pretty good time in Nevada. We visited a little city called Las Vegas. You might have heard of it. They allow gambling and drinking and all sorts of debauchery. It was grand. Nine of us went out to Vegas for Robert's bachelor party. We stayed in the downtown area, had a great time with the blue hairs, and I ended up winning some money. After a weekend of paying cash for everything (drinks, clubs, food, gambling, a sweet hat, etc), I had $50 missing from my original stash. Very, very successful trip. When we were down there, four of us played a round of golf at Legacy, a fairly inexpensive golf course in Henderson. The greens fees were still $120. But it was inexpensive compaired to every other course within 100 miles of the strip. I will say, though, that playing at a nice club does have its perks. First, we were met on our way up to the clubhouse. A man grabbed our bags, threw them on his cart and set up our carts for us. We walked to the clubhouse, made sure they had received our payment, and then walked out of the clubhouse. Our clubs were waiting on our carts on the backside of the clubhouse. Each of the carts had tees for both players, water bottles, and a wet towel. Very swanky. We checked in with the starter, who informed us that we each had a bag of range balls to warm up with. Very nice. After nine beautiful holes of golf, we swung by the clubhouse to grab some food. This place had a drive-thru cafe for the golf carts. Totally radular. The rest of the weekend was a blast. I had the required In-N-Out Burger, played blackjack, craps, and roulette, drank a few beers, and had a grand old time. I can't wait to go back.

Shortly after landing in Denver (just a day and a half later), I took off with Sarah, her parents, her grandparents, and her little sister to Phoenix. Sarah had her graduation down there on the 2nd. It was very cool to see the womanpiece get her hood and all that. It was a fun trip and I managed to win $150 down there (and all I needed was 30 minutes at a blackjack table on a reservation). Although she had her graduation ceremony, she is not quite done, as she has two more rotations to finish up, but she is beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. On September 11, 2006, she will take her boards and be on her way to be a licensed physician's assistant. Pretty exciting.

The next Monday, I was down in Pueblo doing construction inspection for work for a week. It was hot, but it was still better than sitting in the office all day. Let's just say that I haven't been home too much since I moved in!!

Also, Gutter and Michelle got married (the wedding was a blast), Sarah and I have been busy every weekend with something. I don't think that we have a free weekend until the end of August. And by then, she will be studying incredibly hard for her boards. It's just been crazy. I'm going to try to keep updating this on a more regular basis, but with the hectic weekends and the busy work schedule and my trips coming up, I can't promise anything.