Homemade Pizza!

You Just Don't Want To Know...

Break Time!

This weekend Ian was heading down to Colorado Springs for a paintball game, so I decided to go home and visit my family. We both worked really hard so we would not have any homework to do all weekend. As a result, this weekend became an amazing time of rest and fun. I was able to get a ton done, as well as rebuild my mom's computer. It's been a really long time since I was able to sit down and just work on a computer, so that was awesome! Bethany and I had a chance to hang out and just laugh together for a while, which really helped. Now next weekend I get so see the Ebersole family! The CSM homecoming game is against CSU-Pueblo (where Ian's dad teaches) so this should be really fun. I like taking a break, this is pretty nice!

Happy Birthday Momma!

It's my angel Momma's birthday today! She came up and spent the weekend with us, which was an awesome time. At the end we did a walk for children with Down Syndrome. I love my Momma!

Coming Back!

You didn't think I was gone, did you? I'm back! Just needed a short break from the blog to let everything settle down. I received too many complaints about not having a blog my final year of college to not continue. So I'm back! It will be sporadic and will have more pictures than words, but I'm still here!

The Line Up

Last week Aaron realized I did not know the names of every machine on site and decided it was his responsibility to teach me. Therefore, at the end of the day when most of the crews had headed home, Aaron took me outside and taught me about all the machines. Not just the names, but we also looked in the engines and purposes and different ways they could be used. If I can remember all of it has yet to be seen, but it was all still pretty sweet!

The Show Stopper!

Recently half of our flow (the south side) went from 400 gpm to 60 gpm. We were in a bit of panic, trying to figure out what was wrong with our dewatering pumps. We even rewired the entire south side pumps at which point in time I learned a ton about circuits and breaker boxes. After two weeks we made a couple crucial discoveries. The first was that one pump was burnt out but the rest were fine. The other was that a small rock had gotten stuck in the mazy, a part of the system that sucks in air. As soon as the rock was taken out, the flow rate shot back up! The rock is shown on top of a mazy. On one side we wrote "The Show Stopper" and the other side says "The Party Stopper" in spanish. The rock is stained orange from the oxidized iron in the water.

The Tank Farm...(The Dewatering System)

Just When I Thought I Was Done...

I'm now measuring noise levels. So now I've done noise, air, dust and water...What's next?!

Pulling a Dewatering Up Out of The Ground...

The Flowers! They TALK!!!

A lady's society has done some pretty insane needlework on the site fences. There are flowers everywhere! I'm walking past the fence on the way to the bridge and all the sudden I hear, right beside me, "Well hello there! I like your shoes. It's a beautiful day!" I completely jump out of my skin. Scares the mess out of me. At first I thought I was just hearing things, but then observed other people jumping too. I walk around the fence into the site and see speakers. Yep, the flowers do talk!

The Kiewitmobile!

Why do we have this? I have no idea..
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Downtown Denver...

Standing Behind the Clock...

From Up High!

I was chatting with Dennis today and he asked if I wanted to see downtown Denver from the roof of the Union Station. No brainer! See for yourself...

My Favourite Security Guard!

Dennis is my favourite security guard at the Denver Union Station. We ride the bus together nearly every morning on the way to work and then talk periodically throughout the day as I go back and forth from to the site and the office and back. It's always fun on Monday mornings when he tells me stories of his kids' antics over the weekend. Dennis always makes me smile.

Meet the Crew!

These are some of the awesome guys I work with on a daily basis. These are only the ones who happened to be eating lunch with me between the carbon filters. We'll start on the right. That's Joel. I don't know him too well because he's been on night crew most of the time I've been with Kiewit. I do know it's a nice guy with a sense of humor who makes it a point to say good morning every day. Juan is next to Joel. He gets wet, a lot. Juan works around the bag filters and hoses. He has full rain gear so when something like the fire hydrant explodes (which has happened), he can fix it. And yet, somehow, Juan is always smiling. Next to Juan is John, the dewatering foreman. John is very quiet, methodical and good at getting everything done. Once you get to know him better though, a funny side comes out. Next to John is Aaron (dude with all the stickers on his hat). That's my boss and probably the hardest working person on the site. Sitting in the center is the man we call Benjie. He's just crazy! Everyone brings fresh jalapenos to work and give them to Benjie at lunch. He eats them raw like they are candy. Doesn't even break a sweat. Totally crazy. Not shown here are Kyle, Austin or the other Juan. I'll snatch pictures of them later.

We're All Gonna Die!

Today the project engineer came into my office completely panicked. A man was in the office kitchen testing the water and he shared the data with the project engineer. Now the project engineer knew our water discharge standards for chlorine were 0.05 mg/L and this man's tests were showing much higher levels. The project engineer came to find me to figure out why that was and how to fix it. After listening to the two men, I realized everything was fine. Drinking water standards and aquatic life standards are different, particularly when it come to chlorine. Chlorine kills fish, but humans need it in the water to kill diseases or else we die. The discharge limit is for the fish and the office water was for humans. The numbers are supposed to be different. I'll never forget the panicked look on my boss's boss's face. Too funny. Afterward I had the scary realization that the project engineer had just come to me, an intern, for help and called me the project "expert" on the subject. Yicks! I better hope I know this stuff.

Testing!

The picture above shows Aaron, holding two samples of water I just tested. I use a calorimeter every day and test levels of iron, chlorine and manganese in the water. I take samples of water and then add different chemicals depending on what I'm looking for. If the water has iron in it, it turn orange. If there is chlorine, it turns pink and manganese turns purple. I then take readings to get more precise results. My job is to keep us in compliance every week. I can use my tests to determine what areas are having trouble and how to fix them. It's a fun job.

Air Quality Monitors

The devices pictured above have been my constant companions the entirety of my internship. These are the air quality monitors that I carry everywhere! Basically, they measure (you guessed it) the air! The particles in the air to be exact. The blue monitor is called a DustTrak and the yellow monitor is a P.I.D. I walk the entire site three times a day sticking my air monitors in different places and seeing what happens. In the morning its fun. I get to walk the site and say good morning to everyone. Everyone on that site knows who I am and what I'm doing. By the final test though, in the heat of the afternoon, I'm hot and tired and sore from luging the machines around. They get heavy and you have to hold them up at breathing level! Yesterday afternoon Kyle came to find me while I was pumping water out of a weir tank. Kyle and Aaron had set up a meeting for me with the lady in charge of the air monitoring and neglected to tell me. My job was to convince her that since we were no longer digging up contaminated dirt, three times a day was a little much. The guys were hoping for once a week or even once a day. I think they are dreading doing this when I am gone. I managed to convince the lady though, that the air monitoring is no longer necessary. Therefore, we are completely done until phase 2 starts! This is my official goodbye to the air quality monitors!

Before a Helicopter is a Helicopter...It is a BOX!

A Post for My Uncle Tom...We Love CAT!

Welcome to My Lab!

The Bottom of an Elevator Shaft...

A Girl?

This week I'm on safety tour. This is where we walk around the site checking for safety stuff and present our findings at the daily meeting. The two guys on tour with me came to the dewatering area to find me on Thursday. They aren't normally outside or near my area, so they didn't know who I was. They found Aaron and I and the first thing out of their mouth? "You're a girl?!" Aaron, of course, cracked up. The guys stammered an explanation. They didn't know there was a girl intern on site, all the rest are guys. Not to mention, the assignment list just said 'Anderson' so they didn't know any better. It was an understandable mistake, but the looks on their faces were priceless!

Shopping with Aaron...

For the last couple of days I have run errands with Aaron for supplies. We have had a blast. We have a tendency to get a little lost, well, a lot lost actually, but always find our way back to the Union Station after a while. Today we went to Home Depot, Ace and Lowes where I learned that taking Aaron into a hardware store is like taking a two year old into a toy store. No matter how many times you tell them not to touch something, every time you turn around they have their fingers in something! We were standing in line today to check out at one of the stores and there were a lot of strobe lights at the register. Next thing I know my boss is pushing buttons to turn every one of them on. His explanation? "Well, I guess they shouldn't have made me wait in such a long line." By the way, we were only waiting in line behind one person. I was laughing pretty hard. Like I said, we had a great time!

My Yellow Hard Hat!

As a new person on site, I was required to wear a white hard hat on the construction site. This signified that I was a newbie who didn't know the safety rules. In other words, if I did something stupid, please teach me and don't fire me. After 30 days I get to wear a yellow hard hat like everyone else. I've been really looking forward to getting my yellow hard hat so when it didn't show up, I started to wonder. My 30 days were over at the beginning of this week so by the end of the week I began to suspect that someone had forgotten me. I asked Aaron who promptly got embarrassed and promised I would have it by the end of the evening. Sure enough, before I left work he let me pick out a hat! I chose the wide brim like everyone else on my crew wears. This is the hard hat that will stay with me the rest of my time at Kiewit!

Now That's Power Washing!

It's a Dirty Job, But Someone's Gotta Do It!

Fun with Sisters!

Amy, Bethany and I went to see Eclipse together this weekend. Going to the movies with my sisters is alway crazy. I'm pretty sure it's actually completely impossible to embarrass them. We had fun though. We all decided to wear our matching T-shirts from Forks that Mom and Dad got us on their trip. I have to say, that just made the experience even more fun. A good time was had by all!

Shopping for a Wedding Dress...

Yesterday my mom, grandma and my bridesmaids (Bethany, Amy and Cynthia) went shopping for a wedding dress. I don't think I realized how complicated this was going to be. Richard was the funniest man and he was in charge of helping us get started. After a tour of the story he took me to the flower girl section to pick out white shoes to wear while trying on dresses. Then he started pulling out dresses, bras, slips, tiaras and veils. He taught Bethany (my maid of honor) how to put everything on me and then she was tasked with getting me dressed. I have never seen so many clips, snaps, and zippers before. Let alone all that fabric! Bethany was great at figuring it all out. We were laughing pretty hard together in the dressing room though. When I would come out in each dress, Richard would use clips to make all the dresses fit. The smallest they had in store was a four and I'm smaller than a zero, so nothing fit in the slightest. Richard worked wonders with those clips. He would then run to find a matching veil and hair piece to put my hair up. We didn't find the dress, but not from lack of trying. We will probably head out tomorrow to keep looking. At least now I know what I'm looking for!

MSDS

This is an MSDS book. MSDS stands for Material Safety Data Sheet. It's a paper that tells about an item, how to handle it, things that could go wrong, composition, etc. I'm in charge of updating these really big books and it's a challenge. Every material that comes on site has an MSDS, including wood and whiteboard cleaner. It's not exactly a fun job, but someone has to do it!

Making It Through...

This last week has been really tough at work. Today I worked over 13 hours and there is no end in site. We've had trainings, an environmental audit, a new dewatering system requiring 24/7 care, etc. To top it off, I've had a serious case of sun poisoning. By the time I get home at night all I want to do is sleep. Ian has been wonderful. He's been so supportive through this time. He's met me at my apartment, made dinner, done laundry and put me to bed each night before heading back to Golden. I've been falling asleep during dinner and waking up the next morning to a spotless apartment. Ian is amazing and there is no way I could have done any of this without him. Now everything should settle down and I look forward to being there for him.

Baby Fox!

We have a family of foxes that like to live on our site. Today I walked down into the bus box to see three grown men chasing a baby box. It had gone down into a excavation for a swim and didn't want to leave. The men were trying to catch it and release it outside of the area so they could keep digging. Two hours later the men were still running around in circles, chasing the baby fox. Finally they caught it and released it just outside the hole. The baby fox ran back to it's family.

Denver Aquarium!

Let's Go Rockies! *Clap Clap*

Tonight the project engineer at the Union Station took all the interns to the Rockies game. I hadn't met the other interns yet so this was a great opportunity to get to know them. I knew they would all be great guys and they were. A couple of them were from CSU and several were majoring in construction management. The Rockies were playing the Red Sox, so the stadium was completely packed and insanely loud! We had an awesome time and the Rockies won. GO ROCKIES!!!

Bethany's Visit!

Ian and I headed down to the Springs today to pick up Bethany. She's here until tomorrow to visit, hang out and relax. We spent the afternoon at the pool, explored downtown Denver, tried H|Burger (very good) watched movies and taught her how to make cookies. Cookies the Laura and Ian way are not particularly precise and more for the experience than the cookies themselves. We had a great time together!

Random Trains...

I work in the Right of Way (ROW) of three different train tracks - RTD Light rail, Union Pacific and BNSF. I have training for each of these and stickers and wallet cards to prove I'm allowed on the site. These two BNSF trains pulled up ten feet away from me this week. They both stopped and the operators got out to chat for a few minutes. They then switch trains and go on their merry way. Sweet! And totally random...

Walking the Dog...

This is what we fondly call "walking the dog." This trench is being used for electric lines and the ground is too soft for people to be safely inside. Therefore, the operator is remotely controlling this device from the side. The machine actually looks like a dog in its movements. It has two wheels in the front and two in the back. The wheels actually leave individual tracks. The back and front of the machine are two separate pieces so when the front is moving forward the back is swaying side to side slightly. It looks like it is just trotting along. The machine actually bounces and climb and goes around itself in circles. What is the function of the 'dog?' I haven't figured that out yet, I've been preoccupied from playing with the dog!

Dirt Glue...

It turns out that you can, in fact, glue dirt. We have two massive stockpiles of dirt on our site that will be used eventually as backfill for the underground bus terminal (aka bus box). Because these piles are going to be on the site for several years, we brought in a group from Arizona (the only people around who do this) to put dirt glue on the stockpiles. It creates a very nice, protective coating all over the pile and is kinda rubbery to the touch. Cool!

Aaron and Jenn...

This is Aaron and Jenn. Jenn is my mentor and actually did her graduate studies at Mines. I wear the same PPE (personal protective gear) as what you see in the picture. Notice Aaron's hat. You can spot him across the site because of all the stickers. my goal is to have just as many stickers someday. In construction work, the stickers and color of hat give information. Each sticker represents a different type of training. I received my first sticker today!

Where I Work...

This is part of a new filtration system we are working on. I spend most of my day here. The blue weir tanks are the ones we were climbing on to take measurements.

The Denver Union Station...

A Typical Day...

Okay, there is really nothing typical about any day, butI can at least describe what happened today! I wake up at 5:15am and decide I must be crazy. I'm so sore! By 6:45am I'm at work and ready to go! The first thing I do is suit up in my hard hat, gloves and safety glasses. Aaron and I headed out to the site for a meeting with Austin and his team. This is my core unit, we all work together as a team. While talking about the day we do something called "Stretch and Flex". Yep, everyone at Kiewit does stretches in the morning all together. Afterward Austin teaches something called a "Toolbox". It's a small, 10 minute workshop on how to do something at the site. This time it's how to place a straw waddle into place. After Austin teaches we all head out. I get my instructions for the day and start the air quality machines. I take the two monitors back to the office. There I place several phone calls to get quote for new equipment. I realize that I'm missing some measurements to make the place the final orders, so I head back out into the field and meet Aaron. We climb to the top of all the weir tanks and take the measurements. There is a lot of climbing and drawing involved and the sun is particularly hot up here. I'm very glad I have aloe back in the office! It's fun though. Aaron and I spend the time just talking. After taking the measurements I go back to the office and continue placing calls for equipment. I then rush back out into the site and take more air quality measurements. Finally it's time to meet Mom Ebersole for lunch. We had a wonderful, through regrettably short time together. The afternoon followed with meetings, training, air quality tests and the like. When I get home I immediately jump in the shower. I'm so covered in black soot I hardly recognize myself. After the shower is dinner, Stargate Atlantis and bed. Thus, my day. By the way, I've fixed the comments section, so you can now leave comments on my blog.

First Impressions: Meet Kyle...

Kyle is the other engineer I work with. He's only a year older than I am and was an intern last year, then got hired on after he graduated. I get to be Kyle's tagalong. I follow him out to the work site and basically question every move he makes. The first day we walked for 11 hours straight! It doesn't help that he's much taller than I am! Kyle is very patient and answers my hundreds of questions. He let's me go to meetings with him and teaches me to run the equipment. Tomorrow will be the real test. Kyle will be gone at training and both Kyle and Aaron have decided I can do some of the stuff that's often Kyle's responsibility. I'm really excited!

First Impressions: Meet Aaron...

Aaron is my boss and the head Environmental guy on this job. He's really easy going and already very protective of me. Just about the first thing out of his mouth: "How's the apartment? Do you feel safe and comfortable there?" Something that surprised me is how much he really values my opinion, often asking what I think of a decision. He takes time to answer all my questions and always acts like he's glad I'm asking them. Aaron has a good, though subtle, sense of humour and sometimes messes with the other engineer working with us. At lunch we just sit and talk about life and the job a bit, which is nice. Aaron teaches me about the job, but also about the politics with the subcontractors and how important it is to take care of the people working with you. His often quotes "We want everyone to have a smile!"

The Way It Started...

Let me say welcome back! I received a flurry of emails when i discontinued the picture blog and everyone has been so interested in what I'm doing this summer, so I've decided to keep a summer blog. This won't be anything fancy, but it will serve to keep everyone up to date. A little bit of background, I'm working for Kiewit, a civil construction company, at the Denver Union Station. I'm not entirely sure how I got the job. Kiewit tracked me down at Career Fair in the fall, said they wanted me to interview with them and gave me a job in October. They've also provided housing in the heart of downtown Denver, hence the title. I am now a construction worker living in a high-rise apartment. I'll write a few blogs explaining the living situation, the job and the people I work for. Just know that for now, this is the intro! Welcome aboard on this adventure!