Working Hard in Colorado

One of the perks of my job is getting to travel. This year's annual Project WILD Coordinator's conference happend to be in Estes Park, Colorado right outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a lot of work helping to plan and prepare for the conference, as well as, making sure that everything ran smoothly throughout the entire week.

Everyone in my office came along. Including our executive director, Josetta Hawthorne.

We took several half day field trips to RMNP during the week. We heard talks from park rangers about fire management, elk population control, and climate change and the effects it is having on wildlife habitat and populations in the park.

The talk that I found most interesting was the discussion about Mountain Pine Beetles and how they are researching and working to control the damage that they are doing to forests. We had similar problems with Southern Pine Beetles in Florida. They bore into the pine trees to the point that the tree is overwhelmed by the destruction that the beetles cause to their vascular system and dies. This creates huge stands of dead trees. One method they are trying is cutting down the dead trees and burning them in a machine like the one pictured above. This hopefully kills any beetles that are in the process of reproducing in that tree and prevents them from infecting any other healthy trees nearby.

I stopped for a picture in the Alluvial Fan with some of my co-workers.

(L to R) Lanese, Maricella, and Grace.

I also got to catch up with Lori Haynes. She is the Project WILD State Coordinator in Florida. I was one of her facilitators when I worked at Pine Jog.

This was the view from our hotel. We held all the meetings at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. Yes, this is the hotel where Stephen King wrote "The Shining." The movie version, starring Jack Nicholson, played continuously on channel 42....kinda creepy!

Besides comittee meetings and field trips we also took time to share updates and suggestions for several of the Project WILD activities. Marc, who also works in my office, is trying out an activity involving spiders made out of pipe cleaners....what will environmental educators think of next!

Overall, not a bad week at work. Next year, we head to Portland, Oregon.

Too bad this only happens once a year!

Remember the Alamo

In April, I was in San Antonio exhibiting at the Texas Water conference for work. I had time each evening to do some exploring in the city. I happened to walk by the Alamo each day from my hotel to the convention center. I also got to explore the San Antonio Riverwalk and take a boat tour. If you are thinking of taking a vacation to San Antonio, Texas -- I'd say go for it!

I give it two thumbs up.

Houston Rodeo 2008

We went to the Houston Rodeo and Livestock show. It goes on for about a month at Reliant stadium and boasts that it is biggest rodeo in the country.

Jonathan and I went twice to check it all out.

We saw pigs.

Bull riding!

We saw part of the miniature Hereford cattle show.

Chuck wagon racing.

Two great country concerts: Brad Paisley and Dierks Bently.

Barrel racing.

And the craziest of all: Mutton Bustin'

All the contestants were very brave boys and girls that weighed under 50 lbs and had parents that were willing to sign the waiver.

The kids had to hang on for 6 seconds and make it look good. Contestants with the best score make it to the finals and get to compete for the prize money and the glory of a win.

This is how the real cowboys and girls get their start.

And best of all....they had corn on the cob!

Roommate Reunion

Derk and Rachel Blanset are pictured here with their pups Charlie and Sota. They drove down from Dallas last weekend for a visit. We all went for a walk along the bayou and enjoyed the sunshine. Rachel and Derk also just moved here from Florida for Rachel's new job with Johnson and Johnson. It is nice to have friends not too far away. We all teased that they are following us!

Lauren Hughes was down from Iowa the same weekend for a medical conference. It was a good excuse to go try out a new restaurant in Montrose and have a mini college reunion.

Lauren was my college roommate freshman year and Rachel was my college roommate sophomore and junior year. It was fun to be together again. Go Cyclones!

Buffalo Bayou Regatta

UPDATE !! The results are in....

Emily got 2nd place in the Women's Solo Unlimited Division with a time of 2:33:36 !

Jonathan finished in 2:29:17 and placed 20th in the Men's Solo Unlimited Division!

Remember that crazy kayak with the cameras pictured below? Here is a link to his YouTube video of the race. You can see us briefly around minute 5 and 6:10 in the video. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5nudsRvkNs

We pulled up along the street with about 200 other canoe and kayak racers to unload our boats last Saturday for the Buffalo Bayou Regatta running, or I guess I should I say paddling, 15 miles through the heart of down town Houston.

After picking up our registration packets we donned our racing numbers and moved to the starting area by the bridge.

We had a great time talking to people and taking in the sights.


Many serious racers came with their long skinny carbon fiber kayaks. The one pictured above had a GPS unit and two digital cameras attached to it. I ended up paddling behind this guy for most of the race. At one point I asked him about the cameras. He shared that they automatically take a picture every five seconds. Yikes, that means he must have about 40 pictures of me gritting my teeth trying to keep up!

We also saw some of the most interesting water shoes I have ever seen.

We bonded with more of our fellow racers standing in the line for the port-a-potty.


Jonathan happened to stand next to a guy named Rob who had just moved to Houston from Shelton, CT....what are the odds? They are pictured here getting ready to head to the starting line. Rob was one of the only other people there in a big yellow sea kayak.

There was an official "Texas Ranger" look alike firing a cannon to start each heat.


This is a shot of the starting line from the bridge. Many people were new to kayaking and canoeing and fell in at the start. It was a little crazy for the first few miles, but then it settled down.


This was the scenery for most of the trip. Jonathan spotted a beaver swimming around while he was paddling. We were warned that there might be alligators, but we didn't see any.

We reached the finish line in just under 2 and half hours. There was live music, lunch, and some free give aways waiting for us at the end. It was a fun day and nice to be out in the sunshine. Eventually our race results will be posted on this website with more info about the race:

http://www.buffalobayou.org/regattabayou.html

First Teacher Workshop

I facilitated my first WET in the City educator workshop last week in Sugar Land, TX.

It went really well, and I am feeling like I am settling into my new position. I had about 32 teachers representing K-12th grade. They got 6 credit hours towards professional development and a copy of the curriculum guide to take home.

We did several activities from the curriculum. This one is called "Is There Water on Zork?" Participants are given 6 tubes of clear liquid and have to perform several tests using what they know about the properties of water to figure out which sample is water and not vinegar, club soda, rubbing alcohol, etc. This was my first time working with High School Teachers. They were a tough crowd, but seemed impressed in the end.

I also took them outside for several of the activities. We created a mock water cycle with all the different components represented outdoors and went on a short walk to see if we could spot any wildlife in the school yard and figure out where it might find drinking water in an urban setting.

It is nice to get my first workshop done and have one under my belt as I prepare for my next one in Miami at the Miami Museum of Science.

If you want to know more check out the web site:

www.wetcity.org

Super Bowl Sunday

We had a Super Bowl Party for four at Thea's apartment in Irving. It was our first time meeting Tobias, Thea's boyfriend. He was an offensive lineman for Texas A&M in college. Thea and Toby were rooting for the Giants because the Patriots had put an end to the Cowboy's season just weeks before. Jonathan and I rooted for the Patriots just to keep things interesting.

We had our own version of pre-game down at the Forth Worth Stockyards.

We watched them drive the longhorns down the street....

....and decided to take one for a spin!

Thea thought this might make a nice engagement picture. I'm thinking it needs a tag line like: "We'll be somewhere down in Texas" or "Give me a home where the Longhorns roam"