Birthday Weekend

Friday was a light day, we got out early and didn’t have a last class scheduled that day. We also found out that we will have that same schedule for our long weekend in February, which will allow some people to get home Friday instead of Saturday.

After class I took off for Baltimore to hang out with Robby, Lucy, Charlie (BIL/SIL/Neice) and Bob and Linda (In Laws). It feels good to get out of here. I got stuck in traffic north of DC though and it took me a long time to finally make it to B-More. I made a quick stop at Aslin Brewing-phenomenal beer and grabbed a couple of 4 packs to bring with me!

On Saturday we went to Fan Fest for the Baltimore Orioles. It was neat, I had never been to one of those sort of things before. You can get autographs and see your favorite players up close. The lines were long though, so not sure if it’s worth it. The highlight of the fan fest though was getting a tour of the locker room area at Camden Yards. The gym in there is tiny, especially compared to what we have here at the FBI Academy. The lockers were neat, Adam Jones has 3, the most lockers. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in there. The dugout was cool and the view from behind home plate is not something a lot of people get to see. All in all, I liked the tour the most.

We spent the night in at Robby and Lucy’s house and they were nice enough to make me a dinner and a torte! It was all so good. I wish I had known about the torte ahead of time, I would have went lighter on my dinner! I also had a box there from Sarah and the kids! So thoughtful. Inside was Double Hop Skewer (only my beer nerd friends would know what this means) and some chocolate chip cookies. My wife makes better chocolate chip cookies then you do. I’d bet on it.

Sunday morning I headed back and worked on some homework. I need to buckle down on the important stuff, but I need some guidance. The classes seem designed so you can’t work too far ahead. It makes sense, otherwise we might all be going nuts here at the end! Steady work though, always have something I can do.

Pictures below. Talk to you all tomorrow!

Kids had a birthday envelope for me! It had hugs and kisses!  Also had their handprints, attached to strings to replicate a hug! Very thoughtful.



Gifts from Sarah’s family!


Selfie at Orioles Park at Camden Yards!

Fan Fest opened up Camden Yards for the day. Clubhouse was really cool, no pics allowed.

Dan and I in Media class! Suite mate and Midwest homey!

Grabbed a few beers from here. Outstanding brewery if you are into craft.


One more pic of Camden

Feeling the Burn

The swimming miles are starting to add up and take a tole on me. I was tired today, got my mile in barely. Not sure if it was the challenge run yesterday or the fact that we had free beer for a bit in the Boardroom last night after the Memorial snafu? ;-). Truth is, I ate more for dinner last night then I have in a long time and it wasn’t exactly good for me, so that is why I was so sluggish today. Mr. O’Malley killed us again today, I am looking forward to a weekend of rest-no working out! We did some King Salmons-that’s what he calls them anyway. You push a 100lb sandbag on a towel the length of a basketball court. It was fun! There were a bunch of other stuff too, I really enjoy his classes.

Classes went smooth today. Had a very good guest teacher who presented on Critical Thinking. I learned a lot in there today. It’s all about asking questions. It was something I can take home and implement at my office. The best thinkers ask questions!

I represented our group in a short presentation in my Essentials class this am. It was nice to talk for a little bit about challenges of heading an agency. Tomorrow my talking continues. I have a live interview in my Media class!

This weekend I’m off to Baltimore to see some family and go to the Orioles Fan Fest! I should have some good pictures. Hope you all have a good weekend, I’ll try and post again some time this weekend. Oh, I am starting to hear from some classmates that their friends and family are checking the blog out, hope I can help give you an insight into what they are doing! As I hear about it, I try to post a picture of one of them so their family can see them!

Me and Todd kicking it in our Essentials class! I told him I’d make him famous by putting him in my blog! Y’-all see what I did there? (Did I spell that right?)


Laundry facilities! Not sure if I posted a pic of these yet or not. They are always busy it seems!


Our flowers from the ceremony that was postponed, in the hall of honor.

What a Day

Wednesday was a good day, kinda! Our morning started off with the challenge, ‘We Aren’t in Kansas Anymore’! It was good fun had by all I think. We started off with partner banded sprints for 6 minutes. Then we jogged over to the parking ramp and ran stairs for 6 minutes. We finished with 6 minutes of sprints up a short steep hill. The hill was the worst, I bear crawled down...once. After that I figured I would save my face from being planted into the ground and instead I crab walked down. Either way, I am bit sore today! Everyone seemed to have a good time with it!

After lunch we had some presentations on grants. This was by far the longest afternoon I have had so far at the NA. It’s just not an exciting subject and I got tired.

At 330 our Law Enforcement Memorial committee took off for DC to set up for the ceremony. We had no issues with traffic and made great time. After doing a walk though, we went to grab dinner while we waited for our classmates to be bussed up for the ceremony. There turned out to be a slight glitch and for whatever reason, the buses were a no show. We had a nice dinner and headed back to the academy where we found the majority of our session in the Boardroom, having a good time! Between the karaoke and free beer, it appears everyone was having fun. We are going to reschedule the ceremony hopefully.

Swam my mile this am and heading off to class. Should be a good day!

Steps 15,567 = 7.37 miles

The Law Enfocement Memorial Commitee grabbing dinner before our ceremony. Was a fun night despite the hiccup.

The Lion at the front of the LE memorial.



After our Not in Kansas Anymore Challenge. This isn’t everyone, but you get the idea. I stole this picture from someone, thanks!



Wes and I chilling between classes. He mentioned he wanted to become famous, so I threw him in the blog!



My dinner from last night! I ate way too much.

Not in Kansas Anymore!

Quick post-mainly to get some pictures uploaded.

We have our 2nd Challenge in the Yellow Brick Road series, today is "Not in Kansas Anymore"! There is some serious cardio today I hear. Some stair running, some banded sprints (partner holding you with a band while you try to run) and some hills. I guess they know Kansas is flat, so the name makes sense. Should be a good time. I took it easy on my swimming this am, still got in over a mile, just went nice and slow.

On the wall before you enter the gym. There are these sort of quotes all over the academy, obviously all aimed at what we do for a living.




My Monday envelope that the kids packed for me! Those almonds were good, ate them already!



This is the cafeteria/boardroom area for the NFL playoff games. Was a good time to grab a beer and watch football and not have a rooting interest in either team. Patriots won...again, but it was a close game. There was about 100 or so people watching this and eating dinner at the same time!


My view from my room. Weather here has been decent the past few days.



Sadie fixed my Cyclone bracelet! Go Cyclones!

Tuesday-Full Day of Class

First off, I would like to voice my frustration with Blogger! I am having serious issues uploading pictures. I am using an iPad to post here and I have been using an app on my phone to upload pictures. All of sudden, I can’t add any photos. I left a negative review for the app on the App Store. I’ve signed out, signed in, even added Dropbox to here. I’m getting frustrated. This blog is already boring...without pictures would be a special kind of torture! I’ll keep fighting on.

Today was another good day of class. These classes are interesting. We have discussions that most of us can relate to. I find myself saying daily, “yeah, I know what you mean!”. Today was one of those days.

We had a seminar today from survivors of the Washington Navy Yard shooting and the Virginia Tech shooting. They provided some serious insights to what an everyday victim goes through. It was intense and they both are very lucky to be alive. They both were face to face with their bad guys and lived to tell about it. Sobering how life comes you.

My advice if you are coming here, get started on your home work and keep up on it. Most of us are and I think we are busy. I hear we get less busy if we keep this up. So far though, I have something to do pretty much every night. I don’t know if that is because I took master’s level classes or not, but either way I am working. It’s not terribly difficult, just tedious.

Tomorrow we are going to DC for the Law Enforcement Memorial trip. I am on the committee and I will be an usher for the event. Tonight I will line up the 5 names I am going to read off as having died in the line of duty. Unfortunately, the past 2 years around my hometown has been pretty bad and I have plenty of names to choose from.

The Des Moines area experienced 5 line of duty deaths in 2016.
Carlos Puetnte Morales-DMPD-March 26, 2016
Susan Farrell-DMPD-March 26, 2016
Anthony Beminio-DMPD-November 2, 2016
Justin Martin-Urbandale PD-November 2, 2016
Shawn Miller-West Des Moines PD-August 3, 2016

I personally knew Shawn Miller and Carlos Puente-Morales. My county was involved somehow some way in each of line of duty deaths and I won’t ever forget them. Morales and Farrell were killed by a drunk driver on Interstate 80 in Dallas County, very near my home. Beminio and Martin were killed in the same night by the same coward who ambushed both of them. He was arrested a day later in my county by my Deputies. Miller was killed in a car accident in Dallas County on his way home from court. All of these senseless deaths are still fresh in my mind and I think about them often, even though I don’t say much about it. They were all great people with a family who now marches on without them. I didn’t intend for this post to go this route, but it’s got me thinking.

I can’t talk about line of duty deaths though, without mentioning one of my all time favorite people, Sean Wissink. Sean and I were partners on the Task Force for a couple of years. He was a great man, a loving father and husband, who had a laugh that was infectious and commanded your smile. He was tall, charming, funny, and all around great police officer. One of the best I ever met. I was close to him in a way that dudes understand. We didn’t talk every day after he was reassigned, but when we saw each other, we picked up right where we left off. We were close and I miss him. I miss the fact that he hasn’t been able to see his kids grow up.

Sean Wissink-DMPD-February 11, 2007

Tomorrow night will be tough for me I think. I have to narrow my list of 6 officers down to 5, as that is all we are allowed to read off.

I won’t be back till late, so probably no post tomorrow night, sorry in advance.

Steps 11,678 = 5.20 miles (light day)

3rd Week Begins!

Well, crisis has been averted! The stalemate is over (albeit temporarily) and the government is open for business! This hot topic was put to rest today, but it might come up again around here as we all anxiously await the next due date for a budget to pass. The conversations around the NA were positive and we were assured that business would be normal for us and that we aren’t going to be sent home. That didn’t stop us from wild speculation though.

A full day of classes commenced and was relatively normal. Had some great discussion with a small group and a classmate about the Czech Republic, where she is from, and how the EU works within a law enforcment format. Was informative and interesting to say the least.

Had a great presentation on the Unabomber and some blood patterning today also. I learned a few things, FBI got lucky on ole Teddy.

Highlight of the day was the box I got from home! Cookies again!! Thanks Sarah, Sadie, and Eli! I also got to open one of my weekly envelops and that had some treats in it as well. I am going to need to keep the swimming up to justify the treats.

PT was awesome! Mr. O’Malley challenged us quite a bit and I think we all improved today. We had 4 stations. 1 was TRX pulls and some lunge/squats, another was rower or assault bike (try to get 1000 watts on the bike-ouch), another station was sled pushes! The last station was walking around a 400 meter track carrying a kettlebell over your head. Doesn’t sound tough, but 45lb kettlebells killed me today.

For some reason I can’t upload any pictures today. I wanted to show you all how we watched the playoff games yesterday. I will try again tomorrow!

Off to bed, need to get up and swim again...

Steps 13,570 = 6.09 miles