I went home to Denver this weekend to visit Cody. Some of our friends, Andy and Alicia, came up from Fort Collins adnd rented a very nice 2 room suite near the Denver Tech Center. We all went out for dinner and drinks at Dave and Busters. For those who don't know, Dave and Busters is a restaurant and video game arcade. We played all kinds of games. We raced in a Daytona game where the seat moved if you hit something or made a turn (which Cody beat us all at, of course), we played shooting games, skeeball, basketball, and a few other games. In the end, we were all so terrible, we only had enough tickets combined to get a cheap plastic toy. LOL. After that, we ended up going back o the hotel and watching movies for the rest of evening. It was nice to get out and see some friends and have some fun.

Yesterday, my flight out of Denver was delayed for a long time due to high winds in Las Vegas. When my plane finally got in to Vegas, we had to sit on the plane and wait because there were no gates available for us! So many planes came in at the same time, the airport was so crowded! Also, it is Spring Break so the airport had that many more people. I eventually made it home safe and sound, and in the end that is all that matters! As always, I miss you Cody and can't wait to see you soon!

Spring is here...

Spring is here.....but it feels like summer in the desert! We have had temperatures in the mid 80's this week, and it is only going to get warmer. With the heat, though, beautiful flowers have started blooming everywhere.

This it the bear-paw poppy, it is an endangered species and only grows in soil with gypsum in it. I hadn't ever see one bloom until today! :)

A desert tortoise decided to crawl through our job site this afternoon. This too is an endangered species, and it had to be babysat until the Park Resource person could get there. This tortoise is an old one, it is very large (about the size of a hard hat).

The Park lady asked us to paint an orange dot on the tortoise's back so he could be identified in the future. I didn't like the fact we were spraying the tortoise with spray paint....I don't think it liked it either because it went into its shell and didn't come out after that!

Girder Inspections

Today, my boss and I flew to Salt Lake City, UT to inspect the girders for our bridge as they were being fabricated. To begin, the workers place and tension steel cables that will be cemented into the girder (seen above).

Then, they place rebar that will help prevent cracking in the concrete.

Finally, they place forms an pour the concrete, load after load until the form is full. They let it cure for a few days before stripping the forms and starting the process over with the next girder.

These girders look good from afar, and are structurally sound, but the outer appearance needed a LOT of help........

see what I mean?!!

This is the area in UT, it is beautiful, but is was sooooo windy. I actually got windburn from being outside all day in the 40 mph winds.

We got the opportunity to tour another girder plant in the area in the afternoon. This plant was larger and a much smoother operation.

This is what the surface of their girders looked like just stripped from the forms. Much nicer than the girders we have.

This is what their rebar and tensioned steel cable looked like. They have forms they can place all along the girder bed, so they can have 3 different girders going at the same time on one bed. At the other plant, they could only work on one girder at a time.

They use these trucks to pump concrete into the forms. They use self consolidated concrete which is very liquid, it has a slump of 12" (this means it is like soup).

All in all, our trip to UT went well. Our girders will need some finish work before they can be delivered, but it looks like the will be in alright shape.

We flew back at 5 pm (to Vegas), and I need to go to bed so I can get up for work in the morning. I just wanted to share a cool day at work with you all! Good night :)

Bizkit the Sleep Walking Dog

I saw this on Dooce, and I could not stop laughing. I had to post this, LOL!