POP'ers who have bonded - (new home!)

[mrFDNY]

:Oh yea guess what??
The third week of may the FDNY has a special games designed for its members. It consists of 3 member teams from every fire house that wants to compete. Each fire house can only have one, 3 member team. The first place winners go to florida sometime later this year to compete in the national fire and police games, all expensies paid by the FDNY. Well my fire house has voted me on our fire houses team. Its me and 2 other guys. So i guess we will see how good we do and maybe i'll be going to the nationals, i hope!

Hi gang,
So the big event was held at FDNY head quaters in downtown brooklyn thursday.. It was a 4 stage test. 27 teams consisting of 3 team mates each showed up from every fire house from every boro of the city. 3 weeks ago was the first test's, a team from every division in the city that won that test moved on to thursdays event.

9 teams showed up at my fire house from my division to compete 3 weeks ago, FDNY instructors from the academy came and tested us. My team won the semi-finals and moved on to thursdays finals.

we had no advance warning or knowledge of what the test would be based on until we were in the tent thursday.

stage 1- A gas/chemical attack. we had to hold our breath and get our scba (self contained brething apparatus) on without taking a breath or we would breath in the poision gas and die. It's actually theater smoke which is totally harmless, Remember its a simulation- the team that did it the fastest got the most points. i'm the one far left, hard to see.

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Stage 2- a house fire with one child removed not breathing- its a manaquin,. this time i'm the one far left.

[/IMG]

a different team on stage 2-but very good friends of mine.

[/IMG]

stage 3- was a overturned tractor trailer with a weird smoking green chemical leaking out of it. We had to idenifiy the chemical using the placards on the truck from 100 yards away using binoclars, it turned out to be hydrocholoric acid and recommond the right containment procedure.
no pics sorry

stage 4- a motor vechile accident with one adult found pinned behind the drivers wheel and not breathing. We had to bring in the jaws of life to get her out all the while doing cpr in the car while we un pinned her.

so it was over- we ended up having a guest speaker, it was Actor Randolph Mantooth. He played a firefighter/paramedic on that show Emergency in the late 70's and early 80's-pic

[/IMG]

Mean while i was a wreck, i just wanted to know who won and such. Then they gave us a 30 minute lunch break, still i could'nt eat and was too nervous and just wanted to know.Now they are giving awards to the 3rd,2nd, and 1st place teams only. They start the ceromony and announce 3rd place to the bronx,ok not me but still a chane of 2nd. Next 2nd to manhattan. Ok, at this point i knew we had no chance. I wanted to leave, right there.

There are 2 divisions in brooklyn considered the biggest boro, consitsing of about 30 fire house each division. The #1 chief in the FDNY says and the first place goes to the big boro, Omg i'm division 3 in the big boro, but still division 5 is there too from brooklyn. He ask that division 3 and division 5 stand up. He looks at division 5 and says you guys did a great job, right there i knew they won and they deserve too. I mean these are still all my brothers and sisters in the FDNY. He then tells them but you did'nt win, you guys did an awesome job, however.. I thought WOW how mean, so who did. What a second. We are the other team.

He looks at us and says Division 3 you got first place. OMG,I just won first place. OMG!!!! we did it, we won. First out of 200 teams 3 weeks ago we managed to win first.My chief and capt were there and there screaming and clapping and i'm frozen in shock.
so thats me standing smack in the middle.

from left to right- chief of the dept the #1 man in the FDNY, my chief from brooklyn, tommy my teammate and then me- not sure of the other names but everyone else is the 2nd and 3rd placing teams.

[/IMG]

So we got a $100 check each from my union, and a $200 check in prize money each from the FDNY, as well as a gift bag stuffed to the top with prizes worth over $1000. How cool is that?? on a sad note, we are not going to the finals in florida this year. The FDNY was told to cut 97 million from the budget and well that was one of the things to be cut first. We were told if we can get sponsors then we can go, but were told we need to raise about 10 grand each for my 3 member team plus 1 extra member to fill in just in case one of us gets sick or hurt., i don't know too many with that kind of money and that would just give it to us.

 

[scrappinmom]

HEy there everyone! I'm here! I'm still alive!!!!!! So much crud going on in life that I've had no time to DIS!!!!

Let's see - our trip to WDW was the best ever ! Animal Kingdom Lodge is beyond wonderful...I have to say it has replaced POP as my favorite - having coffee every morning on the balcony with a giraffe will be a highlight of my entire life.....California Grill was the best food I have ever eaten at WDW. The crowds were ok for Spring break. Watching Casey march down Main Street just about made me cry for days!

ok so Mike's g'ma died, she was 89 & was quite the sprited old lady ! We will miss her, but everything happened very quickly so for that we're grateful

Mike (remember he's a banker) has been beyond crabby, beyond moody shall we say a downright jack*** lately? His job I think is secure, but wowsers the crud he has to do on a daily basis...He's pretty positive there will be no bonus for 2009, which translated for me means probably no trip (WDW) or otherwise until at least 2010 (late 2010)....

My job has picked up a lot....blah ...I like making some money,..but it's soo sad.

So, I'm trying to get the house cleaned up & fixed up since I figure I'll be spending a whole lotta time here. Cleaning eveyrthing out...garage sale time this summer....It's hard for me to DIS when I know I won't be going for a long long long time...This is the first time since 2003 that I don't have a trip planned in the back of my mind.....

I will try to keep up! I know I check out everyone's facebook pages every so often just to make sure all is good.

 

[scrappinmom]

PJ - that's such a cool story! Congrats!!!!

 

[Nanu57v]

Hi gang,
So the big event was held at FDNY head quaters in downtown brooklyn thursday.. It was a 4 stage test. 27 teams consisting of 3 team mates each showed up from every fire house from every boro of the city. 3 weeks ago was the first test's, a team from every division in the city that won that test moved on to thursdays event.

9 teams showed up at my fire house from my division to compete 3 weeks ago, FDNY instructors from the academy came and tested us. My team won the semi-finals and moved on to thursdays finals.

we had no advance warning or knowledge of what the test would be based on until we were in the tent thursday.

stage 1- A gas/chemical attack. we had to hold our breath and get our scba (self contained brething apparatus) on without taking a breath or we would breath in the poision gas and die. It's actually theater smoke which is totally harmless, Remember its a simulation- the team that did it the fastest got the most points. i'm the one far left, hard to see.

[/IMG]

Stage 2- a house fire with one child removed not breathing- its a manaquin,. this time i'm the one far left.

[/IMG]

a different team on stage 2-but very good friends of mine.

[/IMG]

stage 3- was a overturned tractor trailer with a weird smoking green chemical leaking out of it. We had to idenifiy the chemical using the placards on the truck from 100 yards away using binoclars, it turned out to be hydrocholoric acid and recommond the right containment procedure.
no pics sorry

stage 4- a motor vechile accident with one adult found pinned behind the drivers wheel and not breathing. We had to bring in the jaws of life to get her out all the while doing cpr in the car while we un pinned her.

so it was over- we ended up having a guest speaker, it was Actor Randolph Mantooth. He played a firefighter/paramedic on that show Emergency in the late 70's and early 80's-pic

[/IMG]

Mean while i was a wreck, i just wanted to know who won and such. Then they gave us a 30 minute lunch break, still i could'nt eat and was too nervous and just wanted to know.Now they are giving awards to the 3rd,2nd, and 1st place teams only. They start the ceromony and announce 3rd place to the bronx,ok not me but still a chane of 2nd. Next 2nd to manhattan. Ok, at this point i knew we had no chance. I wanted to leave, right there.

There are 2 divisions in brooklyn considered the biggest boro, consitsing of about 30 fire house each division. The #1 chief in the FDNY says and the first place goes to the big boro, Omg i'm division 3 in the big boro, but still division 5 is there too from brooklyn. He ask that division 3 and division 5 stand up. He looks at division 5 and says you guys did a great job, right there i knew they won and they deserve too. I mean these are still all my brothers and sisters in the FDNY. He then tells them but you did'nt win, you guys did an awesome job, however.. I thought WOW how mean, so who did. What a second. We are the other team.

He looks at us and says Division 3 you got first place. OMG,I just won first place. OMG!!!! we did it, we won. First out of 200 teams 3 weeks ago we managed to win first.My chief and capt were there and there screaming and clapping and i'm frozen in shock.
so thats me standing smack in the middle.

from left to right- chief of the dept the #1 man in the FDNY, my chief from brooklyn, tommy my teammate and then me- not sure of the other names but everyone else is the 2nd and 3rd placing teams.

[/IMG]

So we got a $100 check each from my union, and a $200 check in prize money each from the FDNY, as well as a gift bag stuffed to the top with prizes worth over $1000. How cool is that?? on a sad note, we are not going to the finals in florida this year. The FDNY was told to cut 97 million from the budget and well that was one of the things to be cut first. We were told if we can get sponsors then we can go, but were told we need to raise about 10 grand each for my 3 member team plus 1 extra member to fill in just in case one of us gets sick or hurt., i don't know too many with that kind of money and that would just give it to us.

Wow PJ, that's awesome!!! How much time do you have to raise the 40,000? In my opinion its totally doable with corporate sponsors. Would the FDNY be cool with corporate sponsors?

And I LOL'ed when you explained the child was a manaquin, when she clearly had a plastic body.

 

[Nanu57v]

HEy there everyone! I'm here! I'm still alive!!!!!! So much crud going on in life that I've had no time to DIS!!!!

Let's see - our trip to WDW was the best ever ! Animal Kingdom Lodge is beyond wonderful...I have to say it has replaced POP as my favorite - having coffee every morning on the balcony with a giraffe will be a highlight of my entire life.....California Grill was the best food I have ever eaten at WDW. The crowds were ok for Spring break. Watching Casey march down Main Street just about made me cry for days!

ok so Mike's g'ma died, she was 89 & was quite the sprited old lady ! We will miss her, but everything happened very quickly so for that we're grateful

Mike (remember he's a banker) has been beyond crabby, beyond moody shall we say a downright jack*** lately? His job I think is secure, but wowsers the crud he has to do on a daily basis...He's pretty positive there will be no bonus for 2009, which translated for me means probably no trip (WDW) or otherwise until at least 2010 (late 2010)....

My job has picked up a lot....blah ...I like making some money,..but it's soo sad.

So, I'm trying to get the house cleaned up & fixed up since I figure I'll be spending a whole lotta time here. Cleaning eveyrthing out...garage sale time this summer....It's hard for me to DIS when I know I won't be going for a long long long time...This is the first time since 2003 that I don't have a trip planned in the back of my mind.....

I will try to keep up! I know I check out everyone's facebook pages every so often just to make sure all is good.

Yeah, the no bonus thing sucks. If it were us, we'd be in big trouble. We don't escrow, we just pay our real estate taxes with the bonus. But they did cancel DH's picnic at Hershey Park and the Christmas party. And the raises were all below inflation this year.

 

[mrFDNY]

Hi gang,
Where's everyone been?? Do i need to start a search and rescue team?? I had a terrible day. Got a call from the fire house this morning around 6 am, Blaze got hurt. Blaze is the kitty that i've been telling you all aobut, the one that adopted us and made the fire house home. One of the guys says hes dragging his back legs.

I get there and he see's me and trying to come over and is meowing and limping real bad on his back hind leg. I ended up taking him to a emergency vet thats open that early. They will do some test and call me in a few hours. they put him in a cage and let me go say good bye to him. He was rubbing my face with his and licking my nose. Fast foward 3 hours, my home phone rings it's the doctor.

Good news nothing is broke, he just has a bad leg sprain and a pinched nerve. They will keep him for one day and let me take him home. What a sigh of relief. Doctor says it looked like he got hit by a car, but at slow speed which help save him.Fast foward again, 3 more hours. I was out doing some shopping and my cell phone rang, I did'nt know the number but still answered it.

It was the vet again, HE tells me " i don't know how to tell you this, so i'm just gonna say it. Sadly we lost blaze, he passed away 20 minutes ago". I think i wanted to cry right there.I mean a few hours ago, i was told he was gonna be fine and now this. Amazing how this little kitty wrapped himself around my heart in the 5 or 6 months he found us. Vet told me that they noticed his stomache staring to swell with blood and they had to do emergency surgery.

Turned out his bladder was ruptured and they got the bleeding to stop and were sewing him up and his heart just stopped, they tried to revive him, but it was no use. He lost too much blood. I am just heart broken. I been thinking about it all day. Out of everything, he was the best fed stray cat and at least we were given the chance to take care of him. I mean what other cat eats lobster and steak? All the men would sneak him food and some of the others bought him in cat toys and treats. I just really miss him alot.

[/IMG]

 

[scrappinmom]

WOW - what a crazy few weeks it's been.

The Competition is over....& guess what Chicagoland Ice Theatre qualified for the WORLD Championships!!!!! OMG - we were all jumping, crying & screaming at the same time. it's next April in Toulouse, France....which of course means a 2 day trip to DLP! . I have to make a decision within the next 7 days as to whether or not we are going to go. Obviously I want to go. The competition will be held April 22-24 2010.

We are so broke! The team is going to do a boatload of fundraising..so I'm pretty sure I can gather money for Casey to go....I just have to figure out if I can go......I'm gonna be so so so sad if I can't..... but I can't not let her go....she'll be almost 16 at the time of the trip, so I know she can handle it.

sigh.......I need to gather some $$$$ info....

 

[CathrynRose]

Hi gang,
Where's everyone been?? Do i need to start a search and rescue team?? I had a terrible day. Got a call from the fire house this morning around 6 am, Blaze got hurt. Blaze is the kitty that i've been telling you all aobut, the one that adopted us and made the fire house home. One of the guys says hes dragging his back legs.

I get there and he see's me and trying to come over and is meowing and limping real bad on his back hind leg. I ended up taking him to a emergency vet thats open that early. They will do some test and call me in a few hours. they put him in a cage and let me go say good bye to him. He was rubbing my face with his and licking my nose. Fast foward 3 hours, my home phone rings it's the doctor.

Good news nothing is broke, he just has a bad leg sprain and a pinched nerve. They will keep him for one day and let me take him home. What a sigh of relief. Doctor says it looked like he got hit by a car, but at slow speed which help save him.Fast foward again, 3 more hours. I was out doing some shopping and my cell phone rang, I did'nt know the number but still answered it.

It was the vet again, HE tells me " i don't know how to tell you this, so i'm just gonna say it. Sadly we lost blaze, he passed away 20 minutes ago". I think i wanted to cry right there.I mean a few hours ago, i was told he was gonna be fine and now this. Amazing how this little kitty wrapped himself around my heart in the 5 or 6 months he found us. Vet told me that they noticed his stomache staring to swell with blood and they had to do emergency surgery.

Turned out his bladder was ruptured and they got the bleeding to stop and were sewing him up and his heart just stopped, they tried to revive him, but it was no use. He lost too much blood. I am just heart broken. I been thinking about it all day. Out of everything, he was the best fed stray cat and at least we were given the chance to take care of him. I mean what other cat eats lobster and steak? All the men would sneak him food and some of the others bought him in cat toys and treats. I just really miss him alot.

OH NO! How sad.

Just remember you guys gave him the most love he probably ever had.

That sucks. RIP Blaze.

 

[Nanu57v]

Aww PJ, sorry to hear about Blaze... I know how fond you were of him.

Chris--Congrats on the France thing! I hope you can go! That'd be an awesome experience.

 

[Nanu57v]

Born July 3 at 10:05pm, 8lb 9.5 oz, 21 in

 

[mrFDNY]

Hi gang,

Wow, its been a while! WHats everyone up too? Where the heck is everyone??

 

[mrFDNY]

Anyone????

 

[mrFDNY]

That's it, i'm starting a search and rescue team to look for you all!

 

[mrFDNY]

This is not funny anymore you guys. Thats it i'm activating the U.S.A.R.( urban search and rescue team)

 

[CathrynRose]

Hi gang,

Wow, its been a while! WHats everyone up too? Where the heck is everyone??

Anyone????

That's it, i'm starting a search and rescue team to look for you all!

This is not funny anymore you guys. Thats it i'm activating the U.S.A.R.( urban search and rescue team)

No one really posts here, anymore.

We're all on Facebook, though - are you on FB?