Going To The Dogs

I like to do the giant crossword puzzle found in the “Classifieds” section of Sunday’s paper just as I get into bed at nights. Usually the puzzle is next to the pet ads and so as I’m thinking of a word to fit a clue, I’ll look at the animals people are trying to sell. I never paid too much attention before, but this past week I was looking and saw some interesting new breeds that I found amusing.

One person was trying to sell a Choodle (a Chihuahua/Poodle mix), while another was advertising a Dorkie (Dachshund/Yorkie mix), and another had a PomPoo (Pomeranian/Poodle). I had always heard of Labradoodles (Labrador/Poodle), which I always associate with snicker doodles, but never thought about wild or amusing dog name combinations. Jessica had mentioned that she’s heard of a Schnoodle (Schnauzer/Poodle), so it got me brainstorming about other name possibilities. I’ve come up with the following:

Poodle + Yorkie = Porkie
Doberman + Labrador = Doberador
Spaniel + Dalmatian = Spanimatian
Bulldog + Beagle = Bugle
Mastiff + Setter = Master
Chihuahua + Akita = Chikita
Bulldog + Whippet = Bullet (or a Bullwhip)
Spaniel + Dachshund = Spandachs

I did some browsing online and people thought of these wacky breeds:

Chihuahua + Pug = Chug
Collie + Lhasa Apso = Collapso
Pointer + Setter = Poinsetter
Great Pyrenees + Dachshund = Pyradachs
Collie + Malamute = Commute
Terrier + Pit Bull = Terribull

Now I’m having too much fun. Chime in below with your best creative dog combination!

An LA Weekend

My time is limited so I will try to recap the fun weekend as briefly as possible. I went down to LA again this weekend, this time leaving on Thursday night. This gave Jessica and me the whole weekend to spend together since neither of us had work Fri-Sun; however, the weather had other plans. It rained all day Friday, which bummed us out since as we headed towards Scripps as Jessica ran some errands. We both wanted to walk around campus a bit, but the rain confined us to the indoors. Afterwards, we went back to Jessica’s place for a while before heading off to the Twin Palms in Pasadena for Natalie’s birthday party. The whole place kinda looks and feels like a big wedding reception, with tables and chairs set-up around the perimeter of a dance floor adjacent to the bar. The atmosphere was complete with the eclectic crowd of dancing partygoers that now live in infamy. Later reminiscing evoked reactions like, “Remember pink-shirt guy?” or, “Did you see grey-sweater dude?” and “The best was the dancing cowboy,” (and he was).

Nate and I got tangled up in a drinking bout, and even though the effects were minimal on me (Jess and I did have pasta for dinner), they were catastrophic on Nate. He was buzzed towards the end of the evening and got to say “hello” to the gutter a couple of times on the way home. Fortunately, he spent the night before heading out in the morning. Unfortunately, the effects still affected him the next day, as he was still feeling sick, he later told me, until about 8pm that night! I felt bad for the way things had happened to Nate (as they weren’t my intentions), so we vowed never to repeat that mistake.

On both Saturday and Sunday, Jessica and I enjoyed a nice relaxing time recovering from the late night of partying. It was fun being lazy all day and after a hectic past couple of weeks, it was nice to nap a little and relax as a couple. We did make plans to go out on Saturday night, and picked up Rob before going to a Cuban restaurant in Burbank (where I got to use my KCRW card for the first time!) then heading to Hollywood to catch another improv-show. We got back home at about 10:30pm and were exhausted, feeling lame but not really caring. It was another fun weekend with a nice balance of the exciting and the relaxing. Now back to the daily grind.

24 on Monday - Now Not Just a TV Show

On Monday I turned 24 and celebrated my birthday in an unusual fashion… with work. Despite the “ceremonious occasion,” I was resigned to preparing for and attending meetings that kept me busy most of the day. I did get some down time during lunch when I got a few friendly phone calls of appreciation (at least I’d like to think so). But the whole day was tiresome, and after work all I wanted to do was relax in front of the TV or in my bed (or both). However, I met up with my family and some welcomed guests (Paul and Dom both showed up) that night to have wine and cheese before heading out to Café Med for dinner.

This was the second Mediterranean restaurant I had been to in the past 2-days, but I didn’t care. I knew that with Paul around we’d be treated to a fine culinary evening, which we were. My parents brought one of their fancy wines with them and the waiter was very intrigued by it. After discovering that it was a blend wine, he brought out a glass of a blend wine they had in the back. We all took a sip of it and thought in return we should offer him a taste of our wine, which he gladly accepted. It was one of those meals that lasts forever (and not because of the service) and we just took our time and enjoyed ourselves. It was a real nice way to unwind from the stressful day.

Last night I was invaded by Becca and Rachel, who made and brought over fondue for dinner. We opened a bottle of white wine and enjoyed a relaxing evening. Over the weekend I had spent my pre-birthday with Jessica, who could not be around for my birthday itself, sadly. We had another delicious meal and some drinks afterwards before calling it a night. As a result, I seem to have gotten 3 birthday dinners with respective groups. That might be the best thing about getting older: celebrating your special day multiple times over and over. I know that wouldn’t have worked when we were kids.

Overall, despite being busy, tired and worn from work the past few days, I had some fun birthday experiences to make up for it. Plus, I got some nice presents too, including a new digital camera, cooking knife, and some books. The most surprising present might also be the money I’ve received over this past weekend, from different sources that just coincidentally all came in around the same time. That was a pleasant surprise, even if I was expecting it. Now I just need something to spend it on.

Paved Roads

I might be resigned to making posts once a week now. Work is keeping me pretty busy, so I'll see how I can manage.

Last Wednesday, I received a call very early in the morning, which usually spells trouble. In fact, I typically dread any phone call for that matter, since it almost always results in more work. This time it was a manager asking if a local high school student could job shadow me for a day. So on Thursday, I met an aspiring engineer and I tried to explain to him as best I could about what my job entails. After a couple early morning meetings, I walked him through the 90-minute “bore-fest” version of the various aspects and intricacies of my job. I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone as much of what I do as I unloaded on that poor kid. But, he was scheduled to be with me all day and I thought I might as well tell him everything up front and spend the rest of the day doing something interesting, rather than slowly and painfully lulling him to the coma that most people exhibit when hearing about my job. Granted, it keeps me awake since I have to bear all of the responsibility of it all, but without that I’d probably be in the same position as him.

That’s not to say that I completely destroyed his hopes of being an engineer. I think I did a good job in trying to foster engineering desires and encouraging him to really dedicate himself. He’ll probably end up doing something completely different, but so many of us don’t know what we’re getting ourselves into going to college. Because of that, I thought I’d pass on some standard truisms about college and life in general. It made me feel very old trying to coach someone about preparing for college and their future. My hope is that coming from someone closer to his age, he will keep my advice closer to heart; that it’s not as much about the destination as it is the path you travel on.

We spent our entire afternoon talking instead of working and I noticed he wasn’t on the verge of sleeping as he might have been earlier on. I know I will most likely never see the kid again, and probably never even stop to think of whatever happened to him, his hopes, desires or dreams. But it was an interesting lesson in perspective, because not too long ago I was once that person on the verge of entering an unknown world on my path to prepare for that inevitable career. The world was once my proverbial oyster to shuck. It’s somewhat scary being on the other side of that looking glass and seeing where I came from and what I have become. I like who I am now and where life has taken me, but day-by-day we all change and sometimes we just need to stop awhile to recognize where we came from and what we’ve become, while acknowledging those who helped pave the way. I’d like to think that maybe in my own way, I helped pave his path just a little bit.

All it needs now is an abstract

With some new changes going on around here at work I will have less and less time to make posts which means that I most likely will be limited to shorter, observational posts as they occur, peppered with the occasional long recap post like this one. These are always the most difficult posts to write about so I’ll try to just jump right on in. My brother Patrick and his girlfriend Paige came out to visit California for their Spring Break a couple weeks ago and on their extensive tour of the state, they managed to spend some of their time in Bakersfield, where we got to hang out and such.

After that active week, I boarded a plane to Houston where I would head to Lufkin, TX to attend Pumping Unit School. As painful as it sounds, it actually was a fun time with a bunch of friendly, experienced and knowledgeable professionals showing us the ins and outs of pumping unit maintenance and construction. The manufacturing world is a very different world from ours and I’m always interested in new experiences and learnings.

The story of the trip was that of these three guys from Oklahoma that after the first night of the school, hopped in a car and headed for Shreveport, LA (a 2-hour drive) to gamble and go to the Hustler club there. They got back the next morning with about 45 minutes to spare before we were to be ready. Two of the three gentlemen made it, but the third was too “sick” to attend. The guy eventually showed up later that day, just in time for them to head back to Shreveport again that evening! Those guys were crazy and they weren’t young either, somewhere in their 40s and 50s.

Last week I made it to work on Monday, but woke up Tuesday morning feeling terrible. I had caught a cold sometime during my travels and I decided to stay bed-ridden for the next two days. It was nice, in a way, because it gave me a chance to decompress after the trip and allowed me to catch some extra sleep. I’m glad I made it to work on Thursday since I had to be out of my office that day. The good news was that I didn’t have to work last Friday so I got out of my apartment and started getting ready for Easter. We had our usual Easter festivities, which has worn me out since (but I did score leftovers for the week).

This week has been spent getting adjusted to my new office and unpacking everything, as well as trying to catch-up on my two days of missed work from last week. As you can tell, a lot has happened in a little amount of time and it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with everything. Hopefully I’ll be able to do better with shorter posts in the future or any posts for that matter. But methinks something interesting will be happening soon.

OUT OF OFFICE REPLY

I've been out sick the past couple of days with a bad cold that I probably picked up sometime before or during my trip to Texas. This has obviously hindered me in making any sort of post about my recent adventures. Feeling better today, and knowing that I'm not working tomorrow, I decided to come to work today to "save face" as it were. It was a good idea that I did come in because from the moment I entered my office, I was informed that I had to move offices TODAY.

It appears we're doing our annual office shuffle and after spending almost a year towards the front of the office (near the bathroom and with a lovely view of the parking lot) I will be cast back deep into the throngs of our office. At least I'd like to think that our office has throngs. Anyway, it's not a completely bad move since I've scoped out my new office (to keep track of the moving out efforts of its previous occupant) and I'm liking what I'm seeing thus far.

But, alas, my office looks bare; stripped of its once proud display of oil field pride. Soon it will be stripped of even more as they are going to be tearing down one of the walls on Monday, which is why moving was so important for me today. Fortunately, I managed to fit everything I have into just 2 boxes, an upgrade from last year's 1 box and trashcan. I'm just biding my time now while my new office awaits and I feel I should give my current office one last good-bye. It will be missed.