EMT Class Update, Work, and Frank Zappa and the Monkeys

EMT class is in it's second week. I have my partner: Felton. Yes, Felton, I have never met anyone with that name before. He is probably around 58 years old and is a park ranger. He carries a sidearm to class some nights, but only when he also wears his park ranger uniform. I really like him. I asked him about exciting things that happen in his park; his answer "yellow jackets, and sometimes people get excited about snakes." I wonder if he gets to shoot the snakes.

Class is just starting to get interesting. This Tuesday we got the scare-treatment on air and blood-borne pathogens. I pretty much want to wear a mask, goggles, and gloves all the time. Our instructor insists on calling the haz-mat suit a "zoot suite". Cute.

Just finished up my first, short-term contract. Yay! I got to send an invoice and should actually get my first paycheck since moving to VA. I don't even want to calculate what my pathetic hourly was, but I did come away from this contract with some "serious" T-SQL and Reporting Services skills.

I had never seen this this episode from the Monkeys with Frank Zappa (Yes Zappa on the Monkeys). Credit to The Onion AV Club for showing me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgNxuNaYHsk

Mc's Thoughts While Cleaning Our Garage

1. Good news, bad news: Good news is that I am sure we don't have a mice problem. Bad news is that I think it is because the spiders ate the mice.

2. Dirt begets more dirt. Really it must breed.

3. If the old owners really had his father living in the garage, as Rick and I suspect, then I need to call social services.

4. Why didn't I buy shoulder height rubber gloves.

More Todd, the same amount of Mc

OK, there's been a definite Mc lean to this blog so far, and I'm here to change that. I'm blogging from here at work. We're coming down into the final push for my first deliverable at my new job, which has been 4 months in the making. I don't know why I'm saying "we", as it's pretty much been "me". If any of you don't know, I'm working on a Data Warehouse (if I were cool I could put in a link to a wikipedia page describing what a Data Warehouse is here, but hey, you're on the internet, so go find it yourself) for my new employer: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. No Craig, it's not so I can track how much butter churning they're getting done on a monthly basis. It's to track their multitude of lines of business: Hotel, Food and Beverage, Golf, Ticketing, Donations, Retail, and Activities.
The project has been pretty intense. I'm definitely struggling with the lack of someone to go to when I have questions about the best way to do something, even more than I did at RTP. That's because there aren't many people out there working on what I'm working on, and I guess a lot of them are probably keeping their knowledge to themselves. This is probably because if you're not working for a non-profit you get paid pretty well to do this. My decision to leave RTP partly to reduce my stress both has and has not come true. I'm never pressured here to work more hours and produce more, but I'm certainly putting more pressure on myself to produce good quality work since it's absolutely MY project.

Oh well, that's probably enough random thoughts for now. I'll post something different next time. Who wants to read about how I feel about work?

EMT Basic Class: First Class

You know the phrase 'those who can't do teach'? Well, I have a sneaking suspicion that my teacher is a do-er. At least my first EMT class was chaotic. The room is much too small for the whole class. There are 36 students and a teacher and I swear the room is only 10' x 18' = cramped. We played the most confusing get-to-know-each-other game - I still am not at all sure what the rules were but it involved index cards, questions about what color socks we were wearing, and standing up. In Thursday's class we choose our partners, these will be our partners for the whole class, AND for the class and state tests. This is an especially important choice as the practicals are all done with a partner and you pass or fail as a unit. So far I have not identified my partner.

The textbook is fabulous. Only 3 photos are cringe worthy and I won't even go into what they are showing. After a brief viewing of the textbook I can tell you what I think my initial uncomfortable situations will be: anything with babies or children, an avulsion (don't ask), or a serious contagious disease.

The only physical thing in the class that has me nervous is that everyone must be able to lift, balance, and move 125 pounds. I am hoping Rick will teach me is super-duper firefighter techniques for moving people.

The Cactus Flower's Name Is Audrey

The cactus flower has bloomed and it is possibly the scariest and ugliest flower since Little Shop of Horrors. Click on the photo and view the larger image, and you will see it has fur. Is this a mammal? The flower petals appear to be made of leather: blood colored leather. I am facinated by this plant. This is the goth-girl in me's favorite plant since the Venus Flytrap.

In other Virginia plant news: I spent 4 hours at a clinic on Saturday: The 'Super Turf 2007' clinic. It is a full day (I only attended half) of lectures and demos about lawn maintenance. The presenters are phds from Virginia Tech who specialize in lawns. Granted they help on professional sports' turf and on golf courses, but I still am amazed you can get a botony specialized phd in grass.

The presentations were interesting, I was hooked on the information: learned more about crab grass, and warm season turf vs. cold season turf than you can imagine. I was slightly uncomfortable as I was part of the 1% of the audience that wasn't retired and wasn't over 60 years in age.

Pong Fu

Every Monday, and possibly some Wednesdays, Rick and I are driving to the Newport News Rec Center and doing pong fu.
Pong Fu [pong foo, pawng foo]
n. A activity consisting of an hour of martial arts and an hour of table tennis.
Rick had been going to the table tennis club for the past two months. The Virginia State Champion practices there. It is a serious business. Eight tables are setup and people play. I have gone twice, and I work-up a sweat. Really. It is tiring: mentally and physically. I also absolutely stink at it. I am getting better, but my backhand looks like I am mr. roboto.
Following our pong, we do the fu...
Found a dojo, strangely it is tae kwon do. The instructor, Instructor Will, has a 13 year tae kwon do practice, but before that he was a judo guy. So we will be doing grappling and quite a bit more striking than in a traditional tae kwon do practice. I like Instructor Will. He is laid back (for a marital arts guy), and let's us giggle during class. My biggest challenge right now is switching my punching from an american boxing style to the korean style where you chamber low and have a horizontal fist. I just can't figure it out and am doing some strange blend of the two that resembles a tyrannosaurus rex arm.

The Bounty Of Virginia

I cannot get over how things grow in Virginia: things you want to grow and things you wish would just die. I have seen a spider with a body the size of a quarter. I know they kill other bugs, but a spider that large should have the decency to stay in dark, damp, dank corners.
However, our plants are ecstatic. We never had outdoor potted plants in CO, but here...here every plant has sprouted, flowered, or come back from the dead. This photo is of a soon-to-be cactus flower. I have never seen this plant flower in its 10 years. I will upload the bloom as soon as it happens.

Tomorrow's post ... our new rug (very exciting).

Inside Our New Home

Here is most of the inside of the house: Family room, kitchen, kitchen dining, living room, and master bedroom. Not pictured: formal dining room, 3 bathrooms, 2 guest bedrooms, or laundry room. I didn't have a good picture of the master bathroom, which is probably the nicest room in the house. We have the most ridiculous shower I have ever seen: 5 shower heads, including a spa-style "rain shower". The shower is also a steam shower, but I am having a hard time imagining that a steam shower is needed in Virginia when you can just go outside. I still haven't figured out how to actually use the bidet; I need to just google "bidet instructions" but haven't quite gotten the courage.

Outside Our New Home

Here are photos from our house this morning. The left photo is our small fish pond with three water hyacinth I found at our local farmers' market. The right photo is the backyard which Rick in his biking-to-work outfit. Almost every day he rides the 18 mile round-trip.

Arriving In Virginia

After clearing-up a title issue we closed on our Virginia home July 20th, 2007. The home is beautiful: 3 bedrooms, gorgeous master bed and bathroom, built-in storage in the living room, ceiling fans in every room - as said, it is beautiful. As of today we are almost unpacked.

Here are two pictures, only of the outside because I don't yet have photos of the home with our furniture, those will be coming shortly:

This is the front of the house (complete with our realtor, Caroline), and the back patio, that isn't our patio furniture, but as said I will upload current photos soon.

I can't get myself to unpack the garage. It seems like all skiing, snowboarding, ice-climbing and other winter gear. When the heat index is at 109 I have a serious problem hanging out in the garage unpacking Colorado stuff. Makes me a little sad even.

Osa is taking to the environs well. She loves all the squirrels and bunnies. I don't think she quite believed there was a place as bountiful as Virginia.