Liar

As a good friend of mine recently pointed out, I lied.  I promised a blog update over a month ago, and I still haven't delivered one.  I'm sorry.  I don't even have a good excuse only that it's summer time, and I've been trying to soak it all in.  So here's a quick update.  I would promise to have another post with pictures soon, but I can't guarantee that I'll be able to deliver.

1. It's been hot in MN.  I love it, because it actually feels like summer to me.  People from Minnesota like to complain about the heat.  I think I probably sound like them in the winter when it's snowing, so I suppose it's even.

2. My house has been like the Austin Hotel lately.  Dallas was here for the 4th of July, the following weekend Rachel and David made a quick pit stop, and I entertained Adam and Jessie this weekend.  Cory and Petey will be here next weekend and my parents the weekend after that.

3. I love visitors.  If you would like to come visit please make your reservation right now!

4. I'm now training to run a half marathon in September.  I'm not sure what kind of crazy thoughts have taken over my brain.  I'll be running with 3 other Hormel girls so it should be a fun time (well minus the running 13 miles part).

5.  I cooked all afternoon, and I'm now covered in flour.  I'm definitely my mother's daughter judging by the flour handprints that were on my shorts...

6. I've eaten my weight in mashed potatoes the last couple of weeks at work.  It's becoming a problem.  See #4.

7.  My cousin Clayton was baptised this morning at church, and I am so proud of him! I really wish I could have been home to see him give his life to the Lord.  Congrats Clayton!

8.  Did I mention that I love summer and hot weather??

9.  I played in a sand volleyball tournament last weekend and ended up with a wicked mystery bruise on my hand.  I should have taken a picture of it, but I forgot.

10.  Watching the latest episodes of Deadliest Catch where Captain Phil dies makes me cry everytime.  I'm such a baby. 

11. I've been living off of strawberries for the last month and a half.  I bought some at the store last week and ended up throwing half the carton away once I got home because they were starting to rot.  It made me very sad because it means strawberry season is over.

12.  The same day I threw away strawberries, I bought my first bunch of sweet corn.  This made me feel much better.

13.  Cody has now met almost all of the important people in my life and has passed the inspections.  I knew he would :)

14.  I need to go to Illinois soon.  Chauncey, Illinois to be specific.

15.  I'm more tan than I've been in the last few years. I love summer!

16.  Getting engaged seems to be the thing to do these days.  Congrats to Sarah and Matt, Jessie and Adam, and Christine and Travis!! I'll throw in Bethany and Blake and Sug and Robert too even though you've been engaged for awhile :)

That's all I can think of for now.  Off to enjoy some more hot summer weather!!

An update....

is coming soon.  I promise.  I didn't realize it had been a month since my last post.  I've been slowly climbing my way out from under a project at work for the past 3 weeks.  I finally made it out today.  The sunlight kind of hurt my eyes and I had to adjust to not feeling exhausted when I got home, but it's nice to be back.  I have no plans this weekend so I will work on an update. I promise.

Hola! Como estas? Muy bien!

Well after 5 days in Mexico that's still about as much Spanish as I know.  Add gracias and una mas and that is the extent of my vocabulary.  Luckily that didn't hold us back!  Cory, Amanda, and I had a great time in Cancun!  The resort we stayed at was called the Riu Caribe, and it ended up being really nice.  The whole concept of 'all inclusive' is a genius one.  It was great to walk around and not have to carry any money or anything around.  I could eat ice cream everyday and eat steak - fo free! (ok so not really free we paid for it but still it seemed free!)  We spent most of our days laying around the pool or on the beach doing absolutely nothing but soaking up the sun.  I finished 4 books and got some pretty sweet tan lines. 

We planned a couple of extra activities as well.  One night we went on a pirate themed cruise ship. Out of the probably 40 people on the boat, we were 3 of 5 who spoke English as our only language.  The main pirate emcee would explain things in both Spanish and English, but we feel like we missed out on a lot of the story.  We figured this only enhanced the experience as it was probably pretty corny otherwise.  We cruised from Cancun to the Isla Mujeres where we saw a pirate show, had dinner, played some games, and had a mini dance party. While on the island I got called out to come on stage to play a game. It was a scavenger hunt and we had find certain items in the audience and thing bring them back to the pirate - the last person back would lose. It was interesting because he would explain what we were looking for in Spanish first, so I just took off running not knowing most of the time what I was looking for. I was the last person standing and won a t-shirt for my efforts.  It was extremely windy that night and it wasn't long until our boat ride turned into a scene straight out of Deadliest Catch.  The boat was rocking so hard that I was convinced we would end up having to swim back to shore.  This also only enhanced the experience, because the crew had people up dancing around the boat and soon the scene changed from Deadliest Catch to Titanic.  As the boat rocked everyone dancing would scream, cling to the railings, and topple on top of each other.  It was epic and hysterical!! 

We also went on a club hop which took us to 3 of the hot spots in Cancun: Congo, Senor Frogs, and Cocoa Bongo.  We had an extremely good time.  Senor Frogs was by far my favorite.  It was really laid back with a beach theme and even had a water slide running through the place.  Cocoa Bongo was a disco like place and they put on shows of famous singers such as Elvis, Beyonce, and Michael Jackson.  The people really looked like the singers and they would dance and lip sync along to their music videos which would play on these huge screens.  It was a blast!

We sadly left on Wednesday and went from 90 degrees in Cancun to a very sad 40 degrees in Minnesota.  It was really disheartening.  I started feeling better when Cody welcomed me home with a small Dairy Queen ice cream cake!  I'll leave you now with a slide show of some of the pictures of our trip.  I feel like there is more to say, but it's late and my clever blogger writing skills just aren't clicking (as if my blog posts are ever that clever anyway!).  So good night!

Workin hard, or hardly workin?

Like I said, I've been on the move a lot. I've spent the last three weeks on the road. The first week I spent 3 days in Topeka, KS. If you haven't heard, Hormel recently bought the Country Crock line of side dishes. I've been assigned to work on Team Tater (what the operations guy decided we should be called - clever, I know) and all the items are made at a plant in Topeka. I didn't mind going there since it was 80 degrees there that week. Last week I spent Tuesday - Friday at our plant in Atlanta, GA. I had been looking forward to this trip for awhile. It had been rescheduled a couple of times. I usually travel by myself, but on this trip we were running a couple of different trials so myself, Nate - who also works in R&D, Russ - operations manager, and Brett - marketing manager all made the trip down south. I've learned that traveling with Russ is the way to go. He arranged for us to do some fun things after our work in the plant was done. On Wednesday night, Merle (superintendent at Atlanta plant) took us out on his boat. The lake we were on was a huge resevoir and there was a lot of money on that lake! We saw house boats bigger than my actual house. Merle told us that one of the boats which was appropriately named "More than you know" is frequently featured on the travel channel when they do shows about house boats. It was incredible looking. We spent about 2 hours cruising the lake and only made it about half way across it.  Even thought it was only in the lower 70's, it was still a great night.  The lake was calm, and there were a ton of sailboats out on the water.  We got to watch the sunset, and after we docked, Merle took us to a little restaurant right on the lake.  We spent Thursday in the plant again, and then we were treated to an Atlanta Braves game that night.  I can't remember the last time I had been to a pro baseball game.  It was probably at least 10 years ago.  We had really great seats, however the game couldn't have been worse. The Braves were playing the Phillies and they got beat pretty badly.  Good thing I'm not a Braves fan! We sadly flew back to MN on Friday and back to the real world.  I'm hoping I can get more projects that take me back to Atlanta.  I think I belong in the south..... This week I'm on the road again.  I'm back in Topeka tonight for a meeting tomorrow and then it's back to Austin and I'm on a plane to Cancun Friday morning!!! I'll be sure to write and share pictures from the trip when I get back. Until then enjoy some of the sites from Atlanta  - tootles!

*Merle's boat the Z-Amore*

*More Than You Know*

*Captain Brett, Skipper Nate, and Gilligan Rachel*

*If Merle is back there who's driving the boat??*

*That's right - they let me drive*

*This picture is for Grandpa Joe - what sailboats do besides sit in the yard :)  *

*Turner Field*

On the go

Busy busy busy. That's how things have been going lately. Work has been going good, and I've been traveling a lot. I think I might have gypsy blood in me, because I love to be on the move. Don't get me wrong, I love a good lazy weekend of laying on the couch, but many times I'd much rather be going places and visiting people. Maybe it stems from all those weekends spent going to cattle shows on the weekends as a kid?? Anyway - it's been a pretty busy last couple of months. I spent one weekend at the end of March visiting Mallory with Jessie in Milwaukee. Milwaukee is definitely a fun city. Ironically, we spent almost the whole weekend pretending like we were in college again and spent all of Saturday laying around watching a marathon of America's Next Top Model. Sunday Mal gave us a driving tour of the city which included the Pabst Mansion, Marquette University, the place where serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer used to live, among other Milwaukee sights. The highlight of the weekend had to be riding a mechanical chili pepper at a Mexican restaurant. It was more like a kiddie ride than a mechanical bull, but it was hilarious. The weekend was epic for sure ;)

*Me, Mallory, Jessie*

Last weekend, Cody and I made the trip down to Ames to take part in VEISHEA. If you want to learn more about what VEISHEA is click here: http://www.veishea.iastate.edu/en/about_veishea/history_of_veishea/ Basically, it's a celebration for the university. This year was the first time I actually walked around on campus on Saturday. I didn't realize how many family events took place. Each college puts on different events to show the public a little about their program. I ran into Dr. Lonergan at the livestock pavillion and was able to catch up with him for a bit. The spring scrimage game was Saturday afternoon so ISU 911 was out in full force for tailgating. Sunday we had lunch with my other family - The Andersons. Lily is getting so big, it's hard to believe that she's 8 months old! Mark and Katie even dressed her in the Illini shirt I got for her. She is the cutest baby ever!! Overall, it was a great weekend spent catching up with my Iowa State peeps.

*Cody getting his first taste of Iowa State tailgating*

*Jessie, Mallory, Leah, Amy, and I*

*Lily is well on her way to becoming an Illini fan!*

*Cuteness!!!*

Curling Club

I just had to share my past weekend experience. A group of my friends, who also work at Hormel + a few extras, took a day trip to the twin cities on Saturday. We went around to a couple of really cool downtown bar and grill type places. One was called The Muddy Pig complete with pig decorations that I loved :) We also toured Summit Brewery. The brewery was all interesting and fun, but the real interesting part came a little later. We had planned on going to this outside festival called Firkin Fest in St. Paul. When we got there some of us decided that we didn't want to wait in line, but a few people in our group had already bought tickets. Conveniently located next to the festival was the St. Paul Curling Club. Some of my friends had been in before so we decided to go check it out. Now since curling has become an Olympic sport it has fascinated me. I'm not sure why, I think because I think of Olympic athletes as these amazing physical fitness types, and most curlers I've seen are bigger, balding men. These guys give me hope that I can also be an Olympic athlete ;) The curling club had nine curling lanes and there were probably at least 50 people in there to practice their curling. It felt like we were walking in to some secret society. They were even having their own spaghetti dinner, but I was assured it was open to the public. I wasn't brave enough to bother any of the serious curlers with my questions, but luckily Joni, who I work with at R&D, is from nearly Canada, North Dakota and her family curls. In fact, her uncle was at one time a champion curler. She tried her best to explain to me the rules and scoring. I watched the curlers curl (I'm thinking there's probably better terms to describe everything but I just like using the word curl) intently for awhile, but I most admit it got a little boring after awhile. Maybe I should have picked up a broom and asked to jump in a game! I was a bit intimidated by some of the more serious curler, like this guy --> Everyone was pretty jealous of his outfit. It was a pretty random afternoon. It was a lot of fun to get out of Austin and do something different. Maybe if you come visit we can all go back to the curling club!! I'll now leave you with some scenes from the curling club.

Just as a bonus - This is Cody. Cody is a nice guy. I like Cody. Cody likes me. That's all you need to know for now :)

Home Sweet Home

I realized that I have never shared pictures or details of where I live here in Austin. Let me first share a little background information about Austin, MN aka SPAM Town, USA (yes they actually call it that). Austin has a population of about 24,000 people. When you break this number down, Hormel employs about 800 people in Austin (this is a really rough estimate, I could be way off), the Hormel Institue which is part of the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota that does a lot of cancer and other medical research and employs several PhDs, grad students etc., and there is also the Austin Medical Center that is a branch of the Mayo Clinic that employs several hundred people (again, guessing). Of the remaining 22,000 or so people, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that 70% or more of the population is 60 years old + and retired. Someone once told me that Austin has the oldest average population in the state of Minnesota. I can't find this fact stated anywhere, but I wouldn't doubt it. The proof of this statement is shown on our streets when you want to drive the 30 mph speed limit, but you can only go 15 because of the old person in front of you. I include this fact, because it is important when talking about living situations here in town. Driving around town, it would appear that there are several decent looking apartment buildings that would be safe to live in. However, when you start doing research you'll find that these apartments are for "older adults only". So, unless you're a card carrying AARP member your renting options are very limited. When I started asking around work for some suggestions I got this story more times than I can count: "Well when I moved here I lived in this horrible apartment in a awful part of town, but it was cheap!" Austin may be a smallish town, but I'd seen some of the bad parts of town, and I was NOT willing to live there no matter how cheap. One day while driving around hoping to find somewhere nice to rent, I stumbled on to this group of townhouses on the edge of town called Murphy's Creek. They looked newer and really nice. I called and was able to come look at one of the units. While talking to the landlord I told him my situation and that I really needed a place to live within a couple of weeks because I had to be out of the intern housing I was in. At that time they only had a unit open immediately at a complex that was downtown. They were similar to the Murphy's Creek, but weren't in as nice of an area. Bill (the landlord) was determined to help me out. There was a girl that was planning on moving out because she was going to be the manager at the other units. She was waiting for the approval to go through before she could move. Bill was able to speed the process up and I was able to move in on the day I had to be out of my intern apartment. It couldn't have worked out better! I have a three bedroom townhouse, and I can see cornfields out of my window. It's more room than I need, but a three bedroom is what was available, and it was only a $25 more a month than a two bedroom. I love my place, and makes Austin feel a little more like home. I have a garage and a washer and dryer included. There's even a little running path through the woods next to my building. I definitely got lucky in finding this place. I might start thinking of buying a house in the next year or so, but for now I'm perfectly content here! I have plently of visit so come visit soon!

*Front entry*

*Downstairs half bathroom*

*From the front door looking in*

*Living room*

*Kitchen*

*Master bathroom*

*Extra bedroom/office/scrapbook room*

*Guest bedroom*
*My bedroom*