A Lone Star Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving in Lake Jackson with Mom and Dad Rogers and Brian! There was a random cold front that swept through Texas, and so we were quite chilly with our 30 degree weather. Yes, we have become wimps when it comes to cold weather after we left Utah. Alas.

The family decided to take a break from Mexican food to celebrate in true Texan style…BBQ! The spare ribs Brandon picked up from Hebert’s Specialty Meats were amazing. Once again, Hebert’s has served us well with our BBQ desires. Add to that rolls, mashed potatoes, and some other amazing sides, we were satisfyingly filled. Of course, no Thanksgiving is complete without pie and ice cream-which also made for a delicious traditional breakfast the day after Thanksgiving ;)

While in Lake Jackson we were able to spend some time outside playing Frisbee with a couple from the Rogers’s ward and their two kids. We had a great time playing Frisbee golf and trying to avoid large, cold puddles of water. It was a lot of fun and we all went home with cold, wet feet-apparently none of us were too successful at avoiding those puddles.

Great form!

A Series of 'Firsts'

As we are coming up on our one year anniversary (Hooray!), we have reflected on many of the ‘firsts’ that we have been able to share with one another. Here are just a few highlights:

•  JaLeen’s first Dunkin’ Donuts experience
•  Brandon’s first time eating honey on his cheerios for breakfast
• Sitting with two funny girls while their parents sang in the choir during Sacrament meeting
• In addition, the first time we had Christmas carolers come visit us as a married couple was from this great family.
• First time going to watch car racing
• First time getting scuba certified (and luckily the last since these certifications last a lifetime)

      All in all, everything has been a first for us as a married couple. All the holidays, cleaning the toilet for the first time as a married person, hosting dinner parties as a married couple, stealing your spouse's blankets in the middle of the night (Brandon is actually an expert at this and deserves an award for how well he can burrito himself into all the blankets. It's quite impressive), going to eat at food trucks for the first time as a married couple, etc, etc, etc. We have enjoyed it all and look forward to many more 'firsts' over the next eternity!

Arriving at the car races!

Twas a windy day at the races.

First turn. We won't inundate you with a lot more pictures, but it was quite the experience :)

The Great South Texas Adventure

When I first started working at Murphy Oil Corporation, I found myself doing a pre-award meeting with Slack and Co (The pre-award meeting is our chance to meet with the contractor before we give them the go-ahead to spend $1 million dollars or so on a construction project). At the conclusion of this meeting, they gave us their company T-shirt. Emblazoned in large letters was the slogan "The Great South Texas Adventure." I wanted ya'll to share with  me in just one day of that adventure.

The start:

Alarm goes off at 5:45am. Have to be dressed, packed and at the Sugarland Airport by 7. Checklist: FRCs, Safety Boots, Hardhat, Safety Glasses, Water, Snacks, Phone Charger and Jacket.

The view over Sugarland is quite amazing in the early morning:

We landed in San Antonio to let two people off. Lisa from HR and Sean from our group, he is doing a prelim walk-through for his pipeline in Karnes. During the flight Sean asks the pilot if they ever take off at full-throttle. "No, it tends to scare the people sitting in the back... are you going to Cotulla?" After we dropped them off the pilots decided we must be game for it. The jet engines roared, my waterbottle leaped out of its holder and into my lap and Meredith and I both jumped, and then started laughing.
Its a short flight over to the Cotulla Airport. This airport has just one runway and a hanger. The shack below is the combination of pilots quarters,air traffic control,airport head quarters and rental car office. Welcome to Cotulla.

The owner/operator of the Cotulla airport brings out our rental car (it's their side business). The car is a Yukon with about 160,000 miles on it. They took their old GMC out of operation when it hit 210,000. It had a funny whine while we drove it around. They don't have a lot of competition in the rental car business out in these parts. We drove out to the job site, first to all of Meredith's projects, then to mine.

Meredith has been expressing to me that at the office, we are kinda like the low man on the totem pole; other people decide what they are going to do, and we have to put in the infrastructure to make it all work, saying 'no' isn't really an option. (I prefer to think of everyone else as people who make problems while we make solutions) In the field, its a different matter entirely. You see, when we are in the field we are in direct contact with all the people who perform the work for our projects. They see us as their next paycheck, and so they are as friendly and as amicable as can be. They make sure you have a bottle of cold water, drive you all around the site and treat you like a visiting dignitary. Everyone is also looking for a few minutes of your time to sell something to you. Our construction supervisors sell how great a job they are doing for us, the contractor's PM or superintendent tell you how great the project is coming along and how they really would like to keep working for us, roll this crew over to the next job, form an alliance, maybe do a unit price contract structure etc. There is nothing like a trip to the field to boost your ego after getting beat up in the office.

The main reason of the trip is to check out the status of your projects.

The manifold is in place and looking pretty good, but still needs permanent supports and paint. It requires 4 frac tanks worth of water to hydrotest the sections of these lines, and even then they had to break it up into 5 test sections. This particular pipeline network is over 15 miles of pipe. When its built out, it will be the backbone for hundreds of wells to flow to the KBS facility. This project represents around $10 million in investment.

Below is the early gas processing facility. Frank and I were brainstorming one day, trying to figure out how to get ahead of the work and make the company some money. We came up with this: a facility whose equipment is trailer mounted. Drive it in, hook it up, start it up. When you're done just break it down and drive it to the next spot. This equipment will allow us to sell $5.7 million of gas while we are installing a permanent facility here. This equipment was located at Combs previously, where it was in service for about 8 months. We're likely to use it here for 7 months and then move it on to a new home. Probably the Teal. We have 5 sets of these facilities. 

Getting in and out of this particular work area is tricky. We have a 5 mile drive down Diamond H road. This road is so bad that there are potholes the size of our car. I didn't believe it when I first heard it... until we almost dropped our car in it. You're looking at 10 mph max as you go down this road, and you are bobbing and weaving the entire time to avoid obstacles. There is always a crew out maintaining it, but it gets chewed up as fast as they repair it.

I included a picture of the only restaurant within 20 miles. Its called Kats in Catarina. Don't eat here. This place literally has holes in the wall where you can see day light peeking in. Bathroom is atrocious. Oh, and the food... I spent the next 24 hours throwing it all back up. Stomach cramps, sweats and delusions are common side affects. Dying of starvation may be preferable to eating at this location. 

We drove back to Cotulla and dropped by a subway for a really late lunch. We headed back to the airport, where the airport owner asked us if we were important in our company. I think he was trying to figure out why a company would fly a 25 year old and a 21 year old around in a jet. Good question. We're not that important, but Murphy has trusted us with millions of dollars in projects for which we are personally accountable. I still am struggling to grasp how much money we actually spend. I try to put it in terms of a house, 'this project costs as much as 6 of the homes JaLeen and I want to buy'... or 'we're supposed to spend 200 houses worth of money in 3 months.' It kinda works, but not really.

The pilots typically offer you a choice of soda, juice, coffee or alcohol when you are on the flight home. I typically choose sleep instead. I fell asleep shortly after take off and didn't wake up again until Sean and Lisa were boarding in San Antonio. Somehow I slept through the landing. We got back in Sugarland as the sun was setting. I'll shoot JaLeen a text and say I'm headed home.

Keep Austin Weird!

We recently took a lovely weekend trip out to Uncle Jim's old stomping grounds...Austin! We had a great time! Conveniently enough, this trip correlated perfectly with our 10 month anniversary (please be advised that this post will contain many pictures

On Friday we had rented some bikes and toured downtown and the River area on bike.

We also biked up to Guero's Tacos for lunch per recommendations by both Jim and Dave Pimentel. Jim had told us that the fish tacos were to die for-Brandon agreed (though luckily he did not die after eating them).

Since we have lived in Houston, we've really missed being able to do a lot of outdoor activities due to either the heat, distance, or lack of things to do out of doors (oh mountains in Utah, how we miss thee). Thus, one of the main objectives for this trip was just to spend as much time outside as possible. We really enjoyed being so close to the Colorado River. We rented paddle boards and had a great time paddling up river, and then just sitting and chatting while we floated back down to where we needed to turn them back in (Brandon's sore arms were a great impetus for this floating decision). The university's rowing team was also out having their practice while we were on the river, and it was fun to see them.

Saturday was a day filled with hiking. Yes, hiking in Texas! We went out to a place called Greenbelt and enjoyed the beauty of it. The day was perfect for this. Brandon missed rock climbing a bit as we passed people who were climbing along the trail, so maybe we'll have to go back and try some of that out.

Aside from enjoying being outside, we just really enjoyed relaxing and giving Brandon and good break from work, eating great food, browsing the thrift stores, and just wandering around Austin.

Chicago Caper

The instructions were simple enough to enter S P Keasy's, the finest speak easy in Chicago in 1929. Simply head to the right spot, knock lightly on the door, pretend to answer a phone call and let slip your name and the password. Once inside, things got a little out of hand.
   We were being held against our will by someone who wanted in. With Hal Cappone's death and the disappearance of $40 million dollars there was a lot at stake, and one of the eight of us was the killer. We had until midnight to unmask the culprit.
      The suspects:
Molly M Awbster: A flapper girl, she gets the money for her lavish spending by bootlegging moonshine in her Packard auto.
S Treighton Harrow: The District Attorney whose plans for 'justice' would place him at the head of Cappone's organization.
 Ernie G Ambler: A millionaire gambler with a sizable wager that Cappone won't make it back to Chicago alive.
Silky M Adam: The owner of a exclusive private establishment for the most influential citizens of Chicago, Silky's history is full of 'disappearing' men.

Anna Maria Carlotta Sassine ("Torchy"): A popular blues singer at the most exclusive of clubs with the Tommy Gun as her weapon of choice.
Billy ("The Kid") Thrower: Star pitcher for the Chicago Sock Kings, his skill with a baseball translates well to pitching explosives through car windows.

 Eddie "Socks" R. Gyle: Golfer by day, proprietor of an exclusive gaming establishment by night, his business is making deals of every type.
Malissa F. Orrhot ("Scoop"): A reporter for Chicago's leading paper, Scoop's relationship with Hal Cappone, while intially amiable, has turned cold.

After several hours of discussion, deviled eggs, pasta y fagioli, salad, Scallopini and breadsticks we had it all worked out. We knew who killed Hal Capone. Our hosts calmly served up Reese's Peanut Butter Pie as the accusations flew. Not a single person correctly identified Cappone's killer or found the $40 million dollars. Would you like to try your luck?