Fitness tests

One of the great things about being in the Air Force is having mandatory physical fitness training three times a week. As it provides me with a mandatory time and place to exercise.

As we prepare for our annual fitness exam, each month we are conducting a mock PT test to gage where we are at so we can work on the areas that need improvement: mile and a half run, push-ups, sit-ups, and abdominal measurements.

Today I did a bit better in some areas and not so well in others compared to past attempts. I shaved just over a minute off my run, improved on my push-ups (though I need to work on my form). Sit-ups, didn't go too well. But I have until May to get everything in line and improve my times and scores.

Zoo fun

I am having so much fun in our training classes to become a Docent at the Virginia Zoo: http://www.virginiazoo.org/. We had our 'final exam' and graduation this weekend. The next step...animal handling. There are certain animals that the zoo uses for education and we were shown how to properly handle the animals then give it a shot ourselves.

Yep - that's me holding a snake! A ball python....I was very nervous but I did it. I held a corn snake after this one. I think after a little more time and practice I will be more comfortable and relaxed handling the animals. But then again - I never thought I would get this far!

Check - been there, done that

Before Debbie and I started out for London we made a "must do" and "would like to do" list. Well - we checked each of them except for one. Not too bad! The one we didn't check off was the very last item on our list, and the reason we didn't get to it was (1) it was in a different 'zone' than the daily passes we had, (2) tube line was out by that stop, (3) didn't think it would be all that worth it at this point in the season, i.e. flowers not in bloom/flowers still dormant.

We also got a lot of shopping in too. Boots of all kinds are all the rage over here, as are wearing patterned tights (they're back!), shorts with tights and boots, and everything else.

Our first 'walk' of the day had us going by Westminster Abby, Parliament, Big Ben, walking along the River Thames, to the Horses Guard, past 10 Downing St, and ending at Churchill's War Room. This walk was a 2.5 mile walk from the hotel, not bad at all.



Who ended up tagging along, but Echo! I guess he was having some problems at home, tried to talk to his Congressperson and the President. Since he didn't get the results he wanted, he tried Parliament and the Prime Minister. Each time he was not allowed past the gates.


Echo thought he wanted to take a ride on the Millennium Wheel, he realized the line was too long he wanted to keep walking. He was very impressed with the guard horses, and was fascinated to learn that though Churchill had a "secret war room" underground; Echo found it interesting the fact Churchill liked to stand on the roof to watch the bombing of London by the Germans around him.

After the war room, Debbie and I continued through St Jame's Park, grabbed a hot drink, and looked at all the spring flowers blooming and watching the birds and ducks frolic in and around the pond.

Debbie and I also did two good deeds today, first we found a wallet at Westminster Abby and turned it in, the second - an elderly woman fell so we saw who we thought was a cop and asked them to provide assistance (ended up being a parking control person).

Seeing History

It is always fascinating to me going to a new city or country and learning about history. Saturday there was a lot of history to be seen.

We started off at St. Paul's Cathedral, a beautiful church that survived the bombing of London during WWII and is where Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married. There is a tribute memorial to the American military who served in England during WWII. We walked up to the Whispering Tower about a third of the way up the highest dome in the cathedral. Here you can whisper and someone on the other side can hear you!

After walking through the crypt of the cathedral we made our way to the Tower of London. We saw the crowned jewels - the actual crowns worn by past kings and queens, the torture dungeon, and where many lost their heads, including Anne Boleyn.

After taking in the Tower Bridge it was time for some culture at the theatre. One of the best places for this....none other than the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. While the original burned down, the replica was built using the same material that was available back in Shakespeare’s time. You can still see a show for 5 pounds (about $10) - but for this price you will be standing in the open courtyard.

After visiting history we tried something more modern - the Tate Modern - a museum of modern art. Even Echo was taking in some of the pieces.
By the end of the night we were ready for a drink, some food, and the hotel. I think even Echo is worn out from the day.

(Just one part of our daily venture - walked one part 2.5 miles, climbed up over 600 stairs).

Fun being Tourists

We are having so much fun being tourists! On day two we did so much walking! We saw....well only part of....the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. The way it was set up we "thought" we were going to be front and center....but not so much. So we saw everyone as they came it, but not the actal "changing of the guard". So we are going to try and re-attack on Sunday, as during non-peak season they only have the presentation every-other-day. Photos from what we could see:


We then continued on a *long* walk through St.Jame's Park and Hyde Park (around The Serpentien) and around Princess Diana's memorial then onto Kensington Palace (total 4.5 miles walking)

Hey - looked who joined us....it's Echo! Guess he wanted to go shopping at Harrods too!

We grabed a bite to eat at the Goat's Pub - not bad, but not great, before catching the Double Decker Red Bus to Harrods. We spent over an hour at Harrods walking around checking out the latest designer clothes before hopping back on the tube to Victoria Station and our hotel.

London is my Valentine this year

Yesterday two of the four members of the Grove Street Decade Club hit the road (and air) for a holiday across the pond. Debbie had her heart sent on visiting London - so that is what we are doing! And what should we find when going through security...a little stow-away!

Meet Echo!

So we had a great flight over, managed to get some sleep - and actually had a really good dinner. Upon landing - it was very easy getting through passport control and the train ride into central London was very quick.

We ventured around the area of our hotel...we had fun locating it! It's a nice hotel, we are on the 4th floor and face over the street.


Today we decided to just walk around and get familiar with the area. We walked down to Buckingham Palace (changing of the guards is tomorrow). And tonight we are off to the theater. Right now we are just relaxing at the hotel and putting our feet up.



(Total walking 3.65 miles)

The Virginia Zoo

After moving to Hampton Roads, I realized quickly how much I missed my volunteer work at the National Zoo. I had so much fun talking to all the visitors and telling them about the Giant Panda's, even when it was swealtering hot or freezing outside.


I knew there was a zoo down this way in Norfolk, and when I looked into volunteering the timing wasn't right. Well - sure enough in January I happend to go online and saw that they were holding a new docent training class. So I signed up!


To date, it's all been training in the classroom, learning about the different animals at the zoo and meeting many of them. We got to do the "two finger" touch - petting/touching many of the animals. These animals include snakes, geckos, milipede, fox, rabbits, chickens, meeting an opossum, porcupine, and many others.


Here are some of the animals:The prariedogs are waking up from hibernation a little early as it hasn't been cold for an extended period of time.


This lion is a daddy with two new cubs born over the summer, one girl and one boy.

The sloth bear is just hanging around - checking out what everyone is doing.

This little guy is just "monkeying" around...the keeper was standing right in front of him with a food puzzle. This is a plastic container with small holes so the monkey's have to "work" for their food.

I love the peanut in this guy's mouth after he got it out of his halloween bucket!

I haven't started "handling" any of the animals, but some of the snakes are on the first level that I will have to handle. And no, they are not nasty, slimy, or icky - they are very soft, smooth, and very muscular (that's what freaks me out the most) :o)

So if you live in the Hampton Roads area come visit me at the Zoo! http://www.virginiazoo.org/

Ireland - Day 3

It's off to Blarney we go! Located a short bus ride outside of Cork City, Blarney is home to the well known Blarney Castle. While the Castle is open during the late fall-winter-early spring months, the house and most of the gardens are closed.
Outside the castle grounds and by the shops and resturants there was an open park area. I can only imagine how full it must be with locals and tourists during the summer. Everyone out having a picnic or local musicians and artists entertaining the public. While we were there it was only full of fallen leaves. The picture of the bench reminds me of what can be a time of peaceful solitude or a great resting place to watch the action around you.

The fall colors could be seen every where you looked. Ireland is as green as they say, and the colors of fall were just as vibrant.

I love this picture from the top of Blarney Castle looking over the grounds and village. It makes me wonder what color of green the trees would be in the summer time and what they must have looked like only one month previous of the fall rather than it being almost winter.

Now you see that tiny little opening at the very top of the castle? Yep - that's the one! You lay down and have from the middle to lower part of your butt/hips on the edge and you hang upside down to properly reach and kiss the Blarney Stone. There is someone there to help you and to date they have not lost one person!

What was really interesting about walking through the Castle to get to the very top was in many rooms, people etched their names and date into the walls. There were some names and dates going back to 1860. All I know is that my great-grandfather once visited Blarney Castle and kissed the stone....as I have now done.

Yep - that's me hanging upside down kissing the stone! The bars I'm holding onto provide a sense of balance and security - and you can see there are bars across the bottom of the opening. The open area is no more than two feet across, I don't even want to guess how many feet down I'm hanging! :o)

After exploring some of the grounds that were open, we went to a local pub to get some food, have a pint and then catch the next bus back to the city. It didn't quite happen like that though....we met some really nice folks and got talking & playing darts with them. So we stayed for a few more pints, and then dinner.

We caught the last bus back to the city and stumbled into bed.

Mystery Dinner

I went to a mystery dinner over the weekend with two girlfriends and it was a fun night! It was in the dining room of a Days Inn, and the entertainment was a cast of 6.

(Sheila, Kristi & Jen)

We knew going into the dinner that there is "audience participation". The performance we saw was a high school 20 year reunion. Boy was it funny! With that, please meet Margie...(a.k.a. Kristi)

Margie was a huge hit at the reunion!

It was so nice to get out. I know Kristi enjoyed an adult night...she got a babysitter for the boys. We got all dolled up (can't you tell!) and hit the town ... ok not really the town - but still we were out of the house.

Girls night is such an important thing to have in ones live. When I lived up in DC we did girls night every week before husbands were around :) then once husbands and children started showing up - we would do girls nights - or scrapbooking nights at eachothers house and many of the times, the husbands would take the kids to the family room and let us girls have 'girl time'.

This night is hopefully the first of many fun girls nights!

winter yard work

Well it was a BEAUTIFUL day out today, and as much as I wanted to sit inside, lay on the couch and watch movies, but nope - I got myself motivated and got to work outside.

I got a good start on some of the yard projects I want to accomplish this spring/summer. A few of the goals

1. tear down the sheds

2. put a veggie & herb garden in where the sheds currently are

3. clear out the back corner behind the sheds

4. put in a sitting garden with colorful and fragrant flowers and a bench. Then have solar lights or candle holders for that corner

5. kill off the ivy

6. put a new arbor up on the side of the house w/ a gate (to keep Sprout in the backyard!)

7. do a shade garden on the side - just to give it a nice border look.

So - I started on this list....sheds are still there, but I started pulling off all the ivy, and started to clear out the back corner of the yard.

The sheds that will be coming down in the next month or so. I just have to figure out how to safely do is as there is electricity running to one of them....last thing I need is to electricute myself or cause an electrical fire. Plus I want to see if anyone is interested in buying the scrap metal....we shall see.
The lilac bush...the one in the center will be moved, and the two bushes on the left are butterfly bushes. One was 6 or 7 feet tall and the other was about 5 feet tall. I cut them both back to about 2-3 feet so that way they will continue to be more bush like rather that tall tree like.
All the trash of the weeds that were so hidden they ended up developing thick stems, dead plants/bushes/trees that I could never get to ovet the summer, bags of leaves, and bags of all the ivy I pulled.

Wow! What a day! But now it's time to go....'cause it's FOOTBALL Time....GO PATRIOTS!!!!!

Ireland - Day 2

We got off to a good start on Tuesday, day 2 - after sleeping in a bit of course. We stopped at a local bakery for tea, coffee and breakfast. It was fun just walking around, seeing the people and all the different markets. The weather wasn't too bad, in the 40's the entire week. Just right to wear a hat, gloves, scarf :) the only downside, it was a little bit damp. However, as the day went on, the sun came out.

We walked to the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity. I did go in, and you could pay €5 (5 euros) to take the tour, but I just asked to go in and say a prayer. It was beautiful inside. Very peaceful and calming. I said a prayer for all my family, friends, and for those I don't know. It would have been nice to take the full tour and to see and learn about all the different aspects of the cathedral, but that will be for next time.

After stopping to grab a quick bite for lunch, and something hot to drink to help warm us up - we continued on exploring Dublin...and what should we come across....the Jameson's Wiskey Distillers.

So what is the only thing to do....go in....take the tour...and enjoy a nice drink. The tour was actually very educational and we learned the differences between American Wiskey, Scotch Wiskey, and Irish Wiskey - it's how many times the wiskey is distilled 1, 2, or 3. Irish wiskey is distilled 3 times - increasing the alcohol content/potency.

It was then back to the hotel to pack up our Dublin purchases and our clothes and head off to the train station. Next stop ... Cork City!