Family Fotos

I finally finished putting together my online album from last weekend's family reunion. Below are a few of my favorite pics, in addition to the ones in previous posts. There's an abbreviated version of the album if you follow this link.


Wade wanted to play cards with the big kids


Casey goes after the volleyball


We took a fun hike to Sprague Lake for a picnic


Amend cattle were once branded with the "UIU" brand. We "branded" the younger kids to show that they carry the Amend brand on their hearts.

View all the pictures here:

Amend Family Reunion 2008

Another preview

I've uploaded all my selected reunion pics, but I have yet to dedicate the time to write captions. Hopefully I'll get to that this weekend. In the meantime, here's another of my favorite shots from the weekend. It's a face you might recognize from this here blog.

Lather, rinse, repeat

Just in case you didn't get the point in my last post, I kinda like these folks. This pic is from my cousin Peter's camera. I have a similar shot in the album I'll be posting eventually, but mine's from the side and you can't quite see everyone's silly expressions. So I had to share this one. Also, I nearly lost a quart of bodily fluid drooling over his wide-angle lens.

These are some of my favorite people in the world

And I get to call them family. More pictures from the weekend TK.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Lots on my to-do list before I leave town tomorrow. Sorry these took a while to get posted!

BEFORE:




AFTER:

One Year Later

Can it really have been one year ago today that I landed in London to kick off my round-the-world escapades? When I tell people that I traveled for 3 months on my own, I usually get reactions mixed with awe and respect. But three months seem like nothing compared to friends who have done 6, 12 or 18 months. And when I find myself having returned to the same yellow bedroom still bunking with my parents, I wonder how wide I really made my world. Was it all just a temporary broadening of my boarders?

On Another Note
I chopped my hair off. Pictures TK.

Redesign

I decided this blog was in need of an update, folks. I'd been bummed that I couldn't post my pictures bigger, so I found a template that would work that way. If I'm going to take fun pictures with my new lens, by golly, I want to be able to show them off at their finest (see below).



This is Scoobie, the lucky guy I with whom I get to spend all of next week. This gig will wrap up 4 weeks straight of house / pet sitting. Whew.

Take Your Bandit to Work Day

Friday was Take Your Dog to Work Day. I put Bandit in charge of helping me pick out a sanserif font for a new project. He has a fabulous eye for typography.



Bandito and me, hard at work




Amanda and Bantos, the Boston Terrier

Self-Improvement

I am working hard to:

+ Sit up straighter
+ Not care that I can't be everyone's friend
+ Make my gym membership worth the nominal fee I pay
+ Go for a hike every month
+ Answer emails more promptly
+ Make plans to cross the border for a long weekend this summer/fall
+ Drink more water
+ Not get too emotional when emotion is unnecessary
+ Make time to see Sex and the City
+ Infuse my work with more feminine flair
+ Stick to my budget
+ Make excuses to take more pictures
+ Get more comfortable presenting in front of a group

On a related note...
I gave my first Toastmasters speech this Monday, wherein I had to basically just introduce myself to the assembled group. I got several laughs (yes!), and the biggest round of gasps and laughs came from this segment of my speech:

My mom was a teacher at a local middle school. Her subject? Sex ed. If I ever seem a bit odd to you, just attribute it to the scars of surviving my teen years despite memories of adolescent boys coming up to me in the hallway with the announcement, “Erica! Your mom talked about masturbation in class today!” True story.

The results are in: I have a personality

During my interview process for my new job, I had to go through a battery of personality tests, and I recently got the results. Apparently I am high in the "conscientiousness" factor. Also, I:

+ am a perfectionist
+ play by the rules
+ benefit from structure
+ can easily get consumed by details, tend to over-analyze issues
+ am easily rattled by rejection, but will respond well to critiques
+ often ask "how?"
+ am afraid of confrontation, and thus can give in too easily or can not make my own needs known
+ am very loyal

I was amazed at how spot on these results were, and I would be interested to see if anything would change, were I to take the test again in 3 years. A lot of these characteristics I could have probably told you about myself, but somehow this makes them feel "official". Kinda like a diagnosis. All I need now is a prescription to go along. "To treat your fear of confrontation, I'll have you take two deep breaths per conflict. And be sure to stock up on assertive supplements."

I guess that's what therapy's for, right?