thirtyfour

This May, Maz turned 34. Pretty soon we will have to get a bigger toy box.

Indy Legos.



Indy Trilogy.



Have a great year JTM!

Mustache Party

'Staches and beards are the topic du jour. I will not be left out of the game.















It's ok. My son looks like a terrorist too.



















Derek Smalls Style.

For a prequel, visit http://eurecatherine.blogspot.com/2008/06/mazman-facial-hair-hero.html.

For a trot through history, visit http://myothercountry.blogspot.com/2008/04/great-moments-in-marathon-mustache.html

Surviving Mud and Monsoons, Pt. 2

Memorial Day weekend appeared with the promise of a painless 17 minutes of yard work. Here are the fruits and veggies of my labor!

Idaho State Tree - Ponderosa Pine and Bitterbrush.

Check out the rainbow in front of the Tetons.

The Garden- Purple Basil, Chives and Rosemary. Yum!

Surviving Mud and Monsoons, Part 1

Mud Season has morphed into Monsoon Season, but we’ve managed a few rays of sunshine, rainbows and dry evenings.

Jay worked the room at the Yellowstone Business Partnership conference in Grand Teton NP. Rep’n Harmony Design and Engineering, yo.

Cue the elk! From the back (front?) porch of Jackson Lake Lodge. Cocktail Hour scenery was quite acceptable.

We also squeezed in a quick ride before Grand Teton and Yellowstone NPs are choked with RV’s and it becomes an unfriendly environment for bikes. Check out my new grocery getter rack.

Almost Summer in Driggs

V = √R*1= √50 V

Being married to an engineer who actively practices Yankee Frugality has both its old highs and new lows.

A broken broom has no chance of death in this house. There’s always some extra schedule 40 PVC pipe laying around.

Southern Living aka Road Trip

Our tent was getting quite dusty and we were getting anxious to sleep on the ground, aka camping, so we headed down to Utah for the weekend. After a quick stop in Logan to meet with a Production Basics customer…

check out this gnar workbench!

...we camped at Willard Bay

and did some MountainLyte Biking at Antelope Island State Park.

A favorite spot on the tour was Golden Spike National Historic Site. This is where the transcontinental railroad was joined. In the middle of nowhere Utah, aka Promotory, Utah. Golden Spike is also a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

Check out that grin!

If you want to read a fascinating account of building the railroad, check out Stephen Ambrose’s Nothing Like it in the World.

My sister gave me a super cool camping gadget a while back- The Firefly. The Firefly is a screw top cap attachment for your Nalgene bottle that has a waterproof light inside, so it acts as a lantern. You can use it with or without water, but as you can see, it's a piece of artwork with H2O.

Thanks Sis!

Shaking Arches

I don’t travel for work to the most exotic places, but I still get excited to navigate a new place, see what the people are like, experience different weather (as long as it’s not 50 and raining.) So I make the best of every trip and feel lucky that someone puts me on a plane and calls it work.

It was easy to make the best out of this trip..the Gateway Arch peeked out from behind the building to make an appearance in my hotel room window.

I have an obsession with the Arch, ever since dad and I went there in 1997 on a road trip. Mostly, it is beautiful piece of public art to me, but then I consider the engineering and the symbolism and I am even more amazed. It is really quite a spectacular site.

This building is also across the street- it’s part of the memorial. The bright light in the background is the new Cardinals stadium.

Speaking of Cardinals fans, they are wild. They apparently rent all the hotel rooms in downtown St. Louis to stay overnight after the games. They love Budweiser. And branded Cardinals apparel.

Despite several trips to Southern California and living in the geothermal hotbed of the country (our building regulations even include a seismic requirement), I had to go to Missouri to experience my first earthquake. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning on Friday to what I thought was some really incredible gusts of wind and promptly went back to sleep. The next morning, I asked my coworker if he heard anything weird last night, and he said 'Yeah! There was a huge earthquake!'

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/eqinthenews/2008/us2008qza6/

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/18/illinois.earthquake/index.html?iref=newssearch

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/85FD230AAFCED4D08625742F003769F5?OpenDocument

In other news, while I was digging around in my phone for these pictures, I found these funny ones of my niece Lucy from the Charleston road trip. Too cute.

First Last Day

Last year, I was in Atlantic City during closing weekend at Targhee. Maz had hilarious stories about the costumes and shenanigans of the weekend, so I kept my schedule clear this year. Not a cloud in the sky and lots of smiles as we all took out last rides up Dreamcatcher and Sacajewa lifts.















E, Jen and Randy going up for our last run.














The Cardboard Derby was a hoot. Hot tubs, tanks, canoes, cars, White Houses (?) all made out of cardboard careen down a mini half pipe.















Maz the Frightener. Quote of the day: "What happened to your face?!?"















Maz on Blackfoot.















Jen, Eric, Maz and Randy meeting at the top of DC.

At 3:45, everyone rides the lift up and waits until the last chair at 4:00 makes it to the summit. Massive snowball fight ensues. The biggest snowball fight you have EVER seen. Take cover and make snowballs as fast and furiously as you can. This is our friend Kelly running the gauntlet between east and west snowball factions.

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom recently had a very important birthday, so we trundled down to Charleston, South Carolina for the week.


Here's mom weaving her way through the antebellum alleyways. Happy B-day, MIR!

















Charleston has wonderful, colorful architecture. The most spectacular was Rainbow Row, a collection of merchant warehouses that have been restored to private residences.













I can see Scarlett and Melanie prancing now... The Avenue of Oaks at Boone Hall Plantation.













Dad and I nearly scratched each other's eyes out to get in this hollowed out tree! Dad won.
I got my turn next:











Fun!

And my niece, Lucy, was kind enough to clear her schedule to make the party. She'll be 2 next month and is almost ready for her marketing internship.

Visits, Eggs and Lift Tickets

Introducing our next candidates for a Grand Targhee Restricted Ski Pass....












Mr. Hoyle













and Ms. Lynch.


A reincarnated telemark skiier.












Egg Fights- NH vs. CT.
























And my favorite egg decorated this year...












CHICKEN INSIDE!

Science Experiment. Plop an egg in the dye and forget that it's been put away for safe keeping during the party. 11 days later:

Sans Husband

While Maz was away, I kept myself busy.

Deep dish pizza-delicious.














Invented a new cocktail.




















Hung out in the New England Nook.




















Enjoyed 27 inches of fluff.





Woke up to an incredible sky.