Raining Cats and Dogs

My friend Marci says they only had five rain-free days in March in San Jose, CA. I told her that we've had several gorgeous months up here in the emerald city, and that perhaps global climate change would soon make her house worth $30,000, and mine worth $5 million. Wishful thinking.

Anyway, just when you thought it was safe to go back outside...

Learned Tuesday evening that I will soon have my defensive driving course for emergency vehicles. This is the one thing that's been standing between me and driving for the BIFD and BIAA. From there, it's just a matter of time driving and learning pumps, ladders, etc. before I can drive anything in the fleet. You gotta know that it speaks to every guy's inner little boy to be strapped into the back of a fire engine, lights and sirens blasting, frantically working to get your air bottle strapped on, going full tilt down the road to a scene. Being the one doing the actual driving has to be that much more fun, and I, for one, can't wait...

I also found out Tuesday that the Washington State Patrol fire academy, normally a ten-week course, will be offered on weekends for the first time ever this summer. Our department approved paying for eight of us to go, and it looks like I'll get one of the slots. It's an amazing opportunity; tons of fun and tons of learning and refining skills. The link above goes to the page that describes all the props they have there--I did live fire training there last year, and can say that it is like Disneyland for firefighters.

On another front, I sent my application today for the Glen Hay Falconer Scholarship to the Siebel Institute. It pays for the two-week Concise Course in Brewing Technology, which is an industry standard course for those intending to make a career of brewing. I applied last year as well, but feel that this year I presented a much more compelling package to them. I should know the outcome by about mid-May. I would be extremely excited if this one comes through--in one summer, I'd get major steps forward in both brewing and fire service, and could easily take either one to a paid status if I so choose. We'll see.

In keeping with the title of this post, the other side of the cats and dogs story:

This is probably the most disgusting thing I've ever had happen as a parent. I
am not squeamish, but this made me get a shiver and go blllleeeeech!

A few days ago, we started finding little pieces of dried dog poop in the
house, i.e. like what you'd find falling off of someone's shoes. We thought we had it
all cleaned up.

Earlier today, I looked over just in time to see Megan pushing a couple of bits of chewed up, fully rehydrated dog poop out of her mouth with her tongue. I then retrieved the rest
from her mouth, and discovered...

...dog poop in her molar. I am so skeeved out I can't even begin to tell
you.

I brushed her teeth, but the pain still lingers.

Blech.

You gotta love kids. My theory is that with kids, you gradually lose all sense of social grace, and think that discussing the color of your child's stool in public is totally acceptable. So here I am talking about my kid eating dog poop with the whole world.

Sigh...