First Day!

I had my first day of work yesterday. It was pretty uneventful. I spent all morning in a new-hire orientation and the afternoon was filled with meeting co-workers and trying to log on to my computer. They left a hyphen out of my password. The rest of the week I will be taking the "Atlas Rocket Familiarization Course." Just like being a student, except I get paid. Cool.

In other news, the tumultuous tour has concluded and I have chosen my favorite crash. Casar (the guy in white) went on to get the stage win from this break away of four. Check it out:

Old Friends

For the past week my old friends Kelly and Jason have been visiting from Seattle. This was the first significant chance we have had to spend time together since before Korea. We picked up right where we left off and had a great time. We went rafting, hiking, biking, tubing, climbing and rounded out the indoor time with watching the tour, eating, playing cards and joking around. Pretty fun stuff. I picked up a bit of a stomach bug last Saturday along with some heat exhaustion, but seem to be doing better now.

One more week until I start work. I am super excited.

backpackin'

Colorado has beautiful places too.

Mel and I went backpacking this past weekend. Mel was pretty much shocked when I asked her if she wanted to go. Usually I suggest a boating trip or some climbing, but this weekend it sounded like fun to get out and see if there are mines in the wilderness areas too. I am pleased to report that we did not see a single mine in the Holy Cross wilderness. We did see tons of beautiful alpine lakes, granite peaks, and big fat marmots. Cota was especially fond of the big fat marmots. We passed the time drinking Oregon Pinot, eating stinky cheese and swimming in the lakes, it was totally relaxing.

On the return trip I came to the conclusion that resort towns are a lot like casinos. They have all the glitz and glam and each town has it's own theme just like the casinos. Replace the tables with some chairlifts, horseback-riding and whitewater rafting and you are almost there. The only discernable difference I can make out is while Vegas gives away free lodging to encourage people to come, resort towns sell realestate for absurd prices so people feel obligated to come and spend money more often.

Month Off

I got a job offer from United Launch Alliance. ULA is a newly-formed joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing that is in the business of launching rockets. I will be a Dynamics and Controls Engineer on the Atlas V project. My official job title is super awesome, "Mechanical Engineer II" I am so excited about this and can't wait for my start date on July 30th. In the mean time, I plan to fully enjoy my unemployment for one last month. The generous signing bonus supplied by ULA should make that all the easier. The term, "It's not rocket science" no longer applies.

Upper Animas

Yesterday, Mel and I had the chance to run one of the top whitewater rivers in the world with friend Dana Kopf and many others. We had a big trip with three rafts and 8 kayaks. I unfortunately managed to forget the camera, so there are no photos, but suffice it to say we had a wonderful time with beautiful weather and classic boating. The gorge is granite, unspoiled except by a narrow gauge railroad, and surrounded by 4,000m peaks. We even extended the trip by running the Rockwood Box, a seldom rafted class V gorge that may be the most spectacular portion of the trip. Rockwood was the only place our group experienced any carnage with one kayaker taking a swim in Mandatory Thrashing. The trip concludes with a mile-long uphill hike, especially fun with rafts.