2017 Begins - A New Year, Disney, Boredom, Work, and Lasers
It's been 4 months. Yes, I know - I'm getting bad at this. For the past month, I've been carrying around in my coat pocket a folded sheet of paper with notes for my next entry. I don't necessarily have a lot to report, but the longer I delay the more insurmountable the task seems to me. It also doesn't help that I've been more than a bit busy at work. Luckily, things have returned to normal and I found a window to fit this in.
Ok, Happy 2017! Deb and I wrapped up the holiday break at home by inviting a bunch of our friends over once again for New Year's Eve. We had a full house for the party, so we set up a taco bar and even sparked up the fire pit. Things went late into the afternoon on New Year's Day, which we spent playing board games (big surprise there).
Bringing in 2017 with Pirates, Haunters, Kayakers, Hikers, Coffee Drinkers, Tubers, and Artists!
The first week of the work year was a short one, thankfully, and three days later Deb and I were Disney-bound on our way to the airport, escorted by a light snowfall. That light snow happened to get a bit heavier as we waited for our flight, and we ended up spending 3 hours sitting in line on the PHL runway waiting for our jet to get de-iced. Thanks to airline regulations, we were given the mandatory bottle of water and pack of cookies while we waited, and 6 hours after we sat down, we stepped onto the ground in Florida.
Ah, Disney. The last time the two of us were down to the the Happiest Place on EarthTM was during our honeymoon five years prior. We originally wanted to return to Jamaica for our 5th/19th anniversary, but the rooms we wanted were all booked up while we were still deciding. But anyways, this time we returned to the Port Orleans resort with a week to enjoy ourselves. Our room was ready when we arrived, so after unpacking we were off to Disney Springs for an evening of shopping and drinking. Evidently we brought a bit of the cold weather with us (one of my Floridan friends referred to the weekend of our arrival as 'Florida Winter 2017'), but we were already acclimated and prepared for the otherwise balmy 45 degree weather. Throughout our trip, we catered to our pin trading and Pokemon catching habits, both of which fared well at Disney. After all, 9 miles of walking each day in search of pins hatches a lot of eggs.
Oh, and poutine. We spent a month anticipating this moment; a steaming bowl of starchy goodness over a couple ciders.
There something about the organized nature and artificial setting of Disney that makes vacationing there so incredibly charming to me. Most of the week had been planned out for us by our dinner and Fastpass reservations, so we, like the rides themselves, were were on rails but too distracted by the magic to see the tracks. Sunday the 8th was officially our anniversary and our first full day in the parks. That morning we started out at the Magic Kingdom, heading directly to Space Mountain to make 9 year old Deb happy. Then it was off to The Haunted Mansion to satisfy our adult selves. Naturally our next stop was at Pirates of the Caribbean, but rather than get in line, we tried out their 'treasure hunt' for PoTC Fastpasses. Running around Adventure Land looking for symbols and interactive clues thoroughly entertained us, and we ended up doing all 5 of the available hunts over the course of our trip. Our lunch reservation was at the newish Be Our Guest restaurant, and yes - I tried the gray stuff. It was delicious. Come late afternoon, we hopped on the Monorail on the way over to Epcot for our dinner reservation at Hacienda San Angel. We did the Future showcase attractions before dinner, saving World Showcase for the next day. We enjoyed a rather filling Mexican dinner and watched the evening fireworks from our table. All in all, probably one of the better ways to spend our anniversary.
Obligatory Deb with Fuzzy Stuffies Photos
The next day we started off early at Epcot with a donuts and coffee. Then, starting with Canada and heading counter-clockwise, we spent the day stopping at every pavilion for drinks. Rather than overdoing it, we ended up sharing in some of the countries, and getting our own drinks in others. We had beer, wine, cider, sake, slushies, and margaritas before we stumbled out the other side and on our way to Coral Reef for dinner.
Drinking 'round the world
Tuesday we had plans to leave the Kingdom for a visit to Sea World, so we hopped on a bus that morning and arrived at the park just before opening. Attendance was light that day, so we pretty much had our run of the park. We spent a good amount of time watching the dolphins and sea lions, and ended up feeding this one adorable harbor seal that thought it belonged with the lions. We also saw the Blue Horizions dolphin/bird show, penguins, manatees, rode roller coasters, ate ice cream, the orca show, etc. My memory is a little foggy, but I think we ate dinner back at the Kingdom that night, at a nice Italian place at the Boardwalk resort.
The next two days we dedicated to grazing through the Magic Kingdom with a fine tooth comb. We originally were planning to spend Thursday at Universal to see the new Harry Potter expansion, but we really wanted to thoroughly enjoy the MK and all it had to offer. We finished off the treasure hunts, played an interactive card game, saw shows and rode rides. I lost my favorite hat on Splash Mountain. It was on its retirement trip thanks to a broken brim, so I guess it was fitting for a pirate hat to meet a watery end. We rode the Mansion several times, and even had time to do the 'lesser' rides (read: coasters). There was a Muppet sideshow that involved actual puppeteers that I distinctly remember. Oh, and we got one last chance to see the Wishes fireworks show, which is now retired. We had dinner reservations at the new cantina at he park on Wednesday, and ate creole back at our resort on Thursday.
Friday was our last full day of vacation, which we spent around Animal Kingdom. We were able to see everything in a day there, and returned to Disney Springs that evening for some souvenir shopping. With half day free before our flight on Saturday, we popped over to Hollywood Studios (i.e. Soon-to-be-Star-Wars-Land) to catch a few rides and shows. That evening we flew back to PA.
5 years married, 19 years together
We bought a couple things for the Haunted Bathroom while were were on vacation, so the room looks a little bit closer to completion:
The rest of January thorugh February was truly unremarkable. There was a lot of rain, some warm weather, and many weekends at home in front of the TV or playing Minecraft together in the Den. We attended Von Draken's Feast of Plenty with the crew. The theme this year was stuffed foods, good as always and a nice opportunity to catch up with some old friends from Markland. One weekend I managed to get out of the house with Gus and visited Steve-o for a whole day of board gaming. I was introduced to Time Stories, then taught them Robinson Crusoe, and we wrapped with TMNT. I've still been playing my favorite game, Lord of the Rings the Card Game, and one of my decks was recently recently featured on Cardboard of the Rings blog. Valentine's day snuck up on us fairly quickly, which we enjoyed at home this year over a steak dinner, mead, and a 1000 piece puzzle of Smaug the Dragon. For a week in late February, we a had a freak taste of Spring. Wonderfully warm, sunny weather drove us out of the house and to Peace Valley with our bikes for a ride around the lake. The final weekend of Spring, er, February was the Klonakility/Rivenwood feast up in Easton. Gina and her crew outdid themselves for a first event of its kind. Hopefully we can get more of the crew to go up to it next year.
Late in February it was finally time for me to update my resume and cover letter in anticipation of postings for the new Forensic lab. Even though I knew I lacked the qualifications, I decided to submit an application for the management position when it went up. I never did hear back from them, but the exercise of writing up the letter coupled with communicating my intent to work for the group made the attempt a strategic decision. Now I wait for the bench jobs to be posted. I'm not blowing up any party balloons just yet, but with my experience, I expect that I'll have a good shot at it. I should have news before the end of the Summer. Stay tuned. For the meantime, I've been for the most part the sole counterfeits guy, which has kept me incredibly busy at work. I've also been moonlighting in manufacturing atypical investigations, just in case I find myself staying behind in SAS come the end of the year. I've been doing a lot of soul-searching and reflecting on my career, carefully considering what would be next if I'm no longer performing investigative work.
Next thing I know, we're rolling into march - and after two feasts and a Disney vacation, rolling is the appropriate verb. My year-end review and annual bonus always come in on the first week, which was no different this year. My bonuses in the past couple of years have gone towards closing debts and offsetting the costs of the new place, but this time around I didn't have any of those things to deal with. I had been wanting to add a piece of equipment to my home workshop/lab, and I finally had the opportunity to get a laser cutter to complement my 3D printer. I looked into an Epilog Zing a few years back and even went as far to inquire about a brochure and samples, but ultimately they were too expensive. Recently I read a review on the Full Spectrum H-Series, and decided on 40W CO2 laser cutter/engraver. It was delivered on the second Saturday in March, and late that night I had rastered my first piece - an image of a frickin' shark with a laser on its head. In the weeks since, I've been testing a variety of materials and knocked out a few projects. I'm really happy with the purchase; as of recent my 'Maker' hobby has drifted from electronics to desktop fabrication.
Now my workshop is complete.
Some of my first cutting and engraving tests
Thror's Map
I had some extra time in the workshop thanks to the return of Winter on the 15th, when the "Blizzard" of 2017 hit. It wasn't too bad thanks to some changeover to rain, but there's still some traces of snow left two weeks later.
This past weekend Deb and I were working together in the shop, and I designed another piece for the bathroom project. This time it was a skull wood carving that can be found in the queue line inside the Haunted Mansion. I printed it out, and Deb's going to cast it in resin. Figured it would make a good accent for the room or even around the house.
Reproduced it myself using Fusion360. I love that program.
Ok, I'm finally caught up! *crosses item off to-do list* With the weather starting to get a bit warmer, it's time to think about tackling the fallen trees out in the yard, then a trip down to DC later in April for the March for Science. I need to get out of the house - it's been a real slog since we got back from Florida. Till next time!
Ok, Happy 2017! Deb and I wrapped up the holiday break at home by inviting a bunch of our friends over once again for New Year's Eve. We had a full house for the party, so we set up a taco bar and even sparked up the fire pit. Things went late into the afternoon on New Year's Day, which we spent playing board games (big surprise there).
Bringing in 2017 with Pirates, Haunters, Kayakers, Hikers, Coffee Drinkers, Tubers, and Artists!
The first week of the work year was a short one, thankfully, and three days later Deb and I were Disney-bound on our way to the airport, escorted by a light snowfall. That light snow happened to get a bit heavier as we waited for our flight, and we ended up spending 3 hours sitting in line on the PHL runway waiting for our jet to get de-iced. Thanks to airline regulations, we were given the mandatory bottle of water and pack of cookies while we waited, and 6 hours after we sat down, we stepped onto the ground in Florida.
Ah, Disney. The last time the two of us were down to the the Happiest Place on EarthTM was during our honeymoon five years prior. We originally wanted to return to Jamaica for our 5th/19th anniversary, but the rooms we wanted were all booked up while we were still deciding. But anyways, this time we returned to the Port Orleans resort with a week to enjoy ourselves. Our room was ready when we arrived, so after unpacking we were off to Disney Springs for an evening of shopping and drinking. Evidently we brought a bit of the cold weather with us (one of my Floridan friends referred to the weekend of our arrival as 'Florida Winter 2017'), but we were already acclimated and prepared for the otherwise balmy 45 degree weather. Throughout our trip, we catered to our pin trading and Pokemon catching habits, both of which fared well at Disney. After all, 9 miles of walking each day in search of pins hatches a lot of eggs.
Oh, and poutine. We spent a month anticipating this moment; a steaming bowl of starchy goodness over a couple ciders.
There something about the organized nature and artificial setting of Disney that makes vacationing there so incredibly charming to me. Most of the week had been planned out for us by our dinner and Fastpass reservations, so we, like the rides themselves, were were on rails but too distracted by the magic to see the tracks. Sunday the 8th was officially our anniversary and our first full day in the parks. That morning we started out at the Magic Kingdom, heading directly to Space Mountain to make 9 year old Deb happy. Then it was off to The Haunted Mansion to satisfy our adult selves. Naturally our next stop was at Pirates of the Caribbean, but rather than get in line, we tried out their 'treasure hunt' for PoTC Fastpasses. Running around Adventure Land looking for symbols and interactive clues thoroughly entertained us, and we ended up doing all 5 of the available hunts over the course of our trip. Our lunch reservation was at the newish Be Our Guest restaurant, and yes - I tried the gray stuff. It was delicious. Come late afternoon, we hopped on the Monorail on the way over to Epcot for our dinner reservation at Hacienda San Angel. We did the Future showcase attractions before dinner, saving World Showcase for the next day. We enjoyed a rather filling Mexican dinner and watched the evening fireworks from our table. All in all, probably one of the better ways to spend our anniversary.
Obligatory Deb with Fuzzy Stuffies Photos
The next day we started off early at Epcot with a donuts and coffee. Then, starting with Canada and heading counter-clockwise, we spent the day stopping at every pavilion for drinks. Rather than overdoing it, we ended up sharing in some of the countries, and getting our own drinks in others. We had beer, wine, cider, sake, slushies, and margaritas before we stumbled out the other side and on our way to Coral Reef for dinner.
Drinking 'round the world
Tuesday we had plans to leave the Kingdom for a visit to Sea World, so we hopped on a bus that morning and arrived at the park just before opening. Attendance was light that day, so we pretty much had our run of the park. We spent a good amount of time watching the dolphins and sea lions, and ended up feeding this one adorable harbor seal that thought it belonged with the lions. We also saw the Blue Horizions dolphin/bird show, penguins, manatees, rode roller coasters, ate ice cream, the orca show, etc. My memory is a little foggy, but I think we ate dinner back at the Kingdom that night, at a nice Italian place at the Boardwalk resort.
The next two days we dedicated to grazing through the Magic Kingdom with a fine tooth comb. We originally were planning to spend Thursday at Universal to see the new Harry Potter expansion, but we really wanted to thoroughly enjoy the MK and all it had to offer. We finished off the treasure hunts, played an interactive card game, saw shows and rode rides. I lost my favorite hat on Splash Mountain. It was on its retirement trip thanks to a broken brim, so I guess it was fitting for a pirate hat to meet a watery end. We rode the Mansion several times, and even had time to do the 'lesser' rides (read: coasters). There was a Muppet sideshow that involved actual puppeteers that I distinctly remember. Oh, and we got one last chance to see the Wishes fireworks show, which is now retired. We had dinner reservations at the new cantina at he park on Wednesday, and ate creole back at our resort on Thursday.
Friday was our last full day of vacation, which we spent around Animal Kingdom. We were able to see everything in a day there, and returned to Disney Springs that evening for some souvenir shopping. With half day free before our flight on Saturday, we popped over to Hollywood Studios (i.e. Soon-to-be-Star-Wars-Land) to catch a few rides and shows. That evening we flew back to PA.
5 years married, 19 years together
We bought a couple things for the Haunted Bathroom while were were on vacation, so the room looks a little bit closer to completion:
The rest of January thorugh February was truly unremarkable. There was a lot of rain, some warm weather, and many weekends at home in front of the TV or playing Minecraft together in the Den. We attended Von Draken's Feast of Plenty with the crew. The theme this year was stuffed foods, good as always and a nice opportunity to catch up with some old friends from Markland. One weekend I managed to get out of the house with Gus and visited Steve-o for a whole day of board gaming. I was introduced to Time Stories, then taught them Robinson Crusoe, and we wrapped with TMNT. I've still been playing my favorite game, Lord of the Rings the Card Game, and one of my decks was recently recently featured on Cardboard of the Rings blog. Valentine's day snuck up on us fairly quickly, which we enjoyed at home this year over a steak dinner, mead, and a 1000 piece puzzle of Smaug the Dragon. For a week in late February, we a had a freak taste of Spring. Wonderfully warm, sunny weather drove us out of the house and to Peace Valley with our bikes for a ride around the lake. The final weekend of Spring, er, February was the Klonakility/Rivenwood feast up in Easton. Gina and her crew outdid themselves for a first event of its kind. Hopefully we can get more of the crew to go up to it next year.
Late in February it was finally time for me to update my resume and cover letter in anticipation of postings for the new Forensic lab. Even though I knew I lacked the qualifications, I decided to submit an application for the management position when it went up. I never did hear back from them, but the exercise of writing up the letter coupled with communicating my intent to work for the group made the attempt a strategic decision. Now I wait for the bench jobs to be posted. I'm not blowing up any party balloons just yet, but with my experience, I expect that I'll have a good shot at it. I should have news before the end of the Summer. Stay tuned. For the meantime, I've been for the most part the sole counterfeits guy, which has kept me incredibly busy at work. I've also been moonlighting in manufacturing atypical investigations, just in case I find myself staying behind in SAS come the end of the year. I've been doing a lot of soul-searching and reflecting on my career, carefully considering what would be next if I'm no longer performing investigative work.
Next thing I know, we're rolling into march - and after two feasts and a Disney vacation, rolling is the appropriate verb. My year-end review and annual bonus always come in on the first week, which was no different this year. My bonuses in the past couple of years have gone towards closing debts and offsetting the costs of the new place, but this time around I didn't have any of those things to deal with. I had been wanting to add a piece of equipment to my home workshop/lab, and I finally had the opportunity to get a laser cutter to complement my 3D printer. I looked into an Epilog Zing a few years back and even went as far to inquire about a brochure and samples, but ultimately they were too expensive. Recently I read a review on the Full Spectrum H-Series, and decided on 40W CO2 laser cutter/engraver. It was delivered on the second Saturday in March, and late that night I had rastered my first piece - an image of a frickin' shark with a laser on its head. In the weeks since, I've been testing a variety of materials and knocked out a few projects. I'm really happy with the purchase; as of recent my 'Maker' hobby has drifted from electronics to desktop fabrication.
Now my workshop is complete.
Some of my first cutting and engraving tests
Thror's Map
I had some extra time in the workshop thanks to the return of Winter on the 15th, when the "Blizzard" of 2017 hit. It wasn't too bad thanks to some changeover to rain, but there's still some traces of snow left two weeks later.
This past weekend Deb and I were working together in the shop, and I designed another piece for the bathroom project. This time it was a skull wood carving that can be found in the queue line inside the Haunted Mansion. I printed it out, and Deb's going to cast it in resin. Figured it would make a good accent for the room or even around the house.
Reproduced it myself using Fusion360. I love that program.
Ok, I'm finally caught up! *crosses item off to-do list* With the weather starting to get a bit warmer, it's time to think about tackling the fallen trees out in the yard, then a trip down to DC later in April for the March for Science. I need to get out of the house - it's been a real slog since we got back from Florida. Till next time!