Yep ANOTHER trip. I will be so glad to get home after this one. Travel only about one week out of the month as far as I know now. The Course in FL is on OSHA Compliance and updates. Some great courses, but long days. Wednesday we were able to get out early and explore Universal Studios. My co-worker, Tom and I went to the Twister Show, saw the Blues Brothers show, grabbed a few Guinness at the Irish Pub, headed on to the Mummy Ride (my favorite), the Back to the Future, and then over at Islands of Adventure we hit the Dr. Doom ride twice. He went on the Hulk rollercoaster while I checked out all the MARVEL stuff they were peddling in the shops there.

Now on the eve of the last class I sit here and think of all the things I have learned, had crammed into my head over the last month - three weeks of courses in how to get the job done. It is overwhelming some days. The problem with running the safety program is that it is as good as you make it. Obviously if you do a crappy job then you'll brobably get fired. If you genuinely try to get it all done you'll never sleep. I am realizing that now. I am now working on prioritizing the work that we have to get done and start from there. One small step at a time.

When in Norfolk, I had the opportunity to take a tour of the Langley Research Center. One of the ladies in my class works there. The class: Indoor Air Quality for Industrial Hygiene. You know how some classes are a 'firehose'? This was a TSUNAMI. I felt like I was playing catch-up all the time to stay with the instructor. Homework every night and tons of MATH. Ugh. The cool thing about Langley is they do all the structural and R&D with the aerodynamics of aircraft and some of our ground vehicles too.




This is the first wind tunnel ever made. Pretty Orwellian.

After working the last 10 days straight, some good R & R was in order. Oh, yeah the party at the icehouse was last weekend but it WAS a working weekend. That's what naps are for :) I flew into PHX coming back from Alabama, and grabbed lunch with buddy Velasco, then hopped on a flt to LAS.

Yep - my first time in "Sin City". I didn't get into any trouble. I drank moderately, and had a B L A S T with the group I climed Mt. Kilimanjaro with (minus Paul - I know you were there in spirit, Paul, but it still wasn't the same). I had the Vegas deer-eyed look the whole time. I arrived in time to grab a quick workout, dinner then we saw KA. My first Circue du Soleil performance set the bar high. Phenomenal. One of the most amazing things I have ever expreienced.... hmm like climbing the tallest mountain in Africa? There seems to be a trend with these folks, the 'Ecclectic Eight'.

On the way back to Luxor where Ed, Rachael and I were stayin we stopped at this ridiculous looking slot machine in the casino downstairs. Ed and I looked at each other and had 'the look' of two guys up to something. After examining the machine that looked like it belonged on the stage of a "The Price is Right" show we saw it took $1 increments.

Ed said, (let me know if I got this wrong, Ed) "My Granfather always said you should never bet more than a dollar." I figured, ah what the heck - threw a dollar in and off we went. Spinning the wheel and earning and losing credits. I had commented, "this is pretty good entertainment for a dollar," after about 30 minutes of this. I must ahve been really buzzed because I didn't understand when the machine stopped and we had 4 credits left. Ed was convinced we had won something. I didn't understand what was happening. Good thing he was there. Some lady came up and asked if we needed a cup for quarters. I still had no clue, but was starting to get my hopes up. Then some other casino employee came over and threw a card into the machine and then left. Ed was more vehement in his stand that we'd won in fact he said we won 480.00$ what I didnt see was the number 480 come up on the side of the machine Ed was on when the guy put his card in the machine. Now a small group of people started gathering around us. I was getting more nervous as time went on. This was really weird. I wanted to believe Ed, but didn't wnat to get my hopes up. I didnt understand where he got the figure 480$ from and he didn't tell me about the display he saw. Finally the guy with the card came back and opened a wallet. Right there he counted out one - two - three -four hundreds and twenty - forty - sixty - eighty dollars into Ed's outstreched hand. I was dumbfounded. Had we really just won $480 of one dollar? I was so content flying home, only hoping I had had the time to stay longer.


The money I split with Ed and my take paid for everything except for the flight. Having tight funds right now really had me nervous taking the trip. There wasn't going to be another chance to hang out with the Ecclectic Eight anytime soon. All in all an awesome time. Although it was one single day I feel like I compressed three into the time I spent there.

One of my favorite venues in PHX - The Ice House - too bad the music was terrible. You can have the greatest light show - the most incredible dancers - it all supports the groove and if there isn't one the party bites. I used to go to the "Rave" parties in the desert (you know the 'secret squirrel' ones), and in town.

These candykids would come up to me and say, "hey man, are you rollin'?" I'd answer, "yeah man - on the music."


To which the reply was usually bewilderment, a pause, and then "coooooooool." They'd wander off to find some more Vicks Vapor Rub.

My buddy Tim called me one night and told me to turn on MSNBC.

I asked, "why, what's on?"

"Just turn it on....", he said. It was a covert camera the daughter of a DEA agent had in her stocking cap at a party at the Nile Theater in Mesa. The footage panned and, yup there I was sitting down, coated with sweat from dancing and looking like all the kids around me who were on something. Even though I wasn't doing anything wrong it looked bad. Escpecially since I was in the AZ Military Academy at the time.

Persistence, Courage & Gumption

Never underestimate what the force multipliers will, determination, and hard work can accomplish.