Puxatawney Nightmare (reposted from Dan's Blog)

So Nicole (my girlfriend) came home about an hour ago, stepped out of her car, and started walking back to the house across the parking lot of our townhouse community. All of a sudden a groundhog comes galloping up to her from under the stoop of a house in the next block. Nicole starts to run towards the house and the groundhog just kept coming after her. She turns and throws her empty coffee thermal cup at it and hits in the head. It shakes it off and keeps coming at her. She starts screaming my name and runs to the door of the house. While continuing to scream my name she turns and starts swinging her heavy backpack filled with books at the varment and hits it. That's how close it got.I heard her screaming and knew right away what was happening because earlier in the morning I went outside to try and get a woodpecker to stop jackhammering the metal chimney stack at the top of our townhouse. I saw our neighbor outside starting to do yard work and she had said the groundhog had been in her front foliage and had tried to get under our front stoop to hide. I didn't think twice about it at the time because that groundhog family had been living in our neighborhood for years and I've had many sightings. So back to the present . . .I ran to the front door opened it and see her swinging at this groundhog that is just a couple of feet in front of her. I do what every strong, verile boyfriend would do and yell, "GET!!!" I was really surprised how close this mangie thing was to her. So I grabbed Nicole and shoved her inside and immediately followed her. The groundhog starts to try and get under our stoop to hide, but did not fit. By this time Nicole was hysterically upset. I console her and try and calm her down.We finally both calm down and go back to the front door and look out safely through the glass storm door to see where the groundhog went. Nicole spots it rummaging in some trash that some inconsiderate neighbor had left out on a non-trash-day. At this point, the postman pulls up and starts to distribute the mail in to the multi-box from his vehicle. The groundhog is about 12 feet from the vehicle. The postman points like "look at the cuddly groundhog" and makes a noise to get its attention. The groundhog looks up and starts to charge the postman. He jumped a bit in his seat and the groundhog goes right up to him and slips under the truck, comes out the other end and saunters up the hill across the street.We continue to watch the groundhog and lose him in the brush at the top of the hill. Nicole states that she is not leaving the house until the groundhog is removed from the neighborhood. She calls animal control and the guy on the other end says, "are you sure it wasn't just a raccoon?" Just a raccoon?? Nicole, says, "no, it definitely was a groundhog. it was very close." The guy says they will send someone out shortly.Soon after we spot the culprit in the street again and he's heading back to the same stoop he started the chase from. We watch him go under the stoop which is obviously his home. We continue to stake out his location from afar and continue to try and calm down from the adventure.The animal control van pulls up. I go out to greet him and Nicole walks over tenatively after a minute or so. I start telling the story and let Nicole continue when she arrives . . "so I threw my mug at it and . . . Dan? Dan Burger?? Hey, how are you?" Nicole and Dan B. the animal control officer went to George Mason University together and had just become friends on Facebook a week earlier.So after the short reunion. Dan B. tells us that the behavior could be rabies, but it is mating season so he may be just protecting his brood. Nicole made some reference to her menstrual cycle at this point and we all chuckled.We pointed out the location where the groundhog was hiding and Dan B. walked over to investigate. He takes out a telescoping poking instrument and roots around under the stoop. After about 30 seconds he stands back up and turns to walk back to his van and the ground hog crawls out from under the stoop and starts charging Dan B. The Animal Control Man. I yell, "there he is!!" Dan B. turns around and starts walking backwards and the groundhog keeps coming at him. He wacks the groundhog in the side with the poking thingy really hard. The groundhog tries to attack the stick but then goes after Dan B. again. I look over at Nicole really quick to make sure she was alright. She just stood there astonished.POW!!!!!! I turned back to Dan B. and he's holstering his gun and the groundhog ran towards the stoop and tried to crawl under. Nicole looks at me and says, "must've been a blank to scare him off." Dan B. quickly runs over and stomps on the back foot of the groundhog and starts pulling on the tail. He points to me and motions me over. He digs in his pocket and holds out the keys to me. He says, "it's got rabies. go into the side door of the van and grab the metal tongs tool in the cabinet and a cage." I run over and try to unlock the van, but can't get it unlocked. I look over and Dan B. is struggling to keep the groundhog from escaping. I finally figure out the lock and get in to the van. I'm looking everywhere for the tongs. I look over and there's a pitbull in a cage about a foot from my face. I stop for a second and then say, "hi, puppy." I remember he said cabinet and I look over and open the cabinet and grab the tongs. I run over and hand him the handle to the tongs and put the cage close to him. I look back at the van and Nicole is aying hello to the pitbull which begins to bark wildly at her. She asks, "do you have the keys?" I nod and she closes the door of the van.I step back and watch Dan B. wrestle the groundhog from under the stoop. The groundhog is almost out and starts screaming in a high pitched squeal. Dan B. picks it up by the tail and finds a way to drop it in to the cage and close the door. He ties the door shut narrowly averting being nipped by the angry groundhog.Dan B. scrapes at a hole in the grass with the toe of his shoe and just chuckles a bit. I said, "don't worry about that. This yard sucks anyway." I didn't realize at the time that he had actually shot at the groundhog and only grazed it. So the hole in the grass was actually a bullet.The groundhog had mud caked on its furr and I mentioned that it is smaller than the one I saw wandering the neighborhood in the past. Dan B. tells me that since the groundhog was sick they will lose their mass quickly and that typically animals with rabies will only last about ten days before they die. He also said, that groundhogs typically keep themselves very clean, so the caked mud is a sign that it had rabies too. He said, this one definitely has rabies and will be put down.Some neighbors were loitering about at this time and we told them about the adventure. We're very glad that no kids were out playing or pets were running around or this could have had a much worse outcome. I'm glad Nicole was strong enough to fight off the groundhog and recognize the strange behavior quick enough to do something about it. So the moral of the story is . . . trust your instincts and call animal control if you think an animal is acting weird. I never would have thought there would be a rabid animal in my neighborhood, but it happens.

Nothing is Constant but Change

So, I can't recall where I heard that saying, but it seems to be true!

Personal Life: During the holidays, Dan asked me to move in with him and of course I said yes. The big move officially took place just two weeks ago and we are slowly but surely getting there with organizing and combining our lives. I truly couldn't be happier.

Work Life: I had to fire an employee after the New Year and though it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, it was definitely for the best. I recently hired a new staffer and I'm very excited at the enthusiasm she brings to the office.

Family Life: I'm going to be an Aunt again and this time to a beautiful little GIRL!!!! My brother and sister-in-law just called us to tell us the good news. I coulnd't be happier for them and how cool that Oliver will be a big brother to a girl. Just like Rob and I!

Faith Life: It's been a long time since I've been to church and I've decided that during this Lenten season I would try to do a few things: 1. Give up cursing (that's not that easy); 2. Go to church each Sunday (I found a new one, St. Raymond, but not sure about it yet); and 3. Will try to update the blog each sunday.

Professional Career: I've been slated for VP of Communications once more for PMPI and am thrilled at the leadership that is coming through the ranks. I'm also about to embark on an incredibly journey to take the CAE (certified associated executive) exam on May 1st. In preparation I will be studying each Saturday with my group.

So, as you can see nothing is contant but change. I welcome the journey.

My dog Quincy

So, as I travel with Dan today to Atlantic City, I am filled with so much sadness. Yesterday I had to put my dog down to sleep. Quincy was my man and also very much mom's too. He was her companion through many difficult times. I will post more later as I am too sad right now.

Vegas Baby

So, as you can see I'm not too good at updating weekly as I had hoped. I do however want to still caputre all the amazing moments that I am having during this amazing year.

With that being said. I just returned last weekend from my Fall Conference in Las Vegas. I'm so lucky that Dan was able to join me for the entire week. Tough twisiting his arm to do that of course! There were three places that I really wanted to see while we were there: Treasure Island Pirate show; Freemont Street and the Paris hotel inside and close up. We were able to do the first two and are saving the last for our next trip to Mandalay Bay (one I won of course).

So, the TI Pirate show.....NOT SO MUCH! The only thing missing were stripper poles and the ability to stuff dollar bills. This amazed me how tacky it was. I get that Vegas is tacky, but a show in the middle of the strip that aims at families too. It was absurd. So, let's see if the video will work this time!

Then Freemont street, what an awesome expereience. Give or take the 1 1/2 hour bus ride down there. But always nice to see the local wedding chapels and of course the Howard Johnson Hotel that is still booming! They had the most amazing light show down there with music. It was a different crowd and the minimums were definitely cheaper and thank goodness for that. It was our last day and we were running out of money. Keno wasn't our friend either at this point.

Overall, the week was tough for obvious reasons, but having Dan there was really cool. We went to the Mandalay Bay Shark Aquarium, gambled quite a bit, saw Danny Gans and The Jersey Boys. The music in that was awesome!

The funniest part of the trip was that we were totally suckered into one of those timeshare talks! All for the FREEBIES! What I have done to this poor man. For 3 hours of our time out of the casino we got $150 cash and two cruises, lunch and transportation. Not too shabby I might say and was fun to see how "we work" in that situation.

So, now we are both broke. Didn't win big all week, though he did come in 4th at my company Poker Tournament. Time to save for the next gambling trip to Atlantic City in December! I think I need to stop winning these trips to gaming destinations.

Now we are gearing up for Thanksgiving. I'm so excited because his parents are coming and I love when they visit. And I get to see his nephew and I get to see Oliver, MY NEPHEW after Thanksgiving. So all in all it'll be a great holiday I think.

A Piece of History

November 4, 2008

Truly a day that I will never forget and how amazing that one day, when I have kids, I'll be able to tell them all about it.

This fine evening Barrack Obama was elected as our 44th President. President-Elect Obama had an amazing speach and I can't get over how many young faces I've seen at the polls and his gathering in Chicago.

I am confident that Change WILL happen and am so excited for my future and the future of the United States. I have never been more proud of my country and state than I am today. VA pulled it out and what an amazing feat.

One note of saddness was that while watching the returns, Tim Russert wasn't there to tell us viewers what was happening. I have to say that NBC and MSNBC did a phenominal job but no one can ever fill his shoes. Boy, he'd love what just happened last night.

I look forward to waking early and getting my spot along that parade route to keep making history!

Celebrations

So, it's been a year since Dan and I had our first date and met and we celebrated in high style! I took him to see one of his favorite musicians, David Sanborn at Blues Alley. I had never been before and what an amazing experience. I loved the music, venue and especially the company.

The next day after celebrating Dan's birthday and our anniversary we headed down to Roanoke to visit his parents. I have never been there before, expect to drive through on my way to Tech to visit Rob. It was a gorgeous day for a drive. Sure enough his folks were waiting for us in the door when we arrived.

Their house is GORGEOUS and reminded me a lot of our old house in CT with the trees, grass and having property.

Over the weekend we went to yard sales, ate at an awesome pizza shop and found the most amazing book store that we could have spent hours in! It was so nice to spend time with his parents. We even watched the Red Sox play and Dan and his mom both began to teach me how to play piano! That was the neatest and as you can see I have a lot of learning left! (video to come; having trouble posting)

It's amazing how quickly time flies and I'm so excited for more celebrations. Now, I just need to get the sheet music to keep learning this song so I can have a real recital playing an instrument!

Nothing Like Being the "Nanny"

I realize that I'm 30 and that it isn't old, but boy oh boy did I feel old this past weekend when the oldest of the kids I was a nanny for got married!

It was a gorgeous wedding and I was so proud and excited to see her and have all the kids together in one room.

From left to right are Ellen (freshman in college), Elizabeth (senior in college), Emily (getting masters degree and newly married), and Andrew now living in TX and a graduate of JMU.

I was sitting there watching this family and couldn't help but think how amazing that I was a part of it and still am! I have seen them all grow before my eyes! So, now I officially feel old!