Back before the Cynic turned into a Nice Guy, he started a list of crappy towns. I believe, now, that I have found the winner.

Now, we’ve all heard the joke about cities with populations less than their elevation. We probably even all know a few of them. Generally, however, we don’t find cities with populations considerably less than 1/100th of their elevation.

Yes, friends, the city of Mountain Pass, California
is a community of thirty people (yes, the sign said 30, I wish I’d got a picture) cast among the crags of the mountains along the California-Nevada border along I-15. I say “cast,” because while the word I first thought of was “nestled,” it occurs to me that “nestling” implies some care, and this collection of homes surrounding a broken-down stone mill gives no such impression.

To boot, there are no services of any kind in Mountain Pass: not even a gas station. The closest gas station is 4 miles to the west, and gas there is a low-low $4.29/gal, and the closest market is in Baker, CA, a good 15-30 minutes to the west. Yes, Mountain Pass is the epitome of convenience!

With that, Scholl, please consider my addition to your list.

Hello everyone, this is Mollie.  I’m finally posting!  I will try to make it a habit, I promise.

Since we moved back to California, I have pretty much just been taking it easy and being a housewife.  It’s a lot of fun!  It’s nice to have time to do the chores, errands, and cooking before Andy gets home so we can spend time relaxing together, and I’m not exhausted and mentally drained at the end of the day like I was when I worked full time.

A typical day for me starts at 7.  I drop Andy off at work at 8 and head to the gym for a couple hours.  I run 3-5 miles a day, then either lift weights or take an hour-long class- cycling, pilates, or yoga.  The rest of the morning, I usually do stuff around the house- straighten everything up, do any cleaning that needs to be done, water my plants, etc.  After lunch I run errands or do fun stuff.  I read, go shopping, go to the beach, go to my parent’s house and scrapbook with my sister… stuff like that.  In the evening, we hang out with our friends, go out, take long walks around the neighborhood, or just sit around the house.  It’s nothing exciting, but I love it!

We started a little project when we first moved here that kept me busy for a couple weeks… tearing down the wallpaper in the living room and painting the walls.  The wallpaper was really… um… funky… and I could not stand it, so I was happy when the landlords said they didn’t like it either.  I will post some before and after pictures soon, it is SUCH an improvement.  I can’t post any right now because I don’t know how and Andy is still in Arizona, but I will.  Anyway our place is so cute, I really like it.  Much better than apartment living.

Well, that is all I have to say today.  I need to start packing for our trip to Vegas, then it’s off to Trader Joe’s (my fave grocery store and one of the best things about being back in California!) for some food to take on the trip.  I am not eating overpriced, fattening food all weekend!!

You should leave me some comments, it might encourage me to post again. 🙂

So, this weekend is a bit interesting. My company sent me (or rather, let me go) to an all-expense paid seminar put on by Price about air distribution, particularly some alternative delivery methods, and sound control. I left Thursday morning at 7:05 AM from Burbank, and will get back tonight (Friday) at 8:40 PM.
Now, that’s not really that abnormal, but this weekend is the Budlong company picnic, which happens to be two nights at Caesar’s Palace in Vegas (on the company), including a dinner at Planet Hollywood. Now, that’s Saturday and Sunday nights, meaning that after I get home from Phoenix in the wee hours of the night, I get to get up early-ish and drive to Las Vegas by 3 PM for our check in time.

In other news, more manufacturers should send me to seminars, feed me, give me free clothes, and douse me in free alchohol.

I, honestly, have never been so impressed by society’s potential for butchering names–that they are looking at–as I am today. Not only is my car deeded to Andrew and Molly Wilkerson (a fiasco that is still being worked out with Austin), today I received my new Health Insurance cards… for Andrew Williman and Molly Williams. Now, I’ve seen a lot of ways to misspell Wilkinson (the HR officer at my previous job even misspelled it “Wilkonson” on the resignation form), but Williman and Williams are new on me.

What bothers me isn’t that they get the names wrong… that’s an honest mistake. What bothers me is that they’ve got the correct spelling sitting right in front of them and they still get it wrong. Honestly, on something as important as a pink slip or a heath insurance card, doesn’t the spelling bear a second glance?

So, I’ve just finished up the first half of my third week working here at Budlong & Associates, Inc. As I mentioned on the Other Blog, I’ve worked here before, in a lesser capacity: then I was a drafter, now I am a designer. In reality, however, my duties are very similar to what I was doing right before I left in ’01. I have a few more responsibilities, but for the most part, I design (more than I used to), draw, and fix computers all day long (that last feature seems to be one of my more popular traits).

My boss tells me that he wants me to learn all three disciplines: Mechanical (HVAC), Electrical, and Plumbing, and all I can say is that I hope the electrical work doesn’t resemble Electrical Engineering collegiate work at all. I have it on good authority, however, that neither Sam nor Harold have touched KCL or KVL since they graduated, so I’m hopeful.

All in all, the new job is great. The people are fun, the location is good, and the work is challenging without being hard, and rarely menial.

In other news, Mollie and I are almost completely moved in to our new home, and very few boxes remain. The flat has a great kitchen (better than or equal to any kitchen in a house I’ve lived in), and even though it’s small and wallpapered, it has a certain “cuteness” about it, I’m told. Mollie keeps herself busy working out, scrapbooking with her sister, and generally being productive around the flat, and if you twist her arm properly, she might even post about her experiences some. We also take a lot of walks, under the pretense of keeping me in shape.

Today, I’m driving up to Santa Susanna, to visit Rocketdyne, of NASA repute. In the last decade, the facility has gone from belonging to Rockwell, to Boeing, and now to Pratt-Whitney, but back in the day, they made/tested rockets for much of the space program at the facility. They might still, in fact, I’m not too sure.