random pics

He's "special" Nice helmet!!!

Julie and I's 2004 Valentine's Day dinner....no lie....That's how we roll - we love mullets and we were not disappointed!!

Dressed the part to go to the Flying J Truck Stop for Valentine's Day dinner....Told you I wasn't joking!!!!!! Pearl snaps and all!!

She's purdy

Mr. way too proud of Texas guy - yeah - that's me

Boomer Loves the Camera.....and Camo.....and Christmas Trees....can't you tell?

Such a cool pic....Lake Louise....Canada

Dude's getting ready for the wedding

First picture ever taken as a "couple"

Man....That's a buch of Turkey

turn it down a notch

What a whirlwind it has been lately. So many things going on so we'll start from where I left off.....LAST WEEK:

I was in town all week, basically getting on the trucks and helping out around the office.
Thursday was an absolute BEATING!!! We had a huge project we had to do which took up nearly all day. There were 83 55 gallon drums full of some sort of adhesive and some full of paint waste. We did not know what was in each drum so we had to physically open them all up to try to determine which truck they should be loaded on. They had to be separate from each other not only to keep them organized but to make sure they did not have anything in them that could possibly react with one another (that would be bad....could cause an explosion - built up pressure - etc.)
So, there were 5 of us out there man-handling these drums.....yeah, it was about 98 degrees......no shade......and absolutely NO breeze. Needless to say we took A LOT of water breaks.....went to the hose to water ourselves down just for it to dry in about 5 minutes, and slowly but surely, got them all done around 4:00pm - none of us had eaten all day so we were starving....hit up denny's, had a crazy waitress (seriously - what's up with me and crazy waitresses....i get them all too often) She had a BIG fake flower in her hair, said all 5 of us had blue eyes when there were a few guys with brown, said I had a nice butt (no joke)......even though I have no butt.....etc.
I pounded 2 pancakes, sausage/cheese scramled eggs, hasbrowns, and a few pieces of bacon in a matter of minutes....well - that wasn't a good idea considering the fact that I worked my rear off all day, was dehydrated, and still burning up - my stomach hurt like whoa - had to pull over a few times to throw some of it up....but finally, around 8:30 we showed back up to the office - by the time I left it was a 14 hour day of nothing but manual labor - shoot me.

THE WEEKEND
We didn't really do a lot - it was AWESOME!! Ran a few errands with Julie Saturday....cooked burgers that night....and slept a lot....my body was still hurting pretty good....Saturday I slept util about 11 - NICE!!! I'm lazy.


THIS WEEK:
I got to go to San Antonio for meetings. Monday night I stayed with my parents and really enjoyed hanging out. My mom cooked a great meal (enough to feed a small army)......pork chops, cajun cornbread, vegetable casserole, potato casserole, and one of my favorite creme pies for dessert!
After stuffing our faces for a while I helped my mom figure out her Ipod - which i think is a every time I'm down there thing -
then we just hung out on the porch and talked for a while. I got to sleep in my old bed which was nice - they bought it from us a while back - you can get lost in it - so soft!

Woke up the next morning at 5:00 am - yes that's at the butt crack of BEFORE dawn to drive into San Antonio to be at the branch by 7:00 am. Meetings started that afternoon which was fun. Tuesday night we all went downtown.....one of the vendors that presented took 14 of us to some place called Acenar on the riverwalk.....I ate too much again and stayed up way too late hanging out with everyone.
Wednesday we had a little training session then got out in the field to do a "blitz" on our new product. It was the first time I have tried selling anything in about 7 weeks so I was excited. I have the itch again to get out in the field......we had a good day - sold 1 unit and got a few lined up for next week.
I was supposed to come that night but my boss wanted me to ride with a rep to Austin for an appointment that was going to be a great learning opportunity. So, I shacked up with our friends the Scanio's for the night......ate pizza and watched a movie and actually went to bed early.

Well, Thursday all heck broke lose....we had some issues we had to take care of and ended up going back to the place we were at on Tuesday to do a full blown facility tour....which we already did Tuesday.....so it was a bummer not to get to go to Austin but what can you do.

I got back around 7 tonight - I'm pooped....all i wanted to do is play PS3 but it has to download new software which takes WAY too frappin' long - it's going on 45 minutes.....still not done b/c I keep getting disconnected from the Internet - so frustrating.

Now it's raining......it's pouring.....so bad I can't hear the old man snoring.

On that note, I'm going to bed......I know, this is another all over the place...probably didn't make much sense blog - but - that's what I'm good at when I'm exhausted.

back from Baltimore

Man, what a long week.

I flew out on Monday to head to MD for 5 days of training. Just got back tonight - I'm pooped.

The training was very interesting though which helped make the time go by pretty fast. I am now certified to carry/handle hazardous waste - if I were going to be driving a truck. Since I'm just a sales rep, I had to do the training any way for regulatory reasons.

We learned all about hazardous waste, chemicals, etc - what to do in case of a spill of certain types of chemicals, what chemicals react with other chemicals/water/plastics, etc. All in all, it was good.

We were in training Tuesday through Friday with everyone. What I didn't know is that only certain people had to be at training until Friday.....I also didn't know that I was the only Sales Rep there....Therefore, I was the only one that had to be in training on Saturday. Good times had by all.

Here's what the week looked like:



Monday: Fly in (stupid hotel did not have my room ready when I got there at 10:30 PM - )

Tuesday: Training from 8-5 - went to dinner at a seafood place - had excellent crab cakes which I love

Wednesday: Training from 8-5 - dinner at the hotel.....passed out at 8:00pm fully dressed (shoes, shirt, blue jeans, contacts, etc.) and didn't wake up until 7 the next morning

Thursday: Training from 8-5, sales rep training from 5:30-6:30 - went to Washington DC with a co-worker to see the sights and check out the Nationals baseball game. Got into DC around 7 - 30 minute train ride that cost us 9 bucks. Saw the Whitehouse, Washington Monument, the Capital, etc. Went to the baseball game which was awesome. They were up by 5 or so, St Louis tied it up in the 9th. Went to extra innings - St Louis pulled ahead by 1 with a single shot homerun in the top of the 10th...>bottom of the 10th, Dude hit a 2 shot homerun to win the game. The subway was packed so we got a ride from a dude on a bike that had the row seat attached for a few bucks.....we looked gay as all get out but it saved us about 30 minutes waiting to get on the subway. This is where it gets fun..........Went back to the train station to find out EVERYONE lied to us....the trains stop running at 9:30 - not 11:40 like we were told!!!! So here we are, stuck in DC with 2 options. Greyhound bus or cab - we walked to the bus station which was a little scary at 11 at night.....bought tickets for the next available bus - not until 1:00 am (1 1/2 wait) Decided we were too tired so we ended up taking a cab. Cost us 65 bucks to get from DC to Baltimore - 3 times as much as it cost to get us there. Finally, we got back to the hotel around 1:30......Tired much. (I COULD NOT FALL ASLEEP - finally around 4 I dozed off



Friday: Training from 7:30 - 3...sales rep training from 4-6 (once again I fell asleep at 7:00 pm and did not wake up until 6:00 am the next morning - and once again fully clothed with shoes and all - i did not move)



Saturday: Training from 8-11:30.....Lunch at the airport - Flew out of MD at 12:45 CST - Got to Dallas around 4 (had 20 minutes to get to my connecting flight to Abilene - which is difficult at DFW) Flew out of DFW at 4:50 and landed back in Abilene at 5:30)



All in all - it was a successful trip - had a great time getting stranded in DC - met some really cool people - and learned a lot!! But, that being said, I sure am glad to be home. It's been a LONG week.



It's so quite around my house right now - Julie is up in OK for her cousin Dustin's wedding and the dogs were boarded on Friday.....so I'm all by myself. I can't wait for my wife and kids to get home. Seems like forever since I've seen them.



This is probably a very random and hard to read post - but I've been up since 5:00 this morning so I'm a little delirious!! Hasta Luego yos