eudaemonic- (adj.) producing happiness and well-being

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Today was the first day of the ACT/ACE/NETC/EVP conference… Ideas y Misiones. Sweet Meg and I followed Edith, Mark and John from Reed McDonald to San Antonio. Meg, Crystal and I ate lunch at Casa Rio on the River walk. It was super yummy! We then headed over to La Villa and to set up our beautiful flowers :O). It turned out looking pretty festive. With Spanish fans cascarones (confetti eggs) and the Mexican paper flowers, we turned that outdoor area into a fiesta fit for Extension! It was pretty funny… Heather and I manned the area outside the gate and pointed people in the direction of the party. “Howdy! Head straight to the end of that block and follow the fingers.” (we used we are #1 fingers to point people in the right direction) Then we took people on river boat tours. Phew! It was a really busy day! Then we helped in the hospitality room, setting up food and drinks. Oh my goodness, there were so many people there! We had to scoot around a packed house to work. Finally left at 10:30 or so. Totally beat.

Monday, May 30, 2005

This weekend I went home to Troy, TX- a great place to be from :O). The weekend was fantastic. Normally my family is always on the go... fixing fences, working cattle, and no matter how long they work, the to-do list never ends! However, this weekend my family did nothing. Yes! NOTHING! It was fantastic! I spent my mornings reading on the front porch with a cup coffee and a purring cat in my lap. We had great weather.. I mean it rained and stormed everyday, but sometimes that makes for the best lounging weather, you know? The sound of rain on the roof and watching it drip drop from the trees have to be two of my favorite things! We really really needed the rain in Troy too. The cows were running out of grass and the region was looking a little brown. In that sense the rain made everyone thankful, a good disposition to find yourself in! This weekend I got to hang out with my mom, dad and brother! That never happens! I had a really good time and feel very blessed to have such a great family.
As most of you know, the drive from College Station is a pretty countrified one :O). There's not much to look at except for cows, pasture land, and the occasional slow moving tractor or truck traveling a few miles down the road. Today, I found myself behind one of these very modes of transportation. Normally I get a little frustrated and want to speed past them, but today, I tried to exercise a little patience. Upon slowing down to a breathtaking speed of 40 (in a 70 I may add :O) ) I noticed a few things-One, the beautiful flowers decorating the roadside. And, like the mind does, one topic jumps to another, and that thought morphs to a different one. Well, the flowers reminded me of the Bible verse about not worrying... the one that suggests taking a look at a field sometime when you're worried about things. I couldn't remember it exactly, but when I got home, but I knew where I could find it... Matthew 6 :O). Minus a bit... "If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"
'BAMB right smack in the kisser' it hit me! Then, of course, you can't miss the cattle verse (which could or couldn't be in my top 20 favorite verses :O) ) I didn't have to look this one up! "For every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills." Psalm 50:10. How quickly do I forget who really owns it all. I may take credit.. but it's definitely not due me!
Abrupt ending… The End :O) (hahahaha)

Friday, May 27, 2005

The only good thing melted.... is chocolate!

Did you know that deodorant melts? Going beyond mushy, when left in a hot car deodorant becomes completely liquid. Ewey McGooey! I came upon this realization Tuesday as I returned to my car from work. The Texas sun worked its magic! My nose noticed the melted hygiene product first as liquefied deodorant gives off an overwhelming powder/clean smell. Now, clean is not a word used to describe my car, so it was definitely a change! Like all liquids, deodorant adsorbs into whatever it’s in contact with. Tuesday, adsorption occurred with my canvas bag. Eeeekkkk!
I picked up the tube, and liquid started streaming out of the bottom. I put my hand under the tube to try to catch it. A lot was coming out, so much that my hand was overflowing with the mess! I thought that if I took the top off the deodorant and put the melted stuff back in, I could save a bit of it. Unfortunately the cap had created a type of vacuum, so when I broke that seal, the remainder of the product gushed out!!!! The white junk went all over my maroon pants, black shirt, bag and seat! White paste EVERYWHERE!!!
Well, at least no one could accuse me of not putting on deodorant!

Thursday, May 26, 2005


Chickadee Posted by Hello

alphabet

Okay Mr. Blank Blog... your white screen of limitless proportions does not scare me. Prepared to be filled!



I work for Texas Cooperative Extension with Ag Communications. We're located in the Reed McDonald building, soon to be bulldozed. My friends often ask what I do, and I guess I've never really explained it before. I write articles about agriculture. Really. That's what I do, with my partner in crime Megan. We are in charge of writing the weekly Texas Crop and Weather report which showcases some agricultural topic in Texas. We call Extension experts, commodity groups, producers and whoever else we want to call, and interview them. Since Extension is both state and nationwide (we just deal w/ TX folks though), we do most of our interviews by phone using a handy dandy recorder that hooks to the phone. At the end of the article, we include district reports from each of the 12 districts in Texas. They mainly talk about rain, what's being planted, how cattle are, ect. Our articles are then sent out to news outlets across the country. Sometimes though it feels like the only people who read the articles are our parents. Ha, but since I've been here for over a year, my parents are getting tired of reading them :O) Geeze louise! That's half of our readership!
We also write RNBs or radio news briefs. Using our articles and others written by Extension communications specialists, we condense the story into a 2 min. snippit that's used on the radio. Sometimes we get to record them ourselves... but not very often. Austin, our RNB boss, also has us act as performing talent. We, like the entire office, provide a warm body when he has to make some sort of video. We have marched singing the do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do whistley song, walked aroung Research Park for Walk Across Texas, been hand models, ect. We write other things too, like articles about Extension research, workshops and awards.
The office is very friendly, almost family like. Edith has us out to her house for dinner. Someone’s always celebrating something with cake, and there’s lot’s of teasing!
I work in the most random place, super fun, but completely random! Let me explain. First off, I write to you right this very moment donning a beautiful crown made out of Megan's burrito wrapper. Mmmmm a taste for the eyes and the nose! Okay, next. To the left of me, to the right of me, behind me are mountains of paper flowers. Yes, paper flowers; you know what makes that even funnier? WE'VE SPENT 2 WEEKS FOLDING THESE DANG THINGS!!!! Megan, the eternal optimist, believes that this skill will come in handy. "I truly believe that someday I just might have a mariachi wedding." Sure Meg, keep on thinking that. I'm not coming! :O)
We have several knick knacks decorating the office that have been accumulating since before our time here at Ag Comm. We have a pair of lovely ceramic fruit bowls... one lemon and one grape. They came from Crystal's grandmother's house. We also have a ceramic angel that I won at a White Elephant auction. I actually like it but everyone else gags.
Then we have three computers. One with Word. One with Notepad and no spell check, and one that only has the capability to play CDs. The Word computer used to play C.D.s but somehow it stopped working!
We have one live fish. He doesn't have a name because every fish we've ever had died once we declared our affection for it. There was Mortimer the Beta (he's not dead, just brain damaged after I poisoned him with water cleaner.. I didn't mean to I promise!!!). Fred was a frog that lived in a fish tank now sheltering our ceramic fish. Edith got us the tank as a surprise! Isn't that sweet?!? She's always doing stuff like that! It was an aquatic frog, but sometimes Megan liked to hold it. Eeek. GILLS GILLS! WATER WATER! Then another fish, but can't I remember its name. And another fish, but its name escapes me too. Don't get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoy the ceramic fish, but there's something kind of off about it. It's sort of like if the period was gone after Dr. on a Dr. Pepper can. Something's amiss.
Okay next. Like I said, we have a fish tank in our office. Yes, that does sound fairly normal, but wait, there's more. Our fish tank houses two ceramic clown fish that our RNB editor, Austin, gave us when he TPed our office with orange streamers. But lets stick to the present shall we? We have no windows in our cement office... but we pretend we do. Cutting photos of beautiful far away places, we created our own "portals to the outside world," by stapling them to the walls. Sometimes we sit by them with a cup of hot tea, and think "wow. we're really weird."