Bark in the Park

Bark in the Park was this past Saturday. It is the Humane Society's largest fundraiser. Brice and I along with some other people from Halliburton showed up at 7:45am to help set up. Around 10:00 people starting arriving with their dogs, so I went home and grabbed Rusty. It was a lot of fun to watch the different contests for the dogs/owners. The shelter adopted out 30 animals and raised almost $20,000 dollars. So far my volun-tolding group has raised $1,200 for the shelter with essentially no effort.

The dog next to Brice in the picture below, Bailey, was up for adoption.....she was the sweetest dog ever and was super calm. We both wanted to adopt her, apparently she got adopted at the very end of the day. I still want her...I think her and Rusty would have been good for each other.

Halliburton Crew at Bark in the Park

Brice, Johanna, Me, Nancy, and Donna

Dogs: Bailey, Rusty, and Dylan

Nancy and I presenting a check for $725 to the Humane Society that we raised from a bake sale

Volun-tolding

There still isn't much happening in Duncan, which realy isn't a surprise. We have manditory volunteer groups...which i now call refer to as "Volun-tolding." I am leading a volun-tolding group that is helping out our local humane society. We had a bake sale a while back an raised $725. We are helping with a big fundraiser this weekend called Bark in the Park. We are planning on taking Rusty up there for a little while to get some "dog time." I have actually had fun with my volun-tolding group, but I haven't gone into the shelter, because if I do I will want to bring them all home.

I just finished writing my second paper and working with our patent attorneys to finalize a couple of patent applications....which is good, mostly because it means a little bit extra money. I guess now I have to get to work on my projects...I am leading three projects right now, and currently I am the only person working on it....but that is going to change soon hopefully. I just moved into my new office yesterday, only to find out today that I am getting kicked out. It looks like I am moving to a different section of the building and getting a lab twice the size of what I have now and an office. I get to remodel the lab and basically have a brand new lab, which will be nice not having to deal with someones unwanted junk that was left behind.

I eat car salesmen for lunch :-)

I have been thinking about getting a "new" car. I have been looking at SUVs that are low miles and just a few years old. I went to look at an Infiniti FX35 in Lawton, that I have been checking out online for a few weeks. I wasn't going to pull the trigger and buy today, but I wanted to test drive it. We ended up getting sucked into going inside, because we wanted to see the carfax report. I thought I'd see how low they'd be willing to go....the guy came back to me almost $1000 more than the online price. I told him that was unreasonable and we left getting chased into the parking lot by the salesman. I told him, "I'm not playing these games! All I wanted was the best price."

I had the following email the coiner of the dealership from a few days ago:
Lindsey, I wanted to follow up on your inquiry on our 2007 Infiniti FX 35 and see if you were still in the market or if I could answer any questions for you.
Chris

This was my response back today:

Chris,
I just returned from test driving the 2007 Infiniti FX35. I really liked the car, although I will not be doing business with you. I was prepared to write a check for the car today, but when I asked for the best price, I was told the absolute best vehicle price was $XXXX, nearly $1,000 more than the online listed price. Then after telling the salesman, he said he could only take $35 off the listed online price. I was hoping to stay local with my car purchase, but have found that will not be possible for me because of the way your dealership is run. I have found comparable cars for much better prices and at dealerships where I am not trying to be taken advantage of. In the future I will not purchase from you, nor will I recommend you to my colleagues. Regards,Lindsey Gloe

Car Salesmen beware...I am not putting up with your games :-)

Kilgore

Well, I am in Kilgore, TX now. I will meet with a customer tomorrow to lead a discussion on bacteria control and well life (sounds fun :-) The next few days I will be out on jobs testing water pre-post treatment...and head back to the exciting town of Duncan on Friday.

We have monthly safety meetings and we had one on Monday over flu/H1N1. In the meeting they talked about how people that are younger than 25 are at higher risk for the swine flu....which some of my friends from work are saying that is why they have been having me travel so much....I think there are only two other people that are younger than 25 in the building...so they are trying to keep their "high risk" people out of the building...haha.

Shocked

Last Friday when I got back in town from my trip I stopped into work for a little while to find they were laying off/ offering separation packages. My manager was one that left, voluntarily I have now determined. Today I got a huge surprise.....I got promoted to scientist!!!! I've already been doing the job for over a year now, but now I get the title and pay to go along with the job. After the layoffs that we have been seeing, this was the absolute last thing in the world that I expected today. The promotion was approved by two VPs. My former manager also wrote a note on the bottom of the letter congratulating me.

Update finally

The past few weeks have been pretty busy at work for both of us. I have been pretty swamped with two projects, and dragging my feet on a few others in my spare time. We had a retirement party for Dad Sep 12, but I didn't get any pictures. Check out Jaime's blog www.hughesbaby.blogspot.com/2009/09/dads-retirement-party.html for pictures I have been out in Charleston, WV for a conference this week. I coauthored a paper and presented it Thursday afternoon. The presentation went well, and we had lots of people that wanted to talk to us after the presentation. I got back into town today around 1 and ran into work for a little bit to take care of some things...to find out they were laying people off today. I think it was about 20 people in my building, but I am not certain on the exact number. Luckily Brice and I still have jobs.

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks

Jack checking out a light bulb

Rusty in front of my flowers

Jack and Riley snuggin'

Brice and Rusty

Riley sitting in the basket by the front door

Rusty likes to nibble on Jack's ears

Pest Control...They love moths

I told Rusty to get up with me....he decided to get all the way up on the back of the sofa
Rusty likes catnip toys

Rusty with a racquetball....he get frantic trying to catch it

My crepe myrtle tree - it guess I was trying to be artsy here

West Virginia

We had a little bit of free time the first day in West Virginia so we headed out to the Blenko glass company (http://www.blenkoglass.com/) They had some pretty cool stuff and we also got to see them making the blown glass vases. It was pretty cool.

Lot's of glass

Blowing into the mold

Putting a handle on a pitcher

West Virginia was really with all the trees and mountains. We drove by the capitol building, which was also really impressive, but I didn't have my camera.

Just some Pictures

Mom and Dad made their first trip to Duncan, since I moved here, last weekend. We went to Turner Falls, about an hour east of Duncan. The falls were pretty, but it was way too crowded. They got to see how "exciting" Duncan is. Sorry I didn't take any picture then.

Jack and Riley laying under my drying rack

Brice and Rusty watching baseball

Jack Burrito...Jack will burrow under blankets and sleep for hours...he looked so cute when I lifted up the blanket


Hangin' out with Rusty on a Friday afternoon off work

Rusty and Brice...probably watching baseball

Rusty with a cat toy