Mammoth 2010

So this year's trip to Mammoth was amazing. We got there after a full week of heavy storms and there was nothing but fresh snow everywhere.

The only downside for this newbie was the storms that rolled in every afternoon right after lunch. They made conditions a little too rough for me. Hubby took me up a chair and I promptly melted down because of the high winds and pelting snow (yes, pelting).

Hubby was wonderful...he offered to get ski patrol because I was so petrified, I refused.

Hubby offered to unstrap us and walk down the mountain, I refused.

For those of you who know me well, I may be petrified, but I will never, ever back down from a challenge.

I reverted to falling leaf and sobbed at the top of my lungs all the way down, but I did it.

Here are some amazing picks I took on the way up and down. We didn't get a lot of action shots this year. It was so cold the battery kept going dead on us when we would pull the camera out...enjoy!

One of my last monitoring trips...

So as part of my New Year Resolution, I WILL write in my blog more to keep you all updated...


I HAVE BEEN PROMOTED!!! I start my new job (still with Quintiles) on Feb 1st. I will be a Strategic Site Recruitment Manager which means I will work with the Quintiles partner sites and help manage their recruitment and select studies which they can enroll into.


NO MORE OVERNIGHT TRAVEL!!! Will we hear the pitter patter of little Bambino Muscolino feet this year? It could be a possiblity since I will no longer be gone Monday through Friday!


This brings me to the point of this post...I was in Phoenix ALL week this week co-monitoring with another co-monitor and the site's assigned monitor. HORRIBLE site, can't even get into it. After a VERY LONG week, the co-monitor (who is also from San Diego) and I had the same flight. Only problem is that the it had been raining all week as severe storms swept into San Diego and headed east to Phoenix. We got to the airport and our flight was delayed from 8 PM to 9:30 PM...then 10:30 PM...then 11:05 PM...then 11:30 PM. We tried to stay positive even as the two other San Diego flights got cancelled on US Airways. All outbound Southwest and United flights had been cancelled...the storm continued to rage outside.


Our plane that was coming was re-routed to Las Vegas to wait the storm out...at around 11PM the FLIGHT MADE IT TO PHOENIX...yea! The other co-monitor and I did our happy dance, so, so, so happy to be going home after an awful work week...we waited for the plane to be cleaned and then disaster...CANCELLED!


So we go to the ticket counter and find out that they can't get us home until the next day at either 8PM or 10PM and we can either fly into Orange County or have a lay over in Denver...NO THANK YOU. We rented a hotel room and rented a car. By the time all this was figured out and we actually made it to our hotel it was 2 AM. One phone call to hubby and one hot shower later it's 2:45 AM. We're waking up at 6:30 AM to be on the road by 7 AM.


Wake up, hit Starbucks (thank God for double tall, non-fat, gingerbread lattes) and hit the road. All is BEA-U-TI-FUL in Phoenix and all the way out until...we hit the mountains and the thunderstorm that hit San Diego the night before was making it's way to San Diego.


We go up, it's windy, it's raining...no problem for this NW girl. Then, SNOW!!! OMG! SNOW! Could NOT believe it...check it out (courtesy of co-monitor's IPhone):



So this brillant girl (although in my defense I'd only had 3 1/2 hours of sleep) suddenly noticed that there was only an 1/8th of a tank of gas left. There are NO gas stations on this mountain and even if there are, the off ramps are COVERED in snow and we're in some Kia sedan. So we truck along, gas light comes on and we're still trucking along...we decend and make it to Alpine almost on fumes and fill it up. There is Zen in my life again. We're only 37 miles home.


We're both so excited and can't wait to make it. The co-monitor came home with me and her boyfriend was going to pick her up from there. We get there and...disaster no house keys. Hubby works in Camp Pendleton...45 minutes away and has the house keys.


SO...I'm writing this at Tige & Amanda's. Amanda graciously let me come over and hang out with her and Holling until Nick gets home at 6:30 tonight...this trip is still not over because I'm not home yet...


I WILL NOT MISS MONITORING!!!

Little Mookie...vicious hunter

It's been a long time and I don't really have any updates for you all...we've pretty much gotten the yard gutted, but Nick's unforeseen job hiatis dried up extra funds to really work on the house. Luckily, he has a great new job at a company called TAIC. He's loving the new job and people and we're grateful he was able to find a new job with all that is going on in the economy!
My mom came to visit two weekends ago. We have some good pictures which I posted on my Facebook page so you should check them out...

Last night Little Mookie caught his first moth. It somehow got in the house and was attracted to our lamp. He was a little perplexed at how to get it out so I hit the lamp shade until it flew out and he caught it out of the air with his mouth and chomped it down...We don't normally allow him on this table (and he knows that), but he was so excited we let him at go for it...

He also hunts spiders and other creepy crawlies in the house which I'm so grateful for!

Thinking about how to get the moth out...

Do you see it???

Enjoying his spoils...

Wishing there were seconds...

Jamestown Court Demo

Here are the latest demo pics.

Hallway leading to the master bedroom:

BEFORE

AFTER

Half bathroom demo:

BEFORE
AFTER

Yard demo:
Ugly tree in the front yard - BEFORE

AFTER - It's still standing, but I couldn't take it anymore and cut as many limbs as I could.

Front Yard:

BEFORE

No really AFTER, but IN PROCESS:

More Little Mookie Pics

Little Mookie doing his cuteness poses again...I think he just likes rubbing all over the navy blue carpet so we have to vaccume his hair up every day....

The Adventures of Flat Stanley

So our first grade neice out in Maryland has a class project. She colored a man named Flat Stanely and mailed him to us and we're to take him on adventures and then mail pictures and a letter back to the school so the class can learn about other places.

We spent Sunday taking Flat Stanley to all the places we took our neice the two Thanksgivings in a row she and her mother came out. See what Flat Stanley did:

Here's the bay across the street from the airport...look at all the cool boats!

Then we headed to Ocean Beach...
We saw the pier and went seashell hunting...

Flat Stanley also met other flat people.

We ate fish tacos too!

We had a great time doing this project for our neice. We hope class enjoys Flat Stanley's adventures as much as we did!

Update...

It's been quite a while...for those of you who don't know, hubby's hours at work have been cut back and he's currenlty looking for a new job. This has sped up work on the house as far as diggin out the yard. I have pics, but as hubby's work has slowed down, my work has increased and kept me travelling. Picture updates to come.