How I Spent My Unplanned Furlough (or What I Did While the Government Sucked) - Week 2

So there was a week 2.... That pretty much sucks (almost as much as Capitol Hill right now)

Day 7 - After the boys went to school, M and I decided to tidy up the house some. I installed a new rack for pans in the cabinet. We needed something to hold pans upright, as M has tall narrow cabinets in the kitchen. It was a birthday gift from my parents.
We also took several walks in the nice autumn weather - one with the dogs, and one with the boys and the dogs.

Day 8 - Today was the day we tidied up the house. Lots of recycling was done, some sorting, and then on to American Horror Story! It had just come in that morning, so we gorged on all 3 episodes on the first disc.
Also, after trying for over a week, and waiting on hold for many minutes, I was able to file for unemployment... yuck.

Day 9 - We drove BACK to El Paso because I have a cat to feed. We spent most of Wednesday evening watching Parks and Recreation or playing Champions of Norrath while I baked multiple loaves of banana bread. I had 11 or so bananas in the freezer and we are trying to eat what we have and not hit the grocery store.

Day 10 - So yeah - today was mostly Champions of Norrath day. We ran a few errands and in the evening we went to A's house to hang with her and the kids for dinner and a movie.

Day 11 - While my car was in the shop with routine maintenance, we went to see Gravity on the big screen. Go See This Movie! It was awesome and if there is one movie to waste money on while not receiving a paycheck, this is it!

Day 12 - Drove BACK to Carlsbad because M has kids to feed :-)    Continued our spooky movie nights with 3 episodes of Ghost Hunters International.  Did you know they have that one on Netflix Instant?! It definitely freaked me and the boys out. M was unimpressed.

Day 13 - It rained most of the day so we all stayed indoors... Magic was played, Ghostbusters was watched, dance music was played over and over again... and M and I are starting to get sick. Fun...

This furlough-with-unscheduled-return-time thing sucks for one big reason.... we can't go anywhere! We have this time off and I'd love to do some traveling with it, but each day we have to check the news, Facebook, and the DOI website to see if the government has decided to reopen us. If they do, we report back to work the very next day. That blows!

Oh and now we are heading into Week 3!

How I Spent My Unplanned Furlough (or What I Did While the Government Sucked) - Week 1

Week 1 (let's hope there's no Week 2...)

Day 1 - spent most of the morning kinda freaking out with M, thought a lot about money and missing paychecks, etc. I then made mental lists of all the places we should go since we now 'have the time'. Thank you Congress :-(
Oh, then crossed off half the places in my mental list because they've got the word "National" in their name and that means they're CLOSED! Then made mental list of all the things that needed to be done at home (cheap and/or free).

Day 2 - Marathoned Parks and Recreation, Season 5 - Thank you Netflix for releasing this on October 1st. I totally feel that it was done to help all of us in the NPS... I might be overthinking that but whatever. Oh! I also spent some time cleaning the house... Maybe if I had a furlough once a year, the house would be cleaned once a year? M came in late in the evening and was wrecked from a long day. To end our first official "furlough day" (yesterday was technically our day off), we watched some stand-up comedy and fell into blissful, allergy-pill enhanced sleep.

Day 3 - M worked on his book, so I Facebooked. Reading all the NPS friends and family posts about whats happening to them kinda got me down, and pissed. So M and I went for a nice long walk by the Rio Grande with Lennox. The sounds of the riparian area, mixed with the crisp fall breeze really helped. Later, after a lot of Champions of Norrath, we cooked a nice fall dinner of lemon risotto and champagne, and settled into a romantic evening with 28 Days Later. (Fall is the perfect time for scary movies!)

Day 4 - Went hiking in a STATE PARK! Franklin Mountains State Park encompasses the whole mountain that splits El Paso into East and West sides.

Thank you state parks for not shutting down at the same time as our federal parks did... that would incite a riot among hikers. Afterwards, we decided to hit a cheap date spot and went mini-golfing :-)

Day 5 - Woke up early (8am, but for the first time in 7 days) to hit the Saturday Arts & Farmers Market in downtown El Paso. I ALWAYS miss this market. Every Saturday there are posts all over Facebook taunting me about the fun being had at the market while I'm at work. Later that afternoon, M and I caravaned out to Carlsbad to spend the weekend. Driving through Guadalupe Mountains NP during the shut-down is bittersweet. I know the natural forces aren't shut-down, the indigenous animals don't listen well to our federal government. I'm sure they're enjoying the quiet, peaceful void of humans. I want to be out there with them.

We went to a going away party for a co-worker... of course, she can't move to her new job until the govt reopens...
We closed the day with The Omen. (we're doing all scary movies for October)

Day 6 - Woke up realizing that the boys don't have winter jeans that fit them... Hit Walmart before the church crowd showed up. (i seriously had to remember what day it was. this no-work thing messes up your internal calendar) Played Words with Friends for the first time in several days. I now realize that I mostly play this at work... sorry WWF friends. We went for a family+dogs walk to enjoy the early fall afternoon and play at the playground.
The scary October movie of the evening was Insidious, which scared the crap outta me. I may have hidden my face in a pillow for over half the movie, but that just tells you how scary it was. Fantastic evening flick! (Can't wait for the second one!) We also watched a family-friendly Percy Jackson and the Olympians with the boys. It was pretty good too. :-)

Gardening... in pictures

Seeds!

Spinach and Kale getting ready to go

my gardening help.... an eager Lennox, while a reluctant Chicory hides in the shade

Planting in containers

Best gardening book ever! and I found
it in a random used bookstore. Fate!

Meanwhile, in Carlsbad -

Lavender for the front bed

Cutting off awesome blossoms makes
the plant healthier - we hope.

Let's hope these guys grow big and awesome

red potatoes bought in Albertsons and planted
in the backyard

the beginnings of broccoli

the family farm... and Lennox. Potatoes in the bins on the left, broccoli behind the chiminea, cilantro
in front chilling with herbs bought to provide instant gratification. 

drilling drain holes in bins. guess they aren't
all the same size.
Oops!

Winnie wants to help too

to be continued....

El Paso's Tin Mines

This last weekend, M and I hiked to a series of tin mines in the Franklin Mountains. I discovered the trail from a great local blog, elpasonaturally. The first thing we noticed about this hike was although it was in the middle of the city, there weren't any sounds of the city, no sign of the suburbs; not even a plane flying overhead.

a rare El Paso scene... no signs of the city!

The first 2 miles of the hike were on old mining roads that have been converted to hike/bike trails. This made for great easy walking over hard-packed gravel. We saw lots of small yellow flowers and a few early-crop poppies.















The old mining roads were built around 1901 as a way to cross through the Franklin Mountains, where the present-day Transmountain Road/Loop 365 runs. Several roads also ran from the railroad and highway heading up towards Alamagordo to springs located along the eastern edge of the Franklins. The geology of the Franklins is mostly limestone with some granite intrusions. The tin was discovered in these granite intrusions. Tin is very rare in North America. However, it wasn't profitable enough so the mines were shut down in 1915.

The small dark dots on the left are mine grates... Up above you can
see the lighter bands of limestone.

Grates covering mine trenches and shafts.

M striking his usual photography pose

After a few wrong turns, we made it to the entrance to the main mine. Luckily, I had cell service the whole hike and was able to follow the GPS map from AllTrails. It saved our asses several times. After some really loose rock-scrambling, we made it up to the entrance and were delighted to discover you could walk into the mines! I've never been inside an un-manned mine before.

We had brought headlamps because we thought we'd be able to look into the mine. Little did we know we would be able to walk pretty far back into the shafts.

My first thought was Mountain Lions and drug-runners would enjoy living in these unlocked abandoned tunnels. Should we come across any, we would resort to defending ourselves by whipping them with our cameras and water bottles. (Not a fantastic plan....)

I was enjoying the features of my new camera so we shot a quick video of M playing in the mine... Its on my YouTube page.


Also, you can check out this YouTube video... The guy recorded a half hour of exploring the tunnels. It'll make you queasy in that Blair Witch sorta way.

The vertical pit that made it impossible for me to
continue into the tunnel. What if it contained a
mountain lion, or big scary cave monster?!

M or scary cave monster?

No scary cave monster... just M :-)

After leaving the upper entrance, we found a route down to a lower entrance. This tunnel was much smaller than the upper one. You had to stoop over to walk through it, or crawl on your knees.









M went in and explored this tunnel. It was lit in the back by the trench that we walked along earlier in the upper entrance. It branched off in several directions, some tunnels going quite far back. From the looks of the 30 minute video on YouTube, we didn't miss too much by not exploring it fully.

M heads in!

After leaving the mines, and getting a bit off trail in a washed out gully, we retraced our path back down the mountain to the neighborhood where we had parked. It was a very cool hike, a great place to take kids, and I'm glad we did it (in spite of my pulled thigh muscle that cramped up for most of the trip. I pulled it hiking a few weeks ago).

The muscle-pulling hike we did last time. See the tiny trail down below....
The car is parked down there.

Reluctantly I Headed to D.C. (And Had a Pretty Good Time!)

Last week I had to take a trip to Washington DC for work. I LOVE traveling, but traveling for work isn't nearly as fun. I wasn't really looking forward to the trip - on top of having a cold, I was going to be engaging in 'team building' with 40 strangers. Ick!

At the El Paso airport, I discovered that TSA is doing extra-special 2nd base checks... The TSA lady ran her hands down my sternum and around my ribcage, multiple times. I boarded my tiny puddle-jumper to Denver to enjoy having the whole row to myself. So I took advantage of the No Seat Belt sign and gorgeous day and took lots of photos (with my cell phone so the pics are crappy).

We flew along the Permian Reed, with El Capitan and Guadalupe Peak out my window. I waved down to my boyfriend as we passed Carlsbad. Northern New Mexico is pretty cool to see from the sky. Its all desert plains and huge mountainous patches of black rock left, remnants of 10,000 year old lava flows. (geology nerds rock!) 

To the west, the Sandias and Jimez mountains were capped with snow. My first snow of the season!

Wow! Southeastern Colorado is boring! I was hoping to see Great Sand Dunes National Park but no, just flat, brown, agricultural fields.

The front range of the Rocky Mountains is pretty amazing to see. Just imagine those poor pioneers, after thousands of boring flat miles of Kansas and Missouri, to be hit with this site. Little did they know the landscape would be rocky and mountainous all the was to the Pacific. Awesome!

Even the Denver airport has some snow-capped peaks.:-)

Inside the airport I encountered some local wildlife.... a flock of sparrows flying around the terminal eating crumbs off the empty seats. Once on the completely packed plane, I discovered more wildlife.... our pilot had a very strong, very cliche New Jersey accent. Just what I need, the Jersey Shore cast piloting my jet across the country.

At Dulles I was surprised to find some super-helpful airport workers (take notice, Houston Intercontinental bitches!). I thought they were extinct! A very nice eastern African traffic director noticed I was lost and pointed me in the right direction, even stopped traffic so that I could get across. Then a west African shuttle driver helped me find which bus I needed to get to my hotel. It was 11pm and I'd been traveling for 12 hours. My brain was fried.

The next two hours consisted on a random midnight tour of Georgetown, where all I could think about was The Exorcist, and cleaning all of my 'fancy office clothes' in the hotel sink. My shampoo exploded and the freezer bag I had packed it in was open.

This is only the 1st day and I'm already exhausted. Seriously not looking forward to this trip.

The rest of the week was a blur of meeting rooms, new faces, and Team Dimension profiles. However, we got a lot of sight-seeing done too!

The White House!

Washington Monument, cracked and broken
so nobody can go inside

The Navy Memorial Museum - where they were
practicing for a Pearl Harbor memorial event

Very cool statue at the Navy Memorial
Museum reminded me of my grandfather

Ford's Theater - the box where Lincoln
was assassinated

From the top of the Old Post Office tower -
Looking up Pennsylvania Ave towards
Capitol Hill

Christmas Tree Concert at the White House

Oh yeah, we also got free tickets to the White House Christmas Tree Celebration - it was freezing, I'm not into crowds, and I STILL had a cold - but I went nonetheless. When the Deputy Director of the National Park Service gives you free tickets to a White House event, you go.

It was a star-studded concert, with Neil Patrick Harris
hosting, and the Obamas reading
The Night Before Christmas to us all

It was an awesome evening!

Things I learned from my trip to DC?

1. City life is fun but ultimately not for me. All that walking and concrete and traffic and noise? Ugh!

If you have enough money, you can
afford your own tiny spot of
nature, on a roof

2. When standing with 8000 strangers in front of the White House, no amount of bandwidth will allow you to access Facebook to brag or text photos of Phillip Phillips to your best friend (who LOVES him). So I'll post a quick video here :-)

Yes... that's me screaming throughout the video.
(try my YouTube page if you can't get the video to play here)

3. Getting kicked out of your meeting space because the President of the United States (or POTUS) needs to talk to 150 leaders of Native American tribes is pretty cool.

4. Introducing non-city people to Tapas is both interesting and amusing

5. Room service and a bubble bath make for a damned good evening

6. The Secret Service have traffic stops down pat! They can get VP Biden from his house in Georgetown to the White House with only minimal disruption to us commuters. ps - they will wave at you if you wave at them (not the snipers, never wave at snipers)

7. Even a reluctant work trip can have some pretty awesome adventures attached.

Flying over snow-capped Rockies is gorgeous!

Devil's Hall with the boys

This last weekend I headed out to Guadalupe Mountains National Park with M and his boys for a Veteran's Day hike. Guadalupe contains the highest peak in Texas as well as some world-renown geological specimens from the Permian Era. In the fall, people migrate there in droves to see the only fall colors around this region. Most people head to the more famous McKittrick Canyon but we were hitting M's favorite place - Devil's Hall.

Last week a local newscast aired an interview on location they did with M in Devil's Hall and since then the place has had more El Pasoan foot traffic than ever before! So I guess mass media really does still work.

I have done this hike many years ago but I barely remember it and half of hiking is the company you keep, so this trip would be fun.

The forecast was a bit dismal for my south Texan bones... windy (50mph) and cold (high of 50). I dressed as warmly as I could, brought extra stuff for the kids in case they're as wimpy as I am, and still froze my ass off. Even with the hiking, I was cold. (blood flows to muscle, leaving fatty tissue to stay cold.... read: my ass, my thighs)

We started hiking after lunch so that the weather was a bit warmer. However, we were hiking in a canyon so we also had no sun.... brrrr! Thank you weather gods for the absence of wind. The Guads are known for their incredible wind storms.

The hike started off sunny...

However, we were headed into a canyon and
would soon lose our light and solar-warmth

We did see lots of great fall color. This isn't New England fall color but when one or two trees are brilliant red and surrounded by white rock, it really stands out. Most of the time I couldn't photograph the color due to the shadowy canyon light.

Bright red big-toothed maples were everywhere

Texas Madrone berries added great color, but
taste awful!

White is a color.... There were several
yuccas blooming along the trail. They
bring in the bats and moths. Yay!

There were other kinds of color too - brilliant purple
colored all the rocks from Ringtail urine - probably
purple from eating berries

After a bit of trail hiking, in which the boys took turns looking for cougars with binoculars and spilling water on their shirts, we headed into a rocky wash to hike for a mile to Devil's Hall. This is what we like to call "kid nirvana"....

Jumbly awesome rocks to climb on!

And climb them, they did!

At one point, in the narrow rock-strewn canyon, I heard rustling in the bushes high overhead. I shushed the boys (have you ever tried to shush 10 year olds? its not an easy task) so we wouldn't scare off whatever animal was up there. Turned out to be a deer family of 4 eating an afternoon meal. They stared at us; we stared at them. Once the boys had a good look at the deer in their natural habitat, we were off for more rock climbing.

Towards the end of the hike, the trail goes up what's known as Devil's Stairs. These are fun but the odd way they tilt create a dizzying optical illusion.

One runs to the Devil's Stairs while the other surveys the path

Posing for photos for dad

After the Devil's Stairs, the canyon narrows even more. M and I walked in front of the boys, allowing them time to be alone with nature, and time for us to jump out and scare them from behind our hiding places.  :-)

Also gave us time to pose
for our own pictures

The canyon narrows down to almost a slot canyon.... if we were on the Colorado Plateau we'd call it a "slot canyon" but we aren't so we call it "Devil's Hall"!

M enjoying geology and fall colors at the
mouth of Devil's Hall

Devil's Hall is the end of the trail. I guess you could bushwhack up a few more yards but not with kids... Another day perhaps. So we turned around and headed back out. We saw the deer in the same spot as where we left them. I even found the boys' lost binoculars in the same spot they left them... All in all, a good day out in the wilderness, a good 4 miles of fall color, a good time!