Forms of Friday

Well, I am back safe and sound in Houston.  I had a good visit to Ponca City meeting the members of my new group.  It was another whirlwind of a trip, but I am learning a ton about our Lubricants and  Specialty Products businesses.  My new group members are great- enthusiastic about what they do and patient with all of my questions.  It was nice to get back into the laboratory as well as see all of their pilot facilities.  I even got to suit up in full PPE (personal protective equipment) - hard hat (I have my own personal hard hat now with my name on it- yay!) , safety glasses, and lab coat.  Too bad I do not have a picture.  One fun thing about my new groups is that they all have very active marketing activites (e.g. the engine oil you buy for your car).  So, they have all sorts of schwag - goodies to help promote their products!  My new groups had a bag of goodies waiting for me in my new Ponca City office complete with hats, mugs, pens, and a really nice padfolio.  The boys were thrilled with the hats that I brought back for them! (Extreme PowerTM is one of our specialty product drag reducers for transporting crude oil through pipelines.  Liquid TitaniumTM is one of our lubricant product lines.)  Actually, the cool thing is that the Extreme Power hat is a gift from our Specialty Products group specifically for Derek for all of his help that he has given them with testing in Analytical Services and the budget.  How thoughtful!  I wish someone would call and tell that to Derek's boss!  Derek was kind enough to "share" his hat with Ash to avoid World War III this evening.

Derek and the boys had a nice few days together including spelling words and macaroni and cheese.  Derek had spaghetti (and wine- yay!!)  ready when I pulled in the driveway ~6:30pm.   Derek is slowly feeling better day by day, but he is still rather hoarse.  He has an upcoming colonoscopy on Monday to get scoped out from both ends per his 2 year cancer checkup (lucky him). 

Zach had his landforms unit at school today.  He brought home his wonderful playdough creation.  I think he did a fantastic job!  What a fun way to learn all about maps and geography!  Enjoy!!!

How cute, the boys are both watching "Iron Man" cartoons on TV while wearing their hats!