Perspective

Sorry I haven't blogged much.  I have so many cool things that we're doing at work, but I can't talk about them...and I certainly can't post them on the interwebs. 

However, today we had a briefing for Naval Special Warfare on our progress to date, as well as our direction for the future.  While we were waiting to get started, I had an opportunity to look around the NSWCenter.  In the lobby, they have all the Congressional Medal of Honor citations that the SEALs have received.  I had the chance to read over Michael P. Murphy's & Michael Monsoor's citations.  Google them.

We're testing so many students that it's easy to lose the big picture of what these guys are training to go do.  It was very humbling to read just a little bit more about them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTswq-uHf9s&feature=related

I Got to Do a Podcast

Matt Scalici, who works for al.com, interviewed me for a podcast they were doing on Auburn & Alabama fans living on the west coast.  He was nice enough to ask me to be a part of it, so if you'd like to hear my lovely voice, click on the link below:

al.com Podcast

I've been published

When I was with the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, we helped write a paper on rotator cuff injuries in volleyball players.  It was just published yesterday by the British Journal of Sports Medicine. 


You won't be able to read the full article unless you have access to the journal, but here's the link to the abstract:
Biomechanical insights into the etiology of infraspinatus syndrome

Ethos Article

Back in February, we had our "Grand Opening" of the lab.  All the big people from University of Pittsburgh as well as WARCOM were here for a presentation of the lab's goals and direction, as well as a demonstration of the equipment we'll be testing.  Ethos, the Naval Special Warfare magazine, did a story on us, and it just got released, the title of the article is "NSW's Human Performance Initiative", on page 10.

Ethos Magazine Issue 16

I Finally Took Layla to the Beach!

This was, by far, one of the best weekends I've had since I moved here.  I went hiking up in Torrey Pines on Saturday, and it was absoultely gorgeous.  I'm going again this weekend, so I'll be sure to bring my camera this time.  It's a state preserve, so I couldn't bring Layla, but it was absolutely amazing.  There's tons of trails, and the ones I went on take you right to the edge of the cliff overlooking the Pacific.  There's also a trail that takes you down to the beach.  So pretty, but the Pacific is about 20 degrees colder than the Gulf.  I think it's in the high 50s right now, and there's crazy people surfing all the time.  I was told it will even get as high as 70 in late summer...oh boy.


Sunday, I got up early and took Layla to the beach!  There's quite a few dog parks on the beach out here, but there is one really big one in Ocean Beach called Dog Beach.  It's a huge off-leash dog park where they can run and play on the sand and in the ocean.  She had a blasty-blast.  When we got to the shore, she took off for the ocean, then got scared cause the water was coming at her--something she's never experienced before.  Then she started biting the waves like she does the Roomba when it chases her.  I swear she's smart, you guys.  It was hilarious though.  If any of you have had the pleasure of having a puppy play date with Layla, you know she herds & barks at other dogs.  Obviously she's not being mean, cause if she were, she would have been in a lot of fights by now.  So she's playing with this other dog, and barking at it, as she does.  Well I know some people don't understand that, so I went up and asked the owner if she was bothering him.  His response:  "she's bothering my dog...".  Ok, thanks for being passive aggressive about it.  So anyway, we walked down the beach a bit & found a few pups who were more her speed & personality.  After about 2 hours on the beach, she was completely gassed.  After we got home, she slept all day, it was wonderful!  I think I'm going to take her back to the beach this weekend, and hopefully I'll get some more pictures of her playing in the ocean.  For now, I'll leave you with this:

P.S.  I'm coming home May 4-7, so I hope to see all of you at the JCCHS Cornhole Tournament!!

Regular Update (2 of 2)

I won't even lie, I completely forgot about updating this thing until Carrie texted me asking if I was alive. Which doesn't really make sense, because she follows me on twitter, but, point taken.  I need to update my blog, so here goes:
We are finally testing at work, and it's been super crazy busy.  Because we're testing the students, instructors, and active-duty guys, we have double, and sometimes triple the number of subjects as the other labs.  It's a good problem to have.  For the past few weeks we've been testing 8am to 5:30 pm, with only a break for lunch.  So I've been working lots of hours, but it's good though, because it doesn't feel like work.  I'm always movig, so that keeps me from being bored.  The drawback is, I've been exhausted when I get home from work.

I had to hire a dogwalker for Layla, because I'm gone too long during the day.  I kind of hate that I had to do that, it makes me feel like a bad pet owner, but I'm glad she's taken care of. My neighor Hannah has also offered to take Layla with her when she goes for walks, too, so that's nice.  I'm trying to get out and do more San Diego-type stuff, but I've been working so much during the week, that all I want to do on the weekends is lay around and watch tv.  My neighbors and I have talked about hiking some of the mountains around here, and I still need to take Layla to the real beach, not the bay. 

Also, I want to try surfing and/or paddleboarding, but I've felt the Pacific Ocean and it is way way colder than the Gulf.  It doesn't really warm up in the summer either.  So it looks like I'll have to commit to the sport, because I'm not buying a wetsuit to try it once and never do it again.  Also, I don't want to rent a wetsuit because that is disgusting. 

I've been thinking of making a trip home sometime, but I don't know when.  That's progress though, because before I hadn't even really thought about when I'd want to come home. Heff told me the cornhole tournament is May 5, so that may be an option (I make no guarantees, though).  I'm not sure if I want to spend all that money before our big aweseome birthday trip to Cabo in June.  If it's not then, perhaps July 4 weekend.  I was initially considering coming home for Labor Day, but there's really no point because Auburn is playing in Atlanta that weekend. 

I think that's all that's going on with me.  Oh wait, there is one more thing.  I filed my taxes.  Ok, that covers everything that's going on with me.  I promise I'll try to do better updating this thing. 

Until next time...

I Had a Visitor!! (Update 1 of 2)

So, for her spring break, Callie came out to visit me.  It was wonderful!  I left from work on Friday night, March 9 to drive to LA to pick her up (it's cheaper to fly into LAX than to San Diego, and it's only a 2-hour drive from here).  So we got back to my apartment around 11 pm, and were super exhausted, so we just went to bed.  Saturday night my neighbors Hannah & Rusty came by, and we played beer pong on my balcony and some Jenga (thanks Janna for meeting up with Callie so she could bring it!).  Unfortunately, we were super busy at work, so I had to work Monday-Thursday, but Callie was nice enough to take Layla on some walks for me during the week.  I took Friday the 16th off, so we could do all kinds of fun stuff around San Diego, like visit the beaches & go to the zoo, but we didn't do any of that on Friday.  We stayed in my apartment and watched basketball.  Such bums.

Coincidentally, Ellen was in town as well Friday-Tuesday, so my neighbors, Callie, Ellen & I all went to the one bar I know in San Diego, the Lamplighter.  It's a super fun karaoke bar, which means naturally Callie & I had to make fools of ourselves.

Saturday was the day we were going to get out and do stuff, which of course meant the weather was crappy.  We met up with Ellen on Coronado, and walked around the beach there for a bit (it was FREEZING!), and then we drove up to La Jolla to see the cliffs, and Seal Beach.  There was a seal playing in the water, we tried to get pictures of him, but I'm pretty sure I just got a million pictures of the grey Pacific Ocean.

Since Saturday was St. Patrick's Day, Callie & I went to McP's.  It's an Irish Pub on Coronado, owned by a former SEAL.  The food isn't that great, but apparently it's a big draw because of the whole SEAL thing.  Anway, they were serving green beer and had a band, so we went.  Even though Ellen was eating dinner just across the street at the Del, she decided to bail on us.  Whatever.  We had fun anyway!  I ended up meeting a SEAL & a marine pilot, because they brought their dogs to the patio (you can bring your dogs everywhere here, it's great), and I went up to pet them.  We all started talking, and I told them about the lab, and how I was from Alabama, and the SEAL's wife said something along the lines of, "Thanks for losing to Creighton, by the way."  I responded that I went to Auburn, so frankly I was glad Alabama lost.  Then I called her a dummy for picking Alabama in the first round.  I thought that was a good way to make a first impression. 

Sunday was beautiful, and thankfully Callie didn't fly out until really late, so we went up to Encinitas to have brunch, and drove down the coast on the way back to my place so we could take some pretty pictures.  Then we decided to head up to LA early to explore some of that area.  We stopped in Laguna Beach to try to find Lauren Conrad's house, and we thought we found it, but according to Google Images, we did not.  Then we drove up the PCH toward LA, eventually making our way to the airport.

It really sucked saying goodbye to Callie, because it was so awesome having her here for a whole week.  I think she should move out here with me!