Cloudy Fall

 A wet fall and winter is always better for our bees than a dry one so we are thinking next year should be great for wildflowers given all the moisture in the air lately! I snapped the above one last Sunday morning. I snapped the below shot at lunch today as I left the office at the mill. I love a cloudy sky sometimes.

Skies About Town

Above is how the sky looked this evening above our backyard in town. This week we got additional rain and this evening, they forecast maybe two more inches. Wow. This may already be more than we saw most of last year. Just kidding, I don't know that for a fact but it seems like it. We are very happy for clouds and rain! Even if we do have a bee class in the morning! Below is another look at the mill where I work. We make steel and it's a dusty, dirty job and environment but I look around and I often see a lot of beauty around me.

View other lovely sky shots at Skywatch Friday.

Man Over the Melt Shop

Here's what my office mate and I saw out our window while we sat on a conference call...that crane was so high up in the sky! Wow. And we couldn't imagine being the person in that cage. Yikes. We watched it descend. Too fast for our taste. And then later during a break, we had a slightly brighter, more mellow view. Thanks, J, for the lovely, tasty distraction!

Oh What a Sky Does

I'm back at work now after a nice long break for the holidays. Ten days off was awesome and our visit with my family in Florida was really wonderful. I am refreshed and ready for work now - this is the field across from the steel mill. I love it in the different seasons. It has a different loveliness based on the sky as well as what's growing or not growing in the field. :-)

And on a beautiful, sunny day...the greenness of the field right now just takes my breath away! The contrast in grass and sky colors is spectacular.

Goat Sighting

So here's a sight you just don't see everyday, right? Well that's what I thought last week when the goats had gotten out from a nearby field and were grazing on the luxurious field across from our mill. At that time, there was too much traffic to stop and get a shot. THIS week, they are at it again! And since they were right next to the road, I just stopped at my stop sign, lowered my passenger window and snapped a shot or two. It made me laugh to see them. Reminds me of that Brady Bunch episode with the goat in the attic...

CMC Christmas Party

Today we attended the CMC Christmas Party and had a very wonderful time. Even during these touch economic times, the company still held to tradition and I think that does a lot for employee morale. We are very active in the community and I am so proud to be a part of it.

I won a door prize and so did my friend Sonia! But more than that, I really love seeing everyone together and I always have a great time working the gift table where we distribute gifts to each employee and their family. Fun! I got to work with a friend and I also met someone from another department. I am very thankful for a great group of coworkers at CMC Steel Texas! It's great to be able to enjoy this cool event.

Sunday Evening Thoughts

Since some of you liked yesterday's shot, I thought I might share a follow up of the flower. The top shot is the lotus in full bloom. I am intrigued by it and love looking at the bloom -- look at all that's going on inside the bloom! It's multi-layered inside amazes me. Each part like it's own flower really. I just think it's neat.

Below is my favorite shot for many reasons. I love pink and green together because it always reminds me of one of my favorite memories from childhood. It was when my dad colored with us kids once. I remember he used this green and pink combination and at the time, I had never seen that put together in such a way that it just really drew my attention. I don't know why that stayed with me but it does. More than likely, I just really liked that he colored with us and then he showed his creative side, which we rarely got to see. I'm all mushy for a Sunday night. I should call them tomorrow. :)

Hope everyone has a great week. No Dallas for me this week so I am very psyched about it! :) Nothing like being home.

Saffold Dam

This evening I am feeling somewhat rebellious....I am not checking my work email. Well, I tried earlier but kept having some tech issues so I got out slightly frustrated. It's been a long, tiring week and I feel absolutely drained. I think I could have gone straight to bed when I got home. I don't want anyone to feel bad for me; I often find writing helps me to let go of things - writing therapy. We have so much going on at work but I still enjoy being there and as always, I am learning so much everyday. And I am so blessed to have encountered plenty of wonderfully nice people to balance out the not-so-sunny personalities.

Anyway, to escape a bit, I did or am doing the following this evening:

1. Watched Mark finish up splitting the hive in the backyard. Now there are three!!! I'll snap it in good day light.
2. Went for Chinese food. Comfort food. Some nights, you simply do not feel like cooking.
3. Listened to Mark tell me all about his day with the bees! I wish I could have watched him split the hives of Country Bees.
4. Learned that the queen bee does not just walk out the hive "door." One of the hives did not have a queen and Mark has theorized about how that could have happened...that's another post altogether.
5. Cruised around town, talking through things that concern me with the greatest guy ever. You know who.
6. Talked to my niece about things. Laughed.
7. Missed all my nieces and nephews.
8. Caught up A BIT with blogging and Flickr. Just a bit. Oh, and Facebook too.
9. Listening now to some of my favorite songs, currently we're on Yoyo Ma essentials.
10. Got showered and into my softest jammies.

I crown thee...

On a lighter note, have you been to Burger King lately? We had not been in a very, very long time and while we were on the road recently, we needed a quick bite so we gave BK a go. So....when did these cute little nuggets come along? I just thought it was cute and it made me smile. Crown-shape nuggets. Cool.

This evening Mark and I had dinner with a coworker friend who is in town from Dallas -- we had such a great time! And you know what? I was disconnected from cellphone, computer and TV and it was nice! I love technology, of course, but sometimes it IS nice to have a break. Even if the break was only three hours. :)

On the road

Hi folks. I'm up in Dallas this week. Wow, New Year's Day was a blur and now it's Wednesday already. Hope everyone's having a great week so far.

I'm a lucky girl

Thanks for the picture Laurie! Now I know how you guys must feel with me pointing a camera at you all the time! :)

There I am with a flat at work. These very nice CMC men came by to provide assistance by putting air in my tire so I could drive it to a shop, though my good buddy Tod did offer to change it for me and Mark even said he'd come to the mill to change it. Gosh, so many options! It all made me really appreciate my husband and my friends. Thank you for makiing me laugh about it all! It was the most stress-free flat I've ever had. Mark even headed over to Lippe Tires to make sure they knew I was swinging by there so they stayed opened and fixed me up in about ten minutes!

By the way, if you have never been to Lippe, I highly recommend them. Their staff and service have been great over the years for us and the pricing on tires are pretty good also.

Working Girl

Just been working so I thought I'd show you my desk. I'm just very happy to actually BE at my desk...so nice to be home three straight weeks! :)

Sonia and I were trying to update some training laptops before they get shipped out for more classes, hence the abundance of laptops.

Treat Tuesday

Sorry I have been a bit busy with stuff and haven't been keeping up here. Plus I have not been particularly inspired lately with my camera. It's not that I've stopped snapping shots; it's just that few of them excite me. I don't know what this rut is but perhaps it will soon pass.

On a brighter note, yesterday we tried out Treat Tuesday at work. If you are a Hoops & Yoyo fan, you should know what this is. I love those little characters. Basically, these are the guidelines:

1. Bring a treat. This can be store bought or homemade (by you or anyone nice enough to do this for you).
2. Have fun.
3. Do not think about calories or how many minutes you have to bike in order to burn off the pie AND donut. Just enjoy them.

It was so much fun and we enjoyed socializing with everyone. Our office is sort of small so we tried to keep the group to our team and a few frequent visitors. We'll have to see what to do next time as the word got out a bit. Anyway, treats included three pies, Pinwheels (yum!), cheese, crackers, sausage, Shipley's donuts, Donut Palace donut holes, chocolate covered cashews....that may be it. It was all fabulously fun!

And for you, Dennis, who asked if my new friend Jessica has a blog....she does! Jessica wrote and said you visit her blog anytime. It's called KWED - Jessica's Weblog.

August Theme Day - Metal

It was so hectic today with work and a quick trip up to Burnet, that I'm rather late on my theme day post but here's some metal for you. This is the shredder area of CMC where I work. We receive scrap which we sort, shred, sort some more and do a lot of other really cool things but it's too complicated to write it all here. And eventually, at the other end of the process, we produce steel products such as rebar, joists, beams and so on.

Other city pages are participating as well so I hope you'll check them out. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.