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.

That explains it

The video says it all

Opportunities

So I have been involved with the Leadership Development Academy (LDA) at work for several months now and graduation is about 2 months away. One of the things the program has done for me is to cause me to really look at my career and where I want to be in the future, as a result I have been looking for opportunities to expand my horizons. As part of the Academy I had the chance to “shadow the Division Administrator of the New Jersey Office and speak with the NJ Bridge Engineer. The Bridge Engineer seemed interested in the possibility of setting up a rotation with me to come there and learn about the Federal-Aid side of FHWA, this is something I am definitely going to keep in mind. In addition I have learned of the potential for me to spend some time in the Bridge Inspection Program (BIP) of our office this summer. as part of my development plan I expressed an interest in doing a rotation in BIP and so i plan on talking to my supervisor about this. All-in-all things are going great here and I am seeing opportunities open before me, I just hope I can make the most of them!

Adam Sandler's new movie

So it has been quite a while since I have added anything here and I thought this was as good a topic to get back into it as any. I went to go see a movie the other night (I do not remember now which movie it was) but there was preview for “Reign Over Me”. The movie is about a man (Adam Sandler) who loses his family in the 9/11 tragedy and seems the only way he can cope is to do anything and everything he has wanted to do with a certain disregard for the “responsibilities of life”, at least this was my impression from the preview. One day he is reunited with his college roommate (Don Cheadle) who is a successful family man. It seems that their reunion has an effect on each bringing some joy and meaning to one’s life and leading the other to a new exploration of his life. All in all it looks like a great movie and I am looking forward to seeing Sandler in another dramatic role. Most people know Sandler simply as a comedic goof-ball in works such as “Billy Madison”, “Happy Gilmore”, “The Wedding Singer” and “The Waterboy”. While these films may be Sandler’s bread and butter it is films like “Punch Drunk Love” and “Spanglish” that truly showcase his acting talent. I hope “Reign Over Me” is just another movie in a long line of dramatic roles for Sandler.

What a week

I finally got the jeep back from the shop with all of it’s new parts fully installed. Once I got it home I had to reinstall all of the components I had taken out for the rhino lining. Without the carpet I had to find new ways to hide the wires for the stereo, amp, and CB and prevent them from snagging on anything. getting the amp wired back up properly proved to be the most challenging. Aside from getting the Jeep back, I began trying to exercise each day after work and my buddy Troy was back in town so I managed to make time to hang out and go to the zoo (you can see the photos in my photo album).

Protected but inoperable

So after much discussion and a couple of reschedules I finally got the Jeep Rhino Lined yesterday. I spent much of my free time this past week stripping out everything from inside of the Jeep except for the drivers seat and seat belt. My buddy came over Friday afternoon and we finished the dismantling by taking the pads off my roll bar, and removing his passenger seat and center console. Saturday morning we were off to Winchester to get the Jeeps lined.

Normally they only do one jeep at a time but they had agreed to do two jeeps this time. Since the normal workload was doubled John and I got to get into the action and help with all of the prep work on the Jeeps. The prep work took us a little longer than expected because we had to make sure everything was covered that we did not want sprayed.

We finally finished taping at around 2:00 at that point John and I got to take a little break while Dave and Vince (the Rhino Lining Experts) finished the prep work by sanding and cleaning the tubs

So at this point you are probably wondering about the “inoperable” part of the title. well by the time I drove the Jeep out to winchester it was making a horrific noise that sounded as if it might be from the transmission. Having been through transmission problems before I chose not to drive it back, but instead I left it in Winchester at a Jeep dealership. I am hoping and praying that it actually is the transmission because that is still covered under the warranty of the last work. I will update as more develops.

Cursed?!

Well I went back down to Jacksonville this past weekend for a friends wedding. Well, I went back for the wedding and to catch up with friends after 6 months. I had a wonderful trip down there and got to see many old friends and acquaintances. According to most of the people I had worked with down there, I was obviously happier than they had ever seen me. Truth be told I think I am happier than I ever was in Jacksonville; Virginia just suits me much better. So the trip was a success, I saw everyone, I rented a Mustang convertible, and Chris and Toni had a great Slip n’ Slide party.

I guess at this point you are wondering why the title of this post is “CURSED?!”. Well let me give you a background story. two years ago I went on a cruise and so I purchased a hanging garment bag to carry my tux and dress clothing. After finally making it into port (we were delayed 2 days and rerouted because of a hurricane) I went to pick up my luggage only to find that my garment bag was gone. I saw a similar bag lying unclaimed and so I got the information from that bag and called the owner. As I suspected they had picked up my bag by mistake and they were back in Tallahassee before they got the message. Fast forward to this past weekend. It is only the second time I have traveled with this particular luggage item (suit for the wedding). I get into Jax and I go to baggage claim to pick it up and I see someone grab my bag when there is another green garment bag about 5 ft away. They make like a log and split so I go to lost baggage and tell them that I think someone grabbed my bag by mistake. The lady working the counter makes an announcement for everyone to check their luggage and we begin filling out forms. after just a couple of minutes the other passenger walks up and returns my bag.

At this point I know that it is not sounding that bad, just a case of mistaken bag identity twice. Well on the return flight I decide to mark my bag so I tie a yellow ribbon to the handle in order to set it aside. This time I get into Dulles convinced no one will mistake my bag this time. I am so confident I take my time getting there and by the time I show up everyone has cleared out. I see one bag going around and quickly ID it as my overnight bag, but wear is my garment bag. After waiting several minutes I go to report it lost and they look it up and inform me it never left JAX. Needless to say they thought it was no big deal and simply filled out a form and sent me on my way. Well the bag was flown up on a later flight and was finally “located” this morning. I get a call that they are going to deliver it this afternoon. I get home from work only to find that it was never delivered. Apparently they were having trouble getting a driver to come out here. Well it did finally make it a few minutes ago, but I am really beginning to wonder i this bag is cursed!