revolving door

I am now with my 3rd asian roomie, all within about 2 months. They come and go so much that I think I need a revolving door for my room.

Now I wasn't so sorry to see the first one move out, but then the second one immediately told me that she was only staying in my room for 2 weeks before moving with her friends to another dorm...well when those 2 weeks were up and she was still here...I was GLAD. But yesterday when I woke up, she had left a note on my keyboard telling me that the other room was available and she was moving out that day. What a bummer of a way to start the day, well I went to work without waking her and she walked into Yavapai kitchen to say goodbye & give me a little gift. At least she ain't leaving the park for awhile, so I can still see her at Maswik working.

Yesterday afternoon, I was walking around the park and happened to see some kids with luggage at HR...so yup, it didn't take long to get another roomie. This time I got a 22 year old from China. This is her first time in the USA.

She will have orientation tomorrow & Friday....not sure yet if I'm hoping she ends up working mornings or nights, but sure I'll get used to whatever schedule she ends up with.

I'm just hoping that by the time the chinese kids leave, that we are so slow that I get some more time to myself in my own room again.

Xanterra Olympics

Yesterday I went to the "special olympics". I didn't join in any of the events, instead I went around taking pictures of everyone else in the games. I was taking so many pictures that some people asked me if I was working for the newspaper....and wanted to know if my pics would be in the Pinyon Press. So here is a short recap of my day. I liked the picture of Yanaka & Catona (above) cuz Catona did the event barefoot.

This has gotta be 1 of my favorites. Mike had to run up to the guys on boards and pass them an orange & then he got to come back to the start line. Don't think he could stop.

Minerva for the "rooms" team was good at the maze event.

Brenda was a "plugger" for the HR team. The F&B team won first place..the first time, then second place the second time.

Jim & Claire are on the engineering team doing the puzzle event. I was almost gonna sign up for this event. So glad now that I didn't. It woulda been to nerve-wracking and I had more fun taking pictures.

Here's Nancy & Mike showing off the medals that they won.

Carrie is riding while Jack/John pushes her into the finish line. They did good at this game...HR must of tied with another team for the obstucle race cuz they did the whole event twice...but think Jack & Carrie finished first both times.

Rain

I could hear the lightening from my room, so I grabbed my shoes & camera to go see if I could capture it. I didn't stay out long cuz it was pouring big time and I was cold....(did u notice I didn't say I grabbed a coat)
These pictures were taken up by the Yavapai Observation Center.

I have to remember to turn the flash on this new camera. Hey its only my actual second day using this new toy & I have lots to learn about it still.

my new camera

As I was out walking around with my new canon digital camera, I stopped in at HR to see if by chance Brenda was out having a smoking break.
My friend, Nancy was out instead. Even with her hair up I noticed it was different. Hard to tell in this picture but it has body to it cuz she got it cut.

After visiting with people at the HR office I went down to the mule barn to get pictures of the new foal. This was 1 of my favorites...as the young foal started to walk around it decided to check out the pile of hay that all the mules were eating...it was almost as if 1 big mule was trying to tell the foal that he wasn't about to share lunch.

comedy team at work

I went into work early today and got this picture of the 2 cooks that I call "Grandpa" (he's in the back). "Uncle Charlie" is in the front making breakfast. Of course neither of them are actually related to me. But they have had the little family names for the last year. I have worked with them since I got here and today was the first time I have gotten a picture of either of them.

These 2 crack me up alot, and this week I am working in the kitchen with them. Another cook at work told me that "Grandpa & "Uncle" remind him of the 2 old guys on the Muppet show that used to sit in the theater balcony complaining about stuff. So now every now & then when these 2 are at it at work...I'll just annouce "oh no, the Muppet Show is back"

Unfortunately, They both are daydreaming about leaving the park. Grandpa has applied for a government job in TX, and Uncle Charlie would like to go back to work at Death Valley.

Today was for the dogs

For my day off today, I decided to spend my morning with the dogs at the kennel, instead of dealing with the crowd of people here on holiday.

The dog I got today is named "Mandy". I was told she was about 10 years old and had not been at the kennel for to long.

When she made up her mind to turn around and head back to the kennel...thats exactly what she did. Even though it rained some yesterday and was sprinkling before I got to the kennel, Mandy was panting as if we were still having a heat-wave.

When I stopped to light a cigarette, she just plopped down in the road and didn't want to move....until I told her that she could go back home.

As soon as I brought Mandy back, the other dogs were jumping around yapping...probably hoping I would take them next. There was 1 dog there that NPS just brought in last night. It had wondered inside the rec center during the short rainstorm yesterday...I'll assume it belongs to a Grand Canyon employee, who was just gone for the holiday and will be home soon and realize where their dog has gone.

long day

Yesterday I got into Yavapai at 5:30am & I didn't get home until 5pm.

We got 2 more new lineservers, so during my normal first shift I got to stay on the salad bar and not have to really deal with customers if I didn't want to. Seeing as there were so many lineservers we got a 45 minute break. I was scheduled for break at 8:30-9:45. But I got to take another short break (on the clock) seeing as I agreed to stay late to help out in the kitchen...I told manager & Tai that I wanted to eat fish first before going into kitchen...well at 12:30 the manager came to tell me that there was only 1 piece of salmon left so if I wanted it that I should go grab it now.
I helped in the kitchen cuz Dave called out sick and there were only 4 people scheduled to work in kitchen. And Tai had a small banquet at 7pm.

By the time I got home..my lower back and right foot was killing me. It was only 83 degrees out but I was sweating like a pig. (do pigs actually sweat? if not then where did we got that silly saying)