The Leak

Last Wednesday at work I was walking from the kitchen into the family room area, in front of the TV, when I noticed that the rug was wet. At first I thought someone spilled water. I briefly began randomly muttering "Who spilled water on the carpet and didn't clean it up?" a few times; then I lifted the rug and realized that all the carpet underneath it was sopping wet. There was no way that anyone had spilled that much water and none of the staff notice it. So I moved the coffee table and rolled back the rug. There was a 2X4 foot area that was wet, with no sign of dripping from the ceiling or walls. I felt under the TV cabinet, and it was slightly damp. So I went to find our director. She agreed that it was probably a slab leak. She called the owner of the building, who eventually showed up (well, his assistant did) and said they would get someone on it "as soon as possible." My coworkers and I moved the furniture away from the leak area and waited. For AN ENTIRE WEEK. True, the day after we discovered the leak, a crew of two showed up and cut two holes...in the wall. Then they left. Nothing was done over Memorial Day weekend, and indeed, nothing was done for two days after that. Today, however, a jack hammer and some shovels were brought in, causing some actual progress to be made, and now our floor looks something like this:

(This is not an actual picture of our floor, although it is quite similar to what I get to look at for the next few days.)

It's actually kind of funny, because the giant gaping hole in the floor is a) blocking the kitchen, so we have to jump over it to get in to the kitchen area, thus putting to the test my nonexistent acrobatic skills, and b) surrounded by dirt, which has the appearance of beach sand. That, coupled with the ocean pictures on the wall that make fake ocean noises, gives the imitation that we are trying to create our own little beach area inside the building. Maybe tomorrow, I'll bring my beach chair and a book with me to work. That'll make the bosses laugh! Or cringe.

Pepe le Pew vs. Alvin the Turtle

Last night a skunk passed by my open window. Sad day. Even sadder is the fact that Mssr. Le Pew sprayed near my open window. I spent quite a while spraying my mattress, carpet, and curtains down with febreeze. My pillows went into the dryer with a dryer sheet (turns out they weren't really affected). Unfortunately, there is still something that smells skunkish in my room. And I'm pretty sure that "something" is the shelled grumpy-old-man turtle on top of my book shelf. Boo. Does anyone know if I can wash my turtle in tomato juice?

The Wild Animal Park

I spent my day today shepherding 9 young adults and 1 other staff member around the Wild Animal Park. It was pretty fun. If you ever feel the need to go to the Wild Animal Park or the San Diego Zoo and don't necessarily want to pay for it, each one has one day in the year where they don't charge admission. That day is Founder's Day. It's the celebration of the day that they opened, and it's not very well known. The Wild Animal Park's founder's day is in May, and the San Diego Zoo's is in October.

Here are a couple of pictures. I can't put many in, because I can't post ones that have my kids in them.

In front of the African Lions Exhibit

They have a bunch of lion cubs at the Wild Animal Park. Did you know that lion cubs sleep about 20 hours a day?

California Condors

I love Giraffes. They have a lot of great overlooks at the WAP, and in this picture I'm standing on one overlooking the giraffe area. The great thing about the Wild Animal Park is that there is a lot of space for the animals to roam around in, so you sort of feel like you're walking around in an African Safari.

Shell

My Dad emailed me on my birthday (he was out in the middle of the ocean still, so he couldn't call quite yet), and asked me if I wanted anything for my birthday from Hawaii. Well, I have a bit of a sea shell collection, so I asked him if he could try to find me a conch shell. He found one, the last in the store, and this is the picture that I got of it:

Shell, looking out at the USS Missouri on the left, and the Arizona Memorial

Shell, watching the USS Pelilieu dock near the Mercy










In case you were wondering, he added the eyeballs himself. He's decided that it's too fragile to mail home to me, so I'll just have to get it from him when he gets back. We've decided to encourage Shell's exploration of the Southwest Pacific. You may be getting more pictures of all of Shell's travels.

To answer some of the questions people have been asking me, my Dad will be gone until the end of September. He's currently communicating with us via email, and his new little blackberry (as long as he's by land-they don't have the satellite phones set up for when they're out in open waters yet). We also have a webcam that we haven't tested out yet. We'll probably wait until he gets to Guam to try it out. My Dad is a computer analyst for SAIC. They contract with the Navy to keep the Naval Hospitals' computer systems running. The Mercy is a hospital ship, and the navy contracted with SAIC to get a computer analyst on board the ship, to keep all their hospital equipment running correctly. After a lot of serious talking, prayers, and other such important things-to-do-when-making-tough-decisions type things, my parents decided it was a good opportunity. Dad applied for the job, and got it. Thus the adventures of Jeff Nelson began. And now my Conch Shell is out having the adventure of a lifetime. I think when I finally do get it, I'll put it on a shelf on my wall, and then surround it with pictures of him all over the world. Sounds great, huh?

USNS Mercy and My Dad

Recently, my Dad left on the USNS Mercy. No, my father didn't join the Navy at the ripe old age of 55. However, he does work for a company that contracts with the Navy, and they decided to send him out on a ship. This is my parents standing in front of the Mercy. As you can tell from the giant red crosses plastered all over the ship, the Mercy is a hospital ship.


The Mercy is big. Here it is, sailing out of the San Diego Harbor, beneath the Coronado Bridge.


My Dad took this picture two days away from Hawaii. The helicopter is just landing on the flight deck. Pretty sunsets in the Pacific, huh?

I've created a blog for my Dad too. It's listed in my links. If you want to check up on Where in the World Jeff Nelson is, you can go to his blog. Right now he's in Hawaii, but they are supposed to leave on Saturday. They will be touring all over the Pacific. It looks like they'll be adding a stop to Myanmar as well, helping out disaster victims there.

Happy Trails!

I'm not dead, I'm knitting

Explanation: Every six months or so I feel compelled to buy more knitting supplies, whether it be yarn or needles or a new little book of cute or fun things to knit. This wouldn't be bad if there was something to show for my purchases. Note: These purchases usually occur while accompanying my Mom to Michael's, where she buys similar things; She usually has a much more productive outcome than I do, being blessed with a unique talent in the crocheting department. Unfortunately, nothing ever really comes of my new supplies, aside from being an overstock of yarn in my room beneath my little sewing drawer. UNTIL NOW! That's right folks, I have finally figured out how to PURL! Oh yEaH! Now the scarf that I am making, instead of being your boring everyday scarf, has six neat little rows of sticky uppy braid looking things (kill me, I don't know the terminology, if there is any). From the bottom of my amazing scarf, it looks something like this: VVVVVV I'm gonna be warm and cozy in Logan, styling my braidy scarf, I can tell you right now.

But really, the reason I haven't blogged in approximately 2 1/2 weeks or so is because I was planning a baby shower, trying to find my grandpa's dentures (don't ask!), driving up to Utah, attending my sister's graduation(s), touring BYU campus with my parents, touring Utah State's campus with my parents, buying a comfy t-shirt from Utah State, driving back from Logan to Provo, buying last minute baby stuff for my sister with my Mom, throwing the actual baby shower for said sister, having a family barbeque, driving back from Utah to Cali, recovering from said trip to Utah, catching up on the 1.7 million things at work that could, in all honesty, have been taken care of by some of my co-workers while I was gone, catching up on the things I actually needed to catch up on at work, throwing a Bon Voage party for my Dad, sending my Dad off on the USS Mercy, assisting my Mom in helping establish contact with my Dad, assisting my Mom in not feeling lonesome, Temple, and missionary car wash. This morning I finally found my floor, but now I cannot find my bed. Sad. And this is a faithful narrative of what I have been up to for the past 2 1/2 weeks. We managed to watch all of the extended LOTR movies on the way to and from Utah. It was awesome.

And now, dear friends, I'm off to the fireside. I'll post pictures of the exciting trip and recent events soon.