Spring Cleaning

Our house is in desperate need of spring cleaning . . . make that spring cleaning, organizing, and purging. I still have Christmas decorations laying all over the upstairs. We still have a wreath on our door and a garland on our mantel haha. Our coffee table needs to be sanded and sealed, oh and the legs need to be painted. (We are accomplishing the rustic look to the max right now haha). My brain has been a little scattered though. I can't believe it's almost the end of February already!

So this week I took another little mini trip. Just a day trip to Denver to meet with the head guys . . . on the company jet! Okay it was pretty sweet. You just drive up to the airport, park, and get on the jet. No security, no waiting in lines, and no starbucks. Okay maybe that last one isn't a perk haha. Oh and I could carry whatever I wanted on the airplane! Think glass bottles of lemonade and giant folders of maps and economics and gas contract terms not knives, goodness who do you think I am? :)

Pretty nice right? It seats 7 comfortably, but we took 8 so that meant someone got to see back in the back in the room that is technically the lavatory haha. It looks like a nice seat that faces a mirror, but it's actually the toilet. My boss was last on the plane, so he got stuck with the toilet seat haha. So one of the guys I went with is 69 and really hilarious. He kept egging on the pilot to go over 600 mph and cheered like a little kid when they hit. He told me he'd been on the plane a bunch of times and never seen 600 and he was so excited! (which for the record we hit 636 mph ~ translation: it only takes an hour to get to denver!!). It made me smile and also made me hope when I'm 69 I still take pleasure in things that are exciting, like riding on a private jet and hitting 636 mph!!! instead of being old (or young hah) and stodgy and thinking goodness I just wish I could get home! Note to self though: Do not watch The Grey ever again before flying. I had visions of the wing catching on fire and crashing in the frozen tundra full of evil wolves ever time we hit turbulence. Alisha I felt your pain for once ;).

So check out the window seat!!! I know what you're thinking . . . Spencer is AWESOME! Well that's what I was thinking :). It actually even looks better then this right now because he's added trim to the bottom of it and filled all the holes with wood filler. If we're really ambitious this weekend maybe we'll sand and paint! Now I just need to get on picking out a fabric for the seat cushion and figuring out which books I'm going to read first :).

Alright, back to the spring cleaning! By the way, dogs are awesome. Blitzy is literally sitting under my legs as I sit in the kitchen typing this. It's like she wishes she were in my lap but knows that would be ridiculous :).

A Little Unplanned R&R

I'm in San Antonio for a work conference entitled "Bridging the Gap Between Reservoir Engineering and Facilities Design." It happened to be over Valentine's Day which wasn't ideal, but this place is really, really beautiful and peaceful and restful. It has the feel of an old Spanish hacienda nestled away in groves of rambling old trees. The entry way has gorgeous chandelers and a large fireplace, and somehow I felt like I could look out my window and see the mist surrouding the Sierra Madre. (Disclaimer: it's only 1/2 a mile off a major freeway, but somehow they managed to make it feel like you are going back in time haha).

On one of our coffee breaks (aka check your email and make small talk and hope you don't look too awkward or out of place, which is impossible for me because I'm one of the only women there and I look like I'm fifteen and with my grandpa's) I decided to take a walk around the grounds and stumbled upon this beauty. Yep, a hammock. How awesome is that?!

And it happened to be 70 and sunny so yep, you guessed it: mini nap time!

After the workshop ended for the day I headed down to pay my dues as a proud Texan. Behold, the Alamo. Only the best thing ever since sliced bread :).

Then it was off to the river walk. Okay this place is really beautiful!! And bonus, it's already humid and warm in February!!! Sign me up haha. I found a nice modern tex mex place where I enjoyed some delicious camarones a la diabla. Talk about an interesting social experiment, eating dinner out on your own on valentine's day. I'm not going to say it was my favorite thing ever, but it wasn't too bad. I did feel like I compulsively checked my phone and every time I started to think about something other than the fact I was out eating alone, the waiter came up to ask me if I needed anything. The food was delicious though :). And the little mexican band played me a song and then demanded a tip haha.

Now I'm suposed to be working on a decision tree analysis for a meeting on Thursday when I get back in the office but my brain is fried from sitting through presentations all day long. In case you're wondering, the conference has actually been pretty good :). I feel like I now have all kinds of questions to ask my production engineers when I get back to the office. I also feel seriously uniformed about some things, which always happens to me at these conferences. I go back feeling like I just know better how much I don't know!