A Dam Bridge Post

hee hee. I love being an engineer and the "wit" that goes with it :-)

Akiko's husband (here after referred to as AH... I can't spell his name :-) works for the company that is building the Boulder Dam Bypass bridge. That's the reason Akiko and her family are here. The company does projects all over the world and she comes with him as she can. I don't remember where, but there was a country or 2 that the whole family couldn't go to because of civil unrest. AH had to go around with a body guard.

Anyway, Akiko has offered many times to take us out there and I finally got to go. She had to set up two separate times to get everyone in (Marcia and Angus still missed out) so this time it was just Arvid and me... and Akiko, AH and her 6 yr old son Ted. Poor Ted. This was all old hat for him. He was bored out of his gourd! He did tell me all about snakes and we also discussed heaven, his grandparents, middle names, finding treasures (like a nut and a piece of wire), and why the seat cover was not snakeskin (i tried to convince him, but he wasn't having it).

I marked the 2 places we got to go...

First, the Nevada side.
Here is AH talking to a Carpenter.

This whole construction reminds me of Lord Of the Rings. You know how there was supposed to be all this huge ancient construction around middle earth? That's what I think it looks like, broken down monuments of an ancient society.
Remember that carpenter? I was excited to watch him go out onto the arch. It was around 2pm so one shift had ended and the next one hadn't started. It's too hot in Nevada to work through the middle of the day. I thought it was so cool seeing the guy all decked out and climbing those ladders, but I wasn't about to go out there even though Akiko suggested I could :-). Arvid didn't seem that interested either.
Do you see him there at the side, climbing?
AH told us they were pouring lengths of about 25 feet each side on a 6 day schedule. When they first started they were working at a 45 degree angle and everyone was new at it so the cycle was more like 25-30 days between pours. He said they kept dropping things and having a really hard time. He also told us that the thickness of the boxes (they are hollow) were 1'-6" at the arch and only 12" for the towers. Can you imagine? Seems very small for such a massive structure. AH told us wind was the governing factor in design which is one of the reasons its so small. You can imagine how strong the wind can get channeled down through the canyon.

I thought this was pretty funny. No drugs.... be Safe!

And here is the stretcher.

On the Arizona side, we saw a couple of rebar cages set up and it looked like they were only using a #8 bars spaced around 12". I've specified #10's at 6" for a retaining wall before! Arvid asked about why they decided to do Cast-in-place rather than precast concrete. AH said that logistically it wouldn't work. I can't remember the details anymore and it makes me mad... I think I'll have to ask Arvid :-)

Here's the crew (my camera accidentally got put on a different setting for most of the trip so I have to use Arvid's Picture). Akiko, AH, Ted, and Me..
And I couldn't resist putting in this GQ picture of Arvid, even though most of u don't know him.
Look at those huge cranes in the back! They are used to take material out to the ends. Those are the things that fell a year ago and set everything back a year.

I wanted to show you the bottom of the big pylons, but my picture didn't turn out. These are just temporary until the arch is finished.
Essentially, right now the bridge is a suspension bridge, but when it is finished it will be an arch bridge. Those tall pylons have a pinned connection at the bridge (as opposed to a fixed connection). This way they can move around as work continues alternately on each side.
Akiko's husband said they try and keep things as even as possible and check the movement many times a day. That's why this is such a big job because they had to design the structure to withstand construction, not just the final loads as a finished product. For example, right now the concrete is experiencing tension from being suspended above the bridge but once it becomes a full arch it will all be under compression. That's the whole point of arches. AH said you could hear the concrete cracking under the stress when you are out there, especially as it expands and contracts with the changing of the temperature throughout the day. These cracks will close once the "keystone" (or in this case, "key concrete section" :-) is in place.

This is where the suspension cables are anchored. Everything in this picture is temporary, including the cranes in the background.

Here is the sidewalk that will eventually be along the road.
Here is the view they will get from the bridge (well.. at one side anyways :-)The plan is to get the arch done, then work on the roadway from the center out. The hard part will be attaching the columns to the arch.
(Picture courtesy of Akiko) I learned alot and it was way cool. Arvid told Akiko we should go out again when it get's closer to being done. I whole heartily agree!

*UPDATE* go here for more information on the bridge..

Candy Striping

All this hand washing (if I got any Emily germs over the weekend, I don't want to burden my system with even MORE germs) and flu scare reminds of the brief time I candy striped at the hospital with Rebecca Rice during my Sophomore or Junior year in High School.

Do you know what a candy striper is? Neither do I, really. It might be someone that goes around the hospital in a barber striped apron asking what they can to do to help the 3 nurses at the nursing station or taking a candy/magazine/book cart around to the 2 old people asleep in the hospital rooms. At least that is what I did. We're talking the Los Alamos New Mexico hospital. I only saw one baby in the nursery the entire time I was there, the lone nurse rocking her/him/it in the dark room.

I don't know exactly why I thought it was a good idea. I don't like hospitals or any kind of place where doctors congregate. And when I say doctors, I mean doctors of medicine (not u, brother Jared)... any type of medicine. I'm not picky. Probably the only reason I need an inhaler is that I start to hyperventilate when anyone says "doctors" followed by the word "appointment". (I once went by myself to an appointment... signed in... sat down... got back up... crossed out my name and left. Mother was not impressed.)

Perhaps I was trying to get over my fears of anything medical?

All I can tell u is that for one of our Laural projects, Rebecca and I spent at least 20 hours after school candy striping at the local (only) hospital, i.e. wandering the empty halls talking.

A fellow schoolmate named Bobbyie instructed us in the candy striper ways the first time we went. She was a small, thin, cute cheerleader. With a name like Bobbyie on such a small girl person, I think being a cheerleader was a requirement.

She took us around introducing us to the nurses, the cart, and the little song you were supposed to sing as you washed your hands.

"Twinkle Twinkle little star,
how I wonder what you are...."

Yea right. Us cool Juniors singing that little ditty with someone watching? I don't think so.

She also told us that if there wasn't anything to do, she'd head down to the cafeteria to wait until someone called her over the loudspeaker. Hmm... lets just say that if there was nothing to do, we were outta there.

The one time I actually remember doing anything, was trying to help an old man eat his dinner. He ended up grabbing the little condiment bag of salad dressing and sucking it down. Being the selfish teenager that I was, I laughed. I then continued to watch Rebecca finish feeding him and then got out of there as quickly as I could.

We then washed our hands, singing;

"Twinkle Twinkle Little star,
How I wonder what you are..."

A true Speed Zone

As I was driving to Provo I was startled out of my "talking on the cell phone to my mother" revere by this:

What the!?!? What is going on here? Has the universe suddenly gone bonkers? EIGHTY MILES AN HOUR ON THE HIGHWAY?!?

I waited and watched to see if I was going crazy when I saw this:

Ah.. I am not going crazy. Apparently they are doing a couple test sections between Beaver and Nephi where the speed limit is increased. This is the first sign I missed:
I don't know what they are testing. Accidents? I bet they still happen. Speeding cars? I'm certain they still happen. I know it didn't change my behavior much :-)

The title of this post refers to when I was little and very confused about"Speed Zone Ahead" road signs. Why would there be a sign that TELLS u to speed?

And then there was the "Congested Area Ahead". I really thought everyone was sick.

Provo with Emily

I had such a fun time with Emily and she made it so fun even though she felt so ill! Such a good sport. She had lots of activities planned and we almost did them all. Here goes the play by play.

This is a LONG post, but since its my blog I can do whatever I want so there!

First, I took Friday off and drove to Provo Friday morning. Pat had written in her blog about stopping in Beaver for cheese curds at the cheese factory so of course I had to too! I was trying to be leisurely about my drive since usually I'm just in a hurry to get there. Pat's directions to me on the phone were "exit at the first Beaver exit.. turn right, then turn left and go by some houses and then turn left and you'll see the while silo". Its a good thing I saw a billboard right before the exit that gave me a road name! That way I knew I was headed in the right direction. Man that little store was packed! I got some cheese curds and some other random cheeses to try (no picture... my blogging skills are still blossoming). The ice cream was delicious. As I got back into my car, I was telling Spree about the cheese I got and how much he was going to enjoy it (Spree LOVES cheese), when an older lady came over looking this way and that at my car and finally saying "Is that a bird in your car?". Yup! Of course Spree doesn't talk to strangers (unless they offer him cheese), but she thought he was beautiful and told him he was a pretty bird. Funny old ladies.

That night Emily was feeling very ill and so we went to that Steakhouse that I can't remember the name of. I had a gift card from about three years ago so we got the whole nine yards. Too bad we couldn't eat it all! By the way, the bloomin' onion tastes OK the second time around if you broil it, and try not to burn it. I told Emily I was working on dark hair so I needed my carbon.

Then Emily took me to a play at the Hale Center Theater in Orem. It wasn't a very big theatre and I was a little nervous at first because they were going to do Shakespeare's "As you Like It" and I haven't had good luck with little theatres in the Provo area. However, they told us it was going to be silly and then proceeded to be silly!Shakespeare really isn't very nice to woman! The only thing I couldn't figure out was why they were wearing Edwardian/Elizabethan outfits.... and then spoke Shakespearean English. But it was pretty funny and the acting was well done. Emily and I agreed that the main guy was kinda handsome.

Then it was off to Emily's favorite ice cream shop (where they know her and asked if the other girl she brings there (Cathy) was her sister.... HELLO! I'M her sister) and then home to bed. Emily was feeling much better in the morning so we headed out to get "all you can eat chunky cinnamon french toast" at Kneaders. Apparently I'm really not that good at "all you can eat" since I could barely down my first plate! But it sure tasted good. Emily had been looking forward to that all week.

Since Emily had been feeling ill the previous week, she felt very behind in her yardwork and a little overwhelmed (the fact that her garden gets bigger every year might have something to do with it as well... just sayin') so I wanted to help. We planted plants and mowed. We also put up the chicken wire for the peas to climb.
Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of me mowing down the dandelions so this is a recreation from Sunday.. in case you couldn't figure it out. I don't really ever remember mowing before so this was a first time experience. Its a pretty satifying job to do because you get immediate results.

I even put on the hat to make it a REAL recreation. Emily told me she doesn't get sunburned so I didn't worry about putting sun stop on since I'm darker than she is. I burned my arms and she didn't. Sigh.

Emily got into the mowing action as well. Can you believe they have TWO lawnmowers? Ones old and one is new.The planting also needed to be recreated since I had had the camera the day before.We also RIPPED up the carpet on her porch. That was pretty satisfying especially after Emily put a new blade in the exacto knife. I felt so powerful! I went through 2 blades after that cuz that carpet was TOUGH.

Emily had wanted to go watch the volleyball games but when she saw that the price had been increased 500% for the final game, we went and watched the new Star Trek movie instead. Heidi had invited us to go watch it with them Friday afternoon but I got to Provo too late. I hope she didn't mind us calling and asking her opinion of it before we went to watch it! I'm glad we had though because it was just as Heidi described so my expectations weren't too high. Pure Star Trek without much of a plot but really funny cliche's and great effects. I'm really glad we went.

With about a half hour left to go, the movie stopped..... we waited a minute and then a fireman told us there had been a medical emergency and we needed to be patient while they took care of it. The lights came on and everyone looked around.... except me. My contact had gotten lost in my eye so I took the opportunity to fix it. Emily told me what was going on while I tried to find, clean, and replace the contact. I think you'll have to read her blog to get the whole story. They took the lady out on a stretcher and then resumed the movie.

Then it was grocery shopping, Emily's favorite ice cream place again, and to bed.

As you know, Emily teaches the 5yr old in primary and at first I went to Sunday school cuz I thought it might be more fun with a bunch of old people. No such luck. It was the same lesson I had had in Vegas last week. So I went back to Opening Exercises with Emily. It was good I was there so I could make one of her little girls cry.

In my defence, all I did was sit next to her and her friend to help them be reverent. When they still were kinda goofing around, I had her sit on the other side of me so I was between them on the bench. Truth be told I didn't even notice she was crying cuz I was interacting with the other girl trying to get her to sit down! Her mother is Emily's team teacher so when the Mother came back from getting the classroom ready, she took her out. Usually I make little boys cry but I guess I'm branching out a little bit.

Emily made me a wonderful meal of French Dip sandwiches (I've been having them almost every day for the last two weeks. I LOVE THEM!) and this key lime pie (with out the key limes.. just regular limes).
She even made merange for the top! Isn't it beautiful? And she did it all without a blow torch! Unfortunately, I had to leave to go home so when we cut it open it wasn't quite set up, but it still tasted WONDERFUL. I'm going to have to make another one this weekend.

Man, my birthdays keep getting better and better, all thanks to Emily! I had such a fun time.

Emily, you are my favorite birthday celebrator EVER! Thank you SO MUCH!

Its my Birthday... AND my Mothers... and others.

How cool is that? I was born on my mothers birthday. At least I was born in the morning so my mother wasn't in labor all day on her birthday :-). I was born at 6:00am and as my father says "as the sun came up". Perhaps that is why my favorite color is yellow. I must admit that during my teenage years it wasn't quite as fun to share my birthday (who isn't selfish when they are a teenager?) but now it's great to be a novelty. Nathan, how did u feet sharing ur birthday with Bethanie when u were a teenager? (Nathan was out of the house by the time Bethanie turned old enough to be selfish so her opinion doesn't count. *big grin*)

Akiko's birthday is on the 7th (coworker) , but she was born in Japan so we decided we were really born on the same day since it's already the 7th over there. We got to go out to lunch together with Marcia as well since her birthday was on the 1st. And Arvids is on the 31st! We are a May structures group (that is if we get the big job at the end of May and I don't get laid off for blogging too much).

And for my birthday, my garden decided to grow! I'm so happy! Here are my squash plants.
The two on the right with the lighter leaves are volunteers from my compost pile I had there during the winter. I'm assuming they are squash.... they are some sort of gourd. I have THREE squash growing (the three female flowers I pollinated with the ONE male flower I had... That flower sure got around :-) and I'm going to take them up to Provo this weekend to share with Emily. She always shares her garden goodness with me so I thought I'd reciprocate.

Here r my tomato plants.
I've got a couple getting ready to turn red but they won't be ready to take up to see Emily. The plant front and center is actually a pepper plant that made it through the winter... I cut it back and all of a sudden all the thick stems are COVERED in leaves. I also planted 2 new ones so we'll see if it's better to replant or save the old.

And here is the plant Birgit gave me when she moved. I thought it was kinda ugly...
But now it bloomed! the flowers are SOO pretty! I LOVE it.

So... this really wasn't a post about my birthday cuz I wanted to post about my garden instead. U'll just have to get over it. I'm not really celebrating it until this weekend in Provo and even though Emily is ill (don't worry, she hasn't touched any pigs like Nathan did), we will have some fun.

PS. Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo and as I was writing a comment to my sister, I realized I had boycotted it... I had Chinese Stir Fry for lunch (don't tell Emily but it was made with turkey meat and had celery in it), and a French Dip Sandwich for Dinner. :-)

After Sewing comes... Chrocheting of Course

I guess I really do like to crochet. Sometimes I forget. I now get invited to baby showers in the ward because of my wonderful crocheting items. Well.... it might also be that I have awesome VTs that take good care of me, but I like to think it is because of my prowess at crocheting.

Friday I went to a baby shower 20 minutes late because I was trying to finish up the blanket and booties. As it was, the blanket was still a little damp and I spent the first 15 minutes there finishing up the ONE pair of booties I had gotten finished.

Here is a picture (high tech wrapping I know. I blame it on the economy).

I actually like this pattern, after I kinda fixed it from the original pattern by adding chains and another row, and it was pretty quick and easy to do (the initial punching is what takes time in these types of blankets). I think I might actually do this pattern again.

Since then, I've been working on increasing my stash. Everyone seems to be having boys lately so I've run out of blue items (hence the frantic trying to to get a blanket and booties done for Friday).

I also finished the last 2 dresses for my VTee. She was so excited to get them! Makes me so happy that I could do that for her... And I think they are a little less ugly since she thinks they are gorgeous. (Hey, its what SHE said). In thanks, she gave me a framed picture of the Trek. Mm.. I need to take a picture of it! She said she looked through all her 600 pictures (she was the photographer for the activity) and could only find ONE that had me pulling the cart. I told her it was because I wanted the kids to have the experience of pulling. I'm giving like that :-)

Here is that big dress. The light pink ribbon was all I had of the fat ribbon variety.

And here is the back. I have 2 packs of what I thought was random sizes and colors of buttons from Walmart. Turns out each size is a color.I'm kinda upset about it cuz I needed pink buttons but wanted a bigger size. Oh well. I guess u get what u paid for :-)

This purple dress (created with a D hook, for those of u who care) I think is now my favorite pattern of them all. Of course I fixed the sleeves to what I like and created a neckline to match the bottom of the dress.I think I did a great job.As a final note... after the Trek it hurt quite a bit to kneel. On Saturday when I got into my biking outfit I found out why.Look at those bruises (the camera washes them out)! Sad thing is.. I don't know how I got them!

PS... Its my BIRTHDAY tomorrow!

Mourning for my Phone

I was going to tell u all about a bridge inspection I did Wednesday, but I am in mourning for my old phone. The screen died as I was coming back from the inspection. One minute it was there and I could get text messages... the next it was gone.


I am so sad. I'd had that phone for 4 years. It had served me well. I should take a picture of it, but I'm so sad I don't feel like it. My new phone is nice, but it's not my old phone. It was a Motorola flip phone with a big screen.


Sigh.


I got a Samsung Sway because I liked the big screen. I haven't decided if I like the slider, but the screens were tiny on the flip phones.


This morning I took the Chinese charm off my old phone to put on my new one and almost cried.


Big Sigh.


I'm also in the process of trying to get all the data off my old phone. The little Verizon Branch by my work couldn't pull the data off so I'm gonna try a bigger store closer to my home that has a service department. As it is, I can get the screen to work for a few seconds after the phone is turned off for 5 hours. Right now I've got the phone numbers up to "D" in my contacts list.


I MISS MY OLD PHONE!

OK, so I'll show a couple pictures of the bridge I inspected cuz I want you to know how slippery those rocks are. And maybe it will help the mourning process. I fell down trying to get down the slope at the other abutment(didn't get a picture of it of course cuz I was WORKING) and scraped my hands. What did Arvid do? Walked off to find a different way down since my way obviously didn't work. He's so helpful. I had a hard time getting back up without avalanching myself down the slope. I might have slipped a couple more times but not as bad as that first tumble.There has been up to an inch of movement at the end of the approach slab and the coping has cracked and fallen off of the moment slab (over the MSE walls) at these points. (Now u know)

Here is the best picture of me holding the tape measure. I'd wish I could have gotten a picture of me in my snazzy bright orange and yellow jacket that Arvid made me wear (I didn't put it on until I saw he had his on), but I didn't think I should ask Arvid to take one of me. Probably not very professional....

...although when I was out on inspection with my old boss, he asked me to take a picture of him working so he could put it on his profile on one of those matchmaking sites. Really.. I'm SERIOUS! That's exactly what he said.

Sigh.. Blogging didn't help. Still mourning.

My poor old phone. I'm not good with change.