I guess that’s why I am here…

So today I had to go down to NYPD medical for a check up of sorts for my SCOTT pac air tank training (see this from last year). Had to be there for 6 am so that was oodles of fun, like last time I took a cab. It was worth the 10$ not to deal with the bus at 5am.

So I get there and the rent-a-cop…er security guard in the loby asks what I am there for. I tell him I am with the NYPD and am doing a medical screening. He looks at me again and then asks “Oh…are you here for psychological screening?” I just stared at him for a moment and said “uh no…for hazmat related training medical check up”. He told me what floor to head to and I went on my way. So you know thanks security guy for my needing psychological testing being your first guess as to why I was there. Maybe a just had an extra crazy look this morning, a combination of being out at 6am and not having eaten anything for the last 12 hours due to the blood test (which was the LAST thing they did…seriously..take my blood first then while I am standing for 20 minutes waiting to see the Dr. I can eat a snack cake or something)

But I digress, rest of the thing went fine and I was back at work a few hours later…medically fit apparently but I guess I will just never know about my psychological state Maybe next time!

HMS Pinafore »« Men’s Room at the Hilton

Men’s Room at the Hilton

Men’s Room, originally uploaded by zombie_criminalist.

Phone cam pict from the Men’s room at the Las Vegas Hilton. They had these pictures up over all the urinals.

I guess that’s why I am here… »« Leaving Las Vegas

Leaving Las Vegas

We are back from our Vegas adventure!

The Meg and I flew down to Las Vegas this past Thursday so we could see our friends Jenn and David get married! This is our first time in Vegas so it was also a vacation/adventure for Meg and I.

We stayed at the Las Vegas Hilton while we were there. It was a nice hotel/casino but we mostly stayed there because it is also home to The Star Trek Experience!

See the plan for the wedding is that they were going to be married on the bridge of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) but the ceremony would be performed by none other than…

Thats right….the King him self…ELVIS! (Oh yah, David decided to wear a dress command uniform in lieu of a tux)

He was a really good Elvis! Everyone at the attraction got a total kick out of the whole thing. This was Elvises first Star Trek Wedding and the Star Trek Experiences first Elvis wedding. Elvis also got a good number of pictures not only with our group but also with a bunch of the characters including the hot Klingon woman we had there with us. Elvis did a nice short little ceremony, asking if Jenn took David to be “her hunk-a-hunk-a burning love” and sang three songs.

After the ceremony we went down to Quarks bar for dinner, drinks, and wedding (vegan) cupcakes.

The whole thing was a total blast. I had Romulan ale, which I think was just normal beer with blue food coloring. They also had these HUGE drinks, which came in 2 sizes, the large one being the size of a fishbowl and containing 10oz of just liquor with a number of other things including dry ice to make it smoke. Elvis hung out with us for a bit and got quite a few odd looks, which is saying something in a Star Trek theme bar.

After the wedding we spent the rest of the weekend doing touristy type stuff. Spent some time down by the pool. We went back to the Star Trek thing as just regular tourists and got to see all the props and did the Borg and Klingon rides which were a lot of fun.

We also visited Madame Tussauds wax museum:

Saturday night we all split up and people went to see different shows. Meg and I ended up going to see one called BITE at the Stratosphere which is basically naughty vampire girls set to classic rock. It was a really fun time. We had dinner at the Stratosphere and did a little gambling on the video poker. I won enough to just about cover dinner which isn’t bad.

Sunday we all took a tour bus down to the Hoover Dam and had a DAMN tour! Yeah the DAMN /DAM jokes were a plenty. The girl at the gift shop even told me “here’s your dam receipt”.

Monday we packed up and headed home. Trip home was mostly un-eventful except for being delayed 2 hours due to weather. All in all we had a really good time our first trip out to Vegas and will probably go back again at some point. There was a LOT of stuff we didn’t have time to see/do so I wouldn’t mind going back. Who knows, maybe next time it will be our turn to finally get hitched!

Men’s Room at the Hilton »« Lie Detector?

Lie Detector?

  

Lie Detector, originally uploaded by zombie_criminalist.

Thanks to Alison for getting me this nifty ruler…er I mean “Lie Detector” from UNH’s Alumni weekend. Now you can get the truth out of the suspect that you just chased down and arrested after doing “forensic science” on the evidence you your self collected from the crime scene and analyzed in 20 minutes.

But seriously…on the one hand it’s a cute little…promotion…or something but one would think that in advertising the “Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science” at the University of New Haven you would go for something a bit more….well scientific? I mean granted there is science involved in the little thermal reactive patch on the ruler which changes color with the temperature (think Mood Ring) but presenting it as a lie detector…even as a joke, doesn’t really do much for science credibility. They may as well of printed a star chart or Ouija board on it and told people to use that to catch the criminal.

I guess it just bothers me that in a field where we have to constantly fight the media image of forensic science as something that is akin to magic process that can solve any crime in 30 minutes or less, even the big “reputable” organizations of higher learning further the stereo type instead of…well you know…educating people as they are supposed to be doing to the truth of Forensic Science and all the work that goes into it. We have enough problems with jurors expecting “cool science stuff” in every trial, and really the last thing we need is them now wondering why the officer didn’t just use is portable lie detector to find out the truth.

Leaving Las Vegas »« AC hell

AC hell

So since last summer we have been planning on getting a new AC, the one we have works…mostly but doesn’t seem to do a great job of keeping even one room cool. So given we are in for 3 days of 90+ weather we decided this was as good a time as any to pick up a new one. So we ran out to Home Depot found a decent model, both power and size wise (so we though). First adventure was in the parking lot when we found that the box wouldn’t fit in either the trunk or back seat. Oopse! So there we are in the parking lot taking the thing out of the box with all the packing materials and what not and finally managing to fit it in the trunk. Get it home, carry it up the stairs and into the appt. Now the old one we had was…smaller. As in portable with a handle and what not. This one…isn’t It’s not HUGE I mean it fits in the window but was a nightmare to install. The instructions were less then helpful and the screw holes were a fraction too small with the paint so it made bolting stuff together a nightmare. But I did finally get it installed and it does look/work nice. We haven’t tried the cooling features yet (not that hot so far) but the fan function works nice. I guess my writing about it really can’t convey the true hell it was to put together and install but needless to say my arms are killing me this morning. So glad I am not working today.

Speaking of working my Fire Debris training is going well. Learning all about….well fire and what not. Only working two days next week then its off to Vegas for Jenn’s wedding! Woo for that!

Today we may do a movie and then dinner out somewhere tonight. Sunday is our 1 year engagement anniversary so we figured a touch of celebration is in order. And no we haven’t set a date yet, though Jenn keeps saying we should bring our Birth Certificates with us to Vegas just in case the mood were to strike us to join her at the alter with Elvis

Lie Detector? »« The letter in the pond