Spring has sprung!

Spring has sprung! To celebrate, we wore short sleeves and walked to lunch without jackets! We wore sunglasses all day! We dashed to the car as a thunderstorm pelted us in the afternoon! Spring is my favorite season, and I cannot wait to get out into it.

Despite the inspiring weather, the work week was once again almost more than I could handle. I did accomplish a few things though:

• I got out my site assessment report, on time (barely) , even though the client really turned out to be high maintenance;
• I spent practically a whole day in meetings (a first)- meeting with a vendor, meeting with the other members of the GREAT committee (recreational and teambuilding for the office), a groundwater group pow wow, and a GAI-wide conference call about a new software that I'm implementing in two of my projects; and
• I still spent lots of time running around like a chicken with its head cut off to keep up with everyone else's crises.

So, by the time the weekend came around, I was ready! Somehow, I've become the organizer of the weekly happy hour, and the good part is that I get to pick the venue every week. This week, we went to the Buffalo Rose in Golden.

This self-proclaimed road-house is a local icon for Golden, and the Coors flows like nobody's business. You can't really tell in this photo, but the place is really suffering from an identity crisis. There's dead heads on the walls, heavy metal and sometimes hip hop on the jukebox, a hippie with 4 foot dreads serving up the beer, the place is packed with bikers, and there's the world ice skating championships on the big screen. What?

Nevertheless, we had a great turnout- it was Jessica and Brian's first time out for happy hour, Nestor just got back from Canada (he got stuck with the assignment in my place this year- too bad for him!) and Ron got a chance to come out with us as Melissa hung out with the kids. We also got a chance to hang out with Doug, a golderite from way back when I used to work at the gold mine in Cripple Creek (affectionately known as Cripple Crud).

Saturday morning came way too fast (don't forget I had to go back and rile up the dog for a good few hours before he would sleep!) and I managed to get to the burbs, back and out again in time to make it to Karin's baby shower. Her mom threw the shower and unfortunately, most of our other mutual friends were gone for the weekend. I managed OK, but I was stuck between the girls that really care about appearance (obviously still not moms themselves), the new mom that mysteriously never wanted to talk about her baby, and relatives. A very surreal experience.

After some quality time with the pooch (here he is trying to help me figure out my tripod) I headed over to Ivon's house for a Peruvian dinner.

Ivon had decided to cook for about ten of us- 5 Americans, 4 Peruvians, one Chilean, and a Swede. Sounds like a punchline is coming, but nope. We all had a great time teasing each other about our respective cultures and learning the ins and outs of the properly prepared Peruvian cocktail called the pisco sour. It took a couple of the girls at least 20 minutes to make a batch, but they were worth the wait! Something akin to a margarita, but it involves egg whites and cinnamon.

Dinner consisted of something like ceviche (but not), some rice and corn, some yams, something chickeny and spicy, and salad. Good stuff. Now if I could only remember what the heck it was called...

Dessert was provided Delia, one of Ivon's friends, and was a giant chocolate cake from Whole Foods. It took three of the guys to serve it out, and once we started up with the ice cream, it was up to a crew of five. Don't be fooled though, there were enough consultants in the room to provide quite the quality control team. Almost half the ice cream in the place was "quality tested" before it was even served.

Full up on food and conversation, I made my way back to downtown and called it a night. Here's a photo of the neighborhood that I took earlier in the rainy day. I had hoped to spend lots more quality time with the camera while I stayed here, but I had too much going on. (That's always the case, eh?)

Today I went back to work and didn't get nearly enough done, but I felt the need to come back and spend my last quality moments with Heisman. Sara and Mike are back tonight, and I might actually miss this pooch! I won't have too much time to worry about it though- I am off to Durango tomorrow for three days and then back to write a stats report in record time for the end of month due date. Keep your fingers crossed for me and my time management skills!