Brown Hamster - a.k.a. The Acrobat

We have successfully managed to keep Brown Hamster alive for more than a month! By purchasing an expansion kit for his cage, we have greatly minimized his messiness. In addition, he is now showing off his acrobatic skills by climbing on the side of the cage, latching onto the lip of the water bottle, and positioning himself on top of the cage. He still lives in the extra bathroom and is no longer making any noise at night.

Brown Hamster with his new "Loop-D-Loop, Outhouse, Snap-on Comfort Wheel, Fun-nel Tubes and Rings!"

Brown Hamster's room.

April 19, 2008 - Volunteer Work - Salt Lake City Marathon

Ken, Marion, and I volunteered at the TNT Aid Station for the Salt Lake City Marathon this Saturday. It was tough getting out of bed at 4 a.m., but we managed to get there in time, before the runners showed up. We were stationed at the 8.0 mile mark on the half-marathon route (900 East 1700 South) and provided water, Gatorade, and encouragement to the runners. The TNT theme for the station was "Purple Cowboy/Cowgirl" and "Wanted - HEROES". [A littl' bit-o information: the Team In Training colors are purple and green and the TNT Marathoners and Supporters are our heroes, helping to find a cure for blood related cancers.] We had a great time. In addition, helping out the runners brought back memories of our marathon run in January.

(said with some twang)

Cowboy Ken mixin' up some of that there Ga-tor-ade.

TNT COWGIRLS!!!

That's right, we are writing on the road.

Cowgirl Marion and Cowboy Ken.

Hey, lets write in the intersection.

We are ready for the runners!

More TNT Cowfolk.

We even have TNT tattoos!

Posters of past and present TNT honorees.

Here the marathoners come...

... and there they go!!!

Our station was running out of water, so it was Lynor to the rescue!!! We were lucky that an Albertsons was across the street.

It was Sandi to the rescue, when our extra water started to run out! We had a lot of mayhem at our station: we almost ran out of water and cups, the Gatorade table toppled over (what a sticky mess), and the wind tried to blow away our trash bins and empty cups (cups were found over a block away).

April MINI Mid Month Rally

We finally made it out to a MINI rally this year! Despite the snow, the drive through the Cottonwood area was great. We made new friends and were brought up to speed on the latest happenings with our old friends. After the drive we ended up stuffing our faces at La Puente (ahhhhhh, yummy Mexican food, feel the burn)! Enough talk more pictures!!!!

Nice grill badge - I want one!!!

It's cold, lets drive.

More stormy weather up head...

MINIs as far as the eye can see.

All lined up after the drive.

WHAT'S UP? - April 08, 2008

Slacker? Maybe… So, there is this huge gap between my blogs; what has been going on? A lot! [No time = no blogging.] First off, The Hubby and I just recently moved into our first home! We’re now living in Bluffdale; yeah, yeah, “way-out-south”, that’s farmin’ country, the boondocks… I’ll admit, we’ve seen some deer near the house (near, as in across the street from the house).

DEER!!!!!

The commute to work has been spiffy; we take Redwood Road to Bangerter Highway to I-15. We’d been looking for almost a year before Ken came across this house while doing his internet home searches. The house is almost everything that we were looking for; I say “almost”, because our “want criteria” was for a home with a side garage and then we ended up purchasing one with a front garage… THE IRONY!!! The house definitely has some bonuses compared to the others that we were considering, including a landscaped front yard, fencing, and blinds. Our friends recently helped us move in a washer and a dryer; hooray, to the parents for purchasing new units and giving us the old!!!!! Sunday we moved the fish tanks over and had no casualties. Speaking of pets, we recently acquired a dwarf hamster as a birthday gift. Our hamster is aptly named “Brown Hamster”.

Brown Hamster
Age: unknown
Eye Color: Black and beady
Hair Color: Brown – duh
Likes: Dried carrots and sweet potato bites
Dislikes: Being removed from his mini TV hideout and cage cleanings

For those of you who don’t know about our pet naming history, somewhere our creativity ran out, and our fish were named “Brown Fish” and “Red Fish”. What is even stranger is that Brown Fish use to be “brown” but has since changed to a “gray” color. Brown Hamster is great, lives in the spare bathroom, makes a lot of mess, and feels the need to make a lot of noise in the cage’s rotating wheel. We have been playing GOD (as said by one of my co-workers) and have been keeping Brown Hamster’s light on during the night and turning it off during the day (to reverse his nocturnal schedule). That’s all for now... time to turn out the lights for us.

I Made it HOME!!!

After three weeks of SOPs/OOSs/NCRs/VDIRs/CARs/CAPAs I had a couple of B-52s and got on a B-737 and headed home. I was comatose for the flight to Chicago O'Hare International Airport (I even missed out on the free beverages and snacks). Ok, now for my O'Hare Airport Foamy Rant: I hate this airport with all the rage and passion that my soul can muster up; here are the reasons:

• They couldn't find our flight crew - they were MIA, only to show-up with McStank bags and drinks in hand (wtf?). Our plane left three hours late.
  
• I was in the last group to board the plane and the second-to-last one to get off the plane.
  
• My aisle seat was on the very last row of the plane; therefore, my seat did not recline, I was right next to the bathroom (which was constantly being used), and I couldn't lean against the side of the plane to fall asleep.
• The bad karma from Chicago made its way to SLC: our ground crew could not be found, so we could not taxi into the gate and so they ended up dumping us off onto the tarmac. Then... yes, there is more... they announced that our luggage was on carousel two, then three, then finally one. I made it home Sunday morning.
  

I have some great memories of Canada thanks to the Kevin, the individuals at the firm's we inspected, and the people at the hotel (including Giovanni, who made the best omelets I've eaten, and Rachel, who advised us on where to party). I will have fond memories of "BAM!", (if you are reading this blog out loud, you are required to say the next sentence with your tongue sticking out, for the full sentence) "I'm allergic to cinnamon!", and crazy-weird jam sessions to songs like "Don't Stop the Music". Below is a little wrap-up for the end of my Canada trip.

Goodbye to ice storms...

...that covered our rental car in a block of ice.

Goodbye to the mounds of snow...

Goodbye to Canadian hamburgers... (BTW: that's Canadian bacon on that burger)...

May I never be stuck in Chicago O'Hare International Airport again...
Although, this picture of the airport is appealing, looks can be deceiving...

Thank goodness for home cooked spaghetti and...

...for my own bed, full of animals. :)