We're ALL IN! Birthday Celebration

Tonight, Nick and I hosted a poker/billiards night at our house to celebrate both of our birthdays (Nick's on the 23rd and mine on the 26th). We hope our guests enjoyed it as much as we did. Here's a picture of the poker table. It was a little tight but we managed.

Nick opted not to play poker so that he could be a good host and pay attention to everyone. Here he is showing off his X-box arcade games. These are always popular! :)

Best of all, our dog behaved! I had considered having a dog sitter for him tonight but because there would be no children at the party I opted to leave Baby home. Everyone was warned when they came in not to pet him under any circumstances. Most people obeyed. Some really believed they could win him over and I warned them again and again, MANY have tried and all have failed. He is just not a social dog, he doesn't like strangers or children. By the end of the night, there were some who were petting him and he was ok with. I wasn't ok because I know him better and I know I just can't trust him with new people. But I'm happy to say that there were no incidents with Baby last night!

Earth Day Reminder

Today I participated in an Earth Day Celebration. A group of us went to different parks and planted trees. Some picked up garbage or cleaned debris at the lake. It was hosted by the local Parks & Recreation department.

I wanted to remind you all that this weekend is Earth Day (I don't know if it's today or tomorrow) so take the time to do something good for our environment. If you don't recycle already, PLEASE start today! Nick and I recycled before we went to Japan but after living in the land that requires recycling and seeing how much trash is saved by doing so, we just can't live without recycling. It's so easy to recycle and it makes a big difference! Once you start doing it, you won't think about it because it becomes second nature to you.
To find out how, what or where you can recycle and other ways to "live green" visit: www.earth911.org and type in your zip code.
GO GREEN, TODAY!

Government Day

Another leadership class blog. Government day wasn't as eventful as the previous days but it was very educational. Before I start, I should mention that within Osceola County there are 2 cities, Kissimmee and St. Cloud. It gets very confusing when there are commissioners and managers for each one; County, City of Kissimmee and City of St Cloud. I've worked here for a while and I still get them all confused.

We started at Kissimmee City Hall where we had breakfast with the City manager and City Commissioners for a Q & A session. The City manager answered questions about one of the heated topics in Florida, the bill introduced in our legislature that would eliminate property taxes. To the average uninformed homeowner this seems like a wonderful idea. However, as the city manager reiterated today it is a terrible idea. Property taxes revenues make up 30-40% (depending on the city) of the city budget that includes police, fire, sanitation, public works, parks & recreation among many other departments. Hence, if property taxes are eliminated there would have to be major budget cuts and the residents would "pay" for the consequences. Obviously to make up for the loss of money, local governments would implement fire/rescue fees, law enforcement fees, sanitation fees, etc and also may be forced to lay off employees. This has been a popular subject at my job because our funding would be cut since we're a non-profit and our funding comes from the social services fund...that would be eliminated if this bill would pass. The ramifications of this bill would be extremely detrimental to our communities. What's even sadder about this whole thing is that both city managers came back from Tallahassee (the capital) yesterday and they said that one of the State legislators actually asked the audience "What should we do? We have no clue what to do"....and that's a quote...reassuring isn't it?!?!? Honestly, I could go on and on all day telling you how bad of an idea this is but I'll move on...just say NO!

Our first hands-on experience of the day was with the Public Works department. They showed us the trucks used to fix the traffic lights and such. Some of us got to go up in the "bucket". It was about 4 stories high and again I learned I'm not afraid of heights...until the wind blows. That "bucket" sways a little too much for my comfort.

Then we moved on to the County Administration Building where we met with the County Commissioners and took part in a mock commissioners meeting. All I can say is that making decisions as a Commissioner is a lot harder than I expected. As opinionated as I am I thought I'd enjoy to actually make a decision on a matter rather than just criticize it but I don't think I could ever be in public office.

We then took a tour through the Historic Kissimmee Courthouse. This is the oldest courthouse (in consecutive use) in Florida. It will be 116 years old this year. Some County departments such as Human Resources and Economic Development work in this building (1st and 2nd floors). The court room is in the 3rd floor. It is still a functional court although not used unless need be. It is still used for ceremonial events and it can also be rented out for weddings. Once the defendant received their sentence they would go down to the first floor where the jail used to be. The sheriff and his wife used to live on the first floor as well. The wife would make the meals for the inmates, funny huh?

Lastly, we went to the City of St Cloud for a city planning exercise. In the exercise we used a current city map and there are 900 "vacant" acres that need to be planned for. What would the residents want? What is best for the city? There's 20,000 people moving to the city that they need to plan for...that includes housing, schools, infrastructure, commercial (grocery stores, retail, doctors, etc) and parks. Again, this is one of those jobs that I gained respect for because it was unbelievably hard to figure out how to grow as a city. I wanted to predict the ramifications of what we were doing but there's no way to predict certain things. I often criticize city, county and school districts for not planning enough but when I was put in the situation it was very difficult to think of everything at once. The bottom line is someone will be pissed at you no matter what you do. It was a very interesting exercise. Below you see the city map we used for the exercise. All the colors represent a different type of development and the white is where we needed to plan for.

Fighting Fires and Viruses!

This day was every woman's dream...spend the day with firefighters...woo hoo!
As part of my bi-weekly leadership class, today we learned about Emergency Management Services. The Fire Department hosted the day and they were fabulous.

We started at a local Fire Station where we did a tour. We got a chance to "play" with a CPR dummy and learned the new technique for CPR. They have changed it to 30 quick chest compressions and 2 breathes (i'm pretty sure I misspelled that). We also learned how to use a defibrilator in case of cardiac arrest. I did not excel at the CPR stuff, definitely need more practice. Hopefully I'll never have to use it.

Next we got to do the really cool stuff. We had a chance to gear up in the firefighter yellow pants, jacket and hat so we could play with a junk car using the jaws of life and some really big electrical plyers used to open jammed doors. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this as of right now. My boss did take a picture of me all dressed up but she hasn't sent it to me yet. I did look like a 5 year old playing with daddy's clothes.
The jaws of life weigh about 45 pounds so I did need a little help from the firefighters to keep it in place the whole time. The electrical plyers weigh about 55 pounds and you have to constantly re-place it to try to get the door to pop open. That takes a lot of of you especially when you're wearing heavy gear to begin with AND out in Florida heat.

Next, we headed to the local hospital for lunch and to learn about the decontamination. I had the opportunity to be in the decon demo and dress up in the training "space suit".

In case of mass contamination, all they use is water to decon! Lots of water! You might think to yourself, what will water do? The doctor explained that no matter what the threat is, whether it's a virus or a chemical, the amount of water used in the decontamination process will dilute it to the point where it's not a threat. We also got to use the water hose that they'd use in case of decon (just like the hose in a fire truck) and the force has a strong kickback. I had to lean forward before turning it on so that when it "kicked" me back I'd still be upright.

I was trying to tell my classmate to take a picture of the other guy...she couldn't hear me through the mask, hence my reaction.

The oxygen machine makes the suit blow up. We joked we looked like Oompa Loompas!

For the last education piece of the day, we visited the Communications building where dispatchers work. These individuals dispatch the 911 calls as well as the non-emergency calls to the fire or police department. I always had a certain respect for these people and it was reiterated on this day. Their job is very stressful and there's no slow time. In the few minutes that we were there, they received 4 critical calls including a possible homicide, a police officer in a traffic accident, and an assault (all separate calls). A few of us walked out thinking they get paid too little for what they have to go through. I know I don't think I could do it as calmly as they do.

Finally I'll share a few things I learned. Parents can take their children to the fire station at any time to look at the trucks and talk to the firefighters. Also, firefighters will inspect and teach parents how to install car safety seats in their cars.

In case you didn't know about the Safe Haven for Newborns law, this is the law where a new mother or father can drop off their unwanted baby within 3 days of being born at a designated "Safe Haven" and they will not be prosecuted for abandonment/neglect. Every fire station is a designated Safe Haven. Something I did not know is that newborns that are dropped off do not go into State care, they are automatically adopted. Adoption agencies have a list of qualified parents and in case of a Safe Haven baby, the selected adoptive parents can pick up the baby at the hospital immediately (if all is ok with the baby of course).