Today consisted of two presentations. One with the board of directors at the Maryland Pilots Association and the other with Lt. Cmdr. Ditmar and Lt. Cmdr. Beach of the US Coast Guard Sector Baltimore... I'm starting to get this military jargon down.

Our presentation to the board and it went very well. I usually find the presentations turn into more of a classroom atmosphere where we teach from a book written by Sandia National Labs located here.

Before the meetings, I was hit with guilt in my hotel room the night before. I've been on the ball with getting out and running at a state park near our LNG terminal called Calvert Cliffs. (very pretty run along the beach / through the woods on a trail). I just can't seem to counter the effects of eating crab cakes.

The crab is an interesting creature. How many animals can you name which produce such amazing cakes? The cow patty possibly? If I ever get married, I'm requesting a groom's cake be made of crab. I've actually become a self proclaimed connoisseur of the crab cake. I've eaten them in nearly all of the top rated establishments in Maryland who all claim to have the first place prize (from different contest sources). There are the fried crab cakes and the baked crab cakes that seem to be most popular. Some have large chunks of crab and some have more of a stringy consistency. I believe the ideal crab cake to be one which is oven baked with very large chunks of crab. Not over baked! Just enough to crisp the outside and keep the inside crabby.

Last night, Autumn, our waitress, convinced myself and a colleague to order a crab cake on top of half a rack of ribs. Being gullible, stupid, and expenses paid, we both decided that had to be a good choice.

In summary, I could only eat half of the meal and I felt sick the rest of the night. I could not successfully mix pork ribs and crab cakes. I'm getting queasy thinking about it.


My Second meeting with Lt. Cmdr. Ditmar and Lt. Cmdr. Beach of the US Coast Guard Sector Baltimore also went extremely well, especially since it only lasted 30 minutes. The result of the meeting is basically we are doing a good job, so I get to go back to Texas.

I was wanting to go back this week, so secretly I was wanting a bad review so I could go back sooner. (not really, ha) I'll be here another week or so as a result.

This week I'm going design an exciting itinerary for the weekend to keep me motivated to finish up this project. I'll release the details later this week. Philly may be in the mix... possibly NYC...

I have slew of pictures on my camera... but I left my silly cord, so I can only post pictures from my phone. (the cords cost $20 at staples and I have around 4 in Houston).

On a different tangent, I follow economic news pretty closely. I do fear what could happen when Q3/Q4 earnings are released. I think the main way companies will compensate for a drop in revenue/profit will be to cut jobs. I've been very blessed with this job and DNV seems to be risk averse seeing as it is not directly subject to the fears of the market since it is an independent non-profit foundation. The largest issue will be a slow down in client's large capital projects which require risky financing, I think at least.

I miss playing guitar. I'm also bummed I missed the Table's retreat!

welp, going to bed.
peace.