Quickly now, quickly!

Once again... it's been awhile.

I made it back home safe and sound. Had a fantastic Christmas including 20 inches of snow the next day (I have a couple pictures I'll put up after I get them off of my camera). We survived downed power lines and played cards and shoveled wonderfully.

Now I'm off to Portland Oregon for my cousin's wedding and to visit family. Always busy... =)

Happy holidays all! And Happy New Year!

On the water

Back out on the water, this time scheduled for 16 days rather than the usual 12. It doesn’t seem like too much longer, but I’m sure on day 12 I’ll be singing a different tune. We’re also doing 24 hour operations, so I’ll be rotating with another person, but working a noon to midnight shift. Which should be an interesting experience.

This ship is pretty exciting. We have an ROV and the ability to collect sediment core samples from the very bottom of the ocean. For now, we’ve located ourselves next to some oil rigs so there is something to see on the water this time. And every now and then another ship passes by. However, most of my time is and will be spent inside either the quarters we’re using for data and where all the computers are or inside the ship itself (eating/sleeping).

By the time I get home (unless we get in early, which is highly unlikely), my parents should be back in Massachusetts as well. Yay holidays! Then visiting Oregon to see a wedding and family of all sorts for about a week. Then back to cold, cold Boston and Attleboro. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to work remotely for the rest of that month and get to do some skiing. I might try to swing in a visit to the Washington DC / Baltimore area to visit college friends who are living there now. That’s the current plan anyway. Who knows what will actually happen.

I’m probably not going to write too much over the next two weeks though because it’s going to be the same thing day in and day out… although hopefully the food will change a little every day!

That’s all for now…

I'm so bad at remembering to update

I'm back in Louisiana now and going back out on a ship. This one's a longer one. Usually they're about 10 days with 2 days of transit. This time it'll be more like 14 days though with 2 days of transfer.

Back in good ol' Louisiana...

Whew!

Back from all of the Thanksgiving festivities and food! Gearing up to head back to work on Thursday. This time for about 2.5 weeks! At least it should be warmer than it is in Mass right now...

Off to run a myriad of errands that need to get done today and pack!!!

On my way...

Heading back to Boston again, finished up another rousing rotation down in Louisiana. I should be home for about a week and a half this time. Then they're having us all come down again before Christmas.

It's nice to have Thanksgiving off though! I've already made plans to go down to New Jersey for Thanksgiving and probably spend a day in New York City as well visiting people and catching up and all that.

That's all I got for now!

San Francisco…

Didn’t leave my heart there, but I do like San Francisco. Come on, it’s the home of Ghirardelli!!!

 

When Mindy and I first arrived, we stayed with a STeLA friend of mine for the evening in San Francisco at UCSF (Yay Mari!) and the next morning met up with Ashley to have breakfast and do a little shopping in the city! Then Mindy and I made our way over to the piers and stumbled upon a couple of pretty awesome ships: 

 

Then we wandered our way down to Fisherman’s Wharf, though we missed Pier 39 somehow. Walked up to the Ghirardelli shop and walked back along the water for a bit. We got to see some great views of Alcatraz too.

 

Then we took our drive on up to the Golden Gate bridge and did our touristy pictures there!

(No that’s not my purse I borrowed it from Mindy…)

 

For dinner I met up with a bunch of the Palo Alto STeLA folks who are working on the Forum for 2011. It was nice to see some familiar faces and meet some new ones! Eventually we found Helen (who was still at work) and rode the bikes at Google!

 

The next day Mindy returned to LA and I got some work done during the day and had lunch with some more STeLA folks. But that night for dinner we went to Absinthe for Helen’s birthday! which was slightly pricey but UTTERLY DELICIOUS. I had one of the top five steaks I think I’ve ever had in my life: soft and moist with a little bit of garlic butter on top and seasoned with pepper. And there was a dark chocolate mousse dessert that I wished I could’ve taken home with me and eaten every day. We also split a pumpkin custard dish that was also spectacular, but it just doesn’t compare to chocolate. Three of our group of six had an Alaskan Halibut dish with apparently a delicious sauce and mussels and shrimp and other sorts of seafood and continuously raved about that as well. One person had a rabbit stew, that was also apparently delicious. =)

 

That’s all for now!

Testing and Bonus Pictures

This is just an attempt at a new blog program… If it works, I may actually update more often!

Here, have a picture:

That’s a lion turtle statue from my China pictures.

 

This is a “narrow house” from a modern art museum in China also – you could go inside and everything was narrow there too!

Resuming test to see if this works!

Pacific Coast Highway!

So to get to San Francisco (pictures for which will follow shortly), Mindy and I drove up the Pacific Coast Highway! It was a long arduous journey filled with asphalt, sand, water, random construction stoplights, cliffs, cool rock formations, seals, hillsides of cacti, and zebras! Yes, zebras! Enjoy the pictures!

The Drive

Mindy and I made it to San Francisco!

I found Mari from STeLA for an early morning meeting and later Mindy and I found Ashley to have breakfast (ham and cheese and egg crepes for me!) and do some shopping. Then Mindy and I made our way to Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli (for delicious ice cream!) and the Golden Gate Bridge. I had a STeLA dinner and got to see many of the wonderful STeLA faces last night as well as one new one! Then we found Helen at Google and had an evening tour.

Unfortunately Mindy has traveled home to LA again this morning. But there's another lunch with some more fabulous STeLA San Francisco people and tonight I will be going to dinner in San Francisco for Helen's birthday dinner!

Pictures will eventually follow...

Hollywood!

Mindy and I wandered Hollywood Blvd yesterday to view the stars and did a little shopping!

Here are some pictures (not 4 weeks later!)

In LA!

Landed and Mindy and Brian picked me up!

Unfortunately it was raining when I got here, but hopefully the rest of today will be nicer!

Next Adventure!

California in a few days!

China! Mostly pictures...

I figured I would at least put up some pictures from China. Work has been busy so I haven't really had time to comment on all of them... enjoy! (They're also in reverse order of my trip apparently... I am not a fan of how this loads photos.)