Juno ≠ Hot Sauce

I was feeling particularly productived today and decided to make a rope for Juno. No, not like spinning yarn, or macrome, but just a nice rope with clips on the end so Juno can be on her own outside without a fence. It took a little work, as the local Hardware did not have any no nylon rope. Doug and I went down to Carson today to do a little shopping (costco...not little) and we went to Home Depot. Again, they did not have non nylon rope. I caved and bought some climbing rope and a couple clips. After just now assembling it, using the time patented double half hitch knot(Friendship bracelet knot), I put the new rope on the Dog to test it out. What do you know? Juno being who she is promptly started to chew on it. To nip that in the bud I decided to wipe the ends with hot sauce. I walked to put the sauce away and came back to Juno, back chewing on the rop again...but not for long.

She stopped, looked at me, and gave a start. While twitching she started to hop in place. She then quickly threw her head to the floor, pushing her mouth along the carpet like a self propelled Hoover. After a small bout of laughter, I caved and poured her just a little milk in her bowl to curb the burn. Silly pup, hopefully she learned from that one.

A breather

Wow, its been 9 months since my last post. That could worry some people about the things I have been up to...

In fact there is someone new in my life. She was born on January 26, 2009 and she currently weighs 53 lbs. My Bernese Mountain Dog Puppy, Juno. I had puppy fever, for well, lets face it, a couple years, but had started to call breeders after christmas looking for my very own. Much to my chagrin, Bernies are hard to come by and most people either send out for one from afar, or they are on waiting lists with breeders. Lucky me, a breeder returned my call a week after she told me all pups were claimed. Apparrently a girl who was supposed to take one was in a car accident and if I wanted the pup, I would need to act fast.

On March 27, two years to the day after I left for Europe, and 1 year to the day after Doug and I started dating, I got my puppy.

For the past 3 months we have been getting to know each other and the potty training is done. i have been kept quite warm at night. Although she is pretty good up on the bed, she insists on being like me and putting her head on my pillow. that will end soon however she insists on facing me at all times. Right now her head is just inches from my keyboard and she had twice now tried to put her own two cents into this post.

My other reason for not being present and up to date on my posting is LEED. (usgbc.org) I have spent the past 3 months intensely studying for a 400 dollar test for Accreditation. The past 6 weeks, any free time was lent to its study and walking Juno. However i am glad to say, that is all over and I have passed with cool initials after my name. Best part is, since i passed first go around, my office paid for it.

I brought Juno to the fireworks at the beach, and she was stunned by all the people. Thousands of tourists inhaling and imbibing, swearing and littering. What happened the beach on which I could walk with her alone? She was a little frightened by the fireworks, but I thought she would do better seeing the source of the sound. Juno sat on my lap and watched the fireworks with me, as intent as I have ever seen her on something that wasn't living, or food (or both).

I have been living here Tahoe for 10 months and am currently dealing with the summer flow of tourists. Boy do I hate them

Because they are on vacation, they assume everyone here is on vacation and therefore can wait for 20 minutes while a herd of them cross the road on red. They walk down the center of the road and glare at the cars who are just trying to get the errands done. No wonder the "locals of Tahoe" are such grouchy people. according to the tourists.

Ernie! S.O.S. Our Time Machine and Robot Need Fixing!

Today was the usual day, with some unusual humor that I thought I would share with you.

Over the weekend Meghan's (co-workers) computer was taken over by a vile Greek. I mean Trojan, or something of the sort. Either way it completely marauded her system, taking out all means of office printing and a location for her to work.

Meanwhile last night J. Bradley (also a co-worker) was working late to get things done sp that he could head up to Portland for Stream Bed Analysis Course. Computer Crashes, leaving him distraught and panicking. 6 hours of work seems lost.

No worries. Lets all use the Time Machine! That's right we have a time machine in our office. Unfortuneatley, it too broke in our most misfortuitous of weekends.

My boss Andrew called our tech guy stating "Get here quick Ernie, our time machine's broken and Meghan's Bot isn't doing its job!" Well, the time machine is a program in our server used to autosave backup files so that time are not panicky like bradley's was last night. The bot that wasn't doing its job was SPYBot on Meghan's Computer. Yeah, so bland now, huh?

Also, I got in a spicket spat with Andrew. Not really though, I just like the alliteration. We were debating over how to spell it, spigot, or spicket. I went with his way, cause well...he pays me money. However, I did look it up. Spicket and spigot are the same thing, different spelling, just a case of regional dialects and time changing what a word is. What sayeth thou now?

I also worked my first 11 hour day today, so I am tired.

My Oh My

Everyday here in Tahoe is beautiful, either its sunny, or its snowing.

Lake Effect Snow FTW

It was pointed out to me the other day, that I had moved from one vacation location, to an even more exclusive one. I guess that's my way of not needing to vacation too much.... darn.

An amazing thing happened today, something I don't know that I have personally ever experienced. It snowed today. It snowed weeks before Halloween, which, by the way boggles my mind. It didn't snow much, but it did just enough to keep me distracted from work as i could see the snowflakes falling through both periferals. I had lots to do today, but I am pretty proud about my success before the clock struck 5. I coordinated, assembled and formatted no less than 50 details on 9 sheets in the past 2 days. As this was only the 75% design docs, there is still work to be done, one being metric units needing conversion, but i will deal with that next week, if someone else doesnt take on that role for me.

I went by my new place after work to get my lease signed for my move-in next month. Yay exciting. My own refrigerator...Ive never had my own before. I was told by Cindy, the landlord, and her husband Dave, that they seem to have a nearby resident bear, who on description sounds an awful lot like MY bear. They also said not worry though, their dogs run that bear off, or the wrong direction into the front yard. But atleast they make the bear afraid, right?

As for me, tonight is quiet. And I am quite jealous as Doug is off with Sean and his parents in a weekend of contests of American splendor. That is...the Stanford game, a Sharks game, and the 49er's all in one swoop. Wow! Still jealous though. Me and my snow will get on just fine without you and your silly games. Thank you very much! Haha.

Lions and Tigers and Bears? Oh Yes.

I suppose it indeed has been awhile since I sat down and forced myself to retell some tales..of myself. I guess however it would be good to catch some people up on the current events in my life so that it is widely know that I was not swallowed by the Lake that is Tahoe.

Things have been going pretty slowly here, all things concerned. I have two new roommates, temporary ones, which seems to be the norm up here, though I suppose I am one as well since I will be moving into my studio next month.

Two weeks ago, I attended church in Incline. It was very nice that there was an acoustic guitar to play with the hymns, and that they played my favorite one too. Shout to the Lord. It gets stuck in my head even thinking about it. I talked with the minister, and he suggested that I check out all five of the "good" churches in North Lake so that I would find my place. OK then.

The next week was spent frantically trying to put together a statement of qualifications for a project that came up in Yosemite Park. 4 Days and many hours of scrambling, we created a nice little book about ourselves, including portfolio work...and my senior project.... who knew? Incidentally I answered a call from the Yosemite Fund after hours two fridays ago and our office, PR Design & Engineering Inc. was one of 4 chosen....including EDAW....uhoh.

Last weekend I took a day and half off work to go take part in a red carpet event. Robyn formerally known as Carmichael's wedding. It was quite the ordeal, and I am happy to say that it was one of the most fun Ive ever had at a wedding. With the wedding in the Old Movie theatre, The Fremont, the top hats, popcorn and prewedding slideshow trivia they were quite inventive in their themes. Even the vows alluded to films but my favorite comes from Derek (the groom). our love makes "Audrey Hepburn skip her breakfast and teaches Clark Gable how to give a damn."
Doug and I left early in the evening to make our way back north for school and work in the morning.

On another note, mountain life hits a little closer to home than I was perhaps prepared for. Not long ago, I returned home from a visit at Dougs. It was about 930 at night, and I had just parked at my house. I was walking across the street towards the door, when i heard a dog bark. I turned, expecting to see the neighbor's sheepdog Shiloh. Instead I see a huge brown bear looking at me as if to say, "Don't look at me, I didn't bark" It was a large thing coming atleast up to the back window of the explorer next to where he stood. And that was on all fours. I would guess that he/she weighed 600-800 pounds. I wish i were exaggerating, it was big.

That's all for now, as I am on my lunch break and will be driving to Truckee to pick up yet another packet put together by my office.

I have an address!!

In other news, I now have a mailing address.

Laura Minkkinen
P.O. Box 642
Kings Beach, CA 96143-0642

Ask me for my other address if you're not using USPS.

What does the CCC mean to me?

What does the CCC mean to you? Civilian Conservation Corps? California Coastal Commission? California Code Check? Yep, wait...what?!!

I'll explain in a moment. I have now been living in Kings Beach, California on the northern shore of Tahoe for six days. It's been a quiet start, as my roommates of the moment work odd hours, that do not seem to correspond with mine...silly people, What are they thinking? The town is very small, and much to the surprise of my parents, there isn't even a McDonald's....haha, cause I need one? Atleast I can say that living in small town I haven't driven much. Once I was settled in, I have driven three times, otherwise I bike, or walk to work.

Those three trips in my car included two to the grocery and one the Reno, which I must say, was a beautful ride, that I would love to see from a passenger seat someday....preferably from a car taller than my own. At Reno, I found the essentials; the airport, Kohl's, Wal-mart and of course, the mall. Haha....

As far as the community goes there are alot of Mexicans. I mean...a lot of Mexicans. If I would walk down the street and had a dollar for every time some Mexican looked back out his car at me, I would make more than I do Engineering. Seriously, I'm not joking.

But anyway, as far as work goes, I haven't really gotten too involved yet. The draftsman at our work had his last day last week as he moves on to bigger and better place, Cal Poly's Architecture Program. I guess I will be picking up his slack and taking on other responsibilities too. Including the Logo and Website. Today, being day three at PR Design & Engineering, I had my first staff meeting, and was assaulted with a series of abbreviations and acronyms. I was laughed at for my ignorance, but I'm not worried about it yet and they told me to look up the things when I have a free moment in the office. Learning and being paid to do so?! What an idea!
Alright, I'm off to eat a sandwich that I rode my bike to procure.

The bright side?

I had an interesting attack of nerves this morning. I know that I will be starting work in 2 days, but the excitement came when I realized that I will be walking to work in the morning...or bicycling. I'll probably walk on Wednesday, just so I can time it. The walk is easily less than a mile, which will be nice on gas demands for my car. Especially after a tax estimate ripped through my salary.

In other news, regardless of impact on gas needs, I can't wait to get the Explorer.

Welcome to the Real World.

Long story short, I have a job! I am proud to say its not just any job, or atleast its not just any location. My job is in Tahoe. One of the most beautiful locations in the country. What more could I ask for? I will be working for a green civil engineering and consulting firm. Crazy times and short term moves, the Minkkinen way, I will be starting work on Wednesday after moving into a home just on Tuesday.

Wish me luck.

I'm out.