I'm getting a new job inside my company. I'm pretty excited about it. I realize this has nothing to do with running, but I'm getting a new job...woohoo!!! Here is the official intercompany announcement...
Effective June 1, 2006, J. A. (Jenny) Ortis, currently Plant Manufacturing Planner, Polypropylene Manufacturing, Baytown Chemical Plant, will be promoted to Section Supervisor, Baytown Chemical Plant Fixed Equipment and Inspection Section, Baytown Engineering Services Department, Engineering Services Division.
I love working here, for those of you that don't know!
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Friday, May 12, 2006
Trip to Fort Worth
My wonderful brother-in-law graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary on May 5th, so I headed to the Metroplex to celebrate. My parents came and my youngest sister was there. The rest of the fam couldn't make it because of work, school, etc.
I drove into FW on Thursday night and got in at a decent time. The benefit (?) of not being married is that I still get to stay in a hotel suite with my parents (i.e. I don't have to pay for my own room!). So, I was staying on a sofa bed in their suite and they both snore horribly, so I had built a fort around me to muffle the sound and finally fell asleep. I woke up to them talking and thought it was time to wake up. Alas, not so. It was only 3:30am. They were talking about the fact that they smelled something BURNING! If you know me, you know I'm a freakshow about fire. I think I have a right to be a freakshow since I woke up in the middle of the night once to find my bed on fire. Anyway, it turns out that the fan on the A/C had burned out. The smell was horrendous and the A/C wasn't working. So, the 90-year-old security guard that came to "help" (after we called twice to ask for someone to come) told the front desk to get us a new room. Fortunately there were available rooms (I specifically asked that we not stay in the same building with the burning A/C fan). For many reasons, it was obvious that this was not your normal Residence Inn by Marriott. It had been converted from something else because the door to our room faced outside. Which means that we had to switch rooms at 3:30 in the morning in the RAIN with all of our stuff. We really looked like homeless people with all our wordly posessions, running across the parking lot in the dark. We just had to laugh the whole time. I mean, who else besides my family would this happen to?
Fortunately, the rest of the trip was uneventful. Graduation was fine (very LONG). Bob Reccord from NAMB was the speaker and he actually had a great message. I think there is some controversy over him or someone around him at NAMB right now, but I try to stay away from the politics. Anyway, we spent Friday afternoon hanging out with the whole family. My mom, dad, sister, and I went and saw Mission Impossible 3. It was way better than the first 2, I thought. I probably wouldn't have gone to see it (I'm majorly anti-Tom Cruise these days), but my parents wanted to see it, so I went and it was good. The producer is the same guy that created Felicity, Alias, Lost and What About Brian, all of which I like. Alias is my favorite of all of those and MI3 is a lot like an episode of Alias. So, overall, I was pleased with it.
Saturday morning, Daddy and I got up and ran a 5K at the Fort Worth Mayfest. Man was it muggy. I have lost my running edge and can barely make it through at 5K...I've got to work on that!
So, that's about all I have to share. I think I'm going to stop traveling with my parents...they're trouble! (See my last post for previous adventures)
I drove into FW on Thursday night and got in at a decent time. The benefit (?) of not being married is that I still get to stay in a hotel suite with my parents (i.e. I don't have to pay for my own room!). So, I was staying on a sofa bed in their suite and they both snore horribly, so I had built a fort around me to muffle the sound and finally fell asleep. I woke up to them talking and thought it was time to wake up. Alas, not so. It was only 3:30am. They were talking about the fact that they smelled something BURNING! If you know me, you know I'm a freakshow about fire. I think I have a right to be a freakshow since I woke up in the middle of the night once to find my bed on fire. Anyway, it turns out that the fan on the A/C had burned out. The smell was horrendous and the A/C wasn't working. So, the 90-year-old security guard that came to "help" (after we called twice to ask for someone to come) told the front desk to get us a new room. Fortunately there were available rooms (I specifically asked that we not stay in the same building with the burning A/C fan). For many reasons, it was obvious that this was not your normal Residence Inn by Marriott. It had been converted from something else because the door to our room faced outside. Which means that we had to switch rooms at 3:30 in the morning in the RAIN with all of our stuff. We really looked like homeless people with all our wordly posessions, running across the parking lot in the dark. We just had to laugh the whole time. I mean, who else besides my family would this happen to?
Fortunately, the rest of the trip was uneventful. Graduation was fine (very LONG). Bob Reccord from NAMB was the speaker and he actually had a great message. I think there is some controversy over him or someone around him at NAMB right now, but I try to stay away from the politics. Anyway, we spent Friday afternoon hanging out with the whole family. My mom, dad, sister, and I went and saw Mission Impossible 3. It was way better than the first 2, I thought. I probably wouldn't have gone to see it (I'm majorly anti-Tom Cruise these days), but my parents wanted to see it, so I went and it was good. The producer is the same guy that created Felicity, Alias, Lost and What About Brian, all of which I like. Alias is my favorite of all of those and MI3 is a lot like an episode of Alias. So, overall, I was pleased with it.
Saturday morning, Daddy and I got up and ran a 5K at the Fort Worth Mayfest. Man was it muggy. I have lost my running edge and can barely make it through at 5K...I've got to work on that!
So, that's about all I have to share. I think I'm going to stop traveling with my parents...they're trouble! (See my last post for previous adventures)
Monday, May 01, 2006
Latest running trip
Some of you may not know, but my Dad and I have a goal of running a race in every state. So, we take running trips once or twice a year and run multiple races in multiple states on the same weekend. This past weekend, we went to Michigan and Illinois. We ran a race in Kalamazoo, MI on Saturday and one in Chicago, IL on Sunday. We were pretty consistent...32:29 on Saturday and 32:30 on Sunday. Saturday was hilly and Sunday was rainy. In between, we managed to go to Indiana and see the Notre Dame campus, eat at some good restaurants (in the past, we have had TERRIBLE luck with restaurants), meet some Amish people (we ate at an Amish restaurant), visit Cereal City USA (Battle Creek, Michigan is the birthplace of Kellogg's and Post cereal companies), go to the top of the Hancock building in Chicago where you can see out over Lake Michigan, and visit Willowcreek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, where Lee Strobel spoke on "Cracking the Da Vinci Code." I strongly recommend his website (www.leestrobel.com), which has good material about this book/movie, but also has some great stuff on the case for Christianity (his testimony is very cool!).
Some of the less normal things we got to do:
-Ride in a cab on the cab driver's first day...I had to give him directions and he almost took 2 wrong turns (apparently when you are about to make a turn and the passengers are yelling "LEFT! LEFT!", it finally clicks that you are not supposed to turn right and you, instead, decide to tear across the intersection in front of 3 cars to make the turn) and almost got into 3 wrecks in a matter of 6 minutes (didn't seem to notice that we were careening into another lane where there was already a car!). I'm not so sure it wasn't his first day ever driving a car! My recommendation for everyone would be that, if you get in a cab and the driver tells you it's his first day, immediately get out of the cab!!!
-Meet someone who worked in my home town, which is not that big and definitely not close to Kalamazoo, Michigan!
-Learn the area code to Albequerque, NM (it's 505 in case you're wondering).
-Spend time in the Southwest Baggage Services office in Chicago Midway airport.
-Learn that, when you have someone paged at an airport, even when they try to respond, sometimes the folks manning the friendly skies are not helpful and tell them that there was not a page for them, when, in fact, there was!
-Meet a very nice couple from Albequerque, NM, who accidentally took my Dad's bag when we got off the National rental car shuttle. Fortunately, they left their bag and it had their phone number on it (cell phone!!), so we called and they met us to give us my Dad's bag after we had frantically been having them paged by Southwest. Then, we went back to Southwest Baggage Services to get their bag for them.
All in all, a very fun trip, but I was ready to be home after the luggage issue...it wore me out worrying about it.
Now, I have to plan our next trip, which will involve fuschia luggage with fluorescent orange flashers to make sure no one takes our luggage!
Some of the less normal things we got to do:
-Ride in a cab on the cab driver's first day...I had to give him directions and he almost took 2 wrong turns (apparently when you are about to make a turn and the passengers are yelling "LEFT! LEFT!", it finally clicks that you are not supposed to turn right and you, instead, decide to tear across the intersection in front of 3 cars to make the turn) and almost got into 3 wrecks in a matter of 6 minutes (didn't seem to notice that we were careening into another lane where there was already a car!). I'm not so sure it wasn't his first day ever driving a car! My recommendation for everyone would be that, if you get in a cab and the driver tells you it's his first day, immediately get out of the cab!!!
-Meet someone who worked in my home town, which is not that big and definitely not close to Kalamazoo, Michigan!
-Learn the area code to Albequerque, NM (it's 505 in case you're wondering).
-Spend time in the Southwest Baggage Services office in Chicago Midway airport.
-Learn that, when you have someone paged at an airport, even when they try to respond, sometimes the folks manning the friendly skies are not helpful and tell them that there was not a page for them, when, in fact, there was!
-Meet a very nice couple from Albequerque, NM, who accidentally took my Dad's bag when we got off the National rental car shuttle. Fortunately, they left their bag and it had their phone number on it (cell phone!!), so we called and they met us to give us my Dad's bag after we had frantically been having them paged by Southwest. Then, we went back to Southwest Baggage Services to get their bag for them.
All in all, a very fun trip, but I was ready to be home after the luggage issue...it wore me out worrying about it.
Now, I have to plan our next trip, which will involve fuschia luggage with fluorescent orange flashers to make sure no one takes our luggage!
Thursday, February 16, 2006
The freaks come out...on Valentine's Day Eve??
I can't believe such wonderful people have actually looked at my blog! I read everyone else's, but who knew that anyone would actually read mine?!?!?
Anyway, the running is a little slow now because I'm trying to force myself to rest and heal...it's very frustrating for me b/c I'm such an obsessive compulsive freak and I'm off of my "plan"...I don't really have a "plan", but if I had one, running at least 3 days a week would be part of the "plan."
So, here's what I wanted to write about...have you ever gone to the grocery store or WalMart or anywhere in general the night before Valentine's Day (aka February 13th)? Well, I cook with some friends here in Houston every Monday night. This past Monday night (the aforementioned February 13th), I was cooking dessert (yummy lemon squares) and needed a couple of ingredients (eggs and the lemon squares mix!), so I stopped off at the most convenient grocery store between my work and my house. I generally stop at this Kroger's every Monday night (I usually forget about cooking group until Monday at lunch time), so I know what to expect, plus I forgot that Tuesday was Love Day. So, the parking lot is unusually packed, but whatever, it's Houston, who knows when you'll get stuck in traffic here! So, I go in and there are soooo many people in there and they are ALL in the card section. Seriously, there was a line to look at the card section...in the grocery store. As I was noticing this, I walked into the balloon section (which is normally the open area by the check out lines, but was magically converted to the balloon section for Love Day). The balloons were all filled with helium and just the ribbons were hanging down, making it seem like I was walking through a bunch of pink and red streamers into a Junior High dance. So, I got my ingredients and was headed to the checkout line (bypassing the card section and cruising back through the Junior High dance, no Bon Jovi or GnR was playing though :( ) and I looked around and noticed that a large percentage of the people there who seemed to be getting cards, balloons, and chocolates were FREAKS! I know, I know, I'm so rude. But, seriously, I skipped 3 lines and went to a longer line because I was a little weirded out by the people in the lines (one particularly greasy guy was kind of staring at me...). And, trust me, I'll put up with anything to get through the grocery line the most efficiently...I watch all the other lines and see if I made the best decision by noting who I would have been behind in the other lines and then seeing if I get out before I would have in the other lines (I know...I'm a freak too!!). So, anyway, I go to a slightly longer line to avoid the freaks and am checking out and this man behind me who I DO NOT KNOW randomly tells the cashier that I'm paying for his stuff too. I know, I know, it was just random banter, but taken in conjunction with the rest of the experience, I just ran from the store (so I am getting some running in!).
So, that's all. Like my ex-roommate Amy says, it's my blog, so I get to say whatever I want to...even if it's not that entertaining!
Anyway, the running is a little slow now because I'm trying to force myself to rest and heal...it's very frustrating for me b/c I'm such an obsessive compulsive freak and I'm off of my "plan"...I don't really have a "plan", but if I had one, running at least 3 days a week would be part of the "plan."
So, here's what I wanted to write about...have you ever gone to the grocery store or WalMart or anywhere in general the night before Valentine's Day (aka February 13th)? Well, I cook with some friends here in Houston every Monday night. This past Monday night (the aforementioned February 13th), I was cooking dessert (yummy lemon squares) and needed a couple of ingredients (eggs and the lemon squares mix!), so I stopped off at the most convenient grocery store between my work and my house. I generally stop at this Kroger's every Monday night (I usually forget about cooking group until Monday at lunch time), so I know what to expect, plus I forgot that Tuesday was Love Day. So, the parking lot is unusually packed, but whatever, it's Houston, who knows when you'll get stuck in traffic here! So, I go in and there are soooo many people in there and they are ALL in the card section. Seriously, there was a line to look at the card section...in the grocery store. As I was noticing this, I walked into the balloon section (which is normally the open area by the check out lines, but was magically converted to the balloon section for Love Day). The balloons were all filled with helium and just the ribbons were hanging down, making it seem like I was walking through a bunch of pink and red streamers into a Junior High dance. So, I got my ingredients and was headed to the checkout line (bypassing the card section and cruising back through the Junior High dance, no Bon Jovi or GnR was playing though :( ) and I looked around and noticed that a large percentage of the people there who seemed to be getting cards, balloons, and chocolates were FREAKS! I know, I know, I'm so rude. But, seriously, I skipped 3 lines and went to a longer line because I was a little weirded out by the people in the lines (one particularly greasy guy was kind of staring at me...). And, trust me, I'll put up with anything to get through the grocery line the most efficiently...I watch all the other lines and see if I made the best decision by noting who I would have been behind in the other lines and then seeing if I get out before I would have in the other lines (I know...I'm a freak too!!). So, anyway, I go to a slightly longer line to avoid the freaks and am checking out and this man behind me who I DO NOT KNOW randomly tells the cashier that I'm paying for his stuff too. I know, I know, it was just random banter, but taken in conjunction with the rest of the experience, I just ran from the store (so I am getting some running in!).
So, that's all. Like my ex-roommate Amy says, it's my blog, so I get to say whatever I want to...even if it's not that entertaining!
Friday, February 03, 2006
It's Been too long...
So I suck at blogging! Quick recap...
I trained with Bay Area Fit for the Houston Marathon. In October, my right foot started hurting...plantar fasciitis. Went to physical therapy to no avail...foot kept hurting (maybe bacause I kept running ridiculous distances on it!). On December 18th, I was playing Ultimate Frisbee and turned wrong and really thought I fractured my heel or something. I was basically crawling for a few days. Had to get a shot in my foot...have you ever had a shot in your foot?!?!?!? NOT FUN! Anyway, got medicine so I could walk and, of course, decided that meant I could run. So, I ran the half-marathon instead of the full. I improved my time by 6 minutes over the last time I ran the half (2004). It was a fantastic race (as always). Here's a link to my pictures
http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=10457&PWD=&BIB=30398
I look a little retarded in them, but who cares...I ran 13.1 miles!!!
I trained with Bay Area Fit for the Houston Marathon. In October, my right foot started hurting...plantar fasciitis. Went to physical therapy to no avail...foot kept hurting (maybe bacause I kept running ridiculous distances on it!). On December 18th, I was playing Ultimate Frisbee and turned wrong and really thought I fractured my heel or something. I was basically crawling for a few days. Had to get a shot in my foot...have you ever had a shot in your foot?!?!?!? NOT FUN! Anyway, got medicine so I could walk and, of course, decided that meant I could run. So, I ran the half-marathon instead of the full. I improved my time by 6 minutes over the last time I ran the half (2004). It was a fantastic race (as always). Here's a link to my pictures
http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=10457&PWD=&BIB=30398
I look a little retarded in them, but who cares...I ran 13.1 miles!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)