Grey's Anatomy is so freaking good!

My freaking entry got deleted! Stupid AOL!

First, I was raving about the latest episodes of Grey's Anatomy. SO GOOD! Lots of good plot twists and unexpected drama. Watch the last 3 episodes if you haven't seen them at ABC.com!!!

I am psyched for our camping trip this weekend. We are going on the North Fork Trail, staying at the ranger cabin, and then snowshoeing up to Lost Lake. This is the only part of the park I have never hiked. Here's a description of the trail, and here is a map. Our trail is the orange line:

My last day of work with the fire crew is Wednesday. Bittersweet, since I like working and I like money, but I don't like that I keep getting sick from inhaling all that smoke and hiking up and down mountains in cold windy weather. I'll be unemployed again until at least Mid March, maybe April if I don't get the crew leader job. WISH ME LUCK! Cisco, the guy I did it with, is ticked that they are requiring a CDL. I know of one guy that may be tough competition IF he put in for it; but I know he applied for trail crew so maybe he's just not into haz tree anymore?? Here's my potential job description:

"At least 70% of your time will be spent completing a variety of projects in the areas of forest health and insect management.  You will be responsible for implementation of field programs for hazard trees, forest insect and disease, and for coordination of logistics for project completion.  The position requires consolidated and detailed reports of daily field activities when insecticides are applied, when implementing pest control strategies, and coordinating hazard tree control actions including the marking of trees for monitoring purposes.  You will assist the Natural Resource Specialist and Fire Management Officer with planning and coordination of park-wide forest health field projects; develop and implement project work plans; coordinate with other divisions and agencies to obtain necessary assistance; obtain necessary supplies; design, coordinate, and conduct trainings.  The other 30% of your time will be spent in motor vehicle equipment operation, fire management activities, buck and rail maintenance, and snow play boardwalk maintenance."

PICK ME! PICK ME!

Oh, and there is a photography contest going on up here, for photos of Estes Park or Rocky Mountain National Park. I can have up to 5 entries. Please look at these photos and let me know which ones you like the most. The worst part? I'm competing against my Timmy - and he's really freaking good. Trust me. If you remember any photos that I didn't put on here but you really really liked from Rocky Mountain, let me know!

 

From Photo Contest

My puppy and I have the same painkillers

Last week, I brought Logan home from day care and fed him dinner. For the first time in his life, he didn't chow it down and just layed down. I KNEW something was wrong - my chowhound wouldn't eat! Strange. He did the same thing the next morning - he would eventually eat it all, but my little Pac Man just wasn't feeling well. After he nearly exploded in my truck because he was SICK and HAD to go potty (bless his little puppy heart, he didn't go in my truck and held it until I could pull over, though he was soooo ill) I realized that this wasn't going to get better by itself. Last Thursday, I brought him to see Dr. Fish. Logan's got a stomach bug. No big deal, some antibiotics and he's good to go... right??

His belly started to feel better right away. On top of this, he's teething and that's bugging him. Then I realized he was sitting funny. I paid more attention... he had a little limp too (hard to tell, since he has that silly german shepherd swagger combined with puppy clumsiness). I checked out his paw and his leg and couldn't find anything wrong. It got worse and worse over the weekend; he would whine and get up and readjust when he was trying to sleep - he just moaned and ached. I got worried, of course. I didn't know if he sprained something, or played too rough at day care... but he didn't even want to sit up anymore, his leg bothered him so much.

I brought him to the vet first thing this morning. Guess what's wrong with him?

GROWING PAINS.

Did I mention he's 40 lbs at 4 months old?

This is relatively common with large breed dogs, and it's called panosteitis. He's a little on the young side to get it, but he's just a big boy and he's definitely growing! The good news is it's temporary; the bad news, is that the only thing you can really do is give him pain relievers. The doctor said that once, a bassett hound came in SCREAMING in pain from it; the only thing they could do was give him morphine! Fortunately, Logan isn't in THAT much pain, and hopefully it doesn't get to that point. So now he's on two pills... one of which is Tramadol... Which is what I take for MY back pain when I hurt it at work! Go figure, my dog and I share narcotics. :P

What else is new with me?? Well, today is a holiday (president's day; I would never have known if I didn't work for the feds!) and I am going to see my friend Maria, who just moved back to Fort Collins from Flagstaff. I only have maybe 9 days left of work (running out of funding), but if I get that hazard tree lead position I might be starting mid March. Tim reserved the North Fork cabin for March 2-3, so a bunch of us will be snowshoeing up there and hanging out in the woods. We got tickets to see Yonder Mountain String Band in Fort Collins on the 28th. I am trading my old trombone for a violin with some lady over Craigslist - I think I'm getting the better end of the deal, since it's in great condition; she just really wants an affordable brass instrument and has an extra violin lying around!

And the last lame little tidbit - I made Logan a profile on Dogster. It's like myspace, but for dogs. I know. Lame. Lame. Lame. I just couldn't help it. He's making lots of doggie friends though! ;)

Happy Valentines Day!

I'm not really big on V-day, but Tim took me out for sushi last night in Fort Collins.... YUMMMMMMY! Oh my god I ate so much I thought I was going to explode!

I'm selling tons of stuff on ebay right now. My user name is amazonchic. Buy my stuff!! It's mostly earrings and some other random stuff. Can you tell I owe in taxes again this year?!?

Here's some funny photos of the mutt. I gave him a bath... That's all I'll say. ;)

Now, I think I'll drive down to Boulder to buy some groceries. Yuck. I totally don't want to go down there!

 

From Winter 2006-2007

Burning stuff is fun

What have I been up to lately? Well how about this:

That was Saturday night at the Rock Inn. It was Erin's birthday and the Stanleytones played. There's a couple photos of myself and Tim thrown in there too. It was a good night! I can reasonably say that I know most of the people in those photos, and a lot of the people sitting at the bar are friends of mine. Welcome to my social life! I even got to bring Logan out with all the other dogs around midnight. He had a good time despite how tired he was.

I had walked Logan in town earlier that day and tons of people told me how cool and sweet he was. One guy even pulled over to find out where I got him, because he wants one too! People seem to think he's part Rottweiler because of his coloring. Purebred shepherd, baby!!

And I've also been up to this:

Amy and Arturo taking a break the day that our coworker Tim dislocated his shoulder

Did I mention it's snowy and steep??

A burn pile that lit a small juniper on fire.

Just workin' and having fun I suppose. It's a rough life, really. :P  Tim rented the North Fork cabin for the first weekend in March; it's a 6-7 mile snowshoe in, so us two and a few of his friends will be going up there. Sounds like fun!

But alas, I am exhausted from another day burning on Deer Mountain. So that's all for now!

Back to the mountains!!

First of all, the photos from Donna's wedding are posted - and they are unbelieveable! I think these are probably the best wedding pictures I have ever seen. I, of course, do not photograph well... But Donna is freaking GORGEOUS! Hot Donna! Hot Donna! ;) Warning: it takes a long time to get through them all. I downloaded just the ones of me and the girls to my Picasa album so it's much quicker to get through... but I didn't download all the cool ones so it's worth going through them all if you have time!

From Donna and Jas...

Well, the trip back to Michigan went by way too fast... And I am so exhausted from all the running around! So let's start from the beginning.

Before I got this fire job, I had been planning on coming back to MI for two weeks at this time anyway. But then since I was working, I figured I would just wait until the end of February and visit before my "real" job doing hazard tree started - which would be March if I get the lead, April if I don't. Well, we haven't been able to burn much so it looks like I will be working straight into March, so I no longer knew if I could drive back and show off the pup. The fuels crew wasn't working Tues-Thurs anyway last week, and I didn't know this until the previous Thursday. Friday I just said Screw it, I'll take Monday and Friday off too and just go to Michigan!

So I just hopped in my truck with Logan around 10 am last Saturday and drove straight through. The dog was soooo well behaved and just slept the whole way - all 19 1/2 hours it ended up taking me! Of course, I had joked to all my city worker friends back in Michigan that I would bring a blizzard with me so they could get overtime plowing snow. This backfired, and I wound up in a lake effect snow storm on the west side of MI at 3 in the morning... I was already exhausted, and it was snowing so heavy I thought I would go cross eyed! But with my sweet new tires, I passed everybody on the freeway... Of course, they probably saw my Colorado license plates and knew they were dealing with a professional. ;)

I rolled into the driveway of my parents' house at 7:30 am, went inside and the dogs started barking like nuts. I just wanted to sleep but there was no way they were going to settle down. Sue saw me and was like, "What are you doing here??" Then I went upstairs to see my parents and they're just like "Oh hey." Hardly any surprise at all! Then again, my friends later reminded me that people expect me to do the unexpected by now, so why should they be surprised anymore? :)

Once the mutts calmed down, I proceeded to sleep ALL DAY. I finally woke up at like 5:30 pm and sent a text message to everybody that said "I'm in Michigan, bitches! SURPRISE!!" and that's when the phone calls and texts started pouring in. By 6 pm I already had most of my week booked with visits to people. I didn't hear back from Donna right away though, so I hoped maybe she was working at Champps Restaurant and I could surprise her. I drove up there and got a seat in her section. She came over to take my order and I look up from my menu... She does a literal double take... Then shouts "LISA! OH MY GOD!!!" By far, she was the best reaction of the whole trip, all happy and loud in the middle of the restaurant. So we tried to talk between her waiting on tables and made a lunch date for later in the week. I hadn't seen her since her wedding, and hadn't even heard about the honeymoon! Definitely had some catching up to do. After Chammps, I went over to see Jess and Michelle... I hadn't even seen them since July, and Michelle is having a baby in 2 months!

After a while, the days ran together so here's just a recap of what else happened. Monday, I went down to the City of Novi DPW garage to visit my old coworkers and brought Logan along. Everybody freaking loved him, he was so well behaved! My friend Marc has owned a few shepherds in his day and loved that he already has that German Shepherd swagger (like a panther!) down. ;)  I also met up with Tara at the Bamboo Club and found out that her hubby Kevin got a job offer in Arizona - so hopefully they'll be moving West too!! Monday night, Linda and I went to Ann Arbor to see Kevin and Beth. Did I mention that my sister, Kevin and Beth, AND Donna and Jason are all buying houses?? We went out to Sidetracks in Ypsilanti, and I can't believe that in all my years living out there I had never been there. If you're ever in that area, GO THERE! The deep friend mushrooms aren't normal button mushrooms... they are portabellos! Soooo good!

I think Tuesday I went out to visit my Dad. He's not really big on dogs, but I think he liked Logan more than he let on. My first dog was an albino German Shepherd that he got when I was little, so I think he might have a hidden soft spot for him. ;)  That night I went out to Outback with Mom, Linda and Sue. Unfortunately, my stepdad was soooo sick for most of the time I was there... so it ended up being a girl's night out. Wednesday was my lunch date with Hot Donna. We switched it up and went to Godaiko, which is a Japanese Steakhouse/Sushi place. I accidentallyordered the wrong lunch combo... I thought I was getting mostly rolls with just a little bit of sashimi (raw fish). Instead, I was presented by a very attractive plate of one roll... and a whole lot of colorful raw fish. Yikes! I guess it was a good way to try new things! By far the salmon is the best; wasn't too keen on the tuna... but it was all pretty good! Mmmmmm raw fish. Much better than it sounds!!

I met up with a few of the Novi guys at a place called Famous Dave's for happy hour - $1 pints of Guinness! I ended up hanging out with Steve, John, and Drew... and got in a pretty heated discussion about gun laws, and about multi-use recreation areas. Drew says he shouldn't have to worry about getting run over by mountain bikes when he's hunting. I said I don't want to worry about getting shot when I'm mountain biking! It was pretty amusing. Then hung out with Linny over coffee and talked about her house hunting and the fact that she is essentially engaged to Tony!! It's not "official" but it's gonna happen. My little sis is gonna get married!!! Don't ask when, because she doesn't know - lots on her plate right now - but I think I'm more psyched up about this than she is! ;)

As is my new tradition, I saw my stylist and got my hair cut when I was back. I always joke that she's just as important as my family, since I make it a point to see her when I come back. Hey, I just haven't found anybody I like cutting my hair out in CO yet!

And in a wonderful coincidence, Thursday just so happened to be Jack's retirement party. Who is Jack? Jack hired me for my first job out of high school with the City of Novi. He hired me among almost all guys to work at the parks, mow grass, run a tractor, prep ball fields... Got me hooked on manual labor... Then put me in forestry where I got started. So if it wasn't for Jack, I probably wouldn't be out here in Colorado doing forestry work! I hadn't seen him in a few years either, and he hired me when I was 18. He was also sooo important as a reference for me, and said great things about me for jobs everywhere from Maine to Alaska... And helped me with a good reference for the City of Oak Park. It just so happened his retirement party was at 5th Avenue, which was where I was going with my friends that evening anyway.

Linda, Susan and I (all three of us work or used to work for the city) show up for the party. I didn't even realize how many people would be there, so many people that I used to work with! A few of my "boys" were there, so my sisters hung out with them. I went up to Jack to say hi, to which he replies, "OH MY GOD, LISA!" He wondered where the heck I was living now, since he gave so many references all over the country. I told him he needed to come upstairs later and dance with us. It was good to see him!

Later, my sisters, Jess and I went upstairs for the music and hung out. Who shows up?? Jack, Tim, and Fozzy. Tim's son is my cousin's best friend; Fozzy is the forestry tech and would have been my partner if I had put in for that job instead of coming to Colorado. Jess has a few photos I'll post when she sends them to me. Donna even showed up! It was a lot of fun, but I'm definitely not used to being somewhere that crowded. Definitely like the quieter atmosphere up here in Estes! Guess I'm getting old, haha.

Friday, Linda and I took Logan out to see Tara's lab puppy, Lucy. Lucy is freaking HUGE - 65 solid stocky pounds, and a freaking wrecking ball of puppy energy! At first it scared Logan to see this massive dog run and jump at him, but he finally got sick of being pushed around and started wrestling back. It was exhausting just watching them!! Later, I got coffee with Jabena and saw her for the first time in almost a year!

All in all, it was soooo much talking! I didn't even get to see everybody that I wanted to - Aaron, Nat and Carl, Jeff and that crew... I was so busy and exhausted. Friday I could have taken my little bro to a Red Wings game, but I was so tired and was going to hit the road between 1 and 3 am Saturday morning so I couldn't. I could have also gone to the Wings/Avalanche game last Sunday if I had told them I was coming back! Doh! That's ok though. I watched the game with my mom on Friday night and got a couple hours of sleep.

Said my goodbyes and hit the road by 1:45 am Saturday night. I left earlier than I had planned because I heard some more snow was coming. The lake effect snow greeted me once again on the western side of the state; it wasn't too bad at the time, but I guess just a couple hours later there was a 20 car pile up! Glad I left early or I might have been stuck!

The ride home was exhausting and just NOT FUN. Logan was an angel again, but it was so windy and record cold temps along the way. It was 1 degree in Iowa with a -25 windchill... at 10 am! It was so cold I couldn't even really nap in my truck, it got too cold too fast. Logan couldn't even walk in the snow becausehis paws hurt! I didn't think I was ever going to make it back. I started getting a little loopy but lots of people called me to help keep me sane. I was convinced I would never get out of Nebraska! It's the state that never ends!

But I did make it, and was home by 8:15 pm (Colorado time). I haven't done the math to see how long it took. I showered up and went over to Tim's; he watched Deadwood and I passed out. Yesterday, we made a big bacon, eggs and toast breakfast, watched more Deadwood, and went to the Rock for the superbowl. I was suppose to work today but I got a nice little migrane and couldn't get out of bed. So, here I am on the computer!!

And that's pretty much all I have to say for now. Still don't feel great and am still exhausted from my trip to MI. Enjoy some photos!

From Winter 2006-2007