Out of it for a little while

Ok, yesterday was my first day back at my desk at work in 3 weeks. 2 weeks of training, one of vacation. I learned a lot in those 3 weeks, but I also forgot a lot.

• How to wear my brown shoes which I wear to work. For some reason they now kill the backs of my ankles. Maybe because I haven't worn them for almost a month?


• How to wear pants. Yes, in three weeks, I did not, not once, wear pants. The fact that it was hotter than heckfire at home and in DC aided in that fact.


• How to drive to work. There's been pretty extensive construction cutting 53N down to one lane around 90. Stinks for me because my exit is the next one after 90. So I hadn't been taking 53 to work for a long time. Until yesterday, when I forgot all about the construction. Whoops.


• How to shave every day. Maybe some day they will invent a whole-face Nair that won't cause people to go blind. Then, I can just shoot that stuff on and be done with it all. The days of me with a mustache or beard (or both) are long done. I hate shaving with the fire of a thousand suns. I think it stems from the fact that for the first 5+ years of doing it I had no idea what aftershave was (thanks Dad) so shaving when I was in High School resulted in my fact getting all dried out and feeling like sandpaper.

So that's how dumb I've gotten. I'll post about the stuff I learned later, when I'm feeling a bit smarter.

Better know a country

1m 50s

Click here to try the quiz.

And we're back!

Hey! I'm NOT dead! Isn't that great?

I'll do a little version of 'hitting to all fields' now.

Am I becoming a flight snob now?

I've just recently returned from a one night (and next day) work trip to Miami. As expected, it was hotter than Hell. Work-wise, it went well, which is nice. I took an early flight back (yeah!) but first was full so no upgrade (boo!) but what are you gonna do?

I'll take that deal every day of the week and twice on Sunday

Since our sitter (who is great, btw) was on vacation last week, I took last week as a vacation week and watched the sprout all week long. It was a pretty amazing experience, spending so much time with her. I'm glad I did it. It only reinforced my thought that (if the $ were not an object...) I would be a stay at home parent, no doubt.

That smell on the DC Metro? That was me.

The week before that, I spent a week in SCADA training in Washington, D.C. Now, I've always wanted to go there and see the National Mall and all the memorials and all that. And this was the perfect occasion to do so. Training was Wed--->Fri so I flew out Tuesday morning and did some site-seeing for the rest of the day. I took the DC Metro from Vienna, VA, into the city. I walked around for almost 6 hours. It was hotter than Hell and I was major-league sweating. I'm sure by the end of the day, I reeked. It was so bad I washed the clothes at the hotel.

Now that everyone's grossed out...

I have to say, DC was amazing. I saw the Air & Space Museum, Capital Building, White House, Supreme Court, Washington Monument, FDR, Jefferson, and Lincoln Memorials. Vietnam Wall, Korean War Memorial, and the new WW II Memorial. I also saw the Holocaust Museum.

Someone with my same first and last name is on the Vietnam Wall. I plan to see what I can find out about him.

Since 9/11, all the areas around the White House are pretty locked down. You can't even walk up to the fence anymore. What a drag. I did take a zoomed in picture of some guys standing watch on the roof though, which was kinda cool.

All in all, it was a great trip. Even greater since I earned the certification I was there for in the first place. But what stays with me is the memorials to so many of the people that made this country what it is. I don't think they make people like that anymore.