Eight Legged Freaks.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the latest specimen that I have confronted. Legs extended, it is nearly the size of my hand. Feel free to identify if you can. I only let it live long enough to take the photo.

I still haven't stopped shuddering at the thought of that thing. I think I'm going to have to nuke my house from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Aargh

One month of tests.

Down the drain.

Because somebody sent us the wrong additive.

I'm going to go home and drink now. Afterwards, I plan on working with power tools.

I'm not stupid... I'm advanced!

Oi vey. I'm having flashbacks to skool. For the last several weeks I've been trying to learn about cement (specifically, wellbore cementing). Fun stuff.

No, really, it's actually interesting. The problem arises from me having no relevant background with the stuff, and combining the learning process with the ongoing QC. It's starting to all merge into one massive mental ball of... stuff that I'm having difficulty wrapping my head around.

On the plus side, if I ever feel like pouring an extension to my patio, I'm fairly sure I can get a good deal on the supplies...

The heat comes and goes down here. And this weekend it came. I originally planned to use the weekend to get a bunch of work done around the house. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men. Saturday started off good. I managed to trim back the jungle in my yard and unloaded nearly a ton of rock so that I could set up a garden section in my yard to transplant my herbs into. Sunday was supposed to be about cleaning the house (I swear things get dirtier quicker down here than in Calgary), and installing a few organizing racks in the garage, but I woke up with a splitting headache that never really went away. When combined with the heat I ended up saying "screw it" and loafed around for the day feeling miserable. Good times. All praise the inventor of central air conditioning.

I also suspect that I have raccoons hanging around my place now. I can't be positive, but I don't know of any other animal that would actually try to steal my birdfeeder. I came out one morning to find it gone and the pole it was mounted on bent over. After much searching, I found the thing wedged underneath my back fence.

Oh! New bug alert! I haven't seen one of these since elementary school.

The second pic isn't great, but gives a better idea of the size.


No, the ash-can isn't mine. Neither is the bug. It was found up by our warehouse. I was tempted to take it home as a pet.

And in case Amy hasn't been notified of this article already: The Ultimate Knitter

Wokking in Memphis

The last few weeks have been busy, to say the least. We're starting up a new service line down here, and meeting the technical requirements have been rather trying. I've been bouncing back and forth between the two lines trying to learn how to run the new equipment while at the same time trying to keep up with issues on the frac side.

We've also had a fair number of people come down from Calgary to train us on said new equipment. It's been good to see some old familiar faces. The flip side of that, though, is that I've been eating out more than usual. This is not entirely a bad thing, as it's allowed me to find a couple of new restaurants and at least one really good pub* out and about.

After living down here for six months I finally got around to seeing Memphis. At a mere two hours away I probably should have gone sooner (say, for Memphis in May) but c'est la vie. Myself and a compatriot from the Calgary office crossed the Mighty Mississippi into the town. We visited the National Civil Rights Museum**, the Rock and Soul museum, wandered Beale Street and in general gorged ourselves on the food there***. Good times.

No. Graceland was not visited. Maybe next time.

The weather down here has actually been relatively mild. According to the locals we should be pushing 100 F daily with no rain. Instead for the most part it's been overcast, raining nearly every evening or night (we went through a week where we had hour long downpours start at 5 pm on the nose), and only about as hot as Calgary gets on its hottest days - if that. That might have started to finally change if yesterday was any indication.

And I made another ridiculous purchase. Behold!

I know. It's not a John Deere, but on the plus side I didn't have to take out a second mortgage to pay for it either. I finally got around to giving it a workout yesterday and it was... satisfying. Not necessarily fun, but definitely satisfying. The fact that it will go through the underbrush that's in the unsodded part of my lawn and not even slow down was immensely gratifying****.

So now it's poll time, ladies! Do you think my tractor's sexy? I just need one of you to say yes so I can hum "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" while I mow my lawn.

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*75 different beers on tap = much fun.
**I was quite pleased that neither myself nor my compatriot - both burly white men with extremely short hair (me) and completely shaved head (him) did not get even one strange look going through there. In all seriousness, though, if you're ever in Memphis go see it. It's definitely worth it.
***In the unlikely even that I ever open my own restaurant I'm hiring a baker. Free fresh buns will be provided to all diners.
****Seriously. Parts of it haven't been mowed in two months or more and some of the weeds growing in it are taller than me and about an inch in diameter. I figured I'd need a machete and a British accent to cut my way through it.

Happy Canada Day

Hope everybody had a good Canada Day/day off in lieu. I myself took the opportunity to take up the game of whackf##k*. Definitely an enjoyable experience and one that I'm going to endeavor to continue with. It was actually very good weather for it. We had to drive through a rainstorm to get to the course, and it threatened to rain all morning but never did. It just stayed overcast and a pretty reasonable temperature - if still somewhat humid. It's good to finally have another hobby that actually requires physical exertion. I went to a doctor a couple of weeks back and wash shocked - SHOCKED I tell you - to find out how bad a shape I'm in.

Anyhoo, after said game I had a barbecue for some ex-pats down here helping us set up our latest operation. I've discovered that I really enjoy cooking over charcoal. It's something that I never did in Calgary - we always used propane - but I find it quite funl. Pizza and flatbeds were a blast. The smoked ribs I cooked for Canada Day turned out great - especially for a first attempt. I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of the summer I'm trying to bake cookies on it.

And I ended off the evening with fireworks. Hopefully the neighbors weren't too confused by them going off a few days before the fourth of July. I knew that fireworks were legal and a lot more available down here, but I was surprised by the sheer quantity. It seems like every mile there's another carnival tent stocked selling "Crazy Larry's Black Market Fireworks" or such. I guess that it's a good thing it is so damp down here. If it was drier one spark would cause a lovely chain reaction of ammo dumps.

My house and yard slowly continue to come together. I decided a while back to hire landscapers to finish my lawn. It doesn't need much - just to be leveled, have all the weeds killed, have a bunch of trees planted and then be seeded or sodded - but it's a large enough job, and it's hot enough here that I figured it would be better to get it done right the first time. Besides, the ground is hard enough around here that I'm going to definitely need some heavy equipment if I want to get it done before next year. I can't dig down more than a couple of inches with a spade.

So all in all, life ain't going too terribly bad down here. I seem to have pulled myself out of the malaise that has been affecting me for the last few months - whether this unnatural cheerfulness will actually continue I don't know, so I'm going to milk it for all it's worth now.
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*Those who are actually good at the game more commonly refer to it as "Golf".