Extended stay in Las Vegas, again

Well, as most of you have already heard, I'll be in Vegas at least until the end of September. The newest big news with the NSF (National Screening Force) is that the training headquarters are being moved from Baltimore to Las Vegas. That's good news for Las Vegas, bad news for me. I'm hoping to make a stop at home before being sent elsewhere, but that is yet to be determined. Since I am familiar with our online payroll system, the NSF has decided to keep me around for a while longer. I personally was ready to move on to greener pastures a month ago. Now after being extended twice, I'm just hoping that they don't extend my stay in the casino desert any longer than they already have.

It's been several weeks since I've added anything to my blog, but not much has changed here. It's still dry and hot. I did get out of the hotel last Sunday for a little fun. I went to the Hoover Dam with Mike, a coworker, and his wife Jane. It was cool to see, but the best part was going down to Lake Mead, the only body of water anywhere near Las Vegas. At Lake Mead, we rented a jet ski for a couple hours and had a blast. It was my 1st time on a jet ski and it was a lot of fun. Jane and I rode it over to the Hoover Dam and jumped off for a quick swim just so we could say that we swam there. It's cool to swim in water that's said to be 500 feet deep. (I couldn't say for sure since I couldn't quite make it to the bottom.) I was also fun to see the carp and stripe bass swarming around the dock by the rental boats. There is no fishing in that location for good reason. All you need for bait is a bag of ready made popcorn and the carp go nuts. See pictures below. Hope all is well in Minnesota and hope to see you soon!

Some Pictures from the Strip...

I sent DANNY GLOVER for additional screening!

I finally had my 1st encounter with a non-athlete star that I recognized. Late last night, I was standing at the walk through metal detector when Danny Glover walked up to my lane. I had to ask him to remove his shoes but he said he had to go through additional screening anyway. Sure enough, he walked in and alarmed. Looks like he has a hip or knee replacement. Who knew?

Danny Glover is best known for being Mel Gibson's co-star in Lethal Weapon. I've never watched those movies, but I definitely knew who he was. It was pretty cool. Everyone stopped and stared.

HERE'S JOEY!

Grandpa Charlie passed on this picture of Jess and Joey. (See more details under "It's a Boy.") I spoke with Jess last Monday. It sounds like everyone's healthy, short on sleep, and trying to adjust to some sort of routine.

I asked my supervisor if he had any idea of what I could except after this deployment. He said it all depends on where/if they need help, but there is about an 85% chance that I'll go back to Minnesota for 2 to 6 weeks after Vegas. I guess September typically is a slow month. So I'm hoping to come home and see everyone, especially my new nephew. There is still a chance that I'll go straight from Vegas to another deployment. I probably won't know until the end of August. Keep in touch! I want to know what's going on in Minnesota too.

How do you do this?

I just bought a digital camera and I'm still learning how use a blog so chances are that this isn't going to work. Tracy, do you know of any way to attach slideshows or albums? Looks like I can only attach individual picts for now. Here's some of my favorites...or not.

I'm not having any luck with individual pictures either. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Does it have something to do with the file type? The picts I took are TIF. The picture of Joey that my dad took is JPEG and I didn't have any trouble attaching it.

If you know how to convert my picture files to JPEG, please leave a comment. Burman, Dad...I'm counting on you.

Well, I got a few picts to load. The 1st one is the view from my hotel room. It's about 2 miles east of the strip. Next are picts of my bed, kitchen, and bathroom. So maybe it's not a luxury suite on the strip, but it's good enough for me.

TSA employees have travel days from hell, too.

Hey everyone,

I made it back to Vegas on Saturday afternoon. It was another eventful trip. As I mentioned before, we were waiting in DC while the NSF HQ and our travel agent made arrangements to return us to wherever we came from. So we had free time to catch up on training, travel around DC, relax in the hotel, etc. By Thursday, it seemed like about half of the NSF had their travel orders. The other half got them on Friday...except me. No itinerary, no deployment orders, no nothing. I mentioned this to a couple of my team leads late Friday morning, but they just shrugged it off and said to check later that night. I helped with a training class on our payroll system until 5:00 pm then I went into DC to do a little more site seeing. When I got back to my hotel, I checked my email...STILL NOTHING!

By this time I'm getting a little nervous because everyone I've talked to has their orders. It was late so instead of calling, I sent out an email to all our team leads asking for help. I wasn't sleeping well and decided to get up and do something. Checked my email obsessively, 6:00 am still nothing. Went down stairs to the fitness center expecting one of the leads to call me as soon as they got my email. 7:30 I am exhausted from workout, still no word. Back up to my room, nothing in my email. 8:00 Went down to the lobby hoping to find someone who knows something. One NSF leaving for the airport to catch his flight gavw me the number for our travel agent. I called it and got transferred to an emergency number because they are closed on the weekends. They can't search by name and they repeatedly asked me for my flight information (departure time, flight number, etc.), which of course I didn't know. 8:30 a team lead called me and gave me the travel agent number. Too late, already tried that. He said he'd call me back. 8:45 called back wanted to know when the others going to Vegas were leaving. I made several calls to find out then called the Area Coordinator. He wanted to get me on one of their flights. He said he'd call back.

Meanwhile I started packing, still didn't know when I'd be leaving. Decided to wait on showering because I couldn't afford to miss a call. 10:05 am team lead called to see if I'm ready to go. Tells me my flight departs at 12:40. I tell him I need some time. I hop in the shower. 10:15 team lead calls again to see if I want I ride. I tell him I'm not ready and I'll try to catch the hotel shuttle at 10:30. Run around like a mad woman. Get downstairs by 10:30 shuttles still there but I need to check out of my room. There are two people in front of me and one lady behind the desk in no particular hurry. @!#$&%! 10:35 shuttle leaves, next shuttle isn't until 11:00.

Shuttle leaves hotel late then drops others off first. 11:40 finally arrive at airport. Fortunately, there is no line. I have 1 hour layover in Chicago where I have to change airlines. Kiss my bags goodbye, get in line for security. Additional screening for me because my ticket was purchased last minute. 12:00 through security, 10 minutes until boarding. Buy lunch, board.

1:50 pm arrive in Chicago, my bags were checked through but still have to figure out where my gate is and see if I can get my boarding pass at the gate. It's a hike to a shuttle that brings me to the correct concourse. Find the gate, ask if I can check in. Gate agent says I have go out of security to the ticket counter. It's now about 2:00 pm. My flight boards in 20 minutes. She sees the panicked expression on my face and says she was just joking. Tee hee...not very funny.

Surprisingly enough my bags and I reunited in Las Vegas without incident. (Sigh of relief) Can't believe I made it back. Start to think I should kept my mouth shut and spent another day in DC.