My Dogs, documented criminals

Sam and Cheney are now documented criminals.

Yesterday when I got home, there was a note taped to the door: My dogs had been picked up by the Animal Control Police and taken to the pound. I was immediately furious. There has been an ongoing, low level anti-Sam and Cheney campaign in the neighborhood - - - they bark, a lot. When Sam is outside, he wants to be in the garage, he barks and whines; when Cheney is a little hungry, she barks in a little boxer way. So, I figured, it was a little cold, a little windy, and Sam and Cheney's barking had finally pushed the nice lady behind me over the edge and she called the Animal Cops. I was soooooo mad, I was thinking of all kind of evil anti-neighbor things I could do (remember, I am a Green Beret and trained in such creative stuff) but decided not to do anything because it could cause a problem.

I went to the vets and got all of their shot records and drove through DC/Northern Virginia holiday traffic, STEAMING and SEETHING at my neighbors, the traffic, the fact that the Animal Shelter was soooooo far away, the radio (there are honestly no good radio stations in the nation's capital outside of NPR), and at the Animal Control Police. The nerve of those folks, going into my backyard and grabbing poor, little Sam and Cheney because they barked a little bit. That is one of the 4 or 5 things that dogs do: They eat, sleep, go for walks, and poop. I had visions of a draconian dog catcher, breaking down my gate, using one of those pole catchers to drag Sam and Cheney out of their houses and putting them in a big truck full of other snatched dogs.

I had my speech all lined up and was ready to vent my anger. I finally found the pound (Animal Control Shelter) and seethed in line, I got to the front of the line and presented my documentation to the lady that works there - - - I decided not to get mad at her, she was really nice, cheerful and helpful, I would get angry at the dog catcher.

I patiently asked the lady (she was wearing a santa hat, who can get mad at a santa hat?) why my dogs had been arrested and she checked the record. She had to call her supervisor over to help her with the computer, I also didn't get mad at the supervisor (she had a Christmas sweater on, who can get mad at a reindeer sweater?) and she told me that Sam and Cheney had attacked another dog, the neighbors had to separate them and animal control had to be called.

What? Huh? NO WAY. My dogs stay in the backyard, was the other dog in my backyard? Nope, Sam and Cheney had made a break for it and were roaming the neighborhood when Toby (my neighbor's very cute and well behaved - - so well behaved he doesn't need a leash when he plays in the front yard) came outside for his afternoon play. Sam and Cheney went into attack mode and the rest is well documented by the Fairfax County Animal Control Police.

Apparently, during the very high winds the gate to my backyard had blown open and enabled the crime spree. when I got back home and checked the latch, it was misaligned and would allow it to be opened by the high winds.

Fairfax has a dangerous animal law, if an animal attacks a human or companion dog more than once, he or she could be destroyed. I talked to the Animal Control Officer (a really nice lady, who can get mad at a really nice lady when she is carefully explaining the crimes my dogs committed?) for a while, she was concerned about Cheney being so skinny, I told her about the blanketectomy, damaged pancreas and pooping processes. She pretty much told me that she didn't think that Sam and Cheney were dangerous dogs, but they had to be entered into the system.

When Sam and Cheney were brought around, they went into their "totally innocent" act: Cheney started bouncing like a boxer, licking everyone's face. Sam sat down and put his paw up for a handshake, which is his way of breaking my anger at him down. Both of them were flashing their brown eyes, which normally make me lose all of my anger at them; totally unfair, but works every time.

After paying Sam and Cheney's fines and license fees, I recovered my criminals from the pound and headed home. I went to talk to my neighbors, a really nice Indian family, to check on Toby, they said it was no big deal and were worried that I would not know that Sam and Cheney had been arrested in time to get them out of the pound prior to the holiday shut down. I also paid Toby's vet bill, no damage done outside of dog-pride.

The criminals are now sleeping in their cage in the garage. They didn't get a walk last night, I figured they had enough running around.

Other news, Fantasy Football:

I am not in last place in the family Fantasy Football League, I am slightly ahead of my niece, Sydney. Syd went with the all name team, focusing on Seans and Jacksons (who knew LeSean Jackson was going to have such a season?). No science or analysis, just cool sounding names. She is close to passing me up. If she does, I have to keep the trophy (a fantasy football strategy guide that Wade found in a bookstore) for a year. There is a bright spot, my brother in law Mark is fading back to me. If I have a few more good weeks (come on Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning) I may not have to keep the trophy and Mark or Sydney will have to.

Cold, cold riding

Well, I am determined to keep riding to and from work, I figure I can keep going until there is ice and snow on the bike paths. There are a couple of areas where I depend on a bike trail for my route, I figure I can keep going until those routes are covered. Bikes and ice don't mix.

With the cold, I had to break down and buy a pair of riding pants, basically riding shorts (padded in the right spots) that have an extra layer of insulation in them. They were a huge plus. I have also started to ride in a pair of snow-boarding mittens. They have a finger slot so my hands look like a lobster's hands. The finger lets me shift when I need to, when I am in an area where I don't have to shift, I put my finger with the other four fingers. I carry the pair of gloves Aunt Faye gave me three years ago in case my hands get too hot. That normally happens in the afternoons when I ride home. the mittens are great for the cold mornings (normally the temperature drops right before sunrise, exactly when I am riding), but can be too warm for the afternoons.

With then new routes that I take I end up riding 13.6 miles in the mornings and just over 14.5 in the afternoons. In the afternoons I go around one of the hills that I hated (basically it was riding up a steep hill so that I could ride down the other side): It took me down a steep hill on Van Dorn avenue, to a big intersection at Kingstowne Mall, then back up a hill behind the mall area. By staying on top of the hill I avoid the big intersection and going down a hill with a lot of traffic. Going down hills is fun, but if there is a lot of traffic, it takes the fun out of it.

OK, non-riding stuff. I am buying a house in DC, 5618 9th Street Northwest. A very nice house, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, big deck and a 2 car garage. The house is a detached house, very rare in DC. It has a small backyard, but is fully fenced. The area is in the process of gentrification - - a lot of the houses that are on the market in the area are houses that were foreclosed on and re-done. The house has a new kitchen, new appliances, new plumbing, new wiring, new HVAC, windows, floors, mostly everything but the bricks and roof. The roof is a slate roof that is supposed to last the life of the house. I thought it was a good deal, I will find out what the appraisers think of it next week.

It is kind of interesting to compare the googlemap streetview pictures (if you don't know what that is, ask a teenager please) which represent the "before" and the "after" house pictures from the real estate webpage. I will put the link in here and see if it works.
http://mrislistings.mris.com/Matrix/Public/Portal.aspx?k=2325295XPTU5&p=DE-129373979-855

The most frustrating part of the house buying process this time for me has been the mortgage process. I have had 12 mortgages over the past few years, mostly on my rental properties, some re-financing and so on. 8 of those have been paid off and I never had a late payment. Most of those mortgages involved sending some paperwork, talking on the phone, lots of signatures and a quick approval. This time around most every aspect of my financial life has been under the microscope. So, if you are out there in the house buying mode, be prepared for intense scrutiny from your bank.

Sam and Cheney updates

Cheney is over her stomach problems and putting on weight. For folks that aren't tracking on Cheney and her digestive history, I'll give a brief history. Cheney is a pure bred boxer and has a narrow rear end, as most boxers do. Because of her narrow rear quarters, she was prone to digestive problems. Her first problem was a twist in her intestines; now her intestines are stapled to the wall of her stomach cavity so they can't twist. About a year after that, she ate part of her blanket, which didn't digest well. Another operation (the blanketectomy) later, she was fine. Somewhere along the line her pancreas was damaged. The damage caught up to her this year and her pancreas stopped producing the enzymes that allowed her to digest her food properly. Bottom line, she would eat, then poop, and it wasn't the optimal sort of poop the dogs in the TV commercials brag about. A very sharp vet at Hayfield Animal Hospital recognized the problem and solved it to my great pleasure (cleaning up non-optimal poop is no joy). Now Cheney poops mostly normal, as normal as a dog with 8 inches fewer intestines can poop.

Sam pretty is pretty happy, he no longer has to figure out how to walk along the paths trying to avoid the non-optimal poop.

Enough of that . . .

Husker Update

The Huskers ended their Big 12 career with a second straight loss in the Big 12 Championship Game. Good game, but we had no answer for the defensive speed of the Oklahoma Sooners. Our prized freshman quarterback (Taylor Martinez) looked like a freshman quarterback instead of the lightning fast, hyper-accurate passer he was in our earlier victories. I don't think the offensive game plan really helped him out. There were no quick pass routes opened up, no real misdirection plays and no reliance on what was working: The Rex Burkhead led wildcat ground game. I have no idea why the offensive coaches went away from that type of play, 4-8 yards a pop and the most accurate kicker in Nebraska history - - Alex Henery.

Ten wins is ten wins though, with a good chance for 11 wins with a bowl victory. I hope the Husker faithful think well of this, I distinctly remember the torturous Callahan era and remember the 4 win, losing seasons that brought us.

Oh well, next year . . .

N C State, NCState

Yesterday I went down to Raleigh to watch my second favorite football team (the Wolfpack of North Carolina State) play Wake Forest. My good buddy from NC, Bill S of Moncure, NC, asked me down to watch the game with some of his friends. Bill has 4 season tickets and normally shares them with good friends, I am happy to be included in that group.

When I was a very young CPT (ages ago . . . . 1991 or 1992, when I was stationed at FT Benning, GA for a year), I had the opportunity to meet the head coach of NC State, Dick Sheridan. He was a very down to earth man, and a football genius. He managed to get the Wolfpack to a few bowl games and had a few great teams. I got to meet some of the players, they were all gentlemen. We watched them play at Georgia Tech, Dick Sheridan invited us to meet the players, watch practice and everything. The Georgia Tech coach on the other hand, literally chased us away from the practice when we stopped to watch a few snaps. Of course we were wearing red shirts, but still, the head coach himself came over.

Fast forward several years, I met up with Bill, an engineer for the state of NC and we talked a ton of football. He ended up inviting me to a few games, about one a year. Most of the games I went to the Pack was into the game and either won the game or it was very close. The stadium is a nice one, the fans are football fans and the band is pretty good. All in all, a very entertaining college football experience. When I look at college football, I always respect programs that keep it all in perspective: Fans respect and cheer for both teams, there isn't a weekly demand for a National Championship, the team plays hard. NC State is like that, very loyal fans, nice stadium, just a good college football experience.

The Pack will never replace the Huskers, but I like em. Yesterday was senior day, the NC State seniors stepped it up and shut down Wake Forest. Wake Forest is having an off year, but are normally well coached, fast and play a very interesting mis-direction offense. Yesterday was not their day, they played well, mostly mistake free, but they got beat, 38-3.

I figured out how to attach pictures using Picasa, much easier than before, there are some pics from the day posted on the right.

Other notes:

Riding is getting kinda cold, but bearable in the mornings. The afternoon rides last week were spectacular, very good weather for riding. With daylight savings time, it is actually light towards the end of my morning rides. Of course, on the other end, unless I leave work early, I am riding in the dark. I have put more lights on my bike, so I think it is OK. I am going to stick with riding until the weather says "no more riding" (snow, ice or cold rain).

Fantasy Football:

This season will be interesting, I have moved from dead last to top 10. Wade is only 20 or so points ahead of me. Once again, if I could pick a wide receiver, I would be doing really well. I will keep you posted as the season goes along, but, I could squeak by Wade this year, unless he uses his last two trades.

Movies:

I am now a Netflix fan. Not only can you watch movies by disc, but you can watch them online. A friend of mine set up a computer with my big screen TV and I can watch anything that is online (Netflix, Hulu, CBS, ESPN3.com) on my TV. I have watched a few movies that stand out.

The Cove: Documents the Japanese systematic slaughter of dolphins in one of their coastal towns. Great flick, it provides another reason for me to lose respect for the Japanese fishing industry. Not only were they mostly responsible for the near-extinction of whales in the 70's, but they have continued to whale, fish other species to near extinction (tuna) and now systematically kill dolphins.

Note: I stopped eating all seafood two years ago as a response to the over-fishing of species done worldwide. After diving for several years, I can't imagine a world without fish. I know that folks want to eat fish and some societies rely on fishing for their sustenance, but the rampant over-fishing will not be a good planetary thing. I figure not eating fish will help one or two fish stay in the ocean.

The King of Kong: I thought this was fiction at first, the characters in the movie were so stereotypical that I didn't think they were real. The movie talks about the record holders for classic arcade video games and how they are documented internationally. I couldn't believe it. If you grew up in the 80s, check it out.

180 Degrees South: A much happier movie, but still with an environmental twist. In the 60s, three friends drove from CA down to Patagonia, stopping to surf along the way. A modern filmmaker traced their route, and wanted to do the same thing. The three kids from the 60s turned out to be the founders of North Face, Patagonia and Royal Robbins clothing and outdoors equipment companies. They have since spent a lot of their money buying land in Patagonia and turning it into nature preserves. Good flick.

Dogtown and Z boys: Documentary about the group of surfers that revolutionized skate boarding in the 70s. Very good flick, I enjoyed the interviews and film from the early days of skateboarding and surfing near Venice Beach.

Touring DC with Melissa

A few weeks ago (OK, probably a month ago) my sister Melissa came to DC for a weekend and we did some touring around. Surprisingly, she had never been to DC but had always wanted to come out.

I am always apprehensive when folks come to visit, because I like to have a plan of some sort for a visit. Luckily, DC is pretty easy for that, there are always a bunch of things to do or see. She came the weekend that Nebraska played Texas, so that was one good event (already blogged about: "Niles Paul, you are breaking my heart . . . . ."); the rest of the time we hit the museums and the monuments on the mall. We also had an opportunity to visit one of her best friend's daughters that was studying at Georgetown.

On the first day, we did a quick tour of a couple of Smithsonian Museums. The paintings that were on display were from the collections of George Lucas (the man that killed Star Wars) and Steven Spielberg (Indiana Jones and the savior of Star Wars). There are a couple of paintings that I really enjoyed looking at:

http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/tellingstories/

The first one was the Norman Rockwell's "Boy on a High Dive"; it shows a kid on the edge of a high dive, to me this signified taking a new risk or meeting life's next adventure. The second one was "Back to Civvies", showing a young man that has come back from WW II and nothing really seems to fit. That was very poignant to me, I think there are a couple of generations that are going to go through the rest of their lives where nothing seems to fit.

We also went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, there are a lot of displays of Americana here: Julia Child's kitchen and the First Ladies inauguration dresses as well as a display of self driving vehicles jumped out at me. The final museum we went to was the original Smithsonian Castle, we went there because it was towards the end of the day and it was close to the metro stop. The display that I really connected with was a display of Madeline Albright's broaches and pins. These were the pins that she would wear at different events throughout her life, all the pins had a significance. For example, when she was the Ambassador to the UN, and was sitting next to Saddam Hussein, she wore a snake on her lapel (?) because Saddam had called her a snake in an earlier encounter. When she was being asked to solve a huge problem, she would wear a magician or wizard's pin because it would take a lot of magic to solve that particular problem. She also had a few Star Trek pins and other space exploration related pins, very cool.

The next few days we hit all of the presidential monuments (pictures attached on the right), my personal favorite is FDR's, Korean War and the WW II memorial. WW II is just impressive, Korean War is understated and very well done. I like the quietness of the statues, during the winter, when there is snow, it is especially vivid.

Our final stop (prior to the Texas game :-( ) was Arlington, VA. I went there to visit a friend's sister's grave site, as well as check out JFK's grave, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Lee mansion. Lee's mansion (where Robert E. Lee grew up) was a mansion built by the Lee family, the museum there shows how the Lee and Washington families were linked. The estate was taken over by the Union Army during the Civil War and was turned into a hospital for Union Soldiers during the Civil War and as a cemetery. The grounds were then turned into a National Cemetery.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is guarded by members of the US Army's 3d Infantry Regiment. That particular day, we watched the changing of the guard ceremony, as well as a wreath laying ceremony. Very cool.

Checking In

Well, football season is back in full swing, so Saturdays are pretty interesting for me. This is a quick recap of the last three Husker games from my bleacher seat:

"Niles Paul you are breaking my heart . . . "

That was the wail that went up from a very nice Husker fan at he Union Pub 3 weeks ago when the Huskers didn't do so well against Texas. Setting the scene: The Huskers seem to finally be back from the bill callahan oblivion and have had a couple of good seasons with Bo Pelini at the helm. The one constant thorn in the Husker's side has been Mack Brown and his team from Texas. This year was going to be different, or so the 2 million or so Husker faithful thought. The Blackshirts were more than Ndamakung Suh, our newly found QB was racking up the yards at a blazingly fast pace, and the game was in Lincoln. We were going to win, no questions asked. Well, after dropping three passes that would have changed the game, our faithful senior wide receiver, one of the cornerstones of the offense that had suffered under Callahan and been redeemed under Pelini, dropped another one. When that happened, the air went out of the Union Pub and the devil cashed in another win for Texas. All told, there were 4 clear TD passes dropped that were right on the numbers or catches a wide receiver probably should have made. Good game by Texas, but dang.

Union Pub notes: A few years ago, I discovered the gathering place for the Husker faithful in DC: the Union Pub, near Union Station. I regularly went there if I was in town to catch the Huskers in a friendly environment. It is a pretty good place to watch the Huskers, standard bar food, beer and folks from Nebraska. Over the years though, a few cracks in the institution have started to show. First of all, the owner sells/pushes raffle tickets during the game, the story behind the raffle tickets has changed a few times - - it is either to donate to a scholarship, or to fund the cable reception of the game. He gets a little pushy about the tickets, which naturally annoys me, and if it is to fund the reception of the game, I would just like to remind him that I wouldn't be buying his 6 dollar beer and 9 dollar hot dog combo at his fine establishment if the Huskers weren't on the screen. I can do that at Applebees.

The second thing that struck me during the Texas loss was Husker fans may have lost their perspective, and that wearing a red shirt gives them certain liberties. For example, when Niles Paul and Bryant Kinnie dropped the last of their certain TD passes, a few folks called them idiots or other such names. First of all, they aren't the ones watching a football game in a bar, they are on the field, probably trying as hard as they can to win the game for the Husker faithful. Second, the idiot is the one guzzling beer and yelling at the TV. My perspective over the years have changed, I just like to watch the Huskers play, if one of them makes a mistake, I try to remember that they are in the 19-22 year old range and are trying their hardest and I appreciate their effort, I know they feel bad, and will feel worse when they see the film after the game. When I saw Bryant Kinnie with his head hung low on the bench after a TD pass went in and out of his hands, I felt bad for him, but it is only a game.

Enough about the Horns, bring on the Cowboys.

For some reason, Nebraska has had problems playing home games. I am not sure if the kids feel more pressure with 85,000 faithful in the stands or what, but sometimes they aren't sharp. On the road, different story. The Big Red Machine traveled down to Oklahoma City to face the Cowboys for the last time. The Cowboys have been up and comers in the Big 12 South for a few years, but haven't quite turned the corner against the Sooners, maybe this is the year, but they didn't turn the corner against the Huskers. From the start, this was a track meet - - when you spell NU and OSU or Nebraska and Oklahoma State, you will notice there are no D's there; last saturday, there was no D (defense) until the second half. The first half of the game, Taylor Martinez (the second coming of Eric Crouch and Tommie Frazier combined) ran wild on the Cowboys and threw like Peyton Manning. Niles Paul and Bryant Kinnie redeemed themselves, and Niles Paul even threw in a 100 yard punt return for a TD as an apology to the Husker faithful. The second half, the Blackshirt defensive backs completely shut down the OSU air game, and the game was over.

Over the past years, Bo and Carl Pelini have built a defense that is specifically designed to stop the spread offenses that have sprung up in college football. The spread offense used to be the offense that would allow a smaller team use it's size and speed to knock off a more powerful team. A lot of more powerful teams adopted it, especially in the Big 12. Nebraska built a defense that was built on the same speed principles. Very small, quick linebackers and a lot of fast defensive backs. This goes back to Tom Osborne's transformation to speed in the early 90s. Nebraska could whip up on other teams with it's size and power in the 80s, but when we stepped out of the Big 8 and played other teams, they ran right past us. Now, Bo and Carl have built a defense that will stop a fast, spread offense, specifically Missouri.

Gary Pinkel took over at Missouri several years ago, and he brought a spread style offense to the Big 12 North, and Nebraska couldn't deal with it. They beat Nebraska a few times, and it seemed that Nebraska couldn't stop it, so other North teams adopted it: Colorado, Kansas and a few others. Nebraska suffered through a few 50, 60 70 point beat downs against those teams, especially in the callahan era.

This year, Missouri came to Lincoln for the last time, ranked number 6, with a Gary Pinkel developed spread offense that ran all over Oklahoma last week. This week was a difference story, the Blackshirt defensive backs shut down Missouri's receivers and Blaine Gabbert had nowhere to throw it. It did help that Roy Helu ran three long touchdowns and racked up 307 yards on the ground and Nebraska's offense pounded Missouri's defense on the ground. Taylor Martinez was injured in the 1st half, but Zac Lee (one of my favorites) came in and ran things just fine during the second half. The defense looked very good, the best they have looked this year and the offense hearkened back to the Husker great offenses where every play could go for a touchdown. It will be interesting over the rest of the year.

I watched the Missouri game at home, instead of at the Union Pub, it was much more pleasant - - I didn't have to travel there and had a great seat on my couch for the game.

Fantasy Football update

I fell out of the King of the Hill pool: The Saints didn't win, so that's that.

In the Tim's Fantasy Football League I passed Wade up this week, but he has two trades left, so I am not sure if it will last. But, it was nice to come out of the basement and move past him into 7th place for a week. We'll see how it goes. Next year, I will have better wide receivers, which is what I say every year . . . .

Not much, really

This week I was 4 for 4 on rides to work and back. I enjoy my new route, but there are a few things that are a little frustrating.

1. There are more red lights on the route. This requires a lot more rider kharma on my part, if I hit a few red lights early in the ride, I get a little frustrated and then get mad at later lights. If you miss a later light, more than likely I'll get stuck at subsequent lights. There is one series of lights just before the King Street Metro Station in Alexandria - - if I time things wrong I will hit three red lights in a row, then miss a couple more on Eisenhower Street. This happened on Tuesday, I got caught behind a bunch of cars at the King Street tunnel, missed the first light, missed the second light, hit the third green light (where I normally end up running a red light anyway) and then got stuck at three red lights in a row on Ike Street.

2. There is a Dunkin Donuts on the new route. This is the second bakery or bakery like store on my route. The first is a mystery bakery that I think makes donuts for grocery stores (generic donuts?), it is in an industrial area, there is no store, but I can certainly smell donuts and other good smelling stuff baking. I ride by that and think how good a donut would taste, then have to ride by the Dunkin Donuts (on Ead Street, just past 18th Street), I then have to think about how good a donut would be, with a cup of Dunkin Dark coffee.

One of these days I will take a few extra minutes to go find the mystery bakery and then maybe stop off for a quick cup of coffee at the Dunkin Donuts.

Husker update.

The Huskers dominated one of our annoying Big 12 North foes, kansas state. k-state used to be a doormat back in the Big 8 days, then they hired Bill Snyder. Somewhere along the way, Bill Snyder made a deal with the devil (nobody can attract quality athletes to the middle of nowhere, Manhattan, Kansas and put together a winning team without a little non-divine assistance) and started making k-state pretty good, and they occasionally beat the Huskers. This game was especially refreshing, Nebraska returned to the powerful ground game that made the Huskers great in the 90's, and we have found a quarterback that can run the offense. Taylor Martinez reminds me a lot of other Husker Legends - - Eric Crouch and Tommie Frazier, not only is he lightning quick and fast, he has a very accurate arm.

I am not quite sure we are a top 10 team, I'll hold of until we put texas in it's place and beat oklahoma state. After than, I am pretty sure we'll have another special team. Nebraska's defense is lightning quick and deep, our offensive line is back to the glory days and we have a QB. Should be interesting . . .

Fantasy Football Woes

Once again, I can't pick a group of 5 wide receivers, I can handle a QB that gets injured, or has a few bad games, but 5 gaping holes in my roster from divas that can't catch a ball (Michael Crabtree) or stay with a team (Randy Moss) or just don't show up (Sims-Walker?), that is tough to swallow. Luckily, I passed my niece (sorry Sid) and one of my brothers-in-law had a rough week, so, we'll see. For the record, I am not in last place.

Well, it has been a couple of months

It has been a few months since I last did some typing here, so here yah go . . .

Because I still can't run comfortably, I have been riding my bike like crazy. I average about 120 miles a week, 4 times a week, everyday but Monday. On Mondays I lug in 5 T-shirts, 5 pairs of underwear, a bunch of veggie burgers and cheese for lunch, oatmeal for breakfast, bananas and carrots for snacks. Life gets pretty simple when you break it down like that I guess. I ride in each morning, do some push ups, pull ups and core exercises hit the showers with Tan Man and the Zombie then head off to work. My rides home in the afternoon are nice and relaxing, I actually spend the same amount of time riding to work and back as I would on the metro, but I have a lot more freedom and it is much more relaxing.

I have a couple of bike rack buddies, we chat some in the morning and talk about routes and such. One of them talked me into doing a century last month - - the Civil War Battlefield Century Ride.

http://www.civilwarcentury.com/

Pretty cool ride, it started off just north of DC in Thurmont, Maryland , went through an area where there were a lot of smaller Civil War skirmishes around South Mountain, crossed the Appalachian Trail (I took the pictures below when I hiked the AT last year with Andrew; one of the rest stops was right across the road from the Civil War Correspondent's Memorial) wound through Antietam Battlefield, close to Sharpsburg, MD, then up north into Pennsylvania, through Gettysburg (riding right past the field that Pickett charged across, Little Round Top, the Peach Orchard and Devil's Den) very cool ride, outside of some of the big old hills. There were some fierce climbs, but for every fierce climb there is a good scream downhill. This was the first time I ever hit 45 mph on my bike, very exhilarating.





This morning I discovered a new route to and from work, cutting a few miles off of my route, down from 16 to 14, which takes about 10 minutes or so off my time. There is a little more traffic, but that is ok. I spotted a few other riders on the way in, so I figure it is good to go.

Fantasy Football update:

I have climbed out of last place and passed my niece, Sydney. She picked her team based off of the names and how they all rhymed, so I am not sure that is much brag about. I am also in a King of the Hill league with Wade, so maybe I can last longer than him in that one.

I have started to look for a house to buy in the area, I will let you know how that goes. I am looking for a nice place with a nice kitchen a few large rooms and a nice bathroom. It also has to have a larger backyard for Sam and Cheney to poop in. Cheney update: Her blanketectomy is catching up with her. My vet here thinks that her pancreas was probably damaged during one of her stomach operations, so she has been going through serous bouts of diarrhea and lost a lot of weight. A few tests and pills later she is back to normal Cheney poop, not quite as optimal as Sam's, but much easier to scoop up than before.

Some Riding Around

I don't think I mentioned this, but I am on the Un-able to Run list - - - my plantar fasciitis and heel spurs have returned with a vengeance. Shortly after the Crossroads 17.75 km race I was out on an easy training run and I got that steak knife in the heel feeling again. This is the second time that I have had them, the first time it took about 6 months to recover from, so, stand by.

In order to keep in some sort of cardio shape, I have started to increase my riding and swimming. During the week, I ride to and from work 3 times a week, and have started to ride on Sundays. A couple of buddies of mine from work talked me into riding in a Century (a 100 mile bike ride/race) I don't think I will be doing much racing, but I am pretty sure I can ride it. This morning we got together and road about 35 miles on the Washington Old Dominion trail, one of the many rails to trails projects in this area. It was a pretty good ride, some nice flat trail, maybe a few rolling hills, but it was fun. Average pace was about 17 mph, I was pretty much the slow guy, no problems there.

This afternoon I got together with a group of folks from my running group for another ride, they told me it was about 20 miles, but it turned out to be almost 29. The route we took was the tow path of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, which ran from DC up through Maryland to Cumberland, MD near Harper's Ferry. It was a nice ride, the tow path was a gravel/dirt path, very different from this mornings ride which was on a nice asphalt path.

The canal was designed/thought of by George Washington, kind of a highway into the western part of the nation. It was a booming business for about 20 years, then the railroad took over and it became more of alternate way of transportation, apparently it also acted as a pretty good filter for the Potomac - - as sewage flowed out of the urban areas, it backed up into the canal. The trees along the canal absorbed the sewage and used it as fertilizer. These are the things you learn when you read the signs along the canal.

I have posted a few pictures of the canal and the falls.

The Falls: Pretty popular area for walking around and some kayaking. I guess the water level was way down, you normally can't see the rocks at the bottom.



A replica of one of the canal boats. The locks on the canal were only about 10 feet wide, so the boats had to be very narrow.

One of the locks:

Back on the Trail

OK, back to the trail . . . . . . . like I mentioned last time I blogged, I have started hiking on the AT again. I have just returned from a 5 day hiking trip through NC with Bill, Charles and John (Bill's son). We spent 5 days on the trail, starting at Mooney Gap, NC and finishing at Fontana Dam, NC. For my loyal readers, that covers the section of the trail that kicked my ass in 2008 when I tried to go from and Springer MTN, GA to Fontana Dam, but had to limp off of the trail in Franklin, NC. This part also almost completes the GA-NC-TN portion of the trail, I have about 38 miles left between Lake Watauga, TN to Damascus, VA. All told, I have sectioned off 575 miles of the trail, mostly on weekend hikes and a few weeklong hikes.

We started off the trip by taking Charles' youngest son, Eli, to a church camp out near Hendersonville, NC. On the way there we stopped off at King's Mountain National Military Park, which commemorated a Revolutionary War battle between Loyalist and Revolutionary Militias. This was one of the battles that convinced Cornwallis he wasn't going to be successful in the Carolinas and that he should go up to Yorktown, VA. The rest was history.

http://www.nps.gov/archive/kimo/home.htm

We learned a new term at the park: The Over the Mountain Boys. These were the settlers that were on the western side of the mountains in SC and NC and chose to stay out of the Revolutionary War, until they were rallied by British atrocities in Carolinas. They gathered and surrounded a British Loyalist unit at King's Mountain and routed them.


British COL Patrick Ferguson was the British officer that led the Loyalists as they moved through the Carolinas, he is also the officer that promised to burn the farms and chase down the Over the Mountain Boys. From the web page: "Kings Mountain National Military Park commemorates a pivotal and significant victory by American Patriots over American Loyalists during the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War. The battle fought on October 7, 1780 destroyed the left wing of Cornwallis' army and effectively ended Loyalist ascendance in the Carolinas. The victory halted the British advance into North Carolina, forced Lord Cornwallis to retreat from Charlotte into South Carolina, and gave General Nathanael Greene the opportunity to reorganize the American Army."Eli was delivered safely to the camp and we proceeded to Fontana Dam to link up with Dave, my hiking buddy from 2006. We spent the night in the shelter at Fontana Dam, getting up and meeting Dave at the Dam.
Dave gave us a ride from Fontana down to Mooney Gap, NC, south of Franklin. Our original hiking plan was:

Big Spring Shelter to Siler Bald Shelter 12.8 m Monday

Siler Bald Shelter to Cold Spring Shelter 12.1 m Tuesday

Cold Spring Shelter to Rufus Morgan Shelter 10.7 m or
US 19 NOC (I think) 11.5 m Wednesday

US 19 to Brown Fork Shelter 16 m Thursday

Brown Fork Shelter to Fontana 11.6 m Friday

The happy group at the beginning of the hike: John, Bill, me and Charles.

You will note that the original plan called for about 64 miles of hiking, and the original plan was a pretty mellow plan, only one day over 16 miles, Thursday, with an easy day on Wednesday either staying at the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC), which is where the trail crosses over the Nantahala River and there is a tourist/rafting area with an outfitter, a couple of restaurants and a hostel. The big lesson I learned in 2008 was to take it easy and don't try to knock out too many big mile days, especially south of the Smokies.

The original plan lasted all of about 5 seconds after our first stop with Dave. As we were going up the approach road, we ran across a point on the trail where the AT crossed the road, Bill decided to just "start hiking there", which would be OK, but the dropoff point was about 800 feet (we had to go over Albert Mountain) lower in elevation than the original dropoff point. So, we added two miles and 800 feet to the hike. For the un-AT-initiated, Albert Mountain is a very steep, rocky section of the trail, some serious ups and downs. It was one of the mountains that convinced me that I should leave the trail in 2008.

We ended up stopping about a mile short of Siler Bald Shelter, making up one of the miles we added to the hike. We camped short of Swinging Lick Gap. The next morning we hit Siler Bald, where we ran into a couple of scoutmasters that were out for a dayhike while the rest of their troop was hiking another section of the trail. We had a good chat, and kept on hiking. We stopped for lunch at Wayah Bald, where there is a stone tower that was built in the 30's.


From Wayah Bald we hit Cold Spring Shelter after a bit more hiking. At the shelter we ran into a Boy Scout troop, two sisters from Salina, KS and an FBI Agent with his two sons from Florida. We elected not to stay in the shelter with the Boy Scout troop and two female hikers and stayed up on the ridge with the FBI agent and his two sons. They were about 8 and 10, and dad was trying his hardest to introduce his sons to the great outdoors.

That night, we discussed the options about the NOC, stop before it and hit it early on Thursday, stay there on Wednesday and enjoy a relaxing middle of the hike break (my vote) or hike past it a couple of miles to avoid the crowds and enjoy a little more nature. Not that I am against nature, but I believe there is more to the trail than nature, seeing everything that is around the trail is important as well, especially if there is a shower, restaurant and a hostel. Nothing wrong with a little luxury. I was voted down and we decided to hike a couple of miles (up a big hill) to a campsite.

Wednesday morning we hit Wesser Bald, where there was an observation shelter, providing pretty good views of the Smoky Mountains.



The cool thing about the towers and balds is that you can look back along the trail and see where you came from, which is cool, and see where you are going, which can be disturbing.

We hit the trail again heading towards Wesser Bald Shelter, where we watered up and kept going on towards the NOC. We hit the NOC about noon, played around in the water, got some gatorade (no riptide rush :-(), and had lunch. After lunch, we sat for about an hour where the rest of the group started to scheme . . . why walk only part way up the mountain after lunch, it is only two miles, why not go a full 6.9 miles past the NOC and get to the top of the hill on the other side of the gap? Remember, we walked 11 and change to get to the NOC, so this would be about 18 miles, I resisted, but the other folks in the group firmly believed that was a good plan.

7 miles and 2000 feet up later, the group's collective ass was kicked by a wicked up. John and I got there a little bit before Charles and Bill so we went and got some water. Charles came in and about 20 minutes later Bill came in and declared that his new hiking daily limit was 16 miles. We were a little concerned about Bill because he didn't move around a whole lot for about 30 minutes, but he let us know that he was OK:

Bill: Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Group: Bill, are you OK?

Bill: Unnnnnnnnnhhhhhnnnnnhhhhuuuuuh

Group: Do you require medical assistance?

Bill: Unnnnnnohhhhhnnnnnnuuuuuuhhhhhhh

Group: Do you need some water?

Bill: Unnnnnnnyahhhhnnnnnnnnotnnnnnnnnnnownnnnnnnnthohhhhhhh

In the words of Smokey, the ancient Peony Park accountant: "I wish I would have had my camera on . . ."

We hit the trail on Thursday, rested and as fresh as you can be on the AT. Up over Cheoah Balk (a mere 700 feet uphill) and headed towards Cody Gap for our next night. Along the way we leapfrogged with the Boy Scout Troop once or twice and the two sisters from Salina, KS. For the record, the sisters were walking slow, but they were carrying a lot of stuff. There are two ways to walk the trail, with a lot of stuff and slow, or with not a lot of stuff and not slow. I choose the latter everytime. We decided to lunch at Brown Fork Gap Shelter, and got there about 2 PM.

We started lunch while we waited on Bill, once he showed up, Charles and John headed down to the water hole to do the watering up, I finished off my lunch (pepperoni's, cheese whiz and tortillas) and then headed down to the spring. I got down there, started chatting and saw a HUGE TIMBER RATTLER on the log, about 2 feet behind John, who didn't see it. As soon as I saw it, Charles saw it and we moved away from it quickly.



We figure that the snake had just eaten, and was laying low because we were much larger than him. John had put some empty bottles behind him, closer to the snake and was about to reach back to get them. Very scary moment in retrospect. We moved down the spring a little bit and finished off with the watering task and then went back up to the shelter, Bill made a sign and I put an entry in the log book about the snake. Just as we were getting ready to roll, the advanced guard of the Boy Scout troop showed up, Charles showed them the snake, they were pretty good about not messing with it, and they basically sat and watched it for a while. Just as we were rucking up, one of their scoutmasters showed up, we showed him the snake so we could leave with a clear conscious.

Friday's hike was pretty un-eventful, we were heading downhill mostly (in my opinion, much more painful than an uphill) and heading to were the truck was parked and a hot water shower. Charles got there first and got the truck all opened up, John rolled in next and hit the shower, I waited til he got done. There is an old adage: You can take the boy out of the mountain, but not the mountain out of the boy. When John got done with his shower, he walked across the parking lot wearing his boxer briefs and a smile. Luckily, there was only one couple that I had to apologize to for his lack of clothing, the wife said not to worry, she raised 3 boys herself and had seen it all.

All in all, a good hike, I am glad to be done with that part of the trail, it is reputed to be the toughest part of the trail. On to Watagua and Damascus.

Couple of NC Tourism points:

If you are in Hendersonville, NC (where Eli's church camp was) take the time to go to DuPont State Park and look at the waterfalls, very pretty. While in Hendersonville, stop at the Hendersonville Hot Dog World, great hot dogs and fries, perfect to fatten you up after a good hike.




Back to work tomorrow morning, sigh. At least I got the pictures and some smelly socks.

Touring Around

I am heading out for a bit of hiking this next week, so I decided to update my blog on a few subjects.

Over the past few months I have hit a few tourist spots here in the DC area. The first one was the Civil War battlefield at Manassas, VA. This was the scene of two major battles in the Civil War. It was the scene of the first major battle of the Civil War where green Union and Confederate armies met here and slugged it out for the first time. Most everyone on both sides felt the other side would crumble, and the war would be quick. The second battle was the culmination of Lee's first invasion of the north.

http://www.nps.gov/mana/historyculture/first-manassas.htm

The park has two hiking trails (one for each battle), both are about 5 miles long, which is about right for a day trip. The hikes wind through the park to where memorials have been built and key points on the battlefield. The first hike covers the first battle, the second hike covers the second battle.

We hiked the first hike, it took about 3 hours and I enjoyed it a great deal. It is always interesting to walk the ground that a battle happened on. When you read about a battle in a book you can't really understand why someone didn't notice 5,000 soldiers moving up on them until the last minute. When you walk on the ground you see the fold in the ground and the small hills that block your vision, or the stand of woods that shield a movement. The first battle gave rise to the legend of Stonewall Jackson, his brigade was credited with stopping a serious Union advance, he and the brigade were known for the rest of the war as Stonewall because of their defense.

The battle, like most initial battles of wars, showed that the war was going to be longer than everyone expected and that both sides had a lot of work to do. There are quite a few more battlefields in this area, so I will have plenty of hiking to do.

My second tourist trip was to MT Vernon. I was kind of expecting a smaller, national park sort of experience at MT Vernon, but it is a major tourist destination. I think that most folks see it as something they have to see when they come to DC, one of the things on their list. I was more in the mood to go see where the first president, and the primary figure in the founding of our country, grew up and lived. MT Vernon is very well maintained, and you could probably spend an entire day wandering around. Washington's house was laid out very well, and beautifully designed. He was the primary designer and architect of the house and grounds of MT Vernon, going as far as to design the tomb that he and Martha are buried in. I was pleasantly surprised that so many folks were there to see Washington's house and learn more about him.

To me, Washington was the greatest of the founding fathers. Not only did he manage to maintain the Colonial Army throughout a 6 year campaign against a more powerful, better resourced foe; but he controlled the direction of the development of the early government of our nation. I truly wish we could bring some of the leaders of other nations to MT Vernon and show them how gracefully Washington peacefully passed the immense power that he was offered to other branches of the government and other presidents. Malaki and Karzai could learn a great deal from Washington: Despite having a new, fractious democracy that had a wide variety of interests and competing power structures, Washington demanded that democracy and republican principles become the foundation of our nation, not personal power. Sigh.

Movie News:

If you are a comedy fan, go see the bio-pic about Joan Rivers, I thought it was an amazing movie. It documents her discovery, rise and how she became one of the leading ladies in comedy and how she is working hard to keep herself relevant in society. Very well made. I haven't seen too many other movies this year, nothing really jumps out at me, I will check out the theater when I get back from the hike.

Stuff and other stuff . . .

Today I ran my first race since the Army Ten Miler last October, it was the Crossroads 17.75 KM in Quantico, VA. The course was pretty good, lots of hills, through a VA State Park - - Prince William Forest. If you are a Marine-o-phile and put Quantico together with 17.75, this race marks the anniversary of the Marine Corps. Pretty cool race, but I need some serious hill and distance work. I ran the race with MAJ K from work (Snake Eater). It was a smaller race, about 1500 folks entered it, and had a pretty fierce course: There were some good hills in the forest. I really needed to do some work on the sisters, but I have to find some to run up and down.

I have another race in JUL, an 8K, that should be a pretty good one and agreed to run a 20K with MAJ K in August.

Hiking News

Bill O and Charles (Boy Scout buddies from NC) came up on the net and declared they were up for some hiking in JUL, so we are going to hit the Appalachian Trail over the 4th of JUL weekend. I talked them into hiking the part of the trail in NC that kicked my butt two years ago (pre-Iraq): Fontana Dam to Franklin, NC. That will actually complete NC for me, so I will have GA, NC and MD completed. I will talk them into hiking more of VA (I thought I had a lot of VA done, but only have about 150 miles out of 500 or so completed). It should be a good hike, Dave, my hiking buddy in Western NC may be helping us out with rides, which is very cool, half the section hiking battle is figuring out how to get back to where you parked. If we were in a big park we could probably hitchhike, but this will be out in the real world.

Riding News

I have decided to add an extra day in my week for riding, the Metro is ok, but I like having a little more control in my commute. I now have my bike rack so, that makes the ride a little bit easier. I figure I will load up the food and other stuff on Monday, then haul the Tupperware on back on Fridays. I have a bike bud that rides in 4 days a week, he is all for the increase.

The Big News

The Huskers in the Big Ten, very interesting. I gotta be honest, I am pretty happy about this right now. The texas control of the Big 12 was slightly upsetting. I think watching the Big 12 Championship continue to move south - - Dallas and San Antonio - - vs. KC was kind of frustrating, I know most of the population was in texas, but there were 6 teams up north too. Ah well, I do feel bad for Turner Gill and the jayhawks and the isu cyclones; kind of indifferent about ksu and will wait and see on mizzou. I suspect there will be a few more teams moving around, so, stand by on that.

Tastes Like Chicken

This is not for the PETA folks or animal lovers . . .

On Wednesday, we got an emergency call in the AME (where I work). Normally, life in the Pentagon doesn't really require emergency calls, but this one was important: There was a snake in MAJ K's garage, and he had to head on back home to take care of that matter. His wife described the snake, sounded like a copperhead, so action had to be taken. We had a quick discussion about the snake, because it was a copperhead, it was probably going to have to be killed, you can't let something like that hang around the yard or neighborhood, especially if there are kids around.There was some discussion on the technique that would be used, it was decided that a shovel would be the most effective - - plenty of standoff, and a sharp edge. MAJ K had been to Army Survival school, so he was no stranger to this sort of technique. As a Green Beret, official snake eater sort of guy, I also gave him a quick class on how to cook and eat the snake (cut off the head 6 inches back from the jaws; skin it, gut it and cook it), and told him I would think a little less of him if he didn't eat it.

The hunter and his son, check out the smile on the 5 year old. This is the picture that is on my computer wallpaper at work, whenever I get drug down into the bureaucratic brier patch, I just look at it for a few minutes.

Celebrating the hunt with a green Icee. Next time I eat snake, I will find a green Icee.

I was pretty sure he was going to kill the snake, it was a copperhead and all, so I pretty much forgot about it. On Thursday morning, MAJ K came into the AME with a huge grin and a ziploc baggie of snake meat.
Gutting the snake.



BBQing the snake.

When MAJ K came in to the office, I was not having the best of day, he came in with a grin from ear to ear and said "want some snake?" It was hilarious. He brought in 5 pieces, one for each of us, I dug in, CAPT H dug in, Bill, our 25 year old civilian and a very refined city boy, hesitated for a few seconds, but then caved to peer pressure and picked his chunk clean. TSgt R, from West Virginia, loved it. It was a pretty cool day. I hadn't had snake since the Q-course and MAJ K did a pretty good job with the BBQ. Tasted like Chicken.


His wife was a bit disgusted by the whole event, she said he went from a "Hero" after killing the snake to a "Zero" once he announced he was going to skin it, cook it and eat it. His son was all in, as were the rest of the boys in the neighborhood.


MAJ K's son, not quite sure at first, but wanted a second piece of it once he got into it.

Other, non-snake eating related news:

My bike commuting is coming along, I finally got my bike rack, so now I can put all my stuff on the back of the bike instead of in my backpack, that will make for a much easier ride. I ran into Crazy Dave at the bus station. He is a bit older and doesn't care to ride up the hills anymore so he takes the bus up the hills. While he is on the bus, he talks up different routes and riding options. He has turned me on to a new route that cuts out the two hills and a ton of traffic. I basically go around the hills on a side road, no cars, so that is cool.

The BenMan:

Benjamin, the goofball kid that is my nephew, graduated from Papillion South High School two weeks ago. Somehow, he turned into a very well rounded and smart young man. I went back to the homestead to take part in the activities and let him know I was pretty proud of him. He has ended up with a full ride scholarship to the University of Nebraska, at Omaha to study micro-biology, he will be living with his older sister during her last semester there, so he will get a pretty good education on how to get educated from her.

The next night, he was awarded the Eagle Scout rank. For the record, he is a third generation Eagle Scout - - both my father and I are Eagle Scouts. This has made the family understandably proud. Good job Benman.

Survivor

Survivor season 20 is over. Russell is a total knucklehead. He can get to the final episode, but he makes so many folks on the jury mad that they will never vote for him. I am happy that Sandra won the million bucks and am waiting for the next episode. With the end of Survivor, I am now in the true doldrums of TV - - no Survivor, no Amazing Race and no Football. Honestly, I turn on the TV for a few minutes to watch an episode of Seinfeld, then head off to find something else to watch.

My Job

Riding to work

In my quest to remove the economic power from the middle east, I have started to ride to work twice a week. I figure the less oil I require, the less money a knucklehead like Ahmadinejad has to do the stuff Iran does in the middle east.

I ran into a guy on a bus that bikes regularly, so I chatted him up about the routes he uses. He works in downtown DC and bikes in 3 or 4 times a week. He turned me on to the bike friendly routes that I should use. The route to work starts off with about 3/4 mile up a hill then is mostly downhill, and there is very little traffic. I go up Kingstowne Village Parkway, hit South Van Dorn Street, then turn on to Eisenhower Avenue. Ike Ave is a very nice route, mostly downhill on the way in. At the end of Eisenhower I wind onto Commonwealth Ave in Alexandria, this route has a dedicated bike lane, which is cool. At the end of Commonwealth I run into two bike paths - - the first is a section of 4 Mile Run which parallels a creek that runs into the Potomac River. 4 Mile Run intersects the MT Vernon trail, which runs along the Potomac until it hits the Memorial Bridge and a series of smaller trails that run into the Pentagon.

Like I said, the way in is downhill, that means (according to Beckman's Law of Physical Geography) the way back home is uphill. For the most part, the uphills aren't too bad, but there are two fierce uphills on Van Dorn, after those uphills, there are some good downs, so that is ok.

I had been riding my road bike in, a beautiful, light, nimble Motebecane bicycle. I rode the Motebecane to work when I live in NC, the back roads at FT Bragg were ideal for commuting, not a lot of traffic, nice rolling hills and there were only a few stops and goes. Alexandria is very different: It is much more urban, more stops and goes, and the pavement is not as smooth. To remedy that, I bought a Schwinn cyclo-cross bicycle, it is much heavier, more rugged, so I think it will be a better ride. It is also geared differently, even though it isn't geared for speed, my ride to and from work is a little faster because the gearing is set up for hilly terrain. So, now I have two bikes.

How small is the world? The guy I bought the bicycle from is from: Lincoln, NE! He lives in downtown DC, very close to Union Station in a very small apartment. He had 5 bikes and had to get rid of one of them. I have no idea how his apartment looked with 5 bikes in it, I hope he has more room though.

It is funny, normally bike people look at fast, sexy triathlon bikes and drool, there are several at the Pentagon bike rack. I have actually caught a couple of folks checking out my Schwinn, they envy the ruggedness I guess.

Tan Man and the Zombie Update

For those of you out there that are concerned about such things, Tan Man and the Zombie are doing just fine, both maintaining their Modus Operandii: Walking around the gym's locker room sans clothes. I actually saw Tan Man walking around the Pentagon, he is a suit wearing civilian, a fine upstanding member of the Pentagon community. I have not seen the Zombie walking around the Pentagon, but I am sure that I will run into him one of these days.

AFPAK Hand TV Star:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QigtjT1vqUE

These are the folks that we have been recruiting and training, I work with Geoff Kent, very smart guy, I now tease him about being a You Tube star.

Interesting Pentagon Tradition

Apparently, work at the Pentagon is stressful. I have no idea why. There is a small community of Pentagon members that take a little "stress relief" nap during the day. It is kind of like back in kindergarten, they go to the gym, change into gym clothes, go to the pool, lay down on the chaise lounges, put a towel over their head and take a little nap. Someone told me about it, I didn't believe it until I saw it. So, the Tan Man, Zombie and the Nap Boys. How on earth does our nation stay safe?

What has Fritz been up to?

A whole lot and not much.

Tragically, I have been working A LOT. My job is a very interesting one, so I don't really mind the long hours. What sort of job could possibly keep a lazy man like me at the Pentagon: I work on a program called a the Afghanistan Pakistan Hands Program, we are recruiting, training and deploying a group of long term Afghanistan Pakistan regional experts that get some intensive language and cultural training and deploy to Afghanistan or Pakistan for a year, come back, get some more training, do some more Afghanistan and Pakistan work, more language training, then go back to the same place in Afghanistan or Pakistan. The goal is to have a group of trained, experienced, Afghanistan Pakistan Hands that have a good understanding of the issues, culture and language, and can be relied on to be long-term problem solvers in the area.

Our first group of AFPAK Hands (APHs) deployed two weeks ago, and we have two more waves deploying this month. It has been very hectic, there are 5 of us on the team, and there is plenty of work to do. I work with a Navy CAPT (O-6), an Army Major, an Air Force Technical Sergeant and a civilian employee, a pretty good team and there is a lot of very senior leader support which is good, every now and then we have to invoke the senior leadership's name to get things done. "I am not sure how ADM Mullen will feel about that . . . . " "Hmmm, I don't think that would go well with GEN McChrystal . . . " "Let me check with GEN Petraus' staff about that . . . " are all common quotes. It is good to be part of something like this.

Right now, we are working to formalize and document the program which requires a lot of bureaucratic work, typing, e-mailing, and mind numbing staff work. But, it will all get done one of these days.

Pentagon Coffee Etiquette and Violations:

We work in a small office truly in the "Bowels of the Pentagon", there are the 5 of us and 5 Strategic Effects staff guys in the office. Right now, we are working with one coffee pot, which works pretty good. I set the first pot of coffee up the night before, the trained Air Force officers push the button in the morning, and there is a fresh pot when I come in the office in the morning. We do have a violator though, my boss. He had a bad habit of getting a cup of coffee right before he goes to a meeting each morning, normally, that will take up the last of the pot, leaving only a splash of coffee in the pot. Technically, he does not take the "last of the coffee", but everyone knows you can't just walk away from the pot without starting a fresh pot. When this was pointed out to him by other coffee drinkers (me) he got a little indignant the first time. The second time he was caught doing this he broke down and "will make coffee amends" I am not sure what coffee amends are, but I will let you know.

Lack of Football:

Now that the NFL draft is over, and spring football practices have wrapped up, there are 4 months of football wasteland ahead. I tracked a little bit of the Husker's spring practice, I think this will be a good season for the Big Red, but, we'll see. I hope the offense can come close to matching the Blackshirts. I think Zac Lee will be a much better QB this year, there will be some more tools and hopefully a better offensive line, so we'll see. I think they will clean up in the Big 12 North and may win the Big 12, we'll see.

NFL wise, I think folks will be pleasantly surprised by Tim Tebow. He was fun to watch in college, so he should be fun to watch in the NFL.

Recent Movies:

Saw "The Runaways" a few weeks ago, good sountrack, but long movie. I am a big Joan Jett fan, she is a top scorer on my Ipod, and I was expecting a bit more of her story in the movie, but instead, it was more about Cherie Currie, which was the lead singer, and a much more tragic character. The movie did show that Joan was really the driving force behind the band, but Cherie was the destructive counterpart, they spent a lot time showing Cherie's excesses, way too much time in my opinion. Probably a good movie for DVD.

Long Time no Blog

My vast fan base asked me why I was no longer blogging, I informed the masses that I really didn't have much to blog about. I then found out that my blog provided entertainment during rather boring meetings and conferences, so I will try to find something to help my fan base avoid death by power point.

Duke Blue Devils

Well, they won it all, I thought they were going to be vulnerable to teams that were bigger, but somewhere between the end of the regular season and the ACC Tournament, Duke developed an inside game. Brian Zoubek, Mason and Miles Plumlee and Lance Thomas came up huge on the boards and defense, and kicked in a few points on offense, just enough to win the whole show. I think this year was one of Coach K's best seasons ever - - he didn't have dominant players like he had in years past, but he took the team he had and got the best out of them. 3 of the players were seniors: John Scheyer, Lance Thomas and Brian Zoubek, that is a testament to not taking the flash in the pan, one and done type of players that other colleges have taken. It will be interesting next year, Duke will have 2 of their top 3 scorers, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith, plus the aforementioned Plumlee brothers, and some other pretty good players, so, we will see if the combination of perimeter scoring, rebounds and strong defense will work for them again.

Life in the Pentagon

We (the AFPAK Hands Management Element) now have our own office, it is pretty nice, much more quiet than working with the rest of the Pakistan Afghanistan Coordination Cell (PACC). We share an office with our Strategic Communications Section, there are 3 USAF LTCs and an Australian Colonel in that section. I have trained the Air Force LTCs to make coffee in the morning, which provides us something to talk about. Basically, I set the coffee up, alls they have to do is push a button, which is right up the Air Force alley. They are normally there first in the morning, so they push the button, I have freshly brewed coffee waiting on me. Pretty sweet.

Sam and Cheney

Sam and Cheney have settled down in their new digs. They spend most of their days lounging on the deck, defending the backyard from anything that walks past. Cheney is starting to gain weight again, she had stopped eating for a couple of weeks or so because she was stressed out over the move and her loss of all of the attention Ben had lavished on her when he was watching them in Tennessee.

Movies to check out

My blog buddy Bill from NC comments on the movies that he has seen, kind of a grass root movie review. I have seen a couple of good ones over the past months, and a stinker or two. Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart was the best I have seen him act. The movie was a good one, not really advertised, but very good. Precious was a great movie, a good story, but it was very hard to watch, I kept waiting for the next horrible thing to happen to the girl. Julie and Julia was very good, I am amazed that Meryl Streep does not get more recognition, she is clearly the best female actress of this time.

Survivor

OK, now that college hoops is over, there are truly no sports to watch on TV. Luckily, there is a pretty good season of Survivor going on. This season Survivor has brought back some of the best heroes and best villains. There have been some pretty surprising votes, but that is Survivor. I was amazed that the villains voted off Boston Rob, but that is true Survivor - - kill off the strong and leave the weak to fight it out. Russ has come up with a pretty strong alliance on the villain side, and I was stunned when the heroes gave him an immunity idol. That will probably go down as the dumbest Survivor move ever. We'll see.

Other Weekend entertainment

I have been venturing around DC and the area on the weekends, just checking things out. I went to two aquariums, the National Aquarium here in DC and the Aquarium in Baltimore Harbor. If you are coming to DC, don't bother with the aquarium here, the only highlight was an adult spotted drum. The rest of the stuff could probably be found in a nice pet shop.

The aquarium in Baltimore on the other hand is a great aquarium. It is set in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, so you can spend the whole day there just wandering around. They had a pretty good carribean reef set up that had most of the usual suspects that we see in Honduras, but not a lot of the really small stuff that makes the reefs interesting. I did spot a green moray eel, doing what eels do best, just hanging around waiting for an unsuspecting fish to swim by. Also in the Inner Harbor is the USS Constellation, which was constructed in 1854. The Constellation is a sloop-of-war and the second United States Navy ship to carry this famous name (the first was the sister ship of the USS Constitution which is in Philadelphia harbor). According to the US Naval Registry the original frigate was disassembled on 25 June 1853 in Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia, and the sloop-of-war was constructed in the same yard, possibly with a few recycled materials from the old frigate. USS Constellation is the last sail-only warship designed and built by the U.S. Navy. The sloop was launched on 26 August 1854 and commissioned on 28 July 1855 with Captain Charles H. Bell in command. It served through WW I as a training ship, and then was transferred to Baltimore as a museum ship.

The Sisters

For those of you that followed my Boston Marathon train up blog, you know what the Sisters were. Two tough hills that I ran on while I was at FT Bragg. The series of hills were a pretty good trainup for Boston's famous Heartbreak Hill. I have been riding my bike to and from work twice a week, it is about 15 miles one way, the ride there is pretty nice, mostly downhill. That of course means the trip back is mostly uphill (Beckman's law of physical geography: For every down hill, there is a corresponding up hill). There isn't a lot of traffic in the morning, and just a short stretch of thick traffic on the way back. Folks around here seem to be biker friendly, which is pretty good. I start off at the house in Alexandria, hit South Vandorn Street, take a right on Eisenhower AVE and follow that to Old Town Alexandria's Commonwealth AVE. Commonwealth AVE has a dedicated bike lane, which is the first one that I have ridden on. After Commonwealth, I get on a couple of bike only trails: A part of if on a trail called 4 Mile Run and it finishes up on MT Vernon Trail. MT Vernon Trail goes right past Ronald Reagan International Airport, then rolls along the Potomac River for 3 or 4 miles and finishes up at the Memorial Bridge. From there, I cross a few streets and am at the Pentagon.

Speaking of the Pentagon, Tan Man and the Zombie are still around. The Zombie is wearing his summer zombie uniform: The same pair of shorts EVERY DAY and I suspect the same T shirt. Other than that, same routine - - dump his shaving kit on the floor, get naked and walk around to the disgust of others.

Almost a Tragedy

A near tragedy, narrowly avoided.

Yesterday morning in the gym I almost lost a treasured veteran: The pair of shorts that I ran the 2008 Boston Marathon in. I took them to Iraq and had happy thoughts everytime I wore them, but the Iraqi environment and questionable laundry system took their toll on the Fastest Shorts Ever.

Like most Iraqi vets, on the outside, they looked OK, just a little worn, but that is normal. But,on the inside, they were having some problems. The liner on the shorts has lost it's elastic capability. I still wear them, but may retire them to the drawer next to the Fastest Shirt Ever.

Yesterday, I wore them for an outside run (my first good run in several weeks) and they were just fine, and honestly, were trying to get me to run a bit faster than I should based on my most recent running related injury. After the run, I hung them on the hook in the shower room (Tan Man and the Zombie were not around) and then took my shower. I got done with the shower, went upstairs to work and realized I had left a veteran on the battlefield.

After I put my uniform on, I made a bee-line back to the shower room to recover my shorts, luckily, they were hanging patiently on the hook when I came back. They are now waiting their turn to get washed with the rest of my laundry. I was a little disappointed with myself for leaving them behind, but I will take more care the next time around.

Other news: NO FOOTBALL on TV is tough this time of year. NASCAR is trying, but unless Jeff Gordon is winning, I don't have any interest in the race. Duke basketball is making it's late season surge to win the ACC tournament. They pounded the unc tarheels on Saturday, 4 years of frustration came out in Cameron Indoor Stadium and the ghost of Tyler Hansborough was exorcised. The ACC tournament starts this week, I think it will come down to maryland and Duke, but you can never tell. The Blue Devils will get a good NCAA seed, and will probably make the Sweet 16, maybe the Elite 8, but that will be about it. Once again, live by the 3 pointer, die by the 3 pointer. We'll see, I hope the Duke Big 3 (John Scheyer, Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler) can get hot and bury some three pointers.

Survivor is back on. Unfortunately, nobody on the Joint Staff watches the second best show on TV, so I got nobody to talk to about the show. Last week's episode was a classic blindside: Tom used the newly found, hidden immunity idol and blind-sided Cherie on the Heroes team. Russ needs to clean up his act on the villains, or he may be out of there. We'll see. Thursday nights, 8 PM EST, don’t call during that hour.

Tan Man and the Zombie

Everything is going fine here in Alexandria, Sam and Cheney have joined me from Tennessee, I spent last weekend going there and picking them up. My eternal thanks to Ben P. for patiently watching them while I was deployed and moving down here. Sam and Cheney have taken up residence on the back deck and are making sure there are no cats, possums or raccoons. They haven't figured out how to operate the hot tub yet, which is a good thing.

The snow, all three feet of it, has started to melt way, which is great. I have also figured out the bus/metro commute technique, I think it is all about karma, I keep positive thoughts going while I am running late or struggling with the schedule. This past week there have been a couple of times that I have got to the bus station a little bit late only to be pleasantly surprised by a bus running either early or late, which I didn't mind at all. On Friday, I was the only one on the bus in the morning and the driver got a little lonely, and he just started chatting away. I usually have my mp3 player going on some podcast or music, but I chatted with him. He rides motorcycles with his son, has two motorcycles, all of his riding buddies have stored their bikes at his house for the winter. One of his bikes was a street bike, the other is a road cruiser. Normally, more folks get on the bus and chat him up, but I was the only one, so we ended up talking.

Ok, the next section may be a bit graphic and R-ish rated, so, please consult your parents if you can read it. It does involve rather disturbing nudity.

There is a gym at the Pentagon, the Pentagon Officer's Athletic Club - the POAC. It is kind of an institution in the Pentagon and has been around for years. It is not your normal military gym, most of the gyms that I have been around have been full of a younger sort of crowd, the POAC is definitely not. I am not bothered by that, I am actually impressed that folks much older than me are still working out and trying hard. There are a couple of folks that I would rather not see though: Tan Man and the Zombie. The locker room in the POAC is very, ummm, ahhhh, liberal?? Bottom line, although there are a lot of older gentlemen working out, which is cool, there are also a lot of older men that stopped working out a while ago, but still come to the gym to use the sauna and walk around naked. Nothing like waking up in the morning, making the journey to the gym, washing your hands only to be shocked by a very naked older, kind of overweight man brushing his teeth at the sink next to you buck naked.

Tan Man: Tan Man is one of the main violators of what I would consider decency in the gym. Tan Man is in his 60s, I think. He takes a great deal of joy in walking around naked, which would be normal, but he is fully tanned, and fully shaved. Very disturbing. I am not the only one that has noticed the Tan Man - - my partner in crime MAJ K, noticed him as well. We were both heading back to the office and he had a disturbed look on his face, I asked him what was up and he started talking about Tan Man, who was standing at the next sink, brushing his teeth. I confessed to MAJ K that I had also been shocked by Tan Man, so we both laugh about it now.

The Zombie: The Zombie is also a POAC locker room violator. His locker is in the same row as mine, so I see him every morning. The Zombie comes staggering in, within seconds, he is naked, he reaches into his locker and dumps all of his toiletries onto the floor, bends over (very disturbing) and picks them up. After that, he staggers off to where ever Zombies go to get woke up and become productive.

My biggest fear is that I will be briefing some high ranking muckety-muck and Tan Man or the Zombie will be standing there. Yikes.