Sunday, July 10, 2011

Ebey Slough Bridge Project

Starting this next week, I will be spending a bunch of time out on the Ebey Slough Project, where I will be looking at the plans, monitoring the construction process, counting materials and employees, and basically crash coursing myself in the entire process since I have never done anything like this before.

Here is my typical work look now:

Hard hat - check. Safety vest - check. Bad boy glasses - check. Summertime beard - check.



You can see the old bridge on the left here. I was told it's the third oldest bridge in Washington State, hence why they are building another. On the right side of this photo are the steal girders that stretch over the waterway.



Here is another shot of the old bridge from the opposite side. Its actually pretty cool looking. In the earlier post there is a video that shows how this bridge operates.



Here is a side shot of the new bridge.



And finally, a shot of the bottom of the bridge from the water looking up.



To me, this is a very interesting project and I hope to learn a ton of stuff during the time I get to spend onsite.

A bit of my new job

If you aren't current on my new position, I am working as a Transportation Technician II for the Washington State Department of Transportation.

Although I just started, and don't necessarily have clearly defined projects yet, due to a co-worker vacation I will be working at this Ebey Slough project for the next 2 weeks or so. I found this video on Youtube, starring my boss where he does a bit of expaining what this project is all about.



I cant seem to add my own pictures to this post, so I will add a follow up with my personal photos. Enjoy the video.

Mari turns the big THREE FOUR

Yesterday, July 9th, 2011 was Mariana's 34th birthday in this world. And to kick the whole thing off, she wanted to go to Krispy Creme and get some donuts and coffee.

Unfortunately, she had to work the afternoon shift at her job. So we sent her off to work while I spent the afternoon taking care of some true birthday stuff - like cake baking.


This is my first double layer cake I have ever baked. I bought two boxes of Pillsbury Classic Yellow cake and two containers of frosting, both chocolate and vanilla. I baked each cake, allowing both to cool. I frosted the middle with chocolate, placed the second tier, then frosted the entire thing in vanilla. I saved a bit of the chocolate for some artistry on top as you can see. It came out a bit lopsided, but overall, it looked terrific and tasted even better.



Mari returned home from work with a gift from her co-workers. We ate a bit, then changed to head out for the evening, aiming ourselves towards Seattle.



We headed over to the house of Mariana's friend Mariela where we met her new boyfriend Dirk, and shared some cheese and cracker plates, olives, speads and wines over some good conversation.




Afterwards, we headed down to Ipanema, where everyone was off work and waiting to see Mariana. We drank champagne, cut the cake, and had some drinks with friends.


Mariana had a wonderful time. She got presents, cakes, friends, and drinks. What else could she ask for. Happy 34th year to Mariana, hope it brings her some beautiful times.








Monday, June 27, 2011

A New Career

Well, as today is a momentous day, I googled the phrase "work sayings" and came across www.quotegarden.com for a fabulous new quote to help kick off this new post.

A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don't have a J.O.B.

~"Fats" Domino


Suffice to say, I am no longer one of those people that don't have a J.O.B. I have a job and it's going to be a wonderful start to my glorious new career in Civil Engineering. I will start working July 1st, 2011 as a Transportation Technician 2 with the Washington State Department of Transportation (DOT). As far as I can interpret, this position takes place out in the field where I will be taking samples and performing material tests, and things of this nature.

I am excited to finally get my foot in the door and start moving down the path of obtaining real job experience. I hope to build and expand upon the scholastic foundation I received while attending the Civil and Environmental Engineering program at the University of Washington.

Speaking of engineering, heres my favorite comic related to the field. I ran across this a few years back while researching a paper, and I think it's quite brilliant. Enjoy.

If you cannot read it, click the comic to open in a new window.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

USA Upset in CONCACAF 2011 Gold Cup

If you weren't following, the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup Tournament Final was yesterday. If this is foreign to you, Wikipedia describes it as an international "competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF," played to determine "the regional champion of North America, Central America, and the Carribean."

CONCACAF = Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football

Yesterday, June 25th 2011, was the final between The United States and Mexico, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena California. In preperation for this event, I went out to purchase two of the newer US Men's National Soccer Team Jerseys for my brother (Kyle) and I to wear in support. We were sporting the "third" jersey, pictured below which is red with a blue stripe.

Unfortunately, and despite our faith and hope and jersey wearing, in the end Mexico won with a 4 - 2 victory of the US, coming back from a 2 goal deficit to score 4 goals and take the championship out from under the US team. It was a sad day for US Soccer fans with hopes and aspirations of winning ther Gold Cup. Yet, second place isn't all that bad, and I have to say that the US team played great and had several opportunities to tie the game up, but we just couldn't capitalize when those opportunities presented themselves.

If you have time and want to take in the breadth of the tournament in a quicker, trimmed down Youtube version, I have provided links to all the games below.

Game #1 - USA (2) - Canada (0)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9bH5w9azb0&NR=1

Game #2 - USA (1) - Panama (2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzqyUVNawyw

Game #3 - USA (1) - Guadeloupe (0)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSgii83h4nI

Quarter Final - Game #4 - USA (2) - Jamiaca (0)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn0DMJuwS0w

SemiFinal - Game #5 - USA (2) - Panama (0)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aaMNmzubcM

Final - Game #6 - USA (2) - Mexio (4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRDYTm-Q2T4

Mexico Played a fine game and proved their worth and merit with a fabulous win against the United States, showing some creative resourcefulness, their mental fortitude, and some flat out brilliant skills with the goals they created. Well done.

I look forward to another great tournament in 2 more years.

Monday, June 6, 2011

The Journey to Washington State

In my last post, I had made my flight from Montevideo to Lima Peru. I caught the flight out of Lima headed to San Jose Costa Rica on an Airbus A320 - very similar to the A319 from the flight before. I spent most of the flight reading my book (Viven!), doing a spanish/english crossword in the inflight magazine, and watching a fairly horrible movie called "Our Family Wedding".

It wasn't until we were almost to San Jose that I sparked up a conversation with the guy next to me. He was from Brazil, heading to El Salvador to go surfing. He, like I, bought the cheap 5 flight package, although he was on flight #4 while I was on flight #2. We were chatting about normal stuff, he was a policeman in Brazil, the Brazilian team Santos is in the final of the Copa Libertadores, etc. when the plane started hitting some turbulence. He didn't quite like it, but I assured him it was much better than my last flight.

We continued talking, and finally took note that we were not landing at all. We were circling in the air, mainting a holding pattern, and I think, attempting to land every so often but forced to pull out of it due to the turbulence. It was super super cloudy, and I couldnt quite see anything, but the stomache clenching drops and plane shudders were on the minds of everyone within.

Even on schedule, I only had 40 minutes between flights in San Jose. I was already wondering if my luggage would make it onto my connecting flight. As the minutes ticked away, I slowly realized that it wouldn't be much of a problem cause I wasn't going to be making the connecting flight either. Circling in the air, jostling in the storm around us, many things run through your mind. Do we have to land here? Do we have enough fuel to land somewhere else or do we have to run the gambit of this storm? How much pressure does it take to rip a wing off a plane? Can the pilots see any better than I can? What are we doing? Whats the problem? and of course, much much more.

On the larger drops in the sky - the ones that make you realize just how valuable life is and that you really do want to go on living and not plunge to the earth at 800 miles per hour - my Brazilian seat mate favored the spanish expression "La puta que te pario" while I favored the american classic "holy shit" while clutching the arms rests on either side of my seat in some ill attempted fear of desperation. There were two girls sitting behind me from Oklahoma City returning from a dental volunteer program who were considering using the barf bags supplied with each seat. Most impressive, was a 3 or 4 year old girl sitting in front of me who didn't cry, or make a single noise the entire time, unlike myself. She was quite valient.

I have to say, there's nothing like a little air turbulence to bring people together. When the pilot announced we were rerouting to El Salvador their was a collective sigh of relief. The remainder of the flight was normal and when we landed everyone clapped and cheered to celebrate our safety. And then we all wondered if we would ever make it home, as we had all missed our conncetions, except for my Brazilian friend who was able to shave a few hours off his trip to El Salvador.

Exiting the plane in San Salvador, we entered the airport where an assistant pointed us to new gates depending on our lost connections. I made my way to the Los angeles flight, to find that the plane was still on the ground in San Jose and hadn't yet left due to the weather. Luckily, I am blessed with a great abundance of patience for situations like these. So I waited, knowing that ultimatlely, my flight from LA to Seattle didn't leave until the following day regardless of my current situation. I sat chatting with others - from Peru and Honduras - in both spanish and english, and we were able to bond through our shared hatred for the last flight and speak about general things.

Eventually the plane arrived, and luckily we all fit. It was an Airbus A321, which was a bit larger than the last two planes. I was stuck in the odd seat next to the emergency exit, but felt lucky to be on a plane headed somewhere at all. During our delay, the entire airport shut down, food and drinks and bars and all, and I couldn't help but wonder about the possibility of being brushed off until the following days flights. Once boarded we waited on the tarmac forever....... and finally headed off to Los Angeles. Like on the Lima bound flight, I watched a movie starring Dennis Quaid as President Clinton about his sex scandal and his association and friendship with Tony Blair. It was decent, but a bit much to watch twice in one day..... but I did it. I slept a bit, I talked with my seat mates who were returning from the Galopogos Islands in Ecuador, and I read my book.

We arrived at LAX around 1:20 am. Deboarded, picked up my luggage, made my way through customs, and exited the airport to find myself outside - wondering where to go to find a connecting flight. I found a police woman who directed me towards the Alaska Airlines Check in area. I walked there to find a deserted wasteland of cleaning staff, and maybe 3 or 4 others like myself lingering on benches with luggage waiting for their morning flights. Exhausted, I took a seat and did my best to sleep, fighting the uncomfortability pre designed into seat.

At 4:30 am I checked in, made it through the inspection process, and arrived at Starbucks 5 minutes before their 5 am opening. I took my american and sat at my gate (31a) to wait for my 8:20 am flight. Around 6:30 the shops started opening, and my sheer boredon forced my attention to perusing magazines, books, candy, tshirts and all the other knick knacks of inherent in airport shopping. While in the shop, I struck up a great conversation with the woman working who was originally from Guatemala. She congratulated me on my good spanish and introduced me to her friend who was from El Salvador. I explained my journey and they told me all about the dangers of there past cities. It was refreshing to find myself using my spanish in the states, and they were both very very nice and wished me the best as I headed off in search of my friend and family.

After much too many hours on the road, I finally boarded the plane and felt like I was finally going home. I slept almost all of the two or so hours home, and enjoyed the birds eye view out of my window seat of lush green mountains, puget sound coastal towns, and the City of Seattle from afar.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Montevideo to Peru

Well, I made it to Peru safe and sound, yet this is only one of my five flights to get back to Seattle.

I awoke this morning at 4 am in order to make it to the airport by 5 am to catch my 7 am flight out of Montevideo. Mari and I went out last night for dinner and drinks with Patricia and Nicolas, and didn't make it to bed until about 1 am. Thankfully, the 3 hours of sleep was adequate enough.

Ruy and Mari took me to the airport and waited around while I checked in, then we said our good byes and I entered into the departures area and headed to my gate. I had another 40 minutes or so to kill, and I sat thinking about general stuff.

One major thought is that I am currently reading the Spanish version of Alive, called Viven! As you may recall, there was a movie a few years back that illustrates the story of when the Uruguayan Rugby team crash in the Andes on their way to Chile. My flight was headed here to Peru, but I know the Andes are there as well. I started wondering how I would hold up if this little A319 120 person plane went down in the artic weather of the Andes Mountains. I have a coat with me, but no major winter coat. I have one packet of cookies in my bag for a snack, and not too much else - a camera, a broken ipod, some gifts when I return home.

Then, I started sizing up the other passengers. Who would I choose to eat if it came down to it? And what cut is the best on the human body? And was I the only one thinking this thought, or were others looking at me like I might be dinner?

Luckily, I was tired enough on the 4 hour flight that I slept through at least half of it, but I still awoke to the shaking turmoil of turbulence that this little plane was subjected to up in the sky. And with every shake and altitude drop I could imagine the mountain peaks just below.

But, all for not, I arrived safe and sound and now sit with an americano in front of this computer telling my tale. Its 11.05 am, and my next flight doesnt leave until 2.15 pm.

My itinerary



  • Leave Montevideo 6.53 am

  • Arrive Lima Peru 10.05 am

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  • Leave Lima 2.15 pm

  • Arrive San Jose Costa Rica 4.53 pm

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  • Leave Costa Rica 5.35 pm

  • Arrive Guatemala City Guatemala 7.15 pm

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  • Leave Guatemala City 8.00 pm

  • Arrive Los Angeles California 12.00 am

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  • Leave Los Angeles 8.20 am

  • Arrive Seattle Washington 11.00 am