Columbus Trip

Here are some pictures from the trip. ( Thanks to my sisters for alot of these )


Clark and I



Peter and Kevin getting their fill of German Sausages

Teaching Clark, Colin, and Peter how to play chess... yess....



Awesome shirt



Go cougs!!



Attention stealer



Matching glowies!!!



Discussing important schtuff



The grandparents with the grandkids



After the blessing on Sunday



Clark taking a nap

Ohio Trip

So a few weekends ago I took a trip to Ohio for my nephews baby blessing. It has taken a few weeks to get some pictures of it up (thanks Marilee and Melissa) hence I am adding it on here two weeks post trip.
Let me say just one thing about the flight over to Columbus. I have never been on a plane so small, or so old. It had a propeller on each side and looked like a duck. I thought someone was going to come out and pull down on the propeller to get it started. Anywho, I had a layover in New York and since I had never been to the city it was fun to see. (I was probly the only one who enjoyed the layover)
Columbus was great especially since back in DC there was a huge storm and rainy the whole weekend. Both the Cougs and the Buckeyes won that weekend so it was an especially good weekend.
It was so good to see those who were able to make it out there for the blessing and to hold and play with Clark, Colin, and Megan. Kevin did a great Job with the blessing and the experience just reminded me of the newness of life. Here is a little baby just starting out on his journey through life. So many exciting adventures and experiences awaiting him. And to think that we all began the same way and are on the same path learning and growing.
I wish I could have stayed longer but alas, work was calling my name early Monday morning.

my sweet ride

These were taken after camping out Friday night and attending an all day exercise seminar for work, hence the red eyes and tired look.

Kias and Corollas

We had just left the Chantilly IMAX from watching the latest batman movie and were heading out to the parking lot. We said goodnight to our friends, and those who had rode with me climbed in my Kia. I turn the key and nothing happened. I turn it again. Nothing. Hmmm. It was 10:30 and we had a ways to go home. So what do you do in that situation? Well, I did what any man would do, whether he knew what he was looking at or not, and opened the hood. After looking around and prodding different cables and making sure the ferrets were in their cages, we decided to try to jump it. Nada. I won't bore you but in the next 3 and 1/2 hours we waited for the tow truck, played some ultimate frisbee in the Air and Space museum parking lot, waited for the tow truck, got in trouble from the security guard for playing frisbee in the parking lot, waited for the tow truck some more, and then waited a little bit more. Anywho, I got home around 2am thanks to the kindness of a friend who took us all home after the tow truck came.
Original thoughts were that the problem might be the starter motor. But it started right up for the mechanic. And every time for the week it was in the shop it would start fine. So they did a "some needed work" on it and I was off again. A few days later I get in the car to go to institute and with a slight supination of the wrist, nothing. :( It was weird because if it sat long enough it would start up after a few days or a week.
After spending quite a few pennies in repairs that seemed to be more and more frequent I decided that it was time to get rid of Panzer(my Kia. see picture above) It was a sad day but Panzer was eating more than I do and taking more trips to the doctors office than I could afford.
Thus began the adventurous car search that led me to a Nissan dealership last Wednesday night and driving home in a new Toyota corolla!! (see pictures below, no name yet, suggestions welcome)
So lets just say that this has been a good learning experience. I'd say the biggest thing I learned was about doing your homework. "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear" Car salespeople can be very VERY ferretish and sly. And one must be about his own ferretishness otherwise he could get ferreted big time. I was worried I wouldn't know what to say or feel overwhelmed. But the first time I sat down and we started talking about a car I test drove, it was clear to me that I had done enough prep and so talking and negotiating with them wasn't scary at all. It was frustrating at times, but I was ready.
So let me tell you a little bit about my car. It's an '08 Corolla with only 4k miles on it! hohoho! Practically a new car for a used car price. ;) It has good pickup when merging on to these crazy freeways and best of all, it starts every time. :) (a ray of sun shines down on the car and a heavenly choir begins to sing...)

The infestation...

The place was dimly lit and I needed some more light to see what I was doing. I went back inside the house and brought out my standing lamp that has three swiveling lights that you can point in any direction. I knew there were bugs and spiders around the place because of the larger cobwebs that were easy to spot and due to the fact that the place had been shut up for quite awhile. So I connect my extension cord to the lamp and run it over to the outlet screwed into an over hanging rafter next to the wall. It wasn't till I turned it on that I saw how close my face was to some black widows webs and their "leftovers". I quickly scanned the light around the room and every few feet was another web with a big fat black widow on it. I was outnumbered. I did a quick estimate considering how many crawlies I had already seen out in the open and the size of the place and decided to let them have the garage. I had paused just for a second wondering how many of them I could kill if I were to take them all on, but decided it wasn't worth the effort. So, yeah, our garage, which I was hoping to turn into a little gym, is infested. :(

The Flood. Part 1

So I know it has been awhile and to be exact its been 3 and a half months since I have last written. So many things have happened since. I will spare you the details and just say that I have moved twice since I last wrote and just last night was connected to the internet. The move from Manassas was a chore. With some help and an unexpected Uhaul truck, all my stuff was moved over to a house in Arlington. It was a nice house and I was on a month to month basis with no contract, cheap rent, and in the basement bedroom. Over the course of the next week, during the evenings after work, I began the painful process of unpacking. Most of the boxes had been put in the entry level and I began hauling them down to my room and setting up shop. One Saturday I spent most of the day cleaning and unpacking and finally finished just before bed. It felt so good to get settled again. Little did I know how long, or short I should say, it would last. Sunday was a little stormy and the rain kept falling and falling. I went to bed that night to the sound of rain glad to be nice and cozy in my warm, dry pull out bed. Sometime around 3am I awoke very thirsty. As tempting as it was to just fall back asleep, my thirst drove me out of bed. As I swung my legs off the side of the bed and let them touch the floor I felt a cold wetness surround them. I thought I was dreaming again. Then I thought I had spilled the large cup of water I bring with me to bed oftentimes. The coldness of the water I was now standing in brought me fully awake and I sloshed to go turn on the light. My room was a lake. A good two inches deep I quickly started moving books and things off of the lower bookshelves up onto the bed. Once everything was safe from water damage for the time being I set off to find the cause of the deluge. The adjacent laundry room was also flooded and water was flowing in around the outside door from the back stairwell. I woke up my roommates and we tried to unclog the drain at the bottom of the stairwell that would allow the water to drain but to no avail. 3:30 in the middle of the night and we're standing outside in our pj's in the rain with a head flashlight trying to figure out what to do. After making sure anything that was salvable was safe, I ended up sleeping on the couch the rest of the night. Two hours later I was up getting ready for work to the sound of rain. The water level was now at 4 inches. A quick calculation using the rate of rising water and how long I would be gone at work told me that if it continued to rain, and not drain, the water level would overflow the shower lip in the bathroom and begin to drain before I returned home from work. Drip, drop, drip, drop....

Humble Pie

There are times when you just have to swallow your pride along with a huge piece of humble pie. Today was one of these times. It was late afternoon and I was exhausted from being on my feet most of the day since 7. I was working with a patient with posterior/medial knee pain who presented with a very unusual case. We were problem solving and working on it while she was supine, then I asked her to flip over onto her stomach. I went to grab something and when I came to the table again, I went to the same side I was standing on before. I started talking and working on it again and after about 10 minutes or so of trying several different things, she said, "you know it's my other knee, right?" Swallow. What a thick piece of pie... "Of course." I replied. I poked around a bit on the same side and then did the same things on the involved knee as if I was "comparing" the two. I felt so dumb. Anywho, it was one of those times when you just laugh at yourself (later of course) and try to remember your left from your right in supine and prone!

Welcome!

Welcome to my first blog! I never thought that I would ever do something like this but there is always a first time for everything, so why not? To be honest I don't really know what I am doing with this other than I think it will be a way to help me remember where I've been in life and give my friends and family an opportunity to know what I've been up to lately. Maybe I'll ask my sister for some help. I also don't know who will ever read this, and maybe no one will, but if you're here, I hope you enjoy the read. Until next time...