Thursday Evening

We went to the Hockey game in Washington last night. Catalin was amazed at how big the stadium was. It was fun seeing him with our America culture. We were on the Metro train and the lady came over the loud speaker and was telling about the next stop, Catalin looked over at me and Keith and stated "was that English?? What did she say?" I laughed a lot at his sense of humor. The hockey game was fun, but I think I enjoyed hanging out with him and Kieth more than the game. I learned about about how police are different in America than in other countries. Catalin and I were standing in the breezeway letting him eat his first America Pretzel, and he stated "It is true, America is the land of the free." I asked him what he meant, and he said look at everyone they are doing what they want to do. His country was under the control of Russia for a long time he says, last night was a learning experience. The picture above is of Catalin and me.

I miss my wife and kids a whole lot, but it really seems to be speeding up a lot.

Trade Tower Memorial

This is between the library and cafeteria in a courtyard at the Academy. I think that I've got this video thing worked out!?!?!?!? I love and miss everybody.

Police Memorial Service

Tonight was the Police Memorial Service. It was very cool, I felt like royalty riding into DC on the Bus. When we got to DC a group of Police Motorcycles picked up the buses and escorted us into down town with lights and sirens. There were a lot of guys that read names from there departments and you could tell that it was emotional for them. I traced a name off the wall from a friend of mine that died in the line of duty. It was a neat trip. I'm trying to put a video of the bag pipes playing on this blog, not sure if it is going to work or not.

Tuesday Evening

Hello All, Monday and Tuesday have flown by. Finished all my classes, did some laundry, ate supper, and had a Newsletter Rep. meeting all on Monday. It was about 8:30 pm before I slowed down. Today was about the same way. We had PT on Monday and Tuesday and I've come to the conclusion that our PT Instructor is warped in the head. I think he gets to much enjoyment in watching us about to die. Tomorrow morning is our second Yellow Brick road challenge run of 2.6 miles, I'm sure the muscles in my legs are going to feel great in the morning.

Tomorrow evening we are all going to D.C. for a special service at the Police Officers Memorial. It should be very neat experience, but probably a little sad. Many guys will be reading off names of there friends or coworkers that have been killed in the line of duty. I'm sure it will be a very sobering event. On a lighter note, my room mate is going to take me and my buddy from Romania to a Hockey game on Thursday evening. Catalin and myself have never been to a Hockey match and it should be a neat experience. Classes are going well, the Stress Management class may be my favorite. Some of the discussions have gotten pretty deep so far and been very thought provoking. The instructor is a FBI agent and I think that he is a minister also. He may be a good resource for me! All in all things are well, hopefully I'll get some good pictures from the Police Officers Memorial Service tomorrow night to post on here. Tonya, I love you and miss you more and more each day. Jamie and Jacob I miss and love you guys bunches and bunches.

My Sunday

Today was ok, but I sure do miss home!!!! I went to the service this morning at the Chapel, the music reminded me of days of old. I sure did miss the praise and worship music and having Dawn set the stage for the message. I did enjoy the message, the Chaplain preached on not losing your heart or focus as a believer. He did a good job and had a great story that really made you connect to his message. I then did some homework, watched a little football and got to talk to Tonya, Jacob, Kris & Nick while they were at the colletsville park. I enjoyed talking with you two knuckle heads a lot. Then me and a guy named Mark from Michigan went and ran four miles. I then went and swam a mile and a half, and as I was leaving the pool one of the guys from North Carolina was hitting the heavy bag and asked me to hold it for him. This turned into me sparing with him and me hitting the heavy bag also. This guy is a Captain with Charlotte Meck and he is a workout machine. When we did the body fat his body fat was 5%!!!! Do I need to explain that when we finished the boxing workout, I was worn out!!! I'm going to do a little more reading and then probably go to bed early. Tonya, I'll try and get you a picture of my pretty face in the next day or so. I love you guys bunches.

National Firearms Museum

We also stopped by the National Firearms Museum and looked at guns. They had everything from old to new. I thought that this was cool, this was the pistol that Clint Eastwood used in Dirty Harry and Magnum Force. It is neat to be up here with other cops because today my wife and two kids would have gotten very bored very quickly. But I sure enjoyed the site sighting.

Tonya, Jamie and Jacob, I love you guys!!!!

Site Seeing on Saturday

We went to a couple of places today. The gun show was ok but we didn't stay there long. Todd did lock the keys in the car so there we were breaking into his patrol car in the parking lot with a wire coat hanger. Boy are we super high speed Law Enforcement officers or what?? The guy in orange is Todd from Kentucky, and the guy in blue is Keith my roommate.

We then went to the battle field of Manassas or known in the South as the battle of Bull Run. It was cool to walk the battle field and see how the North and the South fought at the particular battlefield. This is a picture of General "Stonewall" Jackson. This was the battle that General Jackson got his nickname "Stonewall" Jackson because the opposing Union General made the statement "There stands Jackson like a Stonewall". I thought this was pretty cool, but I get into some of the history stuff.