Don't be a Dodo

Never a dull moment at work... here you can see Henry, Rachel, and one of his many buddies. He also brought in this little guy who ran across the floor making this barking noise then huddled against the wall trying not to be bothered. Henry travels around to local schools with his animals and is starting an anti-drug show. He wanted to purchase a sign with a 4 foot tall Dodo bird on it saying, "I'm a Dodo, I'm extinct, before you do drugs, stop and think, or you'll be a Dodo too!"

"This is really happening"

I happened to check Ryan Adams’s website on Saturday. Sunday night Mal and I were in Charlottesville, VA watching him live. It was a great day to see the mountains near Monticello, the University of Virginia, and to catch Ryan Adams at the Charlottesville Pavillion. Ryan played for over two and half hours to a relatively intimate crowd of a couple thousand at most.

He played mostly stuff from his last 3 albums including:

Some stuff from the new album 29
Magnolia Mountain
Easy Plateau
Cold Roses
Let it Ride
A Kiss before I Go
Trains

He also played a couple of oldies:

What Sin Replaces Love
To Be Young (Is to be sad, Is to be High)
Call Me on Your Way Back Home
Dear Chicago
Anybody Wanna Take Me Home

Encore: This is it

I have been waiting for a chance to see Ryan since I missed him in Memphis back in ’04. I don’t know what made me check the website for the first time in months, but I’m glad I did because we had awesome time... much better than our Saturday night experience watching "Hard Times Idol" at a local Fredericksburg bar.

fun with video chat

This is my Grandmomma, checking up on us... so cute :) Video chat also helps us catch up with my parents, here dad shows off his new haircut, and mom makes some jewelry. Video chat also supplied me with the best view I've had of my diploma so far :) Hopefully Matt's parents can eventually get one, and it would be cool if our friends would too (get on that web cam purchase Houston!)

No more boxes!

Check out the super clean apt:

We even have a game/guest room/office! The Uglydolls are right at home, and so is Matt :)

How's work?

My job is with the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virginia. We live a little to the southwest Fredericksburg, VA, and I commute an hour each way to work everyday. The base at Dahlgren is an amazing place to work. Systems like the fleets Aegis Weapon Systems, Tomahawk Missile Systems and others have dedicated facilities on base. I was assigned to the Ground Based Midcourse Defense Program (GMD) Follow On Contract requirements Engineering Project (mouthful). The GMD system currently defends against the threat of ballistic missiles with interceptor missiles located in silos in California and Alaska. My project team is deciding on the capabilities the system will need to have to defend against future threats in order for us to define the 2008 contract. I have heard GMD described as the most complicated defense system ever, and all believe that it has a healthy future. I have heard the program mentioned by name at least 3 times on CNN in light of the current tests by North Korea. Having said all that, the project is just starting and I am so new, so I have hardly done any real work. The project is definitely very interesting, but I am getting so bored!

In other work news, I am very proud of Mal for getting a job doing graphics so quickly. I am very excited that her job is in Fredericksburg because I like the city so far, and I really want to get to know people here. I guess a second income is pretty nice too.

happy one

This place is a ZOO!

I see animals in Virginia that I never saw up close in Mississippi. It’s not like we have been nature hiking. We drove up here, and now I drive back and fourth to work. I walk everyday from the parking lot to my apartment and do the same at work. Having said all that...

Animals I have seen so far within 50 feet include: (No encounters were captured on film. Instead we have produced some artist renderings)

Bear cub – (1) running past the car in front of me and jumping a fence on the highway

Rabbits – (2) both in the Brittany Commons parking lot, just hoppin’ around!

Turkeys – (3) all on base in Dahlgren including a mother with baby close behind crossing close in front of me as I attempted to walk up to the side door at work.

Chipmunks – (2) both in Richmond, I was startled by what I thought was a miniature cat in a bush by the canal. This was because it had a wood chip too big for it’s mouth causing its cheeks to stick out, and because I cannot recall ever seeing a non-cartoon representation of a chipmunk before this in my life, so I really had no idea what I was looking at. Mal only got a glimpse, but was able to speculate that the creature was probably a chipmunk. The second encounter occurred later at Belle Isle. I said something like “I wanna see another chipmunk”, and a minute later...the second chipmunk (we'll call him Chipmunk 2) and his buddy the cardinal were horsing around in the forest in full view for Mal and me.

Deer - (specifically 1) ran out in front of my car and stopped. I know this happens all the time in Mississippi, but never before to me. Bambi is lucky there wasn’t a meeting of her grill and my Pathfinder’s.

-CH=CH2

That's the formula for a vinyl group, according to wikipedia. I assisted Shelly, pictured above, in making these yard signs today at work. Shelly's last day is Tuesday :( It's her departure that sparked my hiring :) She was nice enough to donate these snazzy shirts to my work wardrobe. My first 8 hour day ever was yesterday, I basically felt worthless because I didn't now how to do anything, I wasn't even allowed to answer the phone! Today was much more productive as far as training goes, we even did some role-playing FASTSIGNS style.

"HAZAA!"

The crowd cheered as we showed support for the Declaration of Independence, read by Ben Franklin and friends, on the steps of the National Archives yesterday morning. Matt and I joined in the celebration thanks to the magical mass transportation known as the Metro. After the reading, we camped out in front of the Natural History Museum and enjoyed the parade, complete with "Independence Bird." We staked our claim to Oktibbeha County (it looks like we're claiming Texas... I was too quick with the clickity clicks) and signed the declaration as well. After long walk around the monuments and a quick storm that almost made us return to Spotsy, we joined Stevie Wonder on the Capital lawn for a musical celebration and, of course, fireworks.

"How to be an adult" Lesson 1

RECYCLE! Our local recycling center takes cardboard, paper, plastic, aluminum, and small brush. All of our moving boxes were proudly recycled by Matt, along with several bags of packing paper (seen here in plastic bags that were also recycled). So far there have been three successful trips to the center, and we have only thrown away about four bags of non recyclable trash... not bad for a month!

Home Sweet Home

Our apartment at Brittany Commons is beginning to feel like home, complete with a magnolia tree in the front yard. We haven't met many neighbors yet, but we did find this guy chillin by the pool. While Matt goes to his first day of work, I snaz up our dining room with flowers, while I should be unpacking these towers! hehe

Welcome to Spotsy

Despite some minor car troubles, we finally made it to Spotsylvania Co Virginia on June 8th :) I even managed to get pretty good gas mileage on the way here, thanks to Mom's fuel injector purchase! People here seem to have pretty good sense of humor so far...

You snoop!

yep, i'm talking to you ktbug ;)