weekly update

It's been a while since I've updated because I've been away in Baltimore this past week. We hold the largest event at the Baltimore Convention Center which draws firefighters from up and down the East coast.

This is my sixth visit to the city and I always seen to enjoy myself even though I can honestly say that I feel unsafe there. This is the only city I've visited (and I've visited a lot of cities) where I go out of my way to be extra cautious. I had a co-worker who was mugged right outside of his hotel a few years back. It's just a shame that there is so much crime out in that area.

I could tell a million stories from this week. I almost got ran over in a crosswalk (amongst about 5 other people) when the sign said walk. It was so bad that I marched over to the driver and lectured her. I guess one of the other pedestrians felt the same way because she marched over to the driver at the same time I did to lecture her as well.

I caught a game at Camden Yards. It sure will be nice when we get our stadium done here. I had pretty decent seats (considering our tickets were free) in the lower level. It was firefighter's night in honor of our event at the convention center.

I got schooled by the lady at the Northwest check-in kiosk. She gave me a lecture about waiting to put my bag on the scale until they called my name so it doesn't get mixed up with my kiosk neighbor's bag. I felt like saying "Lady, I travel all the freaking time...maybe you should have grabbed my bag tag first. I had my bag tag all printed out before my neighbor over here even stepped up to the kiosk." Instead I just stood there and nodded my head with a fake smile.

I sure missed Meredith this week. She is so much fun and has the cutest personality. She got a little roughed up this week. Here is a picture of her first black eye. It's kind of hard to see since it's almost gone in this picture but I thought it was worthy of a mention on the blog.

We also figured out what to do with our stairs. We just stuck a chunk of wood between the tension rod and the bannister. Thank goodness that's taken care of.