Yes, I said Trailerama

Sadly, last year one of Josh and my favorite television networks got the axe: MOJO. It had sweet shows like Three Sheets, Pressure Cook, and I Bet You. MOJO was eventually replaced by HDNet--which blows (for the most part). I say "for the most part" because I had a very interesting experience with HDNet yesterday evening. I had just come home from work and was winding down a little bit by watching some television. I was too lazy to take the HDNet channel off my favorites list once it took the place of MOJO, so I tend to get glimpses of it's programming when I browse channels. Somehow I got distracted and ended up lingering on HDNet for quite some time. At first I just thought they were in the middle of a really long commercial break because I saw several previews in a row. Then I got curious what was coming on next since it had been a while . To my surprise, when I hit the guide button, the name of the current program was: Nothing But Trailers. Seriously, the entire show was movie trailers. Occasionally, a guy would come on and discuss the trailer about to be shown, but 85% of the show was literally nothing but trailers. Josh and I had a good laugh, then decided to get ready for the gym. We started to turn off the TV as we headed for the door, but before we hit the switch we realized they were still playing movie trailers, even though the program was only supposed to be 30 minutes. I hit the guide button again, only to find we were viewing: Trailerama. Yes, same premise, new name. The weird part--I couldn't turn off the TV. I just kept watching. I was mesmerized by the trailers.

Finally I broke away and went to the gym. However, upon returning home, I turned on the TV again only to find more trailers. I clicked the guide expecting to see a repeat of Trailerama or Nothing But Trailers. Instead, I found myself engulfed by the magic that is: The Ultimate Trailer Show. Yes. HDNet boasts three shows dedicated to movie trailers alone. I am serious.

Just because I know you are dying to watch a movie trailer now. . . let me assist you. Here is one Josh is looking forward to. Enjoy, and if this doesn't satisfy your hunger for movie trailers, check out HDNet.

Where's the Water?

Last week on went on what the folks in my biz call a Water Tour. After mentioning this to a few people I realized most normal people have no idea what a water tour is and why I sometimes complain about them. For the most part--many water tours are interesting and fun. You typically get on a bus and drive around looking a various entities water projects (reservoirs, pipelines, treatment facilities, etc.). The tours usually start in the mountains and end at a cool City building or park. The tour I went on last week was not quite as pleasant. We had to travel to the end of the Earth (ie. Julesburg, CO--the last Colorado city before you hit Nebraska). Plus it was close to 100 degrees outside with no shade. The kicker--we hardly saw any water. Here are a few highlights. P.S. imagine various types of creepy bugs crawling on you while you stare at an empty field. It will really set the scene.

Finally! Some water!! This is Jumbo Reservoir near Julesburg. This is the highest it has been in years. It's ok to be jealous.

Do I look more like a movie cop now?

This past weekend was my sister Anna's 24th birthday!! To celebrate, we decided to head up to my family's cabin in San Isabel. I usually just refer to it as "the cabin." It was hand built by my dad, uncles, and grandpa. Every time I go down there I realize I need to go more often. It is a lot of fun. When you have a place like the cabin at your disposal while growing up, you tend to establish certain rituals and habits. Some of our typical cabin activities are: ladies cleaning while the men cut up firewood; sitting around the fire pit at night talking and eating roasted marshmallows and s'mores; cooking chili and hot dogs; talking about climbing "Macho Mountain, but rarely doing it, taking walks to unlock the various gates for other family members to come up; playing poker with my dad's old Jack Daniels card set; big family breakfasts; and competing in various outdoor activities, which over time have included: zip lines, horseshoes, volleyball, archery, washers, shooting guns, and hitting cans with rocks propelled from sling shots, etc. . . This trip was no different and we covered almost all of our regular bases.

Dad cut firewood with a chainsaw while Josh tried to break-up pieces of wood with brute force.

Mom and I cleaned up the cabin upon arrival and laid out all of our snacks.

We organized a washers tournament.

We shot at cans with a Red Rider BB Gun and sling shot.

I realized I didn't know how to shoot a BB Gun.

I also learned I am a much better shot left-handed. Who knew???

We talked about climbing Macho Mountain and sat around drinking beers instead.

Dad let each of us take turns shooting his 22 pistol. He made it look easy and hit a can on his first try.

I was terrified of the gun and looked like an idiot while trying to shoot the darn thing.

Abby was the only one allowed to have a BB gun growing up and she was the only one to hit the can or cans on nearly every shot.

Mom looked like a natural.

At least Josh was wearing orange. He was mildly safe.

Anna watches a lot of movies, so she at least looked like she knew what she was doing.

We wrapped up the night with chili, hot dogs, birthday cake, s'mores, and a little poker. We were all really tired. PS--I was the poker champion.

The next morning my grandparents and cousins Adam and Tracy came up for a big cabin breakfast. When my grandma heard we shot the 22 the day prior she told my dad straight out, "I think I'd like to shoot that pistol." So, after breakfast we warmed up with a little BB gun shooting. We hung a bottle, plastic cup, pinecone, and little bottle cap from a tree and took turns trying to hit them. The bottle cap was by far the hardest, but my grandpa, who has Parkinson's, and is 78 years old, took aim and hit it after two or three shots. I suck at shooting and never hit it once. After we warmed up with the BB gun, we headed up to take turns with the pistol again.

Here is my grandma getting ready for her first shot. Classic.

My grandpa Lee taking aim.

My cousin Adam teaching his wife Tracy how to shoot the gun.

All around it was a great weekend and I had a lot of fun. I hope Anna did too. She has come a long way from being a fat baby in a bikini (wink). Love you Anna.

PS. You can see all the pictures from Anna's b-day weekend by clicking the the "Our Photo Gallery" link on the left.

Field Work: in a field.

I realize many people don't really understand what I do for a living and how weird it is sometimes. Most of the time I think it is pretty weird myself. Therefore, I decided to snap a quick picture during some field work on Monday.

We were out taking flow measurements for a ditch loss study (a study that tells you how much water that is lost naturally between the start and end of a ditch due to seepage, leaks, etc.) on the Brantner Ditch. This particular ditch runs through residential areas, agricultural land, and a golf course, so there are plenty of people staring at you and wondering what you are doing. The picture above was taken at a pretty remote site, so no one was around except Evan and I. I was sitting on a bucket recording data. I wasn't about to put on size 12 men's waders and hop into a filthy ditch. I'm really glad Evan did it for me. At one site the water was so deep it was only an inch or two away from the top of Evan's waders. I'm a little shorter, so I might have taken on water. Yikes!

So basically, my day was spent driving around the Brighton / Fort Lupton area on ditch roads stopping every few miles to hop into a running ditch to take measurements for about a half hour at a time (you take 3 measurements about every foot across the ditch). During yesterday's field work I spoke to golfers asking us what the heck we were doing; a girl who though we were looking for wild dogs (I think she was high); ate luch next to pile of owl pellets; and drove on an overgrown ditch road covered in weeds 5 feet high. It was an adventure to say the least--an adventure I thought warranted a cowboy hat. Yes, I am a dork.

Take That Mountain!

Last Thursday I climbed my first 14er!! I hiked up Gray's Peak with my Josh, my sisters, parents, Uncle, cousin, and a few of my Uncle's friends. It was both tough and fun. Check out the pictures and play-by-play in Our Photo Gallery. The link is on the left.

He Fell From the Ceiling!

Prepare yourself for one of the creepiest/best stories ever.

Last week my sister Anna was partaking in the festivities at one of her favorite Pueblo bars, and like a typical girl, had to take a quick bathroom break. While taking care of business, she looked up and noticed a huge part of the ceiling was broken up or non-existant. When she got out of the bathroom she asked one of her bouncer friends what happened. The bouncer, whom she refered to as Big Black, looked around the room and said, "We really aren't supposed to talk about it, but some crazy shit went down a few days ago." The story that followed was classic.

He told her a few days prior, a midget with long hair (this has no relevance to the story, but I really think it helps with the visual) had come into the bar. Nobody recognized him, but he didn't seem to be causing any problems and no one had a second thought about the dude. . . until, a few hours later when he took off running out of the bar followed by a female patron yelling "catch that pervert!!"

Apparently, sometime during the evening, the midget managed to climb up into the ceiling with all of the duct work. The bar staff think he snuck into the dining room that was closed for the night, got up on the bar, and boosted himself up. Once he was up in the ceiling, he found his way to the space above the women's restroom and proceeded the peep on the ladies as they took care of business. That is until the week ceiling panels gave out and he crashed down into one of the stalls on top of an unsuspecting female. The girl was terrified and claims she got at least one punch in before the midget took off. By the time she was able to pull up her pants and escape the bathroom the midget was gone. No one heard her scream in the bathroom because the music in the bar was so loud. He few guys took off to catch the guy, but were not successful.

Seriously. I'm not joking. A peeping tom, long-haired midget fell out of the ceiling at a bar onto an innocent young girl trying to pee in peace. Creepy!

In Honor of America. . .

I love the 4th of July!! The fresh cut grass, fireworks, family, friends, BBQ foods, and cold beers--it doesn't get any better. This year Josh and I went to my Aunt Linda's and Uncle Bill's for the big celebration. It was great, but it is not what I actually intended to write about.

I would like to take this opportunity to write about another adventure I took on the 4th of July. A truly American adventure. In honor of America, I decided to indulge in my first McDonald's cheeseburger, EVER. Really, before Saturday I had never eaten any type of burger from McDonald's. I always ordered chicken nuggets as a kid. Mostly because they were simple to order. I didn't have to make any substitutions or special requests (ie. no mustard, pickles, onions, etc.). If there is one thing that infuriates my dad, it is going through a drive-thru and making special requests. His face literally turns red and he has, on more than one occasion, drove away without getting any food at all. Then there was a period of about 5 years where I wouldn't eat McDonald's at all because there were too many dark meat nuggets. Needless to say, once they brought back all white meat nuggets, I became a regular customer again.

I finally realized it was just plain un-American to have never eaten a McDonald's burger and there isn't a more perfect day than Independence Day to resolve that problem. So, we made a quick pit stop before heading to my Aunt and Uncle's house. I still had to make it a special order because I despise pickles, mustard, etc. Therefore, my mom had to order from the passenger seat so as to not upset my dad. I ordered a plain cheeseburger with onions, and a ketchup packet (I hate other people putting ketchup on my burgers because they tend to flood it, but Anna and Josh said the ketchup was essential, so I ordered the packet). Anna and Josh also said the onions are amazing and add that special touch to the burger, so I made sure to ask for those.
Of course, my order came out wrong: no onions and a boatload of ketchup. At least there were no pickles. I wiped off some of the excess ketchup and took my first bite. History was made. Unfortunately, the burger did not live up to my expectations and I only ate half before Josh devoured the rest in less than 5 seconds. Maybe it was the lack of reconstituted onions, the ketchup fiasco, or too much hype. I don't know, but I'm glad I tried one finally, and I figure it probably doesn't hurt to have a slight cheeseburger aversion. I'm still proud to be an American and now I feel more American than ever!