Happy Halloween

OK, so I'm a little early, but yesterday we celebrated Halloween at work by holding a costume contest. Again, I was denied of winning any of the categories, but I still had fun dressing up. Here is a picture of some of my coworkers and myself. From L to R - Dara, Toni, Liliana, Me.

CANstruction Pictures

Here are some pictures from CANstruction:


Does it look like a helmet, yet?

The Completed Sculpture

The CANstruction Crew

Employee Mugshot

Whirlwind Weekend

I traveled back home to Michigan this weekend for my cousin Laurie Simmick's (now Hewitt) wedding reception. The actual wedding was last month in Australia (that is where her husband is from). It was nice to see a lot of family that I hadn't seen in a LONG time. I called this a Whirlwind Weekend because of all that was accomplished in 48 hours:

Friday -
7:00 pm-9:30 pm - Flight to DTW. I was planning on sleeping on the way up because I was so exhausted from the week, but I spent most of the flight talking to the passenger sitting next to me. It was alright, because it still made the flight go by faster.
10:00 pm - Went to Sam & Kristie's house. Saw Sam's new wine cellar. Very nice. Can't wait to see the completed basement.
Saturday -
5:00 pm-9:00 pm - Wedding reception. The reception began with a DVD pesentation of the wedding ceremony in Australia. The pre-dinner festivities included a speech by the bride, four toasts by various people, and a very nice blessing given by my mom. Now to dinner. So much food! There was an appetizer buffet complete with warm and cold hor d'ouveres. Next was a four-course meal of cream of broccoli soup, followed by salad, followed by the main course of beef, chicken, AND lobster with potatoes and broccoli, wrapped up by vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup. All this and there was an enormous dessert buffet with atleast a dozen cakes, pies, cheesecakes, and other pastries, PLUS a four tier wedding cake. All in all, it was a very nice reception.
Sunday -
6:00 am - Time to head to the airport for my 7:15 am flight. I fell asleep almost instantly as I got on the plane. I don't even remeber taking off. I dozed in an out throughout the flight and before I knew it, we were getting ready to land.
9:30 am - We arrived at MCO a little early. I even had time to go home and change before heading to church for the 11:00 service. After church, I headed back to my apartment and crashed for the rest of the afternoon.
6:00 pm - Went to the mall to deCANstruct our sculpture. What took 6 hours to build, took less than an hour to tear down and box up.

So that was my weekend in a nutshell. It was not uneventful to say the least :)

CANstruction 2004

Well, we completed our CANstruction project. We had a football theme with an oversized football helmet sitting on a field with stands in the backdrop (all out of cans). It was a long day. It took us the entire 6 hours to build it. We were the last team to finish. I don't know how all the other teams finished so fast. Last night was the awards ceremony. I couldn't make it, but here is a recap of the awards we won. We won two awards. The first, Best Meal, qualifies us for the national competition. No, we don't get to go and rebuild it. They just send in a picture. Our second award was Best Use of Albertson's Products. They are one of the sponsor's of the event. Practically all of our cans were Albertson's cans.

Prayer Request: Please pray for one of my best friends, Trisha. I recieved word the other day that she had to have immediate surgery to remove a large ovarian cyst. She is overseas in the mission field. Last I heard, the surgery went well and she is recovering. Please pray that the recovery continues to go well. Thank you.

Night Before Frances

The following is a poem that a fellow coworker forwarded to me:

'Twas the night before Frances
When all through the state
Not a gas pump was pumping
Not a store open late

All the plywood was hung
On the windows with care
Knowing that a hurricane
Soon would be there

The children were ready
With flashlights in hand
While bands from the hurricane
Covered over the land

And mamma with her Mag-Lite
And I in my cap
Had just filled the bath tub
For flushing our crap

When out on the lawn
There arose such a clatter
I sprang from the closet
To see what was the matter

The trees on the fence
And the neighbor's roof torn
Gave the fear of us dying
In this terrible storm

With a little wind gust
So lively and quick
I remembered quite clearly
Our walls weren't brick

More rapid than eagles
Her courses they came
And she whistled, and wafted
And surged all the same

Off shingles! Off sidings!
Off rooftops! Off power!
Down trees! Down fences!
Down trailers! Down towers!

In the center of Florida
She continued to maul
Screaming Blow Away!
Blow Away! Blow Away All!

As wind ripped and tossed
The debris through the sky
I peeked out the shutters
At cars floating by

So go to the safe-room
My family did do
With a portable radio
And batteries too

And then, in a twinkling
I heard on the set
The end was not coming
For a few hours yet!

As I calmed down the kids
And was turning around
Through the window it came
With a huge crashing sound

A tree branch it was
All covered in soot
The wind blew it smack-dab
On top of my foot

A bundle of twigs
Now lay in a stack
And my living room looks
Like it was under attack

The wind - how it howled!
The storm - very scary!
Myself and the family
Were all too unwary

The dangers of hurricanes
Are serious, you know
They are taken for granted
As Frances did show

With the winds dying down
And the danger beneath
I noticed my tool shed
Was missing its sheath

So I grabbed my last tarp
And nailed it on down
Then I got in my car
And I headed to town

The traffic was awful
And stores had no ice
My five gallon cooler
Would have to suffice

Generators were scarce
Not one left in town
There were trees on the roads
And power lines down

FEMA was ready
With people to work
Electrical companies
Came in from New York

And in the midst of
This peculiar routine
Another storm emerged
Named Hurricane Jeanne

I sprang to the car
And gave my family a whistle
Then away we all went
Like a Tomahawk missile

You could hear us exclaim
As we drove out of sight
"The hell with this place,
Vermont seems just right!"

In other news:
I had a pretty good weekend. Friday, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. I cut out from work a little early (I made up for it) and Dara and I went rollerblading. Saturday I came in to work on our CANstruction project. It's really starting to take shape. Sunday (after singing in late service) I had to sing at a Lutheran Reformation Heritage Service. It was held at St. Paul's Lutheran Church (also downtown) or as I affectionately like to call it: The Sanctuary in the Sky. It is located on the 18th floor of the Lutheran Towers retirement home. The view is quite nice from up there. Because Florida is so flat, you can see for miles and miles. Tonight is more CANstruction stuff and tomorrow is the actual build.

Hooray For Fridays

It's 3:00 on Friday afternoon. That means only 2 more hours to go until the weekend officially begins! I'm going to have to come into the office this weekend. But the good news is that it's not because I have "work" to do. I have CANstruction stuff to do. "What is CANstruction?" do you ask? It is a community service project where various groups (mostly architecture, engineering, and construction firms) build structures completely out of cans and other non perishable food items. The food is then donated to the Second Harvest Food Bank. There are various awards and the winning structures compete in the national competition. This year, C&P is doing a football theme with the title, "Tackling Hunger: Level the Playing Field." It's a lot of fun and I get community service credit for my IDP. The official Build Day is Tuesday, but we are coming in this weekend to do a mock-up practice build.

I Love Weekends!

I just love weekends. I wish they could last longer. It was so nice to do absolutely nothing this weekend. The weather was perfect, so I spent a lot of time at the pool soaking up the sun while listening to music and reading a book. For a while, I was the only person there so it was quiet and peaceful. Today is overcast and rainy as the remnants of T.S. Matthew rolls through. The official "cool" season doesn't begin until Oct. 19, but we're already beginning to feel some cooler and much more pleasant weather.

Busy, Busy, Busy

This has been pretty full week. My Tuesdays and Wednesdays are completely filled with events. On tuesdays, I work until 5:30. I play sand volleyball with several coworkers from 6 to 7:30. Then, I have Young Adults 7:30 to 9 or 9:30. If I go out afterwards, I don't get home until after 10. Wednesdays are just as full. I work until 5:15, then I head over to church for The Way. It is a new worship/bible study event that Pastor Jon just started up this week. There is a dinner from 5:30 to 6, praise/worship time from 6 to 7, and then bible study opportunities from 7 to 8. I went to the study about missions and mission trips lead by my friend Sarah's husband Bruce. So far it is really good, but I have to leave half way through because I have choir rehearsal from 7:30 to 8:30. We started rehearsing Christmas music last night. I am so ready for the weekend. The weather down here is getting really nice. Temps have cooled to the mid 80s and the humidity has dropped significantly. It is now actually bearable to spend time outside. I am just going to take it easy this weekend. I'll probably just relax by the pool and maybe go see a movie. I'm still recovering from being sick.

Good Company Is The Very Sinew Of Virtue

I love to have company. This past weekend, Sonia and her friend Lisa came to visit. We had a lot of fun. We spent the weekend at Disney World. Saturday, we went to MGM Studios, Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. Sunday, we finished up Magic Kingdom and ended the day at Epcot. I basically crashed as soon as I got home from taking them to the airport on Sunday. The International Food & Wine Festival was taking place at Epcot. It runs until Nov. 14, so I will have to go again before then.