My First Full Day

Today was my first full day in Racing Chemistry. I did a few things I already knew how to do, just hadn't done it the way Racing does. I also got to walk the dogs, which it was gorgeous out so I think I'm just lucky I got to do that. Since it ended up being a slow afternoon, they let most of us leave a little early. It was a pretty good day! There were a couple of questions from people in Chemistry, but they were easy questions.

Thursday is Iowa State's first football game. I'm going tailgating with Ray, some of his family, Lisa, some of her friends, and my friend Bethany. I think it will be a blast, especially since Bethany hasn't tailgated before and she's never been to an Iowa State football game.

So Nice...

I just have to say how nice it is to have a functional dryer. It was so quiet while it was running. And I was able to do all of our laundry in one afternoon as opposed to a day and a half. We left the house while it was running and didn't worry about it stopping, not stopping, or setting the house on fire.

Transition

Today was my last official day in Chem/Tox. The group of us (including Allison who was also Chem/Tox) went to lunch to "celebrate" my last day. They gave me a very nice card and I made plans with Lisa and Ray to tailgate with them at the football game Thursday. It was an all right day.

I have been working in Racing and they have been very nice. They gave me a hard time about being the new person and needing to bring treats on my first day, and for the weekly meeting. I did go to their weekly meeting this week and there were a few dips from the resident Tastefully Simple rep, cake, and homemade egg rolls. I don't think I can live up to that. They'll have to do with some cookies. During the meeting they did take a vote as to whether or not to pursue this big contract they were working on. They decided not to, for several legitimate reasons. Of course when they voted against it, they basically sealed my fate as having a job until January. (The director told me if they didn't get this contract, the job would be done in January.) Several people have told me that Racing will be able to keep the position so I shouldn't worry about it. But still...there's no guarantee. So once again, it was a very emotional week.

On a funnier note, I got a phone call from Jason on Wednesday. He's trying to explain to me why we should take Zara to the vet while he's trying not to laugh. A few days before, Jason caught Zara eating some yarn. Apparently when he went home for lunch that day, she was trying to pass it. He was laughing because she was dragging her butt along the floor while scooting herself with her front paws. He said it was the funniest thing ever. (She did pass the yarn and she's feeling much better now.) I'm glad we got her, if for nothing else, the cheap entertainment.

Prezzy

Since Jason got an early birthday present, I decided I needed one too. Today Sears delivered a new gas dryer to our house. Unfortunately, the control panel was damaged, so they will be delivering a brand new one sometime in the near future. They did leave the damaged one with us, and yes, they were willing to take money off of it, but it was the control panel. I don't want to mess with having technicians out constantly to fix it. Had it just been scratched or dented somewhere else, we probably would have decided differently.

Today was also my last full day working for the Chemistry lab. I start in Racing Chemistry tomorrow afternoon. I have been absolutely swamped these past two days and I don't forsee getting everything done that needs to be done by Friday. I guess after Friday it isn't my worry anymore.

We also fixed our laundry room door downstairs. Zara was so happy she could go downstairs again!

What I Know

Tuesday I was approached by the section head (Dr. Hyde) of Racing Chemistry and told about a job position he had posted. He encouraged me to apply for it and said he was forbidden by personnel to say anything else. When I asked if he was telling anyone else about the position, he said no. I went to talk to my section head (Dr. Ensley) and told him what had happened. He didn't know what was going on and said if I went to talk to the director (Dr. Main), he would like to go. We did have a meeting with Dr. Main. It was not very fruitful. The rest of the week consisted of many meetings, many phone calls, and lots of rumors. This is what I know for sure:

1. My current position is being eliminated, despite the fact it involves a project that could fund the Diagnostic lab and the Chemistry/Toxicology is short people already.

2. No one can specifically tell me that my position is being eliminated.

3. The position in Racing Chemistry will not be eliminated, unless their contracts don't come through. (Dr. Main DID specifically state that if the contract Racing was trying to establish didn't work, the position would be there until January.)

4. Regardless of where my job is at, it is the first one subject to layoffs because I'm lowest on the lab tech seniority. (This one was straight from Human Resources.)

5. Dr. Hyde is retiring in September.

6. I can transfer back to Chemistry is they have an open position, but have to wait six months before I can. (If you do the math, that's sometime after January.)

7. If Racing can't get this new contract, it is possible they will close the whole department.

8. If Racing closes, I will not be able to transfer to Chemistry because I won't be eligible, and everyone in Racing will be able to do the job meaning I would have to compete with everyone with more seniority than myself.

I'm not happy about having to leave my position in Chemistry because I love my job there and love the people I work with. I have accepted a position with Racing so I can still work for Iowa State. I'm trying to give the job a fair chance, but I feel that I was forced to take the position to keep my job. I'm more mad about that fact that no one can tell me anything other than rumor and "I'd like to tell you, but I can't." I've heard that many times this week and have gotten lots of cases in that has kept me so busy, I'm skipping break to keep up.

It's been a very long and stressful week. I'm working part-time in Chemistry next week to try and train someone to do my job, then the following week I'm in Racing full-time. Dr. Hyde has agreed to let me be available to Chemistry on a limited basis to run tests that aren't run very often, as long as I tell my lab manager. I'm not happy with the situation and there are a lot of people that have given me sympathy over the last week. Dwayne (my lab manager) and Dr. Ensley went to Dr. Main to fight to keep me in Chemistry, but my impression is that Chemistry doesn't make enough money and that's where they're going to cut people until they can't justify it anymore. I'm at least thankful that there are several people within the lab that feel I'm worth fighting for and worth keeping in the Diagnostic lab.

State Fair

Jason and I took last Friday off (obviously because we haven't taken enough time off this summer) to go to the state fair. We left our house a little after seven in the morning, ate breakfast, then headed to the fair. For those of you who don't know, my family used to show dairy cattle (Brown Swiss) so we lived at the fair for the first week. I didn't leave the cattle barn much, so going to the fair without cattle is a whole nother experience.

Jason and I were fortunate enough to have a friend close to the fairgrounds who let us use their driveway to park. It took about ten minutes to walk from their house to the gates. Jason and I went to the Pavilion where Dad was watching the Brown Swiss open show. We watched for a while then met up with Mom and Grandma Peterson who were outside the Agriculture building looking at flowers. They borrowed my camera and took lots of pictures. (Here's one of a Dahlia.) Unfortunately, I can't put them on my flickr account because it exceeds the amount I'm allowed for the month. I'll put them up next month. Once the Agriculture building opened, we went and saw the sights in there. After we were done with that, Jason and I headed off to visit some people in the cattle barn. They were so nice and let me pet their animals and smiled. Mom and Dad haven't had cows for six years now. They were never animals to us. They were pets. We also went through the avenue of breeds and saw the biggest boar and bull. They are absolutely massive!

We met up with Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Matt for lunch at the pork tent. We always go to the pork tent because it's always good. After lunch, Matt and I split a glazed funnel cake. Jason, Matt and I went to the Animal learning center where they have animals that are close to giving birth, or have given birth. You get to see lots of baby animals including ducks, chicks and ostriches.

Jason decided he needed dessert after seeing the baby animals and we went to get him a candy bar on a stick. Yes, they actually put candy bars on sticks and deep fat fry them. We went through the Varied Industries building where Matt and Jason looked at the vendors and I snuck off to see the quilts. I discovered that they actually have a quilting room where they have all the materials to make what I would call snuggle quilts. The size of quilt you snuggle in when it's cold. You could make a quilt and all of the quilts were then donated to children in need. If we hadn't of been pressed for time, I would have helped to make one. It's something I need to remember for next year.

Once we were done in the Varied Industries building, Jason and I went to get mac & cheese bits and look for something on a stick for me to eat. Matt suggested cheese on a stick. It was good and definitely better without the marinara sauce. At this time it was getting to be three in the afternoon and we needed to leave. We walked back up to our vehicles and came home where we showered and packed for our weekend in Independence. (Like I said, because we haven't had enough vacation this summer.)

Happy Birthday!

Today is Jason's birthday!!! We celebrated a little bit this weekend when we were in Independence. Pat's grandma made this really yummy yellow with fruit cake (no candles). It was delicious and much appreciated. Since we went to Colorado, I got him a package of white chocolate peanut butter cups and a sound card. Sound cards are his favorite and he really liked it. We are going out for lunch since he has the day off, and are getting together with some of our friends for supper. I hope he has a wonderful day!

Rocky Mountain High

So we made it to Breckenridge and back. We left Ames about 3:30 Thurdsay afternoon. We picked up Pat's friend, Natalie, in Des Moines about four. Then we were off.

We stopped at Beertopia in Omaha, and found ourselves trying to get back onto the interstate after a major accident. We were stuck in traffic for forty-five minutes, but played trivia to pass the time. The rest of the trip went uneventful until we got around North Platte, Nebraska when the sky decided to open up and let loose with tons of rain and lightning. It slowed us down a bit, but we kept going.

We arrived in Breckenridge at four in the morning mountain time. (That's five for central.) We were able to get into our condo early and we promptly unloaded and went to sleep. (This is a picture from our balcony.)

Friday morning, the group that we were with decided to head down to downtown Breckenridge for breakfast. We went by Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company and they invited us in for lunch. (It was almost eleven at this point.) We had a yummy lunch, then walked over to the visitor center for information on things to do. The group trekked back up to their respective condos and some of us decided to go on a hike. I went hiking with the group that decided to go. It ended up being a 3 1/2 hour hike. The scenery was gorgeous! Unfortunately, the hike ended up pushing me into altitude sickness. I had a headache and nausea for the rest of the trip.

Jason had decided to stay at the condo and wait for the other people in our condo to show up. After the hike, he helped move the grill from one of the condo's to ours so we could have a group grill out. They cooked brats and hamburgers while I made Alpine chicken. Everyone had a good time and had plenty to eat. Dan declared that the Kringla I made was excellent and he would need the recipe for Stephanie. "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" played in the background. We had a good time talking to all of our guildmates and trying to remember their real names.

Saturday morning, everyone was invited over to our condo for breakfast casserole, and to discuss the days events. It was decided we would take the free shuttle to the Breckenridge Brewery for lunch and then most people were going to walk through the town and do some shopping afterwards. That night, Natalie's brother had given the group a few tickets to his orchestra concert. Jason and I babysat while the concert goers were gone. We watched a lot of partial movies since the DVD player wasn't working the greatest. After everyone showed back up after the concert, we played a game of "Apples to Apples" and took group photos.

Sunday morning there was a lot of hugging as most of us were leaving to go home. Matt had to drop off his rental car, so we picked him and Lana up at the Denver airport. The trip home was pretty uneventful. We followed a bad storm into Iowa, but it didn't get as bad as the one on the way to Colorado. It was a fourteen and a half hour trip home by the time all was done. We had a very meowy little kitty. She was very upset with us and didn't sleep at all. She got kicked to the upstairs around five.

Jason did have a little altitude sickness on Sunday, but it seemed to go away after we got to Denver. We had a really good time, despite some afflictions, and loved meeting everyone. I put our photos up on our flickr website. (If there not there yet, they will be soon!)

A note for my mom: We saw signs that said "Avalanche Area" and it reminded me of "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers". I tried not to yell.

To Colorado

We start our trip for Colorado today. We should arrive early in the morning. We can't get into our room until noon, but we do have some people willing to share their room with us until then. Jason's excited because we were planning on stopping in Omaha on the way to have supper. I said we could stop at Beertopia as well. He was thrilled. I figured we'd be getting to Omaha about 5:30 which is a little to early for supper, so I figured a short side trip wouldn't hurt.

Happy Birthdays!

This post is a little late in coming. Ethan's birthday was Friday, and while Jason and I couldn't go back for his party, I'm sure he had a wonderful time. (It's hard to believe he's already two!)

There was also and unofficial birthday on Saturday. Our vet decided that Zara's birthday was the first of August. We didn't do anything except come up with this great idea for a toy. She loves playing with her mousies and she's been able to play with one of the balls of yarn I have. We tied one of her mousies to the yarn and it's her new favorite toy! Jason played with her with her new toy until she was exhausted. She flopped over on the bed and laid there panting. She would try and bat at it a little, but she looked so tired. The next night I took some video of it.
Today she slept for most of the day because she's been so worn out from playing. It's her own fault because she's always at the basement door to go downstairs to play.

Jason and I went to a local park where I rollerbladed for a little while. I haven't done that in a couple of years. When Jason got them for me for our anniversary, I was practicing in our driveway. That's not a very good place to practice. After I was done rollerblading, we shot some hoops. It was fun to do some different exercise and be outside.

On a sadder note, my best friend Heather called and left me a message. Her boyfriends' father passed away last week. I'm sorry for his loss and we'll keep them in our thoughts in prayers.