Ann is looking for work!

Hi there,

My name is Ann Contella. I'm an experienced internal auditor looking for full-time or contract work in Portland, OR or Vancouver, WA. Thanks for looking at my resume and LinkedIn profile:

Ann's Resume

LinkedIn

What a difference 14 months makes!

I'm pretty sure we haven't posted since December. Of 2014. So, yeah... A lot has happened. Here's a bit of it.

January 2015

We adopted a puppy(!!!) from Barks of Love in Orange County, CA. He was one of 6 of a litter, all with Christmasy names. He was Claus, and there was Rudy, Holly, Jolly, Stella, and Nick. They're chi-pits. Yes, that's a thing. 1/2 chihuahua, 1/2 pit bull.

His name is Fezzik, like the giant in The Princess Bride.

Claus' adoption pic. Would you just LOOK at that FACE!!!!

About a week after we got him. Already a good sitter!

Garrison and Amanda flew out for a vacation, and boy were their arms tired. ba-dum-pum.

Pacific Beach in San Diego

San Diego beer tour

February 2015

On our drive back to TX, we stopped at the Grand Canyon.

Garrison the photobomber

Back in Austin. At Matt's house, Fezzik saw his first Bigfoot. They stared each other down for a few. I think Fezzik blinked first. But Bigfoot was totally poised to run away.

May 2015

Road trip up north. Way up north to Spooner, Wisconsin, to visit Bobby and his Bowteek of Fine Unmentionables

Bobby's Bowteek

Bobby hisownself

Fezzik takes care of the empties

December 28, 2014. Calendar update time.

We fly back to CA on 12/30/14.

We'll be in Orange County until January 26, 2015, when Garrison and his girlfriend fly out to meet us in San Diego.

Then we head up to Monterey CA for 2 days.

Then we drive to the Grand Canyon for 2 days.

We drop Garrison and Amanda off in ABQ on Feb 3, then drive to Odessa, TX for a 2 day class.

The week of February 8, basically, we'll be in Houston.

We return to Austin on 2/14/15 so I can run the Austin Half Marathon on 2/15/15.

2/16 we drive to Dallas for a 3 day class.

2/22 we drive to Kansas City, MO for 4 days of work.

Week of March 8 in Houston

Week of March 15 in Las Colinas, TX.

Week of March 29 in San Antonio.

Captain's Log, 2014-9-7

It's all OK. We are back with Oatis.

We're in Brenham, staying at Tim and Jim's BnB. Tomorrow, we drive to Houston to spend 3 nights at a Holiday Inn by Bush. There's not really a convenient RV park near the class. And, it's still hot here.

Friday, we drive to Lake Grapevine to spend 7 nights right on the lake, while I work M-F at several places around the airport.

Then, Saturday, we're off to Edmond OK, for a Harry Potter,  bring your own wand, birthday party. Stay a few days there, then go spend 2 nights in a campground near KC for a class, then back to OK to spend a few nights with Annemarie, Megan, and Olive. And the boys, of course.

Then, down to Austin, where we will park Oatis until October 17.

We pick up a rental car at ABIA, drive to San Antonio for 3 days, then back to Austin for one night, at the Hilton by the airport.

Friday morning, October 3, we fly to Denver for the Great American Beer Fest. 2 days of drunken debauchery.

Sunday, we fly to Boston, to spend a week in Vermont for a wedding for 2 of our favorite people in the world. Then, Monday, October 13, we fly from Boston to LA, for a 3 day class.

Then, Friday or Saturday, October 17 or 18 (I should check) we fly back to TX and get Oatis out of storage. And drive to the Texas coast, somewhere near Galveston, maybe a little southwest, for a week. I've got a 2 day class in the garden spot that is Sweeny, TX.

Then, we drive to Austin on Saturday, October 25, to pour beer at the Flying Saucer Beerfeast.

After that, we head back to CA for a LONG TIME. Can't wait.

July 20, 2014

So, while in Odessa, TX last month, we realized that we have a tendency to buy homes with undersized air conditioners. A couple of hours in 104F heat in Odessa, and we're in a hotel.  So, we made a decision to not sleep in Oatis in Texas in the summer.

Currently, we are spending 2 nights on Lake Lewisville. Yes, in TX. So much for our plan to not sleep in Oatis in the summer in TX. We picked a good weekend, the high today is only going to be about 93.

Tomorrow, we drive back to Austin and park Oatis for 2 weeks, while we drive a rental car to Montgomery to Ann's dad's house, then to Baton Rouge for a class, then to Matt's for a few days. Then, the LONG RV road trip begins. 5022 miles of driving.

Dallas, August 5, 6, and 7. Sleeping in the Holiday Inn.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, on the road towards Oswego, NY. I'm hoping to park at rest stops, WalMarts, etc, and not pay for parking. At least 2 of those nights. 1500 miles in three days.

Sunday and Monday nights, August 10 and 11, RC park on Lake Ontario, near Oswego.

Tuesday night, somewhere in Canada, on the way from Oswego to Kalamazoo, MI. Again, hoping to park for free somewhere. We'll see how accommodating those Canadians really are. 554 miles to Jan's house in KZO.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I'm driving towards Reno, without Ann. She's visiting her mom in KZO, then is flying to catch up with me in Reno. Boondocking each night.  2044 miles.

Sunday, August 17, we drive to Pismo Beach, CA, where we spend a week in an RV park about a block from the ocean. Yeah! 436 miles

August 25, we drive to Ontario, CA, where we will spend 4 nights in a Holiday Inn.  Again, air conditioning. 213 miles.

August 29, we drive to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Hopefully, we're spending 2 nights with Tim and Jim in an RV park, after which, we are leaving Oatis in their caring hands and driving their car back to Houston, to spend a week in their condo. We'll be without Oatis for a week, but again, air conditioning. Texas. 455 miles from Ontario to Grand Canyon.

We should reunite with Oatis on Sunday, September 7. And hopefully, we'll have our newly ordered license plates by then.

So, there's August's schedule. After this big trip, it'll be nice to only venture as far as Kansas City (in the RV), for a while.

Captain's Log, Stardate: June 15, 2014.

We just spent our first night of our road trip in Oatis (the RV, in case you haven't been keeping up) with Annemarie (sister), Megan (sister in law), Olive (baby)Hank (some kind of terrier, scottie, yorkie, I'm not sure which), Saul (australian cattle dog).

We're in a park on a lake in San Angelo. Nice place, I can see the water from where I'm sitting writing this. Here's our schedule:

Monday and Tuesday I teach in Odessa, so we're heading over there later this afternoon. Actually, we're staying in Midland at an RV park. The tracking boom has made it hard to find RV parks in Odessa, apparently.

Tuesday night we take off towards Orange, CA, where I have a 4 hour meeting at 8 am Thursday morning. We are driving mostly through the the night, going through San Diego, up through Escondido (Stone, here we come), to Orange. Probably get there mid afternoon Wednesday.

Then we spend Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday doing nothing. Hopefully.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I work in Irvine.

Friday, June 27th, we unhook Oatis and drive to Morro Bay.

Saturday, we drive to Pacifica.

Sunday, we drive to Fort Bragg.  Hello, North Coast. Old Rasputin, here I come.

Monday, we drive to Brookings, OR.

Tuesday, we drive to Seaside. After making the required stop at Rogue Brewing in Newport.

Wednesday, we drive to Stanfield, OR. Kind of out by Pendleton.

Thursday, we drop off Annemarie, Megan, Olive, Hank, and Saul, in Boise, Idaho. Then we head back towards TX.

By the way, we sold the Sonata, and are planning on selling the trailer as soon as we drop everyone off in Boise. I'm looking forward to NOT dragging 5,800 pounds behind us for a while. Anyone know anybody with a 5 to 10 year old jeep wrangler, 2 door, soft top, they want to sell?

3 Nights in Anderson, IN

Ann and I just spent 3 nights in Timberline Family RV Resort in Anderson, Indiana. The previous 3 nights were in St. Charles, MO.

It was great! Met some nice people, had a chance to see what it's like to actually "camp" in a park for a few days at a time. I think we're going to love this.

I especially enjoy the mornings. Sitting outside, drinking coffee, before the rest of the park is waking up. Very peaceful.

Still have a few bugs to work out. Like, for example, the refrigerator doesn't work. But, we're going to Columbus for 4 days, and we're going to drop it off at a repair shop and go stay with a friend while they fix it. Hopefully.

Then we're off to Patascpo Valley State Park near Baltimore for 5 nights. Should be a good time.

We bought an RV and named it Oatis

Last week we bought an RV. It's something we've been fantasizing about... then sort of considering... then seriously considering... for a couple of years now. And even though we've been planning on doing it someday, we weren't planning on that day being last Wednesday.

Here's Oatis!

Oatis is a Forest River Forester, Class C motorhome, model 3051S. He's 31'11" long and weighs 14,500 lbs. What a big boy!

Why Oatis? For one, despite a Facebook campaign and Kaelan's best efforts, Sandra wouldn't name her baby Oatis. And two, we think this is funny (skip to 3:00):

Calling all Cooks!

Do you make something that your family or friends crave?

Is there something that your colleagues always ask you to bring to the office potluck?

Maybe you have a favorite recipe that your grandmother used to make?

Perhaps you have a fantastic recipe for dog treats.

If so, let me know. I've decided to write a cookbook, and I want to include recipes from family and friends. Please dig out your recipe files, pick out a few of your favorites, and send them along to me. Bonus points if you write a little bit about the origin of the dish, why you love it so much, and anything else you want to say about it.

By popular demand, here's our December and January schedule:

In Norman OK with AnneMarie and Megan today

12/2: I fly to New Orleans, Ann stays in Norman
12/3 and 4: I work in New Orleans, then fly to Dallas the evening of the 4th
12/4: I teach in Dallas, Ann takes the train back to Dallas from Norman.
12/7: we fly to austin, stay at the ABIA Hilton
12/8: we fly to LA, get our car, go to Burbank for 5 days
12/14: redeye to Tampa, go to Kissimmee for a week
12/21: go to Tampa, spend week with Harry
12/28: cruise from Tampa to Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, and somewhere else

1/7: fly to LA, get our car, spend 4 nights in/around Riverside
1/13: work in anaheim for 5 days
1/19-21: pismo beach
1/22: orange county, ca, then start driving back towards tx.  or ok.

2/3: one day class in Cleveland.  i'm betting ann sits this one out.
then the next 3 weeks in TX. houston, channel view, dallas
2/24-27: Kansas City
2/28: at approximately 4:27 pm, AnneMarie will give birth to Olive.

Here's a little tip:

No good can come of parking too close to a shrubbery. Especially if said shrubbery is surrounded by an ant hill. Also, if you have an open box of, say, Wheat Thins. Or Oreos.

Your car will end up infested. And $5.00 in quarters doesn't buy enough vacuum time to get them. Hopefully the Raid bait traps will.

September and October

The calendar's a little hard to read, so here's our September and October calendar, as it looks today (August 25).

Aug 26-29: Ontario CA
taking Amtrak back to Austin
Sep 1-9 in Austin, except I take a quick trip to New Orleans and Las Colinas, one day each.
Sep 10-14 in Houston
Sep 16-20 San Luis Obispo CA
Sep 21 -22 Charlotte NC and Columbia SC and Raleigh NC
Sep 23 and 24 Radford VA
Sep 25-28 Oswego NY
Sep 29-30 Austin

Oct 1-3 San Antonio
Oct 4 Houston
Oct 5-9 Austin
Oct 10-18 Los Angeles
Oct 19-26 Somewhere between LA and Mount Hood
Oct 26-Nov 2 Mount Hood Anniversary Vacation

Zoinks!

Hey gang! Let's go to Georgetown, Colorado. It's a lovely little Victorian town only a couple of miles down from Loveland Pass. Home of the Slacker Half Marathon. Andy has been signed up for months, and he's really looking forward to it. It's all downhill. Ironically, as it happens, both literally and figuratively.

Andy's brother John, has driven over from Colorado Springs in his new Jeep. He wants to do some off-roading.

About 30 minutes after they've left, this:

OH.MY.GOD. How many episodes of Scooby Doo involved an old mine? 

Is Andy Shaggy or Scooby?

I'm pretty sure John is Fred.

30 minutes later, this:

And this:

Throughout all this, I'm worried because it's starting to get dark and there are signs warning about bears and falling rocks and deer. See?

Actually, this is about the only wildlife I saw. Disappointing, but that's for another post.

I still don't know if Andy is Scooby or Shaggy. But I do know that although I started off pretty Velma-ish, I didn't end up that way. Or Daphne-ish, for that matter. I called several towing/rescue companies, and no one was willing to go out until the next morning. I flagged down people in the streets driving 4-wheel drives, even an H3. No dice. After a couple of hours, I was acting like a total girl. I cried to several random campers, a campground manager, and a Sheriff that my husband and his brother were lost at over 12,000 feet.

Like all episodes, a happy ending.

Yay! Scooby Snack await at Mother's Bar, in town.

The (Really) Highs and (Really) Lows of Life on the Road

Everyone always asks us how we like being on the road constantly with each other.  We say we love it, there are highs and lows, but they average out on the high side.

Last week in CO, we were at a high only experienced once before in our relationship.

Well, today, we hit a low.  Definitely the lowest point of our time together.

Things were going good.  We were actually heading out of Vegas by about 8.  AM!, if you can believe that.

A couple hours into the drive, we started kind of...sinking.  Hard to say exactly what it was.  At some point in this time, I realized that I had left Ann's Tervis cup in the freezer in the timeshare.  Way too late to turn around.  I think we're slowly depositing stuff across the country.  Some socks in UT, a little paint off the fender in Vegas, you know, little things like that.

Anyway, we just kept sinking lower and lower.  I played some music, that didn't stop it.  And, talk about things heating up!  I think by the time we hit our lowest, I'd never seen Ann so hot.  She was practically turning red before my eyes.

Of course, this may have had to do with the fact that we were driving towards the lowest point in the continental USA.  Badwater Basin, in Death Valley National Park, is 282 feet below sea level.  Definitely the lowest we'd ever been.  I've been lower, but I was on a submarine, so I'm not sure if that counts.

That tiny rectangle of white at about 1 O'Clock over my head, that's a sign indicating sea level.

And then, we drove out of there.  Paused at the sea level sign on the highway

And, yes, we actually stopped the car when the garmin read 0 feet.  Actually, we stopped at -3, so we had to back up to get it on 0.  By the way, that 29,282.4, that's how many miles we've driven since October.

Then, we drove to Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the continental USA.  If you don't count Alaska as part of the continental USA.

This store is at the trailhead for Whitney.  It's at 8365 feet.

Then, while Ann waited, I took a quick run to the top, at 14500 feet.  That's the peak in the middle of the picture.

Nah, I've already been there, no point in doing it again.

Now, we're in Bakersfield.  Just somewhere to stop before we drive to Santa Barbara tomorrow, after a quick stop by our winery in Arroyo Grande.

Oh, and our high last week in Colorado?

trucker humor

What does that say?

Nope. Still can't quite make it out... 

Oh...

Ha!

Offroading with John

It's been a couple of weeks, the terror has subsided, so now I can talk about it.

John and I are offloading in his Jeep.  We had left the pavement about an hour before, gradually climbing in elevation to 12,200 feet (about 2500 feet up) in the 6 miles of driving.

We get to this snowy spot in the road.  There are tracks going through it so other people have made it.  We didn't.  Not even close.  Did I mention, 2500 feet above, 6 miles away from, paved roads?  Oh, and it'a about 2 hours until sunset.  AND, my half marathon is tomorrow morning.

Transcript of our conversations (slightly paraphrased, to protect the innocent and unprepared):

Me:  Anything to dig with in the back of the jeep?
John: No, but I have a whistle.
Me:  Good, that'll be a lot of help.  I'll start digging us out, with my BARE HANDS
John:  three sharp whistle blasts (recognized by boy scouts everywhere as a call for help)
Me:  That's not helping, let's dig the jeep out of the snow.
John: three more whistle blasts, I really don't want to have to sleep in the jeep tonight.
Me:  I'm NOT sleeping in the jeep, I have a race in the morning.  I think everyone who knows anything about being in the mountains is already off the mountain, cause it'll be dark soon.  Maybe we should start walking.
John:  SIX whistle blasts, yeah, let's go.
Me: Don't forget where we parked.

About an hour goes by, walking, walking.  I've texted Ann a couple of times to let her know what's going on, but that's her story to tell, apparently.

John:  I hope we make it down by dark.
Me:  Too bad we don't have flash lights.
John:  There's 2 in the jeep.
Me:  Oh.  Good.  It'll be dark soon.
John:  We should get inside.  They mostly come out at night.  Mostly.
Me:  WTF are you talking about?
John:  You know, the little girl, in Aliens? Put her in charge, man!
Me:  Oh.  I don't think there're aliens here.
John:  No, but there's bears.
Me:  It's ok, I can outrun you.

Finally, after 2 hours of walking, we got to the road.  And there was Ann, waiting for us.

THE END

Due to popular demand, here is our schedule from now (May 28) through August.  Between these dates will be a lot of driving/trains/flying

Orlando - May 29, 30, 31
Baltimore - June 3 through 7
Beaumont - June 10
Baton Rouge - June 11, 12, 13
Dallas - June 19 and 20
Georgetown, CO - June 22 (half marathon)
Irvine, CA - June 25, 26, 27, 28
Las Vegas - June 29 through July 6
Taos, NM - July 6 through July 10
Estes Park, CO - July 11 through July 17
Houston - July 24
Roanoke, TX - July 27
Dallas - August 6, 7, 8
Houston/Beaumont - August 15, 16, 17
San Luis Obispo, CA - August 20, 21
Ontario, CA - August 27, 28, 29

It's been a while.  Since our last post (February, I think) we've been in, in order:

Indianapolis, Cleveland, St. Louis, Houston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Huntington Beach, Moss Landing (CA), Houston, New York City, San Antonio, New Orleans, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Houston,  St. Louis, and now Kalamazoo.

Whew, just thinking about the past 3 months makes me tired all over again.

While in St. Louis, we met up with Nick, a guy I met in Kansas City in class.  We hit a couple of breweries, then went to the City Museum.  I gotta say, I have never...NEVER...seen anything like this place.  It's a 10 story building, maybe old warehouses(?), taken over by a mad genius and made into a playground.  In all my travels, this was one of the most interesting places I've ever seen. This pictures will not do it justice, it was very dark.

Part of it is like walking through a deep, old cave.  When walking through, you had to remind yourself that you were inside a building in downtown St. Louis.  Not some subterranian tunnel system.

There are things that look like teeth.

There are things that have teeth:

There are things you can crawl through, if you're very small.

I'm NOT going in there!

Or, there.

And things to climb on, or through.

Nick, climbing through the world's largest slinky.

Out back, there's this huge structure, several airplane fuselages 40 or 50 feet up in the air, interconnected by these huge slinkies to crawl through.  Here's a picture from their website:

There's really no describing this place.  You HAVE to go.  

Here's a link with some good pictures.  It might not work. If not, i found it by googling City Museum St. Louis.

http://crowleyshell.tumblr.com/post/45684362641/mini-slashthegreat-thepreciousthing