It sure has been a while...

Well, I figured since it's been over 4 months since my last post it'd be about time for one...

I've been really busy with work lately. I've been working anywhere from 45-55 hours a week and been working on lots of challenging projects. The one pictured below is very near to my apartment and across the highway from Regan Airport. I'm here at least twice a week for 3-4 hours per visit. It's going to be a Residence Inn when it's all finished.

Here I am on the side of a building in the Courthouse Plaza in Arlington, VA.

Another job I got to work on was an old church steeple that was struck by lightning. Here's a picture of me inside the steeple. I had to wear a respirator because of all the pigeon poo. It was pretty disgusting.

Since my last post, my best friend Josh got married to my, now, best-friend-in-law Whitney. I got to be in the wedding which was a great excuse to come home and see everyone. I love it! Now I can't listen to "I Got A Feeling" without thinking of them :)



Here I am looking awesome in my tux!


Here's Charles cuttin' a rug at the reception. I was nearly sure that he was going to scare off his date, Cassandra. She proved me wrong by actually hanging out with us again. She deserves an award or something.


Back at Charles' place that night Marie got Charles angry. She had plenty of time to run away while he tried to get out of the Love Sac.


My best friend Molly is in Dahlgren, VA until mid-December and we've hung out nearly every weekend she's been in VA. These are pictures of our trip to Arlington National Cemetery.

"My first day of school." (according to Molly)


Molly standing proud beneath the American flag.

Cub's Game in DC!

Last weekend, Uncle Mike came to visit. We went to an Orioles game up in Baltimore and went site seeing around DC. You would think I would be posting pictures from that weekend, but no. I managed to loose my camera about mid-day on Sunday of his visit (along with all my pictures). I ended up buying a new camera that afternoon, which was alright because I wanted a new one anyway. However, I wanted to save up for a nice SLR and not the newer version of my lost camera. Oh well!

Yesterday, Saturday, I went to the Cubs/Nationals game here in DC! It was soooooo much fun! I was worried at first though for two reasons:
1) I had two different winning streaks going before Saturday's game. I've never been to a Cub's game where they lost and I've also never been to a game where the home team has lost. I wasn't sure which streak would reign supreme.
2) I had never been to a Cub's game outside The Friendly Confines and I was worried it wouldn't be as fun.

Well, the Cub's won so that settled that. As for how fun it was, it was awesome! There were sooooooo many cub's fans. The section we sat in had virtually all cubs fans. There were high fives, "Let's go cubbies" chants, and of course heckling the Nats left fielder. The best part was that I got to take someone to her first Cub's game! Erin, a friend from work, came with me and put up with my yelling and heckling. It's always fun to get someone to their first cub's game.

Here are a few photos from the evening:







View from the seats. They were great.


7th inning stretch tradition of backwards facing photo.




The Cub's W after the win!


Another W.


Cubs Win! Cubs Win! It wasn't quite the same with no "Go Cubs Go," but it was still an awesome game!

Construction Observation at ATI

Hello everyone! I've been so incredibly busy the past few weeks. I've really gone head first into this whole new job thing. I've been up to York, PA about 5 times now to a place called Architectural Testing (something). They build full scale mock ups of buildings and test them for performance. I got to go up there several times to watch the construction of a full scale mock up of a building I'll be working on here in VA. It's pretty sweet. I'm not supposed to show pictures of what we're working on; it's supposed to be on the DL and I'm not supposed to show pictures of other jobs up there. However, there was a sweet test going on up there when I was there one day and since I know nothing about the project, here's a few photos of a dynamic rain test. I'll explain after the photos and video.









So what they do is spray a bunch of water at the mock up and start up an airplane propeller which blows about 70mph or so at the mock up. It was pretty awesome for the first 2-3 minutes and then it lost its coolness pretty quick.

I'm in my third week of the job and I love it! There's been a few issues with stuff around the apartment, but I've managed ways around most of them until they can be fixed. Living out in VA is a lot of fun too! I'm totally pumped for the 4th of July; I'm heading down the mall with a few people and hanging out all day and picnicking.

Also, as many of you probably heard, there was a horrible metro train crash earlier this week on the North East end of the red line. I live and work pretty much on the complete opposite side of the metro system from where the accident took place and I was actually up in York, PA all day that day. So, I'm totally fine and the few people I know here in town weren't anywhere close to it.

So, things are good and everyday seems to have some new adventure for me. Take it easy!

Site Seeing for the first time since moving

Today I went out for some site seeing since virtually the entire last week has been nothing but rain! I walked to the metro from the apartment which wasn't terrible and rode to Arlington National Cemetery. I spent a lot more time there than I expected to. It was so powerful to be there. I saw JFK's eternal flame, the tomb of the unknown soldier, and too many white markers to even count. The most moving part of my walk around Arlington was when I saw a uniformed US soldier bend down and touch the grave marker in the section of marker for the fallen from Iraq.


The number of markers was overwhelming.



In the distance is the Air Force Memorial (I think)









This was taken in front of the Arlington House with the Washington Monument and Capitol in the distance.



This is looking from the fountain below the tomb of the unknown soldier.









This was of the Sergeant that introduced the changing of the guard.



This is a video of the changing of the guard. It's not that great a quality since I took it with my still camera.



After the cemetery, I then got back on the metro and headed to The Mall. I wasn't sure what I was going to do when I got there, but I figured I'd just walk around and see what was there to see. I wound up going into the Smithsonian Museum of American History. I didn't spend a ton of time there mainly because I was getting tired of walking around. I spent about 4 hours walking around Arlington, so I was ready to be done with walking. While I was at the Smithsonian, I did see a few things that reminded me of home in Nebraska. Outside they had every state's flag and I also saw a Werner Trucking truck inside.






That's all for now. Till next time...

The apartment

Well, I moved into my new place! Things are getting settled in and it's starting to feel more and more like my home and not just a place to stay. It's pretty small and cramped but it'll be just fine for what I need.


Here's my front door which opens out onto a breezeway.


Door to the balcony.


Looking from the front door into my bedroom.


From the front door into the kitchen/laundry room.


From the front door into the kitchen.


My bathroom.


My closet which is pretty full right now, but it'll be better once Sarah gets her boxes out of the apartment in August. It'll be okay for now.



My bed.


My entertainment center/office.


That's about it for now. Take it easy.

Sightseeing and getting settled

So after I got all my stuff up to my fourth floor apartment, I spent quite a while getting stuff moved in where I want it. There's still a few boxes here and there (mostly stuff for the office). I will be taking pictures soon and posting them. Stay tuned...

I got to do a little touristy stuff with Mom and Dad the other day. We went to Mount Vernon which is where George Washington lived. We spent most of the day there looking at the house and all the other buildings that were on site. We also went through the museum which had Washington's actual dentures. The entire place was amazing and the weather was absolutely beautiful!

We also met up with my cousin Keith and went into Old Town Alexandria (not far from where I live). He showed us around and we had a bite and a few beers at an pub. We then walked down to the river and saw quite a bit of street performers.


Here are a few pictures:

Here's the front of Mount Vernon.


Mom and Dad behind Mount Vernon.



Here, Dad and I sit with our backs to the Potomac behind Mount Vernon.



Mom and I in front of Mount Vernon



This was on the bank of the river in Old Town Alexandria. This guy was playing incredible songs on glasses. It was amazing!


Here's mom and I at a pub in Old Town.


Dad and Keith on the other side of the booth.

The Move

Well, we finally made it to Virginia. My dad and I left Omaha around 6am on Monday, May 25th. We had a few set backs with the first leg of our trip:
1) I-80 East was closed at I-680 so we had to take the big 24' truck around to I St. to 120th to Center and then get back on the interstate on I-680 North.
2) The 12-volt outlet in the truck didn't work so we had to stop at wal-mart for a jump pack with a 12 volt outlet on the front. That set me back $80.

We did pretty well and made it to the East side of Columbus, OH by around 11pm (local time). We then left Ohio around 7am and made it to Alexandria around 4pm. Tomorrow dad and I are going to look at my top apartment choice, which seems pretty likely that it'll be my new home.

I'm finally a real boy! AH!

Here are a few pictures from the move thus far:


Here's the truck without the car on it. At first I thought that maybe the 24 footer was a bit much, but man did it make it easy to load. We loaded the truck in about 1 1/2 hours with 5 guys. It was great. Unloading may take a bit longer.



Me in my Nebraska Engineering shirt on the first day of travel.



The truck is really big. We couldn't fit it int he frame.



Even though the truck was frickin' huge, my dad and I had few problems driving it halfway across the country.


Stay tuned to my blog for updates on the move and the new job!!