A bit sleepy...

My friend Jacob came by last night and while we were supposed to be studying for our LEED accreditation, we instead drank beer and listened at the Democratic Presidential nominee debate. We are looking at hitting the books tonight, but the weather is soooooo nice, I'm sure it will be difficult. We must overcome this lethargy. On Tuesday of next week, we have a golf tournament/training seminar. This would be great except we haven't hit the course or range yet and it may get ugly. And by ugly, I mean ugly. The course looks pretty nice, and when they look nice, they tend to be a bit difficult. The contouring is nice and there is a bit of water around the course.

The NHL playoffs have started already and I am going to root for the Flyers. I don't really care about hockey all that much, I used to be into it quite a bit, but my teams are the Caps, Flyers and Blackhawks. Since the Caps are playing the Flyers, I have to pick one...and I'm going Philly this time. The NBA playoffs are firing up this weekend, I don't care at all. The Bulls are my team...and the Bulls stink...so I will watch at the playoffs as due to the TV writers strike, my TV shows will push on throughout the playoff season.

The Yanks picked up another win yesterday and they seem to picking up the play a bit. Perhaps they could share a bit of that with the Nationals...

We've got the wedding this weekend in B-more and the reception at the Visionary Art Museum, one of the cooler museums I've been to. Maybe photos will accompany the blog shortly from the wedding.

We will always remember...

Today is the one year anniversary of the horrific massacre at my alma mater Virginia Tech. My thoughts are still with the families and friends of those who lost loved ones. We all lost a part of ourselves that day and will forever be scarred. One of the professors gunned down was my Hydraulics professor during my days at Tech, and while I did not know him personally, was still hit pretty hard. The building, Norris Hall, that most of the shootings occurred was a building I had many classes in. The dorm, West AJ, is not the exact dorm I lived in, but connected to it, as I lived in East AJ...but spent many days and nights next door with my friends. My wife is a first year Vet Student at Tech this year and she will be going to a couple of the events taking place today. I have a heavy heart today especially, but have felt different ever since that day, one year ago. We Hokies will continue to show the world how special a place Virginia Tech is, was, and will continue to be. While not religious, prayers to all. WE ARE THE HOKIES...WE WILL PREVAIL.

Nationals Stadium....First Visit

I was fortunate to attend my first game at the new Nationals Stadium last night, and I must say that they did a pretty good job! For having only 2 years to both construct and design the stadium, the result is marvelous. The concourses are very wide, food choices are abundant, if not pricey...

Now if we could get a team to match. Some stooge named Bergmann pitched last night and for some reason we were compelled to leave him in for an entire inning in witch he gave up 7 runs. I partially blame Acta as he should have had him out at 4 or 5 at the most...those sitting around me in the upper right field seats heard the boos.

We were there for a friends birthday and I therefore wasn't as interested in the game as I was to wander the park and see what they had around. I liked the centerfield bar as well as the PS3 station across the concourse in the outfield. The choice of food was good as mentioned above, but it would be nice if you could get a couple of the specialty foods in locations other than 1 (such as Red Hot and Blue, Boardwalk Fries, Ben's Chili Bowl (I know, you can get the half smokes at any regular stand), etc.).

The stadium is also LEED certified, which I am of course studying for my certification in. When I go back in June for my birthday, I will take some more photos. It is another stadium that Michelle and I can cross of the list, but we will need to get our pic in front of that GIANT HD screen.

It's been awhile....

I was reading earlier this month where the US government obtained waivers to continue building the border fence with out having to go through the normal review process. It states that they will still have to have the environmental impact reports prepared, but construction can begin before they are submitted and reviewed...excuse me? So what is the point of doing the report if they are going to just go ahead and do it anyway? And I love where Bushernity member Chertoff states that building the wall will actually help the environment because the number of people crossing leave large amounts of litter and they no longer will do so due to the wall. Yeah, whatever that means...as if the cutting off of Wildlife migration patterns and other concerns of the wall compare to the litter. Heres an idea idiots...beef up patrol, don't build a wall, and with that beefed up patrol, give them a trash bag and a pole and pick up the trash left behind. That way you can keep up the watch and clean up at the same time to stay busy.

March sadness...no money this year for the NCAA tourney...the Final 4 has not gone as planned with both selections for the championship losing...and badly. UNC vs. UCLA was not to be.

I also think I am going to the Nats new ballpark this Wednesday. I will report back after the visit.

Thank you Yankees!

To: The New York Yankees

As a lifelong Yankees fan and proud Virginia Tech alum, I wanted to say thank you for your gesture yesterday in visiting Blacksburg. The Yankees have no connection to Virginia Tech and yet you reached out anyway. For this I say thank you. I had the hint of tears the entire time as it caused me to reflect on the events of last year and at the same time it made me smile as I was watching my Hokies play my Yankees.

Thanks.

Quick n' Dirty...

Yeah...VT...way to take out the 'canes...now we gotta keep it respectable like against UNC manana and I think we are dancing.

JC's ole girl cori hits the big three-oh today...welcome to the club. Dinner on U-street and 80's (?) dancin' after at the black cat. Drinking rum n' cokes right now to calm the nerves.

M comes home tomorrow, she'll probably arrive right in the middle of the hoops game. My buddy C (UNC fan) is at the game, 9 rows up, behind the team benches on the left.

Ramble much? Yes. Thank you.

Gonna watch this weeks Lost tomorrow, in HD as I'll be in front of the plasma for once!

If anything exciting happens, maybe I'll write about it.

Oh...the yanks come to VT on Tuesday. M didn't get a ticket so I'm gonna check that out online I guess...my two favorite teams in the world, on the same field. Damn. I hate the reason they are coming, but cool regardless.

Studying for LEED and March Madness

I started studying for my LEED certification in earnest this week. I had reviewed a few items prior to this week and had started taking some notes on the different points a few weeks ago...but my study session w/ Jacob was on Thursday and I didn't want to be totally unprepared. Oh...LEED is a standard used for Green Building in the US and around the world. It brings together all aspects of a building in generating each buildings rating. In my area, all of the local school districts and public buildings must be built to obtain some level of LEED certification.

Anyway, back to the studying...Jacob and I met at Stacy's Coffee Parlor in Falls Church around 6:30 and stuck around until about 9:45 which was only about 45 minutes passed closing time. I enjoyed 3 or so bottomless cups of coffee in that time and had a pretty tasty chicken salad wrap for dinner. Getting the LEED AP (accredited professional) certification is important for my career and I get to add more letters after my name. Jacob and another co-worker of his have a bet on who will pass the exam first. I need serious motivation for studying and decided to join in on that bet. The first to pass between Jacob and I gets a free happy hour on the other. He had better hope it doesn't go like our games of golf or pool because he will definitely be buying the drinks!!! Is it a sucker bet? I sure hope so...

Who would have thought that one year after losing 3 very productive senior ballers the VT hoops team would be in serious position to make the dance again this year? Not me, that is for sure...I was hoping for a .500 record so that the youngsters could possibly get some NIT experience...to heck with the NIT, I want the dance and hopefully they can pull another one out tomorrow afternoon against Clemson. No matter what happens now, VT is guaranteed a first round bye in the ACC tourney next week as they can not finish worse than 4th...win tomorrow and they get the 3 seed. Four years ago when VT joined the ACC nobody, and I mean nobody, would have thought that in 3 of the 4 years VT would finish in the top four. Especially based on the previous 10 years (or so) of terrible basketball (Thanks a lot Hussey and Stokes!). When I started at VT my freshman year the football team wins the Sugar Bowl and the basketball team was in the top 25 and found their way into the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney to lose to the eventual champion Kentucky...I thought it would be more of the same during the rest of my time in Blacksburg...well, as the football team continued to roll along, the hoops team...not so much. Until SG arrived, the team had 1 winning season after the 95-96 season and that was a whopping 16-15 or something (I don't feel like looking it up) and against the AWESOME BABY A-10 competition...OK...I've rambled long enough...

Jacob, you'd better get off the phone and do your landscape plan, or better yet, copy more notes, cause I'm gonna be on top of the WE section next Wednesday/Thursday!