The weekends over already?

Ugh, I'm so far behind on my blogger updates its sad, this job thing is taking up too much of my life. So I am going to do a shortened version of what I have been doing for the last month.

My SVP meeting was awesome. The drive to Mesa with my friend Peggy was great, although we kept passing signs for the Grand Canyon and it was sad to pass them by. The talks were great although there were not as many interesting ones as last year my fav talk was one about a baby sauropod (long neck) skeleton that was found in Montana but had no head. The little thing was so cute, they think it's about 2-3 years old and is about the size of a large dog. It was great being among the elite of Paleontology. People watching is a favorite hobby of ours while we are there, there were lots of the "stereotype" of scientists there...mostly there was just a lot of bad fashion sense. The dance at the end of the meeting is always the best. It's like this desperation that was kept under control during the meetings snap, and everyone just goes crazy with drinking, dancing and the hookups. If only I could describe what it looks like to see a group of scientists dancing to euro-techno... Did I mention that Mesa has great shopping and antique stores. I spent way too much money. On the way home we stopped at Montezuma's Castle, which is Cliff Dwellings. I had never seen them in person, and they were breath taking. There was a natural depression into the limestone cliff and people were able to get themselves up the 30ish feet with ladders and natural walkways then build these living structures. I took pictures, I just have to finish the roll and get them developed.

Two weeks ago it was my birthday, I'm now 25 and can rent a car with out penalty! So that Friday I went to the DMV and got my Nevada Licence and Plates, hurray! I can drive my car again!

So for my birthday Justin took me to eat a Bucco de Beppo's an Italian family style restaurant. There's one in Seattle kinda by the Space Needle..oh I love that place. Justin got us a room at a resort by Lake Las Vegas (man made) so we walked around by the lake and they had a bunch of cool shops. We also went to the casino and gambled a little bit and had some beer. Next day we drove around Lake Mead (created from the Hoover Dam) visited some natural springs and enjoyed the beauty of the area. Sunday we went hiking with co-worker Kimberly to the Arizona Hot Springs. It was about a 5.5 mile loop hike, and it was very difficult. First we were walking in slot canyons, which is very dangerous because if it rains flash floods come roaring down very quickly. But it wasn't raining anywhere in the state so we were ok. The whole hike was in gravel which is very tiring to walk on. The hot springs were amazing. To get to them, we had to climb up a ladder which had hot spring water falling over it as well. The parks people made two pools of water by putting up small walls of sandbags that we had to climb over to get into the pools. I have pictures, so I will try to post them tomorrow. The pools were so warm, I just wanted to hang out in them all day but we were only half way through the hike so we ate lunch with out feet dangling in the water then we carried on. The last half was the hardest. There were a lot of dry waterfalls that we had to scramble up. The hardest part was there was a fall that was impossilbe to climb so we had to backtrack a bit them climb up near vertical rocks to get up and over the falls. I have pics of that as well...it was crazy. We got to see some petroglyphs which was amazing. Petroglyphs are drawings on rocks created by the early native people in the area. the hike took about 6 hours and I was sore for about half a week after that but well worth it.

Ok well that's pretty much what has been going on with me but Extreme House Makeover is going to be on soon so must go!