Off To Houston

Tomorrow we fly to Houston to visit Jenny's family (her mother's side) and look for employment. Jen and I have lined up several interviews each. We will be gone for 10 days.

Maria Canelon and Family

My wonderful mother-in-law has started her own blog at Maria Canelon and Family. Check it out. Her first post was in Spanish, and the second was in English. So it will be good practice for those of us learning Spanish.

John's Visit - Day 2

Today we went hiking in the Boise Foothills. Here are the photos. Click on the panorama (above) for a larger version.

John's Visit

Jenny's Dad, John, came to Boise for the weekend. We spent most of the day in downtown Boise showing him around.

Another Slideshow

More fiddling with my photos. Larger version here.

6 Best Free Photo Sharing Sites on the Web

The Traveler’s Notebook just posted a new article of mine called The 6 Best Free Photo Sharing Sites on the Web.

Our Sad Garden

Our garden is a sad one. A while back, we were too anxious to plant our seedlings. The temperatures had been good for a while. Well, the two days after planting were cold and windy. Almost everything died.

We still have some basil plants (see photo), some cilantro, some mint, and two full rows of multi-colored leaf lettuce.

The following all died: hot peppers, sweet peppers, cherry tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, regular tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini squash, and cantaloupe

I planted a bunch of new seeds, and we might actually harvest something before we move to Houston.

Outside of the vegetable garden, everything is doing fine. Our four fruit trees, sixteen strawberry bushes, two lilacs, and the random number of sunflowers are thriving.

The raspberry plants still look like three bare sticks stuck into the ground. I don't know if that is a good sign or a bad one.

This has been a good learning experience for our next garden.

Baker Man

Today I set a new record. I baked six loaves of bread from scratch. Most of it I will freeze for later.

Photo Gallery

Over on my other website, I created a page that runs a slideshow of some of my recent trips. Check it out. I plan to add new photos often.

Houston Trip

Jenny and I are flying to Houston on May 31st (Saturday). We return to Boise on June 9th (Monday).

The main reason for the trip is for me to interview at Lyondell for an engineering position. They are paying to fly me down. Over the next couple of weeks, Jenny and I are trying to arrange for a few more interviews. We hope the interviews go well and we start to get some offers before we even fly back to Boise.

Between interviews and visiting family, we plan on looking at some real estate.

Banana Nut Roll

I don't make desserts very often, and this was the most complicated one that I have ever made. I think that it turned out well.

It is a banana nut roll with cream cheese filling.

Job Interviews

Yesterday, I had a job interview with an engineering consulting company in Boise. I think the interview went really well.

Today, I had my second telephone interview with Lyondell, a company in Houston. They want me to be a Maintenance Engineer or a Reliability Engineer in one of their electrical engineering groups. They are going to fly me down to Houston for another interview and a tour of the company. Dates are not set yet.

We have told all the recruiters calling us that we would consider jobs in Boise, Houston, Portland, and Seattle. The only positions they call us about are Houston jobs. I think that Maria (Jenny's mom) has been bribing them to make sure we come to Houston.

Book For Sale

I have been asked where my friends and family can buy my coffee table book. I made the book for myself, not expecting outside interest. But, since you asked, here it is:

Peru, Bolivia, & Ecuador

The website gives you the ability to preview the first 15 pages of photos at low resolution.

It is as cheap as I can make it (I am asking for exactly $0 in royalties on each copy).

It is available as a softcover, hardcover with dust jacket (the kind I have), and hardcover with ImageWrap. ImageWrap just means that the cover photo is directly on the hardcover, not on a separate dust jacket. The cheapest version is $25.


By the way, if you have any interest in making your own photo books, I found Blurb to be very user-friendly. There are many layout/size options. I might be putting together a few more of these.

Las Vegas

This is what happened on my first trip to Las Vegas.




This is what happened on my second trip to Las Vegas.



They are remarkably similar experiences (in a good way)!

Photo Book

Recently, I put together a coffee table photo book. It is made entirely of photos I took during our trip through Peru, Bolivia, & Ecuador (hence the title). It arrived today.

It is a surprise for Jenny. I edited all the photos and arranged the layout at night while she slept. I gave her author credit on the cover anyway. I am proud of how well it turned out. It looks really good.

Dam Removals

My article on dam removals was just published by the fine folks at The Traveler's Notebook. It is titled Rivers Set Free: 5 Dam Removal Projects to Visit in 2008.

And, just as a comparison between the states where the majority of our family lives:

My home state of Iowa has 83 dams that have been classified as high hazard, meaning they pose a serious threat to human life if they should fail. Of those high hazard dams, 9 have been identified as structurally deficient or unsafe.

Texas has 101 high hazard dams that are structurally deficient or unsafe.

Nevada has 4.

Oregon has 4.

Washington has 15.

Jenny as a young dancer.

This is an old photo that I scanned and restored a little. This is Jenny when she was 7 years old.

Boise Public Market

Saturdays in downtown Boise are pretty fun. We like to wander around the outdoor market, sample all the food, and find a nice restaurant to eat some more.

As the weather warms up , there always seems to be something going on in the downtown parks. For those who haven't been here, the river cuts through downtown and has large parks on either side. Plus, the Boise State University campus is at the center of it all. All this makes Boise's downtown look much nicer than most cities I have been to .

These are just random photos from last Saturday.

Bagels

Jenny, jealous of my mad bread skills, stole my bread books and made bagels from scratch.

Here she is in action. Everyone should email her and tell her how good her new haircut looks.



And, up close. I am eating one right now. It is still warm. BEST. BAGEL. EVER.

Job Search Update

All of our prospects for jobs in the Boise area have fallen through. We are not really sure what happened in the last six months since we have been here. We think it might have been the slow down in the economy, but the job market for us has seemed to have dwindled to nearly nothing.

I have managed to get a part time job at REI, which admittedly I enjoy a great deal, but hours are limited and wages are low. Ted had an interview a few weeks ago which sounded hopeful but then he was told no.

So..., Within the last week we have been expanding our search area. We have sent several resumes to companies in Houston and one company, Lyondell, contacted Ted yesterday about a job opportunity. He had one interview this morning and has a second scheduled within a couple of days.

New job skills

These are pictures I took in Ecuador (near Otavalo) of Jenny learning new job skills.

MEM

Thanks to my constant harassment and absolute refusal to take a hint, I have finished my Master of Engineering Management degree.

The class called Quality Systems Design was the one where the Navy lost all my exams.

After pestering him enough, the professor allowed me to complete a take-home exam. I emailed him my answers yesterday.

Today he emailed me back my grade. I earned an 'A' by getting 97% on the exam (it was a take-home exam - I wasn't going to screw that up).

This was the only class that was holding me back from being able to (truthfully) put a Masters on my resume.

Pizza

I am also getting good at making pizza. I make the crust from scratch. We have homemade pizza once or twice a week.

Bread

I am proud to say that Jenny and I haven't bought a loaf of bread in almost two months. I have been baking every loaf myself.

I make basic wheat sandwich bread, english muffin bread, and french bread on a regular basis. Once in a while I make other varieties. Recently, I figured out a good way to make bratwurst buns.

Birds of Prey NCA

I took this picture on our day hike in the Birds of Prey National Conservation Area.