I have such high praise for the work of Police Officers. It takes a special kind of person to do the work they do and not just anyone can do what they do on a daily basis. My experience of this past weekend only confirms this. As my previous post noted, Rachel and I went out to Madison this past weekend to see our friend Molly. As you may or may not be aware, Molly is a police officer in Madison. She had suggested a while back that the next time we visit, we should partake in a ride-along where we get to sit in the passenger seat while she makes her rounds and takes calls. It was both a very cool and kind of frightening invitation. However, neither of us could turn down the opportunity to see first hand what she gets to do on a daily basis.

Since I don't know what I can actually talk about, I won't get into details, but it was a very cool experience. Our day started at 2:45 in the Central District briefing room where we joined Molly and her fellow officers in their pre-shift briefing. We got to meet a number of her fellow officers including a number of people I've heard Molly talk about on numerous occasions. Since Molly could only take one of us at a time (it is really cramped in the back seat - just ask Rachel), we each spent time with one of her co-workers. Both of us had the opportunity to go on calls with Molly and her co-workers and actually see some pretty serious stuff. Although, Molly and one of her co-workers have decided that Rachel and I can no longer do ride-alongs at the same time again. There were far too many similarities between our separate experiences for their comfort. Ask me about it sometime!

Molly's shift ran until 11 PM when both Rachel and I reconnected back at the Central District station. A big thank you goes out to Molly, Rose, and Jen for putting up with the two of us that night. I have such a better respect for the work police officers do and know it takes a special kind of person to do that kind of work. To all the great officers in Madison and elsewhere, keep up the excellent work and stay safe!

Rachel and I planned a trip to see our wonderfully "reasonable" friend, Molly, this weekend. I am pleased to report that we made it successfully to Madison early this morning. However, we would not have made it without the superb driving of Rachel. For those taking note, this weekend was that delightful blizzard that hit the Midwest including Madison. Being the stubborn twenty-somethings that we are, we decided that no blizzard would deter us from seeing Molly. In hindsight, it probably wasn't our smartest move ever. :)

To start off, we had planned to leave Michigan around 3:00 PM on Saturday afternoon (after Rachel's math class). Rachel had to swing by her apartment beforehand so she didn't get to A2 until 3:30 or so. To boot, she needed an oil change, so we swung by one of those "fast" oil change places... About 90 minutes later, we had gotten our jug of Starbucks, had a new air filter and fresh oil and were on our way. We had clear sailing through Michigan right up to the Indiana border. The sleet and freezing rain commenced and didn't let up the entire trip.

The roads were atrocious. Rachel drove 30-40 the entire time with brief bouts of 50 and 25. We were generally confined to the snow ruts in the lanes and passing was as hazardous as can be. Numerous cars were on the sides of the road, we saw a flipped pickup truck in Indiana, and we witnessed two cars traveling sideways down the freeways. Fortunately, we witnessed no accidents and were not involved in any either. The 45 minutes on I-90 in Wisconsin were probably the worst. The roads were covered in snow which when uncovered revealed a lovely sheet of black ice. The only good thing was there were so few cars on the road, we were able to drive without worrying about someone spinning out in front of us or crashing into us.

When we finally arrived in Madison, Rachel eased the VW onto the Beltline and proceeded to bottom out the car on the snow. After a minute or so, she managed to get the car moving again and off we went towards Molly's house. When we finally came to the entrance of her complex, we needed to cross the median of the divided highway. Unfortunately, the snow was too high and we couldn't make any forward progress. Rachel adeptly backed the car back into the the road, and we went up to the next light and made a left u-turn (slightly illegal). We pulled up at Molly's complex and I got out and helped push Rachel into a parking spot on the side of the road. With a quick wake-up call to Molly, we had finally made it to our destination...shortly after 2 AM Madison time...10 hours after we left. Not bad for a six hour trip, right?

I have only the highest of praise for Rachel's driving. I know I couldn't have done better and figure we would have been on the side of the road if I had been driving. Rachel did an incredible job getting us safely from A2 to Madison with only two minor incidents of fish-tailing along the way. The next time you need a driver, may I suggest the Capps Cab Company. ;)

A little over a month ago, the soccer world learned that David Beckham will be coming to the United States to join Major League Soccer's (MLS) Los Angeles Galaxy. As my uncle and I discussed, this will either ruin the league or make it that much better. The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the predecessor to Major League Soccer. It died in 1984 due to over expansion (24 teams) and paying huge salaries to aging foreign super-stars who were unknown to people in the U.S. So, if Beckham is the first of many superstars to come, it could cause ticket prices to soar and sap the energy right out of the league. Fortunately, it seems like MLS has learned from the mistakes of NASL and has placed a salary cap on the teams except for a single player (the Beckham clause?).

Hopefully, it will have the opposite effect and people will be drawn to the sport. I've been to an MLS games in Chicago (the Fire) and in Columbus (Crew) to see the U.S. play Mexico. My uncle and I talked about going to Columbus if the Galaxy played the Crew, but you have to be a season ticket holder to get tickets to that game. ;) I'm hopeful that Beckham's coming to MLS will benefit the league and the sport of soccer in the U.S. Having seen the U.S. play in Cleveland and Columbus, the Fire play the Crew in Chicago, and Fulham play West Ham in London, I am hopeful that soccer becomes more popular here in the States. I think it is a great sport and am hopeful its popularity will grow.

Rachel and I have been making our way through the "50 Best High School Movies" as reported by Entertainment Weekly. You can view the list online here: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1532588,00.html. We've only made it through about four of the ones we haven't mutually seen. If/when, I remember, I'll post my thoughts about the others when I have a chance. Tonight was the the 1960's musical classic, Bye Bye Birdie. It ranked number 38 on the list.

Obviously, this is one of the movies that takes place in a time period I didn't live through. However, knowing my history, I can definitely draw comparisons. The movie is about a famous singer who is adored by teenage girls about to join the army. The real life comparisons to Elivs Presley are easy to draw, especially all of the lower body gyrations that make the girls go nuts and makes the jaws of the parents drop to the ground. Overall, the movie was cute, although as Rachel pointed out, singing talent was obviously not a prerequisite to star in the movie. :) The songs in the movie were cute and both Rachel and I were surprised to hear "Put on a Happy Face" (more recently in Wal-Mart adds) and "Kids" -What's the matter with kids today? It's always cool to find out things like that. It starred several well know actors include Dick Van Dyke and Ann-Margaret.

Definitely worth a watch if you haven't seen it before.

After living in an apartment for 5 1/2 years, I'm finally getting ready to by my first home. I've got the money saved for a down payment and now I just need to find the right home. This past Sunday, my parents came out to A2 and we drove around looking at houses and visiting some of the open houses. It gave me a good idea of what I could get for my money as well as getting to see what is out there. It's funny because several people had warned me in the past few years to buy then because mortgage rates were low and the market was great. Well, interest rates might not be the lowest ever, but I can't ask for a better housing market!

We probably drove by two dozen houses, but only went inside three of them. It was amazing the number of houses that were vacant. All three of the ones we went inside of were vacant as were about a half a dozen other ones that were of interest. It is amazing just how miserable the housing market is right now for sellers. I guess I am fortuante to be buying a house and not having to sell one at the same time.

My lease in the apartment is up at the end of May so I am trying to find something so I don't have to extend my lease or pay two many double months of rent...timing is difficult. I'm going to pick up the pace once March roles around and I have more money available, more time to look, and can actually find myself a realtor. I'll keep everyone updated as the hunt progresses.

In other news, I got an A- on my physics exam...not too shabby!

As many people know, I love Legos. Since Lego released the large Star Wars sets of over 1,000 pieces about five years ago, I've been snapping them up whenever a new huge one comes on the market. It started with the 1,300 piece X-Wing and in recent years has included the 3,100 piece Star Destroyer and the 3,300 piece Death Star II. The Star Destroyer was a collaborative effort involving me and and ten of my friends. I sorted through all the pieces (placing similar pieces in plastic tubs), and inventoried the pieces by step. The months of anal organization allowed the Star Destroyer to be assembled in about four hours. I decided to assemble the Death Star on my own last year.

The good news...Lego is coming out with an Ultimate Collector's Series of the Millennium Falcon! To make it even better, it is the largest set ever. Howe big you ask? Not 3,500 pieces, not 4,000 pieces, not 4,500 pieces...no, it is nearly 5,200 pieces! So what could possibly be the bad news? The price tag is a whopping $500! I could pre-order by March 31 and get shipping for free.

So, the conundrum? Do I love Legos that much? Am I willing to shell out $500 for a bunch of plastic blocks? Well, I have some time to think about it. Oh, and it doesn't ship until October 1. While I ponder the situation, enjoy a peak at it: http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=10179&cn=416&d=322

This January marked my return to college classes after my fall off. This time around it is Intermediate Mechanics, a sophomore or junior level class. It continues off where my first semester of mechanics left off. Of course, the only problem is that my first semester of mechanics was 9 1/2 years ago. I haven't used that part of my knowledge in a really long time. Add to that the calculus 1 and 2 knowledge that I haven't used in ages. Needless to say, I was a little reluctant to dive into my class this semester.

I am happy to report that things have gone pretty well so far. Once again, I have Professor Thomsen as an instructor (I had him for Thermodynamics back in the fall of 2004). He is a great instructor and I wish I had someone like him for my two physics classes at Wayne. He does an excellent job explaining things and I've been able to up with the coursework and am able to understand everything that's been presented so far. So far, I've done well on my homework and we took our first test today. Time will tell about the test...

As the days pass and the years pass I find less and less updates to this web site. Fortunately for me, I've now made a commitment (Ha, we'll see if it lasts) to spend some time journaling each day. So, here is day one in a one day streak...

One of the big things going on in my life right now is that as of January 1, I'm serving as interim manager of my department at work. So far, so good. Unfortunately, it is added responsibility on top of my already busy schedule at work, so I find myself putting in more than my usual forty hours of work every week...the past couple have been 45-50. However, the technical work is keeping me busy as is the dabbling in the management side of the house. I've been trying out some new things for our department so I hope they pan out in the end. I've been appointed to serve until May 31, so nearly a month and a half or a little less than a third of my time has already elapsed.

Hopefully, the experience will be beneficial to me and not scare my co-workers (err, subordinates?), too badly. :)