4-day weekends, hit-and-runs, and meat boxes

It's been a pretty eventful past 2-3 weeks, as many of you know. I started a temporary, part-time job at the Denver Metro Wastewater Treatment District (sewage treatment plant) this week, just a week and a half after arriving in Denver. I'm helping out with their annual fish sampling in the South Platte River and am basically a grunt doing whatever else needs to be done. They are responsible for monitoring chemical and biological conditions in the river as part of their effluent discharge permit. The positives of the job are that I have work and money coming in, I enjoy the chance to work mostly outside for a bit, the work is in line with my education and experience, and the people I work with seem great so far. I think its tough to be working in a position that I'm way overqualified for and also don't love how you don't really feel a "part of something" as a temporary employee, but I'm happy that I was able to line something up so soon after getting to Denver as an unemployed person (now I'm just under-employed).

Erin felt fully initiated into urban living a couple of weeks ago when our little Ford Focus was side-swiped in a hit-and-run while she was at the art museum. Fortunately, someone saw the whole thing happen, got the driver's license plate number, and called the police. We let our insurance company know what happened and the Denver Police (last we heard) are tracking down the driver. We're hoping for the best. After my hit-and-run experience in Bozeman I don't have a lot of faith that this is going to turn out well for us. I know, I should be more positive, but I feel like I've been down this road before.

In more exciting news. We are the proud new owners of a large box or meat. We were visited by a door-to-door meat salesman on Friday evening and he left us with 4 new york steaks, 4 Kansas City steaks, 8 fillet mignons, 8 bacon-wrapped tenderloins, and 24 patties of chopped beef. We declined the box-o-pork due to limited freezer space (we're not suckers). Looks like it will be a steak night tonight (and tomorrow. . .). We'll have to start jogging a little more I think. Or there's always Statin.

The Photo

I happened upon the photo that Erin sent to the paper. For your full technicolor enjoyment:

Engaged

I know you've already heard the news, but I hadn't blogged about it yet. So join the rest of the Bozeman area in sharing our engagement announcement. Posted by Erin and ran in Sunday's paper.

Yes, matching Christmas turtlenecks.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Some of you may have already heard this news from me or through the grapevine, but I thought I would put out an official notice.  Erin was offered a job in Denver with the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CCASA), a coalition that serves sexual violence non-profits around the state.  She starts on July 13th.  I don't have work lined up yet, but am working very hard to do that (anyone want to hire an environmental scientist or researcher?).  Currently the plan is to move her down there for the start of her new job while I continue to look for work while working in Bozeman  (assuming I don't find something first).  We're not planning to do this living in different cities thing forever, most likely a couple of months (as necessary).  I would love nothing more than to be able to go down there together.  Anyway, those are the basics.  We're excited to have a change in scenery and start new career challenges.  Busy times ahead.

On the Brink

Erin finished a draft of her professional paper on Monday for her Masters in Public Administration and presented her work today.  She's worked so hard over the past few months. . .years and I know it has been a strain while working full time in a new job.  She did a fantastic job with her presentation and after was given the merit award for outstanding achievement in her program.  I was so proud of her and happy to see her get the well-earned recognition.  She'll be writing all weekend to turn in her final draft and. . . that's it!

Popcorn Schizophrenia

I just stopped by CVS to get some popcorn for the final four and watching a DVD.  There were two brands (Act II and Orville Redenbacher's in case you are curious) and two types for each brand:  Butter Lovers and Diet.  So you either love butter so much that you want to marry it or you want popcorn that makes you remember what butter tasted like before you stopped eating.  I've got to believe there is some commentary on Americans here.  It's like we either over-indulge or deprive ourselves.  Or indulge and then repent (by buying fat free popcorn, I guess).  What ever happened to moderation?

 So most of you are probably thinking at this point that anyone who spends this much thought on popcorn needs a hobby, or a therapist.  But I think there's something in this. . . 

Erin Studies

I wanted to take a picture of a typical domestic scene around here. Erin in the lazy boy surrounded by books with a blanket and computer on her lap, and an obliterated dog toy on the floor. It's a nice night for me but I don't know about her. On one hand she loves to learn and take questions/ideas apart and on the other hand I know many times she would like nothing more than to get home from work and not have a single thing of significance to worry about.

Skiing and Sh**

Erin and I took Friday off to go on a short (overnight) ski trip with some good friends. We went to a place that's kind of in the middle of nowhere in Montana called Showdown. It was really fun. Erin hadn't skied for a few years before we started dating because she broke her leg really bad from a ski accident a few years ago. She is understandably nervous sometimes but has a lot of skill, she's skied a few times now and gets better each time we go. We stayed the night at Bob's Place, a small town motel/bar/diner that is owned and operated by a guy named Tony and his wife Shelly. I guess Bob owned the place before Tony and the name never was changed. Apparently Tony also answers to the name Bob.



On the way home we had a nice little treat. We got caught behind a cattle drive that was pretty cool to watch at first but got old really fast. A couple of the cowboys (I guess one of them was actually a cowgirl) told us to just drive up behind them and they will get out of the way. We were following the red pickup (in the photo) and the guy had absolutely no balls to "push" the cattle around a little. We drove in the middle of the heard for about an hour (not exaggerating) before a dud in a big pickup lost his patience with Mr Red Pickup and came around and led us out of the poopy nightmare (I've never seen so much poop on one road in my life). Anyway, we're back in Bozeman and very happy to have the whole weekend to look forward to.





The picture doesn't quite do justice to the true length of cow. They were spread out for more than a mile.

Random Stuff

I used to love watching Meet the Press on NBC every Sunday morning. I loved Tim Russert and think that David Gregory is kind of a tool, hopefully he'll get the hang of it. It's Sunday morning right now and he's annoying me.

I ran a 10K yesterday. When I came down the stairs this morning I thought I was going to break the hand rail because 90% of my weight was on it. I would recommend running a couple of times prior to entering a 10K. By the way, why does my neck and back hurt almost as much as my legs?

Well, this was an entry to warm up my blogging muscles so I'll cut it short so I don't regret it tomorrow (coming down the stairs). We're doing well. Erin is as busy as ever and seems to be making good progress on her Master's thesis. In 9 days we will have been dating for 3 years. Crazy huh? I'm making a goal to blog again this Spring.