3rd week of work completed!

I love deadlines. It totally engergizes me when I have a short timeline to get something done. Is that weird? When there's a project that HAS to get done RIGHT NOW, I love it. I've always been like this. I think it's why I'm such an amazing procrastinator. Give me two weeks to write a paper and I'll still start it 2 days before it's due because I'm much more productive with my time when I know I have to be. If I actually started it in advance it would take me so many hours longer and the quality of the product wouldn't have been any better than only having a little while to do it.

This week at work we had a "drop everything else that you're doing and help us finish this project" couple of days. It was awesome. We had to finish the bonus/raise salary worksheet to present to our company's parent company for approval. It was fun to work on this type of project and I felt especially valuable because of my mad excel skills! :) Plus those days flew by too. I hope that my boss will continue to pull me into projects like this that are outside my training and development bubble. I think I was able to prove myself as being valuable in these kinds of situations too.

Now if only there was a realistic way to put some enforceable deadlines on our house projects and I'd have sooo much more accomplished!

Fun with Friends...lots of them!

It's weird how different life is now that I'm no longer in school. I know there's the thought that college is a giant party occasionally interupted with class... and there probably was some time like that for me when I was at Iowa. But being back in school the last year and half has been far from that. While I still was able to spend time with friends while in school, my mind was always on school. There was always a case to be reading or a paper to write and I missed having Sundays just to relax. Now that I'm free from school, I've felt more free to have fun. No guilt about homework.

So here's a quick recap of all my post-ISU fun this last month!

NYE
Due to icy weather, our NYE in Huxley ended up smaller than expected. However, it was still a fun night in! The night was filled with lots of catching up with good friends, way too much delicious food, the discovery of a mini-keg, a board game that can outlast monopoly and a good old fashioned sleepover! It was a great way to start off 2011! Pics curtesy of Liz...

Polly Day
I capped off my final week of unemployed freedom with a raodtrip with Jenny up to Winona, MN for Polly's birthday. We celebrated the 27th annual Polly Day starting with the Wheel of Meat. Apparently the Wheel of Meat is not an uncommon thing in small towns, but I had never heard of such a thing. For every drink that we purchased between 4 and 7, we recieved a raffle ticket. And then at 7:15 they drew tickets for random cuts of meat. (It used to be an actual wheel that you got to spin for a chance at bringing home some meat but the lottery rules changed or something and now it's just a raffle.) The birthday girl got lucky and ended up with 3 wins. Unfortunately the rest of us were not so lucky and the result of our raffle tickets was just a nice buzz. We spent the rest of the night at one of her favorite establishments. It was so fun to help Polly celebrate and to catch up with both her and Jenny!

Back to Work
I started my new job on Monday after Polly's bday! I was excited and nervous. I worked there this summer for an internship but a couple things were different ... my position is a brand new position, I don't have any formal education regarding Training & Development, and my manager from this summer left in the fall and I hadn't met the new manager yet. But all these things also make work interesting and exciting which is good too. My position is HR Training Generalist and my focus will be to identify skill gaps, coordinate with technical experts in the engineering group to develop training modules and then create a "roadmap" for employees to follow in order to advance their skills (and be more productive for the company). There's a lot to do with lots of unknowns but I know I'll learn a lot in the process.

High School Craziness
To celebrate being back to work, I was thrilled to hit up HH with Katie on Friday and we continued the party on Saturday night. I brought Jackie along and we met up with Katie & Kelly and their husbands. It was a crazy night but sooo much fun! I love how there's those people that even though you don't get to see very often, it's just like the time never has passed. Katie's my oldest friend - we met in preschool and continued to attend the same school all the way through college at Iowa. While Kelly didn't go to our elementary school I still met her during that time thanks to RE at Sacred Heart. It's always a blast when I get to hang out with them! Unfortunately I did have to pay for all that fun the next day though. oops! However, with no guilt about needing to do homework it was great to have a lazy sunday.  

Overnight Guests
And now we're caught up to the last few days. Renee & Matt came to visit for the weekend. They left their baby at home and were ready to let loose! By the time I got home from work on Friday they had already finished off a few drinks and the craziness just continued. Thanks to my long recovery the previous weekend, I was more than happy to be the DD on Friday. And boy was it hilarious being the sober one. We introduced them to the famous Flying Tomato pizza at Wig & Pen and then went over to Renee's brother's house. We made the long trek to West Glen but it was worth it. Lindsey and her bf were able to meet us out there, which was great! Saturday included recovery time as well as shopping time and then we went out to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. I hadn't ever been there before and the nice atmosphere and food made it a great choice. We spent the evening a slightly more chill than Friday night :) and ended up back at our place. Brandon & Erin came over too.

 

Packers vs Bears
We're not really NFL fans but how could we not watch the playoff game tonight... especially because we got the opportunity to hang out with even more friends! Mary & Adam invited us over to their place and Baby Callen was really the center of attention! I think Liz/Page, Emily/Rob and Matt & I all did a great job of sharing though :) It was a great way to wrap up a fun weekend!

 

Sofa Shopping

I've been bookmarking sofas on my computer for weeks now. And I've been hitting up all the furniture stores around here to check for comfiness and the feel of the fabric. I even dragged Matt, my parents and my sister on various trips to the furniture stores. But despite all this work, we still haven't found the perfect sofa. I know, I know... there is no such thing as the perfect sofa. But it still would be nice to find something that both Matt and I agree upon.

We have made some progress though. At the beginning of this search my "likes" were all over the place. I could imagine all sorts of styles in our house. But even though my "likes" were many, they didn't match up with any of Matt's "likes". I didn't realize how different our expectations were for our new furniture. However, after lots of searching my style preference seems to have emerged and it's lining up more with Matt's preference.

Here are some of my favorites right now...

As you can see there's both regular sofas as well as a sofa/chaise combo. I've always thought a true sectional couch would be awesome but right now we think it may not work for our room. However, a sofa/chaise combo may be a great compromise. And as far as color - we're thinking in the brown family. But someone is a little particular about the feel of the fabric so that's more of a priority than the actual color. :) Hopefully we're able to decide on something soon because all this looking but not buying is exhausting. And we can't pick out a new paint for the walls until we decide on the furniture (lesson learned when painting our bedroom walls before picking out fabric for our window coverings).

My baby sister

My baby sister is studying abroad in Spain this semester. It's so weird to think of her as all grown up and living in a foreign country. While she's not that much younger than me (7yrs), I still remeber her being a little kid. And just when I got one sister back in the US, the other one leaves. It sounds like she's off to a great start and hopefully she'll keep blogging about her adventures! Here's a link to her page:

Stories from Spain: ¡Finalmente en España!

Trip to Chile: Day 3

Day 3: Wednesday

·         Arrived at bus station in La Serena at 6:30’ish

·         Dropped off our suitcases at Hostal El Punto and since we arrived so early signed up for tour

·         Walked a couple blocks to grab breakfast (rolls of bread and juice) and made it back to the hostal to get picked up by the tour at 8am

·         Tour Name: Punta Choro / Isla Dama

o    Rode in a van for two hours to get to the Humboldt Penguin National Reserve

o    Took fisherman boats out to Choros Island - the weather was colder than we expected but luckily the waves weren't too rough so we could still take the boats out

Our boats before we got on board

o    Saw Humboldt Penguins, many species of birds and sea lions

Our tour guide pointing out the birds, Jackie's on the right

Humboldt Penguins



Path the penguins take to get to the top of the ridge to nest



Sea lions

o    Circled around to outer side of island to look for dolphins but no luck

         o    Landed on Dama Island - walked on Playa La Poza (beach) and did nature walk around island



Nature walk







o    Headed back to the mainland – total time on boat 2.5 hrs, on island 1 hr

Back on solid ground after the boat tour

o    Lunch in town of Punta Choros

§  Christine had Salmon w/French fries & White wine

§  Jackie had chicken (on the bone!) w/mashed potatoes & Escudo beer

o    Napped on the van ride back to La Serena

·         Finally got to shower!!! back at the hostel at 7:30 pm.  Then headed out to check out the town.

·         Walked down Ave Francisco de Aguirre to the El Faro (the lighthouse) and continued down along the beach on the Ave del Mar

·         The sun had already set so the ocean wasn’t much to look at yet but the lights from the neighboring town of Coquimbo were pretty

·         After walking an hour we realized we weren’t going to find a place for dinner along the beach so we hailed a taxi back into the city center of La Serena

·         Ate at Donde El Guaton and ended up ordering waaay too much food on accident

o    Christine had Anticuchos (meat shishkabob), side of mushrooms & red wine

o    Jackie had stuffed beef w/ham and cheese, side of mashed potatoes & sparkling water

·         With full stomachs, headed back to the hostel for much need sleep

Trip to Chile: Day 2

• Our second morning started off with a walk over to Santiago's Plaza de Armas (the city square). We were awed by the beautiful paintings on display by many local artists (Jackie bought one), entertained by street performers and did a lot of people watching.

Plaza de Armas



Human Statue of Chilean Miner



Plaza de Armas & Cathedral

• We also checked out the Catedral Metropolitana which is on the plaza. Due to earthquakes,  at least 4 churches have been built and destroyed on this site. They were having midday mass when we walked inside. Don't worry - I didn't use my flash to take this pic so I wasn't a distraction.

• We took the metro out to Manuel Mantt Street for lunch at Barandian Peruvian Restaurant. Peru is just north of Chile and is known for their flavorful food - it's definitely spicier than chilean cuisine.
• I had steak with sauteed onions and tomatoes
• Jackie had Aji de gallena (chicken with cream sauce)



my peruvian meal



We both had a traditional peruvian fruit drink and bread with creamy hot sauce with our meal

• After lunch we headed to the Mercado Central, a giant fish market. We walked through quickly as I was a little grossed out.
• Jackie took me to La Piojera Restaurant next to try their famous Terremoto drink. We actually had the smaller version called the Replica. The translation for terremoto is earthquake and replica is aftershock. The drink is a sweet fermented wine plus brandy topped with a scoop of pineapple ice cream. It’s SUPER strong and it was good that we only had the replica. We also split an empanada de pino – ground beef with onions, 1 olive and a cooked egg stuffed in a bread pastry. 

• On our walk back to Jackie’s apartment we went through the Santa Lucia Artesian strip to do a little shopping. Back at the apartment we packed our bags for our excursion to La Serena.
• We went back out to walk around more of Jackie’s neighborhood and then found a small Italian restaurant to stop at for dinner.
• We ordered some classic Chilean drinks – PiscoSour for me and FanSchop (draft beer & orange fanta) for Jackie.
• Our salad consisted of slices of tomato and avocado.
• Our pizza was pita bread with goat cheese and cubes of ham…no sauce
• Jackie says the only thing punctual in Chile is the busses so after dinner we grabbed our suitcases from her apartment and headed to the bus station. Luckily we made to the station with plenty of time to spare.
• Our overnight bus to La Serena departed at 11:30pm.
  
  

Trip to Chile: Day 1

My sister, Jackie, lived in Santiago, Chile for 11 months in 2010. She originally went down with plans to visit for only 3 months but she found a job (or 2 or 3) being an English instructor and tutor so she decided to stay. In November, over my thanksgiving break from school, I was able to visit her thanks to some money my Grandpa put in a c.d. for me many years ago. It was an exceptional trip due to the opportunity to explore Chile but also to see Jackie and experience her life down there. We kept a very detailed journal of all the things we did (and ate). And we also took hundreds of pictures. I can't post all the pics but I am going to post our activities from each day. So without further ado...

Day 1: Monday, 11/22/10

• Arrived at Santiago airport, Jackie was waiting to pick me up, took bus then taxi, made it back to Jackie’s apartment at noon
• Explored Santa Lucia hill

Entrance to Santa Lucia hill

Santiago skyline from Santa Lucia hill

• Checked out Jackie’s old apartment and met one of her previous roommates, Laura
• Saw more of the city on our walk to meet Jano, one of Jackie’s Chilean friends
• All 3 of us went out to lunch at Galindo in the Bella Vista neighborhood
• Bread with pebre (popular Chilean hot pepper sauce)
• I had Pastel de Choclo, a traditional corn and meat pie
• Jackie had Churrasco Italiano, a typical sandwich with grilled steak, tomato, avocado and mayonnaise

  

  Pastel de Choclo

•  Rode the funicular to the top of San Cristobal hill and saw the Virgin Mary statue




View of Santiago from top of the San Cristobal hill







Statue of the Virgin Mary


• Walked through Pio Nono (shopping/dining district) and Parque Forestal
• Ate ice cream at the famous Emporio de La Rosa
• Christine’s flavors – lucuma (local fruit) & strawberry
• Jackie’s flavors – chocolate orange & strawberry



Lucuma and Strawberry

• Headed back to Jackie’s apartment and met her current roommate, Courtney
• Rode the metro back to the Bella Vista neighborhood and went to La Nona bar to meet more of Jackie’s friends (Alli, Jano, Kevin, Sally)
• Drink: liters of Escudo beer
• Food: french fries and ketchup
• On the walk home bought a completo (hot dog with tomato, avocado and mayo on top) from a street vendor
• Bed time - 12:30am