Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe, elevation; 6228 ft.

Somehow I managed to get the weakend off from working here in Sacramento and a co-worker and I headed to Lake Tahoe. Our adventure began when we checken into a place called Docs Cotages. Apparently all of the nice hotel/casino's are like 400 dollars a night, unfortunately our gov per Diem rate wont cover that so Docs was the place to be. We got a two bedroom "Suite" which was probably the worst room that I have ever stayed at. It was small, dirty, the sheets smelled like BO, and the heat was broken. We asked the raspy voiced hotel clerk for some advise to get the heater to work and he promptly told us there was a "trick", he came over to the room and started beating the shit out of the heating until and the wall temperature thingy. He then brought us a space heater. We didn't care much about the room, we didn't plan on being in it much. Our hotel literally was right on the border of California and Nevada, one side of the street was cali and the other was Nevada. Well of course the Nevada side was loaded with Casinos so we hit the streets.

I learned how to play craps and quickly turned 30 dollars into 150 dollars and then into 20. But hey when you come home from a night of free drinking and gambling and are only 10 dollars in the hole, you won.

We woke up early the next day, shook off a light hangover, got some supplies and headed to a mountain hiking trail. We hiked around 5 miles in and about 1000 feet up. The view was pretty insane. Elevation was approx 8500 ft. After a few hours we hiked out (the descent was a lot easier).


honestly their is a ton more to the Tahoe story but to be honest I'm too tired to write about it right now and I feel like nothing i write can do the things that I saw justice. Here are some pics and Ill try to finish the story some time soon.








I don't know why the spacing is all messed up and I am too tired to fix it.

The West coast has good fruit

Today I consumed about the most authentic Mexican food you can eat. So I'm working out in the middle of nowhere California. I have another geophysics guy with me and we have two laborers to help us with the pounding of our resistivity electrodes into the ground. One of the Laborers is a Mexican guy named Luis. Luis's wife has been making us these amazing Burritos everyday for lunch when we are in the field. How do you heat burritos in the field do you ask, why on the engine and exhaust of your truck of course. Awesome!!!



So as most of you know I am a very non confrontational person. But for some reason I am involved in a plethora f disputes at this particular moment.



1. My old apartment is trying to take like $500 for some bullshit.(losing this battle)

2. Trying to get Comcast to give me cable. (losing this battle)

3. The feds messed up my expedited passport and try ed to say it would take 6-8 weeks instead of 3. (this issue has been resolved, sweet)



I spend about an hour on the phone everyday arguing with somebody. I don't really argue with the comcast people because its not there fault, but the landlord thing is 100% bitchable. I will post more about that when I get me security deposit back and I start my massive "don't move to fieldstone farms in Odenton" campaign.

Back in the Sack

So I flew back out to California yesterday. I left from BWI and flew to Vegas and then flew to Burbank (LA) and finally to Sacramento. I have to say that the leg from Vegas to LA was...er,um..interesting. It was exactly what you would expect a flight from Vegas to LA to be like. Young ladies with virtually no clothes to speak of, guys with muscle shirts and older woman with fake boobs and collagen lips. I flew southwest and in light of the recent press about them kicking scantly clad women off of planes, I seriously thought that my flight had a few candidates.

I need a what?!?!?

I moved and I have no internet or TV from 7-30 days. They have to literally dig up my yard and lay down cable for me to get hooked up to the cable system. This constructio0n requires environmental permits and lots of other fun stuff. I cant believe the EPA and MDE are standing in the way of me checking the woot and watching football, after all I have done for them. Ill keep you posted.

"flying dragon roll"

So while I was in Pittsburgh I discovered a great thing. There is a Sushi joint right by my moms house that has all you can eat sushi. Its was great, not the average pile of stale nasty sushi sitting on a table. This was the real deal, you would order an item and the guy would whip it up right there and serve it.
Now there are some weird wules with sushi like you have to finish it all before you can get more and you have to eat all of the rice,as well as the fish, or you cannot get more. So anyhow I ordered my first roll, spicy tuna it was Amazing!! I decided to get a little crazy for plate number two and get something I had never heard of, I ordered the "flying dragon roll". When the plate came out I was a bit nervous. It was a regular roll with the rice on the outside but, there was a giant eel on the top. This was no small eel, It actually covered the whole roll and the tail wrapped around the plate. Catch 22, all I wanted was for my next plate, but I could not get that plate until I finished an entire 2 foot eel.
I will not be getting the "flying dragon roll" any time soon.

To the Burgh

So we decided to go back to Pittsburgh this weekend, last minute style. Who knows the next time I will have a chance to go back so why not. I'm gonna miss the company picnic which has a buffet and free booze but oh well. I got the keys to my new place this week and can start to move next week. I'm really excited about the new place, it is going to be awesome. Ill post some pics of the house once I get moved in and anybody can come down whenever because we have two spare bedrooms.

Back

South Carolina was awesome. Sunday was crazy, as I said it was absolutely pouring all day long and we everything that we had planned anyhow; shrimping, fishing, crabbing, swimming and more. At on point we where on the beach surf fishing and it started to rain so hard that it was painful. We had top take refuge in the ocean.

Anyhow I am about to go to work so its back to the real world. Ill post some pics when I get everything downloaded.

quick update

Im down in South Carolina and the weather is Great!! just kidding, its horrible. It is not just raining but it has taken raining to a whole other level. We made the best of it today, we where at Kiawah all day crabbing, fishing and swimming all during a downpour. It was actually kinda cool. Anyhow Im about to cook up a seafood feast. The 9 shrimp that we caught today have been supplemented by 4 pounds that we bought at a roadside vendor. We have a cooler full of crab and lots of beer. That usually makes for a good night.