So Many Updates!!

Whew! A lot has happened over the past couple of weeks, nothing really newsworthy, just a lot of activities that have added up to me being really really really busy!

Firstly, in case you haven't been annoyed by me and my constant yammering about running yet, I'm training for the Austin Marathon on Februrary 17th, which I'll be running with my friends Erin and Sarah. Erin's significant other Wale is also doing the half marathon, last I heard, so remember to be impressed by them too.

What this all boils down to is that in the past 6 weeks, I've done lifetime distance bests for running three times, first 14, then 16, and most recently 18 miles this Sunday! BUT you don't even have to be impressed by me, you can just focus on being impressed by this little dynamo right here, who has done every mile with me, often more because of all of the extra smelling things she HAZZZZ to do.

That's right, it turns out that R2 is a marathoner at heart! Don't worry, she naps for about an hour after we get back from our runs, and then goes back to wanting to play. Also, a medical professional has said that as long as I feed her as often as I feed myself during runs, make sure she gets plenty of water, and make sure that the pads of her feet aren't getting torn that it is good for her.

Here she is taking a rest after we got back on Sunday, sooo tired!!! Also, she is slowly developing super powers over time. The laser cats won't have anything on the laser dogs when the apocalypse happens tonight, methinks.

 

Recovery is important with running, so we've also been putting in some time on the stretching and yoga front.

 

 

R2's favorite? Downward facing dog!!

 

In other, non-dog news, my family was here for Thanksgiving! We cooked all of the things, and also took a trip to Brazos Bend State Park, where there are ALLIGATORS.

 

First, here are some pictures of food:

 

 

Apple Pie!!

 

Squash Pie!!

 

Those of you who had the privledge of staying at WILG for a Thanksgiving when my dad and I cooked will remember that my dad has an aversion to pumpkin pie. Caroline is no doubt saying "Rightfully so! Pumpkins are not food!!!" However, its not that my dad feels that pumpkins are not food, he just feels that squash (squashes?), are BETTER foods. They are sweeter and absorb the spices better.

 

It turns out that my dad has also developed an aversion to measuring which exceeds even my own. I am someone who is not likely to measure things for recipes I am used to making, but for new recipes or new ingredients I usually stick to known methods and quantities. However, this year it turns out that the spice industry, coming on the heels of their success with Pumpkin Pie spice has launched a new time saving convenience called "Apple Pie Spice" which is just all the spices for apple pie mixed together. Anyway, my dad just dumped it right on into our cut up apple pieces with nary a nod to the measuring spoons. Horrified, and a couple of glasses of wine into the day at ohhhhh 10am, I said something like "OH, I guess we'll just abandon science!!!" which is now a BIG family joke in the Price household.

 

The pies came out fine anyway, science or no.

 

The next day, very much in need of exercise, we drove out to a state park called Brazos Bend State Park. I was picturing an idyllic day of wandering some trails and seeing countryside which would help my parents cope with being in the big city. BUT we pulled up at the gate and learned that we were entering "The Home of the American Alligator"!! Imagine my surprise and my mom's chagrin!!

 

Luckily, there was some idyllic trail walking:

 

My brother announced that this picture looks a lot more like our driveway at home than the trail actually did, but I think he's wrong. This is what the Trail and our driveway look like.

Our driveway:







I guess the driveway has more foliage. BUT, it was Ohio in September.

However, the Park also had some Swamp, which had Alligators!!!

Swamp (Not Pictured: Alligators)

 

More Swamp (Pictured: Alligator!)

 

I have about 190 iterations of that 2nd picture, with different alligators. Mostly the alligators sit on the islands on the opposite side of the banks from where the people are and don't do much other than look terrifying. They didn't move around at all, which was good because R2 probably would have been scared otherwise. Also, my mom and brother would have been up a tree.

 

Other cool things we saw:

 

Trees FULL of Ibises (Ibii??)

 

Baby Alligator (More cute, less terrifying!)

 







My parents went home the next day, and my brother the day after that. That brings us through the Thanksgiving week updates!

That being said, you should be expecting your Christmas cards sometime around Valentine's Day!!

Hugs,
Pricer

More About the Boat!

Ahoy! I am back on dry land and there was a flurry of Halloween-related activity, including an all-nighter involving crocheting a T-Rex costume, but first the conclusion of the BOAT saga.

First of all, there are some great perks to being on the BOAT. Just look at how nicely my laundry came back!

It certainly never looks that nice when I do it! Speaking of which, fun story!! The day before the last day I was on the boat, I missed the deadline to put my laundry outside the door and have it picked up. Wanting to have clean pants to wear home on the plane (I sat in some mud on deck), I took my bag of dirty laundry downstairs, thinking I could toss it in with the rest and things would continue as usual. Your laundry bag has your room number on it, which is how you get your things back. 

Anyway, it turns out that things weren't that simple. There was no bin and I ran into a terrible language barrier with the older gentleman who ruled the laundry room with an iron laundry spatula. I did a terrible job communicating my needs and he somehow got the idea that I didn't know how to do laundry. Just to be 100% clear before this next part, I definitely know how to do laundry. The older vaguely Thai looking man very patiently showed me how to do laundry, which I sort of smiled and nodded my way through because I couldn't really figure out how to communicate anything that would stop that train, and then asked me how I had managed to get a husband without knowing how to do laundry (!!!!!!!). I..... did not try to explain about feminism, but did explain that I don't have a husband. To which he nodded knowingly and seemed to think that he had perhaps done me one of life's greatest favors. Oh goodness.

It turns out that being the only girl on the BOAT does have advantages though, here is a picture of the two beds in my room. Since I was the only girl on a ship with about 100 people, someone started calling me the 1%, and then someone else started saying things like "The 1% has twice as many beds as the rest of us."

Below is a picture of how one is supposed to put on a life jacket, as handily illustrated by the 1980's. That is a lady in very heinous mom jeans in those pictures in case you were having any doubts. 

My room had a television in it, which is not that entertaining. I am only showing it to you to illustrate that it did not have any buttons. There were no buttons on the side.

You had to operate it with these remotes, illustrated below.

Which is too bad, because batteries were not included.

Also, for some reason, which was never quite explained to me properly, instead of having regular power adaptors, there were these honking things plugged into nearly all of the outlets. They reminded me of mechatronics lab. No one I was on the ship with had any thoughts that sounded remotely legitimate other than "we picked them up for bargain basement prices while we were getting the life jacket instructions from the '80s using our time machine." One on the deck, which I didn't get a picture of, was a brand called "Minwah," so there's something!

Who said that a bunch of dudes can't be clean! They had these little booties at all of the entrances so that you didn't track muck from the deck inside the accommodations. My mom needs some of those inside of our house. That would resolve much discord.

Here is a picture of my door. My room number was 355. It was good to be home :)

The stairs to nowhere were one of my favorite deck features of the ship. They were located next to the graveyard of disused office furniture, which was unfortunately also the location of what in highschool we used to call "smoker's corner." Still, Those are some decent stairs that don't go anywhere.

Finally, here is an idyllic offshore sunset picture, just like I promised!! Isn't it pretty!!!

I'm on a boat! Also I rode on a helicopter!

In other news, about two sentences ago I started a blog! Congrats on getting in at the very beginning!

I've been on a boat for the the past week for work. I don't want to talk about too many of the details because I'm not strictly sure that that is allowed. Also, it is probably not that interesting anyway. Suffice it to say that I am in the Gulf of Mexico on a BOAT.

I got here by helicopter! It was super exciting times for me because I've never been on one before. Here is a picture of the helicopter:

The only really weird part was the take-off and about two-feet afterwards which were very jerky. The pilot looked kind of a lot like Coach Matt, tiny head and all, so we shall be calling him Pilot Matt for the purposes of the next five minutes. Pilot Matt had a very similar attitude about the whole thing to how I would imagine Coach Matt handling a helicopter set-up. They are very careful about how weight is distributed in the helicopter, so when a dude sat in the wrong seat Pilot Matt pulled out a notebook which had a diagram explaining how this dude sitting in the wrong seat would slowly tear the universe (our helicopter) apart.

Luckily that did not happen. Here is a picture of the side of my colleague Edwin's glasses. The ocean got in the way a bit, but you can tell that his glasses are very snazzy.

Here is the infamous BOAT. You may notice that there is just generally a lot of STUFF on the deck of the BOAT. Usually it is used as a pipe lay vessel (not what we are doing)m which is what those big red reels in the middle and the white doohickey at the back are for. The BOAT is about 500ft long and the accommodations (at the front) are about 8 stories high, to give you a size comparison.

We've been calling the BOAT the MSV Red October because...

things are still a bit..... Soviet up in here.

More pictures (including idyllic offshore sunsets!) to come later on!!