30 July 2007. Well, it's been harder than I thought. Too many other things getting in the way of blogging and reading blogs. Luckily I finished one of the things Saturday night. No, not the bathroom, the last Harry Potter book, and an excellent book it was.
The bathroom is coming along, I finished laying the tile last night. My fingertips were sore from using the tile nippers to custom fit some of the tile. Ouch. Once I get the grout done it's just a matter of putting in the new vanity, shower door and hooking everything back up. Mrs. Dub then wants to give our bathroom a splash of color by repainting. She says that'll hold her for a bit. I might get to start working on the fence right after that and then maybe start mapping out the kitchen renovation.
What's happened at work this week.
Today's lesson is this: Always make sure the screen door is latched when there's a pit bull on the other side of it.
Lesson 2: If you watched Chris Rock's video about "How not to get beat by the Police", it's not just for entertainment, it's also valuable information. No, I didn't beat anybody, but the lesson's are still there. Never, have the cops come when you have an angry woman on your hands. The words, "He's got weed!" were used several times during our 30 minutes with this couple. Nobody was arrested today, but it would be wish if this young man moved in the middle of the night, like tonight, otherwise......
I've managed to avoid turtles this week. I also have not understood why cops "hide" behind objects when they want to run "radar" and catch speeders. Now, first, let me say that Oklahoma City does not have a quota set for officers to write a certain number of tickets....I can write as many as I want. I like to park in wide open parking lots that adjoins the street. I like to be visible by several blocks from either direction. That way, when I still catch you doing 41 mph in a 25 mph zone and you're only one block away from me, well, you have nobody to blame but yourself.
Yesterday, around 4 p.m. we had an alarm going off on a residential house. Officers, including me, responded. We found a trash can laid over against the back of the house and a broken window over the kitchen sink. Another officer and myself climb through the window. The younger, more fit officer made it look pretty smooth. Then it was my turn. I make it through the window and am now kinda stuck with my knees in the sink. I have to roll around a bit to unwedge myself. Yeah, glad it wasn't important or anything.
Well, better go for now, be safe and have a great day.

23 July 2007, Well, how many have given up their blogs this weekend to start and finish their Harry Potter and the Hallows of Death? I am not one of them. I "pre-order" my copy several months ago on Amazon. However though, my card expired this month too, and I didn't update my account soon enough that when it tried to make the transaction, it failed. So, I had to order it again, rather than go into one of the stores. It should be here today. We did manage to watch The Order of the Phoenix last night. I am disappointed in the fact that they have to skim so much of the storyline and leave so much more out just to make time restraints. I know they filmed more and yet they never add that additional footage into the DVD release either. Mrs. Dub left the movie last night asking a lot of questions because she hasn't read books 5 or 6.
We have been very busy during this set of days off, we now have two new baby goats, the girl, named 'Alice' and the boy named 'Jasper'. Two characters from the book series "The Twilight", I believe. I managed to finish the knock-down texture in Miss Dub's bathroom and have the floor ready for tile. We should be able to put on a couple coats of paint today. A side project that Mrs. Dub had me doing was turning the linen closest in the hallway into a DVD library. We put the final coat of paint on it yesterday and should be able to put the movies in their new home today.
We've managed several other projects too over this set of days off. Last night we took the time off to go see the movie, and today we are headed to the Cowboy Hall of Fame here in Oklahoma City. There are several new exhibits as this is the 100th birthday of actor John Wayne as well as the centennial of Oklahoma.
Well, better go for now, big day, be safe and have a great day.

18 July 2007, Ah, my first week at work is over. I have the pictures now I promised you from last week. SSG B and I were riding together on Thursday of last week. This next event is the closest I've come to being in danger since leaving Afghanistan. We saw him trying to cross the street and it appeared to us he needed some help. Help was the last thing he wanted. I approached him and started to offer assistance when he turned and lunged towards me. I quickly stepped back and pulled out my baton. My survival instincts now on high alert, I approach him again. Now, he is upset with us. The turtle just wants to be left alone. Yep, turtle.

He didn't like me very much, and I was only trying to help. That's not me flipping him either, that's him jumping. Everything else went pretty good. I'm rusty on calling in my reports, and I finally got the book I needed to work on the new paperwork for traffic accidents. I'll write more tomorrow, first day off and I've got a lot to do. Be safe and have a great day.

16 July 2007, Well, I was hoping to have updated a lot more during this set. I have one great story to tell, but I'm waiting for the other officer to send me the photos. During the last 7 days, this one incident has probably been the closest I've been to being injured, and no.....it wasn't a clothes line. Of course, Mrs. Dub and Wade would probably refer back to Reno 911. Now, my Army Lt. M has seen me in bicycle shorts and he believes it's one of the most memorable sights he's ever had. I do worry about him sometimes.
This weeks theme at work has been "domestics". Gentlemen, take notes. The Bible warns you about angry women, Chris Rock warns you about angry women, Lorena Bobbitt warns you about angry women. The key to a happy and success marriage takes no more than two words, "Yes, dear." Now, as Mrs. Dub mentioned, she does suffer from OCD, hehehe. Deep down inside me lurks an evil person, one who loves to exploit weaknesses. I just want to slap people sometimes when they make the statement, "You know what really bothers me....." These are words that just bring a warm glow to my heart. Well, I don't intentionally try to get on Mrs. Dub's nerves, but it isn't that hard. I was perfectly fine with leaving the boxes as they were in the garage, out of the way, and as I needed to get something out, get it and then put it up. Mrs. Dub had to have them in the house, "just put them in the spare bedroom, that'll be fine". Now, every time she walked by the room, there they were. Now, I packed them neatly the first time. And I packed them based on what I didn't need at that moment. So the boxes do have some rhyme and reason to them, it just when you have to pack it, unpack it, pack it again, inspect it before the post master, repack it again, you just get to the point you throw it in there. Used toothpicks?, how about a box of toothpicks opening up during shipping. Yeah, she is mean, isn't she, I mean, "Yes dear."
The driving course was great, and I had a lot of fun after the first lap around the track. I rode with two different officers for two days and was on my own Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Tomorrow is my Friday, yippee!, then I'm off for 6 days. Well, better get going for now. Be safe and have a great day.

10 July 2007, My first day back to work. Well, I had 4 felony arrests, how's that for a first day back? Of course, my day wasn't too bad. I couldn't do anything until I had qualified with my Glock 17 9mm pistol. I had to be at work at 7, and the range doesn't open till 8. Hmm, guess we have time for breakfast. I say we, because I had an FTO, (Field Training Officer), this is just so the department feels comfortable about putting me back out on the street. (I'm not sure they felt comfortable about it before I left, hehe). I shot 42 rounds out of 50 into the target, with two off the paper. Out of that 10 were left-handed. This was a new course of fire for me too, but I will be getting back out there and be practicing more. We then started our calls. After a false alarm on a business we responded to a bank reporting a man attempting to cash a stolen check. Besides the check he just found on the ground, he also "just found" a cell phone that was also reported stolen by the same person. We went to jail. I had to stop by the 911 center and thank the dispatchers for the packages they had sent to me while in Afghanistan. Our last call of the day was a police LT. following a reported stolen car. As we approached the 3 suspects bailed out and ran. We managed to get in front of one and caused him to change directions. I jumped out of the car and headed towards him. He was at least 60 yards ahead of me. Either my intimidating presence or just him feeling I might collapse if I chased him, but either way, he stopped when I told him to and I had him in custody quickly. I'm glad I didn't have to run. With several officers on the scene, Air One spotted the other two suspects and all three were taken into custody. We found a 12 gauge shotgun and bolt action rifle with scope in the back seat.
Tomorrow I have to go to Law Enforcement Driving Tactics. Yeah, this is going to be a great day. Drive hard and fast. I told them if they wanted to learn how to drive they needed to go to Afghanistan or Iraq. I'll let you know how it goes. Be safe and have a great day.

08 July 2007, or at least I think it is. I tried earlier this week to upgrade my dial-up connection and broke the whole darn thing. Not even Miss Dub could figure it out. Well, tonight, we sat down and were going over our bills, doesn't everyone love doing that? Of course, we did this and then went to bed. My brain wouldn't shut down so I got up and messed with the internet connection, just enough that I wanted to burn the computer down where it stands. Well, I'm not sure if I fixed anything or not, but I did manage to get on, so I'll update before it shuts down on me.
I did break down and called a plumber. I'm ok with PVC and copper. Apparently though, I have what's called PEX tubing and connections due to the well water. The plumber told me that it's difficult to mix PEX with anything else and that just one crimper for the binding rings runs $100. Now I know and can probably start doing it myself as I could have bought the connections and crimper for what he charged. We had it finished in 1 1/2 hours and as soon as he left I had the fiberglass shower stall back in place. We are staying with the fiberglass stall for now in her bathroom. I framed in my existing door to close off the wall and started the sheet rock.
I made Miss Dub groom the horses on Friday, and on Saturday, we saddled them up and rode for a short time. I don't have my seat yet so I just walked the horse around. Later, the Equine Dentist came by and re-floated their teeth. It is amazing the difference I saw when he came out during my leave in September.
I should be picking up my scout car tomorrow and getting it ready to go back to work on Tuesday. Yikes, my time is already up? That stinks. Mrs. Dub is upset that the goatee has to come off now. I could definitely stay home and be a full-time rancher/farmer on my 5 acres if she made more money, and then I could keep the goatee. However, she seems to think she is the one that needs to stay home, so I don't know how we would manage that.
Not much else to report at the moment. Hopefully, I can get some sleep now. Be safe and have a great day.

07 July 2007, Well, I've been home for three weeks now. And it's rained the entire time. We got a break yesterday but are expecting more today and the rest of this week. It's so soggy out here right now that we have postponed our 4th of July party out here because I can't get a dock built for the front yard. I've seen firework shows cancelled because it was too dry but never because it was too wet, till this year. But you know what, I'm home and everything is great.

We started on Miss Dub's bathroom this weekend.
We are going to replace just about everything and give it a spruce up along with a fresh coat of paint for the bedroom.

This door opens into my home office, so it goes away and I can use the wall space.

We are pulling up this vinyl flooring and will replace with 6" x 6" sage green tiles.

Mrs. Dub is ready for me to finish this project up so I can start on the kitchen, we have big plans for it, just haven't figured out how we are going to pay for it. I'll keep you posted.

Miss Dub has agreed to allow the public to name the soon to be born goats. Now the possibility of having two kids exists, so she will pick the top two boy and girl names to be used, so go over to her site and cast your vote.

Be safe and have a great day.