What's going on?

Well on the off chance that you are subscribed to this blog you have gotten several emails tonight about "updates". the truth is this is the first "new" post. I let this blog die sometime ago when I started doing a blog on my own website, but that came to an end a few months ago when my computer died. Bottom line is I am in the process of rebuilding my website and I have decided to revive this blog and try to get this blog and my website to work jointly (wish me luck on that). I have been recreating all of my blog posts from my website over to this blog, so unless you are really bored you can ignore all those crazy update e-mails.

Great ending

So despite my post this AM I felt the need to make another post and share my wonderful ending to the weekend. After Leaving Jeff and Danilles place this afternoon/evening I head over to Troy’s for dinner. As I am pulling through Manassas I notice a noise coming from somewhere in the driveline of the Jeep. We decide to take Troy’s car to dinner so I pull into a nearby spot. Now admittedly I did not park in one of the two visitor’s spots for his building, but that is largely due to the fact that the spots were taken and I figure that being as we are only going to dinner I am safe. After enjoying a dinner we head back to the condo only to notice that my jeep is no longer there. Assuming that the jeep has been towed we set out to locate the towing company. This proved to be no easy task since the complex apparently decided it was not necessary to post this info around the complex. After a long while I finally call the police and they confirm the jeep was towed and give me the info. I really love the stupid parking rules and enforcement they have here.

The misadventures of Jeff and John

Does the picture look familiar?

It’s Deja Vu all over again!

So my friend Jeff just purchased and “new” vehicle. Well it is new to him anyway. The biggest problem with this vehicle is the location. It was in Pulaski, TN. Feeling sympathetic for Jeff (not something I am prone to do) I volunteered to ride along with him on the drive down to pick it up and bring it home. We set out on Friday morning driving his dad’s truck and towing a neighbor’s trailer. Things seem to be going good for a while, but let me tell you that is a LOOOOONG drive.

Before I proceed let me give you a background story. A friend at work came by my desk earlier this week and we are chatting and he mentions he is heading to Nashville for the weekend. I mention I am passing by Nashville on my way to Pulaski and we move on. Thursday at work my phone rings and it is Sean. I answer and he asks if I am still heading to Nashville this weekend. I say I am am and he asks for a favor. Apparently his roomie forgot his wallet here in DC when they took off so he asks if I mind getting the wallet and bringing it down to TN. I tell him I do not mind but he has to convince the Apartment complex to let me in. for those of you who have eveer stayed in an apartment you know this is near impossible. Using all of his manly grace he convinces them and I am able to get the wallet. I will not go into details because that is not the point of the blog.

Back to the story....

So we are cruising along and I decide to call Sean to work out plans to meet to give him the wallet. While working out the plans we realize the GPS is taking us a route that completely bypasses Nashville which is where Sean is at. furthermore we discover that if we do go through Nashville 2 things are going to happen. First we will arrive at the same time Sean is suppose to pick up his girlfriend at the airport. Second, we will arrive right at rush hour. One thing I did want to do is go by and see the double arch bridge on the Natchez-Trace from the road beneath the bridge (what can I say I am a dorky bridge engineer). I punch in the location of the bridge as a via point on our trip to Pulaski and the GPS is kind enough to recalculate our optimal route which now takes us past the Nashville airport and around the Nashville by-pass. I tell Sean I will call him when we get close to the airport, but we are not taking that trailer through the airport traffic. As we get closer (about 15 minutes out) I call Sean and as fate would have it he is at the airport picking up his girlfriend. We make plans for an alternate location to meet and go on about the trip. Then as if planned comes the rush hour traffic. This must have slowed Sean down more than us because he calls just as we are getting on I-65 to say they just found a place off the second exit on I-65. We make the drop (in traffic) and head back out. fortunately the optimal route to the bridge takes us on back roads and we are able to avoid traffic. We arrive at the bridge and to my disappointment the time of day and the surroundings make for very poor photos, but I do my best and we are on our way.

We finally arrive in Pulaski about 1 hour after the original plan. We load up the trailer and begin the trek home. I tell Jeff I can go as far as he feels like driving that night, so we take off. We get back to I-40 and decide we are both hungry and he is tired so we find a nice exit with a waffle house and a Hampton Inn. After dinner we head to the Hampton Inn to see about lodging. After much miscommunication we end up with 2 smoking rooms instead of the 1 nonsmoking with double beds we had hoped for.

Next morning we get ready to head out only to find it is raining which I anticipate making the trip fun. we get back on the interstate and the weather clears for a bit and we are cruising along until we decide to seek out a sonic for lunch. Again the GPS is useful and locates one about 1 hour away just a little off the interstate. we head there for lunch and enjoy a good sonic lunch . Since I do not get sonic often I decide to get a slush after the meal and I notice they have happy hour specials with all drinks for 1/2 price 2-4 pm everyday. Since it is 1:50 we decide to wait till 2:00. At 2:02 I proceed to order my creamslush and the total comes to $2.08, I pay and realize it is not half price. No biggie I will mention it to the girl when she brings it back and get $1 back. I take another look on the menu and realize the creamslushes are the one drink not included in the special. All that waiting and nothing.

We head back out and Jeff is driving an looks down at the trailer brake and sees no light. We pull over to check the connection and realize that at some point the cable has dragged and torn to the point we do not have a connection to the trailer any longer. with about half the trip yet to drive we look up a carquest on the GPS and thy fortunately have one replacement plug. We head over there and lose a good hour in the parking lot making a field repair to the trailer. the kick is even after the field repair we are down to only one light on the trailer working. Tired and ready to hit the road we admit defeat and and head back out thankful we at least got the brakes working.

the next half of the trip is spent driving through complete down pours mixed with patches of light rain. We finally pull up to Jeff’s House at 9:00 pm, a mere 13 hours after we left that morning. Next comes the fun of unloading the trailer in the rain. For those of you unaware, trying to stop a vehicle on a metal trailer in the rain with bad brakes is near impossible, fortunately driver, trailer, vehicle and spotter are all ok.

Heading Home

I am sitting in the Airport after a week spent traveling along the Natchez-Trace Parking as part of work. The trip started in Tupelo, MS and ended in Nashville, TN and the northern most end of the parkway. I have now had the experience to travel almost half of the parkway and I must say it was a very enjoyable trip. The time of year could not have been better as the temperatures were in thr upper 60’s and lower 70’s, the sun was out the whole time, the dogwoods were in bloom and the bugs were not out. Despite how nice the trip was it will be nice to get back home and be able to do things on my own schedule again. Of course the fun part of the project is now over as I already have the Project Manager asking me when I am going to get started and how long it is going to take. Oh joy!

It's that time again...

As I sit here and wait for the refrigerator repairman to show up I decided it was time for my quarterly update here on the “blog”. I would like to take this time to publicly thank my good friend Randy for kindly pointing out that my bio needed to be updated because I am no longer 29. Thanks buddy! Seriously you would think updating this blog would be easy, but other than adding photos I find it difficult sometimes to make time to do this. So what is new in my life? Well I have pretty much sold the TJ (I still have a few parts left) and I have purchased a 1984 CJ-7. That is right ladies and gentlemen, I have gone backwards! honestly I like the CJ’s for a couple of reasons. First it is the classical jeep, it is what jeep was meant to look like. Secondly it is mechanical, even more so than the TJ’s which means I can do my own work on it. Lastly it is the CJ I feel in love with all those many years ago. I do not plan on doing much to the CJ,but I will try to update here as I do make changes.

Other than the Jeep my roomie has moved to Nevada so I am getting settled into having the place to myself again at least until July when I expect to have a new roommate. Work is keeping me busy, but not too busy. I have also signed up to play softball for the office this spring so we will see how that goes. talk to you guys later.

Slacking Again

So I was reminded again tonight that it has been a while since I have updated this thing so here goes. Since the last update I have decided to sell my project jeep since I did not have time to finish it. I have sold enough of the parts that I went and bought a 1984 CJ-7. I also went to PA for a weekend to visit some Frank Lloyd Wright homes and got some decent photos. I bought an xbox 360 and have found a new way to waste time. I visited my sister in SC for Christmas and had a blast with her family (5 kids) I have battled through a cold that took me out of work for a week and I have taken on some special projects at work that take a little extra time. With baseball just around the corner (in case you were wondering about the image up top) I have started looking into going to Opening Day here in D.C. when they will play the Braves and open a new stadium. I am also trying to plan a trip over July 4th to catch the Mets in Philly, the Red Sox in NY and then Cooperstown.
Additionally I have just learned a friend has moved to Canada so I may take advantage and make a trip to visit our neighbors to the north this summer. As you can see despite my last update come 3 months ago, not much has happened.

Coffee in the House

Kristen you Rock! that is right ladies and gentleman I now have coffee! I have not had my coffee maker set up since I moved to the new condo and I do not think I have made coffee since I moved to Northern VA. It is not that I do not like coffee, quite the contrary I love it! The reality is I generally only like 1 maybe 2 cups at a time, and it seems a waste to brew a whole pot just for me. No the intelligent person is wondering why I do not get myself a single serve coffee maker and the answer is I am to dang cheap. Well Kristen has eliminated the problem. For my birthday she got me the Cuisinart Cup-O-Matic coffee maker along with some coffee from Bad Ass Coffee Company (I love that place). This coffee maker is awesome. It will brew a 4 oz, 6 oz, 8 oz, or a 12 oz cup of coffee,it uses “soft pods” or my own ground coffee, and it has a 60 oz reservoir to make brewing quick and easy. I can not tell you all how nice this maker is and how awesome Kristen is for thinking of it.

Colorado

Well It has been about 5 months since my last update and that is due in large part to living a rather boring life. Well that and being extremely busy. I will try to do better but I make no promises. Some of my readers may be aware that I took a little vacation and spent my birthday out in Colorado. I had the chance to go to the Air Force Academy on Friday (10/12), Pike’s Peak on Saturday (10/13) and the Garden of the Gods on Sun (10/14). Kristen was able to join me for this sightseeing adventure and was kind enough to treat me to a great birthday dinner at Black Bear Restaurant. Thank you so much Kristen I had a wonderful time. Of course the downside to any vacation is that you have to return to work, I guess it is a good thing I enjoy my Job!

I hate sunday night baseball

I love baseball. I am a huge Braves fan so what could be better than watching The Braves play the Cubs on Sunday night? how about watching it without so called commentators Morgan and Miller! ESPN really knows how to ruin a good thing. Admittedly I turned the game on late so I have only seen 2 innings thus far but these announcers have me on the verge of turning the game off! So far they spent a full half inning discussing how Matt Diaz mis pronounces his name. correct me if I am wrong, but if it is his name can he really mispronounce it? Then they spend another half inning discussing that the cubs have gotten the short end of the stick b having Lily Ejected for arguing the warning both benches received for him hitting Renteria. Again I believe that arguing warnings is a sure fire way to get ejected and Lilly should know that, there is nothing unfair about it. then they procede to discuss Andruw Jones and his career as a homerun hitter, Joe Morgan Mentions Druw hitting two homers in a World Series Game in ’96 against the “New York Mets” Miller was kind enough to correct him that it was the Yankees not the Mets. Morgan laughed it off and said “That’s right the Mets haven’t made it there yet. “ What an idiot! 2000 Subway series ring a bell for anyone out there? besides that for the Mets to make it to the world Series it is impossible for them to face the Braves there since they are in the same division. Not to mention there reference to Kelly Johnson being a rookie despite being in his third Major League Season. I do not ask for much but commentators that actually know the game and that are capable of calling an unbiased game would be nice.

So here's a tip

So here is a tip for all of you out there, when people make safety recommendations take them seriously. I spent Sunday working on my jeep now that it has warmed back up and I spent most of the day modifying the transfer skid plate that came off of my buddies ’05 to fit my 97 Jeep. Anyway the point is that after cutting a bracket off of the skid I went to grind the area down and figured, “it is a small area no need for goggles”, boy was I wrong. 99.9% of the time I wear a face shield when i do grinding and now I think I that will go up 0.1%. You see it took no time for a piece of grinding to find it’s way into my left eye. After two nights of almost no sleep (the eye and the fact we still do not have air in the apartment) I decided to take a sick day and go to the ophthalmologist and it took her less than two seconds to find the steel in my eye. Unfortunately it took a little longer to remove it, then came the dremel to clean out the rust. bottom line is I now have a “hole” in my eye instead of a piece of steel and I get to put eye drops and ointment in 3-4 times a day. like the subject says, my advice is when tools (or anything) comes with safety instructions take heed.

It's not just the blog...

that gets ignored sometimes. It took me nearly 16 months to get around to hanging my diploma and PE License atmy office. Really the only thing that sparked it was the fact that I graduated from the LDA and they gave me a desktop award and a wall plaque, I know it seems redundant to me too. Anyway, I figured since they gave me both I would put the desk top award on my desk and the wall plaque on the wall (sometimes i have good ideas). In the process of putting the wall cert up I decided to go ahead and hang the other two recognitions for insignificant events in my career. So there you go tronster, while I may not be halfway around the world it is not just the blog that gets ignored.

While I am on the subject of work, I just had my mid year review the other day and things went well with that so I guess my job is safe for at least a few days.

Opening Day

Okay it has been a while since my last update, but with good reason. I have moved out of my apartment in Leesburg and into the new place in Reston. I have graduated from the Leadership Development Academy (LDA) at work. I have had a few projects wrap up at work. I am sure if I stop there has been more, but the real point is I have not had much time to do an update. Today I finally slowed up and took the time to enjoy opening day with the Nationals. While the outcome of the game was less than hoped for the overall experience was great. It was the perfect weather for baseball and the seats were great. Unfortunately I forgot my camera (or did I intentionally not take it?), so you will have to make due with the shot from the camera phone. I hope to have more time for updates now. On a side note the new place is great except we still do not have AC! thank goodness it is suppose to be back down in the 50’s the rest of the week!

Still Rockin'

So I started to right this last night but getting in at 1AM, seeing that Tech lost and knowing I still had to go to work today I decided to put it off. First let me say, thank you to the 6 people that accepted my challenge in my last entry. I had no faith in you guys and therefore put a counter on the page only to find there were several people who viewed my site and chose not to accept the challenge, shame on you. Of course this is not really the point of my post this time.

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a concert for The Who compliments of a local radio station (see blog entry from 3/2/07 for the background). I had mixed opinions going to this. First as much as I enjoy listening to music and love classic rock I am terrible at actually knowing the names of the songs and who performs them. I of course knew The Who’s big hits (Baba O’Riley, Who’s Next, Not Gonna Be Fooled Again, My Generation, and Pinball Wizard) and discovered that was enough. The concert itself was quite the experience and it took a while for me to get my head around seeing families in attendance at a rock concert! Peter and Roger can still rock. their performance was top notch and they really had the crowd going after Baba O’Riley and effectively intermingled some of their newer stuff (Yes they released an album last year) along with some of their European Releases. The show was well worth the price of admission.

Is anyone reading this

So I have this theory. I started this blog as a way to keep friends and family up to date on what is going on in my life. Now as Troy will be quick to point out I have not been the best at posting in here, though I am trying to get better. Anyway, this is my theory, I believe the only people that actually read this thing are my friends that I speak to on a regular basis and really have no need to keep up to date through this blog. So I challenge you to prove me wrong, if you are reading this then I challenge you to leave a comment and prove to me that I am mistaken!

Amazing Grace

So this afternoon I went over to Troy’s place and he helped me upload some videos on my computer I had been having trouble with. After the video fun we decided to go catch the flick Amazing Grace. Contrary to popular opinions this movie is not about the writing of the song or the story of John Newton’s life. The movie in fact more about William Wilberforce, and his quest to abolish the slave trade in England. The connection between the title and the movie is that Wilberforce sat under the preacher John Newton who penned the song, which seemed to serve as an inspiration for Wilberforce. The Movie also indicated that Newton himself was very instrumental in Wilberforce’s success. The movie was excellent and I would highly recommend it to anyone that enjoys period pieces, drama , historical movies etc.

The only complaint I have has nothing to do with the movie but people watching the movie. You know those little shorts they play at the beginning of the movie about no talking, cell phones, babies, etc. they really needed one in front of this movie. There were a couple of teen girls sitting next to me who could not stop giggling, talking, and playing with their cell phone. That is until I said something to them. Then there is the guy that walked from one side of the theatre that was a walking slot machine or key ring or something. Oh well one bad experience I have ahead going to theaters is not bad.

Thank you 94.7

So back in December when I went to Jax for the ACC championship game I get an e-mail from one of the D.C. Radio stations I had been listening to recently, 94.7 The Globe (they have just recently changed their name to that) saying that I had won tickets to the Ron White Show at the Warner Theatre on Dec 2. I was a little put out since I was in Jacksonville and would not be able to make the show, but I almost immediately got a follow up e-mail saying they made a mistake and the show was March 2! well I get a call on Wed. that the tickets were for the Thursday night show. Anyway I make it to the Warner Theatre tonight expecting some mediocre seats (since I still had no clue how I won the tickets) and what did I get but tickets for the front row center stage! We were here



I could reach out and touch the stage if I had wanted to. This made for a rather interesting night. First due to weather and traffic we arrived late and instead of waiting for a break they escort us down to our seats in the middle of the opening act, Alex Reymundo who was quite funny and was gracious enough not to make a big deal about us arriving late (fortunately I do not think this was the type of show to single out audience members). After The opening act Ron White comes on stage and I must say he is every bit as funny in person as he is on TV. As with most comedians his stage act is a little raunchier than what you see on TV, but not nearly as over the top as others I have see. At one point in the show he is discussing the color coded states of awareness they have here in the U.S. and how confusing it is. compliments of the location of the seats he looks straight at me and says, “Sir, did you know there are 5 states of awareness”. I must have had a dumb look on my face or he didn’t care because he immediately say, “you didn’t know that”. truth be told I did not. I knew of green, yellow, orange and red; i was clueless about the 5th which is blue. that was pretty much the only time he directly addressed the crowd without prompting. The other time of note was a guy sitting one row behind me and two seats to my right was becoming quite annoying yelling stuff out to Ron who at one point had enough and called him out and embarrassed the stew out of him. One thing that impressed me with Ron’s act was there there were two times that he fouled up the joke or mixed up words, and he jumped right in and started making fun of himself making those two parts some of the funniest of the evening. We also continued to reference those foul ups throughout the show which made for a good inside joke between him and the audience.

All alone yet again

Well I dropped Kristen off at the airport today around 2:30 (She is going to kill me for the picture). I had an absolutely wonderful time with her while she was here and I hated to see her go, I guess I just need to plan a trip out to CO! We had a pretty good time while she was here and got to do some pretty neat stuff. We made it out to Mt. Vernon (George Washington’s home) on Saturday, and they were preparing for a big birthday bash for him. It was a bit of a lucky coincidence because we got to see the “The Smallest Hometown Parade in America” in his honor, or at least a practice run. The parade itself was not that exciting, but considering everything there is to do in Mt. Vernon in the middle of Feb with everything covered in Ice and Snow it was the highlight of the visit. Do not get me wrong Mt. Vernon is a nice place, but I think it is much better visited in the spring when you can really see all of the property and the color of the gardens. I am planning a return trip. After Mt. Vernon I intended to take her for a drive through D.C., but I missed my turn off of GWMP onto the memorial bridge. Not being one to wallow in my sorrow too long I changed plans and took her to the USMC War memorial (which was a sight in the snow) and then over to the AF Memorial (I still think this is the only memorial in D.C. that is best viewed from a distance).

Sunday was a nice day and we took advantage to make a scenic loop from Leesburg, VA to Harper’s Ferry, WV to Frederick, MD (and back to Leesburg of course). We took the time to walk around Frederick and I must say, I was not as impressed as I thought I would be. It is a nice town with very beautiful architecture, but other than restaurants there was not a whole lot to draw us out of the cold. all in all it was a very relaxing day.

Monday we went back downtown to take in all of the traditional sights. It was my first time seeing D.C. in the snow, and I must say it is different and very beautiful. Unfortunately upon arriving at the Washington Monument I realized I forgot my flash card at home (yes Troy, I did it again), the good news is I now know where a Ritz camera is downtown, the bad news is I could not get the images off the card. We went by to see the National Archives, which is one of my absolutely favorite places to go when I go down town. We got to see Lincoln and Washington roaming the streets with their big heads. We then saw the White House, WWII Memorial, Vietnam Memorial and then the Lincoln Memorial. Despite seeing Lincoln earlier I had forgotten it was President’s Day and the Lincoln Memorial had wreaths all around. By the time we finished the Lincoln it was getting close to sunset so we decided to call it a day and head back to Leesburg. All in all I was an absolutely wonderful time I only wish it were warmer. Hopefully the weather will be more cooperative when I go out there!

What is there to say

So I have not posted anything for a few days despite opening this with the intention of making an entry several times. The problem is, despite what some people believe, my life is really not that interesting. I have been spending a lot of time at work and a lot of my free time at my apartment. So why haven’t I gotten out? Well for one thing it is too cold! for another thing, there just isn’t a whole lot to do. It has been to cold to work on the Jeep, no good movies out, Troy is on travel for his Job again. The good news for me is that Kristen is coming into town this weekend so I am sure I will have a great weekend. I will try to make a more interesting post next time.

Winter is finally here

So with all the unseasonably warm weather we have been having winter has finally come. It has been cold up here for the last 2 weeks and scattered snow flurries throughout that time. I guess I have adapted to the weather up here, because unless I am spending extended periods outside I notice I do not need a jacket as much. The really downside is that it has been just too cold to work on the Jeep.

Redneck fire hydrant

So I go out to breakfast with my buddy the other day (actually it was about a month ago) and we walk back to Staples to do some shopping. As we are walking through the parking lot we come upon this odd site. Our first reaction was “Where is a camera when you need it” then I remembered I had a camera phone and their benefit came rushing to me. I am sure there is a logical explanation, and I have heard the Fire Dept will do this so they can find the hydrant in the parking lot, but I like to think that it is because I live in a redneck part of the country.