"Sunny" Mexico

Well, here I am in sunny Mexico working on my tan. It was actually more like chilly (30's and 40's Fahrenheit) and rainy Mexico, but it was still a productive and fun time. In that area of Mexico, most people don't have heat, so when it gets that cold it feels COLD in their house. Especially since their houses are stone. Luckily, the workplaces had heat, and I stayed in a hotel, where the room had its individual temperature control. Here are a few of the thoughts I had while down there. These items are not necessarily listed in order of importance.

Best Things About Being In Mexico

1. New friends.
2. Getting a crash course and refresh on my Spanish.
3. DELICIOUS salsa and lots of fresh limes.
4. A culture based more on personal touch.
5. Kissing the guys at work (On the cheek! What did you think I meant?). Plus, you don't really kiss them, you just make the kissing noise while being cheek-to-cheek. And you do the same to the women.
6. Pop in glass bottles.
7. Real fruit juice that comes in an aluminum can and doesn't taste like the can.
   
8. Having guys insist on carrying my bag and opening doors for me.
9. Being on a less strict time schedule. Yes, it's true that Mexicans have a different concept of time.
10. The thermostat at work was set high enough that my fingers didn't turn into icicles.
    

Best Things About Being Back In The USA

1. Old friends
   
2. Eating lots of uncooked fresh fruits and vegetables.
3. Home cooked food.
4. Drinking way less pop and lots more water.
5. Driving my car.
   
6. Brushing my teeth using the tap water.
7. Country music on the radio.
8. Sleeping in my own bed.
9. Carrying my own bag without guys insisting they carry it for me. Not having to go through the door first because the guys insist on opening and holding it for me as I walk through.
10. Fresh, fluffy white snow.

Is it just me, or do a lot of these involve food? Why is that?

Weekend Activities

Below are a couple pictures from my weekend and of my impromptu tour guides. Que padre.

Snow!

Yay, we finally got some substantial snow for the first time this winter. If I had been a school girl, I could have had the day off. Unfortunately, I was more like Cinderella and worked all day - I learned about how to do Failure Modes and Effects Analysis. One of my female coworkers was pained enough by the training she said she thought she might have to get married, have kids, and be a stay-at-home mom so she wouldn't have to deal with doing any FMEAs. See, there are fates worse than marriage and kids - you could be a single engineer required to do FMEAs. :-) For some reason, that comment tickled my funny bone today. The room the training was in had tons of windows, so I got to see the sun shine today! Seeing the sun shine around these here parts is a treat and a privilege I didn't appreciate back in ND when I had it all the time.

Showing My Age

Well, I'm another year older again. Now when I go to the YMCA, I press the "down" key one less time than before when the exercise machine asks me how old I am. And hopefully I will not start to press the "up" arrow any extra times when it asks me my weight.

Speaking of birthdays, what is the deal with office settings and making the person who has a special occasion bring in the treats? Shouldn't people be bringing them treats? Where I work, they're not real big sticklers about that, but at the company I worked at before, they would give you a really hard time if you skipped your "turn" of bringing in doughnuts or muffins. I did my duty though - I brought in both muffins and doughnuts. Plus I made sure I bought a chocolate muffin for myself. I've gotta get something out of the deal.

Oh yeah, and I'm well on my way to reaching the resolution of having people over just for fun. I already did that on Sunday. Check. Now I'll have to make the stretch resolution to be that I have to do it 4 more times this year.

Ski Plans

I'm planning a ski trip for late February/early March. If you didn't get the e-mail but are interested in going or knowing the details, let me know.

As a side note....when I was looking up somebody's phone number on the internet today, I was slightly disturbed by how many other details they can provide based off only your name, especially if you're willing to pay a few bucks. How safe is that? Particularly for someone who lives with many people and has several security systems installed.

Resolutions

I don't usually make resolutions when a new year begins. I must be arrogant enough to believe I don't need to change. :-) This year I am going to make one resolution though. I resolve to invite more company over to my house. This means that I will voluntarily invite someone over just for "fun" to play some games or have a meal. It does not count if my family comes or the workers come to visit. Also, I'm going to try to exercise more and exercise more consistently. Boy, is that original. Maybe I'll keep an "exercise calendar" here on the blog to motivate me. Then my five readers can yell at me if I miss too many days in a row. Should I also resolve to do more self-examination so that I know what I should resolve to do next year and so I know what I should put on my "My Plan" at work? Nah.....not this year. I'll do that next year.

Christmas Sickness

Here's what I did for Christmas: We (me and my brother and his family) drove back to ND. On the way we made several construction stops. I got to help with one project. We roughed in a bathroom in a cow barn. :-) By the time we got to the 'rents, I was coming down with some kind of cold/flu/sinus bug. I was really sick for a couple days, then slowly started getting better. One advantage to being sick around Christmas is that nobody wants you to cook or set the table! The disadvantage is that you can't taste the delicious food. And Anna was sure cooking up a storm.

We didn't do anything too earth-shattering; we mostly hung out. I moved a bunch of files from Mom & Dad's old computer to their new one and helped them clean and organize their electronic files. Strangely enough, a messy computer bothers me way more than a messy cubicle. It's OK to have a few temporary files on the desktop, but come on people, they need to be cleaned off when you're done using them! That wasn't my parents' problem with their computer, that's just my opinion on computer cleanliness in general.

We also saw some old friends like Tony, Jeremy, Jen, Todd, Jon & Sara, the Vigesaas, etc. Plus my great uncle Carl died while I was home, so I stayed for his funeral and saw a whole boatload of relatics there. Then I caught a ride back to Milwaukee where my car was with my cousin Marla and her family. I had planned to take Amtrak back since Jess went home earlier than I wanted to. But since I could catch a ride with Marla that didn't involve overnight sleeping on the train, I decided to do that. Now I'll have to wait for another opportunity to take my first Amtrak ride. We made it out of there just as the freezing rain was starting.

Get a load of a few pictures below from the ND trip. We (meaning Mom, Anna, and Megs) tried to make lefse, but they found out it's not good to make substitutions if you're missing ingredients. So alas, my Christmas was sans lefse. Oh yeah, and we had a brown Christmas in ND, which hadn't happened in like forty-some years.



Megs and Dana chilling out by the fireplace in the basement. Buckle up and laces out, Dan.


What are you talking about, Grandpa? I see your lips moving, but I don't understand what you're saying.










Mmmmm...mmmmm.....mmmmm.
There's nothing better than a good
piece of string cheese.

Mom and her grand jaguars.

Lightning, anyone?

Before and After Specs

I got some new glasses today. They're awful fancy - the frames are stainless steel with spring hinges, and the lenses are anti-glare, darken in the sun, and scratch resistant. Mama always said....I look good in pink and purple, so I stuck with a purple shade. The new ones are more rectangular, and the old ones are kind of oval shaped. They're not that different, you can see for yourself. Also, check out those double chins. Aren't they cool.

...................Before...........................................After....................